7 X-factors who could shape the 2020-21 NBA season

The attention of the NBA will draw towards the superstars, but these seven players have the potential to swing their team’s fortunes without much fanfare.

As the 2020-21 season nears, everyone’s focus is on those who play the game best with questions about the greatness they put forth on a nightly basis.

Can LeBron James continue to defy age and attrition? What will Kevin Durant look like after returning from his Achilles tear? How will new teammates impact the effectiveness of Joel Embiid? What does Stephen Curry look like without Klay Thompson? Where will James Harden finish the year?

It’s only right for the masses to be concerned about these superstar players. In a team sport with the fewest participants at any moment of actual game time, the best of the best have a level of impact that far exceeds their contemporaries. So much of a team’s success hinges on their play, so of course, we search for the answers that can indicate the levels they’ll reach in the coming year.

And yet, as individualized as it might be, basketball is still a team sport with four — perhaps three on the better teams — other players sharing the court. These players have to score, rebound, assist and defend just like the superstars, only in different and sometimes less frequent ways.

They might never be the biggest pieces to the puzzle but several players of more of a complementary variety across the NBA could wind up being the miniature piece that brings the entire masterpiece together. And it’s these seven whose impact could wind up reaping the biggest benefits for their teams.