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Speaker 1: m m M. All right, welcome to tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume of Hope. All you guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. We are starting our annual player rankings today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take some time off the start of the
Speaker 1: show to kind of go over the rules for this
Speaker 1: particular list, the differences between this list and the list
Speaker 1: we had last year, as well as the years that
Speaker 1: preceded that, and then we're gonna get into the players
Speaker 1: starting with number twenty five and number twenty four today.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts.
Speaker 1: You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a
Speaker 1: podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating
Speaker 1: and a review on that front in the last but
Speaker 1: out least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of this list. Specifically,
Speaker 1: if you guys disagree with anything on this list, drop
Speaker 1: your case for it in the comments, and we'll take time,
Speaker 1: especially when I get back from vacation, to actually go
Speaker 1: over some of your guys's responses and we'll kind of
Speaker 1: argue back and forth about some of the specific placements
Speaker 1: of some of these guys on this list. So major
Speaker 1: differences between this list and last year. So last year
Speaker 1: I did a bragging rights list, and I laid out
Speaker 1: explicitly at the beginning my particular rules, but it led
Speaker 1: to a lot of confusion, and I think it was
Speaker 1: a flawed process. And one of the main reasons why
Speaker 1: is I really like that format for the top of
Speaker 1: the list. And again for those of you guys who
Speaker 1: missed it from last year, the bragging rights type of
Speaker 1: format is like what did you accomplish last year?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Whereas an in a vacuum kind of list is more
Speaker 1: of like if I was drafting a team irrespective of
Speaker 1: any circumstances that actually exist in the NBA today. If
Speaker 1: I was drafting in a vacuum players to build a
Speaker 1: team for this upcoming season, that's a totally different perspective
Speaker 1: than who had the most successful previous season, right. And
Speaker 1: So while I like that format for the top because
Speaker 1: I like having like a real bragging rights type of champ,
Speaker 1: it really leads to some problems down the line. And
Speaker 1: while I really believe that winning has to mean something
Speaker 1: and that's why we need a bragging rights list, I
Speaker 1: don't think it makes sense after we get past the top. So, like,
Speaker 1: great example last year is like Luca, right, So, like
Speaker 1: I've consistently in a vacuum had Luca as a top
Speaker 1: five player, but he had a really rough year last year.
Speaker 1: Not only did his team miss the playoffs, but it
Speaker 1: was a tough end of the year for him. He
Speaker 1: wasn't playing good basketball, especially on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, right. And So that's one of those things
Speaker 1: where that's not an appropriate way to really categorize the
Speaker 1: fact that, like, sometimes you can just have a bad
Speaker 1: year and everything can go wrong. And while it might
Speaker 1: mean that you don't have the bragging rights. It's just
Speaker 1: tough to kind of quantify all of that in a list.
Speaker 1: So the way we're going to address that is we
Speaker 1: are going to have an in a vacuum list, and
Speaker 1: then at the very end, I'm gonna pick the three
Speaker 1: or four guys that are candidates for the best possible
Speaker 1: season from last year, our bragging rights guys. It will
Speaker 1: rank those guys at the very end. It will just
Speaker 1: do the top It'll be like three, four or five players.
Speaker 1: You know, It'll be like, you know, is it Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: the guy who was the best player on the Celtics
Speaker 1: most of the year and won the title. Was it
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic who took his team to the finals? Was
Speaker 1: it Nikola Jokic who won MVP? Like, We'll take a
Speaker 1: list of those guys, the very short list at the top,
Speaker 1: and we'll rank them for a bragging rights at the
Speaker 1: very end. But for an actual top twenty five players
Speaker 1: list this year, we're going to do it purely in
Speaker 1: a vacuum. So the question is what does in a
Speaker 1: vacuum mean for this particular list I want to go through.
Speaker 1: I've got let's see, I've got four specific rules that
Speaker 1: we're going to follow for this list. Rule number one,
Speaker 1: it is completely irrespective of any team circumstances from last year.
Speaker 1: So if your case for a player is but so
Speaker 1: and so won a lot of games, that's a team accomplishment.
