Five NBA Players With the Most at Stake for the Rest of the Season

Whether it’s how much they’ll be paid next year, or how they’ll be remembered in the history books, these are the players with the most on the line.

LeBron James and Austin Reaves celebrate after a play against the 76ers. | Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

With the All-Star break in the rearview mirror, the NBA moves into the homestretch of the season as teams jockey for position before the start of the playoffs.

There’s going to be plenty of great basketball to watch, but it’s fair to say that some players will have more than just wins and losses on their minds. Whether it’s how much money they could make on their next contract or how their legacy in the sport will be remembered, there are a few players with plenty of weight on their shoulders between now and June.

Below are five players we’re excited to see rise to the occasion over the coming months.

Austin Reaves 

Quite a bit is hanging in the balance over the last two months of the year for both Reaves and the Lakers. 

The fifth-year guard is in line for a huge raise this offseason no matter what. Reaves was excellent to begin the season, and while injuries have since cooled him down he’s already made his case to be considered an elite bucket-getter. He gets to play off Luka Dončić but even so, his 25.4 ppg this season is a higher mark than true No. 1 options across the league like Cade Cunningham and Devin Booker. Reaves’s defense leaves plenty to be desired but just about every team in the NBA would love to employ his services as a quality No. 2 option on a contending team. Some may even buy into his potential for growth if he was given the keys to his own offense. It isn’t technically a guarantee Reaves hits the open market, but his player option for next year is worth only $14.9 million, so we’ll just say it is extremely likely he opts out, either to extend and stay in purple and gold or hit unrestricted free agency. 

The Lakers would undoubtedly love to keep him around. But with Dončić cemented as the roster’s No. 1 talent and about to start a three-year, $160 million contract, it’s valid to wonder if Los Angeles can afford Reaves while building out the rest of the roster. Ultimately it will come down to just how well Reaves plays over the last two months of the year and the postseason that follows. If Reaves continues to make his case as one of the league’s better offensive options he may very well price his way out of L.A. If he falters it opens the door for the Lakers to bring him back on a slightly smaller deal. They won’t get the same discount out of Reaves like the last time he was up for a new contract, but anything less than the max gives Los Angeles some wiggle room. 

In either scenario using Reaves as a trade chip is very much on the table—and contingent on how well he plays to finish out the year. – Liam McKeone

Jaylen Brown

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drives against Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Whether Jayson Tatum returns to the Celtics this year remains to be seen. If he remains out through the season, Boston remains at the top of the East amid Brown’s career year. He’s scoring 29.3 points per game this year, tied for third across the league with Anthony Edwards.

Brown is averaging career highs in rebounds and assists, too, all while managing an increased offensive workload in Tatum’s absence. His 22.6 field-goal attempts per game are the most in the NBA. Boston has to put a ton on Brown’s shoulders, especially after the All-Star break without Anfernee Simons, who was sent to the Bulls at the trade deadline in the deal that returned Nikola Vučević to the Celtics. Vučević brings needed help to the Neemias Queta-Luka Garza frontcourt, although Queta has been a productive starting center thus far.

Payton Pritchard and Derrick White are scoring 17.2 points per game apiece as the starting backcourt, but that still leaves Brown as the primary source of offense each time the Celtics hit the floor. Until Tatum returns, that is. The Pistons sit 5 ½ games ahead of Boston for the Eastern Conference’s top seed as the Celtics entered the All-Star break 35–19. That’s an impressive mark without your best player, but the Knicks (35–20) and Cavaliers (34–21) are right on Boston’s heels.

The East remains fairly open come playoff time, especially since the dominant Pistons have yet to win a playoff series with their current roster and the Cavs are getting used to the James Harden era. Brown and the majority of his teammates have championship experience, but this year without Tatum, Boston will live and die with Brown’s production. So far, so good. With a potential Tatum return still up in the air, we’ll see how far Brown can take this version of the Celtics. – Blake Silverman

James Harden

A contending team swings a trade for James Harden, hoping that he can be the missing piece of a championship puzzle. Sound familiar? Brooklyn, Philadelphia and the Clippers took similar shots on Harden. That all three came up short didn’t dissuade the Cavaliers from taking its shot, breaking up its core four in the hopes that Harden can lead them out of an open Eastern Conference.

