There are plenty of stars in today’s NBA, but unfortunately not all of them get the relevant platform to showcase what they can do.
In order to be a contending team in the NBA today, an organization has to have strength and depth in many areas across the board. It all starts and ends however, with superstar players. There are only a handful of guys in the league who can change a franchise’s fortunes overnight, and even at that you still need to put the right structure around them to have a chance at being great.
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Below that rung of individuals sits another tier of guys who are simply known as stars. The players who, if a team can get their hands on one, is at least going in the right direction to one day be close to contender status again. Stars not only help a team to wins, but they sell tickets and jerseys as well.
Sometimes they can convince a superstar to up sticks and join them in a city, which is when an organization is really getting close to winning a championship. Fortunately for fans and consumers of basketball, the argument could be made that there have never been as many stars in the NBA than we have today.
But unfortunately for the players, this means that some legitimately All-Star caliber individuals are forced to play in small markets or not very good teams, while the superstars or superstar/star combos get more attention and have more of a chance to win big come the postseason.
This also gives these players more exposure off the court as well, while the stars who are forced to carry a whole franchise almost by themselves look on with envy. The following is a list of four such extremely talented players who absolutely could make a difference deep into the playoffs if given the chance. It’s getting there that’s the problem.