Hoops Tonight - Top 25 Players in the NBA: LeBron James is still a SUPERSTAR at 38 years old

Subscribe to the Volumes 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 an show announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you guys 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. The theme of today's show is going to be about accepting reality, particularly the reality of age, because you know, today actually happens to be my birthday and I turned thirty two today, and the reality of that is I'm not the same person human being that I

was when I was twenty five years old. A lot of positive changes, especially as it comes to life experience and just learning how to navigate the human experience, which can be super challenging with all the responsibilities both financially and socially and with your family and all these different things. But physically you're going to experience a certain amount of decline, right Like I've noticed that I can't eat the same way I did when I was younger without reaping consequences.

I can't drink the same way I did when I was younger without feeling like absolute dog shit for a day, sometimes even two anymore. Even when it comes to basketball, I go up to the gym and I see the younger players dunking around between games and before games, and I'm over there, like, Okay, I'll get loose, but if I've got a dunk in me, I'm saving it for the game because I just don't have the as many reps left in me as I used to. And I'm

only thirty two. Mister Lebron James, in December of this year is going to turn thirty nine years old, and that made this the toughest decision I had to make in my top ten because I was torn between Lebron and one other player, a player that you guys are gonna hear about tomorrow for this number eight spot, And to be one hundred percent clear, if both players were healthy and we were headed into a playoff series tomorrow with even rosters, I'd pick Lebron over this guy, and

quite frankly, i'd pick him ahead of a couple of guys in front of him, even further up the list. But there's a reality that comes with Lebron. James's turning thirty nine this year, a lot of the reality that you saw throughout the previous four or five years as he's entered into his late thirties, and those were the main reasons that caused me to go with him at eight. The bottom line is is we don't get perfect circumstances. We don't get to fast forward and just have healthy

Lebron in June. That's not how it works. You have to play an eighty two game season, you've got to make it through four playoff rounds. And the guys that I have above Lebron on this list, I just think that in the year twenty twenty three flowing into twenty twenty four are safer bets to be better basketball players within the season, but let's dive into it a quick season recap for Lebron played in fifty five games this year,

dealt with multiple injuries throughout the season. I think it was a little flare up of his groin, and then he had the foot thing. The foot one in particular he played through in the playoffs, he had a different stress injury and his other foot as well. He was constantly even when he was on the court, dealing with different nagging injuries. Lebron has failed to play in at least fifty seven games in four of the last five seasons.

So again, it's not just projecting forward for Lebron heading into his age thirty nine season, it's also the reality of what it's been like for the last several years. Although this past season was the first time that stretched into affecting his playoff performance, it is now at this phase a pretty safe bet that Lebron's going to miss about a third of the season and he's probably gonna have something going on physically that's going to be hindering

him in some capacity. When we get to the postseason. Again, not a shot at Lebron. Lebron in his prime was arguably the most dependably available star in the league. This guy used to be a joke that he could. Bill Simmons used to joke that he could break his leg off in the middle of a game and just reattach it and start playing again. Obviously that's ridiculous, but you get the point. That's what it was like watching Lebron.

You'd see a replay of him spraining his ankle and his ankle bone would like touch the floor and you'd be like, there's no way he's playing after this, But there he is after the next TV timeout back in the game. Literally never missed a playoff game for an injury over the course of his career. As matter of fact, still to this day, has not missed a playoff game, with exception of situations when his team missed the playoffs.

So it's not a shot at Lebron. It's just the reality of where he's at at this phase in his career. But despite all of that, he had a very very productive season average twenty nine points per game. He was top ten in scoring, ninth in points per game this season, eight rebound, seven assists, fifty eight percent true shooting, which is very good. One of Lebron's most impressive seasons in my opinion, from the standpoint of floating the ship under

less than ideal circumstances. So this is where the Lakers front office comes in. To be clear, Since the basically from the ruy Hachi Murro trade on the Lakers front office has been fantastic. We've laid that out on the show. They extended that by locking up Anthony Davis long term under what's sixty two million dollars a year or something like that through I believe the twenty twenty eight season if I remember correctly. They've done an amazing job this offseason.

