Hoops Tonight - FIBA World Cup Preview, Top 25 Players of Last 25 Years: Allen Iverson’s MASSIVE impact on the NBA

So we're gonna do a deep dive kind of into previewing this tournament, heavy heavy focus on Team USA, brief mentions of some of the other teams around the world. Do you guys know the drill before we get it started? Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. A and last, not least, for whatever reason, you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over

to YouTube to finish. Don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So to give you guys an idea, we're not gonna cover every single game, but I do plan on doing a few videos during the World Cup to cover it. I personally find it very interesting as

a basketball fan. I would imagine the kind of people that would like my show probably are excited for this tournament as well, and we've been pining for some basketball, and I think this is a nice little appetizer before we head into a very exciting NBA season. So Team

USA went five to zero in their exhibitions. They did trail in the second half of two of their games, so they're certainly beatable, but they have looked really good down the stretch in those two particular games and blew everybody else out, so they have looked impressive so far. The starting lineup has been the least impressive group that the team has run out there. The starting line they've been going with is Jalen Brunson with Brandon Ingram, Jaron Jackson,

Anthony Edwards, and McHale Bridges. And this to me is a great example of the concept of diminishing returns that I talk about a lot on this show. So the example most recently that I've been using with you guys is the idea of Bradley Beal joining the Phoenix Suns,

you know, in a vacuum. In a team like on Washington, where I need a guy to create shots, break down the defense, basically be my offensive engine, I'd rather have a guy like Bradley Beale than a guy like Kntavious Calwell Pope, right, because just if I ask Kntavious Caldwell Pope to run one thousand pick and rolls, three hundred ISOs and one hundred and fifty post ups, like, He's just not going to be nearly as efficient generating shots

for his team the way that Bradley Beal can do. Right, But in a situation like the Phoenix Suns, where I've already got Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on the team, I don't need him to run a thousand pick and rolls. I don't need him to run three hundred ISOs and

one hundred and fifty post ups. I need him to do some of that stuff, but for the most part, it's gonna be a lot of like guarding on the perimeter, crack down, rebounding from the perimeter, running your lane in transition, taking and making spot up threes, driving closeouts, second side creation, a lot of like supporting role type of stuff.

movement basketball, which is like really quick decisions. The ball never sticks in one place for more than a second or two. Nobody really takes a tough off the dribble shot unless it's an end of the shot clock situation and everyone's just driving and kicking and driving and kicking trying to get a wide open layup or a wide open three. That's like ball player movement offense.

both styles. I think a lot of times you'll see some coaches even be like, oh, why are we doing this brute force type of deal, And especially in the lower levels, you'll see that a lot in college basketball as well. And what they don't realize, those specific coaches is that when the game just degenerates at the end of games and the defenses are super locked in, the refs are swallowing their whistles and letting a lot of guys get away with fouls. They've seen your sets all games,

so they're in front of your sets. You need a guy who can just, you know, do what Anthony Edwards has been doing for the team USA and like backing his man down in the post and taking tough fade away jump shots over his right shoulder or taking tough pull up threes off the bounce. Like there's an important spot in the game for that style. But you don't want to do it all game. You want to ideally avoid it as much as possible unless you're in a late clock situation or you're at the end of a game.

same thing with Jalen Brunson. He's used to having the ball in his hands, having to make a ton of decisions for the Knicks, and then he conserves some energy on the defensive end and conserves some energy off the ball.

it's not an individual sport. Basketball is a team sport. So whatever we want to say about individual players, Jalen Brunson and Brandon Ingram are clearly the second and third best players on the team, right behind Anthony Edwards. But for whatever reason, in the flow of this basketball team,

it's not working super well. And that's because a team, a team of basketball players, a group of five basketball players in a lineup, is a very complicated living organism, and you're not just the sum of your parts there. You're actually about refilling responsibilities on the floor. And you've got three guys that love to fill the same responsibility

and aren't great in other situations. And so then when they go to the bench and Tyrese Halliburton comes in and he starts making super quick decisions and the ball's popping around, and guys like McHale Bridges and Austin Rais and Michale plays with the starters, but Kurr and Spolsha I've been leaning super heavy on him in minutes, so he's been playing a lot with the bench groups as well. But guys like mchal Bridges and Austin Reeves. McHale before he went to Brooklyn is used to being a guy

who's just spotting up and attacking closeouts. Reeves took on a bigger on ball responsibility with the Lakers at the end of the year, but he's used to playing off a Lebron James, and for a year and a half before that, he was primarily an off ball player. So those guys are comfortable playing in that style of basketball. They're used to not conserving energy but rather diverting most of their energy towards the defensive end and in the

dirty work of the game. And so the bench unit just seems to flow better, and it's more fluid offensively. And they've got Josh Hard out there sometimes too, and he plays a similar style. And Palo Bancaro's doing a really nice job just playing his ass off as a backup center. We'll get to that here in a little bit. But that bench group is just playing better and they're erasing deficits in their building leads. Tyrs Halliburton was a plus seventeen versus Germany, Jalen Brunson was plus five, and

Brandon Ingram was plus one. So that kind of gives you an idea of just how much more successful on the scoreboard the bench group has looked for the most part. But here's the thing, you guys know, I think Steve Kerr and Eric Spolser are the two best coaches in the world, and they see all of this stuff, and you could tell they made all of the necessary adjustments in that Germany game in the second half. Germany led by nine with about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

