Speaker 1: Alright. So, um, a good friend of mine gave me
Speaker 1: some feedback from my last podcast that for those of
Speaker 1: you who follow me on Twitter and jump on these
Speaker 1: live streams, you know a lot about who I am already,
Speaker 1: you've been following me for a while. You have a
Speaker 1: general idea of what my background is, my ideology is
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But to anybody who happens to come
Speaker 1: across my podcast, you don't know anything about who I
Speaker 1: am and what I'm doing and what the whole point
Speaker 1: of all of this is. And so I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: to do a little bit more of an intro every time. Um.
Speaker 1: For now, I'm just calling it the Jason timp Podcast.
Speaker 1: For those of you don't know me, I'm mostly covering
Speaker 1: the Lakers, but I do all things n b A.
Speaker 1: I am a basketball fan first and foremost, and uh
Speaker 1: I have my background is that I play basketball in college,
Speaker 1: and uh I have a little bit of experience with
Speaker 1: the pro scene. And at this point, I'm just a
Speaker 1: guy like you guys who's a big fan of the game,
Speaker 1: a big fan of basketball first and foremost, and and
Speaker 1: I'm the guy who enjoys diving as deep into it
Speaker 1: as all of you guys do. So today I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be primarily focusing on the top ten players in the
Speaker 1: NBA as I see it as of right now. UM.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's just my opinion and it's just a sports take.
Speaker 1: There's absolutely no reason to get upset about it. If
Speaker 1: you disagree with me, I'd love to go back and
Speaker 1: forth with you about it. UM. The other thing I'm
Speaker 1: gonna touch on today is this article that The Athletic
Speaker 1: released where UM, an anonymous agent, basically ripped Clutch Sports
Speaker 1: a new one and primarily focused on how unfair everything
Speaker 1: that they do is, how they've been taking advantage of clients,
Speaker 1: how there have been a lot of clients who have
Speaker 1: lost millions of dollars because of them, and just all
Speaker 1: in all was a a lengthy complaint fest from UH
Speaker 1: from a competing agent. So I want to touch on
Speaker 1: that for just a second, and then we'll get to
Speaker 1: the top ten players in the league. So first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I think what people need to understand is there's a
Speaker 1: there there's two conflicting you know, UH factors to this case,
Speaker 1: which is first, first of all, the players absolutely have
Speaker 1: a you know, what should be considered their set of rights,
Speaker 1: you know, like the players are are, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: the sole reason this industry exists. If we traded out
Speaker 1: the top four hundred and fifty basketball players in the
Speaker 1: world and made it the next four and fifty players
Speaker 1: in the world, none of you would watch because the
Speaker 1: product would be nowhere near as good. There there is
Speaker 1: a distinct reason why we watched the NBA, and it
Speaker 1: primarily starts with the players. So they absolutely have rights
Speaker 1: that we should understand and and we should be perpetually
Speaker 1: trying to make sure the players are treated fairly. That's
Speaker 1: the first part of this. But the flip side of
Speaker 1: it is the NBA is a business which is designed
Speaker 1: to maximize those players talents into revenue. There's a big
Speaker 1: reason why so many inventors in the world will sell
Speaker 1: their invention to a company or will allow themselves to
Speaker 1: be bought out early on, and it's because running a
Speaker 1: business is very, very hard, and even though you may
Speaker 1: be the guy with the idea or in this case,
Speaker 1: the player with the talent, you may not necessarily have
Speaker 1: the best strategy with which to monetize that idea or
Speaker 1: to monetize that talent. And so there is an important
Speaker 1: conversation to be had about the health of the league
Speaker 1: and how important that is. And that's the one part
Speaker 1: of this that I think gets lost because without a doubt,
Speaker 1: Clutch Sports is doing it right. They are winning, and
Speaker 1: so no one should be criticizing Clutch Sports methods. I
Speaker 1: think Rich Paul is a damn good agent. Absolutely, Lebron
Speaker 1: was his foot in the door. But if you have
Speaker 1: a problem with nepotism, I hate to tell you every
Speaker 1: single person in every single business in America benefits from
Speaker 1: some kind of either nepotism or privilege. It's just part
Speaker 1: of the business. Whether it's your natural talent, whether it's
Speaker 1: you come from money, whether it's race. There's all of
Speaker 1: these different elements that that vault people upward in the world.
Speaker 1: And so guess what, Rich Paul got his start through Lebron.
Speaker 1: But he's also a damn good agent, and so that's
Speaker 1: the reason why he has been as successful as he
Speaker 1: has been. And the end of the day, like power,
Speaker 1: begets more power once it takes power to claim more power.
Speaker 1: And so you know, once Rich had the cloud that
Speaker 1: was brought to him by Lebron, it made it easier
Speaker 1: for him with his skill set to continue to grow
Speaker 1: that power that he had within the league. That to me, though,
Speaker 1: is a separate issue from the fact that we should
Speaker 1: at least consider whether or not it's healthy for the
Speaker 1: league for the players to have so much power. And
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the principle of the matter, because
Speaker 1: the principle of the matter that players should be able
Speaker 1: to pick where they go makes perfect sense, and without
Speaker 1: a doubt, I agree with that principle, but there is
Speaker 1: a question as to whether or not players taking advantage
Speaker 1: of that principle could hurt the overall health of the league, which, again,
Speaker 1: the health of the league itself is the vehicle with
Speaker 1: which these players monetize their talent. That's how they get paid.
Speaker 1: And if the purpose of doing this is to get paid,
Speaker 1: then I think players would be more willing to at
Speaker 1: least confront the idea that that sometimes the league's rights
Speaker 1: or the health of the league can take priority over
Speaker 1: their rights if it ends up leading to them making
Speaker 1: more money. And so the reason why I bring that
Speaker 1: up is, you know, with exception of World Series games
Speaker 1: and specific for chises like the Yankees or the Dodgers
Speaker 1: or the Red Sox, you know, most nationally televised Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball games, no one watches like. They get extremely
Speaker 1: low ratings, particularly in the regular season, because there's absolutely
Speaker 1: no uh intrigue to the individual baseball game, if anything,
Speaker 1: gets more of an impart type of experience. And if
Speaker 1: they're they're like, you could be watching your favorite team
Speaker 1: in in in May and they could get their ass
Speaker 1: kicked twelve to two and you literally won't care because
Speaker 1: the games just don't carry enough meeting. But Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball has always generated more revenue then the then the NBA,
Speaker 1: and that is strictly because of their regional TV rights.