Speaker 1: We're going to specifically be looking at how does this
Speaker 1: player contribute personally to the success of his team within
Speaker 1: the context of like if I was building a roster
Speaker 1: from scratch, right, So, again, don't think of this purely
Speaker 1: as a reward for success from last season. That's what
Speaker 1: we're going to use our bragging rights list for. Secondly,
Speaker 1: how would you build a team? How easy would it
Speaker 1: be to build a championship contender around this player from scratch? So, like,
Speaker 1: what responsibilities does he fulfill? Can he create shots in
Speaker 1: the half court at high volume? Can he anchor a
Speaker 1: high level defense? Can he guard opposing superstars? Can he
Speaker 1: play off the ball and on the ball? Can he
Speaker 1: play in different styles? Can he score in versatile ways
Speaker 1: as circumstances shift around him in the playoffs? Right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna be looking at a lot of different details into
Speaker 1: how a player would impact winning if I was trying
Speaker 1: to build around them, right, So, for instance, a lot
Speaker 1: of you guys know that I highly value half court
Speaker 1: offensive initiation, and I'll just give you guys, like a
Speaker 1: basic kind of example. I tweeted out a poll today
Speaker 1: between Jalen Brown and Devin Booker, and there are two
Speaker 1: players that I have very close in my list. But
Speaker 1: for me, as you guys know Devin Booker's ability to
Speaker 1: put the ball in his hands and run twenty five
Speaker 1: pick and rolls a game if I had to, and
Speaker 1: to like really lean on him to create offense, it's
Speaker 1: easier for me to build athleticism and dirty work around
Speaker 1: that to construct a useful basketball team than it is
Speaker 1: for me to take Jaylen Brown as the best player
Speaker 1: on a team that I'm running everything through offensively and
Speaker 1: then try to supplement hint specifically, because Jalen Brown doesn't
Speaker 1: see the floor as well as Devin Booker does, he
Speaker 1: doesn't shoot the ball as well as Devin Booker does,
Speaker 1: he can't like really spam those kinds of actions. So
Speaker 1: that's my basketball worldview. If you guys have a different
Speaker 1: basketball worldview and you don't value that like surgical in
Speaker 1: the half court offensive initiation as much as I do,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna have some different rankings than me. But
Speaker 1: I have to let you guys know that up front
Speaker 1: because that's a specific kind of framework for how this
Speaker 1: list works. Like when I'm building a championship contender, my
Speaker 1: number one priority is who's gonna run my offense. Who's
Speaker 1: gonna be the primary guy who gets the defense into rotation.
Speaker 1: Once the defense is in rotation, now it's everyone's playing
Speaker 1: with an advantage, and I can make lesser players fulfill
Speaker 1: achievable roles, but I gotta get the defense into rotation consistently,
Speaker 1: and so that half court offensive initiation piece is really
Speaker 1: valuable for me. The third piece that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: looking at is durability. This is in a vacuum, not
Speaker 1: for a playoff series that starts tomorrow, but for a
Speaker 1: eighty two game season starting with the training camp. So
Speaker 1: a month of ramping up into eighty two games over
Speaker 1: damn near what is it October, November, December, January, February, March, April,
Speaker 1: damn near seven months of basketball, basically six months of
Speaker 1: basketball in the regular season, and then from there into
Speaker 1: four two week rounds of post He's in basketball. Who
Speaker 1: is best equipped to be reliably available for that long
Speaker 1: of a stretch of basketball right, So that's a third
Speaker 1: piece of it, and then the fourth piece we're looking
Speaker 1: at is the ceiling. The ceiling still matters. I'll give
Speaker 1: you an example. Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard has a major
Speaker 1: issue with reliability. The dude hasn't been able to finish
Speaker 1: a playoff run in four consecutive seasons. However, what if
Speaker 1: the Clippers do get to the playoffs and they're healthy.
Speaker 1: What if Kawhi is on the floor tomorrow for the
Speaker 1: game all of a sudden, it doesn't matter how you
Speaker 1: feel about the eighty two if he's better than your
Speaker 1: player right now for a series that starts today. What
Speaker 1: that means is, while obviously durability is going to be
Speaker 1: a hit for a guy like Kawhi, when the chips
Speaker 1: are down and it's time to throw down and we're
Speaker 1: trying to win game in an actual playoff setting, how
Speaker 1: high of a level can your player reach. So, Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: even though he has some huge demerits in the sense
Speaker 1: of his reliability, you always have to account for the well,
Speaker 1: what if this is the year that Kawhi Leonard is healthy.
Speaker 1: Another example is Lebron James. Lebron James gets a lot
Speaker 1: of flak at this point in his career for he's
Speaker 1: in his way through the regular season and missing time,
Speaker 1: although he was available for the most part last season.