They also led by about thirteen uh with a few minutes left in the third quarter as well, and Steve Kerr and Eric Spolstra ended up closing with a more

sensical group of guys. It was Anthony Edwards with Austin Reeves and mckailbridge, just two great off ball players, Jaron Jackson as their defensive full crom at the center position, and then he went with either Tyre's Halliburton or Bobby Portis in the closing group, depending on what the size, because Germany was playing two centers and crashing the glass

a lot, so they had some issues there. And obviously if you go you know, ant Reeves Halliburton, that's a somewhat smaller you know one, two, three, right, So obviously they can go bigger when they need to by playing Bobby portis the way they did, or I even think they could get away with playing Palabanco in the closing group, So we'll get to that in a little bit. But they played much better down the stretch of that game. They got a ton of stops, they switched. They when

Tyre's Halliburton came in in the mid third quarter. They played that fluid offense as they shrunk the lead from thirteen down to something more manageable, even against some of

Germany's you know, starting lineup players. And then Anthony Edwards kind of took over the game late as more of a brute for style when it made sense, and honestly, it could have been better than it was because they were kind of locked up at eighty six there for a while and ant was doing a really nice job drawing multiple defenders and banking kickout passes, and they generated like back to back to back wide open threes on the left wing on the backside that they've missed just

happened to miss from good shooters. I think mcale bridges missed one two, Bobby Port dis missed a wide up and catch and shoot corner three. But then finally McHale Bridges made one, and because they were getting stops during that whole time, all of a sudden they're up three and then the league grows and they end up winning ninety nine ninety one. So I thought it was super interesting. Actually closed that game on a twenty two to five run, and like I said, if they would have shot better,

it could have been even better from there. So I think I think Steve Kerr and Eric Spoelstra have got a good feel for this team now after the five exhibition team games, and this is kind of what I put down. This is for my I've watched probably three and a half of the five games that they played, and here's what I've kind of picked up from this team. Anthony Edwards is clearly the best player, and he's the guy that when they go brute for style, they have

to run through Ant in the starting lineup. It's kind of like your turn, my turn. It's like Jalen and then it's Brandon, and then it's Ant and then it's Brandon, then it's Jalen, and you could just tell none of the three of them are really getting in a great rhythm, and so it's redundant and there's some diminishing returns there. But when Ant is actually the focal point of the offense, he's been fantastic. He's got a fifty seven percent through

shooting percentage so far in these five games. Is shooting fifty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, which is obviously amazing, eighty one percent at the rim, one point one to seven points per possession, and pick and roll so far, one point zero five points per possession in ISO, and then he's only run two post ups but he scored two points, so he's up over a point per possession in all three static half court

shot creation situations. And he's playing excellent d so it makes sense for him to be the fulkrum Jalen Brunson has played really well too, and if you look at his shot making and his stat at creation stuff, it's been great. But he hasn't been nearly as good defensively as Ant. It's actually been a little bit of a problem how much drible penetration he's giving up. So like it's with how well Tyre's Halliburton's playing with the bench group, I think you actually have to close with Jalen Brunson

on the bench the way that they did. But I'll kind of get to that here in a minute. Ingram just isn't playing super well. He's fourteen for thirty three from the field so far. He's shooting really well in catch and shoot situations, but he's missing just about anything else. I think he needs to kind of he's the biggest guy that needs to make an adjustment for this team

to have a chance to win the gold medal. I would have Brandon Ingram adopt more of a Michale Bridges play style, way fewer on ball reps, primarily focusing on defense and rebounding, which that starting group is struggling a little bit with rebounding, and then prioritize being a spot up player, taking and making ketch and shoot threes and

driving closeouts. If he kind of embraces more of a McHale Bridge's role, I think he becomes the perfect slot in with that closing group instead of having to go with Tyrese Halliburton or Bobby Portis or Palabancaro. Then you can close with Ingram and mchal Bridges next to each other.

But if brandon Ingram wants to not commit to the defensive end and just take a bunch of tough off the dribble jump shots, which right now he's not making, even though we know he can make them when he's the focal point of an offense, when he's in a Pelican's jersey. Right If he can't figure that out, I think you might have to go away from him in the closing group, but ideally you want Ingram to slot

into that role. Anthony Edwards is clearly the guy, like I said, Steve Kerr specifically said that I don't think it's a coincidence that I had Anthony Edwards as the highest player on Team USA in my player rankings this year at number fifteen. I continue to just be completely impressed by him. I am becoming a huge fan of his game and his overall attitude and competitiveness. I think

he's poised for a ridiculous season. You guys will see this in my season previews, which were a couple weeks away from from when I start going through teams like I think Minnesota, especially if they can figure out what to do with Carl Towns. If you give me Anthony Edwards with Jayden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert, and I'm getting a ton of stops, and I have that dude, Anthony Edwards, the alpha dog. I like my chance as his basketball team to win a lot of games and to make

some noise in the playoffs. So that's something I'm really looking forward to. The biggest thing that stood out to me from that closing group is Austin Reeves simply has to close with this group. He simplifies the pecking order of decision making. Austin Reeves is the guy I would basically replace Jalen Brunson with in the starting line or in not the starting lineup. I think you should start with Jalen Brunson because of the politics of it and

the egos at play. You start Jalen Brunson, but you give him a quick pull and then you close with Austin Reeves. Why simplifies decision making, gets the ball out of his hands and gets the ball in Anthony Edwards's hands instead of Anthony Edwards and Jalen Brunson basically playing tug of war over who controls possessions. Austin Reeves kind of simplifies that process. He's a dead eye spot up player. He's converted fifteen spot up possessions into twenty four points.

