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varies by jurisdiction, void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash ft ball. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody'll ball. You guys had a great week. We are continuing our player rankings today with number seven as well as number six. Then we'll get into some of the arguments from the comments at the tail end
of the show. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcement. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful. V leave a rating and a review on that front. In the last, but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions
in the YouTube comments. If you disagree with the ranking, make your case and we will include it in the mailbag, the mailbag segment that we do at the tail end of these shows. As we move forward with the list, all right, let's talk some basketball. Remember, as I have to kind of throw out as a disclaimer at the beginning of every single one of these videos, this is not a who's the best basketball player just right now for a game that's tomorrow or for a series that
starts tomorrow. The entire premise of this list is if I had thirty GMS, I should say twenty five GMS. If I had twenty five GMS and we were drafting for a season that starts in October, meaning a training camp all the way through a potential NBA Finals series in June, who is the player that brings the most value within that context. So it's a combination of three factors. Your durability in the regular season as well as your
motor in the regular season. So how hard you play on a night to night basis two, how well your game translates to the postseason, or you a playoff riser, a playoff dropper, or a guy who kind of stays at his level. And then three, how versatile are you? Because theoretically, if I picked you with my first pick, I would have to turn around twenty five picks later or thirty picks later or whatever, and I have to pick another player and another player until I got up
to fifteen. And obviously whichever player I pick first has a direct impact on what I need for my second pick and my third pick and my fourth pick. A highly versatile player will give me lots of flexibility and who I can add around them. A very one dimensional player will give me not as much flexibility, and I'll have to be very deliberate about the types of players
that I put around them. So, for instance, like if I have a very versatile player, and I might in my second pick, I might just take the most talented player available, Whereas if I had a limited player in terms of versatility and my second pick came around, I might have to pass on the most talented yeah, to find a guy that fits better with the specific style that he wants to play. So again, that's the criteria
for this list. I just have to keep throwing it out just that we don't have any confusion in terms of like where these guys are ranked like, both of these guys today are guys that I would have lower on this list for a playoff series that starts tomorrow. But that's not how this particular list is working, all right,
So without any further ado, Number seven Jason Tatum. Last year seventy four games, played twenty six point nine points per game, eight point one rebounds, four point nine assists, a slight dipping usage, he went down from a little over thirty two percent usage percentage to thirty point two percent.
It's actually his lowest usage rate since twenty twenty, to be expected with the influx of Drew Holliday as well as Christops Porzingis and just Jalen Brown improving as a ball handler, so just a lot more sharing the load, so it makes sense that his usage would dip. He had a very specific offensive role on this team, which
we'll get more into later. He had one point six stocks per game, shooting splits forty seven percent from the field, thirty eight percent from three, eighty three percent from the line, which amounts to fifty five percent in effective field goal percentage and sixty percent and true shooting percentage. For the first time in his career, he's had two seasons in
a row over sixty percent true shooting. His shooting stats per Synergy, he got one point zero five points per jump shot, excellent off the catch, one point two to three points per shot when he's shooting off the catch, far more efficient when he's open, though, which I thought was interesting. One point four to three points per shot when he was unguarded versus one point one point one
when he was guarded. Now that makes a lot of sense to me, because as we've talked a lot about, his shot has become very hitchy and like it's got a long load up and he really tucks that elbow in and it just kind of looks a little funky, and so like, if he's got lots of time to set that whole routine up, it's going to go in at a high rate. But anything disrupts that, whether it's an off the dribble jump shot or more of a contested jump shot, he tends to struggle. Shot just zero
point nine to seven points per shot off the dribble. Again, this is that's the same number that Lebron had, right Lebron was also at zero point nine to seven. But there's a big difference. Lebron attempted three and a half per game. Tatum attempted seven and a half per game. And that's always been my big, my biggest complaint with Tatum. You got to take and make pull up jump shots as an on ball creator. It's an important coverage beater. And it's okay to be a mediocre pull up shooter
when you do everything else that Tatum does right. You know, it obviously brings a ton of size to the table. It's better playmaker than most of his peers at his position, an extremely versatile defensive player. Like if he was also just a deadly pull up shooter, he'd be one of the best players in the league. Right, But like with that being the case, with you being a mediocre jump shooter, you want to use it primarily as a counter and
coverage beater, right, like the way Lebron uses it. He's gonna put a few up every game just to keep the defense honest. But it's not something that makes up a large portion of his shot volume. For Jason Tatum, forty percent of his field goal attempts are pull up jump shots. And that's where I get critical of him because I just feel like if you just tweaked that a little bit, Like it doesn't mean you have to
do it the way Lebron does. But let's say you cut it down from seven and a half to four and a half, and those additional three attempts were like more aggressive, more aggressive off the catch threes, or more bullyball towards the basket. That could be something that bumps his efficiency up from sixty percent true shooting to sixty two to sixty three percent true shooting and his scoring volume up, And that's that's one of those things that
I'd like to see him address. But there's another version of this where Tatum is playing the long game and maybe he's betting on like now he's bad at it, but maybe five years from now, when he's in his early thirties, it's a huge part of his game and maybe that'll all work out and then that's what we'll
look back at this as. But at this point in time, we're on a seven year run here where Tatum is going very high volume on pull up jump shots without making them above a point per shot, which I think is where I think you gotta be over a point per shot to be taking him as often as Tatum does. Did get one point zero five points per face up jumpers, so like jab step jumpers in ISO, he took one hundred and sixty five of them to last year, which is over two per game. I thought that was interesting.
