Speaker 1: The volume. All right, olgodon to Hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the ballume heavy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week so far. We are
Speaker 1: continuing our player rankings today with number seventeen through number fifteen.
Speaker 1: This is a fascinating group. We just finished a group
Speaker 1: with three super talented young players, as you guys saw
Speaker 1: with Jalen Williams and Palabancaro and Kate Cunningham, all guys
Speaker 1: that are under the age of twenty five. This next
Speaker 1: group of three are all veterans with good playoff resumes.
Speaker 1: These guys are all more or less kind of at
Speaker 1: their peaks or maybe on the back end of their careers,
Speaker 1: but they have a wealth of experience that makes some
Speaker 1: very dependable players, especially in the playoff context. Different kind
Speaker 1: of group of guys that we're going to be looking
Speaker 1: at today. You guys are the Jill Portget Sarty to
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Speaker 1: the last minut least, if you disagree with any of
Speaker 1: the rankings on this list, drop it in the mail
Speaker 1: bag questions. Just put in there in your mail bag
Speaker 1: what you disagree with an elevator pitch like a concise
Speaker 1: version of why you disagree, And in our player rankings
Speaker 1: mail bags, we will debate where you guys disagree with
Speaker 1: me on these rankings. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: Number seventeen Pascal Siakam. Last season in review for Pascal,
Speaker 1: he played seventy eight games, average twenty point seven rebounds
Speaker 1: and three assists one point four stocks per game, as
Speaker 1: well made the All Star team for the third time
Speaker 1: in his career. Pascal is putting together an underrated NBA resume.
Speaker 1: He won Most Improved Player back in twenty nineteen. He's
Speaker 1: now made three All Star teams. He made the All
Speaker 1: NBA team twice, including second Team All NBA back in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. That was a YEARI also finished top ten
Speaker 1: in MVP voting, and last year he was one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the playoff field and got within
Speaker 1: one win of his second championship as the secondary star
Speaker 1: on a team. His efficiency numbers from last year in
Speaker 1: the regular season fifty two percent from the field, thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent from three, which was a career high for him,
Speaker 1: and he actually expanded upon that in the playoffs, which
Speaker 1: we'll talk about in a minute, seventy three percent from
Speaker 1: the free throw line, fifty seven percent in effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage, and sixty percent in true shooting, which was
Speaker 1: the third highest efficiency mark of Pascal's career. I really
Speaker 1: want to start with the defensive end here for Pascal, because,
Speaker 1: like Pascale, to me, has one of the highest floors
Speaker 1: of any player on this list, because he's just a
Speaker 1: rangy athlete with a seven to three wing span that
Speaker 1: does a ton of damages with his activity in his
Speaker 1: high motor. He posted one point nine stocks per game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, which was substantially ahead of where he
Speaker 1: was in the regular season. It was the highest mark
Speaker 1: he's ever posted in a playoff run. He was top
Speaker 1: ten in both total blocks and total steals in the
Speaker 1: playoff run. His length in athleticism was what makes him
Speaker 1: so profoundly impactful in the setting. He had sixty four
Speaker 1: deflections in the playoffs, that was the fifth most out
Speaker 1: of any player. He contested one hundred and fifty seven shots,
Speaker 1: which was the third most among any player in the
Speaker 1: playoff field. He was near the top and loose balls
Speaker 1: recovered as well. He's just a defensive Swiss Army knife.
Speaker 1: He even did quality on ball defensive work at various
Speaker 1: points in the playoff run, including some really nice reps
Speaker 1: against Jalen Williams in the NBA Finals. This is all
Speaker 1: uniquely valuable to an Indiana Pacers team, who, as we
Speaker 1: all know, thrives on transition pushes off of missus and turnovers.
