Biggest Winners and Losers of 2024 NBA Playoffs So Far

Bleacher Report NBA StaffApril 25, 2024Biggest Winners and Losers of 2024 NBA Playoffs So Far0 of 10

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Nearly one week of 2024 NBA playoff basketball is in the books, which means every first-round series is at least two whole games old. And that, in turn, means we have consumed enough high-stakes hoops to run through the biggest winners and losers of the postseason so far.

Bleacher Report scribes Dan Favale and Grant Hughes will be your guides for this trip down Reactionary Lane. Seatbelts are required. Open minds are encouraged.

Our spotlights will shine only on the most critical developments—successes, failures, surprises, disappointments and lessons learned relative to expectations that have the strongest staying power and carry the heaviest weight.

Selections will seek to go beyond the literal. Going down 2-0 in a series is a letdown. Going up 2-0 is a victory. We get it. This exercise aims to find situations, both good and bad, with big-picture implications.

Get it? Got it? Great. Let’s ride.

Winner: Damian Lillard1 of 10

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Damian Lillard never quite found the hoped-for symbiotic relationship with Giannis Antetokounmpo during his first season with the Milwaukee Bucks, and the emergence (or continued dormancy) of that pairing will still go a long way toward determining how far Dame and the Bucks advance.

But against a flimsy Indiana Pacers defense, we’ve gotten a glimpse of a playing style with which Lillard is infinitely comfortable.

Dame spent years as a ball-dominant alpha with the Portland Trail Blazers, spamming high pick-and-roll actions that sprung him for deep threes, sling-shotted him into straight-line drives or drew in enough help defenders to spray out passes to open teammates. He’s made a Hall of Fame career out of operating that way.

The Bucks didn’t have Giannis available for Game 1, and Dame blew up for 35 points in the first half, effectively ending the contest at the 24-minute mark. Sure, the Pacers haven’t defended well all season and employ weak links for the Bucks to attack—Tyrese Haliburton being one and, somewhat surprisingly, Myles Turner serving as another in the early going of this series—but Lillard has been picking apart defenses much more accomplished than the Pacers’ for years.

Even in defeat, Dame is doing work. He piled up 34 points on 21 field-goal attempts with just one turnover across 39 minutes of Milwaukee’s Game 2 loss.

This is a good reminder that while fit and chemistry are important when bringing two superstars into the same orbit, sometimes the sheer volume of talent is what matters most. It offers fallback options like the one the Bucks are deploying now.

Milwaukee can’t beat the best of the best unless Antetokounmpo and Lillard are firing on all cylinders and making one another better. For now, it appears Lillard, flexing the “I got this” muscle he built over so many years with the Blazers, is a solid Plan B.

—Hughes

Loser: Josh Giddey2 of 10

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Addendum: Let’s go ahead and call Josh Giddey a tentative loser.

Yes, he rebounded from a nondescript Game 1 against the New Orleans Pelicans with a solid Game 2. But exactly zero high-stakes minutes were played Wednesday night.

Game 1 seemed more indicative of things to come when the Oklahoma City Thunder face stiffer competition. Seven players on the roster logged minutes during crunch time. Giddey wasn’t one of them. He found himself on the bench, in fact, for almost all of the fourth quarter.

New Orleans is guarding him when he doesn’t have the ball as you would expect. This is to say, the Pelicans barely guard him at all. He has yet to make them pay, downing just two of his six three-point attempts for the series.

This is an incredibly small snapshot of what should be a rather large postseason sample for the Thunder. That doesn’t make it any less telltale.

Giddey has spit out stretches—many of them extended—in which he knocks down open threes and puts pressure on defenses with his live-dribble passing and floaters. But they are inevitably just that: stretches. They don’t last.

Oklahoma City no longer has the runway to let him work through it. Giddey’s minutes dropped from 31.1 per as a sophomore to 25.1 this season, and shaky crunch-time footing isn’t exactly new. Head coach Mark Daigneault often pivoted elsewhere during the regular season. There’s a chance rookie Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins all usurp Giddey now.

Assuming this holds, it makes an already awkward dynamic that much more uncomfortable. Giddey is extension-eligible this summer and has very little leverage in prospective negotiations. Will he take a cut-rate deal? Will the Thunder even offer him one? Will they actually move him instead?

Lots of basketball is left to be played for Oklahoma City. But without a monumental shift in Giddey’s shot-making and how he’s guarded, his future with the Thunder has never felt less certain.

—Favale

Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves3 of 10

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Proof of concept is not a burden the Minnesota Timberwolves should need to ferry. They just won 56 games and churned out the league’s best defense while spending a majority of the season atop the Western Conference. That begets a certain amount of goodwill, even in the face of legitimate questions—which these Wolves absolutely have.