Shot forty percent on floaters, albeit on low volume, and sixty three percent at the rim. Now that's a little like anything over sixty percent is good, but it's a little disappointing for a player as big and strong as he is. Like if you look at his peers around the league, like Lebron sixty seven percent, Kawhi seventy two percent, Luca seventy one percent, kd seventy two percent, Tatum sixty three percent, Obviously, I think he should be closer up
into that sixty seven sixty eight percent. The main reason there, I think is he just is always sticking his arms out looking to draw fouls. When he's going up to the basket, he's losing all of his strength. It's a simple question of torqu right, Like if you're coming up through your power line, you can weather contact more, but if you have your arms out, there's just more torque there for the defender to pull on and you lose that momentum going up to the basket where you start
to miss shots. Play type data one point one zero points per pick and roll, which is excellent. That's the eighty seventh percent tile on seven hundred and twenty six seven hundred and twenty six possessions. Mostly about his passing ability, which we're going to talk a lot about today. Like Tatum only shot forty two percent in ball screens and still got one point one points per pick and roll. And the main reason why is because he was the
main entry point for Boston's driving kick attack. So the vast majority of Tatum's ball screens took place at the top of the key. It was interesting because I was watching a bunch of them this morning and they were all like right at the top of the key, right at the top of the key, and then I actually dug into the numbers on Synergy, eighty five percent of Tatum's ball screens are run directly from the top of the key. So he doesn't run left side pick and roll,
he doesn't run right side pick and roll. He runs most of his pick and roll right in the middle of the floor. From there, it's usually either porzingis pick and pop or a ghost screen with one of the guards. Those are the two primary actions that he'll run. And obviously Horford could do the same thing that Porzingis does, But from there, Tatum's literally just waiting for a gap to generate as that defender lingers before that guy slips. So, for instance, let's imagine Tatum at the top of the
key with the ball in his right hand. Okay, and let's pretend that we have, you know, a shooter on the right wing. Shoot her in the right corner, shoot her in the left corner, and Porzingis is gonna come set it for Tatum, and he's gonna slip to the left wing where there's a vacancy. So as he sets that screen, Tatum is gonna come off, and as he's coming off, in all likelihood, that defender is going to hedge or try to find an opportunity to step in and stop, to try to step in and stop Jason
Tatum from turning the corner right. Same thing applies to a guard. Let's say Derek White sets the screen. As Derek White comes a screen on Tatum's right hand side, Derek White's defender is going to hedge to try to stop Tatum from turning the corner because again, if he doesn't hedge, Tatum's just going right downhill because that not gonna be able to fight through that screen to stop
Jason Tatum with the full head of team. So as that screen is getting set and as that guy is showing on Tatum's right hand drive, every single time Porzingis or Derek White, whoever it is, can slip to that left wing and he's gonna be open for a second. That is an important part of how Boston's offense works. Boston's offense is not a Luca don chicic, you know, heliocentric. We're gonna dribble the ball across the floor slow, We're
gonna cross half court at sixteen seconds. We're gonna get into a guard guard screen, and then we're gonna get to get a switch, and then we're gonna run a ball screen with like nine on the shot clock, and I'm either shooting or I'm throwing the lob, or I'm skipping to the corner, and that guy's shooting, he might have time to drive the close out. That's it. That's not how Boston's offense works. They want to get their spacing earlier in the clock. They want to get an
initial advantage. In this case, Derek White's slipping to the left wing or porzingis slipping to the left wing, and then from there that guy is going to drive close out to try to draw additional defenders and make reads out of it. They want multiple drive in kicks in the same possession to get high quality shots. Right That's
like how Boston's offense works. And to Tatum's credit, like even though he didn't shoot super well, especially in the postseason, but even though he's not like the kind of on ball score that some of his peers are at the top of the league, he's very deliberate about creating that initial advantage, which is specifically what Boston needs. Right Like, as soon as you get that initial advantage, it's just simple drive and kick basketball from there. But you've got
to get that initial advantage. As we talked about over the last couple of years, when Boston was at their worst, it was when they would forego that to take early clock shots like dribbling up the floor into transition threes, quick early clock ISOs from Tatum or Jalen Brown, right Like, that was when they would kind of get out of
their flow. Offensively, got to have that kind of stuff for late clock situations, but ideally for Boston's offense in the early part of the clock, they want to create that initial advantage, which is something that we saw a lot of from Tatum this particular year. Again, eighty seventh percentile, seven hundred and twenty six possessions. That's pretty big volume. That's not the high volume list over a thousand, but
that's to be expected. He's playing with Drew, he's playing with Derek, he's playing with Jalen right, so like he's not gonna get as many reps, but that's just really really efficient shot creation within the context of what his team needs. Again, like a lot of times, obviously it's not as applicable for this list because this list is very much in a vacuum, But when we're actually in the season, what do I always tell you, guys, how good a basketball player is really only matters within the
context of his team. So, like, is Jamal Murray as good of a two guard as some of the other two guards around the league. No, But within the context of Denver, his ability to hit pull up jump shots is profoundly valuable as a ceiling razor for that team. Same goes for Tatum. Can I pick Jason Tatum up and drop him in Dallas and have him be as
good of a shot creator as Luka doncic Hell. No, right, But within the context of Boston, where you just need him to create that initial advantage so that their super talented off ball players can capitalize on that advantage through driving kick. He's actually one of the more valuable shot creators in the league, and so again doesn't apply as much to this list, but within the context of Boston,
that's what makes Tatum so impactful. He's the key that unlocks their defense, and he's the guy that initially creates the advantage for them on the offensive end of the floor. In ISO one point zero seven points per possession on five hundred and ninety one possessions including passes, that's seventy ninth percentile. In our high volume list of the twenty four players to attempt at least two hundred and fifty, Tatum ranked tenth inefficiency, which is obviously very good. In
that upper kind of upper half area. There post ups two hundred and thirty eight possessions two hundred and forty seven points one point zero four points per possession, slightly above average. That's in the fifty fourth percentile. Again, Tatum was a very efficient shot creator in the Boston offense for several reasons. One, he took eight threes a game, and as we talked about earlier, the off the catch ones he was hitting at a high rate. He also
took seven free throws a game. So despite the fact that he took eight inefficient pull up jump shots a game, he still got to sixty percent true shooting because the rest of tatum shot diet outside of those pull up jump shots are more efficient shots catch and shoot threes,
stuff that's more towards the rim. And that's why I keep saying, like, if he could somehow just take like literally go from seven and a half eight pull up jump shots a game to like four, then that's where he could just get up into that like true super duper star efficiency where he's getting thirty points a game on like sixty two sixty three percent true shooting, the way that his peers at the top of the league do.