Speaker 1: The Fox Sports Arizona where I grew up, where we
Speaker 1: watched the d Backs, you know, whether it's you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the Spectrum Sports Nets I think I think
Speaker 1: has the Dodgers in l A whoever it is, or
Speaker 1: the y S Network in New York, those companies because
Speaker 1: they have because baseball is followed so religiously on a
Speaker 1: local level, Major League Baseball has been able to make
Speaker 1: more money than the NBA makes despite not necessarily having
Speaker 1: the national following. Although they do have a tendency to hit,
Speaker 1: you know, with specific teams in the World Series, to
Speaker 1: hit massive numbers, and so that is driven from fierce
Speaker 1: loyalty two teams on a local level. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, an over extension of player empowerment
Speaker 1: will hurt that, I'm saying I don't know, And I'm
Speaker 1: saying I'm interested to see ten years from now, twenty
Speaker 1: years from now, if an overdependence on player empowerment could
Speaker 1: in some way potentially hurt the local fan bases that
Speaker 1: will inevitably be a cash cow for the league in
Speaker 1: years moving forward. And so from that standpoint, like all
Speaker 1: I'm saying is we should fiercely defend Clutch. We should
Speaker 1: absolutely point and out that this other agent is as
Speaker 1: effectively a sore loser. But we should also, you know,
Speaker 1: have a conversation about what the NBA needs to look
Speaker 1: like to be the healthiest version of itself so that
Speaker 1: they make the most money later on, because that is
Speaker 1: where it will inevitably trickle down to the players, because
Speaker 1: they're on a revenue split, they will get half of
Speaker 1: every dollar the league makes and that and that's where
Speaker 1: that's the one side of this that I think is
Speaker 1: getting ignored, and I hope people will understand. On that note,
Speaker 1: I want to get started with the uh the top
Speaker 1: ten players in the league. I'm gonna be going down
Speaker 1: from ten to one, and with each guy, I'll kind
Speaker 1: of explain why I have one player over the next.
Speaker 1: I do want to make one change because in two
Speaker 1: podcasts ago, when I did the honorable mention from fifteen
Speaker 1: to ten, I gave the ten spot to Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: and I want to change my mind on that. I've
Speaker 1: been thinking about it a lot as all this stupid
Speaker 1: drama has been going on with me apparently being the
Speaker 1: only guy in the world who's not willing to, you know,
Speaker 1: like completely lose their mind over Jimmy Butler's NBA Finals performance.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been thinking a lot about it, and
Speaker 1: I would like to put Dame in that number ten spot.
Speaker 1: The main reason why is I believe that as an
Speaker 1: offensive player, he's so far superior to the two of them,
Speaker 1: and I value that more so um as a starting
Speaker 1: point for this top ten, I have three things that
Speaker 1: I've consistently valued in basketball. These are the three things
Speaker 1: that I believe matter the most in playing championship basketball,
Speaker 1: and its defensive versatility, isolation scoring, elite isolation scoring against
Speaker 1: elite defenses, and last, but not least, elite high end playmaking,
Speaker 1: so the ability to consistently find holes and defenses that
Speaker 1: don't often have holes. And so as I'm going through
Speaker 1: this list, you'll see me place priority on those specific things.
Speaker 1: So the reason why I gave the ten spot to
Speaker 1: Dame is because of the fact that I view that
Speaker 1: the the honor of being referred to as a ten
Speaker 1: a top ten player in the NBA to be very significant,
Speaker 1: and I believe he's earned the right to be in
Speaker 1: this spot. Dame, without a doubt, absolutely must be doubled
Speaker 1: everywhere on the court. If he's in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: you have to trap him because if you go over
Speaker 1: the top, he's going all the way to the basket.
Speaker 1: If you go under the screen, he's going to make
Speaker 1: a three. If you let him work in isolation, he's
Speaker 1: going to either beat you to the basket if you
Speaker 1: play up on him, or he's going to hit a
Speaker 1: shot in your face if you play off of him.
Speaker 1: He is one of the few players in the league
Speaker 1: that you absolutely must double, and that's something that I
Speaker 1: don't think you can say about Tatum and Jimmy, And
Speaker 1: that's the reason why I put Dame above them in
Speaker 1: this particular spot. He has clear weaknesses. He's undersized, he's
Speaker 1: uh not a great defensive player by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination. In fact, he hurts his team on that
Speaker 1: end of the ball. But on the offensive end, he's
Speaker 1: so ridiculously good at warping defenses with his ridiculous efficiency
Speaker 1: jump shooting and his ability to score out the basket
Speaker 1: that you absolutely must double team him. Now. The reason why,
Speaker 1: and I've said this a million times, the reason why
Speaker 1: he's not Steph, the reason why he's ten and not five,
Speaker 1: despite being arguably one of the top tier offensive players
Speaker 1: in the league, is he gives up after he gets
Speaker 1: off the ball. And if you can do what the
Speaker 1: Lakers did, which is get the ball out of Dame's hands,
Speaker 1: He's not going to remain a threat long enough to
Speaker 1: make your rotations tough enough to eventually break down your defense.
Speaker 1: You can make other players make plays off of him,
Speaker 1: and inevitably you can win in a playoff series by
Speaker 1: just getting the ball out of Dame's hands. And that's
Speaker 1: the next step for him. We're gonna get to this
Speaker 1: a lot when I talk about step But Steph is
Speaker 1: so good and almost embracing the double team trying to
Speaker 1: get rid of the ball because he knows he's going
Speaker 1: to get it back, and he can remain engaged in
Speaker 1: the play, which completely butchers the rotations for the defense
Speaker 1: and keeps them in a scramble and makes it that
Speaker 1: much easier to generate quality looks not just for his
Speaker 1: teammates but for him as well. And that's where Dame
Speaker 1: kind of has some limitations. But when I talk about
Speaker 1: those three things, the three things that I value the most,
Speaker 1: elite and elite isolation, offense, elite playmaking, and defensive versatility,
Speaker 1: Dame isn't is kind of weak in two of those
Speaker 1: three areas, and that's why I have them all the
Speaker 1: way down at ten and not further up the list.
Speaker 1: So between ten and nine, I have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a gap because I think Dame and then the
Speaker 1: other guys from ten to eleven to fifteen or in
Speaker 1: the same tier that's Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiide, Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, and Paul George are kind of all in
Speaker 1: that next tier. I think there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a gap between Dame and the next guy on my list,
Speaker 1: which is Nicola Yokich. So, Nicola Yokits just came off
Speaker 1: one of the best upsets in NBA history, and he
Speaker 1: is primarily responsible for what happened. He literally it wasn't
Speaker 1: a fluke either. The Clipper defense could not do anything
Speaker 1: with him. There was no adjustment they could make, there
Speaker 1: was no rotation they could figure out. There was no
Speaker 1: player they could play more of to inevitably stop Nicola Yokich.
Speaker 1: She solved their defense. And he is the first guy
Speaker 1: on this list, one of only four in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion, between him, Luca, Chris Paul, and Lebron
Speaker 1: who are elite high end playmakers. And I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: at this a couple more times in this list, So
Speaker 1: I think it's important to kind of understand. But the
Speaker 1: reason why I talked so much about elite high end
Speaker 1: playmaking is people don't understand what elite defense is. Elite
Speaker 1: defense is not I'm locking you up one on one.
