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All we need is for the No. 8 seeds to be determined and we'll have our NBA playoff field set. Four Game 1s tip off on Saturday. The energy behind this playoff season is buzzing because it's so wide open. No fewer than 10 teams have a realistic shot at winning the whole thing. But not everyone is playing against the same degree of expectations, and that's what we're here to discuss in this piece. 

Using a 1-5 scale, with five being the highest, what follows is a list of players and teams that are under the most pressure to perform in this postseason. 

James Harden: 5

To me, Harden has more pressure on him to perform than any single player or team in the playoffs. Over the years, his reputation as a postseason choker has been exaggerated. Overall, he's been a good, sometimes great postseason player. But he's laid big-time eggs in some big-time moments, including last season with Philly, when, at times, he was damn near religiously opposed to scoring the ball. 

He was hurt, Harden apologists will say. He didn't have his burst. He was still getting used to a secondary role and went too far toward passive. Fine. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt, even if he hasn't totally earned it. 

If Harden lays another egg for this Sixers team that has an honest title shot and specifically targeted him as its get-over-the-hump piece, the headlines are going to be ugly. Remember, Harden is on a two-year prove-it deal, and next season is a player option. Harden was superb all year, but absolutely nobody cares about Harden's regular-season exploits at this point. 

Chris Paul: 4.5

It's not quite Harden level because Paul is a clear No. 3, if not No. 4 option, but there's a ton of pressure on Paul for these playoffs. I just talked about Harden's reputation as a playoff choker being overplayed, and that goes triple for Paul, who has also been a good-to-great postseason player for the majority of his career. 

But Paul has had some ill-timed stinkers. He's lost his last four Game 7s, including the elimination beating Phoenix took from Dallas last year. He's the only player in history to lose five playoff series after having a 2-0 lead. The Suns are ready to win right now, and Paul is not the same player he was even last season. This could get ugly for him if Durant and Booker bring their A-games and Paul just isn't up to the task of carrying his weight. 

Paul is going to get left open a lot as Booker and Durant draw doubles. He'll still do his snaking thing into his elbow jumper, but there are going to be a lot of possessions where defenses leave him at the 3-point line, as if he's Josh Okogie. Paul is going to have to knock those down; at the very least some big ones. Just swinging it to the corner for Okogie, Ish Wainright, Torrey Craig or even Damion Lee could end up exposing Paul, who doesn't have too many more chances at a ring, as the weak link of a team that was ready to win it all.

Philadelphia 76ers: 4

Pressure wise, Harden, individually, is more at risk of a public bashing if he plays poorly than the Sixers are as an organization if they again fail to advance past the second round. Reasonable people should be able to understand, say, a second-round loss to the Celtics, a better team, as long as Philly puts a respectable foot forward. But are these sorts of conversations typically reasonable?

In reality, everyone is under pressure here. Doc Rivers, the king of blown 3-1 leads. Harden, as mentioned above, saddled with the reputation of a statistical superstar that can't be counted on in the playoffs. Joel Embiid, who for all his greatness has never been able to lead Philly past the second round. Daryl Morey, who willed this Harden marriage to happen for one reason and one reason only: to win a title. 

The clock is ticking pretty heavily for everyone in Philly to at least make a conference finals, and that's going to be a very daunting task with a likely second-round matchup vs. Boston in their path.

Los Angeles Clippers: 4

The Clips drew a brutal first-round matchup with the Suns, but they couldn't risk falling into the play-in with a tank loss to Phoenix on the final day of the regular season to aim for the 6-seed. 

So they're against the wall from the jump in this postseason, and a first-round exit, even if it comes to the eventual conference champion and even if Paul George doesn't play half the series, is going to look bad for a team with the highest payroll in the league, a team that traded the farm to bring in Kawhi Leonard and PG -- both of whom will be in walk contract years next season -- four years ago only for that duo to never play a single game together beyond the second round. 

Boston Celtics: 4

Boston has done everything but win it all. Four conference finals appearances since 2017. Two wins from a championship last year. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are fully formed stars who are tailor made to play and thrive alongside one another for the next half decade at least, but Brown seemingly finds his way into some kind of trade rumor every other week, and he's clearly tired of it. 

Brown will become a free agent in 2024 if it gets that far. Might he be dealt before that? It has, at times, felt like this duo would be together for years, and it very well could be. If so, the Celtics have time to win their ring. But right now, this partnership feels less certain long term, which appreciably ups the urgency to put another Boston banner up before a potential breakup. 

The bottom line is once you're good enough to win a title, and Boston is definitely good enough, you have to play every postseason like it's your last shot. Windows close fast in the NBA. Boston played the Kyrie Irving card. The Gordon Hayward card. The Kemba Walker card. They have been in legit title-chase mode for over half a decade, a lifetime in NBA years. If Boston, if only in perception, takes a step back from a Finals appearance last season, that'll really get the Brown rumor mill running. 

And that's a high bar. That means getting past Milwaukee, to say nothing of Philly. If Boston gets handled by the Bucks, was the seven-game win over Milwaukee last season really legit or was it a gift with Khris Middleton out of the equation? This is all on top of the heat untested postseason coach Joe Mazzulla is under. Boston has a lot at stake. 