The biggest part of it, though, as I mentioned, was just he has a really good understanding of his role in the Boston offense, creating that initial advantage with easy two man game or three man game, whether it's out of a horn set. But he just makes simple reads and he lets the talent do the rest. And so, as I said many times over the course of the year last year, Tatum in a weird way, was kind of the perfect star for that group, you know what I mean. But I think obviously if you put Luke
on the Celtics, they win the title. But like there's a there's a probably a little bit of a diminishing return by having a very ball dominant guy on a team that has that much ball handling, whereas Tatum's like to his credit, very real, very very willing to just do what the team needs him to do. Hey Tatum, we need you to score a lot. Okay, I can do that. Hey Tatum, we just need you to create
the initial advantage. Okay, I can do that. Hey, Like Jalen Brown's got to going tonight and he's got this two man game thing going on with you know, Derek White, why don't you go just spot up this for the
second half here and he'll do that. I mean, that was part of the discussion in the postseason run and Tatum had some really wise things that he said in postgame pressers where he's say things like I'm not gonna like try to hijack the game, pull on the rope when someone else has it, like in a lot of ways. On a roster like this that has five, you know, thirty million dollars plus players, it just makes a lot of sense to have a guy like Tatum leading the
way on defense. It's interesting because, like, I don't think Tatum is an a plus at anything, but he's like a bee at everything right, and that extends to the defensive end of the floor, specifically with versatility, right like the is he in the top tier of perimeter defenders. No, it hasn't been really since that twenty twenty two season was the best I've seen him play on the ball.
On defense, He's put on a little bit of weight, not as quick laterally as he used to be, right, but like he's still a very very good on ball defender who can guard guards and wings. Is Tatum like this freaky athletic, dominant back line defender. No, but like he can guard big, strong players, he can guard centers. That was a huge part of what made Boston's defense
work as well as it did in the postseason. Right, Like, the main defensive scheme for Boston is they want to put Tatum on your center, and the main reason why is they're gonna put Jalen Brown on your best offensive initiator on the perimeter. That way, any one to five pick and roll or two five pick and roll, whoever your star is, any pick and roll with their center and their main ball handler, Tatum of Brown are just gonna switch. And that's another piece of Jalen Brown's defensive
versatility that he can guard centers as well. Right. But then from there that gives Boston deflexibility to look over your roster and be like that, dude's the worst above the break shooter, So I'm gonna put our center on him. That way, If he goes and stands in the corner, it's an easy rotation. Right, Tatum's under the rim guarding the center, you're basically like the low man and you're a center. It's just an easier close out to get back out to the corner. And if they put him
above the break, it's a longer close out. But that's your weakest above the break shooter. That was how Boston would pack the paint and cause massive problems for opposing offenses. Again, I've said this million times, but the best example of that was the Dallas series. It just like completely and utterly crippled Dallas's offense with that sort of adjustment. That's
a versatility piece that Jason Tatum brings to the table. Again, Like, is he an a plus defensive rebounder, No, but he's a very very good defensive rebounder, right, And so like he just does a lot of things really well, and as a result of that, it just kind of allows you to plug and play him in all these different roles.
And he's also six ' nine and he's also young enough to play with a lot of motor there is you know, we're gonna get more to this in a little bit, But like Tatum's floor is extraordinarily high compared to the other guys on this particular list. Now, the playoff run was bizarre, right, shot below fifty percent and sixteen of the nineteen games, So he shot above fifty percent just three times, and as in perspective, he did so nine times the previous year and nine times the
year before that. So eighteen eighteen games over fifty percent shooting in the previous two playoff runs just three. Last year, maybe is shoot was the jump shot. He got to zero point eight zero points per shot, points per jumper, and last year's playoff run it was zero point nine to five. The year before that, one point zero eight the year before that, one point one zero the year before that. So we are on our fourth consecutive year of a steady downward trend in Tatum's playoff jump shooting.
So I'm hoping that that's just a blip and then he's gonna crawl out of that. But that is a weird trend. Tatum took one hundred and seventy nine ISO jump shots either off the dribble, either off the dribble or in face up situations, made just forty nine of them in the playoff run. That's twenty seven percent. And like, here's the thing. Do I think that Jason Tatum settles for too many bad pull up jump shots? Yes, we've talked about that a lot in this show. But I
also think that this is just a slump. I think it's just temporary. I think he'll eventually work his way through this issue, and I think he'll get back to form his touch is too good. Like, this isn't a guy that has bad touch who's gonna be a consistently bad shooter. This is a guy who's consistently a great touch, and he's just kind of in a weird kind of thing with his form where he's tweaking it a little too much and it's just a little he's just in
a little bit of a funk. But like, especially after it reached a crescendo of embarrassing shooting in the Olympics, I think, if I remember correctly, he went oh for sixteen on jump shots in the Olympic qualifiers or excuse me, the Olympic exhibitions, as well as the actual Olympic tournament. So like it hit its z like the absolute peak of tatum slump in that Olympic run. I think he's gonna take a lot of time this summer to iron that out, and my guess is he comes into next
year and shoots the ball pretty well, pretty quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little lingering slump in the first like week of the season, but I would imagine by November that that Tatum will be back cooking on all gears in terms of his jump shot. In summary, tatum ceiling isn't nearly as high as his
peers at the top of the league. As I mentioned earlier, he doesn't really have like a an A plus trade like every other guy is an A plus trade like Yokich is an A plus playmaker, a plus post scorre Luka Doncic a plus perimeter initiator right like Jannison, Tenna Koopo a plus athlete with a plus rim pressure, a plus defensive impacts, Shaye gillss Alexander like AA plus perimeter initiation right, Anthony Davis a plus defensive player. You know,
all these guys have like A plus traits. Tatum didn't really have one of those. Like he he doesn't have an elite first step, and so he can't consistently get to the rim or finish there at a super high rate. He's a good passer, but he's not a great passer. He's a good shooter, but he's not a great shooter. And he specifically struggles anything that's not like off the catch, So like it's just one of those things where like
that that's gonna limit his ceiling in a lot of ways. Right, but his floor is probably the highest out of any player on this top eleven except for Jokis. Jokic is the one guy I think who especially because he's kind of a groundbound player to begin with that even when he gives somewhat inconsistent effort, his overall impact is just so high. But like other than Jokic, I think Tatum
has the highest floor on this list. He consistently plays hard, especially on defense, and he's versatile enough to fill a variety of roles on both ends of the floor. Gives you a ton of flexibility when you're building a roster
around him. He's a safe bet for at least twenty seven points per game on at least sixty percent true shooting because he takes a lot of threes and he gets to the foul line a lot, and like he takes in it takes and misses a bunch of bad shots and it just doesn't matter because he takes so many threes and because he has the ability to get to the fout line the way he does. And then, as I mentioned earlier, he's very willing to embrace different
types of roles. Offensively being a volume score being an advantage creator, being more of like a spot up guy if he needs to write. So, like, here's the thing, when we get to May slash June and everyone is healthy, like Tatum's probably last out of these eleven guys, if not second to last, Like he's in that nine ten eleven area in terms of like everyone's healthy, the shit's
on the line tomorrow. But other than Jokic, he's the guy who's most likely to get me to manj you, And that's an important part of this journey, especially when there are as many talentedly teams in the league. You can book him for seventy plus games. You can book him for twenty seven eight and five on sixty percent through shooting with elite versatile defense. Nobody else in this tier is as safe a bet in terms of pure availability and production. Even Yamis has become health question mark.