Speaker 1: They love to get up and down the floor. They
Speaker 1: do it the same thing on makes, but it's obviously
Speaker 1: easier off of missus and off of turnovers, and Pascal
Speaker 1: was one of the guys that was fueling the chaos
Speaker 1: that led to those transition opportunities. Before we get to
Speaker 1: anything having to do with Pascal's more refined off defensive traits,
Speaker 1: He's just an absolute monster on the margins. We covered
Speaker 1: all the defensive activity just a second ago. It's also
Speaker 1: his rebounding. He had three games in the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: where he grabbed four or more offensive rebounds. It's his
Speaker 1: work as a floor runner in transition. How many times
Speaker 1: did you guys see Pascal Siakam leak out in this
Speaker 1: playoff run and get a layup or a dunkin transition?
Speaker 1: He was literally the best transition scorer in the entire
Speaker 1: NBA playoff field in made field goals. He made forty
Speaker 1: eight shots in transition through four playoff rounds. That's more
Speaker 1: than two makes per game. They played twenty three games,
Speaker 1: forty eight makes in transition. He's so gifted running the floor.
Speaker 1: He's also hyper efficient in transition. There were fifteen players
Speaker 1: in the NBA last year in the playoff field that
Speaker 1: logged at least fifty transition possessions. His one point three
Speaker 1: to eight points per possession was far and away the best.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards was second place on that list, and he
Speaker 1: was below one point three, So a big gap between
Speaker 1: Siakam in transition efficiency compared to the rest of the NBA.
Speaker 1: Siakam's combination of athletic tools, motor and natural basketball instincts
Speaker 1: make him one of the more reliable playoff players in
Speaker 1: the league. Those are all things you can count on
Speaker 1: regardless of what variance might occur for players, shots going
Speaker 1: in or not going in, getting foul calls, not getting
Speaker 1: foul calls. Pascal's seven to three wing span, high motor,
Speaker 1: high defensive IQ, and activity overall athleticism that just brings
Speaker 1: an extremely high floor, a variance proof version of Pascal
Speaker 1: that you can count on to be there every single night.
Speaker 2: And it's the addition of the.
Speaker 1: More refined set of offensive skills that he showed this
Speaker 1: year that vaulted Siakam all the way up to this
Speaker 1: point in the list. This is by far the highest
Speaker 1: that Siakam has ever been on this list since I
Speaker 1: started doing it. There's a reason why Pascal was a
Speaker 1: career twenty seven percent three point shooter in the playoffs
Speaker 1: before this year. Even two years ago when they made
Speaker 1: it to the Eastern Conference Finals, he was a sub
Speaker 1: thirty percent three point shooter. This year, he shot a
Speaker 1: career high in the regular season at thirty nine percent,
Speaker 1: and he followed it up with a forty three percent
Speaker 1: three point shooting playoff run. On over eighty attempts. He
Speaker 1: was a dead eye shooter for them when you left
Speaker 1: him open. He was forty eight percent on unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. In the playoffs, he was literally
Speaker 1: hitting nearly half of his open threes. That is a
Speaker 1: big ceiling razor for Pascal with this team. He was
Speaker 1: also a very efficient one on one player for the Pacers.
Speaker 1: In the regular season, he was off the charts good.
Speaker 1: He ran five hundred and thirty seven post ups in ISOs,
Speaker 1: including passes, and got six hundred and nineteen points out
Speaker 1: of them. That's one point one five points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is like super super good. He shot forty six
Speaker 1: percent on pull up jump shots, fifty one percent on
Speaker 1: Hook's reliable short range shot, and anybody who's watched Pascal
Speaker 1: long enough knows he's one of the most gifted, like
Speaker 1: tough contested layup makers that I've ever seen. He was
Speaker 1: sixty six percent on layups in the regular season last year.
Speaker 1: That's insanely good. I think he was up to sixty
Speaker 1: seven percent in the postseason. He just kind of has
Speaker 1: this like natural ability to slip through cracks, like these
Speaker 1: tiny little windows of space where help defenders are collapsing,
Speaker 1: and he just somehow like gets through many times falling
Speaker 1: down and just somehow extends that long ass wingspan out
Speaker 1: there and just feeds it softly off the glass. He's
Speaker 1: a remarkably gifted layup maker in the NBA, So all
Speaker 1: of that translates super well to the postseason. Yeah, one
Speaker 1: point zero seven points per possession, one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: one to one on one, so post ups and ISOs
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Again, that's a little bit below where
Speaker 1: he was in the regular season, but that's still very good.
