Welcome to the Morning Shootaround, where every weekday you’ll get a fresh, topical column from one of SI.com’s NBA writers: Howard Beck on Mondays, Chris Mannix on Tuesdays, Michael Pina on Wednesdays, Chris Herring on Thursdays and Rohan Nadkarni on Fridays.
The postseason is where reputations are built, defined, crushed and over analyzed. It’s also—in a higher stakes environment that helps rationalize the existence of a multi-billion dollar basketball league—where the real money is made.
For every soon-to-be-free agent sometimes all it takes is one great playoff game for strengths to define who a player is, as any and all debilitating flaws get overlooked at the negotiating table.