Speaker 1: But guess what, last year he was healthy for the
Speaker 1: playoffs and he played at a top five level in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So like again, as we factor in Lebron
Speaker 1: obviously for the eighty two, there's a certain limitation there,
Speaker 1: but his ceiling is still such that if he is available,
Speaker 1: we have to factor that in. So those are the
Speaker 1: four main character categories there. I do not care how
Speaker 1: good your team was last year. I'm looking specifically at
Speaker 1: how you can contribute to winning in a vacuum on
Speaker 1: a fresh basketball team built from scratch. Two, How easy
Speaker 1: is it to build around you, What responsibilities specifically do
Speaker 1: you fill? Three? How available are you? And four when
Speaker 1: you really need to hit the gas, how high of
Speaker 1: a level can you hit? How high is your ceiling?
Speaker 1: That's how we're gonna rank these top twenty five. And
Speaker 1: then again at the very end, we're gonna do a
Speaker 1: separate video that's gonna have nothing to do with this list,
Speaker 1: where we're gonna zero in on a handful of guys
Speaker 1: who are all candidates for the best possible season this
Speaker 1: last year, and then we'll talk about who gets to
Speaker 1: be the guy that walks around the league next year
Speaker 1: saying like, I'm the dude who was the best last
Speaker 1: year based on what I actually did, based on what
Speaker 1: we actually accomplished. Team success will be a major factor
Speaker 1: in that one. So those are kind of the initial
Speaker 1: pieces of framework that make this list work. I do
Speaker 1: have two other notes. One, the talent pool is insane.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, just right now, if you have some time,
Speaker 1: try to just make a list. Doesn't have to be perfect,
Speaker 1: you're not sharing it, but just it down for a
Speaker 1: minute and list out the top twenty five players. You'll
Speaker 1: find out quickly that it's very, very difficult. Why because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of players that if I threw
Speaker 1: a name out, you would think that guy's a top
Speaker 1: twenty five player. In fact, I started at when I
Speaker 1: began this process, my preliminary list of candidates, the guys
Speaker 1: were like I basically just treated it as like if
Speaker 1: I looked at this guy and someone said, hey, I
Speaker 1: have this guy in my top twenty five, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like passable, meaning like there is a defensible case
Speaker 1: for this player to be one of the top twenty
Speaker 1: five players in the NBA. My preliminary list was forty
Speaker 1: five players long, so there were twenty guys that reasonably
Speaker 1: could be considered top twenty five guys who didn't make
Speaker 1: my list. I'll give you guys one example, Paul George.
Speaker 1: Paul George is a guy that was clearly in the
Speaker 1: top twenty for me last year and a guy that
Speaker 1: I think the majority of people would think like if
Speaker 1: I said, oh, Paul George's top twenty five player, you'd
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, sounds right, right. It's Paul George. He's
Speaker 1: a top twenty five player, but I had him just
Speaker 1: outside of my top twenty five because the league is
Speaker 1: just incredibly stacked with talent. That said, there's not a
Speaker 1: large gap, Like Paul George is not substantially worse than
Speaker 1: the guy that I have ranked at twenty five. It's
Speaker 1: a small gap because of how talented all these guys
Speaker 1: in that list of forty five are. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read the full list of forty five here
Speaker 1: shortly so that you guys can see my preliminary list.
Speaker 1: Point is, there will be a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: could be top twenty five players that won't make this list,
Speaker 1: so just be prepared for that. And the same goes
Speaker 1: for the top of this list. I have a guy
Speaker 1: outside of my top ten that I never in a
Speaker 1: million years would have thought that I'd be ranking him
Speaker 1: outside of the top ten in this list. But I
Speaker 1: think there are eleven players that are kind of in
Speaker 1: that tier and somebody has to be cut, and I
Speaker 1: literally can't make the case for him over anybody above him.
Speaker 1: That's not a product of that player not playing at
Speaker 1: a top ten level. That's just the reality of how
Speaker 1: much talent there is at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: And that's my last note. We are splitting hairs here, guys.
Speaker 1: I have four tiers for the list. I have top
Speaker 1: tier Superstars. These are the perennial MVP candidates like I
Speaker 1: expect for multiple years to come. They will be in
Speaker 1: the MVP voting ray, so like in that top five
Speaker 1: type of race for MVP. Then I have my second
Speaker 1: tier Superstars. These are the guys that are not in
Speaker 1: the MVP race, but on any given night can play
Speaker 1: like one of those guys at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: They're just not as consistent and reliable every night, but
Speaker 1: on any given night they can outplay or be better
Speaker 1: or as good as the dudes at the top of
Speaker 1: the league. Then I have my third tier stars. These
Speaker 1: are the last group of guys that can still be
Speaker 1: the best player on a championship team, but they need
Speaker 1: a ton of talent support to get there. And then
Speaker 1: I have my fourth tier stars. These are the guys
Speaker 1: that are not quite good enough to be the best
Speaker 1: player on a championship team, but can be the second
Speaker 1: best player on a championship team. Within those tiers, the
Speaker 1: players are all bunched up on each other. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: like the guy I have ranked sixth on my list
Speaker 1: is very close to the guy I have ranked eleventh
Speaker 1: on my list, the guy I have ranked eighteenth on
Speaker 1: my list is very close to the guy I of
Speaker 1: at twenty five. Because within those tiers, they're very close
Speaker 1: the actual tiers themselves, and I will explain them to
Speaker 1: you when we hit those brakes. The tiers themselves are
Speaker 1: meant to actually represent a gap, but within those tiers
Speaker 1: they're very close. Point is is this is up for debate.