Speaker 1: He shot sixty seven percent on layups and once again
Speaker 1: had like a dozen more of the most insane looking, slashing, falling,
Speaker 1: slender man layups that.
Speaker 2: You'll ever see.
Speaker 1: He was already a super gifted two way player with
Speaker 1: a ton of utility, but he added this other level
Speaker 1: of refined offensive skill, especially from the three point line,
Speaker 1: and then his work as a runner in transition fits
Speaker 1: so wonderfully in Indiana's offense that he has vaulted up
Speaker 1: to an entire different tier overall as an offensive player.
Speaker 1: You know, he kind of reminds me of Clay Thompson.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm not meaning this as like
Speaker 1: a player archetype, because obviously.
Speaker 2: They're very, very different types of players.
Speaker 1: But when I look back on this era of basketball,
Speaker 1: Pascalzimi falls into a tier like Clay in the sense
Speaker 1: that he doesn't He obviously doesn't have the on ball
Speaker 1: chops to be like the best player on a championship team.
Speaker 1: He's not a guy that kind of has the star
Speaker 1: power that some of the top guys in the league have.
Speaker 1: Neither did Clay, but he was tailor made the system
Speaker 1: he plays in. I think Pascal is literally a perfect
Speaker 1: fit in Indiana, just like Clay was in Golden State.
Speaker 1: They both have a ton of offensive utility as a
Speaker 1: number two within that system. Again, very different types of players,
Speaker 1: but within their respective systems immensely valuable number twos and
Speaker 1: then a legitimately awesome defensive player that carried a heavy
Speaker 1: load on that end of the floor. You guys, remember
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson used to pick up Kyrie Irving for entire
Speaker 1: NBA Finals runs. He was one of their best perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: So kind of what I mean in comparing him to Clay,
Speaker 1: He's like a player that never is going to make
Speaker 1: it super high on player rankings list, but a guy
Speaker 1: that I'll remember very fondly from his era, like a
Speaker 1: guy that I have a ton of respect for, just
Speaker 1: as a winner, like I think Klay Thompson is one
Speaker 1: of the best winners of his era. I think Pascal
Speaker 1: Siakam is one of the best winners of this era.
Speaker 1: Pascal is a winner. He makes your team better and
Speaker 1: he falls in at number seventeen on this year's list,
Speaker 1: Number sixteen Jimmy Butler. Nothing says summer like long days,
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Speaker 1: Last year in review In review for Jimmy fifty five
Speaker 1: total games played, twenty five with Miami, thirty with Golden State.
Speaker 1: He averaged eighteen points, five rebounds, and five assists per game,
Speaker 1: one point seven stocks, one point four steals per game,
Speaker 1: which is a really high mark in the NBA. His
Speaker 1: efficiency numbers shot fifty percent from the field, actually the
Speaker 1: second highest mark of his career, fueled by Jimmy being
Speaker 1: fifty five percent on twos, which was the second highest
Speaker 1: mark of his career. He was just thirty one percent
Speaker 1: from three, which was a big drop from the previous
Speaker 1: year when he went over forty percent for the first
Speaker 1: time in his NBA career, but he attempted just one
Speaker 1: point nine to threes per game, which was the fourth
Speaker 1: lowest mark of his career. He did tick that up
Speaker 1: to closer to two and a half. When he was
Speaker 1: with Golden State, he was eighty four percent from the
Speaker 1: line on seven attempts per game. Consistently finding ways to
Speaker 1: get to the foul line was like the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that I think has allowed him to extend this phase
Speaker 1: of his career when he's lost a little bit of
Speaker 1: his athletic pop. He's very good at taking these kind
Speaker 1: of bizarre driving angles that veer into the defender's path
Speaker 1: that essentially force defenders to fall him. I talk about
Speaker 1: this a lot. Foul grifting is about understanding how the
Speaker 1: game is officiating in finding ways to force refs to
Speaker 1: blow the whistle. It's gamesmanship. Jimmy's really good at it,
Speaker 1: and with the Warriors, we saw it consistently serve as
Speaker 1: a means with both to generate scoring in the half court,
Speaker 1: but also as a way for them to set up
Speaker 1: their defense. Jimmy draws a foul, you go shoot a
Speaker 1: free throw, gets set up to play defense, and get
Speaker 1: back out in transition going the other way. It was
Speaker 1: a huge boost to that Golden State offense. Jimmy was
Speaker 1: a mediocre pick and roll player in the Golden State system,
Speaker 1: but a very good one on one player. He generated
Speaker 1: zero point nine to two points per pick and roll
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty five reps. That's way below average.