Will it work? Harden figures to juice the Cavaliers offense and give them a little more size in the backcourt. And given Darius Garland’s injury issues, he is a more reliable body. And the pressure is on: The Cavs need to get Donovan Mitchell’s name on a contract extension this summer or face an uncertain future.

Still … it’s a big risk. Harden is an impressive regular season player, but his playoff performances have been mixed, at best. Harden will have to find chemistry with Mitchell, learn to play off of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen and when the calendar turns to April rev up his game even more. He’s capable—even at 36 he is one of the NBA’s most unstoppable offensive players. It could be a great story. Or one we have heard many times before. – Chris Mannix

Kevin Durant

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant reacts during a timeout against the Oklahoma City Thunder. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

With 29 games left in the 2025–26 regular season, one thing remains true: even at 37, Kevin Durant is still capable of being the offensive focal point of a top NBA team. The Rockets are 33–20 entering the stretch run of the season, and Durant leads the team with 25.8 points per game and is in shouting distance of his third 50/40/90 season.

Durant is years removed from the torn Achilles that has bifurcated his career—bringing to a close the run with the Warriors in which he won a pair of NBA titles and opening the well-traveled latter stage of his career, spent with the Nets, Suns and now Houston—where he says he’d like to finish his career. 

The future Hall of Famer still largely resembles the elite scorer who is approaching 32,000 career points. With 50 games played this season, only 23-year-old Amen Thompson and 22-year-old Jabari Smith Jr. have appeared in more games for the Rockets, and Durant is second on the roster in minutes.

Considering his age and injury history, KD has been fairly durable over the last few years. A lengthy run in the postseason with a young Houston team would quiet the off-base critics that call out the fact that his only titles came alongside Steph Curry and the Golden State dynasty that he joined midway through its run. It would also prove that even in his late 30s, he remains one of the most effective lead scorers in the league and—outside of the affected fan bases—help remove some of the sour taste from how his tenures in Brooklyn and Phoenix ended. 

Durant’s legacy is fairly secure at this point, but a late push at another title while he’s still the best player on his team could vault him into another stratosphere. – Dan Lyons

LeBron James

It’s doubtful that anything that happens over the final years of LeBron’s career could affect his legacy that greatly. Where he stands on the all-time list of any basketball viewer is likely written in stone, and has been for some time. If there is an NBA fan who is still holding out to see if LeBron can add a few more accomplishments to his career before finally giving him the nod over Michael Jordan, I have not met them.

But with his current perception largely finalized, how we as a culture collectively remember LeBron moving forward is still a question left to be answered, and it’s an answer we won’t truly have until we live in a post-LeBron NBA.

In year 23, James is still pretty darn good. He’s not the superhero he once was, but even at 41 he seems good for at least one chase-down block per night, and remains a menace with the ball in his hands. If he is going out, he’s going out pretty close to the top, and could get even closer depending on how far the Lakers go in the playoffs. For all of the times he’s been compared to Jordan, LeBron does not have anything close to a Wizards era, and it doesn’t seem like he plans to.

We don’t know if this is it for James. The Lakers have said they are open to him returning for another season, but the financials surrounding one more push could be complicated. There’s the possibility of a third and final homecoming with the Cavaliers. Or he could decide that he has done enough and is ready to call it a career and chase his second passion, podcasting, full time.

But regardless of what happens with James next season, he’s going to be fascinating to watch as we near the end of the current NBA year. The Lakers have battled through a tough Western Conference to hold the No. 5 spot coming out of the All-Star break. With Luka Dončić by his side, there is no doubting Los Angeles has the talent to pull out one more magical run in the postseason, but it’s one heck of a gauntlet. – Tyler Lauletta

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