Speaker 1: All of the best defenses in the league rely heavily
Speaker 1: on trapping, stunting, doubling, and all other sorts of schemes
Speaker 1: defensively to throw an offense out of rhythm. Think about
Speaker 1: the best defenses from the last two years. You've got
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year, who consistently we're trapping and doubling
Speaker 1: and getting in rotations and uh and just kind of
Speaker 1: being on a string defensively, but they very rarely left
Speaker 1: guys in one on one situations. Look at the Raptors
Speaker 1: last year. They famously ran a box in one in
Speaker 1: the finals. The reality is is truly elite high end
Speaker 1: defenses are consistently going to double and trap and scheme
Speaker 1: and do various weird things to try to throw an
Speaker 1: offense at a rhythm. So when you've got a player
Speaker 1: like Nicola Yokich, like Chris Paul, like Lebron, like Luca
Speaker 1: who's not just a good passer, because there's a huge
Speaker 1: difference between being a good passer and being that elite
Speaker 1: high end playmaker that the good. A good passer is
Speaker 1: a guy who sees an open man and who can
Speaker 1: off the dribble or or just quickly make a pass
Speaker 1: out to said open man so that he can make
Speaker 1: a shot. A playmaker is anticipating the move of a
Speaker 1: defense and is actively looking to find those openings. And
Speaker 1: there's such a huge differ between the two of them
Speaker 1: because inevitably what you'll see with those elite, high end
Speaker 1: playmakers is they will find themselves in isolation situations because
Speaker 1: defenses will be terrified to double and terrified to help
Speaker 1: because of the fact that they know that person will
Speaker 1: consistently make you pay for making that mistake. So when
Speaker 1: you've got a guy that when you're going against an
Speaker 1: elite defense that is going to stunt and double and trap,
Speaker 1: then that and that guy will consistently make you pay
Speaker 1: for it every single time. It It loosens up those
Speaker 1: truly elite defenses. And that's why that's such a valuable
Speaker 1: skill in in this NBA. I mean, look at the
Speaker 1: uh the Golden State Warriors last year. That Toronto defense
Speaker 1: is frequently discussed as one of the best defenses ever,
Speaker 1: and the Warriors scored all kinds of points on them.
Speaker 1: They lost that series because they couldn't get stops. They
Speaker 1: did not have issues scoring against that Toronto defense, and
Speaker 1: it has to do with how they were able to
Speaker 1: dissect that elite defense. That getting those elite defense is
Speaker 1: to loosen up and find the holes in him will
Speaker 1: always be, in my opinion, the most important skill in basketball,
Speaker 1: and Yokich is the first guy on this list to
Speaker 1: have that ability. In addition to that he is. He's
Speaker 1: not in that, you know, top tier or even that
Speaker 1: second tier of isolation scoring. But you saw him against
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert, and against Anthony Davis, and really against any
Speaker 1: mismatch that he was able to find along the way.
Speaker 1: If you let Yokis work one on one in the post,
Speaker 1: he was gonna get a good shot. I mean, he
Speaker 1: made a game winner in Game seven against Utah over Gobert,
Speaker 1: the shot before the crazy sequence that ended in the UH,
Speaker 1: the Donovan Mitchell turnover, the miss Jeremy Grant layup, and
Speaker 1: then the missed UH Mike Connolly three that started with
Speaker 1: Yokich bullying Gobert underneath the basket and making like a
Speaker 1: scoop shot. He is an unbelievably talented isolation post scorer
Speaker 1: who also happens to be one of the best playmakers
Speaker 1: in the league. And so that's why I have him
Speaker 1: at number ten. His biggest weaknesses and the reason why
Speaker 1: he's behind guys that are in one of him is
Speaker 1: even though he is a really good isolation score, every
Speaker 1: single person I had him on this list is better
Speaker 1: than him at that specific skill and then, uh, defensively,
Speaker 1: he still hasn't found that balance to where look like,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be an elite defensive player, but
Speaker 1: you have to get to a point where you're not
Speaker 1: actively hurting your team. It wasn't too bad in the
Speaker 1: l A series because the l A spacing wasn't great,
Speaker 1: but the Clippers really victimized him and pick and roll
Speaker 1: because they had a little bit better spacing and they
Speaker 1: actually made Yokis look like he was hurting the team
Speaker 1: at times on the defensive end of the ball. So
Speaker 1: number eight, this is gonna be my most controversial one.
Speaker 1: This is the one that's probably gonna get me yelled
Speaker 1: at by some people. I have James Harden at eight. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have him behind Luca and Janice, and I believe
Speaker 1: this is the lowest that most people would rank him
Speaker 1: over the past few years. The reason why I have
Speaker 1: James Harden at eight is I believe that there is
Speaker 1: a clear cut, proven, strategic like strategic path to beating
Speaker 1: James Harden a playoff series. There is a consistent track
Speaker 1: record of teams employing the same method and it consistently
Speaker 1: working on James Harden. And the reason why is because
Speaker 1: he is the most repetitive offensive player that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the league. He is a player that consistently will
Speaker 1: attack your defense exactly the same way, regardless of what
Speaker 1: you do. He has no versatility in his offensive game.
Speaker 1: It's something that I've talked about at length in the past.
Speaker 1: He initiates everything from the top. He never initiates anything
Speaker 1: from from the corner, or from the post, or from
Speaker 1: the high post, or literally anywhere else on the floor.
Speaker 1: He doesn't do anything off the ball, He doesn't fly
Speaker 1: off of screens. He doesn't do anything to initiate his
Speaker 1: offense except for dribble the ball slowly up the court,
Speaker 1: either call for a screen or attack in isolation. And
Speaker 1: they've almost completely taken pick and roll out of his attack.
Speaker 1: He used to do a lot of pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Clint Capella. Now he doesn't even do pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He asks for picks strictly to get switches so that
Speaker 1: he can go to an isolation attack. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna let him do that, he can put
Speaker 1: up some efficient scoring numbers, but it doesn't factor in
Speaker 1: anything having to do with the rest of his team
Speaker 1: and the way that the impacts their rhythm and it
Speaker 1: doesn't effect, and it doesn't account for the fact, then inevitably,
Speaker 1: if you let one defender guard James Harden consistently, he's
Speaker 1: gonna find a way to inevitably slow him down and
Speaker 1: make him less efficient. I've used this example before, but
Speaker 1: like if you if any of you guys played one
Speaker 1: on one with me and we were just at a
Speaker 1: park somewhere, chances are in the first fifty possessions I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have a better chance of scoring on you then
Speaker 1: I will in the next fifty possessions Because in the
Speaker 1: first fifty possessions, you don't know my moves, you don't
Speaker 1: know my tendencies, you don't really know what to expect.
Speaker 1: But if I'm just attacking you from the top of
Speaker 1: the key and like again and again and again, eventually
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, oh, well, you know, if he
Speaker 1: gets into triple threat, the first thing he's gonna do
Speaker 1: is do a jab step, and he's probably gonna try
Speaker 1: to get to his jump shot first. And then he
Speaker 1: if he gets his back to the basket he likes
Speaker 1: to do turnaround over his right shoulder every time, or
Speaker 1: one leg it fade away or whatever it is and
Speaker 1: you're just gonna start to sit it on those moves,
Speaker 1: and you'll start to have more success against my isolation
Speaker 1: attack as you see it more and more, and because
Speaker 1: there's no versatility or no variety to the way that
Speaker 1: he's attacking you in isolation, you can see gifted isolation
Speaker 1: defenders start to wear on James Harden and start to
Speaker 1: get stops at the end of games and at the
Speaker 1: end of series, and then even a step further than
Speaker 1: that when he is having a lot of success in isolation.