Speaker 1: He just struggled to make shots. He went over on
Speaker 1: pull up threes. He didn't make a single pull up
Speaker 1: three the entire season with Golden State, shot just thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent from two out of pick and rolls. That
Speaker 1: was a big part of why his efficiency wasn't great there.
Speaker 1: But again, he was a monster on ISOs and post
Speaker 1: ups for Golden State one point one point nine points
Speaker 1: per possession including passes on two hundred and six attempts.
Speaker 1: We were just talking about Siakam being really really good
Speaker 1: on one point one point five. Jimmy another level even
Speaker 1: above that shot super well. He shot forty seven percent
Speaker 1: on his own shot attempts in one on one situations
Speaker 1: got to the foul line. It's son, this is I
Speaker 1: was like legitimately blown away when I saw this stat today.
Speaker 1: Jimmy got fouled more than one third of the time
Speaker 1: when he took a shot in ISO or post up situations.
Speaker 1: Think about how I'm saying that is Jimmy personally took
Speaker 1: a shot in ISO or in the post one hundred
Speaker 1: and three times with Golden State in the regular season.
Speaker 1: He ended up shooting a free throw thirty six of
Speaker 1: those one hundred and three times. It's unbelievable. That's a
Speaker 1: foul rate over thirty five percent. So as a result,
Speaker 1: his score percentage. Remember I used to talk about this
Speaker 1: concept with Yoki. Score percentage is just like if I
Speaker 1: throw you the ball down there, how likely are you
Speaker 1: to score on that possession at all? Whether it's one point,
Speaker 1: two point three point whatever it is. Generate a point
Speaker 1: for your teammates. What is the score percentage on ISOs
Speaker 1: and post ups. Jimmy was over fifty percent on both,
Speaker 1: So it actually became one of the safest plays for
Speaker 1: Olden State to call. Let Jimmy go one on one
Speaker 1: and he's either gonna score or he's gonna draw foul,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna generate points for you more than half
Speaker 1: the time. And this doesn't even get into the fact
Speaker 1: those are big picture regular season metrics. This doesn't even
Speaker 1: get into the fact that Jimmy was consistently able to
Speaker 1: scale up his offense to the superstar level when the
Speaker 1: situation called for it while Steph Curry was on the team.
Speaker 1: It got a little tricky when Steph went down with
Speaker 1: his injury, but in the last three games of the
Speaker 1: regular season when they were struggling for playoff position, averaged
Speaker 1: twenty seven points per game. He had twenty three assists
Speaker 1: with just two turnovers. He logged two stocks per game
Speaker 1: in those games, got to the foul line in those
Speaker 1: final three regular season games.
Speaker 2: This is crazy.
Speaker 1: Thirty seven times in three games. He had three twenty
Speaker 1: five plus point games in the Rocket series, including in
Speaker 1: some pivotal moments like Game four where the series was
Speaker 1: hanging in the balance. Jimmy had his lows, and he
Speaker 1: had his struggles when Steph Curry went down with injury.
Speaker 1: But I think the Jimmy Butler experiment with Steph Curry
Speaker 1: has generally been a resounding success. His defensive playmaking alongside
Speaker 1: Draymond was profoundly impactful their defense. The Warrior's defense was
Speaker 1: five points better per one hundred possessions with Jimmy on
Speaker 1: the floor versus off Like we talked about in the
Speaker 1: j dub video the other day, He's not the perimeter
Speaker 1: weapon that you can deploy on the other team's best
Speaker 1: player for an entire series like the way he was
Speaker 1: in the past. But he's still a super valuable like
Speaker 1: help side guy who like anticipates actions and blows up plays.