Nikola Jokic: 3

Some might argue that Jokic isn't actually isn't playing under much pressure at all. Denver is a small-market team, and Jokic is a small-market star. There's a built-in cushion against hard-core critics similar to the one Damian Lillard and the Blazers have long benefitted from in the national conversation. 

But I'm going the other way. The thing that Jokic has that Lillard doesn't is MVPs. That's what makes him and the Nuggets national. One MVP was a feel-good story. Two fired up some actual backlash. Jokic is an absolute beast, and I have no doubt that he's going to be awesome for as long as Denver is alive in these playoffs. But at some point his analytical dominance, fairly or not, is going to be diminished, it not outright dismissed, by more and more people as hollow nerd numbers unless a real playoff run can be put behind it. 

The Nuggets are the West's No. 1 seed. Jokic has all his guys back. Any other No. 1 seed with this good of a roster in support of the current back-to-back reigning MVP would be expected to win a championship, or at least seriously compete for one. The Nuggets and Jokic shouldn't be any different, and I don't think they are. If they go out before the conference finals, Jokic -- whether or not he cares about this sort of thing -- is going find himself in the Twitter crosshairs. 

Trae Young: 3

Young, is, well, young. He's nowhere near a career-defining postseason. But if he wants to stay in Atlanta, there could be a lot riding on these playoffs, which likely won't last long with a first-round matchup vs. Boston. Young needs to play well, even in defeat, if he wants to re-stamp his 2021 postseason showing as valid, because more and more that's looking like it was a matchup-friendly fluke. 

Young is a wildly talented offensive player, but he wants to play only on his terms, which is to say he wants to do everything on ball and nothing off, and he's bordering on a James Harden-meme defensive disaster. These are not winning traits, and the word is out that Atlanta has the green light from management to look at potential Young trades. 

Quin Snyder is watching closely. It's not about beating the Celtics for Young, but he can't go out like he did last season when Miami smothered and targeted him into basketball hell. Part of that was Nate McMillan's offense, and indeed Snyder has the Hawks playing faster in the half-court. But Young has to at least be willing to fight defensively. His early career reputation is starting to become that of a statistical star who can't be depended on to lead a winning team. 

Memphis Grizzlies: 2

Everyone is dismissing the Grizzlies too easily. People are acting like the Lakers struck gold by drawing Memphis in the first round. People are already looking forward to a Lakers-Warriors second-round series despite both those teams being the lower seed. Memphis is going to be gassed to prove everyone wrong. 

If they don't, they'll have ready-made excuses. No Steven Adams. No Brandon Clarke. Offensive boards out the window for a team that can really struggle to score in the half court. But they have been running their mouth all season. Dillon Brooks never stops talking. Ja Morant said the only team that no team in the Western Conference worries him. Nobody expects much of Memphis, rightly or wrongly, but there still has to be some pressure to back up all their talk. 

Draymond Green: 2

The Warriors are playing with mostly house money, and to a degree, Green is, too. There's nothing left to prove. There is, however, more to gain in terms of Green's next contract. He's said he wants max money, and it would also be his preference to stay with the Warriors, who already boast a hippo-choking tax bill and are going to have to think hard about forking over even more cash to keep Green. 

So this postseason becomes something of a late-career audition for Green. All potential suitors will be watching to gauge how much he's still worth. If he shines, he could well decide to opt out of his player option for next season and chase one more big-money contact on the open market. That could make this his last postseason with the Warriors if they don't have the stomach to pony up. 

Also, we can't forget the preseason haymaker Green landed on Jordan Poole. Did that screw up Golden State's season before it even started? Green is already a guy who potentially cost the 73-win Warriors a championship with his hot-headed reaction to LeBron James' step-over that got him suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 Finals. He's the guy who chastised Kevin Durant, potentially playing a part in running him out of town despite what Durant has said publicly to the contrary. 

Green doesn't want another temper tantrum weighing on his conscience. If the Warriors are going to fall short of a title this season, Green has to at least play well to do his part in making up for his antics. 

Los Angeles Lakers: 1

There's always inherent pressure for the Lakers, and LeBron specifically, to perform in the postseason, but overall I don't think it's that high this time around. This season started out so disastrously that Rob Pelinka simply salvaging the roster and putting a competitive team on the floor, a team that won more games after hte All-Star break than any other Western Conference team, already qualifies as a win. Winning the Russell Westbrook trade was a weight off the franchise's shoulders. 

We're all getting ahead of ourselves trying to position the Lakers as a contender, and if they end up in the conference finals, great. But if they don't, my feeling is that deep down everyone always knew this wasn't an honest title team. Once they got out of the play-in tournament and into the playoffs, everything else, for the most part, turned to gravy. 

No pressure

  • Bucks: Already got their ring. 
  • Kings: First playoff appearance in 16 seasons. They've already won. 
  • Cavaliers: They're just getting started.
  • Knicks: Brunson is a star. The war chest is full of draft picks. The future is bright. 
  • Nets: Zero expectations but a sneakily dangerous matchup for Philadelphia. 
  • Hawks: Everyone knows they have no chance.