They're set up trade in the middle of this upcoming season to potentially upgrade where they might need to. It's been great for the Laker front office. But before that it was really rough. Especially coming into this season, the Lakers were kind of set up to fail. They brought Russell Westbrook back despite the fact that it was a super clunky basketball fit and he brought some locker room issues just from the standpoint of his attitude. They didn't

have any forwards on the roster. They only brought forwards they had on the roster were guys like Juantascano Anderson who were unplayable due to the lack of offensive skill, and when Yan Gabriel, who was more of like a backup center type of guy, Lebron and Anthony Davis were literally the only two forwards on the roster. They didn't

have any shooting. They brought in a bunch of guys who were defensive minded, guys like Patrick Beverly and Troy Brown, junior guys that could defend at a reasonably high level, not an eliteally level, but a reasonably high level, but that were super inconsistent as jump shooters, which again, once putting lack of shooting around Lebron, James and Anthony Davis

is just a ridiculous idea. And then in addition to that, they had one of the toughest schedules in the league to start the season, playing just good team after good team after good team, and so inevitably they started to and ten and their playoff odds looked miserable, and then they started to get it going a little bit, peaking with Anthony Davis dropping fifty five on the Washington Wizards. But then ad gets hurt a stress reaction in his

foot that causes him to miss twenty games. So you've got that incredibly flawed roster and you've got Anthony Davis out for twenty games in the middle of the season. The vast majority of players in the NBA would have just been like, not our year, Like this isn't the year two and ten? No AD for at least a month and a half, How are we gonna do this?

What's the point? But I would imagine that Rob Polinka must have had a conversation with Lebron somewhere around that point, because Lebron played some of the very best basketball of his career to float the ship during that stretch. In the twenty game stretch where Anthony Davis was out, Lebron James averaged thirty five points per game, eight rebounds, and eight assists on sixty three percent true shooting. Unbelievable scoring,

in volume, playmaking, in defense. The Lakers ended up going ten to ten in that span, which again doesn't sound great, but when you factor in the roster in the no Anthony Davis piece, marching out lineups with a bunch of undersized and less than skilled players. They found a way to win just enough to wait for Anthony Davis to come back and to wait for the trade reinforcements to come. They made the play In Tournament by one game at forty three to thirty nine, and that resulted in a

Western Conference Finals run. So that little stretch there in the middle of the season where Lebron played some of the best basketball of his career, and it was clearly one of the best players in the league at that stretch that saved them long enough for when Lebron got hurt for Anthony Davis to step in and save them. It was a lot of heroic floating going on from Lebron, James, and Anthony Davis throughout this season. And all of this, by the way, was despite Lebron having the worst jump

shooting slump he's had since twenty fifteen. He had a forty five percent effective field goal percentage on jump shots this year. Last year he was fifty one percent and fifty percent the year before that. Again, you want to be above fifty percent in effective field goal percentage on jump shots. Lebron was bad this year at forty five percent. He was especially bad on pull up jump shots. This year, he shot forty three point five percent in effective field

goal percentage. On pull up jump shots he was forty eight percent and forty nine percent the last two years. Those are again high forties. That's where you're that's where Paul George lands, for instance, So high forties totally acceptable for pull up jump shooting. Low forties really bad, and

that's where Lebron was this year. So after being again throughout the majority of his career, I'd say since the twenty eleven collapse, Lebron has been a pretty consistent jump shooter, right in line with most to his peers, probably slightly above average compared to his peers. But in twenty fifteen and again in this season, for whatever reason, he just went down a huge level as a jump shooter. And to be honest, a huge part of how the end of Lebron James's career will go will come down to

how well he shoots the basketball. But despite the poor jump shooting, Lebron was on his way to another great Lebron season again that thirty five eight to eight stretch up until the Dallas Mavericks game where he tore the ligament in his foot. He averaged thirty eight and seven on fifty eight percent trough shooting. That is top tier production, top tier winning impact. Playing five hundred ball without Anthony Davis on that roster was nothing short of extraordinary. He

was on track for another great Lebron season. He was also dominant attacking the rim. He was third in the entire NBA and restricted area makes per game at six point four per game on seventy five percent shooting. That was third in the league behind Zion and Giannis. So other than the two guys who once again, that's all they do, I mean, that's an overset implification, but that's their bread and butter, is just bulldozing to the rim, Lebron is the next best guy in the entire league

at doing that specifically. But then the Dallas game happens. The MAVs get out to a huge lead, Lebron and Anthony Davis start kind of slowly methodically pulverizing the MAVs

in the posts. They get a little burst from Jared Vanderbilt in the first half as he kind of gets some steals and runouts that kind of set the tone that the Lakers are on track to come back and make that a game Lebron really takes over in the second half, particularly out of the post, but he does a basic jump stop move right there by the right block and he falls down and he visibly says to his teammates that he felt something pop in his foot, and he just was never the same guy after that.