Speaker 1: I kind of you him as a defensive playmaker at
Speaker 1: this point in his career, and on offense, I thought
Speaker 1: he was the perfect counter to balance Steph. I'd love
Speaker 1: to see them get some more reliable scoring from the
Speaker 1: perimeter at the guard spot, but overall is a secondary star.
Speaker 1: I think he was a great fit with Steph. Brought
Speaker 1: strong bench play, reliable second side creation, he had the
Speaker 1: ability to scale up his scoring in big moments when
Speaker 1: his team needed too. Like we talked about, I thought
Speaker 1: he was an excellent active playmaker in the Warriors offense.
Speaker 1: When he would catch the ball in the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor with an advantage off of something Steph was doing,
Speaker 1: or running off of an off ball action, he would
Speaker 1: be able to quickly process there and make the right
Speaker 1: read and keep the engine flowing. And most importantly, this
Speaker 1: is arguably the most important thing out of all of it.
Speaker 1: Getting Jimmy Butler in the door reinvigorated Steph Curry. Steph
Speaker 1: was clearly frustrated with the lack of a supporting star
Speaker 1: on the roster over the previous years before the deal
Speaker 1: was made, and it affect his play. Before Jimmy ever
Speaker 1: played a game with the Warriors, they were below five hundred.
Speaker 1: They were twenty five and twenty six. They were eighteenth
Speaker 1: in offense, tenth in defense, sixteenth in net rating. Steph
Speaker 1: was averaging below twenty three points per game, below forty
Speaker 1: percent from three, and only forty three percent from the field.
Speaker 1: After Jimmy Butler suited up, they went twenty three to eight.
Speaker 1: The rest of the way, they were eighth in offense.
Speaker 1: So they jumped up from eighteenth all the way to
Speaker 1: eighth in offense, from tenth all the way to first,
Speaker 1: and defense literally jumped up ten spots in both categories
Speaker 1: third and net rating. And Steph Curry went from that
Speaker 1: twenty three points per game on below forty percent from
Speaker 1: three to twenty seven points per game on forty one
Speaker 1: percent from three and forty seven percent from the field.
Speaker 1: He reinvigorated. Steph Curry got him reinvested in the potential
Speaker 1: to win a championship. Now, Jimmy's obviously in a different
Speaker 1: phase of his career. Now, he's not the twenty three
Speaker 1: point per game guy that was the best player on
Speaker 1: multiple finals teams. He's been in the top ten on
Speaker 1: this list before. He's more reliant on foul grifting than
Speaker 1: he used to be, and just overall his savvy floor
Speaker 1: game to carry him on offense more than supreme athletic gifts.
Speaker 1: He's not going to go out there and give you
Speaker 1: seventy regular season games. I mean, hell, he didn't do
Speaker 1: that when he was younger either. He's done it twice
Speaker 1: in his entire career. But he is still one of
Speaker 1: the best playoff performers in the NBA. Because of his
Speaker 1: versatility on both ends of the floor and his wealth
Speaker 1: of experience, he immediately was able to step into Golden
Speaker 1: State and fill several specific holes in that roster that
Speaker 1: completely changed the dynamic of that basketball team, turning them
Speaker 1: from a team that was destined for another year outside
Speaker 1: of the playoffs looking in to a legit second tier
Speaker 1: contender with a puncher's chance to win the title. And
Speaker 1: who knows what would have happened if Steph Curry didn't
Speaker 1: get hurt. Now, this is the lowest that I've had
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler on this list since I started doing it,
Speaker 1: but he still comes in at number sixteen. This year,
Speaker 1: Number fifteen Devin Booker. I think it's going to break
Speaker 1: people's brains that I have Devin this high. Why because
Speaker 1: how could two of the top fifteen players in the
Speaker 1: NBA play for the Suns and they missed the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I used to get the same argument with the Lakers
Speaker 1: all the time, But this is a classic example of
Speaker 1: how NBA basketball is way more complicated than it looks,
Speaker 1: and roster balance is vitally important to succeeding in the NBA.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it. The Suns had issues that extended
Speaker 1: far beyond the star power. The issue was, is they
Speaker 1: indexed more towards star power going after Bradley Beal instead
Speaker 1: of indexing more towards supporting talent, which is what they
Speaker 1: needed when they already had Devin Booker and Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: on the roster.