Speaker 1: It's very subjective, and like I said in the intro,
Speaker 1: I want you guys to make the case for why
Speaker 1: you think I'm wrong in the comments. I'm recording these,
Speaker 1: these first few videos, I'm recording before I go to town
Speaker 1: for vacation, so I won't be able to react to
Speaker 1: your mail bag questions because these are going to be
Speaker 1: released long after I record them. But when I get
Speaker 1: back in town on the eighteenth, we're only going to
Speaker 1: be a small portion of the way through this list.
Speaker 1: And one of my plans is after I hit whatever
Speaker 1: the next few players are, I'm gonna go to basically
Speaker 1: a mini mail bag at the end, or I bounce
Speaker 1: off of you guys in your disagreements. So if I
Speaker 1: say something in these player rankings videos that you guys
Speaker 1: disagree with, break it down, break down the basketball in
Speaker 1: the comments, I promise you if you say, screw you, Jason,
Speaker 1: you're wrong, You're an idiot, I'm not gonna respond. There's
Speaker 1: just nothing. There's no conversation to be had there. But
Speaker 1: if you say, hey, Jason, for instance number twenty five,
Speaker 1: for me, I if you disagree with that guy or
Speaker 1: you'd rank him outside, you say, hey, how do you
Speaker 1: have that guy above? Paul George? Break it down for me,
Speaker 1: Explain the basketball, and we'll talk about it, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it in our mailbag sessions when I get
Speaker 1: back from vacation. All right, this was my preliminary list.
Speaker 1: These were the forty five guys that I considered for
Speaker 1: the top twenty five players in the league. List. These
Speaker 1: are not in order. These are specifically in order of
Speaker 1: the NBA standings. What I did as I went team
Speaker 1: by team, starting with the East one seed down and
Speaker 1: then the West one seed down, and I just listed
Speaker 1: the players on those particular rosters that I think could
Speaker 1: be considered top twenty five players. This was my preliminary list.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Giannison, Tennacumpo, Damian Lillard,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, Palla, Boncaro, Tyrese Halliburton, Pascal Siakam, Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo, Trey Young,
Speaker 1: Scottie Barnes, Cad Cunningham, Shay Gilgess, Alexander Jalen, Williams, chet Holmgren,
Speaker 1: NIKOLEA Jokic, Jamal Murray, Anthony Edwards, Karl, Anthony Towns, Kawhi,
Speaker 1: Leonard James Harden, Luka, Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Dejonte Murray, Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: Daron Fox, DeMar DeRozan, Demona Sabonis, Stephen Curry, Alpern, Shangoon,
Speaker 1: Laurie Markinen, John Morant, Desmond Bain, Jaren Jackson Junior, and
Speaker 1: Victor Wembgyama. That's the forty five players that I came with. Again,
Speaker 1: Like obviously, there are guys in that list that a
Speaker 1: lot of them that are that I never actually truly
Speaker 1: considered to be in top twenty five. However, these are
Speaker 1: guys that I just thought had a case. That was
Speaker 1: my initial list that I worked with, and then I
Speaker 1: broke it down from there to get to the top
Speaker 1: twenty five.
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Speaker 1: So starting with number twenty five, our first player in
Speaker 1: this year's Least Kyrie Irvin. His twenty twenty four campaign,
Speaker 1: these were his counting stats. Counting stats, he played fifty
Speaker 1: eight games to average twenty five point six points per game,
Speaker 1: five rebounds per game, five point two assists per game,
Speaker 1: one point eight stocks per game that steals plus blocks.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irvic was one of only seven players in the
Speaker 1: league last year to average at least twenty five points,
Speaker 1: five rebounds in five assists on at least sixty percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, and to play a minimum of fifty games.
