The playoff stakes are highest for these 6 NBA teams

Every NBA team comes into a season with its own set of internal and external expectations. Those teams are all ostensibly chasing the same goal, but different circumstances produce different stakes. Championship chases are not created equal.

This postseason, a handful of teams have more on the line than the rest. Here are the six with the most to gain or lose.

Philadelphia 76ers

No team pushed more chips into the middle of the table this season than the Sixers; after an agonizing half-decade of asset accumulation, they decided to take their shot with a pair of mammoth in-season trades. They gave up three players (Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Landry Shamet) and two draft picks of consequence (their own first-rounder in 2020, and Miami's unprotected first in 2021) to acquire Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, both of whom will be unrestricted free agents in three months and likely seeking max deals. So far, Philadelphia has little to show for those attempts to accelerate its championship timeline.

The Sixers head into the playoffs with virtually the same record they had a year ago, a slightly more productive offense, a markedly weaker defense, and a narrower overall scoring margin. They've done a decent job wedging square pegs into round holes but rarely has this season-long construction project looked intuitive or natural; it's been something of a slog.

They have tactical concerns, like their lack of a traditional pick-and-roll guard, their inability to contain opposing point guards, their penchant for coughing up the basketball, and, of course, the congestion created by Ben Simmons' unwillingness to consider shooting the ball from outside of 10 feet. (Most of those issues are correlated).

The Sixers also have personality concerns, like qualms over shot distribution and play-calling, on- and off-court chemistry, and everything else involved in the requisite smoothing-out process after turning over half the roster during the season.

Their starting five has still been stellar, as expected - its plus-17.6 net rating is fourth-best among five-man lineups with at least 150 minutes played this season. Their ramshackle bench won't hurt them as badly in the playoffs. This team was built with the postseason in mind, and its true strength may well be revealed in the coming weeks.

But to this point, the Sixers have been less than the sum of their parts. If that remains the case, it'll cloud not only their impending decisions on Butler and Harris but the long-term viability of a core containing Joel Embiid and Simmons, who is about to become extension-eligible. Can the Sixers justify locking in all their free agents at exorbitant salaries if there's evidence the formula doesn't work? Can they afford to walk away from Butler or Harris when doing so would mean they short-circuited The Process for nothing? A strong postseason run could completely change Philadelphia's approach to the offseason. Getting outclassed in the second round again would lead to a summer full of self-reflection and uncomfortable questions for all parties involved.

Toronto Raptors

There has been a ton of educated guesswork about how this postseason might affect Kawhi Leonard's future in Toronto, but ultimately it's been just that: guesswork. The Raptors' hopes for sustained championship contention reside with one inscrutable man, whose free-agent motivations may or may not be tied to the team's fortunes this spring.

Though their expectations should be higher than Philadelphia's, the stakes for the Raptors don't quite rise to the same level because the team doesn't require the same proof of concept. Unless they somehow flame out in the first round, the success or failure of the Leonard gambit doesn't really hinge on what the Raptors do in the postseason. It was still a plainly necessary trade and they would've been worse off had they not made it. Second-guessing would be pointless. The Marc Gasol deadline-day deal will be more open to scrutiny, but taken together, the future capital the Raptors shipped out in those trades - Jakob Poeltl, Delon Wright, Jonas Valanciunas, and the 29th pick in the upcoming draft - shouldn't significantly hamstring their plans moving forward, not with Pascal Siakam emerging as an All-NBA-caliber star and the summer of 2020 still representing a potential pivot point for the franchise.

But regardless of what it means for their chances of retaining Leonard, the Raptors have a lot riding on this postseason. There's no telling when or if they'll be this good again. Even if they are, the teams standing in their way should be less dysfunctional, more experienced, and more formidable in the years to come. If nothing else, this is the Raptors' chance to shed the playoff baggage that's dogged them for basically their entire existence.

That doesn't necessarily entail making The Finals for the first time in franchise history - how about taking care of business by getting through a first-round series in five games or less for a start? But winning the East should be the goal, and it's an eminently realistic one. It would be too dramatic to say Now or Never, but for the Raptors, it could be Now or Not For a Very Very Long Time.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Thunder owner Clay Bennett opened his wallet in unprecedented fashion last offseason in order to retain Paul George, footing the kind of luxury-tax bill he was resolutely unwilling to pay when faced with a similar decision on James Harden a few years back. The Thunder added to that tax hit by bringing back Jerami Grant, then gave away the latest in a long line of outgoing first-round draft picks to acquire Dennis Schroder (and get rid of Carmelo Anthony), absorbing an additional $30 million in multi-year salary in the process.

Those moves all paid off, to varying degrees. But despite running the NBA's second-highest payroll and getting a career year from George, the Thunder find themselves in the bottom half of the Western Conference playoff bracket after winning only 11 of 24 games since the All-Star break.