Speaker 1: Double teaming James Harden is a lot easier than it
Speaker 1: is double teaming any other player in the league because
Speaker 1: of the fact that he will back away to half
Speaker 1: court and that double team always takes place in the
Speaker 1: same spot on the floor. The reason why it's so
Speaker 1: hard to double team Lebron is because if he's he's
Speaker 1: Sometimes he attacks from the high from the high post,
Speaker 1: sometimes he attacks from the low post. Sometimes he attacks
Speaker 1: off the cut, sometimes he attacks dribbling the ball at
Speaker 1: the floor in isolation. Sometimes he attacks and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: sometimes he attacks with a triple threat. He's literally coming
Speaker 1: at you in every single conceivable way, and so each
Speaker 1: double team presents a different rotation, and so he can
Speaker 1: get you into his scramble and make you pay a
Speaker 1: lot easier. With James Harden, it's almost like it's almost
Speaker 1: like running a drill. It's like you're prepping to guard
Speaker 1: James Harden. Okay, we're gonna double him as soon as
Speaker 1: he crosses half court kind of on the right wing,
Speaker 1: which is where you are, left wing, which is where
Speaker 1: he always brings the ball up the floor, So we
Speaker 1: know that they're gonna have a shooter in each corner.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have a guy on the right wing, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a guy that's gonna come up to
Speaker 1: try to set the screen on on James Harden, who's
Speaker 1: gonna kind of drop and do a short roll. So
Speaker 1: when they're when the double team comes, he's going to
Speaker 1: consistently make the past to where the double team is
Speaker 1: coming from, and the defense can effectively say, we're going
Speaker 1: to do the exact same rotation every single time, and
Speaker 1: so over the course of the game, you get really
Speaker 1: good at double teaming James Harden because you know exactly
Speaker 1: where to go, You know exactly if you're rotating, you
Speaker 1: know exactly where your next rotation is and inevitably you're
Speaker 1: gonna get to the point where there's no open shot.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers absolutely mastered this. The Lakers had it
Speaker 1: to the point where double teaming James Harden was still
Speaker 1: leading to contested shots, which is which is not the
Speaker 1: Lakers fault. That is literally James Harden making himself easy
Speaker 1: to defend and a big part of that, and you
Speaker 1: saw this with Rondo. Rondo would be the guy to
Speaker 1: come over and set that initial double on James Harden
Speaker 1: to get him to give up the ball, and then
Speaker 1: as soon as James Harden would pick up his dribble,
Speaker 1: Rondo would sprint into rotation. He would immediately leave James
Speaker 1: get out on the run and get into that get
Speaker 1: into his next step in the rotation. And so it
Speaker 1: got to the point where teams were having a lot
Speaker 1: of success guarding him in single coverage and in double
Speaker 1: team coverage, and so, like I said, there's a proven
Speaker 1: method to guarding James Harden, and that proven method is
Speaker 1: if you have him in isolation, just put your best
Speaker 1: defender on him. Even if he scores a bunch early,
Speaker 1: he's inevitably gonna, inevitably gonna find a way to score late,
Speaker 1: and then if you get him into double teams, he's
Speaker 1: going to consistently walk into the double team in the
Speaker 1: same spot of the floor and then back away from
Speaker 1: the play, and your team will inevitably figure out the
Speaker 1: rotation over time and find out how to slow him down. Now,
Speaker 1: Luca is next, and Luca is also a repetitive basketball player.
Speaker 1: But there's a distinct reason why Luca is better than
Speaker 1: James Harden, and that is he is the next guy
Speaker 1: in that list of truly elite playmakers, guys who are
Speaker 1: seeing one step ahead of the defense, and guys who
Speaker 1: are actively warping defenses with their mind, so to speak. So,
Speaker 1: James Harden is a great passer, and he has always
Speaker 1: put up great passing numbers. But James Harden is a
Speaker 1: textbook reactionary passer as opposed to an anticipatory passer. James
Speaker 1: Harden wants to shoot, and if you make him pass it,
Speaker 1: he will pass it. But Luca wants to get a basket.
Speaker 1: That's all he cares about, and he doesn't care if
Speaker 1: he doesn't shoot for six straight minutes. If the defense
Speaker 1: is giving up open looks for his teammates, he will
Speaker 1: consistently make those reads, because all he's doing is reading defenses,
Speaker 1: and that is leading to him shooting sometimes and passing sometimes.
Speaker 1: But he's always one step of the game, that's one
Speaker 1: step ahead of the defense with his mind, and he
Speaker 1: is a willing passer in a way that James Harden
Speaker 1: is not. And so at this point, Luca and Harden
Speaker 1: both present similar conundrums of repetitiveness with their offense. Over
Speaker 1: the course of a game. You're gonna have some success
Speaker 1: guarding them in isolation, but Luca is going to have
Speaker 1: a better time if you throw schemes at him. If
Speaker 1: lucas making shots and you start doubling him, Doubling Luca
Speaker 1: is a suicide mission. He's the best player in the
Speaker 1: league not named Lebron at reading defenses when they make
Speaker 1: those sorts of you know, schematic attempts to try to
Speaker 1: get him out of his game. And so yeah, from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, I've got Luca one step ahead of hard
Speaker 1: and strictly based on his playmaking ability, and I have
Speaker 1: him at number seven. Luca's biggest problem is the Luca's
Speaker 1: next step, the step to becoming like from not instead
Speaker 1: of seven in the top two were three in the league,
Speaker 1: is one, making himself a net negative or a net
Speaker 1: zero on defense, He's never gonna be an elite defensive player.
Speaker 1: But if he can get to the point where he's
Speaker 1: like Steph Curry, great positional defender, good using his hands,
Speaker 1: gets to the point where he's never actively hurting his
Speaker 1: team on defense, and then secondly, just improving as a
Speaker 1: jump shooter, getting to the point where instead of a
Speaker 1: thirty one guy from three, he's more like James Harden,
Speaker 1: a guy who can make him at about thirty six
Speaker 1: thirty seven percent from three. Number six. This is one
Speaker 1: that we talked about a lot today on Twitter. Is Janice.
Speaker 1: You know Janice I had going into the last season.
Speaker 1: I had him at number five. And the reason why
Speaker 1: I had him at five and not closer to the
Speaker 1: top is I was always a firm believer in the
Speaker 1: fact that his offensive skill set was like absolutely uh
Speaker 1: bounds to be eventually slowed down by elite playoff defenses
Speaker 1: because he didn't have enough versatility on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. And not only was I right about that,
Speaker 1: I ended up being almost too right about that because
Speaker 1: he got he lost to a team that he had
Speaker 1: no business losing to. This year and that was Miami
Speaker 1: I had expect I expected them to make the finals
Speaker 1: and end up losing to the Lakers. Um that the
Speaker 1: reason why I have Jhannice ahead of the previous four
Speaker 1: guys who are all better offensive players. Dame, uh Yokich, Harden,
Speaker 1: and Luca are all better offensive players than Janice. The
Speaker 1: reason why I have Jhannice at six instead of beneath
Speaker 1: that is the fact that Janice is one of two
Speaker 1: guys in the league, him and Anthony Davis, who are
Speaker 1: capable of what Anthony Davis did this year defensively, which
Speaker 1: is being just an absolute wrecking ball on from all
Speaker 1: five positions. Can't scheme him off the floor like a
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert. Just absolute wrecking ball of a defensive player.