Think about how I'm saying that is that's one point six points per possession. He's eight for twelve on catching two threes, so you can't leave him open. He's gonna

make it every single time. If you chase him off the line, he's gonna make the right play and he's not gonna force a shot unless he has to at the end of the shot clock, which makes him the perfect guy to put at the end of a lineup like this, at the fifth guy and a four man when you have four other really talented players, Austin makes a ton of sense and he can create his own

shot if he needs to win a pinch. He's run fifteen pick and rolls, resulting in eighteen points, which is really good, and he's holding his own when teams target him on defense. Teams have tried to post him up as a mismatch five times and he's only given up four points, including forcing two turnovers. He had a really nice strip against Germany in their last game. I just think he's the perfect guy in that lineup. That's why

you see it in the scoreboard. That's why they're winning all their minutes with Austin Reeves on the floor by a lot, and that's why Steve kerb coach in the world went with him in the closing lineup. I think they need to continue to do that. Mckel bridges still has to close. He's been awesome. He's defending super well. He's kind of been like their dirty wark guy on the perimeter. He's shooting sixty seven percent effective field goal

percentage on catch and shoot jump shots. That's awesome. He's kind of like their Swiss army knife in that group. I think he makes a ton of sense. Obviously, Jaron Jackson has been holding down the rim. They've done a really nice job. They did it against Germany again twenty

two to five run over a seven minute span. That goes to show you just how good their defense can be when they really really lock in, because Jaron Jackson's such a gifted rim protector, and the guys in that lineup are doing their job chasing guys over the top of screens and funneling them into Jaron Jackson again. If Brandon so again, if we got Jaron Jackson, mckal bridges Austin Reeves and Anthony Edwards. That fifth guy is the

guy that's kind of up in the air. Again, if Ingram is locked in on the details, I think you close with Ingram. He's a better player, he has the tools to be a really impactful defensive player. Yeah, I go with Ingram. But if Ingram is not fused on those things and he's in his feelings about how he's not getting as much touches as he deserves, that's when you make a move to somebody different. If you can

get away with going small, depending on the matchup. I like Tyre's Halliburton dead eye catch and shoot shooter really good ball mover makes a ton of sense there. If you have to go big, Palo or Bobby Portis represent interesting options. I wanted to quick shout out Palamonkarra. I've been super impressed by him in these exhibitions, just with how hard he's playing. He's still a whole bull in

a china shop. On the offensive end of the floor, just kind of seems like a little bit rushed in his struggling to kind of identify what he should do in that role. But on the defensive end and rebounding I've actually been really impressed with him, and I kind of keep seeing this potential for small ball center with Palamoncarra. I remember when I watched him in Summer League the first time, his size was what flashed to me the

most as I was watching him play in person. He is absolutely huge, and he is capable of holding down a lineup as a backup center, And I think that's a really interesting thing for a potential future Orlando Magic group that could run out lineups with a bunch of dudes who are between you know, six eight and six eleven that can dribble, shoot and pass, but also can defend.

So that's super, super exciting. So essentially the pathway of the game, I'd stick with your existing starters, right, stick with Brunson and Ingram, with McHale, Bridges, Anthony Edwards, and Jaron Jackson. Quick plugs on Jalen Brunson and Brandon Ingram if they're not playing any defense. Obviously, rider bench groups longer. I'd stretch those units out longer, and then in the closing group you move Austin Reeves into it, and then if Brandon Ingram's not playing well, you slot someone else

in there. Now would I pick Team USA to win the World Cup this year. I think it makes a ton of sense that USA is the favorite, and if I had to pick one team, I certainly would pick USA to win. But if I had to choose, kind of like the old Tiger Woods question, if I had to choose between Tiger Woods in the field, or in this case, if I had to choose between Team USA

and the field, I'd pick the field. I just think I don't think Team USA is good enough to blow teams out, and that means they're going to be in close games, and there are some other really good players in this tournament that if they end up in a close game with Team USA, can out execute them, like Canada. Canada has shake Gil just Alexander who, in my opinion, I had him at thirteenth in my player rankings. I think he's better than anybody on Team USX and is

very close and ant could outplay him. But SGA is at least at that level, if not a little bit higher. They have Dylan Brooks, RJ Barrett, and Lou Dort, all guys who are outstanding perimeter defenders.