And yet, it was the sixth-place Phoenix Suns who entered their first-round date with third-place Minnesota as series favorites.

Never mind that the former spent 82 games showing us exactly who they are: talented at the top, shallow everywhere else, the league’s preeminent explorers of both extreme peaks and desolate valleys.

The Timberwolves play two bigs, and they have turnover issues, and the offense can bog down, and Karl-Anthony Towns is coming off a meniscus injury, and so on. If they weren’t paper tigers, then they were certainly at a disadvantage versus Phoenix, the team hard-wired to stress test their defense and to make the shots that would be willingly surrendered to them.

So much for that.

While Minnesota remains far from perfect, it appears much closer to the complete package than credited.

Anthony Edwards is a true-blue superstar, the kind who can go toe-to-toe, at both ends, with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and emerge as the victor. Towns has turned in moments of unevenness, like always, and Naz Reid has cooled off on the offensive end (for now), but the Timberwolves are built to withstand such variability. That’s the benefit of having these versions of Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Phoenix’s relative lack of size has not preempted a shift in style from Minnesota. On the contrary, it’s the one mandating terms of engagement, its minimal usage of Kyle Anderson reflective of a decision to lean even further into what’s worked all year yet what so many still doubt.

Making this statement against a Suns squad almost universally considered a less-than-ideal opening-round matchup is big—gargantuan, even. It is the proof of concept the Timberwolves have already delivered, only more so. And it comes at a time not just when the stakes are raised, but when the battle for control over the franchise and the financial sustainability of its core have threatened to overshadow what’s happening on the court.

—Favale

Loser: Buddy Hield4 of 10

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Buddy Hield was traded from the Indiana Pacers because he wanted a larger long-term role and the big-ass bag that comes with it. The Philadelphia 76ers acquired him because, well, the cost was right and he fit into their summer cap-space plans but also presumably so he could open up the floor for Tyrese Maxey and a healthy Joel Embiid and maybe, just maybe, establish himself as someone worth keeping.

About that larger role, and that big-ass bag, and that utility to Philly…things aren’t looking so hot.

HIeld has seen his spot in the rotation shrink during the Sixers’ first-round matchup with the New York Knicks. He is logging fewer than 13 minutes per game and isn’t giving head coach Nick Nurse much of a reason to juice his court time.

There is, of course, a defensive trade-off when leaning prominently on Hield, one that Philly is no longer equipped to cover without De’Anthony Melton (back) and with a hobbled (Embiid). But the soon-to-be free agent is neither taking nor making enough shots when he’s on the floor. Kelly Oubre Jr., 38-year-old Kyle Lowry and even the shell of Tobias Harris are all better options, right now, on both sides of the court.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Hield. Sure, the Sixers didn’t exactly give him top billing post-trade deadline. But there’s a difference between minute fluctuations and borderline erasure.

Some team will pay him anyway. The 31-year-old is a career 40-percent sniper from deep on more than 7.5 attempts per game. That blend of volume and efficiency over the better part of a decade is valuable. To many, it will be essential.

In Philly, though, Hield is being treated as decidedly unnecessary, if not harmful—a development that, at minimum, could cost him leverage this summer when attempting to negotiate and sign what could be the last long-term deal of his career.

—Favale

Winner: Luka Dončić5 of 10

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If a player has a weakness, postseason opponents will work tirelessly to expose it. The Los Angeles Clippers’ plan of attack against Luka Dončić in the first round is proof of that.

Or…at least it would have been if Dončić hadn’t summoned perhaps the best defensive performance of his career in a 96-93 Game 2 win over L.A., earning Dallas a valuable road split in the process.

The Clippers targeted Dončić relentlessly in both L.A. games, wisely attacking a player Dallas hid off the ball on nonthreatening matchups all season (and throughout his career). The strategy wasn’t just about poking at the weak spot in an otherwise stout Mavs defense that ranked first in the league over the final month of the regular season. It was also designed to wear Dončić down, gassing him out so he couldn’t dominate offensively.

So much for that.

Tim MacMahon @espn_macmahonPer ⁦@ESPNStatsInfo⁩, the Clippers were 2-of-17 from the floor when Luka Doncic was the primary defender tonight. pic.twitter.com/JQSOUjtYvD

This is just one game, and Dončić was admittedly exhausted afterward. He may not be able to sustain his energy on both ends every night. But the Mavericks now know he can summon elite defensive performances when the moment demands them. Had Dončić not stepped up his effort level in 46 grueling minutes against the Clippers, Dallas would have gone home in an 0-2 hole facing some harrowing questions.

—Hughes

Loser: New Orleans Pelicans6 of 10

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Another season, another instance in which the New Orleans Pelicans will enter the summer without the clarity necessary to understand what they have in place.

