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#3 Chris Paul
Chris Paul's chances to win the 2021 NBA championship were put to bed when the Milwaukee Bucks stormed to beat the Phoenix Suns in a six-game NBA Finals series. The 38-year-old guard had a stellar run in his first year with Phoenix and helped the squad reach the NBA Finals.
After grabbing a 2-0 lead over Giannis and company, the Suns could not hold on.
Paul, an 11-time All-Star, might've seen his best chance of winning an NBA championship as a team leader go by, but not many would bet against him finding a way to success in the upcoming seasons.
CP3 has played 129 postseason games and has averaged 20.7 points, 8.3 assists and five rebounds per game in his NBA Playoffs career.
#2 Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook is another veteran who will be looking to grab his first NBA championship with the LA Clippers in the 2022-23 NBA season, and this might be his best chance in years.
Opposed to Carmelo Anthony's case, Russell Westbrook will be one of the main players on the LA Clippers' roster in the 2023-24 NBA season as the 34-year-old is still in his prime (nearing the end of it).
A former MVP and a player who averaged a triple-double for the entire season in four of the past five campaigns, Westbrook has a 'can't win' tag put on his name. Whether he can change that while playing alongside James Harden and Paul George is yet to be seen, but the Clippers are one of the dark horses in the championship mix for the 2023-24 season.
Westbrook has played 111 postseason games in his career and has averages of 24.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game in the NBA Playoffs.
#1 James Harden
James Harden started the 2021 NBA Playoffs possibly looking at his best chance to finally win an elusive NBA championship. But it all ended in the second round of the NBA Playoffs against the eventual champions Milwaukee Bucks.
Harden has had some failures in the NBA Playoffs where he did not play at his level for his team and saw his chances end before the NBA Finals. He did have a chance to grab an NBA championship early in his career (as a sixth man), when he was a teammate to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in the OKC Thunder, but lost the 2012 NBA Finals against the 'Big Three' Miami Heat.
'The Beard' ran into some trouble with the Houston Rockets and had some tough losses and bad outings with the franchise. He played in a couple of Western Conference Finals as the Rockets' leader, but his team could not get past the Golden State Warriors both times.
In his NBA Playoffs career, Harden averages 23.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and six assists per game (137 appearances) with 42/33/86 shooting splits.