Speaker 2: It was a poor.
Speaker 1: Decision, a poor direction to take the franchise. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's worth mentioning when Kevin Durant Devin Booker both played
Speaker 1: on the same night for the Suns, they were thirty
Speaker 1: two and twenty four. That's a forty seven win pace,
Speaker 1: which would have put them right in that like seven
Speaker 1: to eight range in the standings even with all of
Speaker 1: the massive roster shortcomings that they had, and they had
Speaker 1: a positive net rating with the two of them shared
Speaker 1: the floor together. So it was a combination of the
Speaker 1: poor roster construction that we were talking about, the complete
Speaker 1: lack of high motor athletes and center play and all
Speaker 1: the things that they needed to be a functional basketball team,
Speaker 1: and the fact that they were just dealing with a
Speaker 1: bunch of bang up injuries that kept their best players
Speaker 1: from being on the floor together. So yes, the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns missed the playoffs, and I still think Devin and
Speaker 1: Kevin are two of the very best basketball players.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 1: Let's look at Devin Bookers last season in review. Devin
Speaker 1: played in seventy five games. He averaged twenty six points,
Speaker 1: four rebounds, and seven assists, just one point one stocks.
Speaker 1: He was one of three players in the entire NBA
Speaker 1: last year to play at least sixty games and to
Speaker 1: average at least twenty five points, four rebounds, and seven assists.
Speaker 1: It was him, Kid Cunningham and Nicole Jokic were the
Speaker 1: only guys that met that criteria. His efficiency, he was
Speaker 1: forty six percent from the field. That was his lowest
Speaker 1: mark since twenty eighteen. Thirty three percent from three the
Speaker 1: second lowest mark of his career if you dig into
Speaker 1: the numbers, and we're going to do it more in
Speaker 1: more detail here in a minute. But Devin talked about
Speaker 1: this in his postseason press conference. But he just didn't
Speaker 1: foot the ball well, particularly from the three point line,
Speaker 1: and that was the big thing that kind of prevented
Speaker 1: him from reaching the same efficiency marks that he reached
Speaker 1: at earlier points in his career. But he was thirty
Speaker 1: three percent from three, that was the second lowest mark
Speaker 1: of his career, eighty nine percent from the line, fifty
Speaker 1: three percent in effective field goal percentage, and still because
Speaker 1: he's got a super intelligent approach to offense with a
Speaker 1: high like a quality shot profile, and with the ability
Speaker 1: to take mid range shots and actually make more than
Speaker 1: half of them, he still posted, even on a tough
Speaker 1: shooting season, a true shooting percentage of fifty nine percent,
Speaker 1: which is really good playtype data. Devin Booker, still, even
Speaker 1: with poor shooting, was one of the best most efficient
Speaker 1: shot creators in the NBA last year. I think that
Speaker 1: Devin is one of the most underrated passers in the league.
Speaker 1: He was fifteenth in assists per game last year. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure people realize the type of high level playmaker
Speaker 1: that Devin Booker has become over the years. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's in that truly special tier of playmakers at
Speaker 1: the top of the league where you have guys like
Speaker 1: obviously Jokic and Luca and Trey Young and James Harden
Speaker 1: and Lebron James. There's a group of guys Tyr's Halliburton.
Speaker 1: There's a group of guys that has like that kind
Speaker 1: of like organic, natural excellent passing ability that that is
Speaker 1: something you're born with, and Devin Booker was not born
Speaker 1: with that per se.
Speaker 2: He's more of a natural scorer.