Even the young guards like Shay or Ant, they can't impact the game defensively the way that Tatum does. That makes Tatum an excellent foundational piece despite his shortcomings. That's why I have him at number seven, Number six. Anthony Davis last year seventy six games played, twenty four point seven points per game, twelve point six rebounds per game that was third in the NBA behind Demana Sabonis and
Rudy Gobert. Also had a career high since joining the Lakers three point five assists, a lot more opportunities for him to make plays as the Lakers shifted towards a five out offense. He did have one higher assist year in New Orleans, I think it was the year right before he left, but with the Lakers, especially with as much ball handling as the Lakers have, for him to get three and a half assists is actually really impressive.
Two point one turnovers per game, and again, big part of it was the five out offense and him just having more opportunity to make plays there. Second piece of it is this was by far Anthony Davis's best post up season of his career, both as a score and as a passer. Also got three point five stocks per game, including finishing fourth in the league in blocks per game. His shooting splits fifty six percent from the field, twenty
seven percent from three. Obviously, just has never been able to get that jump shot back to where it was in the bubble. Eighty two percent at the line mounts to fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage and sixty two percent in true shooting percentage, similar to to Tatum, the first time in AD's career. First time in AD's career that he's had back to back seasons of at
least sixty percent true shooting shooting stats per Synergy. As I mentioned, jump shot not great, zero point eight two points per jump shot, zero point eight to seven off the catch, zero point seven to seven off the dribble. Now he's aware of it. Really low volume. He only takes three and a half jump shots total every game. Has really leaned in this phase of his career into more short range scoring, which is something that I actually
am a big believer in. This is something I've been begging Joel Embiid to do more of, and he's been excellent there. Fifty eight percent on hooks, fifty one percent on floaters, and seventy percent at the rim. Now how has Ad turned himself into such a useful short range score.
It's a combination of two things. First, attacking out of the post in ISO right like and just think like what he did to Nikolea Jokicic in the first round, just against slower footed guys, just quick baseline moves to get to the other side of the rim for reverse layups.
Really aggressive driving moves gets big guys out of position and gets to the foul line a lot that way, and then also just turning his back to the basket, he's got a nice little right shoulder fade and then he's got a nice little left shoulder hook that he's hitting at a very high percentage. Again, almost sixty percent. Now that's not quite like Nikola Jokic efficiency, but it's
still really really good. Excuse me a shot. I think it was fifty eight percent on floaters and fifty one percent on hooks, but anyway, he was over fifty percent on both. But anyway, the other piece of it is scoring out of ball screens. Right, So, like I talk a lot about how with Joel Embiid, I talked a lot about how like scoring is. There's lots of different ways to score, right, Like, they're scoring as an initiator and then they're scoring in the flow of the offense.
This is what we've always credited Kevin Durant for is he can do both so well that you can like plug KD into any system anywhere in the league. And he's just going to find a way to get his thirty efficiently without really bothering the flow, because he can score in the flow of the offense, meaning as multiple players are touching the ball and there's lots of player and ball movement, he can still score within that flow. Right.
This is something where Ad does the majority of his scoring, and it's often looked at as a weakness for whatever reason. And we're going to do some talking later because like I think AD's scoring volume is completely flying under the radar for whatever reason when he's actually been like an incredibly dominant playoff score and like the reputation AD has offensively doesn't even make sense compared to what the production actually is. But eighties scoring primarily operates in the short
range and primarily in the flow of the offense. Like again, shooting fifty eight percent on floaters. That's one of those things where when you're running five out offense and he's going to one side of the floor throwing a dribble handoff, thrown a pick rolling into the lane looking for the ball, didn't get it, Okay, run over set the next pick
rolling into the lane, did he get the ball. He's the finisher in those plays right, and he can do it both ways, Like he can catch in the short roll, make that little floater over the top that he's been hitting at a really high percentage has a chance to roll all the way to the rim, Boom vertical spacing. He's one of the guys you can throw a massive target to above the rim and he can go and finish.
That's super valuable scoring because it doesn't require you to run plays that are designed to give him the ball. It doesn't require you to force feed him, it doesn't require you to build his rhythm. Like he just can play alongside Austin Reeves, dil Lebron, all these other ball handlers. He's just a cog in that system. And he's just spitting out twenty five point nights, thirty point nights all the time. And that that's super valuable when you're trying
to build a roster around a guy. Again, Like imagine I'm building a team and like I'm getting twenty five points a night, and I do not have to worry about whether or not Ad fits with my next pick. My next pick. It's like, is it a pick and roll guard, is it another wing? Whatever I want to do. AD is gonna fit seamlessly with that guy, which is a super useful piece of team building. Play type data one point one seven points per possession on the role,
he shot fifty seven percent rolling to the basket. Anthony Davis, to continue on that point, we were just talking about made one hundred and sixty two field goals on the role last year. That was the second most in the entire NBA. Anybody want to guess who was number one? This is actually an insane stat and this player had ninety additional made field goals. I'll give you guys a couple seconds, but it's not who you're thinking it is.
