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Nikola Jokic

Should be the Celtics underachieving asses.

SGA is under no pressure to win a ring this year wtf lol

Steph, since he still hasn’t earned a real championship somehow

Dame obviously. The younger players still have time.

tatum - make deep playoff runs every year, made 2022 finals, roster got better they should win

booker - got kd and beal after a finals run

Probably Dame.

I would say Harden but in terms of him throwing a temper tantrum to get his way and go to a winning team that ship sailed a few iterations ago.

Dame wins a chip and he jumps to the next level in terms of legacy, right now he's kinda in that Clyde Drexler / Dominique Wilkins / Tracy McGrady Tier.

I want to say Tatum, but I'm not 100% sure they are actually better, just different. I love the KP move, but they lost Smart in order to do it. Getting Jrue sounded solid, but they gave up an All-Defense level big (and are now counting on Kornet for those minutes) and the 6MOTY. They also lost Grant Williams for nothing.

The Celtics sure are paying a lot of money for their team, but they might have overthought their moves this offseason.

Shouldn't the Clippers as a whole be feeling some of this pressure?

When you assemble a team like that surely the expectation has to be ring or bust?

Jayson Tatum maybe? Kevin Durant? Maybe Harden and Lillard but both are in their first years at new franchises.

Durant

Lillard, with all the stuff in the off season, if they fall short he will be a laughing stock

Tatum

Embiid

Lillard

Harden

Westbrook

100% dame

Nobody’s gonna say Butler & Bam but it should be them. Returning EC champs, were the 1 seed the previous year, Butlers aging and a lot of people place him as a top 3-5 talent in the playoffs… and yet year after year they just skate by with zero expectations. Lose to the clusterfuck Bulls team? “Lol, who cares. Obvs they’ll easily beat the Celtics and Bucks in the playoffs even though either have happened one time in the last three years”

Jokic, winning back to back is a huge legacy bump

Tatum, Durant, Dame

Dame

Tatum is younger and I think has bought himself a little time at least since he's made it to the finals and has had multiple deep playoff runs

Embid, Dame, Tatum come to mind

Lillard and to a lesser degree Embiid

I would like to add the current Chicago Bulls Big Three (DeRozan, Lavine and Vucevic). Prayers up for Lonzo.

Isn’t it Dame and Harden? They both got what they wanted and now have to prove they can win a ring. Luka, Tatum and SGA are all still very young.

This is easy, Dame and Harden. Both guys threw a fit to get traded to a contender for a title shot, both guys got what they wanted. Now they have to deliver along with the teams they are on (ie Gianni and Kawhi and friends all have the same pressure.

Followed by Tatum and Booker. Celtics pretty much have a new look by adding KP and Jrue Holiday, pressure is on them with how stacked their starting lineup is and having a not so bad bench. Suns gave up their entire future to bring In KD and Beal, it's not all on Booker but we all know how good Booker can be and he's proven he can keep up with KD, just needs to keep it going.

I guess Embiid and Luka come after but not super pressured since both those teams are figuring stuff out with roster changes even though htmmthey are both doing well. The "process" nonsense pushed by the Philly FO kind of accelerated that pressure on Embiid + getting MVP means he needs to go to the next level aka a title. Luka still has a bit more time, we just re-signed Kyrie to match his contract length, this season was expected to be not a title contention but a playoff run to keep developing our younger guys (ie, Lively and Green), while making changes to improve our defense. We seem to be ahead of schedule considering how good both Lively and Luka are playing so I can see the pressure in the next season and onwards on him to get something done.

Chris Paul. If he can’t get one with the warriors, I don’t know if he ever will

As a player Lillard because of his offseason bullshit with HOW he handled demanding out (I'm not saying he shouldn't have demanded out but he handled it like a petulant child) and went to a team he should 100% be able to win with based on the pieces they have.

As a team I think Boston. Tatum is a year or two away (at least for me) from putting the burden of "if you still aren't winning what is up with you?" since he's still not really in his prime yet. But the team made a bunch of big moves to put themselves in position to win.

Embiid. Getting knocked out of the playoffs cannot happen again if he wants to have a legacy of greatness. Especually if he loses to a team that doesnt win it all. He is a victim of his own success now. You can't keep being a regular season HOFer and a post-season flop. Even if he makes it to the conference finals or something, people will see that as a failure.

Embiid, because

1. he turns 30 this season. Won‘t be that much more time to have a really good shot at winning a championship (especially as franchise player)

2. he already won an MVP. If you already won MVP but are still ringless, there is extra pressure on you to „deliver“, in order to make your carreer complete

Lillard, harden and Tatum for sure

Embiid. MVP who can't succeed in the playoffs. Jokic and Giannis did it. If Embiid can't, fans will always consider him 3rd best at most.

as other’s have alluded to, Dame and Harden are obvious, but in all honesty someone that isn’t getting enough attention but needs to be is Anthony Davis. Imo this year is the year where he should be the MVP candidate over LeBron. Especially after the playoffs where he became the most important player for LA. He’s been awful in comparison though. I wish they’d remove him from top 75

Literally no one, not a single soul, is putting pressure on SGA to win a ring this season

1. Dame
2. Kawhi/PG.
3. Durant
4. Tarum

If Kawhi/PG don’t win or make a deep run, someone is getting traded most likely. Dame demanded out, so he’s under the most pressure. Tatum has a great team around him, so he needs to produce, but has another year before the Heat really turns up.

I put Durant there because he demanded out, got Beal, and now has a the team he wanted. If they don’t win this year or make a deep run, they’re really in no man’s land as Beal had a terrible contract.

Its the Celtics time. there is pressure on our Big 3, but realistically we're assuming bigger things for us in year 2. Luka has all the time in the world.

Holmgren. Probably time to request a trade too. He gave the Thunder a chance. That's the way it is now.

Lebron & cp3

100% KD

The ones you listed that don’t have one make sense. Less so for the younger ones tho. Lillard is one. Of the ones who already have one kd is probably on the list too.

Can’t really talk for internal pressure cause everybody has a different brain. For an external pressure, I think Boston and Milwaukee are the two teams that players, fans, front offices and media members all have a very real expectation to win.

Damian Lillard

I don't really see pressure on anyone as high as other years but id say Dame and maybe the Sons (this is not a typo)

SGA is so fucking overrated and ppl are so used to name him every time they talk about anything superstar related, even when talking about a ring pressure, his name is out there.

It’s gotta either be the Suns crew or Dame