 con más de 200 puntos en finales de conferencia y Finales de NBA en lo que va de sus carreras; los otros tres equipos presentes en los playoffs tienen dos jugadores como tales combinados (Irving y Siakam).Irving es verdaderamente atípico en estas semifinales de la NBA: Presume de un anillo, ganado con Cleveland en 2016. Casi todos los restantes en los playoffs no lo tienen. Siakam estuvo en el equipo de los Raptors que lo ganó todo en 2019, Markieff Morris de Dallas estuvo en el equipo de los Lakers que se proclamó en 2020 y Holiday jugó para los Bucks en el título conquistado en 2021.){kind=link}
LeBron James will turn 40 years old in December. Stephen Curry is 36. Kevin Durant will be 36 and Jimmy Butler will be 35 by the time training camps start in the fall.
For years, they have been the standout stars of the playoffs, the players who rise to the occasion in big moments.
But not this year. The next generation is no longer waiting their turn. They are here – a group of twentysomethings, with one of them ready to be the best player on the team that will be crowned the NBA champions in just a month.
Whether it’s Boston, Dallas, Indiana or Minnesota, as the last team standing when the NBA Finals are over next month. The best players on those teams – Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with the Celtics, Luka Doncic with the Mavericks, Tyrese Haliburton with the Pacers, and Anthony Edwards with the Timberwolves – are all under 27.
Brown is 27. Tatum is 26. Doncic is 26. Haliburton is 24. Edwards is only 22. James, Curry, Durant, and Butler are still regarded as the greats, but some of the torch of stars in the NBA surely seems to have been passed to the next generation.
"They’re not scared," said Dallas guard Kyrie Irving about the young stars. "They don’t see the veteran star as the guys they used to look up to so much. They want to break our records. They want to kill us every time they step on the court. That was the first thing I noticed about Luka, that he had no fear going against the best in the world. He always walks like he’s the best player in the world. I think that’s the confidence of a champion. That’s where it starts."
Of the 21 starting players used in the playoffs by the four teams still in contention, only six are over 30 years old. Boston has Al Horford, the 37-year-old Dominican, and Jrue Holiday, 33. The Mavericks have Irving at 32. The Timberwolves have Mike Conley at 36 and Rudy Gobert at 31. And the Pacers have Pascal Siakam who is 30.
"Thanks for calling me old," Siakam said to Haliburton on Sunday, after Haliburton tried to explain how the Pacers have several players who are basically new to these instances with the exception of Siakam who already has a championship from his time in Toronto.
"It’s high-stakes games and they’ll get wilder as we go along," Siakam said about playing at this time of year. "But I think as long as we stay together, we have a great group of guys… I think we can learn from each other. They can lean on my experience, and I can lean on them to learn how to play with them. We just have to go out there and play believing it’s possible."
The Celtics have five players (Brown, Tatum, Horford, Holiday, and Derrick White) with over 200 points in conference finals and NBA Finals in their careers so far; the other three playoff teams present have two combined (Irving and Siakam).
Irving is truly atypical in these NBA semifinals: He boasts a championship ring, won with Cleveland in 2016. Almost all others in the playoffs do not. Siakam was part of the Raptors team that won it all in 2019, Markieff Morris from Dallas was on the Lakers team that was crowned in 2020, and Holiday played for the Bucks in the 2021 title.
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