Missed a good chunk of time. Anthony Davis was carrying during that stretch again where eight is above Lebron on this list, and we will talk about Anthony Davis when we get to that point, but here are some numbers just to demonstrate the drop off from Lebron after the foot injury. So again, before the injury, thirty eight and seven on six point four restricted area makes per game

seventy five percent shooting. After the injury, in the regular season he played eight games twenty five points, eight rebound, six assists, and then then the postseason in sixteen games twenty five points, ten rebounds, and seven assists. A clear delineation. He basically went down from being a thirty point per game guy to a twenty five point per game guy all like just before and after this torn ligament in his foot. It was still a very impressive playoff run

for the record. Still couldn't make a jumpers. Forty three percent effective field goal percentage on jumpers overall, that's really really bad. Thirty four percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers. That's like, yikes, bad. So the bad jump shooting continued into the postseason, but he was great in dribble creation. The Lakers scored two hundred and eighty seven points on two hundred and eighty one Lebron pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups in the postseason. That's

one point zero two points per possession. Remember, anything over one point per possession in half court shot creation against playoff defenses is great, especially when you look at the types of teams that they were going against. He really evolved as an off ball player. He's always had this in his game. You saw a lot more of it when he was in Miami. Briefly went through a stretch with Cleveland where he was a little more heliocentric, But

this has always been in his game. But he's been relying on it a great deal since coming to the Lakers, especially this past season with all of the guard talent on the roster post deadline, when you're dealing with Austin Reeves, D'angela Russell, and Dennis Schroeder. Lebron was a big part in the seeding of control. Him and Anthony Davis both went way down in their live shot like on ball shot creation reps and devoted a lot of those to

the guards and just became screeners. And Lebron didn't do what a lot of stars do when they're not involved in the offense, where he just stands around on the perimeter. He was active as a cutter, as a ball screener in particular, especially when Anthony Davis was off the floor. It was Austin Reeves, Lebron, James pick and roll, D'angela Russell, Lebron James pick and roll, Dennis Schroeder, Lebron James pick

and roll. He was finding a way to be function in the offense even when he did not have the basketball. That's a large part of why I thought this particular playoff run was one of my favorites as a Lebron fan, just again, not his best, but one of my favorites rooting for him because he was so clearly not close to his normal self, but he just found a way through his basketball IQ and through sheer force of competitive

will to impact winning at an extremely high level. My favorite moment of this playoff run from Lebron was Game four against Memphis, once again just having a nightmare game, can't get a jump shot to go to save his life.

Clearly is just a little bit hobbled, But when it came down to it and his team needed him to make a play, Memphis was up to on the final possession, about to send the series back to Memphis tied in a situation where Memphis would have become the favorite to win the series, Lebron James just forced his way to the basket and made a ridiculous right handed scooping layup off the glass over Jaron jacks Jackson all the way fully extended to send the game to OT and then

in OT he does it a couple more times, once beating Jaron Jackson himself off the dribble a second time, ripping through on Dylan Brooks and getting an and one, just forcing through sheer competitive will power a win when nothing else was going for the Lakers. That was my favorite Lebron moment in this particular playoff run, and that, to me is the encapsulation of a competitor. It's one thing when you're making it look easy because you're just

better than everybody. And obviously there's a huge that's the ideal version for any basketball team because you're gonna win a lot of games more easily. But just you know, I've always you guys know here we talk about competitiveness a lot on this show. It's the difference between loving basketball and hating losing. You know, a guy who loves basketball will spend a lot of time in the gym working on his game. A guy who hates losing will get dirty on the court and fight and scratch and

claw and just find a way to win games. The best players in the world are always a combination of both. They love basketball and they hate losing. And you know what Lebron's basketball decline is. It was inevitable and it's coming. But through his competitiveness and his basketball IQ, that sheer force of will, he has found a way to maintain a deeply impactful NBA playoff career even into his late thirties. Again, here's a wild stat for you about an injury riddled

thirty eight year old Lebron James. In the playoffs. There were two players in the entire playoff field this year to average at least twenty four to nine and six Lebron James, Nikole Jokic. And again, like obviously, Lebron wasn't the second best player in this playoff run. He had a lot of issues, But the point is is when it comes to production, reliability, and finding a way to impact winning, Lebron is still one of the very best players in the league at it, even when the circumstances