a floor spacer. Their flawed team because they like guys like Lou Dorton. Dylan Brooks can't shoot and RJ. Barrett's somewhat inconsistent as a shooter, so they can go really cold offensively for a while. So I would not pick

them to win. I'd pick USA to win. But yeah, if you're in a dog fight against Team USA, there's absolutely a chance that are that you know, Dylan Brooks and r J. Barrett and Loud dort could lock in on defense and shake Gildas Alexander could make a bunch of big plays offensively down the stretch and beat a USA team in an elimination game. So that's a team

that's a threat. France has Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier Obviously a bad shooting game from Team USA where they're all over penetrating into Rudy Gobert could be a problem if fourtyer makes some shots. Australia has Josh Giddey and Patty Mills and Matisse Thaibel. They did lose Jack Landale, which severely hurts their chance as he had an ankle injury, but they still have a puncher's chance. And then Slovenia like Lucas having an awesome sequence here, he's just absolutely

flambaying everybody in the post. He's got twenty two points on thirteen post ups so far this summer, one point one to two points per possession in ISO, fifty six percent effective filial percentage on pull up jump shots. He's playing super well. I wouldn't want to face him in an elimination game. So again, like I picked the US in any of those matchups, but they're not good enough to blow those teams out and you get a couple of close games, all it takes is one of them

going the wrong way. So USA should be the favorite. I'm gonna pick them to win the tournament. But given the choice between the US and the field. I think the field is a safer bet. We're continuing our top twenty five players the last twenty five years today with number seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, and fourteen. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels.

You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any SHO announcements. And for whatever reason you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So a couple things from the comments on the last video. First of all, shout out to Mounibe two thousand and one or MUNEEB two thousand

and one. You were the person who guessed the two players ahead on the list that are not champions and

Steve Nash and Allen Iverson, so good guest. There also still several of you guys who are very upset with Chris Paul not being on the list, and I talked a little bit about this yesterday, but the consistent theme that I'm seeing from people is saying that talking about rings culture and how that messes with analysis, and then just basically struggling to see the difference between evaluating players in a vacuum versus what actually happened, Right, So, like

I want to differentiate between those two because there's value in both.

let's talk about what actually happened. And even though I do view Luka Doncic in a vacuum as one of the five best basketball players in the world, there were nine guys this season that I thought deserved more credit for what they accomplished actually in the actual basketball games that took place, Right, And so that's just kind of a difference between those two concepts. As a general manager, if I have an option in an open draft to take Jimmy Butler or Luka Doncic or year twenty one

Lebron James or Luka Doncic, I'm obviously taking Luca. But I'm not operating in a vacuum. That list, for me, is more of an awards ceremony. If you guys did a list, you might look at it more as an in a vacuum type of situation. And if we were discussing the list in that sort of situation, I'm obviously gonna rank my list very differently. Chris Paul is obviously a better basketball player than guys like Chauncey Billups or Jason Kidd right, or even Tony Parker, but I Jason

Kidd it's more of a toss up. But at least with Chauncey Billups and Tony Parker, you're taking Chris right. And if we were operating in a vacuum, then yeah, I would have Chris Paul that high. But again, mine's more of an awards ceremony. Mine is more talking about what actually happened, and those guys have more impressive resumes to me in terms of top end accomplishments as it

pertains to winning basketball games at the highest level. Obviously, if I took Tony Parker and swapped him out for Chris Paul, Chris Paul is going to be a multiple time champion right now. But that I just want to differentiate between those two. It's not like I'm saying Chris Paul's not top twenty five because I'm just trying to shit on who he was as a basketball player. That's not what I'm saying. I'm literally talking about what actually happened,

and I see there's value in that. I think that in terms of reflecting on life, we have a tendency to try to talk about what could have been right, Like, even me personally, there are times when I look back and think about some decisions I made in my early twenties that directly affected my basketball career, and sometimes I think about what might have happened had I done something differently.

And that's great, but that's not what happened. What actually happened is what actually happened, and I'm here where I am as a result, and my college basketball story is a product of that. Right, And that's set in stone. I can't go back and change that, and that is

the reality. We can talk about what might have happened with Chris Paul if he got an opportunity to be the second best player on a team while he was in his prime, but unfortunately we didn't really get that option, and so we don't get to have that data, and there is no trophy at the end of that road. And so again, if it helps you, guys, one of the easiest ways to put it is this list is

more of an award ceremony. This is a is a chance to look back at what actually happened in NBA history and focus on that rather than talking about hypotheticals. You'll notice we add the big what if so that we can talk about hypotheticals over the course of this. And again, like I talked, Chris Paul is still active. Chris Paul's a player that I've talked about a lot on my show. Again, like I said yesterday, you guys know how highly I view him in terms of his

actual basketball team when he was at his peak. But just for the criteria I set up on this list, it came up differently. If I was evaluating the top twenty five players the last twenty five years just based solely on in a vacuum performance. Yeah, guys like Joel Embiid aren't going to make the list, right, It's gonna be a little bit different. You're going to valuate guys a little bit different. But that's not how it works.

So hopefully that gives you guys. Again, like I said yesterday, this is an attempt to number three to explain it.

he was with the Pelicans. He was the second best player on a championship team in twenty twenty, four time first team All NBA, six time All NBA Overall, four time All Defense, and he led the league in blocks three times blocks per game. I should say I put

his prime down is twenty fifteen to the present. In that stretch, he averaged twenty six points, eleven rebounds, and three assists per game to go with two point three blocks per game on fifty nine percent true shooting, and in the playoffs he averaged twenty six eleven to three with two point two blocks per game on sixty two percent true shooting. I think Anthony Davis, like when we look back on this era, his claim to fame as he's the best defensive player of this era when he's healthy.