Speaker 1: That's what Janice is. Janice, if he was he, I
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis ahead of him, and I'll explain why later.
Speaker 1: But if you slid him into that Laker defense in
Speaker 1: the exact same role that Anthony Davis field, he could
Speaker 1: have done what Anthony Davis did on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the ball, and that's why I have him above
Speaker 1: those other guys. The problem with your honest is similar
Speaker 1: to James Harden. He has a proven method with which
Speaker 1: you can slow him down if you build, if you
Speaker 1: get back in transition, and you build a wall to
Speaker 1: shut off the basket. He's not a good enough passer
Speaker 1: to generate high enough quality looks to make you pay.
Speaker 1: And he's not a versatile enough offensive player to score
Speaker 1: with players in front of him and to score over
Speaker 1: the top of people. And that's where he can have.
Speaker 1: Uh that's his biggest shortcoming. You'll notice this as we
Speaker 1: get into the later players on this list. But Janice,
Speaker 1: when he gets schemed out of a playoff series the
Speaker 1: way he did against both of these, against Miami and
Speaker 1: against Toronto, not only is he ineffective, he's bad and effective,
Speaker 1: like way below what you would expect from what his
Speaker 1: regular season production is. He was a twenty three point
Speaker 1: a game guy against Toronto in last year's playoffs, and
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, he was even below that this year.
Speaker 1: Un terrible efficiency. So from that standpoint, it's not he is.
Speaker 1: When he faces an elite defense with an elite coach
Speaker 1: who's gonna make him counter and do something other than
Speaker 1: bowl his way to the basket, he doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: that he can go to. Now, I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of talk this is this is one area I'm gonna
Speaker 1: defend your honest and I'm gonna I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about how people think that he should kind
Speaker 1: of be retooled into a center, that he's miscast as
Speaker 1: a perimeter initiator, and I actually disagree with that, because you,
Speaker 1: honest can dribble, and you know, I do believe that
Speaker 1: the ability to bring the ball up the floor and
Speaker 1: initiative offense herself makes it a lot harder to scheme
Speaker 1: against you, because you can't trapping a guy like that
Speaker 1: in the open court as a recipe for disaster, because
Speaker 1: if he happens to get around the trap, you've got
Speaker 1: a huge advantage bowling to the basket like a five
Speaker 1: on three. But Janice certainly has to get better in
Speaker 1: order for that to inevitably work. And I don't think
Speaker 1: Bud or the Bucks front office, or anybody involved in
Speaker 1: an organization will try to retool him into a center.
Speaker 1: I think that would be a huge mistake because I
Speaker 1: think his ceiling is a lot higher as a perimeter initiator.
Speaker 1: If he is retooled into a center, his peak is
Speaker 1: much lower. His ceiling is lowered to the fourth or
Speaker 1: fifth best player in the league, basically Anthony Davis type
Speaker 1: of player, as opposed to if he remains committed to
Speaker 1: this role as a perimeter initiator, but gets better at
Speaker 1: reading defenses, gets better as a passer, gets better at
Speaker 1: scoring over the top of people, he will have a
Speaker 1: ceiling of as the first or second best player of
Speaker 1: the league, which I think is the smarter gamble for
Speaker 1: Milwaukee or whatever franchise ends up getting honest in the
Speaker 1: long run. But I think he's definitively behind everybody else
Speaker 1: on this list strictly because of the fact that, as
Speaker 1: of this moment in time, he's too easy to slow
Speaker 1: down offensively in a playoff series. Alright. Number five Kevin Durant, So,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is the best scorer in basketball, the best
Speaker 1: isolation scorer in basketball, and in my and he has
Speaker 1: a legitimate case to be the best isolation score Ever,
Speaker 1: I personally wouldn't pick him. I think I'd take one
Speaker 1: or two guys ahead of him in that regard. But
Speaker 1: he has a case for being that guy, the guy,
Speaker 1: the guy that you'd pick in a game of one
Speaker 1: on one over any player in NBA histories, Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: potentially and certainly in today's NBA, and I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about his Achilles injury. I think without a doubt he
Speaker 1: will be um the vast majority of his former self
Speaker 1: coming into this next season. Now, like I said before,
Speaker 1: isolation scoring is one of the three most important skills
Speaker 1: that I value as an NBA fan. But Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: has huge weaknesses in the other two areas, and that's
Speaker 1: why I have him at five and not significantly higher
Speaker 1: up on this list. Similar to James Harden, he is
Speaker 1: a gifted passer who is not a willing passer. He
Speaker 1: passes out of necessity and he doesn't pacitate. He doesn't
Speaker 1: pass anticipating what the defense is doing. So that's that's
Speaker 1: his first weakness. And then secondly, and I've I've said
Speaker 1: this at length, I believe that Kevin Durant, had he
Speaker 1: embraced the defensive end of the ball from the start
Speaker 1: of his career, could have been a Mount Rushmore type
Speaker 1: of NBA player. He could have been a guy that
Speaker 1: we consider the way that we consider Lebron. But the
Speaker 1: problem is he only embraced that side of the ball
Speaker 1: for a year and a half in his career, the
Speaker 1: second half of two thousand sixteen, right around the Thunder
Speaker 1: actually struggling, you know, a few games after the All
Speaker 1: Star break, they were a middling team, you know, in
Speaker 1: the standings, and they really took off at the end
Speaker 1: of that year when Kevin Durant embraced the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the ball, particularly as a rim protector. You have
Speaker 1: to remember, Kevin Durant has the defensive skill set of
Speaker 1: a guy like Anthony Davis. He's absolutely huge and long,
Speaker 1: and he's incredibly quick. He could be that guy. He
Speaker 1: just has never cared to be that guy. And then
Speaker 1: when he went into the Warriors in two thousand and seventeen,
Speaker 1: from start to finish, he was an all defense level
Speaker 1: player and that he didn't get an All Defensive selection
Speaker 1: that year, but he deserved one in my opinion, and
Speaker 1: I think it was because he got into that Golden
Speaker 1: State culture, and the Golden State culture was predicated on defense.
Speaker 1: I know they have a lot of players who aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily known for defense, but that Golden State team was
Speaker 1: a perennial defensive jugger, not in the previous years, and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant kind of got swept up in that culture
Speaker 1: and unleashed an unbelievable defensive season in two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: but then in two thousand eighteen went right back to
Speaker 1: his old self, a guy who couldn't really care uh
Speaker 1: to be engaged on that end. You know, a guy
Speaker 1: who stands upright constantly is reaching in somebody who doesn't
Speaker 1: use his physical tools to to imprint the game on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the ball. Uh. But again, he
Speaker 1: is the best isolation scorer we have in the game.