If they get bounced in the first round again, will Bennett keep shelling out? Or will that lead to an offseason of austerity measures, with more picks potentially going out the door in order to clear salary?

Leaving aside the financial concerns, the Thunder still have to worry about their shrinking window of relevance. Even as he's produced an astonishing third straight season with a triple-double average, Russell Westbrook is at the tail end of his prime, and his game is not built to survive a significant dip in athleticism. With their cap sheet clogged until after the 2020-21 season, and with their best players all at or near their ceilings, the Thunder have no means of significant upward mobility, unless one of their middling prospects makes an unexpected leap or the front office strikes gold late in the first round of this year's draft.

Oklahoma City hasn't won a playoff series in the post-Kevin Durant era, and the team's margin for error only figures to shrink from here on out.

Boston Celtics

Kyrie Irving's free agency has loomed over this entire Celtics season, and the playoffs will be no different. As with Leonard, Irving's motivations are difficult to decipher, so there's no telling how much he'll be swayed by the outcome of his team's postseason run.

One thing we can say for certain is that Boston's regular season went about as poorly as possible for a team that came into the year with realistic Finals aspirations. But the Celtics can entirely rewrite the story by flipping the playoff switch, if there is one to be flipped.

The Celtics' rebuild, initiated by the asset-rich 2014 trade with the Nets, has thus far included very few managerial missteps and been subject to very little scrutiny. But if the playoffs and/or the Irving situation go sideways, the picture will suddenly look a lot different. What if the Celtics acquired the wrong guys, and passed on the chance to acquire the right ones? They probably could have dealt for any available superstar over the past couple years - George, Leonard, Butler, you name it - but they opted to keep their powder dry for a potential Anthony Davis offer, and now Irving might bolt before they even have a chance to swing a Davis trade. If that happens, there will suddenly be an awful lot riding on the shoulders of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, both of whom stagnated in their development this season.

Celtics GM Danny Ainge obviously couldn't have foreseen Gordon Hayward breaking his leg five minutes into his Celtics career, or the Kings becoming competent for the first time in over a decade just as their unprotected first-round pick was set to convey to Boston. But if the Celtics bow out of the playoffs in the same uninspiring fashion that's defined their regular season, Ainge and Co. may have to reckon for the first time with the possibility that they bungled this thing.

Houston Rockets

Unlike most teams on this list, the Rockets don't have to fret over one of their stars bouncing in free agency; their starting five is locked up through next season. What they do have to worry about is their championship window closing.

Chris Paul appears to be entering the twilight of his career and is increasingly injury-prone. While Harden figures to have at least a couple prime years left, this season showed the herculean effort it takes from him to keep the Rockets afloat when Paul is not healthy. Like the Thunder, Houston doesn't have much roster maneuverability for at least the next two years, and owner Tilman Fertitta has sent mixed messages about his willingness to spend into the luxury tax. Perhaps most concerning, the Rockets have no depth and no young players who look capable of picking up the slack as Paul continues to decline. Time is working against them.

The Rockets pushed the Warriors to the brink in last year's West final, and arguably would have won had Paul not been injured in Game 5 (or had they made just a couple of the 27 consecutive 3-pointers they clanked in Game 7). Golden State's ecosystem has looked just as fragile this season as it did a year ago, so Houston has a legitimate chance to finish what it started. With the Warriors seemingly on the verge of a breakup, that chance may not come again.

Golden State Warriors

It's hard to know where to slot the Warriors into all this, given that they've won the last two championships and three of the last four. They won't engender much sympathy if they somehow fall short this year.

That doesn't mean they don't still have a ton at stake. Look at it this way: Either this is the last ride of an all-time dynasty, or it's a chance to convince Durant to keep the rodeo going a little longer.

Like the Raptors and Celtics, the Warriors' approaching offseason (and really, the entire NBA power balance) rests in the palm of their enigmatic, whimsical superstar. What separates the Warriors - not only from those two teams but from the rest of the league - is the sheer burden of expectations. They are the only team for which not winning a championship would qualify as a disappointment. When you're the excuse every other team offers for not winning a title, you yourself don't have one. This is the Warriors' chance to prove they're too good to get in their own way; their chance to cement their legacy as one of the greatest teams in history.

Still, Golden State's situation isn't quite as urgent as the others because the team is virtually assured of contending next year, whether Durant is still there or not. Steph Curry and Draymond Green will still be Warriors. Klay Thompson almost certainly will be, too. That trio merely won 73 regular-season games the season before Durant arrived. They're three years older now, but only Green has shown any sort of meaningful decline. While failing to three-peat might sting, the Warriors have the infrastructure to soften the blow.