Playoff Revelations: Michael Finley

Playoff Revelations honors playoff players without big names, but who are having a big impact in the postseason.

There was a time when Michael Finley would've rightfully insulted to be included in the Playoff Revelations ... he was once too big a star to be included with the likes of Thabo Sefolosha, Michael Pietrus, and ~~Dirk Nowitzki~~ Matt Barnes.

These days, though, he's a role player ... and last night, he was the world's greatest role player. Shooting 8-of-9 from three-point land can do that for a guy. The cool thing about Finley is that he's aware of his role, and embraces it.

"I'm blessed to be playing with some tremendous basketball players, guys like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. Those guys attract a lot of attention and I'm just out there doing my job and knocking down shots off of things they create for me."

Yeah, pretty much. I say that with no disrespect to Michael Finley ... for a guy who was once a star, it's no small thing to make the mental adjustment to being a role player.

And here's the most important aspect of a player like Finley ... if a team doesn't have someone in that role, the work of the stars can often be wasted. Stars can always create, but the defense can do things to make it difficult to finish ... and in that case, you need someone else to do the finishing for you. Ask Denver. They know all about that.