Speaker 1: That's a very basic baseline, twenty five to five and
Speaker 1: five at least sixty percent true shooting which is high
Speaker 1: level of efficiency and a minimum of fifty games, meaning
Speaker 1: you played the majority of the season. Kyrie did it
Speaker 1: on sixty point eight percent true shooting basically fifty forty
Speaker 1: ninety forty nine point seven percent from the field, forty
Speaker 1: one point one percent from three to ninety point five
Speaker 1: percent from the line. So he was a twenty five
Speaker 1: to five to five fifty forty ninety guy. Again, one
Speaker 1: of only seven players in the league to hit those benchmarks.
Speaker 1: That's insane guys. In the playoffs twenty two to four
Speaker 1: and five Worth mentioning his usage rate drop substantially. He
Speaker 1: went from about twenty eight percent usage percentage in the
Speaker 1: regular season to below twenty five percent in the postseason.
Speaker 1: Had something to do with his scoring taking a little
Speaker 1: bit of a drop, but he was still largely in
Speaker 1: that like he still shot just below fifty percent from
Speaker 1: the field in over four percent from three through the
Speaker 1: first three rounds. It wasn't until the NBA Finals that
Speaker 1: he kind of fell apart. He had a tough NBA
Speaker 1: Finals and it basically came down to his pull up
Speaker 1: jumper failing him. So to give you an idea, Kyrie
Speaker 1: irving in the regular season one point zero four points
Speaker 1: per pull up jump shot in the first three rounds
Speaker 1: of the playoffs, one point zero six points per pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot in the finals just forty two points
Speaker 1: on fifty one shots, which is zero point eight to
Speaker 1: two points per shot. So that was the main thing
Speaker 1: that really let him down in the finals is he
Speaker 1: just lost that little extra bit of efficiency when it
Speaker 1: came to his pull up jump shot. And we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about it later. That's a huge part of
Speaker 1: Kyrie's shot. Diet takes almost half his shots or pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots, and so when that failed him in
Speaker 1: the Boston Series, it just led to his impact taking
Speaker 1: a little bit of a dip, but still twenty two,
Speaker 1: four and five. Most importantly, I thought he was still
Speaker 1: pretty good on the margins, Like in terms of his
Speaker 1: dirty work in the postseason run, I thought he competed
Speaker 1: hard at the point of attack. He rebounds better than
Speaker 1: most small guards. Like, Kyrie's never a guy as long
Speaker 1: as you're good around him, you never really have to
Speaker 1: worry about him not pulling his weight. Like obviously, if
Speaker 1: you will have a bunch of bad defensive personnel around him,
Speaker 1: it can be an issue. But Kyrie generally holds his
Speaker 1: own when it comes to the details of the game.
Speaker 1: Shot creation data. This percent energy in pick and roll
Speaker 1: one point zero two points per possession including passes for
Speaker 1: Kyrie that was in the sixty ninth percentile, So he's
Speaker 1: one of the better pick and roll players in the league.
Speaker 1: ISO one point zero three points per possession including passes,
Speaker 1: that was sixty eighth percentile. He also, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: high volume lists. Remember this is what we did last year.
Speaker 1: If you're over one thousand pick and rolls, you're in
Speaker 1: the high volume list. If you're over two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty ISOs, over two hundred and fifty post ups, you're
Speaker 1: in the high volume list. And I have Kyrie just
Speaker 1: over the minimum for ISOs. He at one point zero
Speaker 1: three points posession. It was sixty eighth percentile league wide.
Speaker 1: But he was fourteenth out of twenty four players to
Speaker 1: run at least two hundred and fifty ISOs excellent spot
Speaker 1: up player converted spot up possions at one point three
Speaker 1: to one points per possession. That's insanely good. That's in
Speaker 1: the ninety second percentile around the league. His shooting stats,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. One point. I'm sorry one point three
Speaker 1: points per catch and shoot jumper that was ninety second percentile.
Speaker 1: He was one point three to one points per spot
Speaker 1: up possession that was ninety fifth percentile. So I undersold
Speaker 1: him in the spot up barrier a little bit, but
Speaker 1: shot the ball extremely well in catching shoot situations. One
Speaker 1: point zero four points per pull up jump shot that
Speaker 1: was in the seventy ninth percentile. His face up jab
Speaker 1: step jump shot one point one point eight points per
Speaker 1: shot that was in the eighty fourth percentile. He shot
Speaker 1: fifty five percent on floaters, he took almost two of
Speaker 1: them a game, and he shot sixty one percent at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is insanely good for a small guard.
