Top 5 debutants in the NBA Playoffs

This is the time of the year that all basketball fans wait for, all year long. When legends are made, and sometimes unravel. The time when every game has incredibly high stakes, and when role players have the chance to be immortalized in basketball history. The playoffs are here, baby!

This time around, we have a number of players who will be playing a postseason game for the first time in their lives. While there are more than 5 debutants, we try to rank the most consequential and impactful players here. Thus, the likes of Markelle Fultz, Bam Adebayo, OG Anunoby and Andrew Wiggins will not feature here, despite the fact that they perform irreplaceable roles for their teams.

Let's take a look at the top 5 players making their playoff debuts in the first round of the playoffs:

Honourable Mention: Ricky Rubio

#5 Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum will be having a trial by fire this postseason. In fact, one can consider the entire regular season a trial by fire, considering the fact that Tatum had to step into Gordon Hayward's big shoes in order for the Celtics to finish 2nd in the Eastern Conference after 82 games. Evidence from the first trial has nothing to suggest that Tatum won't be able to pass the upcoming one which is to be the featured scorer on the Celtics' starting lineup.

Tatum is not just the most polished rookie in the league this season, he is also the most polished, complete offensive player on the Celtics roster now that Kyrie Irving is out. Even All-Star Al Horford cannot claim to have the same kind of finishing touch in the paint or the sweet mid-range jumper that Tatum has.

If Tatum does indeed come good in the first round and the Celtics do upset the Bucks, I'm wondering how many journalists will have to reconsider their voting for the Rookie of the Year sweepstakes, because the stakes have just been raised that much higher this go-around.

#4 Donovan Mitchell

Mitchell will be the Jazz's biggest contributor

What Tatum will have to do in the postseason, Mitchell already has done for the duration of the regular season.

After a couple of appearances off the bench at the start of the season, Mitchell was asked to step into the starting lineup by coach Quin Snyder. A couple of 20-point appearances went by, and then Mitchell became the de facto #1 scorer for the Jazz for the rest of the campaign.

He finished the regular season with 20.5 points per game - a tally only Carmelo Anthony has matched over the past 20 seasons among rookies. Mitchell will have to step up his game against an Oklahoma City defense that will have watched hundreds of hours of game film on how to stop him.

It's not a task for the light or faint-hearted, but I'd bet my life on Donovan Mitchell getting it done at this point.

#3 Ben Simmons

Ben Simmons will be the focal point of the Sixers

offense

in the first round

Ben Simmons has had a rookie season comparable to the likes of Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson - the two greatest point guards of all time. Given the body of work that he's presented so far, the alarm bells would already be ringing among the Miami Heat coaching staff.

While the lack of a jumpshot is well-documented, we've seen through the course of the regular season that this is not a shortcoming Simmons can't overcome. 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game should drive home that point.

Simmons can do it all on both ends of the floor, and his handles, court vision and basketball IQ will get him through whatever the Heat throw at him in the first round, even without the support of a certain 7'2" Cameroonian we'll talk about later.

#2 Karl-Anthony Towns

Towns will be up for a challenging time in the playoffs

The Minnesota Timberwolves have done it! With an overtime win over the Denver Nuggets, they've made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. The last time they were in the first round, George Bush was still serving out his first tenure as US president, Shaq and Kobe were still on the Lakers and LeBron James was only a rookie.

Before you raise any questions about the defensive demons the first-time All-Star is still encountering, just consider this statline: 21.3 points per game on 54.5% field goal conversion, 42.1% from 3-point range and 85.8% from the free throw line. Those are historic numbers for a center.

Back in March, Karl-Anthony Towns remarked after a starring role in the Timberwolves' win over the Golden State Warriors:

Seeds 5 through 10 in the Western Conference are a swamp, and only the real alligators are going to make it out to the playoffs

His performance in what was essentially a playoff game against the Nuggets on Wednesday should only drive home the point that Towns is very much a real alligator lurking in the swamps.

#1 Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid is the best

center

in the game already

Joel 'The Process' Embiid has been a revelation this season. Not only did he get voted in as an All-Star starter from the Eastern Conference, he's also in consideration for the Defensive Player of the Year award, and is probably a lock for first-team All-NBA consideration.

The good thing about Embiid's injury-enforced absence has been the way the Sixers have played without him. Once he gets back on the floor for Philly, he'll take them to a whole new level. After all, the net-rating differential of 11.8 points per 100 possessions that he holds over the course of the regular season has to mean something, doesn't it?

Once he's back to the Sixers' setup fully fit and firing, the Sixers are primed to make a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Here's hoping that playoff Embiid is even more of a destructive force than regular season Embiid, and that the Sixers take down the Cavs in the Conference Finals as Paul Pierce has predicted.

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