There are more accomplished defensive players right, guys like Kawhi Leonard Draymond Green that have won more awards and have had more recognition in terms of what they can do. Rudy Gobert is another guy that's got a lot of regular season recognition. But when it comes down to actual defensive peak, I have never seen a player in this era reached the individual defensive ceiling that Anthony Davis reached in the twenty twenty playoffs, and he was just only

a small level below that in this past postseason. When it comes to actual defensive impact on game by on a game by one single player or on a series by one single player, I don't think anybody in this era has touched what Anthony Davis has been able to do, and I think that's what he'll be remembered for his archetype. He's one of the few unicorns to come into the NBA in this century. He doesn't really resemble any player

who came before. Ridiculous length. He six foot ten, but he has a seven foot six wingspan, his super quick feet, in good hand eye coordination. He handles the ball really well, moves his feet really well. He's not clumsy, great hands, catches and finishes everything around the rim. Like I said earlier, best defender of this era, best rim protector in this era.

As a matter of fact, if we remove Walker Kessler only as one season, no player in the entire NBA has averaged more blocks per game than Anthony Davis since he came into the league in twenty fifteen. It's also a good switch defender. We look at situations like the semi finals this year and him getting a couple of stops on Steph Curry and even stretching into the regular season the last couple of years, you see guards like get a switch on Anthony Davis and they think they

can beat him off. The dribble, like Kate Cunningham did it a couple times in Detroit, or Tyrese Haliburton did it this year with the Pacers.

I think he's the best vertical spacer in the league. I think if there's a guy that you're talking about throwing lobs above the rim, there's nobody better than Anthony Davis.

as a shot creator. That twenty twenty postseason, though, was an interesting little window of time, which we'll come back

to in a little bit. His crowning achievement was he was the second best player on the twenty twenty Lakers, and not just a usual second best player like we've talked about in other elements of this list, like Anthony Davis, was a bona fide top tier superstar in that playoff run, like Lebron, James was better than him in that playoff run, but only because he was the best player in the world.

I thought Lebron was the best player in the world that season, but I ranked Anthony Davis at four that season. I basically went Lebron's Steph kd and then Anthony Davis at that point, and then I think I had Yiannis at five if I remember correctly, at that point in time, But Anthony Davis was a number two, but only in relation to Lebron James. He was every bit the superstar that the other guys at the top of the league

were at that point. He averaged twenty eight points, ten rebounds, and four assists in that playoff run on sixty seven percent true shooting, which is ridiculous, but his shot making was just off the charts. Fifty nine percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers in that playoff run, forty five percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots in that playoff run, fifty two percent on runners, and seventy eight percent at the rim. And it led

to this super high level half court shot creation. Became a big deal for the Lakers that they could just dump the ball to Anthony Davis in the post with seven seconds on the shot clock and he was going to get a bucket basically one out of two times. As a matter of fact, he ran one hundred and ninety eight ISOs and post ups in that playoff run, scored two hundred and seventeen points, including passes, So just

a ridiculous shot creation postseason for Anthony Davis. A ton of tough jump shots off the dribble over both shoulders, off of different footwork and dribble combinations. He was just a huge part of what made the Lakers a championship team in that season. It was very much Lebron won a Anthony Davis one B, which I think kind of sets him apart from some of his peers. Now he hasn't been able to replicate that offensive success since that point,

but it doesn't really matter. He did it long enough to get Alari O'Brien Trophy, and that makes you immortal, basically in the history of the NBA. Biggest one if of Anthony Davis's career what if in the twenty twenty season it didn't get stopped by COVID. And the reason why I say that is the Lakers I thought would have won the championship anyway. They started the season twenty four and three that year. I thought they were clearly the best team in the league. They were the best

team in the West. They had some issues with the Clippers earlier in the season, but they solved those issues right before the season got shut down, they took care of the Clippers in a game on the road, on the road, but in the Clippers arena, and then they had also beat the Bucks, and Lebron was like in a position where he was in a good spot to win MVP. I actually thought he should have won MVP that year, but then the season gets cut short. Now

why does that matter? Because I do believe they would have won the title anyway, And in a traditional off season where Anthony Davis gets the rest, I think he comes into the following year in better shape and I think he has better injury luck. But instead there was

this ridiculously quick turnaround. As matter of fact, the Lakers hoisted the trophy on October eleventh, and then on December twenty second, they were playing a regular season NBA game, with obviously training camp to coming in a couple weeks before that, so they basically got like maybe six weeks

off before they had to start playing basketball again. And I do think that Anthony Davis ended up taking most of that time off, as did most of the players on the Lakers, and I think that that directly led to some of the injury issues that they dealt with in that particular season which kind of spiraled over the course of the next couple years for Ad, and I wonder sometimes if that twenty twenty season was more normal, if Ad was in a traditional kind of routine that

he had been in for the earlier seasons of his career, I wonder if he would have been healthier. Moving on to number sixteen, Jason Kidd, one time NBA champion in twenty eleven as a role player for the Dallas Mavericks. Also a two time best player on a finals team with the New Jersey Nets in the early two thousand. Five time first team All NBA, six time All NBA in total, nine time All defense, led the league in assists five times. The prime I put down from nineteen

ninety six to twenty ten. It's ridiculously long prime. He made an All Star team in nineteen ninety six and then made another All Star team in twenty ten. Fourteen point seven rebounds in nine a sis with two steals per game on fifty one percent tru shooting fifteen to seven and nine with two steals in the playoffs on fifty percent true shooting. His claim to fame, he was one of the best defensive guards in the league during that era. But he was the master of the fast break.