Nikola Vucevich from the Chicago Bulls had two hundred and fifty something made field goals in the role, but still Anthony Davis second most in the entire league, more than twice as many as Embid. Embid had like seventy something and ad had one hundred and sixty two. And again, that's the point I was trying to make when we were talking about Embiid at number eleven. It's the point I'm trying to make today. Scoring within the flow of
the offense has a ton of value. Scoring in a heliocentric manner also has a ton of value, but they both have a lot of value, and the ability to score with others gives flexibility to your team building process. One hundred and seven offensive rebound putbacks that was the second most in the entire NBA. Rudy Gobert was number one with one hundred and ten. So again, just garbage time buckets, he's just given you. He's given you more than one additional bucket a night, just on a missed
shot that someone else misses. He's just grabbing and putting it back into the basket. But he also had a very good individual shot creation season. It was the best of Anthony Davis's career, and this is a big part
of why I put him higher on this list. He's doing both despite the fact that you don't really need him to within what most teams would use ad as right, he got one point zero four points per ISO that's one hundred and twenty four reps for one hundred and twenty nine points that was seventieth percentile, and then one point zero nine points per post up four hundred and forty three reps for four hundred and eighty three points That ranked six out of the eighteen players to run
at least two hundred and fifty, so he was one of the upper third high volume post up players in the entire league, as well as being a seventieth percentile ISO score as well. He brings a really nice mix of on ball creation in the flow, finishing garbage buckets like drop offs, and offensive rebound put backs. So here's the thing I disagree with the idea or the assertion
that Ad is a limited offensive player. Can he be the offensive engine the way some of his peers can know, but those guys also can't be a defensive foundation the way that he Ad can. Right, Like, the offensive engine types are your Jokic, you'r Luka, your che Jiosus Alexander, You're like even Lebron James a little bit at this
point in his career, Tyrese Haliburton. There are a bunch of these guys that are like they're just every single possession they're going up the floor, getting your defensive rotation and going None of those guys are in the same stratosphere as a defensive foundation as Anthony Davis. Even Joel Embii, who I would consider to be an offensive engine, is not in the same stratosphere as Anthony Davis as a defensive player, and so like again, like you gotta play
both sides of that coin. And despite that, eighty is nineteenth in the league in scoring. He was one of only three players in the entire NBA last year to average at least twenty four points on at least fifty five percent shooting from the field. It was him, Giannis and Jokic. And again, as I mentioned earlier, I specifically loved the idea of a guy who can give me twenty five points a game while also primarily running the offense through a different player. That's a real asset with
team building. And then eighty consistently takes his scoring to another level in the postseason, but he did so in a big way against Denver. Twenty eight points per game, sixty three percent true shooting. He ran thirty four post ups in ISOs for forty points one point one eight points per possession. That is outstanding, And you guys remember
every one of those. That was when he was just consistently one on one, just frying Nikola Jokic on an island to the point where Mike Malone had to literally switch him off and all of that while being one of the very being the very best defensive player in the world in my opinion, and one of the top three rebounders in the world. And eighty specifically has a level of defensive versatility that most of his peers don't have. There are a lot of rim protectors that can't defend
in multiple coverages. Eighty is an outstanding drop coverage big way back at the rim, high drop coverage big coming up to the level blitzing. He's got the length to be bothersome there and he can switch onto any type of player. He's got great foot speed to contain, and he is great length to contest. Now, the one defensive weakness that Anthony Davis has is he can struggle with
groundbound power bigs. Right, These are guys like Sabonis or Yokic, guys that are like lower to the ground and you strength to dislodge AD from his base to create separation
to finish. But here's the thing. The guys in the league that are big and strong enough to handle those types of offensive players aren't capable of doing anything else that AD can do defensively, Like he wouldn't be able to switch or to move up to the level and back quickly, or do any of those things he does defensively if he had a different body type where he was big and strong enough to with stan Joel the the big power guys like Embiid or Jokic or Sabonis,
right and like, and here's the thing, Like Embiid is the guy I keep talking about, is like the guy who can guard Jokic, And I watched Jokic go through him easily in the Olympics. So like, I think, I think that that's a being a little nitpicky, and it's a big part of why I think Ad is still the best player defensively in the world. Ad is so dominant on defense that in the twenty twenty three series against Golden State, every single adjustment made by either team
had to do with Ad. Golden State was trying their best to keep him away from the rim and out of the action that they were running with Steph in ballscreens, and the Lakers were doing everything they good to keep him in the action. It was crazy how much he was the folkrum of every adjustment in that particular series. So most of you guys disagree that I have Ad this high. So I want to just kind of break down why in a quick synopsis, why I have Ad
so high. One, He's a top five defensive foundation for the regular season. Doesn't give consistent effort the way guys like go Bear do. But then again, guys like Gobert don't have near the offensive responsibility. And even with that somewhat inconsistent defensive effort, AD is still a top five regular season defensive foundation. He was first team All Defense this year and he was fourth in Defensive Player of
the Year voting. That's pretty straightforward evidence of that he's the best defender in the world when he needs to be in big moments in regular season games, are big stretches in regular season games, and then also in the playoffs. He is the best defensive weapon that we have in the league. I think wemb will overtake him in the next year or two, but I think AD still has that spot as of right now. Three. Ad has been
very available as of late. He has a reputation among some people aren't paying attention as being a guy who's always hurt. He's been available in one hundred and twenty eight of the lakers last one hundred and thirty seven basketball games, including twenty one consecutive playoff games. So, yeah, twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two rough years for AD in terms of availability, but he's been consistently available
since then four. He is one of the rare players in the league who actually goes up a level in the playoffs consistently in his career. His numbers have been better in both points and rebounds from the regular season to the postseason. Last year, he averaged twenty eight points and sixteen rebounds on sixty seven percent for shooting. Here's a basic stat to explain the chasm between the perception of who AD is a playoff player in the reality. Most of you guys probably don't know this, but Anthony
Davis has played in sixty playoff games. Embiid has played in fifty nine, so they've played in basically the same amount of playoff games. Who do you think has more thirty point playoff games between those two guys? You probably think it's EMBIID, No AD does. AD has twenty three thirty point games and beat has twenty one. Who do you think has more forty point playoff games between those two guys? You probably think embiat Nope, it's ad eighty has three forty point playoff games and bid has two.