Then again, clarity might lie in the absence of it.

Zion Williamson is once again at the center of it all. He suffered a left hamstring strain during the team’s play-in victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. His absence from the subsequent play-in game didn’t cost the Pelicans a playoff bid, but the injury did effectively end their season.

Williamson will be reevaluated right around the end of April. His return to action can come in the second round—at the absolute earliest.

New Orleans isn’t surviving that long. It is going to lose its opening-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And no, I don’t feel bad about saying that. Trailing 2-0 isn’t a death sentence, but the Thunder are really good—they have the No. 1 seed for a reason—and the Pelicans aren’t even close to a viable threat without Zion.

Don’t bother stopping me if you’ve heard this one before. You have. The Pelicans have now cracked the actual postseason twice since Zion entered the league in 2019-20. He has yet to appear in a single playoff game.

This year’s absence is equal parts gutting and jarring. Zion was in the middle of an otherworldly performance when he went down against the Lakers, and this was easily the most complete season of his career.

Everything from his availability to his stamina to his defense was at its pinnacle. Indeed, he was playing a brand of basketball that made you wonder, even if only slightly, whether New Orleans could take a stick of dynamite to the Western Conference playoff bracket.

Exiting this postseason without a glimpse of Playoff Zion or how he looks next to the rest of the core puts the Pelicans in an impossible situation.

Waiting out this nucleus, again, is a non-option. Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy are coming up on their next deals, and New Orleans will have luxury-tax concerns before then if it wants to re-sign Jonas Valanciunas. Floating a roster that’s only getting more expensive and has yet to earn a top-six seed is most likely off the table.

Pivoting isn’t particularly simple, either. The Pelicans have assets, but their offensive philosophy is founded around the idea of Point Zion. Do they continue retrofitting their core in the image of that vision? Or does his murky health bill mean it’s time to explore going after a floor general, most likely at the expense of Ingram and other stuff?

Tilting toward the latter officially makes the most sense. Zion’s body has betrayed him too many times to believe he can be New Orleans’ lifeline without a comparable or superior contingency. But making this call would be a lot more palatable if the Pelicans had a full-strength postseason sample off which to work for once. They don’t. And they won’t. And it sucks.

—Favale

Winner: Tom Thibodeau’s Unorthodox Approach7 of 10

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Injuries throughout the roster and a midseason trade that swapped a couple of rotation players for just one might make it seem like New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is flouting every norm of the load management era by necessity.

Don’t be fooled. Thibs has been shrinking rotations and placing crippling minutes demands on players for as long as he’s been on the NBA sidelines. Luol Deng led the league in minutes per game twice under Thibodeau over a decade ago with the Chicago Bulls, the 2016-17 Minnesota Timberwolves were the only team in the league to have three players average at least 37 minutes per game, Julius Randle led the league in minutes for the 2020-21 Knicks and Josh Hart barely got a chance to breathe down the stretch this year.

With the way the second-seeded Knicks have coalesced around Thibs’ hard-charging, “all that matters is today” ethos, it’s worth wondering whether this particular zag against league trends is actually part of the reason they’ve been so successful.

New York is up 2-0 on the Philadelphia 76ers, propelled by elite offensive rebounding, dogged defense and, of course, ridiculously long stints of court time for a handful of players. Hart logged all 48 minutes in Game 2 and is averaging 44.9 for the series. Jalen Brunson is at 39.6 minutes per game. Only eight Knicks have seen any action at all.

Maybe short rotations and heavy minutes are a way to squeeze in more reps, which builds chemistry and trust. Maybe Thiobdeau’s broader commitment to winning the game in front of him without regard for the ones after it fosters a kind of do-or-die commitment among his players. Maybe the guys who spend the season logging 40-plus minutes at maximum intensity wind up better conditioned than their opponents.

And maybe we need to consider the possibility that all the unorthodox methods Thibodeau employs just, well…work.

-Hughes

Loser: Anthony Davis8 of 10

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We’re being a little unfair in highlighting Anthony Davis here, as the real loser being revealed by Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets’ unsolvable riddle of an offense is “defense, generally.” But as AD is the man currently trying and failing to find an answer against Denver in the first round, he’s the unlucky focal point.

Now on a 10-0 run in its last 10 meetings with the Lakers, Denver is proving to be almost comically unstoppable. And it’s not like Jokić and the Nuggets are making light work of a soft opponent. Davis is as tough as it gets.

“I can block shots, I can help from the weak side, I can switch onto anybody, I can guard the pick-and-roll, I can guard the guard and get back on the big and break up the lob, I can guard the post, I can guard the pindown,” Davis told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “Whatever it is. Whatever it is defensively, I’m able to do.

