IMAGE MAKEOVER
NEW CELTIC AMONG MANY TRYING TO SHAKE OLD LABELS THIS SEASON
Several stars are looking to shed some old labels about them.
Fair or not, certain NBA players get stuck with labels. It could be anything — me-first, or poor defensively, or injury-prone, or soft, or unable to win when it matters most. Left unchecked, those reputations can come to define entire careers. · There is a time, though, before those labels become permanently affixed to a guy. With enough evolution in a player’s game, it’s possible to change perception. · For five players, this season marks a chance for them to do just that, with each entering a pivotal moment in their career. Depending on how this year plays out, each man can either confirm the narrative that’s been created around them, or create a preferred reputation.
Kyrie Irving: Sidekick
Why he got stuck with the label: Through his first three seasons in the NBA, Irving had no success on his own. Yes, he was MVP of the 2014 All-Star Game in New Orleans, but his Cleveland Cavaliers teams went 78-152 and didn’t come close to winning a playoff series before LeBron James came back to Ohio. While Irving was a tremendous sidekick to James the past three seasons — including hitting one of the biggest shots in NBA history to win the 2016 NBA title — his trade request this summer to get away from playing next to the game’s best player left many scratching their heads.
How he can peel off the label this season: It’s simple: If Irving can lead the Celtics back to the Eastern Conference finals, and then give James and the Cavaliers a real series — and perhaps even beat them — any questions about his leadership or his ability to be “The Man” on a contending team will go away for good. Doing so, however, won’t be easy. Irving is one of four new starters in Boston, and the Celtics are also relying heavily on second-year forward Jaylen Brown and rookie Jayson Tatum to immediately contribute.
No player will endure more scrutiny of his every move, and every word, than Irving this season. That’s the life he chose by asking to be dealt away from James to lead his own team. Now he has to actually do it.
Andrew Wiggins: One-Dimensional
Why he got stuck with the label: When Wiggins entered the NBA in 2014, he was viewed as a player who would be a defensive stopper who
could contribute in a variety of ways but would struggle to assert himself as a primary offensive weapon. In a twist, the opposite has occurred. Wiggins is now an excellent scorer, averaging 23.6 points per game last season and becoming a league-average three-point shooter, but he provides little to nothing in the other areas of the game. Is he just a scorer? Or can he become a complete player?
How he can peel the label off this season: Well, for starters, he has to live up to the fiveyear, $148 million max contract he signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Wiggins won’t be able to do that if he remains a scorer who offers little else. Instead, he has to begin to utilize his elite athleticism to impact the game in the many ways he was supposed to be able to upon entering the league.
That’s certainly what his coach expects.
“He’s never satisfied. He wants to get better,” Tom Thibodeau said after Wiggins signed the extension. “I think he’s already demonstrated that to make the progress that he’s already shown is impressive, but as I mentioned, it’s scratching the surface. And now we hope that it’ll continue to grow and it’ll translate into wins.”
For Wiggins to live up to the contract he just signed, he better be just scratching the surface.
DeMarcus Cousins: Not a Winner
Why he got stuck with the label: Six-and-a-half years of dysfunction in Sacramento. Cousins has been durable and dependable in his career, but that has translated only into individual success (career averages of 21.2 points and 10.8 rebounds, plus three all-star appearances and two all-NBA selections). It certainly can’t be attributed to Cousins alone that the Kings were a Dumpster fire during his entire tenure there, given the amount of insanity that surrounded the franchise. But there’s little doubt that Cousins, too, added to that insanity at times.
How he can peel the label off this season: By getting an almost-as-dysfunctional New Orleans Pelicans team into the playoffs. In some ways, it’s easy to feel sympathetic for Cousins, who went to one of the few teams that has rivaled Sacramento in chaos over the last few years when the Kings dealt him in February. Playing alongside another elite big in Anthony Davis, and with a quality point guard in Jrue Holiday, Cousins has a chance to push New Orleans into the playoff picture in the Western Conference. Doing so would prevent him from moving farther up the all-time list of games played without a playoff appearance. Cousins enters this season 11th on that list, but if he stays healthy all season and New Orleans doesn’t make the playoffs — or he doesn’t get traded elsewhere again midseason — he’ll move into the top five.
Yes, Cousins can go elsewhere as a free agent at the end of the season, and perhaps then — if things don’t work out in New Orleans — he can go to a more stable place and find the success that’s eluded him thus far in his career. But Cousins also has the ability, despite everything else happening in New Orleans, to pair with Davis and lift the Pelicans into the playoffs, and relevancy in the Western Conference. If he does, the doubts about his ability to contribute to winning basketball will disappear.
D’Angelo Russell: Lottery Bust
Why he got stuck with the label: Two years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers selected Russell No. 2 overall, making him the first in a series of young players to bear the mantle of replacing Kobe Bryant as the face of the league’s most glamorous franchise. But after a rocky 24 months, including ups-and-downs on and off the court, Los Angeles flipped Russell to the Brooklyn Nets in June in a salary dump of Timofey Mozgov’s contract.
How he can peel the label off this season: When the trade to Brooklyn was announced, it appeared to be the perfect place for Russell to land. Nets coach Kenny Atkinson is arguably the best player development coach in the league, and he runs a system that is tailor-made for Russell’s preferred style. And, unlike the Lakers, the Nets are virtually irrelevant in their massive media market, allowing him to develop in a pressure-free environment.
The Nets will be eager for him to do so. This is a franchise that was decimated by the infamous 2013 draft-night trade that brought Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn - a deal that cost the Nets the rights to four first-round picks over the following five years, culminating with next summer’s first rounder, which Boston dangled as the main piece of the Irving trade.
Playing under Atkinson, and alongside Jeremy Lin, should bring out the best in Russell. If it doesn’t, it will be time to start wondering if he will ever live up to the lofty expectations that accompanied his selection in the draft.
Chandler Parsons: Broken Down
Why he got stuck with the label: When the Memphis Grizzlies signed Chandler Parsons to a four-year, $94 million contract in July 2016, there was rationale behind the move. A 6-foot-10 forward capable of playing either forward spot and operating as both a spotup shooter and a playmaker, Parsons was the exact type of a player Memphis has spent its entire run of success trying to find. There was only one problem: the knee issues that plagued Parsons in his final two seasons in Dallas turned him into a shell of the player he used to be.
How he can peel the label off this season: Managing to stay on the court would be a good place to start. Parsons, who turns 29 on Oct. 25, has remained healthy during this preseason, but at this point it’s going to take a full year of Parsons being both available and productive to begin to turn around the narrative that has come to define him.
“You get paid a certain salary, you’re judged, and you’re expected to perform at the highest level when you’re getting paid at the highest level,” Parsons told ESPN last month. “To put it simply, I didn’t last year. I truly believe it was 95 percent injury. I don’t think I’ve lost my game or lost a step.
“Just physically, I wasn’t there last year. I was a step slow, I wasn’t athletic, I wasn’t fast. I wasn’t myself.”
The Grizzlies desperately need Parsons to be himself again - heck, at this point, they just need him to be available and not one of the worst players in the league, as he was last year. But if Memphis is going to extend the primes of Marc Gasol and Mike Conley Jr. and remain a competitive force in the West, it’s going to need Parsons to produce. If not, this group’s window may have already closed.