That was he was probably the very best player in the league at playing fast break basketball at that particular time. That New Jersey Nets team was super fun. They were super athletic. They had this ridiculous front line with Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin. They also had carry kittles out there.

They would just get stops and run the floor. They were the number one defense in the league in two thousand and two, eight in two thousand and three, and they just got stops and they ran it down your throat. And Jason Kidd was like a really good athlete that would just go down the floor with crazy pace and then if you didn't stop him, he was going all the way to the rim and laying it up. And if you did stop him, he just had he just had massive control over the fast break to get easy

dunks and layups. In transition. He also kind of he had this like those of you guys who watched back in that era will remember, he would like kind of throw these like one arm passes up the floor, just like these rifle passes up the floor. When guys would get ahead on the break. That was like the identity of the New Jersey nets. They got stops and they ran in transition. They just ran it down your throat. So let from there, let's just skip ahead to the

crowning achievement and we'll come back to his archetype. So he was the best player on two NBA Finals teams, literally got within two wins of an NBA championship in two thousand and three. He also finished second in MVP voting behind him Duncan in two thousand and two. In that two year span, he averaged seventeen points, seven rebounds and nine assists twenty points, eight rebounds and nine assists

in the playoffs. And they were actually down by two in Game five of the two thousand and three NBA Finals with four and a half minutes left and they just couldn't get it done. Steve Kerr hit a couple of big jump shots down the stretch of that game and the Spurs ended up winning, and then they closed it out in six. But they were pretty close relative to some other Finals teams to actually getting the job done. And then after that he had some knee issues and

kind of lost his ceiling at that point. But we'll get to that in a minute. His archetype just a huge guard six foot four, two hundred and fifteen pounds. He was one of the best defenders in the league, really good defensive end. Steaks, played passing lanes well, disrupted ball handlers. He was actually a lot of people don't realize this. Jason Kidd his second all time in NBA history in steals. He could switch and guard bigger players as well, famously did so to Lebron James in the

twenty eleven NBA Finals. At times, a decent half court offensive player got to the rim a lot. Is different than Chauncey. Billups is very right hand heavy, loved to drive to the right, like to get all the way to the rim. Not much of a pull up shooter. He took some and he made some, but not nearly as frequent a pull up jump shooter as someone like Chouncey was. He's good at drawing fouls, like a lot of the big guards from that era, played a lot of post up basketball, but again, he was at his

best in transition. That was like his bread and butter. He was an inconsistent jump shooter early in his career, but he worked really hard at it and became basically a dead eye jump shooter in catch and shoot situations by the tail end of his career, which turned him

into a functional role player on a championship team. Something that like, that's what I was kind of talking about with Russell Westbrook earlier, Like when Jason Kidd had his knee injury and started to decline, he changed his game and became a player that could kind of change his

role and in fit within a championship context. As a matter of fact, in the twenty ten season, Jason Kidd took over four hundred catch and shoot jump shots and made them at a sixty five percent effective field goal percentage. So it gives you an idea of the level of a competency he built as a jump shooter towards the tail end of his career. Biggest one if of Jason Kid's career, in my opinion, is what if his knee

held up. He had microfracture surgery in two thousand and four, never really got back to what he was as an athlete after that. And the reason why that's interesting to me is the league was why open during that stretch from two thousand and four to two thousand and eight, we had five different NBA champions, and so it's interesting to think if he had held up, whether or not him and the Nets could have broken through one of

those years. Number fifteen Dwight Howard NBA Champion as a role player with the Lakers in twenty twenty, best player on a finals team in two thousand and nine with the Orlando Magic. Five time First Team All NBA, eight total All NBA selections, three time Defensive Player of the Year, five times All Defense, five time Rebounding Leader of the Year, a rebounding champion, whatever you want to call it, two

time block leader for the NBA. His prime, I put down his two thousand and seven to twenty fourteen, and that span he averaged twenty points and thirteen rebounds to go with two point three blocks per game. In the playoffs, he averaged twenty points fourteen rebounds with two point seven blocks per game. His claim to fame was he was the best center in the NBA. During his prime, he had four consecutive top five MVP finishes. He was the runner up for MVP in twenty eleven. He had fifty

one games with twenty points and twenty rebounds. As a matter of fact, if you go back I was using an AI platform for this, but if you go back to nineteen eighty three is basically the cutoff. Since nineteen eighty three, nobody in the NBA has had more twenty twenty games than Dwight Howard. Anybody got a guess who's number two. If you guessed Andre Drummond, you were correct. That's a random one for you. But Dwight was also the very best defensive player in the league and the

best vertical spacer in the league. Iconically had a game winning dunk on a sideline at a bounds lob in a regular season game in his early Magic career. His archetype, you know, it's hard to describe. He was another unicorn. He was just a complete mountain of a man at his position. The way I would describe it as like the way that Giannis looks as a power forward, and it just doesn't even make sense to see him next to other power forwards. That's the way Dwight Howard looked

next to other centers. He just was chiseled and filled out in a way that just was completely different than any other NBA player at that point. His very best defensive player in the league. Was a ridiculous rim protector. As a matter of fact, he's thirteenth on the all time NBA blocks list, which is really impressive when you factor in the number of injuries that he dealt with. He's a pretty good post up player, of but it never as good as he should have been. Had decent footwork.

