2025 NBA Playoffs: Who runs the league? 4 generations of stars are battling like never before
There used to be a pattern to these things. The league's youngest generation would take its licks from establishment superstars, eventually taking over, and the veterans would go gentle into that good night. One generation would cede control of the NBA, as another seized it, and a third would rise behind them.
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Rinse and repeat forever. Or so we thought.
There are two factions — one featuring Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who have each banked rings, and another boasting the league's three title favorites — battling for control of today's NBA, and a generation on both sides of them looking to disrupt our expectations for this year's tournament.
They are the legends among us, ages 22 to 40, spanning two decades of drafts. Let us get to them.
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
The Old Guys (2003-09 NBA drafts)
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
Age: 40 (Dec. 30, 1984) | Draft: 2003 (1st)
Al Horford, Boston Celtics
Age: 38 (June 3, 1986) | Draft: 2007 (3rd)
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Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
Age: 37 (March 14, 1988) | Draft: 2009 (7th)
Russell Westbrook, Denver Nuggets
Age: 36 (Nov. 12, 1988) | Draft: 2008 (4th)
James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers
Age: 35 (Aug. 26, 1989) | Draft: 2009 (3rd)
Last year Al Horford captured the NBA championship that had eluded his 16-year career. His 186 playoff games were the most ever for a first-time winner. It was one of the great stories of 2024. As Celtics exec Brad Stevens told Yahoo Sports in January, "If you take all of the joy each one of us experienced winning last year, I think all of us would say a piece of that joy, if not a large portion of it in my eyes, was for Al."
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There are few more enjoyable storylines in sports than The Old Guy Has Still Got It.
Like Horford, a 34-year-old Jrue Holiday, the 17th pick in the 2009 draft, started for Boston. Both put finishing touches on Hall of Fame résumés. There is a certain satisfaction to seeing a one-time star ease into a contributor's capacity, just so he can stick around awhile longer, chasing that championship high. Why Bradley Beal reportedly bristled at the idea of playing a Holiday-esque role is a question we all want answered, for as H.G. Wells once said, "Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative."
Russell Westbrook, the NBA's 2017 MVP, has this opportunity in front of him, coming off the bench for a Nuggets team that has its sights set on a second championship in three seasons. He is one of nine title-less players in NBA history to have played at least 1,000 regular-season games and 100 playoff games. Not that he will reject all of the flaws that have led him to a sixth team in seven seasons. But he might.
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This may well be Westbrook's last chance to contribute to a contender, and we get to watch him try.
But can this generation still drive winning? This is something Stephen Curry, LeBron James and James Harden, each with responsibilities greater than the next, should be asking themselves. Do we still have it?
This two-month playoff stretch is a slog, as demanding as anything in the sport. It requires everything they have left, just about every other night, wherever the games are played. Unlike their peers, who have transitioned beyond stardom, if these three are not at their absolute best, their teams have no chance.
And they are old, at least in the NBA sense. Make no mistake. Nobody used to be this good for this long. If there is a fountain of youth, it runs through James' veins. He has altered what we thought possible, and Curry is following his lead. Nobody even thought Harden could still do what he is doing at the age of 35.
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What redemption it would be if Harden were to win. There is little left to write of the legacies of James and Curry but perhaps the greatest chapter of all. A fifth ring would, at the very least, draw James closer to Michael Jordan in the G.O.A.T. debate. Curry's fifth would force us to reckon with a different argument.
Each has his shot, even if it is a long one, at defeating Father Time, and for that we tune in year after year, reckoning with our own mortality, hoping we can delay the tolls of time for as long as they have.
The Getting Old Guys (2010-14 NBA drafts)
Jimmy Butler, Golden State Warriors
Age: 35 (Sept. 14, 1989) | Draft: 2011 (30th)
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Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
Age: 33 (June 29, 1991) | Draft: 2011 (15th)
Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves
Age: 32 (June 26, 1992) | Draft: 2013 (27th)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Age: 30 (Dec. 6, 1994) | Draft: 2013 (15th)
Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
Age: 30 (Feb. 19, 1995) | Draft: 2014 (41st)
From 2019-23, one of Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Nikola Jokić were in the Finals each season, save for 2022, when Curry snared that fourth championship none of us saw coming.
That is the thing: The longevity of the generation before them and the rapid rise of the generation behind them has limited this generation's championship window to only a few years. This was not the case in the 1980s, when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas burned so brightly for a decade, only to flame out, ceding control of the NBA to Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon for most of the 1990s.
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These were long runways before James stretched them even longer. Except, for Antetokounmpo and Jokić, who have five MVPs between them, and who each won a single title, their window may have closed soon after it opened. The next generation took last year's title, and they are the favorites to do it again.
Can this group of players, who are getting older themselves, reclaim their era? Each has a title shot, including Rudy Gobert, whose Timberwolves made a run to last season's Western Conference finals. He will have to be better than he has ever been. The others, they just have to be as good as they ever were.