Speaker 1: But there's a handful of guys over the years in
Speaker 1: the NBA, at least in my time watching, that were
Speaker 1: natural scorers, but who became really high level passers, at
Speaker 1: least relative.
Speaker 2: To their peers over the course of their careers. A
Speaker 2: couple of examples.
Speaker 1: DeMar de Rosen, especially in the years in San Antonio,
Speaker 1: became a really high level passer for a guy who
Speaker 1: was a score first guy. Brandon Ingram He's a guy that,
Speaker 1: when he's healthy and in rhythm, is one of the
Speaker 1: better passing forwards in the league. Jalen Brunson is a
Speaker 1: guy who's become a very good passer despite being more
Speaker 1: of a score first guy.
Speaker 2: In his career.
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard became a higher level passer Jannison Tenna Kumpo
Speaker 1: in the last year or so. I think Devin Booker
Speaker 1: is in that tier as well. A guys who were,
Speaker 1: like I'd called him, like second tier passers, like really
Speaker 1: good passers that obviously aren't the organic natural like like
Speaker 1: from birth. They just just saw the floor differently than
Speaker 1: everyone else did.
Speaker 2: Type of guy.
Speaker 1: So all of that combines to make what I believe
Speaker 1: Devin Booker to be a legit second tier offensive engine
Speaker 1: in this league. By that, I mean he's not good
Speaker 1: enough to take mediocre players and make them an elite offense.
Speaker 1: But if you put him on a legit championship caliber roster,
Speaker 1: I absolutely think Devin Booker can be the best offensive
Speaker 1: player on your team, which, by the way, he nearly
Speaker 1: did in twenty twenty one when he came two wins
Speaker 1: away from getting the job done. Despite the poor shooting,
Speaker 1: Devin's playtype data was still excellent last year. Yeah, one
Speaker 1: point zero four points per pick and roll including passes
Speaker 1: on over twelve hundred reps. That's right there with where
Speaker 1: Kay Cunningham was, with where James Harden was, and again
Speaker 1: it could have been better. It was his pull up
Speaker 1: jumper that just wasn't there. Devin Booker last year shot
Speaker 1: twenty nine p on pull up threes in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: That really hurt his efficiency. We know Devin can hit
Speaker 1: those shots at a higher clip. He was off the
Speaker 1: charts on ISOs and post ups still because a lot
Speaker 1: of that mid range scoring. Right, he was the very
Speaker 1: best ISO player in the entire league. Last year, Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: Among the twenty three players to log at least two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty ISOs, Devin Booker came in at number
Speaker 1: one with one point twenty seven points per possession including passes.
Speaker 1: He shot fifty four percent on twos out of ISO.
Speaker 1: He had a high free throw rate. He got to
Speaker 1: the free throw line fourteen percent of the time on
Speaker 1: ISOs and he passed well out of them. Good post
Speaker 1: up player two lower volume seventy four post ups generated
Speaker 1: eighty seven points about once a game. Right got one
Speaker 1: point one to eight points per possession. That's very very good,
Speaker 1: thirty three percent free throw rate, kind of Jimmy Butler esque.
Speaker 2: More pump fake base.
Speaker 1: He used a lot of pump fakes, but Devin Booker
Speaker 1: was a very very high free throw rate guy. On
Speaker 1: post ed he gave the ball to Devin on the
Speaker 1: block and he was gonna get to the foul in
Speaker 1: half the time. Really, he just needs to get that
Speaker 1: pull up three back. If you look at all his data,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. He shot fifty four percent on pull
Speaker 1: up twos that's excellent. He shot forty six percent on
Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot threes, which is excellent. He shot
Speaker 1: sixty percent at the rim, which is excellent for a
Speaker 1: guard like him. Like for guards, anything over sixty percent
Speaker 1: is great. He just couldn't get his guarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoots so like contested catch and shoots and his pull
Speaker 1: up threes, those are the two ones that just weren't
Speaker 1: going for him. If he can get those things back
Speaker 1: this summer, his game should get back to where it was.