Is basically like he'd go through the lane with these sweeping hooks, so he'd kind of like go across the lane off of his left foot and take like a right handed sweeping look in the lane, a hook in the lane towards the baseline. It was more of a traditional footwear kind of like paw gasol or just drop step and then like a left handed hook on the right on the left block and a right handed hook

on the right block along the baseline. He had a decent spin move too, a really good power dribble where he just shut guys off with that left shoulder and send him flying and just rise up and dunk. A lot of you guys have seen, you know, a half dozen or so crazy Dwight Howard post up dunks. Good little hook shot. You made it just under half of the time, not as sharp as he probably should have been with that shot, but he was pretty good with

his hook shot. Really, the thing that held him down was in terms of his post up efficiency was he really struggled to make free throws, was consistently in the mid fifties low sixties, right, and then he was never a good passer. And this is actually a crazy stat.

Dwight Howard amassed on six hundred and seventy six assists in his career to go with three thousand, three hundred and two turnovers, almost double, and so the turnovers in the miss free throws just kind of like hindered some of his success as a post player, despite having some okay footwork and a decent hook shot. Right, So, he was consistently below a point per possession in post up situations and just not quite as good as his peers.

His crowning achievement. You could go two different ways here. You could talk about his peak as a player, which I think was in twenty eleven. He averaged twenty three and fourteen on sixty two percent through shooting and finished second in the MVP race, but he lost in the first round. So you guys know, I'm going to go with the playoff accomplishment, So I put Dwight's claim to fame as or his crowning achievement as the two thousand and nine Finals run. The two thousand and nine Magic

were a really fun team. They were the best defense in the league, anchored by Dwight Howard, but they had this really good offense that wasn't as centered around Dwight Howard as you would think. They did run a lot of post ups for Dwight, but they were mainly a

pick and roll team. They had these two really good pick and roll handlers in Jimy or Nelson in he know, Turco Glue, and they actually ran more pick and roll than anybody in the league that season, and a lot of it was just Dwight setting good screens, rolling hard to the Ramy's the best vertical spacer in the league at the time, and then they just had a ton of shooting. With Courtney Lee out there and with Richard Lewis out there, just everybody could shoot.

to show you how much the league has changed. But they spread teams out, they got great looks and pick and roll, and they played great defense, and that was their identity. They upset the one seed Cavs team in the Eastern Conference Finals despite Lebron James averaging thirty nine nine to eight, or excuse me, thirty nine to eight to eight on fifty nine percent tru shooting. But Dwight just absolutely obliterated Zydrunas so Oguskis and Anderson Verjau average

like twenty eight in the series. He had forty points and fourteen rebounds in Game six, knocked down all most of his free throws. He was twelve for sixteen from the line in that game too. But then he ran into the Lakers and the Lakers just defended Dwight extremely well. They held him down to fifteen points per game. Dwight also had twenty turnovers in five games. You can do the math there, and they ended up losing the series

in five games. I wanted to shout out Dwight Howard for his late career here because he bounced around as weird like they had a couple decent years in Houston, right, he gets eliminated by that crazy Damian Lillard buzzard beater in twenty fourteen. Then they make it to the conference finals in twenty fifteen, but they get their butts kicked. But then he's all over the place. A year in Atlanta, a year in Charlotte, he did a year in Washington, but then he finally settles down in La this weird

non guaranteed contract. Tell him he's never gonna start, he's gonna come off the bench, even though he's better than JaVale McGee. Basically just like, we don't want to deal with any of your shit, so you can come here. But there's gonna be all these stipulations. And to Dwight's credit, he fit in extremely well. Was a great teammate, was a super important bench piece for the Lakers, ended up starting some key games for the Lakers in the postseason.

Was a huge defensive weapon against Nicole Jokic. Ended up getting his contract guaranteed in the middle of the season, kind of as like a sign of the Lakers kind of buying into him and giving him that vote of confidence, and just was a really important piece for a very very good NBA championship team in the twenty twenty Los Angeles Lakers. Was probably like their sixth or seventh best player on that team. Biggest what if of Dwight Howard's career?

What if Courtney Lee makes the layup at the buzzer of Game two of the two thousand and nine NBA Finals. So it was a really smart play design right. Games tied I think at eighty eight, and they're inbounding from the opposite sideline and Dwight's posting up power right in front of the passer, which pulls Powell into basically post defense right like a three quarter front, which takes him away from the rim because he Dwight standing outside the block.

Everybody else is kind of above the key, and Courtney Lee's at the top of the key, and Rashard Lewis actually comes up and sets a backscreen on Kobe Bryant, who's guarding Courtney Lee. And because the rim was vacant and because Kobe didn't switch the screen like they probably should have. Courtney Lee ends up getting a pretty good look at the rim on a lob pass and he

smokes it. But even crazier if you actually remember in that game, on the previous possession, in a late shot clock situation, Courtney Lee actually drives into the lane and misses another layup, a little right handed scoop shot. Both of these were tough shots. I don't want to act like they were one hundred percent layups.

not won an NBA Championship. Again, shout out to Monique two thousand and one, who guessed the two players correct in Steve Nation. Allen Iverson he was the best player on the finals team in two thousand and one. Three time first team All NBA, seven times All NBA total selections, four time scoring champion, and a three time steals leader. In the NBA, he won the two thousand and one regular season MVP Award as well. His prime I put down from nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and eight.

