The Winners & Losers Of The NBA Playoffs' 2nd Round

As the NBA Playoffs continue on, several of the game's stars have helped and hurt their profile.

words // Nick DePaula

As happens often in sports, fortunes for teams and players can flip almost overnight. As great as the league's opening round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs was, the second round featured far less drama, far less competition and a rude awakening for some of the first round's heroes. 

Former stars like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett might've had to face the music and face a playoff exit sooner than they'd hoped, and both John Wall and Damian Lillard had to endure their own struggles after leading their teams to victory in each of their first ever playoff series.

The 2nd Round's players that helped and hurt their stock most are a drastic difference from the Winners & Losers of the 1st Round, as Paul George found a sliver of redemption, Russell Westbrook reaffirmed his status as the league's most explosive point guard and a sleeper overseas brand found itself representing half of the remaining starting point guards.

Find out our picks for the biggest winners and losers of the 2nd Round of the NBA Playoffs below, and let us know your picks in the comments section.

 

THE WINNERS:

- Kevin Durant

Ok, so he still hasn't been consistently (or pretty much ever) wearing the $200 KD VI Elite, which isn't a great look, but KD did have a 25-minute long MVP Award speech that sportswriters around the country were calling one of the greatest speeches in sporting history. 

Thanks to the fact that he was named Most Valuable Player of the entire league for the first time during the 2nd Round, it's safe to say he's one of the biggest winners of the postseason. Perhaps he simply wants to continue wearing the shoe that got him this far, which seems possible.

His profile is as big as ever, and later today, Durant and each of his individually beloved teammates that he singled out during his speech will begin their quest to advance to the NBA Finals.

Tune in at 9 PM EST on TNT tonight as the Thunder take on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

 

- Paul George 

PG had a rough second half of the season on the court, a rough string of off-court misfortune (mostly all his fault), and a rough first round of the playoffs. But in a postseason where his superstar credentials are at stake and he's entering a summer of high-dollar shoe deal negotiations, he's still standing. 

By advancing past the 2nd Round, George once again has a shot at redemption, and the matchup the Pacers and Heat have been waiting almost 90 games for is finally here. 

While James Harden may have been the lone wearer of the Zoom Crusader for the first two months of the regular season, the shoe has now become known as a Paul George-lead model. His bold yellow PEs have routinely been noticed mid-game by TV cameras and by blogs like ours in Sole Watch recaps, and he's looking to help elevate the shoe even more as the Pacers now pose a legitimate challenge to the Heat.

 

- PEAK

You still might not be fully familiar with Chinese brand PEAK's product offerings, but they have two starting points repping in the league's final four, which is a pretty great accomplishment for a brand that's only invested in basketball more aggressively over the last five years. 

There might not be a silhouette, cushioning technology or model name that you instantly associate with the brand just yet, but being validated on-court by two team leaders is a good start on awareness alone.

In Tony Parker and and his former back-up George Hill, Peak should enjoy some nice visibility throughout the conference finals and perhaps even further.  

 

- Russell Westbrook

After helping to lead the OKC Thunder past the LA Clippers, all in spite of a barrage of ill-timed elbow jumpers, wildly reckless pull-up 3s and bail-out calls against a fellow brandmate that set the stage for game-winning free throws (and awkward subtweets), the visibility that Russell Westbrook brought to the Air Jordan XX9 makes him a winner here.

That constant gift and curse of his explosive yet erratic game pretty much comes with the territory for Russ. In an era where the once again Roman numeraled game shoe hasn't really had any lasting memories or iconic moments on-court, you'll take it.

Tony Parker may still be praised for his midrange game and poise, but Westbrook now has the opportunity to go head-to-head with TP in the Western Conference Finals to try and cement his status as the game's greatest point guard playing on the league's biggest stage. If the Air Jordan headliner can get the best of that matchup and advance to the Finals, you'll be seeing him right back on this list the next time around.

 

THE LOSERS: 

- Nike LeBron 11 Elite

The shoe above, as you know, is not the LeBron 11 Elite.

Why is that important? Because in the three biggest games of the Heat's first nine games to open the playoffs, LeBron James opted for the $125 Zoom Soldier 7 instead of his $275 LeBron 11 Elite. He's had issues with the LeBron 11 all season long, and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

He wore the Soldier 7s for the clinching Game 4 of the Bobcats series, much contested Games 4 and 5 of the Nets series, and he also rocked what is supposed to be his takedown team model for Game 1 of the Pacers series yesterday.

At this point, you almost have to expect to see him in the Soldier 7 from here on out, setting up the narrative for a shaky legacy surrounding the LeBron 11.

 

- adidas Crazyquick 2

In Round 1, the two adidas Basketball headlining point guards dominated our Winners list, each leading their squads to convincing series wins during their first trips to the Playoffs.

Round 2 wasn't quite as easy for both John Wall and Damian Lillard, who each faced their own stretches of struggle against the more seasoned Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Even worse, the brand is now without an up and coming player remaining in the postseason. Tim Duncan is wearing last year's Crazyquick and has a shot to still advance further, but we're definitely not counting on him to inspire any adidas sales quite like these two. 

Look for both to have their own shoes at some point during the next NBA season, and by the time next year rolls around, it's more possible we'll be discussing their Round 1 heroics over their second round exits anyways.

 

- Blake Griffin & Chris Paul

While Blake took his game to new heights this season, far beyond just dunking, and Chris Paul continued to show why he's one of the league's best leaders, both players couldn't overcome the Thunder in the second round, and each had uncharacteristically rough stretches to close out games.

None more damning than CP3's Game 5 meltdown, which included a turnover where he tried to pre-empt the foul by heaving a shot from 65 feet, a few missed jumpers, and worst of all, a mind-numbing foul on a Russell Westbrook 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the game. The calls might've been a bit generous, but they also captured the essence of what was a brutal Clipper collapse during the final five minutes of a series-swinging game.

Blake and CP are Jordan brandmates, of course, but didn't do much to elevate the historical nostalgia for the Super.Fly 2 and CP3.VII. After all the team has been through during this postseason, it was tough to see them go down with such a struggle. 

 

- Jamal Crawford & BrandBlack

When Nike Inc. owns 93% of the basketball sneaker market share, it's pretty hard for a new brand to make a dent early on. When your shoes look like this, it's all but impossible.

Throughout the playoffs, Jamal Crawford's new BrandBlack JCrossover shoe has been universally destroyed every time we've posted them on Twitter. We've even spared our followers images from time to time, knowing nobody was really constantly refreshing their feeds to check out these bedazzled beasts.

I happen to really like Jamal Crawford's herky jerky game and he's awesome on Twitter, constantly interacting with his fans. Then BrandBlack unveiled this waaaaaay over-the-top epic 60-second YouTube commercial dubbed "FUTURE LEGENDS" and I had to draw the line somewhere -- come on. 

Self-important analysts who have no concept of anything related to sneaker culture might be excited about BrandBlack, even calling it "urban luxe" (whatever that means), but it's safe to say these Louboutin-inspired yet still uninspired kicks will come and go, leaving no imprint anywhere and never remotely cracking into any slice of a hoops market share.

Luckily for us, we've seen the last of BrandBlack for this season.