Speaker 1: So to put it simply, last year, Kyrie is one
Speaker 1: of the best shot creators in the game, and as
Speaker 1: we mentioned, he was one of only seven players to
Speaker 1: hit at least twenty five points, five rebounds, and five
Speaker 1: assists on at least sixty percent t shooting and at
Speaker 1: least fifty games. The other guys on that list are
Speaker 1: all big shots Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokich, Luka, Doncics, Lebron,
Speaker 1: James sche Giosos Alexander and Gianna Santana Koumpo. That's some
Speaker 1: quality company for Kyrie Irving in terms of what he
Speaker 1: did as an offensive initiator this year. He's a better
Speaker 1: playmaker than he gets credit for him. He had a
Speaker 1: two point eight to two assist to turnover ratio. He
Speaker 1: was one of only twelve players in the league last
Speaker 1: year to post a usage percentage over twenty five percent
Speaker 1: and an assistant turnover ratio over two point five over
Speaker 1: two point five. So like a much better playmaker than
Speaker 1: you would think for Kyrie Irving, right, And he was
Speaker 1: one of the most efficient, high volume scorers in the
Speaker 1: league as well. So this is a guy that you know.
Speaker 1: I think he's gone under the radar because of his past,
Speaker 1: but he's still just like in the short list of
Speaker 1: the best offensive players in the league and brings a
Speaker 1: ton of value. As he saw as the second best
Speaker 1: player on a team that made it within three wins
Speaker 1: of an NBA championship last year. I was really impressed
Speaker 1: by his versatility. Like I said, he rebounded out. It
Speaker 1: was over five rebounds a game last year. In the
Speaker 1: regular season, he defended better than most small guards at
Speaker 1: his position. People will point to his rough NBA Finals
Speaker 1: as like the reason that Dallas lost, but that's not
Speaker 1: in my opinion, like Luca is just as destructive to
Speaker 1: their defense as Kyrie irving was to their offense. And
Speaker 1: the real problem in my opinion that broke down that
Speaker 1: Dallas attack was they didn't have a role player who
Speaker 1: they could count on to defend but also hit above
Speaker 1: the break threes, which played perfectly into the schematic approach
Speaker 1: that Boston had, which was essentially conceding those above the
Speaker 1: break threes to their role players or couldn't make them.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a roster issue. I didn't think
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie were the Could they be better, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Luca needs to be better defensively, Kyrie needs to be
Speaker 1: more reliable as a scorer in those settings. But the
Speaker 1: main reason they lost was that inability to space the
Speaker 1: floor above the break and how Boston kind of capitalized
Speaker 1: on that. Kyrie's weaknesses his health, I have three of
Speaker 1: them down the health piece. He played more than sixty
Speaker 1: games just once since leaving Cleveland, just fifty eight last year.
Speaker 1: You can basically book Kyrie to miss one out of
Speaker 1: every four games, so that's obviously an issue. He's undersized
Speaker 1: his impact as a rebounder went down a level in
Speaker 1: the postseason after the athleticism and effort ramped up. He
Speaker 1: went from three point six attempts per game in the
Speaker 1: restricted area in the regular season to just two point
Speaker 1: eight in the playoffs. That's a sizeable reduction there, it's
Speaker 1: basically twenty five percent. And then he's still a bit
Speaker 1: reliant on pull up shooting. So he attempted eighteen point
Speaker 1: one shots per game in the postseason, eight point six
Speaker 1: of them were pull up jump shots, so that's basically half,
Speaker 1: and that's how it should be given his skill set
Speaker 1: and how big he is, and he's he's one of
Speaker 1: those guys. This is not like Anthony Edwards or Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum last year in the regular season where you're like, dude,
Speaker 1: why are you taking so many of these? You're not
Speaker 1: hitting enough of them. He got well over a point
Speaker 1: per possession on those pull up jump shots, so he
Speaker 1: needs to take them. But as we know, and this
Speaker 1: is just how it leads to where he is in
Speaker 1: the rankings. Despite being one of the better offensive initiators
Speaker 1: in the league, he's way down at twenty five, and
Speaker 1: a big part of that is he's undersized, so he's
Speaker 1: relying on his pull up jump shot a lot, and
Speaker 1: when you rely on your pull up jump shot, that
Speaker 1: leads to a lot of variants. And he went cold
Speaker 1: in the finals and that ended up impacting him quite
Speaker 1: a bit. So. In summary, on Kyrie Irving still on
Speaker 1: the short list of guys who are good enough to
Speaker 1: be the second best player on a championship team. He's
Speaker 1: one of the best offensive initiators in the league. Still,
Speaker 1: he competes in the dirty work areas of the game,
Speaker 1: which makes him easy to build around. He's an excellent
Speaker 1: off ball score, making him even easier to build around,
Speaker 1: and by all accounts, he's been an excellent locker room
Speaker 1: guy in Dallas now that he has his financial future setup,
Speaker 1: which is why in this current version of our NBA
Speaker 1: player rankings, I have Kyrie Irving ranked at twenty five,
Speaker 1: number twenty four dearon Fox. Last year's counting stats played
Speaker 1: seventy four games. That was the second straight season with
Speaker 1: at least seventy games played. He averaged twenty six point
Speaker 1: six points per game, four point six rebounds per game,
Speaker 1: five point six assists per game, and two point four
Speaker 1: stocks that steals plus blocks per game. Last year, he
Speaker 1: actually led the league in steals last year for the
Speaker 1: first time in his career. His shooting splits. He was
Speaker 1: forty six point five percent from the field thirty six
Speaker 1: point nine percent from three on eight attempts, so that
Speaker 1: was by far the best three point shooting season of
Speaker 1: his career, seventy three point eight percent at the line
Speaker 1: for a total of fifty seven percent in true shooting percentage.
