Before this season, Bobby Portis was not one of the first names anyone in or around the NBA would say if asked to imagine a role player who would suddenly impact the 2020–21 NBA Finals. And yet, in Game 3 of the Finals, that's exactly what Portis did.
His arrival was unanticipated for several reasons, including the circumstantial—Portis was drafted in 2015 by a fading Bulls team that then traded him to the inanimate Wizards before he spent last year on the comically uneven Knicks—and his career-long struggle as a big man whose lackluster defense overshadowed the bright spots in his offensive repertoire.