That's just a quick look at scoring, and eighty's doing that while the offense is being run through different players. Embiid is being force sped the ball in these playoff settings and is not producing at the same level that
Anthony Davis does. Anthony Davis is one of the most dominant and impactful playoff players in the league, and he had a rough series against Jokic two years ago in twenty twenty three, and he had some health issues and I think that has caused people to just completely underrate the guy. And then, lastly, the last piece piece, number five versatility. Unlike a guy like Embiid, AD can play in a variety of styles and schemes on both ends
of the floor. Do you want to run five four out like the MAVs and just spam high ball screens with a space four eighty is excellent for that. Do you want to play out of the post and run off ball action kind of like the Warriors do well. Aight is one of the best post players in the league. Do you want to play five out with a ton of ball in player movement? Aight is awesome at that too. We just saw that last year he had one of the best offensive seasons of his career. What about the
defensive end. You want to run deep drop coverage because you have excellent point of attack guys, he's your guy. You want to run high drop because you can struggle at the point of attack. Eighty's your guy. Does a lot of that with the Lakers. Right. Do you want to have a blitz look or like a zone look, well, Ad can do both really well. Do you want to have a switching look? Eighty is one of the best switching defenders in the world, So he fits the criteria
from my list very well. I will concede that his weakest category is that regular season availability piece, but he's been available in the regular season over the past year and a half and so like in the first area, which is like regular season availability and impact, Ady's been strong in that area as of late. The second category, playoff translatability. I think he's one of the best playoff performers in the league, and he's uniquely one of the guys who actually goes up a level in that setting.
Game becomes more physical, more rock fights. Ad is more valuable and then the third piece versatility, as if I draft Anthony Davis, the world is completely open to me in terms of players that I can draft with that second pick, whereas whereas I have some limitations if I pick some different players. He is a highly versatile player who is easy for a GM to build around. That just puts him in a really, really good spot in terms of how he could be valued in this context.
Last note, I'm curious as to why AD is one of the most underrated players in the league, and I think it's pretty simple. One, he's somewhat non traditional, right He's a defensive star right where that's his primary impact, and people think he's a bad offensive player. But hopefully after today we can put that myth to rest. Two, people don't really like the Lakers, which I get. There's a lot of Lakers fans and a lot of Lakers media coverage. I totally understand why some people get sick
of that. And then, lastly, because the Lakers don't have good role players. They don't have guys who can play both ends of the floor outside of Lebron and Ad, and so as a result, the team just is kind of mediocre, Like they're not a top tier contender. They're in that second tier of teams, and as a result of that, they like don't get the respect, especially with the team that has both Lebron James and Anthony Davis
on the team. And so I understand that that's like the reason, but I'm hoping that over the course of time, people gain a little bit more respect for what ad brings to the table. And I think the Olympics were another great example of that, especially on the versatility front. Just what he did trying to fit in alongside everyone else. All right, bailback, I agree with ninety percent of your takes, but ANT is simply too high on this list. Recency
bias kills media members and fans so much. So I'm not gonna get too far into it because Ant is next for me at number five. So we're gonna do a lot of talking about it in the next video, but I'll do a really quick synopsis of it. First of all, Aunt just came off of a Western Conference Finals run where he averaged twenty eight, seven and seven
on sixty percent trough shooting. In the process, he swept a KD super team and eliminated the defending champs, including in game seven, completely shutting down Jamal Murray in the second half of Game seven. Like, that's an insane playoff run. And if, like literally, if any of the guys that we have in the top four had that same playoff run, everyone would be like, Oh, this is what superstars do.
But for some reason, with Ant it's getting overshadowed. And I think the main reason why is because he ran into Luca and he really struggled, and there were a couple of different factors there. I think Luca's aura had an impact, right, Like we've seen that before, right, Like
Jason Tatum awesome. The entire twenty twenty two playoff run ran into Steph had a bad series, right, Steph when he was younger, like, you'd be really good playoff player, and then he run into like twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
Steph wasn't very good when he ran into Lebron. There was like a little bit of a struggle there for Steph to get to the point where he was competing at Lebron's level in those series in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, the playoff, the Playing Game in twenty twenty one, the series in twenty twenty three, Steph was much more at Lebron's level, but in twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen, Lebron
just not played him. And like even Lebron in his early part of his careers, like in his career, like he'd run into that Celtics team and he would struggle. He run into the Spurs team and struggle under the aura of guys like KG Paul Pierre's, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan. That's like a typical thing that we see happen with
young stars. And so had an iffy series in the Western Conference finals against Luka Doncic, who we all agree is like one of the top two or three players in the league, Like even Bucks fans will have him third, right, So, like, like, for whatever reason, that whole playoff run just got swept away, even though he was like literally fucking incredible for the first two rounds, right like, And so I think that's a little ridiculous, to be clear, A lot of this
has to do with quite the criteria of my list. If everyone was healthy and I had a playoff series starting tomorrow, Aunt would be lower, he'd be in the nine to ten to eleven range. But the playoff series doesn't start tomorrow. In this scenario, his first playoff game would be like nine months from now, and he'd have another eighty plus games of experience before then. And so like that to me, Like, I actually think I'm projecting Aunt is going to be a top five player this year.
But the main reason why, like as I mentioned, I didn't see much of a gap between five and eleven in this list. So if you told me you had an Aunt, if you in the comments are like, I think Ant's number eleven, I'd be like, cool, got it, I have beat at eleven. I don't have much of a gap at all between Ant and MB. That's not the way this list is meant to be organized. These
guys are splitting hairs, right. However, what did I say the tiers were called bottom tier was like best players that can't be the best player in a championship team. That second tier was worst players that can be the best player in a championship team. The tier that we just finished today or finishing Yeah, the tier that we just finished today is like superstars that aren't perennial MVP candidates.
