This season, three veterans who are opening up a new chapter!

Julius Randle

Timberwolves entered the playoffs with a low pick and eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. Although this round of series is not completely one-sided, it is still quite surprising that the Timberwolves can end the series in five games, and one of the major contributors is Randle.

For Randall, who averaged 19 points in his career, this is the first time that he averaged more points in the playoff series than his career regular season average and that of the season regular season average. Randall, who was always labeled as a playoff softball in the past, finally proved himself in a season that was not very popular.

And facing the Lakers, the Lakers who chose him with the seventh pick in 2014, was reborn on the most familiar court in the early days of his career.

No matter how you look at Randle, do you think he is still the star who is difficult to bear the big responsibility or a special player who is difficult to match with. Looking back at his NBA journey now, it is still quite difficult.

The first game of the 2014-15 season was injured and was reimbursed. The subsequent Lakers season seemed to be the foil for Kobe's retirement. After finishing the rookie contract, although the data is not bad, basically no team takes him seriously. They have to sign a short contract, just like other Lakers young talents who later chose to join the Pelicans, and played the first season of their career with over 20 points in a single game.

Then he went to the New York Knicks and experienced a tragic season. Although his personal performance was not bad, not many people took his data seriously. Until Thibodeau arrived, Randall's miracle made him taste the All-Star taste for the first time. The story of the Knicks is very familiar. After a leaps and bounds, even though he lost to the Hawks in a somewhat awkward playoffs, he then wanted to strengthen his strength in the offseason and enter the Eastern Conference ranks, but he signed Brunson without much expectation.

And whenever Brunson performs better at critical moments, Randall, who should be happy for his teammates, began to face more and more questions, which gradually accumulated into a deal, and were traded by the Knicks to the Timberwolves as he chose. Before playing any game, the outside world began to see Randle as a negative label that hindered Edwards' growth.

But it was precisely this season, especially in the first round series, that Randall suddenly became the best partner around Edwards. But looking back, there has never been any partner for this player who has never been favored by him, and no one has ever regarded him as the standard answer. He has always been able to prove himself by himself.

Tobias Harrison

"Harris is better than me?"

This sentence is what Butler shouted in front of the camera after leading the Heat to eliminate the 76ers in the 2022 playoffs. This is also the deepest impression in his personal mind when mentioning Harris, but in fact, Butler and Harris did not have any conflicts and disagreements during the 76ers era. This sentence is just Butler's dissatisfaction with the decision of the 76ers management at that time.

As a fan who likes Butler quite a lot, this is probably the thing he disagrees with the most in his career.

Logically speaking, in the 76ers' team at that time, Harris and Butler had very similar growth paths and playing attitudes. Harris has always been a veteran with enough professionalism and has been working hard to grow. However, simply because his position is similar to Butler, the two eventually became competitors of the team's senior executives when renewing their contracts.

20-year-old Harris was traded from the Bucks to the Magic. In the transitional stage when Howard left the team and had no center of gravity, he worked with the team's newcomer Vucevic to grow into the core of the team. He was also attracted by the Pistons at the time because he developed a three-point skill in the Magic. After the transaction, he entered the playoffs under the leadership of Van Gundy, which was also the first playoff in Harris' career.

We all know the story later. At that time, the bigger problem of the Pistons was the problem between Drummond and the management. In the end, Harris decided to exchange Griffin for Griffin from the Clippers; under the final burning of Griffin, the Pistons once again made it to the playoffs in the 2018-19 season.

After Harris was traded to the Clippers, he further improved his scoring ability and advanced to a high-level forward with 20 points and a three-point shooting percentage of more than 40%. Although he seemed to have experienced a lot of battles and had rich experience, Harris was only 26 years old when he was traded to the 76ers, but he only played in the playoffs for the second time in his career, and the story of the 76ers became more familiar.

Looking back at this process, there are inevitably some shortcomings in expectations for others, and there are many beyond Harris' control. During the journey, we rarely hear Harris complaining, but instead present the content. We see that Harris can always develop some other skills in a new environment, but in the eyes of most fans, it seems that the negative for Harris is greater than positive.