Speaker 1: And by the way, like I expect that to be
Speaker 1: the case for Devin, I expect him to shoot the
Speaker 1: ball better this year. He also turned himself over the
Speaker 1: years into a very dependable defensive player. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: the tools physically to be like a downright disruptive defender,
Speaker 1: but he competes hard and he has good attention to detail,
Speaker 1: both on the ball and off the ball. He's very competitive.
Speaker 1: He's got that fire in that willingness to do the work,
Speaker 1: especially in big moments. I think he's a legit point
Speaker 1: of attack option preferably is your second best. You don't
Speaker 1: want your best offensive player to be the primary point
Speaker 1: of attack guy. But if he's guarded the second best
Speaker 1: perimeter player. That's a really, really good role for him defensively,
Speaker 1: and he actually filled the primary point of attack role
Speaker 1: for Team USA and their Gold Metal run if you
Speaker 1: guys remember correctly, and like when we zoom in on
Speaker 1: the playoffs, this guy is flat out one of the
Speaker 1: very best playoff scorers of our generation. In forty seven
Speaker 1: career playoff games, Devin Booker is averaging twenty eight points
Speaker 1: per game on sixty percent through shooting. That's insane, and
Speaker 1: he's super dependable, even in the last two disappointing playoff
Speaker 1: runs where they got sent home in the first and
Speaker 1: second rounds by Denver and Minnesota. In those playoff runs,
Speaker 1: he was at thirty two points per game on sixty
Speaker 1: eight percent true shooting sixty eight percent. I think Devon's
Speaker 1: become one of the more underrated players in the league,
Speaker 1: mainly just because of that flawed roster construct in Phoenix
Speaker 1: and people's inability to see through that. I think if
Speaker 1: Devin gets picked up at some point elsewhere where he
Speaker 1: can be the second best player again on a team
Speaker 1: while having a quality group of role players, I think
Speaker 1: he's going to hoist the trophy. I know It seems
Speaker 1: hopeless right now because of the leadership in Phoenix, but
Speaker 1: I still think Devon has a very good chance to
Speaker 1: win a champion, to win a championship in his career.
Speaker 1: He's like a super easy plug and play guy too,
Speaker 1: Like you could talk him into any spot anywhere in.
Speaker 2: The league and he would fit beautifully.
Speaker 1: He can play off the ball, he can drive closeouts,
Speaker 1: he can run action and pick a role. He can
Speaker 1: play one on one. He's a versatile defender that can
Speaker 1: play on and off the ball. He's just a very good,
Speaker 1: very well rounded basketball player. I genuinely believe he's gonna
Speaker 1: put somebody over the top someday. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: that twenty years from now I'm looking back and talking
Speaker 1: about this era, I'll be talking about Devin Booker as
Speaker 1: an NBA champion. He's a super efficient, efficient, high volume
Speaker 1: score He's one of the top fifteen passers in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's a solid point of attack defender, a freakish competitor,
Speaker 1: and one of the most reliably great playoff scorers in
Speaker 1: our era. And so he will lead off the top
Speaker 1: fifteen for US this year. In this year's rankings at
Speaker 1: number fifteen, all right, guys, It's all I have for
Speaker 1: today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
Speaker 1: and supporting the show. We will be back, I believe,
Speaker 1: on Friday with our next mail bag. Remember this mailbag
Speaker 1: is one that I pre recorded because I'm in Alaska.
Speaker 1: So if you guys disagree with any of our rankings
Speaker 1: on this video, drop him in the comments and we'll
Speaker 1: get to it next Friday when I get back from Alaska.
Speaker 1: In our next player rankings mail bag, we will have
Speaker 1: on Monday fourteen and thirteen. On Tuesday twelve and eleven,
Speaker 1: we'll have that mail bag, and then erxers me on
Speaker 1: Wednesday twelve and eleven. Then we'll have that first mail
Speaker 1: bag that I'm talking about, and then we'll go back
Speaker 1: to the top ten and we're taking each player on
Speaker 1: that list one out of time from that point forward
Speaker 1: through the rest.
Speaker 2: Of the postseason.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys on Friday, m