Speaker 1: Did miss the playoffs, but there's some important context there.
Speaker 1: Malik Monk, Sacramento's second best perimeter shock creator, got hurt
Speaker 1: at the end of the year, and as a result,
Speaker 1: Sacramento lost five of their last seven games, and if
Speaker 1: you look at where they were in the standings, they
Speaker 1: finished one game behind the Lakers. So had they won
Speaker 1: one of those last seven and then gone three and
Speaker 1: four instead of two and five, they would have ended
Speaker 1: up hosting the Lakers in that second playoff game, a
Speaker 1: play in game, and they had the Lakers number all season,
Speaker 1: especially at home. So, like I like, in all likelihood,
Speaker 1: if Malik Monk doesn't get hurt, there's a much better
Speaker 1: chance that the Kings just get in like obviously, like
Speaker 1: Lebron ad single game setting, maybe they overpower them but
Speaker 1: I look at it in a more encouraging sense. Dearon
Speaker 1: Fox has been the best player on his team, the
Speaker 1: primary offensive initiator on a team that has a terrible
Speaker 1: defensive front court, which makes it way difficult to win
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA. Second best perimeter shot creator is
Speaker 1: the guy who comes off the bench for them, and
Speaker 1: they won forty eight and forty six games in the
Speaker 1: last two seasons in a jam packed Western Conference. So,
Speaker 1: like I'm more of this is a great example of
Speaker 1: what we were talking about at the very beginning when
Speaker 1: I was going through the intro and just some of
Speaker 1: the rules don't pay attention to the team's success piece
Speaker 1: when it comes to Dearon Fox. Here he legitimately has
Speaker 1: carried the Kings to being a very good team. In
Speaker 1: a vacuum, he would be a more a higher contributing
Speaker 1: winner than what he has been in Sacramento on a
Speaker 1: team that isn't really set up to compete in the NBA. Again,
Speaker 1: Dearon Fox is an example of a guy last year
Speaker 1: on my more bragging rights format that he would have
Speaker 1: suffered and he would have potentially fallen out of the
Speaker 1: list entirely. But I don't want to do it that way.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that we acknowledge the realities
Speaker 1: of the surrounding supporting cast within the context of this list.
Speaker 1: I was generally very like even though we don't didn't
Speaker 1: get a playoff sample size from Daron Fox this year.
Speaker 1: I was generally very encouraged by Darren Fox's first playoff
Speaker 1: series last year against Golden State. I thought he was
Speaker 1: pretty impactful defensively when he wanted to be. I thought
Speaker 1: he could really beat people off the dribble and generate
Speaker 1: good shots. So I think he's going to be a
Speaker 1: good playoff player in the long run. So that's not
Speaker 1: something I'm worried about with him. Shot creation data percent
Speaker 1: energy Darren Fox one point zero one points per pick
Speaker 1: and roll including passes. He made our high volume pick
Speaker 1: and roll list again minimum one thousand possessions. He out
Speaker 1: of fifteen players that logged at least a thousand pick
Speaker 1: and rolls. He ranked eleventh. Inefficiency ISO one point zero
Speaker 1: four points per possession including passes, that was in the
Speaker 1: seventieth percentile. He also made a high volume list minimum
Speaker 1: two to fifty. He ranked thirteenth out of the twenty
Speaker 1: five players to log at least two hundred fifty ISOs added.
Speaker 1: In terms of his shooting stats, he added a semi
Speaker 1: reliable pull up three this season. That was the major development.