Antetokounmpo knows better than anyone how fleeting these things can be. He has shared his burden with Bucks cohorts Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton (the sixth and 39th picks in 2012, respectively), two more members of this generation. Milwaukee traded the oft-injured Middleton. Lillard is not the player he once was, either, and a blood-clotting issue will cost him at least the start of these playoffs.
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The same could be said of Jokić's Nuggets. His supporting cast is crumbling around him, and they can practically feel the draft from the sliver of a window they have left open. Jokić can only hold it himself for so long. Butler sure felt it on the Miami Heat and begged off, joining Curry and Draymond Green (the 35th pick in 2012) on the Warriors, whose dynasty is on its last legs. Or that is what history tells us. There will be questions about the future of Jokić and Antetokounmpo in Denver and Milwaukee if either loses.
This is what the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement has wrought, we think. For as much as these stars may be able to play deeper into their careers, it is harder than ever for teams to grow old together.
To survive in the NBA as long as James and Curry have is no guarantee. Just ask Leonard. He was the world's best player in 2019, and ever since his knees have tried to take from him what he has left. That we get to see what he has left once more, if his legs allow for it, is a blessing. Can he be Him again?
Can any of them be Him again, even for a series or two? What fun it will be to watch.
The New Guys (2015-19 NBA drafts)
Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks
Age: 28 (Aug. 31, 1996) | Draft: 2018 (33rd)
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Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers
Age: 28 (Sept. 7, 1996) | Draft: 2017 (13th)
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Age: 27 (March 3, 1998) | Draft: 2017 (3rd)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
Age: 26 (July 12, 1998) | Draft: 2018 (11th)
Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers
Age: 26 (Feb. 28, 1999) | Draft: 2018 (3rd)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell are the best players on the three heaviest championship favorites. Luka Dončić reached the Finals last season with his old team and is among the fringe contenders to reach them again with his new team, as are Jalen Brunson's Knicks. All five are between 26 and 28 years old — the precipice of an NBA player's absolute prime, traditionally speaking.
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Does the NBA belong to them now? We could easily envision a world where this generation wins the league's next five titles, leaving Jokić and Antetokounmpo at age 35, as Old Guys, on the other side of it.
Tatum has Jaylen Brown (the third pick in 2016), Kristaps Porziņģis (the fourth pick in 2015) and Derrick White (the 29th pick in 2017), along with Horford and Holiday, to share the workload. Together they ran through the league in last season's playoffs, never seeing a sixth game in any series. Can they do it again?
It is to what the Knicks have aspired. They feature a handful of players from this generation, including Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns (the first pick in 2015), Mikal Bridges (the 10th pick in 2018), OG Anunoby (the 23rd pick in 2017) and Josh Hart (the 30th pick in 2017). This might be the best they will ever be.
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This is certainly the best we have seen yet from Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA's MVP favorite. His Thunder won 68 games, something only champions have ever done. We might be witnessing the dawn of a new dynasty in OKC. After all, SGA's campaign may be the best for a guard since Jordan. At least since Curry.
Unlike Dončić, whose opening is tighter because of James, Gilgeous-Alexander and Mitchell have youth developing behind them, which is why we may see more of them on the game's grandest stage in years to come. And why it may be presumptuous to crown them now. It is all in front of this generation, except ...
The Next Guys (2020-24 NBA drafts)
Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers
Age: 25 (Feb. 29, 2000) | Draft: 2020 (12th)
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Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Age: 23 (June 18, 2001) | Draft: 2021 (3rd)
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
Age: 23 (Aug. 5, 2001) | Draft: 2020 (1st)
Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons
Age: 23 (Sept. 25, 2001) | Draft: 2021 (1st)
Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic
Age: 22 (Nov. 12, 2002) | Draft: 2022 (1st)
What if someone from this generation spoils their fun?
Both Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards made runs to the conference finals last season, before anyone thought they were ready. There is no other reason but the generations before them that they could not do it again. And who wants to wait his turn? Not Edwards, who thinks of himself ready now.
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Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero, recent No. 1 overall picks, have each already made All-Star teams. Playoff success is their next challenge. Each will have a hard time winning a series, but even a few wins in the opening round could convince us that they and their teams are closer to contention than we figured.
Someone from this generation will alter our opinion of their trajectory. That is what the games are for. Whoever it is will make us think, Wait, does he belong on this list as a generational talent? Someone who could swipe the league right out from underneath the New Guys. Someone who is not Next but Now.
The Houston Rockets, featuring Amen Thompson (the fourth pick in 2023), Jalen Green (the second pick in 2021) and Alperen Şengün (the 16th pick in 2021), are full of these guys. Together they have a title shot.
The Thunder have these guys, too. How good Jalen Williams (the 12th pick in 2022) and Chet Holmgren (the second pick in 2022) can be as the Thunder's second an third options will dictate their title chances. Same goes for the Cavaliers, who need Mobley to be as good as he has ever been to win a championship.
And we get to watch. Enjoy the 2025 NBA playoffs, everyone. Before Victor Wembanyama gets his time.
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