What's my top tier perennial MVP candidates. I think Anthony Edwards is going to be a top five MVP candidate each of the next five years. He just finished seventh in MVP last year, and he wasn't as good in the regular season as he was in the postseason. If Ant played the way he did in the postseason in the regular season, he would have probably finished second or third in MVP. That's the thing. It's the cutoff. The
tier cutoff was perennial MVP candidates. That automatically put Ant in at number five for me, because that's the way my tears worked. Now, here's the thing. Let's talk about it. Out of all those players, So Aunt, Ad, Tatum, lebron kd Steph, Embiid, Right, I get that, right? Yeah? I think so. So that's our seven guys, let's talk about him. Is Embiid gonna win be an MVP candidate next year? I don't think so because of load management, right, Anthony Davis, I think he has a shot, but I don't think
the Lakers are good enough and Ad. One of the issues is he doesn't play as hard consistently in the regular season as some of his piers, So I don't think Ad would get it. Is it? Jason Tatum. I don't think he's good enough, and I don't think his team is good enough. Tatum has just one top five MVP finish in his entire career. Is a KD No, he's too old, Lebron knows too old. Steph no's too old.
So that that's really it, Like, of all those guys, who's most most likely to be a top five MVP candidate each of the next five years, it's obviously I think he'll finish third or fourth in MVP next year. So like for me, like that just was the cutoff. Was ants a perennially perennial MVP candidate Now, within the context of the totality of the criteria, I want to wait to break that down until we get to the
show on Monday, and we will go into detail. Because the other thing too, is like he's a freaky athlete and he plays super hard. He played seventy nine games last year and seventy nine games a year before that, so like you can book edwards for eighty games and an MVP level production. That's a huge value add. And then the guy that everyone thinks is a bad playoff player, the guy that I'm ranking like nine ten to eleven in terms of like for a series that start tomorrow.
Just averaged twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent tru shooting in a Western Conference Finals run. So like, I get it. I know people are lower on ANT than I am, and I to be clear, I'm not basing this on last year. I am projecting. I think ANT is going to be the fifth best foundational piece of a franchise for an entire season this coming year. That's the way that that is supposed to work. But again, we'll get much more into that as we head into
next week. I think there should be something said about players like Giannis, ad and Tatum, who are elite defenders but also managed to put up twenty five to thirty points per game while being the focal points of their respective teams offenses. Yes, their offense may be inconsistent at times and not as flashy, but aside from a few brutal series, they've been always elite two way playoff performers.
Totally agree, and by the way, that's why I have all those guys ahead of the older guys like Katie Lebron and Steph even though those guys are better for a playoff series. It's all about like just overall two way impact over an eighty two game context. It's just a comment I'm gonna read. I don't have any response, but it's just a comment that I thought made an interesting point about Tatum. I've got to say I appreciate
hearing all the Tatum defending. I've always loved the show, but as a Celtics fan, there have been a few times where I was really disappointed with how often you pointed out his flaws and how rarely you give him credit for what he did right. Don't get me wrong, in no way a saying that pointing out Tatum's flaws wasn't all unwarranted. He does have flaws, and I'll be
the first one to tell you night tonight. Tatum can look like one of the best players in the league, and then other days he can have days where he smokes four or five easy layups. But even on those off nights, he finds ways to impact the game in big ways. However, over the course of this last postseason, I was very encouraged by Tatum because even with a massive shooting slump he was in, he was impacting the game in every other way. He intentionally got switches on too.
Luca drove right past him, forcing someone to come help, leading to wide up and kickout passes. I just wanted to take time to give you credit for being upfront and unbiased. Even when you've said you don't necessarily love Tatum's game from time to time, you still give him his credit and came to his defense against players. Those of us who have watched on the channel for a long time know you love and root for so I just wanted to be sure you know, as a basketball
fan that I appreciate the objectivity. And as I said in the comment on the last video, he was absolutely right. There's one thing we can all agree on. It's about the basketball. Love the show. Thank you so much for the kind words in the sport. And I totally agree about your breakdown of Tatum and the way that he is discussed. And I know that I've been a little too negative with him over the course of the last year.
The big thing is like, and I was actually tweeting about this this morning, like it's interesting, he's a twenty six year old superstar, like in the heart of his prime, who's in like a massive slump, like a like he went from having everything we just talked about in the playoffs to like like going oh for sixteen on jump shots in the Olympics and getting benched. Like it's just interesting.
It's an interesting story, and that's why we've been talking about it a lot, and like there's something to be said about, like consistent success is boring, right, and that's something I try to fight against, but it's kind of natural that it comes out, and I just have to do better job. Ad is a proven number two guy. How can he be above Braun when bron leads them in all the high leverage moments, runs the offense and still outscores Ad per game in the regular season in playoffs.
First of all, Ady could absolutely win on his own with the right roster. I mean we just saw Tatum win. I think the Celtics would still win the title if they had Ad. I actually think they'd be a little better with Ad than if they had Tatum. The main reason why is I think if you gave me Jaylen Brown, Anthony Davis, Derek White, Drew Holliday, Like, if you gave me that type of defensive foundation, I think they'd be
the best. I think they'd be one of the greatest defenses of all time, and then the second piece of it is Katie and Steph. You can't, like I understand for MVP purposes, Like I don't think Ad is gonna win an MVP because he plays next to Lebron, But like, that doesn't mean AD's not still a top tier superstar.
Like Kad and Steph played together for years, that doesn't mean that neither of them get to be called a superstar just because they play alongside another one, Like I don't like again, like that to me shouldn't matter again, like that, it was a different thing in Golden State too, because they didn't just have Katie and Steph. They also had Clay, They also had Draamond, they also had on
drag woodall. Like that team was ridiculous. But I don't necessarily think for the sake of this type of list you would punish a D. Like, for instance, in that era that Katie and Steph were playing together, I thought they were the second and third best players in the league. I like, even though they were playing together, I thought it was Lebron, Steph KD Like they were still right there.