Speaker 1: So like two years ago fifty nine makes on off
Speaker 1: the dribble threes just thirty percent. This year one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty makes forty six percent, so a substantial leap
Speaker 1: for Dearn Fox as a pull up three point shooter,
Speaker 1: pretty good catch and shoot player, not great though, one
Speaker 1: point zero eight points per shot. Really good when he
Speaker 1: was wide open, though he shot forty six percent field
Speaker 1: goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. His
Speaker 1: overall pull up shooting forty percent field goal percentage forty
Speaker 1: nine percent when you weigh it for threes zero point
Speaker 1: nine to eight points per shot. Still not where he
Speaker 1: needs to get to, but a really big step in
Speaker 1: the right direction for Dearon Fox. Forty nine percent on
Speaker 1: floaters on one hundred and sixty one attempts. He was
Speaker 1: a high volume floater guy. Again, took a lot of
Speaker 1: them out of like euro steps where he'd like drive
Speaker 1: into the lane and almost like slow himself down on
Speaker 1: a euro and then get to that little left handed
Speaker 1: floater shot sixty three percent at the rim, which is
Speaker 1: solid for an athletic guard like him, like freaky athletes
Speaker 1: like him, I like prefer above sixty five percent, but
Speaker 1: that's still pretty good. Nothing to freak out about. His
Speaker 1: biggest weaknesses. He's an ineffective off ball player. He converted
Speaker 1: spot at possessions at a zero point nine to eight
Speaker 1: points per possession, which is bad. That ranked sixty third
Speaker 1: out of seventy five players to log at least two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty and he scored on a cut to
Speaker 1: the basket just fifteen times all season, So a lot
Speaker 1: to improve on in terms of playing off the ball.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be something to keep an eye on with
Speaker 1: Demarta Rosen joining the picture, and just how much more
Speaker 1: he's going to have to be able to convert those
Speaker 1: types of opportunities, especially since Demarta Rosen is a very
Speaker 1: good passer. And then this is really not I don't
Speaker 1: want to direct this purely at Dearon Fox because it's
Speaker 1: not just him, but the uh there's an inconsistent defensive
Speaker 1: effort piece with him, and again this was with everybody.
Speaker 1: When the Kings wanted to be they were a very
Speaker 1: good defensive team because they had all of this speed,
Speaker 1: especially on the perimeter, but then they would have these
Speaker 1: like extended weeks long stretches where they just didn't guard.
Speaker 1: And Fox has the potential to be one of the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defenders in the league. So like, obviously when
Speaker 1: it comes to that defensive effort piece, you were hoping
Speaker 1: for a little bit more from Darreon Fox. But I
Speaker 1: mean the way I look at it, like with Dearon,
Speaker 1: with Demrta Rosen in the picture, he's just going to
Speaker 1: have more energy for that sort of thing. And I
Speaker 1: think we're going to get a very good defensive season
Speaker 1: out of Deer and Fox next year. In summary, deren
Speaker 1: Fox is the leading offensive initiator for one of the
Speaker 1: best offenses in the league. The Kings are nine point
Speaker 1: four points per one hundred possessions better when Fox is
Speaker 1: on the floor versus off, according to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: and he has a real playoff superpower. He has good
Speaker 1: size for the guard position, and he's remarkably fast, which
Speaker 1: can be used for two of the most valuable physical
Speaker 1: exertions in basketball, which both involved winning at the point
Speaker 1: of attack on offense, beating people off the dribble on defense,
Speaker 1: containing people off the dribble. That's his superpower that I
Speaker 1: think is a real thing that you can build around.
Speaker 1: And he's added a decent jump shot to counter that.
Speaker 1: And if judging by the massive improvement he had year
Speaker 1: over year, if he continues to improve on that trajectory,
Speaker 1: he could quickly vault way higher on this list if
Speaker 1: the jump shot comes around. Now, the Kings have issues
Speaker 1: that extend far beyond Fox. Like I talked about, they're
Speaker 1: a horrific defensive front court that makes things hard. They
Speaker 1: didn't have another high volume shot. Now they do with
Speaker 1: Demarto Rosen and again, ninety four wins in that stacked
Speaker 1: Western Conference over the last two years I think is
Speaker 1: pretty impressive given the limitations they have. So I've deer
Speaker 1: and Fox as the twenty fourth best player in the
Speaker 1: NBA going into next season. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for a round one of our player rankings.
Speaker 1: In our next video, we'll be getting a few more guys,
Speaker 1: probably three or four guys in the next video that
Speaker 1: I'll be coming out within the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys your supporting the show,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you guys. Then the Volume the NFL
Speaker 1: seasons right around the corner. We'll be breaking down all
Speaker 1: the off season storylines on the Colin Cowherd podcast, my
Speaker 1: best Takes guests like my buddy Nick Wright. Check out
Speaker 1: the Colin Coward podcast, part of the Volume network, available
Speaker 1: on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.