Speaker 1: I think that gives him a leg up on all
Speaker 1: the previous players on this list. I feel very confident
Speaker 1: that he's going to be most of himself coming into
Speaker 1: this season. But his inability to really embrace that, you know, passing,
Speaker 1: the the inability to embrace playmaking, in his inability to
Speaker 1: embrace his physical tools as a defender, I think are
Speaker 1: what have held him back. The best example I can
Speaker 1: think of that is the two thousand and nineteen Warriors. So,
Speaker 1: you know, six games or what is it, ten games
Speaker 1: into the two thousand nineteen playoffs, Kevin Durant looks like
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. There's absolutely nobody that
Speaker 1: can guard him, and he's absolutely toying with l a
Speaker 1: Clipper defenders and toying with all of the Houston Rocket
Speaker 1: defenders and scoring at a ridiculous efficiency and just just
Speaker 1: looks like the best player in the world. But the
Speaker 1: Warriors were six and four in those games. They got
Speaker 1: taken to six by the Clippers, and when he went
Speaker 1: down against Houston, the series was to two. And then
Speaker 1: immediately after he leaves, Steph takes over the offense percent
Speaker 1: of the time and they rank They rack up six
Speaker 1: consecutive wins. They beat Houston in games five and six,
Speaker 1: and then they beat the hell out of Portland's four
Speaker 1: straight times. And I think there's a distinct reason why
Speaker 1: that happened, and it's the fact that isolation offense. While
Speaker 1: it is one of the most important skills in all
Speaker 1: of basketball, it is just one element to running a
Speaker 1: successful offense. It is an element of versatility, is an
Speaker 1: element of variety. It is what makes you impossible to
Speaker 1: defend as part of a total package of an offense.
Speaker 1: But without a doubt, if you lean entirely on it,
Speaker 1: it comes with huge downsides. It messes with the rhythm
Speaker 1: of your team, It messes with defensive focus, because when
Speaker 1: you watch a guy isolate every time, it's hard to
Speaker 1: stay mentally engaged on either end of the floor. And
Speaker 1: as you saw with that Golden State offense, they were
Speaker 1: far more you know, they were far more free flowing
Speaker 1: and and far more they had a better rhythm when
Speaker 1: they were running through Steph because Steph's offensive style was
Speaker 1: more predicated on keeping everybody involved, bad movement, him scoring
Speaker 1: within without the basketball, and a lot more variety, and
Speaker 1: it led to their success. Now, Kevin Durant's isolation basketball
Speaker 1: made them unbeatable, especially in two thousand seventeen and two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen, because when you were able to slow down
Speaker 1: the Steph Curry machine, Kevin Durant was there to be
Speaker 1: that ace in the hole, that unbelievable, you know, trump
Speaker 1: card of versatility to beat those elite defenses. But as
Speaker 1: you saw in that two thousand nineteen playoff run when
Speaker 1: they would get and even in two thousand eighteen in
Speaker 1: the first five games against against Houston, when when they
Speaker 1: would go too heavy leaning on Kevin Durant and isolation,
Speaker 1: it actually had a tendency to hurt their offense. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a basketball ideology for Kevin Durant that
Speaker 1: is actually a weakness of his. You know, I even
Speaker 1: I heard him in a podcast. Uh I can't remember
Speaker 1: who he was with, but it might have been CAM
Speaker 1: with the Elite Media group, but he said basically like
Speaker 1: I'm you know. You know that they asked him like, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you working on and your you know, time off,
Speaker 1: and He's like, you know, I'm just working one on once.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm all in on this isolation thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, I think Kevin Durant's unwavering faith in isolation
Speaker 1: basketball has actually kind of turned out to be a
Speaker 1: bit of a weakness for him over the years. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know that that's one of the big reasons why
Speaker 1: I have him beneath players that are in front of
Speaker 1: him on this list. So number four was a hard
Speaker 1: one for me because coming into this process, I thought
Speaker 1: he had a case to be number two. But I
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis at number four, and I know that's
Speaker 1: low and I know Laker fans are going to be
Speaker 1: super thrilled with that decision. But the main reason, I'll
Speaker 1: start with the bad. The main reason why I have
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at four instead of higher on the list
Speaker 1: is I thought that Eric Spoelstra was able to relatively
Speaker 1: easily scheme him out of the finals. Not you know, entirely,
Speaker 1: because he's a top five player, so he's never gonna
Speaker 1: be the kind of guy you can entirely scheme out
Speaker 1: of series. But I thought that they were able to
Speaker 1: scheme him out of the series in terms of the
Speaker 1: way that they were able to guard him in isolation.
Speaker 1: I think Anthony Davis averaged twenty six points per game
Speaker 1: on pretty darn good efficiency in the Finals, but most
Speaker 1: the vast majority of his baskets came jump shooting and
Speaker 1: then out of the dunker spot, and as an offensive rebounder,
Speaker 1: they had a very clear defensive strategy of putting a
Speaker 1: wing on him instead of Bam, who was extremely strong
Speaker 1: and athletic and quick, that would get underneath him and
Speaker 1: then they would pack the paint, which took away almost
Speaker 1: all of Anthony Davis's to the basket isolation moves. And
Speaker 1: that's a big part of the real That's a big
Speaker 1: reason why Anthony Davis was mostly schemed out of that
Speaker 1: series as an isolation scorer is he was forced to
Speaker 1: rely on taking and making tough contested you know, long
Speaker 1: jump shots, particularly from two point range. Now, the reason
Speaker 1: why he's number four is even though he was just
Speaker 1: like distinctly schemed out of the series as a driving,
Speaker 1: offensive post up player, he still had twenty six points
Speaker 1: on super good efficiency because if you left him open,
Speaker 1: he was making the jump shots. And he was so
Speaker 1: dominant as a dunker, especially within their zones, working as
Speaker 1: a you know, a catching dunk player in the dunks
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, and then also as an offensive
Speaker 1: rebounder when he would really you know, bull especially when
Speaker 1: they would go super small and they'd have Andrea Guddala
Speaker 1: on him and Bam would be off the floor. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis killed Miami as an offensive rebounder. And those are
Speaker 1: the those are the elements to his offensive game that
Speaker 1: made him better than Janice, because you know, Miami schemed
Speaker 1: be honest out of the series and Janice was mostly ineffectual,
Speaker 1: whereas Miami scheme to Anthony Davis out of the series.
Speaker 1: And he still got his twenty six by scoring in
Speaker 1: the limited areas where Miami kind of allowed him to operate.
Speaker 1: And that's why I have him above Janice, and that's
Speaker 1: why I have him above k d or I should say,
Speaker 1: the reason why I have him above k d is,
Speaker 1: in addition to his dominant offensive play, ain't nie. Davis
Speaker 1: arguably just had the most dominant defensive postseason we've ever seen. Arguably.
Speaker 1: I've heard some people bring up two thousand three Tim Duncan.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you could, you know, find some examples from
Speaker 1: Bill Russell's career. I tend to separate that era entirely
Speaker 1: from this because it doesn't really resemble this kind of basketball.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, Anthony Davis just had one of
Speaker 1: the best, if not the best defensive postseasons in league history.
Speaker 1: He was the cornerstone of that Laker defense that I
Speaker 1: thought was the best defense in the league, and I
Speaker 1: think that that is a major differentiator between him and
Speaker 1: some of the players behind him that are better offensive players.
Speaker 1: Now at number three, I have Kauai, and the reason
Speaker 1: why I went with Kauai over Anthony Davis is Kauai
Speaker 1: is also one of the best defensive players in the league.
Speaker 1: He's not as good as Anthony Davis. I think if
Speaker 1: you're putting in tears of defensive players, you're gonna put
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and Janice and Tier one, and I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna put Kauai right there in tier two. And
Speaker 1: from that regard, as I'm counting those three things, the
Speaker 1: elite defensive versatility, Kauai is one of the very best
Speaker 1: players in the league at that. And then Kauai is
Speaker 1: also one of the best isolation scorers in the league.