When the Pistons came this season, after obtaining the long-lost playoff qualification, the shortcoming of the United States is that they failed to win a home game at Detroit. Although the role of the character has been greatly reduced, we still see Harris accompanying the newcomer Cunningham, who has been losing games in the early stages of his career.

As a veteran resource in the team, we can see Harris' three-pointer arrow from time to time on the offensive end. Sometimes he will also play singles with the ball, or become a cover support point in the rotation, and occasionally run into the inside and steal a few frontcourt rebounds. The defensive end also communicates with young players in the team, directing them to participate in second-tier defense and rebounding scrambles, and he himself even has a difficult round of defending Towns one-on-one single..

Speaking of this, it is not difficult to remind people of Cunningham in the previous few seasons. The young defender has not grown much in recent years. Under the premise that the core difference is not big, the reason why the team lost a crushing defeat last season and made it to the playoffs this season is mainly due to Cunningham.

Cunningham has done a lot of basic work as a player. Before, when no one did these small things that should be done by the role players, Cunningham could only be responsible for, which led to him being dragged down by these small things and becoming a big loophole in the team, losing the critical stage of improving his skills.

Now that the team has Harris to command at every level, they may not be able to be top-notch, but at least they have reached the available level. Replacing Cunningham with a mentor to revitalize the lineup, allowing Cunningham to finally have the energy to focus on those more core things that only he can do.

After making leaps and progress this season, the Pistons' next playoff, or home victory, or even the divisional semi-finals, are the goals that can be expected next season. From Cunningham's perspective, Harris is really a high-quality veteran who deserves to learn from.

Steven Adams As a key factor in the Rockets' first round facing the Warriors series, Adams' value is quite unexpected this season. As for Adams, the Rockets have a lot of connections with him.

Adams was the center who was selected by the Thunder with the 12th pick in the first round in 2013. His draft pick was selected because Harden, who was the third young master of the Thunder, signed first and then went to the Rockets, and the Thunder got the additional part of Kevin Martin. After joining the Thunder, partnering with Nick Collison, the team spirit leader of the Thunder at the time, and Perkins, who is also famous for his role as a blue-collar hard worker, gradually laid the foundation for Adams' blue-collar tough guy.

During the Thunder period, he worked with Durant, Westbrook, and later Paul. Different types of offensive cores also made Adams, who was not very good in traditional skills, gradually became a panacea. It is precisely based on this that even if the NBA gradually moved from the traditional inside to the small ball era, whether Adams was traded in the Thunder, or later traded to the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Rockets, they would unconsciously become the key foundation of the team's offensive and defensive system. When the Rockets traded Adams to join the team, most people regarded him as a locker room role for young players, and their role on the court was basically not optimistic. Especially when Adams was injured at that time, many fans were worried that Adams would easily fail to keep up with the pace of modern basketball due to age and injuries.

But for the new Rockets coach Uduka, he obviously has different ideas about Adams, who was originally regarded as the team's mentor. Since December last year, he has gradually adjusted Adams' playing time, with a single month average of 9.6 minutes, 13.6 minutes, and 14 minutes to 16.9 minutes and 19 minutes in March and April; in terms of lineup, the Rockets began to gradually let Adams partner Shin Kyung, Smith Jr. form a double tower and three tower lineup in March.

For Adams, who has only more than 60% of his free throw shooting percentage in one season and has experienced a lot of games, he is certainly very clear that he will be foul tactics on the court at critical moments in the playoffs. This is also a situation that Uduka had assumed early on when he tried this formation this season.

For the Rockets, who have many young players in the team and are prone to chaos at critical moments, every opportunity for Adams to stand on the free throw line is a chance for veterans to communicate and young players to calm down. At the same time, the Rockets, who are good at defending and offensive rebounding, have, in addition to fighting for offensive rebounds, in addition to the opportunity to compete for offensive rebounds, the opponent is almost impossible for a simple fast break or misaligned scoring opportunity in counterattack advancement.

In the long run, in this round of final out of the playoffs, perhaps we can re-recognize the role of traditional centers under the contemporary system through Adams, and then evolve some new imaginations.