2025 NBA playoff X-factors: Malik Beasley, Jaden McDaniels and underrated contributors who can swing a game

Sports

add

Every summer, when teams are trying to upgrade their rosters, one filter is often used: Can this guy help us swing a playoff game?

Because let’s be honest. If you’re working with exceptions, or even minimum deals, it’s just not likely you find a player who can catapult your franchise from expected play-in candidate to championship favorite.

Advertisement

As such, the question is often boiled down to whether a specific player has the ability to rise to the occasion and help win a game in the postseason. After all, one playoff win is 25% of the mission to move on to the next round.

Sometimes, those players also come in the form of earlier draft selections, even if they haven’t popped as stars.

For the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs, here are five players who can help swing a game:

Malik Beasley, Detroit Pistons

This might be an obvious pick, but that doesn’t make the selection any less true.

When you have a player who can space the floor to the extent Beasley can — he drained 319 3-pointers this season on 41.6% accuracy — you just know there’s a possibility of a well-timed eruption.

Advertisement

Beasley, who spent this season playing off star guard Cade Cunningham, is entering the postseason with back-to-back games of seven made triples. In the playoffs, when defenses key on stars unlike they do in the regular season, Cunningham will have to move the ball quicker, and likely more often, both of which could benefit Beasley.

Of course, whether he hits those shots remains to be seen. But the 6-foot-4 shooting guard stands a good chance at pulling off a game, or even a few, with his outside shooting against the Knicks.

It might be cheating to go with a guy who averaged 16.3 points, but given that 957 of Beasley’s 1,336 points in the regular season came from long range, it isn’t exactly because he’s proficient in other ways to score.

Advertisement

Plus, with New York’s Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges chasing him around, Beasley will have to make the most of the looks he’ll get.

Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves

For years, McDaniels was a reluctant shooter who routinely would turn down open shots and even open lanes to the hoop.

This season, with Karl-Anthony Towns out of the mix and the offense in need of a little more juice, the 24-year-old began upping his volume and experimenting with an expanded scoring role.

In 13 games in February, McDaniels’ investment paid off as he averaged 18.5 points and 8.4 rebounds, another area of improvement for him. While his efficiency was far from notable, it’s the willingness to take shots that’s important here.

Advertisement

The story isn’t just his offense, as McDaniels obviously is much superior on the other side of the ball. Defense has always been his calling card, but if he can add just a smidge more willingness to his offensive role and become more assertive shooting the ball, that’s an immediate asset for head coach Chris Finch, especially against a Lakers team with three players who can go for 30-plus any given night.

McDaniels is likely to see minutes on all of LeBron James, Austin Reaves, and Luka Dončić, which won’t be easy. There is a world where Finch decides his forward will need to exert more energy defending that trio than looking for his own shot. That would probably be a mistake because it would leave too big of a responsibility on Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, and Naz Reid to provide quality scoring.

For the Wolves to enter this series on firmer ground, McDaniels has to be engaged on both sides of the ball and not turn down opportunities. If he’s confident and willing to take shots, he could flip multiple games in Minnesota’s favor.

Julian Strawther, Denver Nuggets

Lost in all the drama of head coach Mike Malone being fired 79 games into the season and general manager Calvin Booth following suit is the fact the Nuggets still have some playoff basketball to play.

Advertisement

All year, the Nuggets have been inconsistent within their secondary rotation, be that offensively, defensively or just with an overall lack of cohesion.

Strawther, a second-year wing, has seen his minutes decline of late, but there’s good reason for interim head coach David Adelman to make use of him against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Strawther has legitimate size at 6-7, 210 pounds. He’s got a scoring knack, which includes an outside shot, and the ability to put the ball on the floor to get to the basket.

The trick for Strawther to work as an X-factor is to have him play off of Nikola Jokić more, essentially mimicking the role of Michael Porter Jr. in the sense that Strawther has to react to the movement patterns of Jokić to identify open spaces.

Advertisement

That’s a tall task for a guy who took just 14.2% of his shots near the rim this year, but given Denver’s need for bench production and Strawther’s nose for scoring, there’s no time to waste. He needs to lean into a bigger, more impactful role immediately. Sink or swim.

Andrew Nembhard, Indiana Pacers

It’s almost unfair to put a Pacer on this list because the entire rotation consistently performs well within the structure of its role.

But hey, it’s the playoffs, and in the postseason you’re not going to win a chip by just being consistent. This goes for the Pacers, too, especially Nembhard, who has always functioned as a player with a high level of role acceptance and who probably has sacrificed hundreds of shots over his first three years in the league.

Advertisement

For the Pacers to break out, Nembhard has to break out of his modest production pattern. His 10 points and five assists in 28.9 minutes per game have been fine and useful, but Indiana will need him to up his shot creation to open the floor more for Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, the team’s four leading scorers.

It’s not that the Pacers don’t have enough scoring, per se. It’s more that their current scoring leaders aren’t exactly the most unpredictable bunch. Turner will get a ton of pick-and-pop 3-pointers and score close to the rim. Haliburton will create looks from the outside, with Siakam operating at the elbows.

It’s been effective, but in a series where adjustments are made game to game, the Pacers simply need to offer something new and diversify their offense. That’s where Nembhard, looking for his shot, can draw attention and utilize his own scoring threat to simultaneously up his playmaking.

The ripple effect of turning Nembhard into a more scoring-focused version of himself will make the Pacers significantly more difficult to get a read on.

Tari Eason, Houston Rockets

Sometimes in the playoffs, especially if you’re a team that struggles to generate consistent perimeter offense, you need to light a firecracker and get the hell out of its way.

Advertisement

Houston has two of those in Eason and Amen Thompson, but the secret is more or less out on Thompson, whereas Eason still seems to catch teams by surprise.

The 6-8 combo forward is enormously athletic, a highly influential defender, a rock solid rebounder and outright fearless in transition, both on and off the ball.

Empowering Eason’s wicked play style, by allowing him to push the ball after forced turnovers, inject energy into the game and constantly pressure the defense could be a way to offset Houston’s lack of shooting and keep the emotional advantage.

Drawing up plays for the 23-year-old to get downhill opportunities, even at the expense of some more stable half-court options, could prove to be a solid investment, especially if he’s able to finish plays near the rim (67.8% at-rim efficiency during the season) and force defenses to collapse.

Eason has always been a per-minute statistical monster and now might be a good time for Houston to roll him out in an expanded role.

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Who cares about the critics? Jordon Hudson’s bold statement at Bill Belichick’s birthday party

Bill Belichick - English

Next

trending_flat

Manchester United 5 Lyon 4 (7-6 agg) – United reach Europa League semi-finals… somehow!

Sports