Speaker 1: I have him as the second best isolation scorer in
Speaker 1: the league, behind Kevin Durant. He's become such a gifted
Speaker 1: mid range score and that's a shot that almost every
Speaker 1: defense in the league gives up. It was the hole
Speaker 1: in the Laker defense. The entire Laker defense was predicated
Speaker 1: on shutting off the rim, shutting off the three point line.
Speaker 1: And it's what made the Clippers so dangerous to the
Speaker 1: Lakers is that Kauai was so gifted at scoring in
Speaker 1: that mid range area. But Kauai made himself such a
Speaker 1: gifted mid range scorer that he was actually, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: just a shade below Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is a
Speaker 1: clearly better score in my opinion, but it's clearly by
Speaker 1: a somewhat smaller margin. And he's so much stronger than
Speaker 1: than Kevin Durant that he's capable of kind of bullying
Speaker 1: his way to get closer shots at the basket. He,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is one of the most underrated scorers
Speaker 1: in the league because it can get ugly sometimes and
Speaker 1: he takes shots that are notoriously inefficient, but he's got
Speaker 1: a scoring method that has proven to succeed at the
Speaker 1: highest levels. Now, the reasons why, the reason why he's three,
Speaker 1: and the reason why he gave up his proverbial number
Speaker 1: one spot last year, and the reason why he fell
Speaker 1: apart in that series against Denver was that Kauai lacks
Speaker 1: offensive versatility passed his isolation scoring. And it's not just
Speaker 1: about his you know, uh playmaking, because it's not just
Speaker 1: that he's not an elite playmaker. He's a below average passer,
Speaker 1: Like he's not even on the same level as a
Speaker 1: James Harden or Kevin Durant as a passer. And so
Speaker 1: from that regard, if you look at game seven, which
Speaker 1: is my favorite example of a bad Kauai game, you know,
Speaker 1: he goes I think you know six from twenty two
Speaker 1: or whatever it was that he was for four teen points.
Speaker 1: He when his shot wasn't falling, he had almost no
Speaker 1: impact on the offensive end of the ball, almost no
Speaker 1: impact whatsoever, and as a result, his team fell apart
Speaker 1: at the seams. And even though he was able to
Speaker 1: generate quality shots, It's not like I was taking bad shots.
Speaker 1: It's not like Denver was completely locking him up. It's
Speaker 1: just that, guess what, Sometimes guys miss shots, and you
Speaker 1: have to have a counter, You have to have something
Speaker 1: you can do when that's not working. And that's what
Speaker 1: definitively puts him below Stephan Lebron, the next two guys
Speaker 1: on my list. If I told you tomorrow that you're
Speaker 1: that you were gonna watch a Warrior game or you
Speaker 1: were gonna watch a Laker game, and if it was
Speaker 1: a Warrior game, I told you, hey, guess what, Steph's
Speaker 1: not gonna shoot well. Or if it was a Laker
Speaker 1: game and I said, hey, guess what, Lebron's not gonna
Speaker 1: shoot well. Like you know, STEP's gonna go for for
Speaker 1: twenty or Lebron's gonna go six for twenty. I still
Speaker 1: feel confident and you should too, that either of those
Speaker 1: players could still be the best player on the floor
Speaker 1: in that situation and in all likelihoods still win because historically,
Speaker 1: in Steph's career, despite shooting poorly, he wore defense is
Speaker 1: so much with his ability to draw attention even when
Speaker 1: he's like Steph is the guy that could go over
Speaker 1: nine from three and the defense is still psychotically chasing
Speaker 1: him around the floor. And Lebron is that guy that
Speaker 1: can be missing his jump shots, but he's so physically
Speaker 1: powerful around the rim that he's still gonna make six
Speaker 1: or seven or eight fuel goals. And he's such a
Speaker 1: gifted passer that he's going to have an impact on
Speaker 1: the game, warping defenses with his playmaking that he can
Speaker 1: have a game where you know how many Lebron has
Speaker 1: so many games in his career where he cannot make
Speaker 1: a jump shot and he's still the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor. It's unbelievable. And Steph Curry the exact same thing,
Speaker 1: whereas with Kauai, you have Game seven against Denver where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, he can't make a three,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, he can't make his turnaround fade away
Speaker 1: jump shots in the post, and he just can't do
Speaker 1: anything on offense, and now the wheels are coming off.
Speaker 1: And that's the key difference between the top tier players
Speaker 1: and Kawhi Leonard is that versatility on offense, the ability
Speaker 1: to impact games when their shots aren't falling. So number two,
Speaker 1: I have Steph, and I think the most important thing
Speaker 1: to understand here is, you know, Steph is not that
Speaker 1: elite high end playmaker that Lebron and Yokich and Luca
Speaker 1: and CP three are. But what he is is he's
Speaker 1: the best off ball player in the league. And because
Speaker 1: you have to double team him all the time, and
Speaker 1: he can if he sprints to the corner, teams will
Speaker 1: double team him without the ball, which is unlike anything
Speaker 1: you see from any other player in the league. That
Speaker 1: is his version of elite high end playmaking. His gravity,
Speaker 1: which I've made fun of over the years because it's
Speaker 1: kind of been used as, you know, a differentiator, which
Speaker 1: it is, but there are other players that have varying
Speaker 1: forms of gravity. But Steph's gravity and his ability to
Speaker 1: draw defensive attention off the ball even when he's not
Speaker 1: making shots is his version of elite high end playmaking.
Speaker 1: Because the whole purpose of elite high end play making
Speaker 1: is to generate quality looks. If you're Lebron, you're trusting
Speaker 1: that k CP Rondo, Danny Green, you know, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: if you leave them open that over the course of
Speaker 1: a seven game series, they're gonna make enough shots to win. Right,
Speaker 1: And he does it with his passing. Steph Curry does
Speaker 1: it with his gravity. So the point is is like
Speaker 1: Steph is basically saying, if I stay engaged off the ball,
Speaker 1: if I constantly stay on the move and I constantly
Speaker 1: stay a threat even if I'm not shooting well, my
Speaker 1: teammates are gonna get such high quality looks that over
Speaker 1: the course of a seven game series, they're gonna make
Speaker 1: enough shots to win. And that's that key differentiator for him.
Speaker 1: So he and he has made himself, to his credit,
Speaker 1: an average to slightly above average defensive player through positional awareness,
Speaker 1: being in the right space of place at the right time,
Speaker 1: always playing his role within the scheme. And then he
Speaker 1: also has an underrated size, like for a for a
Speaker 1: guy who's a small guard, you know by a reputation,
Speaker 1: he's six ft three and he's reasonably strong that you
Speaker 1: can't just completely bully him to the basket every time.
