Stars open championship windows, but adding the right mix of role players brings home the rings.
Look at last season’s champion Boston Celtics. They swapped out Marcus Smart, Grant Williams, Robert Williams and Malcolm Brogdon – all good players – for Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis – better players but, more importantly, better fits. The Celtics got over the hump.
Finding the right mix isn’t easy, but several contenders, either through offseason additions or internal improvement, hope they can. It’s impossible to limit this list to just a handful of guys, but here are several role players who will definitely impact the 2025 championship race.
OG Anunoby, New York Knicks: The Knicks had a 101.8 DRTG and out-scored opponents by 22 points every 100 possessions when OG Anunoby was on the court. OG Anunoby was on the court for only 23 games (802 minutes) for the Knicks last season.
When he’s available, Anunoby is one of the biggest swing pieces in the NBA. The Knicks doubled down on that this summer, letting Isaiah Hartenstein walk and trading a boatload of stuff for Mikal Bridges. Hartenstein was a reliable backline for when opponents penetrated New York’s perimeter defense.
With Anunoby and Bridges, the Knicks employ perhaps the best perimeter defender duo in the league. But if one is out, leaks spring in the dam and the Knicks defense becomes vulnerable. (Mitchell Robinson is a strong defender but suffers from the same availability issues as Anunoby.)
Anunoby has played 50, 67, 48 and 43 games over the last four seasons. A lingering elbow injury held him out of these latest playoffs. The Knicks have bet a lot on Anunoby’s health. If the bet hits, the Knicks are dangerous.
Bradley Beal, Phoenix Suns: Role player?! Yes. Bradley Beal hasn’t been an All-Star since 2021. He’s played 53, 50, 40, 60 and 57 games over the last five seasons. His stats were closer to Coby White than Devin Booker. At 31, Beal’s best basketball is behind him, left behind in Washington D.C. In Phoenix, Beal needs to embrace being a role player. Making 3s, playing defense, deferring to Booker and Kevin Durant.
Beal made a career-high 43 percent of his 3s last season on his highest 3-point attempt rate since 2020. He made 43.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts. Under coach Mike Budenholzer, Beal should tilt his game even further in that direction. Less dribbling and playmaking should encourage him to play the best defense of his career.
Nothing is stopping Beal, at 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, from being at least an average defender. Yet he hasn’t posted a positive Defensive Box Plus-Minus since 2015. Beal is over-qualified (and overpaid) to be a 3-and-D player, but he could be one of the best in the league if he buys in.
Christian Braun, Denver Nuggets: The Nuggets have employed perhaps the best starting five in the league over the last two seasons. The lineup of Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic out-scored opponents by 13 points per 100 possessions and 12.7 points per 100 possessions the season prior.
Well, KCP is gone and, by definition, so is that starting unit. The early favorite to inherit Caldwell-Pope’s role is third-year wing Christain Braun.
Braun was excellent for the Nuggets in the 2023 Finals, but made only marginal improvements in his second season when he averaged 7.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 20.2 minutes per game. He started four of the 82 games he played and shot 48.8 percent on 2.2 3-point attempts per game. The Nuggets went 4-0 in those games. It's a super small sample size, but it's encouraging if you’re looking for positive signs.
KCP’s greatest utility to the starting five was his spacing. Braun is a competitive defender with some off-the-dribble spark, but he needs to be a better, high-volume 3-point shooter to earn respect from beyond the arc – 34 percent of Braun’s attempts came from 3-point range compared to 52.5 percent for Caldwell-Pope. It will take a pretty dramatic shift in Braun’s game to reach a similar level of volume and efficiency, but it’s what the Nuggets – who ranked last in 3-point attempts per game last season – need.
Mike Conley, Minnesota Timberwolves: How much longer can Mike Conley keep this up? He’s 36 and 6 feet tall. He was in the same draft as Joakim Noah, who might have played with Bob Pettit but I’m not sure.
Conley is on this list because he’s good. It’s not a coincidence that things for the Timberwolves clicked into place after they swapped D’Angelo Russell out for Conley. But it’s fair to wonder how much longer he can act as the skeleton key to this complicated lockbox.
There’s a reason the Timberwolves moved up in the draft to take Rob Dillingham as Conley’s heir apparent. Dillingham likely isn’t ready as a rookie, which means old-man Conley needs to hang on for at least another season (and potentially long postseason).
Alex Caruso/Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City Thunder: It was hard to choose which of the Thunder’s additions to include on this list, so I did both. (I’m in charge. Why not?)
The Thunder knew what they needed to accomplish this offseason and did so within the opening bout of free agency, trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso and signing Hartenstein.
Giddey was played off the court in the playoffs because opponents helped off of him as a shooter and attacked him as a defender. Caruso must be respected as someone who can make open 3s (career 38 percent from 3) and is an All-NBA defender.
As for Hartenstain, the Thunder ranked near the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding rate last season. The Knicks ranked near the top, largely thanks to Hartenstein. He will turn a weakness into a strength.
The Celtics won a championship after hitting homers on their offseason moves. The Thunder are attempting to do the same.
Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks: Middleton has played 88 total games over the past two seasons and is coming off surgery on both ankles. He’s 33 going on 63. He’s also critical to what the Bucks do. The Athletic’s Eric Nehm recently wrote about Middleton’s chemistry with Giannis Antetokounmpo in the pick-and-roll.
“What is particularly great about Middleton, regarding playing in the pick-and-roll with Antetokounmpo, is that his lack of speed does not affect his ability to maintain the advantage on the play. Even if Middleton moves slowly toward the basket, his size, strength and midrange ability allow him to still score on pull-up jumpers. And if he can’t score, being a scoring threat means he can keep the attention of the big man and then use his size to throw late lobs and bounce passes to Antetokounmpo.”
The Dame-Giannis pick-and-roll is essential to Milwaukee’s success, but Middleton’s presence is essential to the high-level success of that partnership. He’s the outlet when defenses trap Lillard. He’s the guy who can deliver the ball to Giannis over the top of the defense. The Bucks can be very good this season without a healthy Middleton, but they can’t win a championship.
P.J. Washington, Dallas Mavericks: No team relies more on corner 3s than the Dallas Mavericks, who took 12 percent of their shots from the corners last season (nearly a whole percentage point higher than the next-closest team).
Washington was responsible for a heap of those attempts. Nearly 40 percent of Washington’s shots as a member of the Mavericks came from the corner last season, but he converted on just 24 percent. In fact, Washington is a career 24.5 percent shooter from the corners, and you could argue making them is his primary job for the Mavericks. He’s been streaky. There have been seasons where he’s made 35 percent or 41 percent from the corner. He needs to get back to that.
To avoid limiting my analysis to “Player needs to make more shots,” Washington is also incredibly important to what the Mavericks do defensively – particularly if Klay Thompson ends up being the long-term starter alongside Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. In that lineup, Washington becomes the primary defender against most scoring wings. There will be a lot expected of Washington on both ends of the court this season.