The seven major absences from the 2021 NBA playoffs

Like every year, the playoffs leave many names, but also great absences. Always, in a world in which the negative weighs more, analyze who has been left out and why it is usually too rich talk not to try, and talking about it is inevitable, at least in that period of time that elapses since the regular season ends and the playoffs begin. In this course, we have had to wait a little longer to make this analysis by the grace of the play-in, a format that has come to stay (or so it seems) and that has caused that some of the basketball characters who miss the final phase are not known until these last hours. Once that kind of previous duplication is concluded this year from two to four teamsIt is time to talk about those proper names that will not be in the playoffs, the most important part of the season.

Stephen Curry

It seemed so, but in the end it was no. The magic is over for the Warriors after a season in which they have always walked with the wire and in the end they have fallen without playing the playoffs, something they suffer for the second consecutive year after a five-year dream, with five Finals and three championships. Stephen Curry could not rescue a team that was clearly and completely worse than its rivals, but that threw pride and pride to make the Grizzlies doubt, force extra time when they seemed to be dead and traced 17 points of difference. That’s how Steve Kerr’s team came, that runs out of a prize when they were favorites to get it and just two days after putting LeBron’s Lakers in real trouble in the first game of the play-in. Again, the absence of the point guard, who has made a season worthy of MVP, will be notorious. Again.

Zion Williamson

It’s how little salvageable the Pelicans have been this year from the disaster. He has averaged 27 points per game, has played the first All Star of his career and has even been compared to Shaquille O’Neal, but his team is adrift, does not mix well with Brandon Ingram and makes beastly statistics in a small market and in a project that must react immediately so that its star does not go away. Zion improves, but the Pelicans do not reach, no longer to the eighth position, nor to the tenth that gives access to the play-in. An embarrassment.

Karl-Anthony Towns

The Timberwolves center continues to be one of the most untapped talents in basketball today. He only made the playoffs in 2018, the only time his franchise has done so since 2004. This year the injuries have been primed with him and neither the final part of the course, more than worthy for him and his teammates, has been able to straighten out an impossible situation. He has averaged 24.6 points, more than 10 rebounds and more than 4 assists per game, insufficient numbers to regain the honor that the Timberwolves have only had with Kevin Garnett. The future, more than uncertain.

Domantas Sabonis

Avrydas’ son is a better player, he scores, rebounds, and shows a vision of the game that only his father is comparable to. But the Pacers cannot make their project competitive and this season they have taken a step back: After five years of playoffs (all of them with eliminations in the first round, they fall in the playin against the Wizards and are left out. Their averages, of course, have been really spectacular: 20.3 points, 12.6 rebounds and 6, 7 assists, in addition to reaching the All Star, where he won the Skills Contest. A worthy successor to his surname, but a project that does not have a promising future ahead of it. A notable absence, no doubt.

De’Aaron Fox

The Kings have been without a playoffs for 15 years, the longest absence in history equaling those Clippers who did the same from 1976 to 1991, passing through Buffalo, San Diego and then Los Angeles. The crisis is extraordinary and he has finished with everyone (Vlade Divac included) except Luke Walton, who inexplicably seems that he will continue in his position. The situation prevents Fox from having a correct development and being subjected to the farce of being a great player on a bad team. This course, 25.2 points and 7.2 assists. And no playoffs, no play-ins, no nothing. The Kings, a team adrift.

LaMelo Ball

Lonzo’s younger brother has had an extraordinary start in the best league in the world, with a lot of hype, in a very cool team and grabbing spotlights in a comfortable way and without being overwhelmed. He’s one of the favorites for Rookie of the Year alongside Anthony Edwards (whose season finale has been incredible) and has averaged 15.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per night. The only one but it has nothing to do with him, since Gordon Hayward’s injury weakened a team that became fourth in the Eastern Conference. In the end, he beat the Pacers in the play-in, where LaMelo paid for his inexperience, and to look forward to a future that looks extraordinarily promising.

Gregg Popovich

Last year, the Spurs were not in the playoffs for the first time since 1997. They left their mark 22 years in a row, the same as the Nationals / 76ers between 1950 and 1971. They couldn’t be the first team with 23 straight trips to the playoffs, there were no more miracles in the pockets of a legendary team. One who in this stretch has won five rings (the same as the Lakers in that period) and have added more victories than anyone in the playoffs (170) and regular season (1,228). This year, history has repeated itself despite competing to the end and not reaching the play-in. And despite the merit the Texas season has had, we don’t get used to not seeing Popovich in the playoffs. For whatever reason.

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