In that stretch, he averaged twenty nine points, four rebounds, and six assists on fifty two percent true shooting. In the playoffs, thirty points, four rebounds and six assists on forty nine percent true shooting. We'll talk about efficiency in the minute, because I think that's a big thing that kind of colors Allen Iverson's career that I want to

dive into a little bit. Allen's claimed to faint. I thought he was the very best scorer of the early two thousands, and probably the second best scorer of that entire era behind Kobe Bryant. In fact, if you pull up total points, if you look just at the window of Iverson's prime from two thousand, excuse me, nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and eight, he was second in total points behind Kobe with nineteen four hundred and forty three.

Anybody got a guess who's third place again? Kobe's first. Going from ninety nine to oh eight, Kobe's first, Allen Iverson second. Anybody got a guest for third place. If you guess Dirk, you're correct fourth place. I'll be really surprised if anybody can get this. Paul Pierce was fourth and scoring over that span.

high volume pull up shooting. He had this crazy arsenal of traditional pull ups and like these drifting little leaners and fadeaways in the lane. He was really good at generating like close pull up jump shots to the rim. Here's how ahead of the game Alan Iverson was as a pull up jump shooter in two thousand and five, which is as far back as Synergy goes with their tracking. Iverson attempted six hundred and seventy two pull up jump shots. Second most in the league was Tracy McGrady with four

fifty one. So Alan Iverson attempted two hundred and twenty one more pull up jump shots than anybody else in the entire NBA during that season. Even crazier, here's how ahead of the game he was. His six hundred and seventy two attempts and pull up jump shots would have ranked second in the NBA this year, behind DeMar derozen So just like kind of invented the idea of a guard just taking a ton of pull up jump shots as you would find openings off the dribble. There's also

a freaky athlete in his younger years. A lot of people forget about that. I would say that there is a decent argument to be made that nobody in this era, in this list of other than maybe Steph Curry, nobody in this list from nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and three twenty twenty three like influenced the games of basketball as much as Alan Iverson. Again, like, if you my generation people that are in there, I would say anybody who's in their early thirties, between thirty and thirty five.

You guys, if you're from that group, Alan Iverson just was the guy we all wanted to be like. Everyone wanted to look like him on the court. Copied his moves, we copied his drible combinations and his footwork. It's just what we did. His crowning achievement, he was the best player on a finals team in two thousand and one. The two thousand and one and six Ers were a really interesting team because they were top five defense in the league, anchored by Tacambi Matumbo, and they also had

just a ton of athleticism around him. Aaron McKee and Tyrone Hill were important wings on that team. Eric Snow was one of the very best defensive guards in the league. On that particular team kind of took a lot of the point of attack assignments that Allan Iverson didn't want to take, and basically they got stops and they let Alan Iverson cook. They won a ton of games that way.

They were the one seed in the conference. They won a couple of hard fought series against Vince Carter's Raptors and against Ray Allen's Bucks, and then they ran into one of the greatest teams of all time in the two thousand and one Lakers.

than Kobe Bryant does. And the main reason why is the using of efficiency to just to compare straight across with players from this era when the game is very different, and using that to undermine what they accomplished. You got to remember, like the league in general had almost no shooting on the floor and was just completely clogged and there was no space to operate. That was already what

it was like. It was especially like that on those sixers teams that were very defensive minded, and so Alan Iverson was forced to constantly take and make incredibly difficult shots, and so his percentage is suffered for that. You can tell by just looking at the rest of that era and all of the scorers, and all of the scorers were relatively low efficiency compared to the scorers of this era.

But that's just how the game has changed. With Alan Iverson's quickness, his athleticism early in his career, his handle and his jump shooting in his basketball IQ. If I picked him up today and I dropped him on the Oklahoma City Thunder instead of Shake Guild, just Alexander, He's going to be as efficient as Shake Guil Just Alexander. Like,

that's the bridge. The gap that we have to bridge with these conversations is you can't apples to apples comparison over to eras you have different players on the floor, as it leads to different spacing. The rules were interpreted slightly differently in those eras the pace of the game was different. The also just like again you have to understand, like the you're only incapable of operating with the information

that's available to you at the time. Right Like now, we know there's a ton of value in three point shooting, and so we take a lot of threes, But back then it just wasn't something that the league was very interested in. I read to you guys the three point attempt numbers earlier when we were talking about the magic. So like, it just was a different era. So you got to look at it within the scope of that particular era and again, say what you want about the

efficiency even relative to his peers. That was a sixers team that depended on him to take incredibly difficult shots, and that's what he had to do. And so I hope that and also that's what I meant as the as the what if if Allen Iverson played in today's era, you would have been way more efficient, and I wonder if you would have been looked at more positively compared to his peers. All right, guys, that is all we

have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with thirteen, twelve eleven, and then we're heading into one player a week, one player a day for the next two weeks. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow. The volume