“So, that’s my ability. My ability defensively is to do everything.”

AD could easily have been among the three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year, and we’ve seen him dominate series against former champions before. The Golden State Warriors looked totally overmatched in last season’s conference semifinals, for example.

Not so against Denver, where Jokić is more than capable of putting Davis in the basket on post-ups, Jamal Murray can tire him out in the two-man game and the Nuggets’ well-oiled machine of an offense hums along unconcerned with one of the league’s best defenders lined up across from them.

In the Lakers’ 114-103 loss to Denver in Game 1, Davis racked up 32 points, 14 boards, five assists and four blocks…and his team was outscored by 12 points in his 45 minutes. His 32 points and 11 boards on 14-of-19 shooting in Game 2 were only good enough for a break-even on-court plus/minus.

Davis is one of the greatest players on the planet, perhaps the person with the best possible chance of slowing down Jokić and Denver, and even he can’t do it.

That’s a dispiriting reality—both for him and for the rest of the postseason field waiting in line to get steamrolled by Denver.

-Hughes

Winner: Pascal Siakam9 of 10

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Trading for Pascal Siakam was, in many ways, an uncharacteristic move for the Indiana Pacers. What they gave up is miles from all-in, but three first-rounders qualifies as a modest ransom—particularly when he’s entering free agency this summer, and especially when the team that knows him best, the Toronto Raptors, decided he wasn’t worth paying.

Should Indy give him the max over four years? Five years? Three years? Are the Pacers obligated, or have they perhaps already promised, to give him that fifth season? Can they, and should they, draw a line in the sand, somehow, somewhere? And if so, where is it? The issue isn’t quite front and center, but it’s stage left, standing beneath its very own spotlight.

If Siakam’s play thus far is any indication, Indiana made the right call to acquire him and will again make the right call when they pay him.

His numbers are bonkers: 36.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists on 67.5 percent shooting on twos (27-of-40) and a 50 percent clip from deep (4-of-8). More important, though, is the manner in which he’s playing, operating as both co-star and lifeline, depending on the possession.

When Tyrese Haliburton sets the tone, Siakam continues to carry it. Yet, he’s also distinguishing when to adjust it, if not overhaul it, wherever necessary. That balance is tough to strike—and even harder to maintain when you’re so critical on defense. Giannis Antetokounmpo has yet to play, but Siakam’s job isn’t easy. It includes moments, specifically in Game 2, during which he must check Damian Lillard.

Playing like this, at this time, on this stage, should remove any guesswork from his impending free agency. Siakam is eligible to re-sign with Indiana for a max of four years and $189.5 million or five years and $245.3 million.

If he doesn’t get the full boat over at least four seasons, it’ll be a minor shock. Because as pivotal as he is to the Pacers now, he’s even more paramount when projecting forward, as they look to transition from darling irritant to top-of-the-East mainstay.

—Favale

Loser: Mat Ishbia10 of 10

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Imagine it’s 2027, and you’re racking your brain for a way to describe an NBA franchise running itself into the ground with bad trades, short-sighted decisions and a seeming disregard for the rules imposed by the collective bargaining agreement.

You might land on: “It’s kind of like what happened a few years ago with Mat Ishbia’s Phoenix Suns.”

Phoenix is in an 0-2 hole to the Minnesota Timberwolves after a pair of sound thumpings to open the first-round series. Kevin Durant is a combined minus-44 in 80 minutes of court time, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker have scoring averages in the teens and Phoenix’s lack of depth behind its costly top three means it has no choice but to overburden its stars with gaudy minute totals.

The Suns could still turn this into a long series against Minnesota, whose offensive struggles have persisted even in victory. But in light of Phoenix’s underwhelming regular season and rough play to this point in the first round, it’s all but impossible to imagine it making a deep run.

A bleak short-term outlook is a colossal problem for a team that, since Ishbia’s assumption of control, has completely stripped itself of future assets and flexibility.

The Suns don’t control any of their first-round picks until 2031, they’re saddled with Beal’s gargantuan deal (plus his no-trade clause), Durant will be 36 before he plays a game in 2024-25 and the impending second-apron restrictions will make roster-improving trades prohibitively difficult this summer.

Phoenix made the Finals in 2021. It won 64 games in 2021-22. Ishbia officially took over right around the trade deadline in 2023 and immediately started tearing the whole operation apart. He green-lit the preposterous outgoing package for Durant, he presided over a coaching change and the trades that dealt away every key member of the team not named Devin Booker, and he sent the Suns barreling headlong into the luxury tax.

All for a team that has little more than a first-round ceiling.

Ishbia’s Suns are dangerously close to becoming the shorthand reference for abrupt, extreme franchise destruction.

—Hughes