Just so staggering that after twenty years, this guy is still an all NBA performers talking about Lebron, I've never seen anything like it. And over fifty years following the league, players like Kareem had incredible longevity, but none of them were playing at this level at the end of their careers. Got to be one of the strongest, the strongest reasons to think of Lebron as the greatest ever. Jordan may have had the greatest peak ever, but he was a
shell of himself when he retired. What we were watching is nearly a miracle. I totally agree, And that's Lebron's case. As I've said, like, it is similar kind of framework we've crafted this list as like if you were starting
a season that starts in October. My goat case list is like if I was starting a career, like if I was launching a franchise, Like if we had all thirty franchises starting from scratch and it wasn't just one season, but we were playing out those players' careers, I would want Lebron as the number one pick because I'm getting we're about to have his twenty second straight year of like all star level production, and you know, like what
nineteenth twenty straight year of all NBA level production like that, just that gives me as a GM a lot of leeway to make mistakes, to figure out what works to you know, as we talk about, there's all these other things, like sometimes Katie and Steph join each other and they're
just gonna be really hard to beat. Sometimes your co stars get hurt, right, like Kyrie and Kevin love right, Like sometimes you your star gets hurt, right, Like, There's all these different things that can happen, and so what you're really looking for is shots at the table, right Like if it's like it's like if we were playing roulette, if I but I was placing your bets for you, if I gave you just one bet, like you only have a you know, slightly below fifty percent chance of winning, right,
But like if I have if I gave you five chances, like you're you're just you're gonna win at like one or two of them at least, right, And that's that's kind of the way I look at it in terms of that goat debate, Like if I have twenty plus years of all NBA level production from Lebron, like that just gives me a really good chance to win more titles. Than the other players that have come in NBA history.
I'm not a huge Lebron fan, but what's the argument for Ad over him or Steph or Durant or Embiid Guys that lead their teams and are that and are the number one options each night. And we've seen Ad lead teams and wasn't very successful although he was healthy last season twenty one and twenty two cost of Lakers by his injuries. We take Lebron off that team, they're worse than you took Ad off of it, same as if we switched Steph with Ad. The Lakers are good
and the Warriors are worse. Between injuries and inconsistently inconsistency offensively, How do you have Ad over guys like KD, Curry, Lebron, and Embiid? If your take is defense, I would personally take an offensive juggernaut over a guy that is inconsistent on offense but a defensive anchor. Thanks keep up the good work, Thank you for supporting the show. You'll notice I have the offensive engines over him. I have you know, Shay over him, I have Luca over him, I have
Jokich over him. The only offensive engines I have below him are guys like Embiid or Steph who's Steph's old and is showing some signs of decline and Embiid is constantly hurt. But I agree that like the offensive engine types are over AD, but like AD is a much more impactful regular season player than Lebron in my opinion, Like if Lebron' sat out a regular season game, you felt like Austin di Lo and AD had a good chance to win. But if AD was out and they
were playing somebody decent, it was like automatic loss. That's what it felt like as a fan watching. And I can't remember the exact numbers, but they're like something like three and seven over the last ten games that AD missed, so like they pretty consistently lose when he's out. Like I again, I'm not gonna put him over the offensive engine types at the top of the league, but an overall impact, especially with what he brings defensively, I just
have him above the guys that we have below. And I went extensively about that in the earlier part of this show. Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum are not better than Lebron Steph for KD again totally agree. Series starts tomorrow. Give me Lebron Steph for KD. That's not how it works, though. Format of this list is October to June. I need to survive the regular season. AT's gonna play seventy nine games. Tatum's gonna play seventy four games. They're both gonna put
up CRAI production, you know, Lebron, Stephan, Katie. They might play seventy games. They might also play fifty games. They might impact winning at a superstar level for thirty of those games and at a star level for another thirty of those games, whereas like Jason Tatum are just like they're athletic wrecking balls that are gonna play like just impact winning a ton over the course of eighty two games.
Two more questions for the mailback. How much of Lebron's effort do you think is laziness and how much is necessary coasting or does it not matter? Lack of effort is lack of effort either way, that's really it's going to be a bit of both. But we've seen what happens when Lebron exerts too much throughout the whole game. He gets gassed and can't affect the game as much in second halves. Love the show. Keep up the great work.
I think it's one hundred percent necessary coasting. Lebron is just too much of a winner in his career to be lazy, but he's coasting to try to conserve energy. The problem is the Lakers' roster isn't as good as you'd like it to be to be able to actually allow him to coast the way that he does. Last question, Jason, thank you for taking the time to make these videos
and to read this comment. I want to play a little devil's advocate for my guy now that we are at the top of the list, and in my opinion, he does not belong in this tier. From all of the playoff teams last year, only one team did not have a top twenty five player on your list. I'm sure you know I'm talking about the Orlando Magic. I know you had him at twenty six or twenty seven. But there are players on the list that are at best number two on their team, and some other players
that have yet to accomplish anything in the NBA. If we are basing this list on the upcoming year's potential, I find it hard to believe that Palamoncaro is not a top twenty five player in the NBA. Thanks, thank you again for the time and keep up the great content. Will. I'm almost certain he'll be in it next year. He was just on the fringe for me. Don't forget. I
don't see much separation in that bottom tier. So from eighteen, which I think was bam all the way to forty five, I kind of all have him in a similar grouping. Like I think you could make a case for Paul George to be on this list. You can make a case for James Harden to be on this list. You can make a case for Trey Young to be on this list. You can make a case for Palamonkaro to be on this list. A bunch of different guys that
we can look at there. I'm a huge fan of Palo that he had incredibly impressive first round playoff series. The Magic are going to be a team we cover very closely this year. But yeah, he just didn't just barely miss the cut for me in this year, And the main reason why is like, I don't think he's good enough as a number one yet to really get his team that close. The jump shooting and kind of just overall half court decision making piece just has a long way to go. But I'm a huge believer in Palo.
Like I remember, we got in a big debate me and Sam Vessini and he's he's a big Franz Wagner guy, and I'm a big Palo guy. And like that's kind of where him and I disagree, is like he thinks Franz is going to be the best player in the long run. I think Palo is going to be really excited to see how that all shakes out though, especially now that we add KCP into the mix as a real veteran two guard. All right, guys, that's all I have for today and for the weekend. We'll be back.
We will be back starting with number five and number four next Monday. As always, I appreciate you guys, and we will see you then. The Volume the NFL seasons right around the corner, will be breaking down all the off season storylines on the Collin Cowherd podcast, my best takes guests like my buddy Nick Wright. Check out the Callin Coward podcast, part of the Volume network, available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.