5 NBA Players with the Most to Prove in 2022–2023

Some of the players with the heaviest weight on their shoulders.

Anthony Davis

In 227 regular season games that Anthony Davis could have played for the Los Angeles Lakers in the past 3 seasons, he played 138 of them. That is a measly 60.7% for the man who is supposed to be LeBron James’ co-star. Even worse though, his last 76 regular season games were combined between the past couple seasons, meaning that he played almost as much in his first season with the Lakers, as he has in 2 past years. In Davis’ 2020–2021 campaign, his ORtg plummeted from 121 in the prior season, to 110. All of this is in coalition with the Lakers’ overall disappointing performances, making the play-in in 2020–2021, and missing the postseason all together in the following season. Even though LeBron James is clearly superhuman with his performances, his body is finally starting to age, as evident by his persistent minor injuries. James should not be ranking 7th in the league for usage percentage at 37 years old. Many people believe that as long as Davis gets in the game, he’ll provide an immediate positive impact, but last season, the Lakers were actually considerably better offensively when he was sidelined, as their ORtg grew by 5.8 points when he sat. I don’t know if I would call this a make-or-break year for AD as an individual, but it certainly is for the Lakers as a franchise with the inevitable conclusion of LeBron’s career inching closer and closer.

Jalen Brunson

Being handed a $100 million dollar contract after a single breakout year as a 2nd-round draft pick is no small feat. That being said, NBA teams have always had trouble determining the value of players who may not be complete stars, but are also not just replaceable starters. As a result, many underdogs who finally receive their big pay-day often crumble under the pressure of the sizable price tag. We have seen this with players like Duncan Robinson and Buddy Hield, and while these two were offensive specialists, they objectively did not live up to their valuation. Brunson is much more dynamic than Hield and Robinson, but he is also being given the task of basically leading a team after barely coming close to that role in years prior. It is undeniable that Brunson was a maniac in the playoffs last season, particularly in the first round, but Basketball Reference projects him to only average about 18.3 PPG per 36 minutes in this upcoming season. This would be serviceable if Julius Randle was still held up to the same light as in his Most Improved Player campaign, but many Knicks fans have already dismissed Randle as a future stalwart in New York basketball. Tampering controversy aside, there is a lot at stake for Brunson, the Knicks’ front office, among others. Hopefully the former Dallas Maverick comes out of the corner swinging.

John Wall

John Wall was handed a “prove it” contract by the Los Angeles Clippers. A two-year contract with the second year being a team option is quite daunting for a player, as it shows how tentative their tenure with the club may be. Wall has played 72 regular season games in 4 years! That is an awful lot of time away from the court, and although his stats with the Houston Rockets were decently comparable to his last year with the Washington Wizards, his playmaking certainly took a dip from 8.7 APG to 6.9 APG. Wall remarked in an interview about how he is excited to be the third option on a team as it means his matchup difficulty will decrease, but this could be worrying if he chooses to handle such freedom as he did on a tanking Rockets. Wall averaged the second-most shots per game of his career on the Rockets, while shooting a career-worst field goal percentage. If Wall utilizes this time in LA as an opportunity to leverage his softer defensive restrictions to showcase his individual worth, we could see an offensively scrambled Clippers. In contrast, if he transitions back to his former pass-first style, we could see a Clippers team with real playmaking, an aspect that was not totally present when Reggie Jackson ran the point.

Ben Simmons

I was debating between Ben Simmons and James Harden for this spot, but as disappointing as Harden has been for the Philadelphia 76ers, at least he has actually been playing. Simmons now has two complete seasons omitted from his career due to unforeseen circumstances, the first being his rookie year where he had suffered a foot injury, and now this past season where it was a combination of various reasons. A back injury, holding out for personal reasons, emotional instability, etc., the inexplicable excuses have started to outweigh the valid ones for most fans, and we now just want to see the man in an NBA game. By no means am I trying to discount any of Simmons’ genuine struggles, but after signing a 5-year/$177 million extension back in 2019, Simmons played the worst basketball of his NBA career, and that is worrying for fans. He put out a career-low in PPG, APG, RPG, and BPG. This doesn’t even include his abysmal postseason performances, as he seems to struggle the moment the 76ers make it out of the first round. For lack of better words, there is a lot of stigma surrounding Simmons’ attitude, and to have to play your first season on a squad where your two co-stars just failed in their requests to be traded, it will certainly be an uphill battle.

Zion Williamson

It is shocking how quickly New Orleans Pelicans fans turned on Zion Williamson throughout his rehab process. To be fair though, Williamson’s camp and the Pelicans front office were as transparent as a brick wall with status updates on his health. The whole saga began after a surprise announcement that Williamson had broken his foot and undergone surgery for it, resulting in him sitting out the entire season following his first All-Star campaign. This seems like a normal injury timeline, but he was initially predicted to have been ready to start the 2021–2022 season. As the season went on, fans saw weight fluctuations, private practice highlights and a supposed return during the Pelicans 2022 playoff run, but no injury clearance was announced, leaving many confused. In addition to all this, CJ McCollum, who was a mid-season acquisition for the Pelicans, claimed that Zion had not even reached out to him soon after the trade was completed. Zion’s disgruntlement with the New Orleans franchise became abundantly clear last season, but it seems as though the Pelicans have won him over with solid business dealings and impressive late-season performances. Zion was one of the most dominant offensive players in the 2020–2021 season, and while viral clips seem to indicate that his athleticism has not diminished, only time will tell.