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The 10 most exciting playoff debuts to come this postseason

Jaime Valdez / USA TODAY Sports

Every year's NBA playoffs are fascinating for any number of well established reasons--new chapters of old rivalries, players adding new items to their legacy resumes, classic moments and performances being formed that we'll still be seeing replayed on NBA TV decades down the road. But maybe the most exciting part is getting to see the younger dudes who've never been there before making their first bow on basketball's biggest stage, introducing themselves to the national audience and letting you know that they've got next.

Last year's crop of playoff debuts was a little on the weak side--though obviously Stephen Curry (and to a lesser extent, Reggie Jackson) did end up putting the league on notice a little bit. This year, though, with all the new teams making playoff runs for the first time in a little while--the Wizards, Bobcats, Raptors, Suns and Blazers--we have a whole bunch of new faces to the postseason circuit, as well as any number of players (Marcin Gortat, Kyle Lowry, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic) who will be making their first late-spring appearances as starters. 

This list is for the true first-timers, though. Here are the 10 guys you should be the most pumped to see making their introductions to NBA playoff basketball (Since there are currently ties for 8th in both conferences, I included players from all nine teams each. Maybe this year they'll figure out a way to let all 18 teams make it? Could happen).

10. Tim Hardaway Jr. - Knicks

There are only a handful of outright rookies likely to impact the playoffs this season--soon enough, Michael Carter-Williams--but one of the more interesting ones is Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Knicks. He could play 10 minutes a game and do virtually nothing in a four-or-five-game first-round drubbing, but he could also bomb the Knicks into a game or two if his shot is falling, about as streaky a player as you're likely to see this late April.

He's also New York's sort of insurance policy for J.R. Smith, in case the former Sixth Man of the Year begins his postseason on as miserable a run as he did after getting suspended for elbowing Jason Terry in last year's playoffs. Did you notice that THJ has even swiped J.R.'s weird-ass buzzer-beater celebration? Make your own conspiracy theories with that one.

9. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - Bobcats, P.J. Tucker - Suns

The postseason usually isn't the best showcase for the thrills of lockdown defense, but every once in a while, a player can make a breakout based on being able to shut down the other team's best dude in a series. Kidd-Gilchrist and Tucker, two of the best emerging wing defenders in the league (and two of the guys who can actually make defense fun to watch), will certainly have their opportunities to D their way into the hearts of millions, especially if faced off with the likes of LeBron and/or Durant in the first round. 

Of course, MKG's defense has been a weird kind of good-luck charm for opposing wings going off for historic scoring nights this season, so perhaps he's worth watching for the opposite reasons as well. One way or the other, you'll be very familiar with his defense by the end of the first round. 

8. Markieff & Marcus Morris - Suns

Everyone's favorite NBA twin bench combo might be making their national breakout this spring, and you can bet that if the Suns do make the playoffs, their first-round series will feature all kinds of goofy "Tell the Morris Twins apart!" type guessing games and interview features and annoying jokes from lazy color announcers. 

That may or may not be your cup of tea, but everyone loves a good Sedin-like twin telepathy moment, and over the course of five or six games, you can bet the Morris' will connect on an alley-oop or a look-away three-point dish or something else that inspires twins nationwide to tearfully call up their better halves and let them know how they really feel. Expect to get very familiar with mama Thomasine "Angel" Morris in the stands, regardless.

7. Terrence Ross - Raptors

The second-year Raptor and first-year starter can still be a little bit of a drifter, but he's proven that when he explodes--either for the single-play variety or the game scoring outburst type--he can make national headlines in a second. If you were going to bet on the first dude to announce his presence with authority by either posterizing a defender or hitting 10 threes in three quarters, Ross would probably be in the top-five best odds for either. He might not have the best postseason series on the whole, but if he didn't have at least one unforgettable game/moment, that would be pretty disappointing. 