Speaker 1: He's not an elite defensive player, and that's the reason
Speaker 1: why I have Lebron above him, But he does bring
Speaker 1: enough on that end to make him like distinctly above
Speaker 1: the players beneath him, like Luca, like Kevin Durant, like
Speaker 1: like Nicola Yokichen, like Dame Lillard, that he that he's
Speaker 1: not a total negative net negative on that side of
Speaker 1: the floor. Now Lebron Lebron, in my opinion, has separated
Speaker 1: himself as the only guy on the first tier of
Speaker 1: basketball players. Going into this last season, I had him
Speaker 1: in the same tier as Steph Kauai and Kdi and
Speaker 1: now I have him in a tier by himself. And
Speaker 1: the reason why if one of you disagree, I'd be
Speaker 1: happy to hear it. He is the only player in
Speaker 1: the top ten players list that I just mentioned who
Speaker 1: is an absolute monster in all three of those categories
Speaker 1: that I mentioned. He is absolutely defensively versatile when he's engaged.
Speaker 1: He's one of the top ten defenders in the league
Speaker 1: still to this day he's about to turn thirty six
Speaker 1: years old. He can guard every single position you can
Speaker 1: put him in any defensive scheme, and he is capable
Speaker 1: of impacting a game on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor with the best players in the league. He put
Speaker 1: on an unbelievable shot blocking clinic in this postseason, not
Speaker 1: in terms of numbers, but just in crazy rescue plays.
Speaker 1: He's a great back line defender protecting the rim. He's
Speaker 1: very he's still very latter, really quick, and can guard
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. He can guard in the post. He
Speaker 1: is incredibly defensively versatile. Then, as I just said about
Speaker 1: everybody else, about Luca and about your kitchen, about CP three,
Speaker 1: he is the very best elite high end playmaker in
Speaker 1: the league. He is the best player in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion, at consistently making defensive defenses pay for
Speaker 1: for doubling or for shading in his direction. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite players in Lebron's career was in the two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen first round series against Indiana. It's Game three.
Speaker 1: Indiana gets out to huge first half lead and Lebron
Speaker 1: leads a massive comeback in the second half while Kyrie
Speaker 1: and Kevin Lover actually on the bench, and there's a
Speaker 1: sequence where Paul George is trying to score on Himan
Speaker 1: Chumpert from the from the free throw line, and he's
Speaker 1: kind of got his back turned to him and he
Speaker 1: does like a dribble and tries to do a pull
Speaker 1: up Aimon Chumppert strips him and on the play he
Speaker 1: kicks it ahead to Lebron and George Hill is standing
Speaker 1: between Monte Ellis, excuse me, is standing between Lebron and
Speaker 1: the rim, and Lebron is freight train to the basket
Speaker 1: going for a dunk and kauai uh and uh. Kyle
Speaker 1: Korver's running along the right wing, and Monte Ellis literally
Speaker 1: abandons the paint to sprint out to the three point
Speaker 1: line to guard Kyle Korver and he doesn't even have
Speaker 1: the ball. Lebron has the ball, so you can guess.
Speaker 1: Lebron goes down the lane and throws down a ridiculous
Speaker 1: tomahawk dunk, and I believe it was the lead changing shot,
Speaker 1: the one that put the Calves in the lead for
Speaker 1: good from that point forward. And that is the embodiment
Speaker 1: of the Lebron James gravity effect for him, you know,
Speaker 1: for Steff, it's the gravity that players will sprint to
Speaker 1: guard staff even though he doesn't have the ball. And
Speaker 1: for Lebron, it's defenders will sprint to guard shooters that
Speaker 1: don't have the ball because they're terrified that Lebron will
Speaker 1: pass to them, and that that is what separates him
Speaker 1: from every single passer in the league is he is
Speaker 1: so consistently committed to making the right read into making
Speaker 1: defenses pay for helping that he will cause defenses to
Speaker 1: literally refuse to double team him and to sprint out
Speaker 1: to shooters that don't even have the ball, and to
Speaker 1: constantly be looking behind their head to see who might
Speaker 1: be open because they think Lebron might pass it to them.
Speaker 1: And that's what separates him in that area. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, Lebron is not the best scorer in
Speaker 1: the league, but he's in that tier. He is. I mean,
Speaker 1: once again, another postseason run where he's twenty eight points
Speaker 1: again game um, like fifty six percent shooting and like
Speaker 1: thirty eight from three. And you can't leave him on
Speaker 1: an island in isolation because he'll bully you on the post.
Speaker 1: If you go underneath screens, he can hurt you by
Speaker 1: making enough threes over the top. He can score in
Speaker 1: the high post, he can score in the low post,
Speaker 1: he can score in transition, he can score and semi transition.
Speaker 1: He can score in every conceivable way, and he attacks
Speaker 1: you from all these different places on the floor. So
Speaker 1: there is not a single player on that list that
Speaker 1: I mentioned that can say all three things. That they
Speaker 1: are elite defensive versus defensively versatile players, that they are
Speaker 1: elite isolation scorers, and that they are elite high end playmakers.
Speaker 1: And Lebron's ability to check all three of those boxes
Speaker 1: is what makes him the hardest player in NBA history,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, to beat four times, because he's so
Speaker 1: versatile and he can beat you in so many different ways,
Speaker 1: and that is the reason why he is, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: separated himself from the rest of the league right now
Speaker 1: and has put himself in a year by himself. He's
Speaker 1: the only guy on that list who can do all
Speaker 1: three of those things at an extremely high level. So
Speaker 1: um instimmation one Lebron to Steph three, Kauai four, a
Speaker 1: D five, Kevin Durant sixty, Honest seven, Luca eight, James
Speaker 1: Harden nine, Nicola Yokich ten, Damian Lillard. So um, Like
Speaker 1: I said, this is a this is a horse race.
Speaker 1: It's constantly moving, it's effectively frozen until basketball starts, which
Speaker 1: I guess is gonna be on Martin Luther King Day,
Speaker 1: so middle of January, so less than three months from now.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I always think we should react
Speaker 1: to new information, but this is where I stand right now,
Speaker 1: and if I'm picking, you know, players with which to
Speaker 1: try to win a championship, this is the order in
Speaker 1: which I would pick them. Alrighty, I'm gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick pick to see if we have any questions. Here
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff about Kevin Duran's defense logan. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the kind words, man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I obsessed about it as all crazy basketball fans do. UM. Alright,
Speaker 1: so I don't see any questions as of right now,
Speaker 1: so I think I'm gonna call it a day. But again,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for tuning in. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I noticed that a bunch of you have taken the
Speaker 1: time to review my podcast or to rate my podcast,
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate that. UM, for those of you
Speaker 1: who have been listening, if you would take the time
Speaker 1: to write a review, it would mean a lot to
Speaker 1: me on a personal level. UM. Like I said, this
Speaker 1: is fun. This is already the third episode, not even
Speaker 1: counting all the live episodes that we've done in the past.
Speaker 1: So I just want to say, um, thank you again
Speaker 1: to you guys. I hope you guys understand how much
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. And my next step is going to
Speaker 1: be to have Tommy Hop on the podcast to argue
Speaker 1: with me about this list, to argue with me about
Speaker 1: what I said about Lebron James the other day, and
Speaker 1: just to have a good back and forth debate because
Speaker 1: he's usually a guy who disagrees with me on stuff.
Speaker 1: I have to figure out some logistics stuff about how
Speaker 1: I'm going to get that to work with the recording,
Speaker 1: but I should be able to figure it out with
Speaker 1: all the information that's online. But again, you guys, have
Speaker 1: a good rest to your night, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: guys later this week or early next week.