6. Steven Adams - Thunder

This year's annual Reggie Evans Award recipient for the player most likely to grab another player's nuts from behind for no particular reason. Or just, y'know, start with any kind of tomfoolery to get under the opposition's skin and into their heads, as them New Zealand boys are known to do. Is there any way to get a playoff series with both Adams and Patrick Beverley in it? New commissioner Adam Silver better hope not, or it might send NBA public relations back to pre-Stern levels of ignominy. 

5. DeMar DeRozan - Raptors

For an All-Star and 20-plus-point scorer, DeRozan's game doesn't exactly translate to particularly exciting postseason play--it's a lot of mid-range twos, coming off curls, getting to the foul line, that sort of fundamentally sound but not-highlight-grabbing sort of thing. Nonetheless, in terms of players who have the chance to be a legit MVP in a series, DeRozan could certainly be that guy for the Raptors in the first round--you wouldn't be shocked to see him average 30 over five games, and to have at least one game where he seems like the league's most unstoppable two-guard. 

For a guy who was living his NBA life in almost total league-wide anonymity and inconsequence for his first four years, it's a pretty exciting development, I think. 

4. Kemba Walker - Bobcats

Like the Wizards' Bradley Beal, a likely No. 11 on this list, Kemba Walker had kind of an up-and-down season from a statistical standpoint--up in volume scoring and team success, but down in shooting and general efficiency. But regardless of numbers, with the game on the line, there aren't too many young players in this league you'd feel more comfortable clearing out for at the top of the key than Walker--an invaluable postsesaon weapon, for sure.  

With UConn successor Shabazz Napier echoing and reminding us all about Walker's historic NCAA run with the Huskies a couple years back, it's pretty exciting to think what he could kind of heroics he could pull off in the pro postseason. Given Charlotte's middling record and likely tough first-round matchup, this might not be the year for Walker to power the Bobcats to the championship as he did back then, but he could provide a flash or two of such events to come. 

3. Drake - Raptors

The Raps' most exciting postseason debut doesn't come from anyone on their roster--although really, even though Lowry played 13 postseason games as a Houston reserve once, this is the true KLOE playoff debut--but rather, from their new team ambassador. Imagine Drake on the sidelines (assuming he's not off on a college campus tour somewhere) whooping it up with 40 and Majid Jordan, going nuts after every Terrence Ross slam, giving over-sharey interviews to Doris Burke where he ends up kind of propositioning her at the end.

It's gonna be great. At least, until the Raptors lose and all of a sudden Drizzy's back celebrating in the Heat locker room, trying to pose for selfies with Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers. 

2. Damian Lillard - Trail Blazers

Doesn't it sorta feel like Lillard's been in about a half-dozen playoffs already? The guy's had so many big-game moments in less than two years as a pro that it seems impossible that none of them have yet come in the postseason, that he hasn't even been truly playoff-tested yet. Regardless of how he performs in the Blazers' first late-spring appearance in three years, you can bet he won't be scared of the moment. 

Actually, it's way more likely that the moment will be scared of him, and that dramatic late-game situations will mysteriously clear themselves up before Lillard has the chance to hit a trademark dagger. I know that doesn't make any sense, but Lillard's level of badassery is as such that you can't count out the possibility. 

1. John Wall - Wizards

Still, if there's one true star turn to come from a first-timer this postseason, my money's on Wall. The guy hasn't made a ton of national noise playing in Washington the past three years, but finally given the stage to properly show what he can do...well, there's not a lot that he can't do. Buzzer-beaters, showstopping dunks, 40-point scoring outbursts, incredible passes, blazingly athletic defensive highlights--all of it's in play with Wall, and over a four-to-seven-game series, we can only hope we get to see the full arsenal. 

And if we do get to see him going against Lowry and the Raptors in the first round? Oh man. It might end up getting the dreaded NBA TV series treatment in the East--though don't discount Pacers/Bobcats, if that ends up being a thing--but true NBA junkies will be sticking the series into their veins by the time all is said and done. We want this, we need this, we MUST have this.

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