are not ideal. The playoff run was minimized in my opinion, in terms of people accepting it or really realizing it because of three things. It was a level below what we expect from Lebron James in his prime. Everything is relative, right, It's relative relative to normal Lebron. Yeah, it's bad, but relative to other NBA players, it's still really damn good. It was a level below what he did in the

regular season. So it looked again when you see a guy average thirty to thirty and eight and seven or whatever during the regular season and then suddenly he's a level below that in the postseason, your first instinct is to think bad. But again, relative to other NBA players, he was still deeply impactful. And then lastly, as good as Lebron was, Anthony Davis was better than him in this playoff run, so he was the second best player

on his team. That always will diminish just the amount of credit that a player receives for one reason or another. Lebron was older, Lebron was injured, he was playing a different style of basketball, but he was still outrageously good. But alas, the Lakers had three major weaknesses going into that playoff run. Weaknesses that I talked about before the

playoff run, weaknesses that I've talked about all summer. You Lakers fans will remember right off the top, the three things I talked about were backcourt athleticism, the lack of a backup center, and the lack of over the top shot making, and all three of them came back to haunt them in the playoffs. The lack of backcourt athleticism that was what led to Bruce Brown just utterly destroying D'Angelo Russell, which was one of the biggest swing factors

in the Western Conference finals. The lack of a backup center led to an injured Lebron playing center in most of those units, and they got destroyed the Lakers were. The Lakers experienced an eighteen point two point per one hundred possession drop off in the playoffs when Anthony Davis went to the bench because they did not have a

playable backup center to keep Lebron at the four. And the last, but not least, Lebron and Anthony Davis both declining as jump shooters made it so that the Lakers were incapable of getting the boost you get from over the top jump shooting. And we've talked about these boosts in the past, rescue possessions like it's an advantage when you've got guys like Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokich who two three times a game are gonna turn a bad possession into a made shot, like they g of it like this.

Jamal Murray makes an impossible step back. Jokic makes some crazy one leg fade away from the baseline. Jokic makes a crazy one leg fade away from the left wing. That's a three. That's eight. That's seven points. In a series where all four games were close, three of them

involved clutch situations. The one that didn't involve clutch situations, the Lakers had a double digit second aflete, So a seven point swing on rescue possessions that can completely swing playoff series, and the Lakers got none of that because of the decline of Lebron James and Anthony Davis as jump shooters. That also hurts you in clutch situations. The Lakers won four straight clutch games to start the playoffs

on the strength of their defense. The Lakers defense was outrageously good in clutch situations this year, but when it came down to it in the Western Conference Finals, Jokic and Murray just shot their faces off in the fourth quarters when the games got close, and so despite keeping every game close, it was a sweep and the Lakers didn't get a single win in the Western Conference Finals. And so, I mean, those flaws were inevitably going to

come back to haunt them, and they did. And I think, you know, specifically when it comes to Lebron, we have to factor that in as we're talking about this list. So the last question is why do I have Lebron James down at eight when, as you guys know, he's my favorite player, so obviously have a good amount of

bias there. And the reality is this, if I could guarantee his health, like guarantee Lebron's gonna be healthy in the playoffs, and guarantee normal career average jump shooting, not like shoot the lights off, laces off the basketball, just normal Lebron jump shooting right around fifty to fifty two percent and effective field goal percentage on catch and shoots or an overall and jump shooting and right around forty

eight forty nine percent and pull up jump shooting. If I could guarantee that and guarantee health, I think Lebron James would be easily my top five. I'd have him at four as a matter of fact, and I'd have him in the exact same tier as the three players above him. When Lebron is healthy and in his normal shooting rhythm, I think he's a bonafide top tier superstar. Why because he combines all of my favorite basketball trades. He's a big, rim pressuring forward who's an outstanding playmaker.

He is a super versatile scorer who is consistently in the NBA's top tier for both volume and efficiency. Again ninth in scoring this year, despite having the injury at the end of the year that pulled his point per game average down, and he was second in scoring the year before that to Joel Embiid. Last year he had sixty two percent Troy shooting. Lebron averaged thirty points per game on sixty two Percentry shooting last year and then this past year twenty nine points per game on fifty

eight percent your shooting. Lebron is consistently when he's healthy, one of the best, the best volume in efficiency scorers in the NBA. He can play effectively both on and off the ball. He's heliocentric, but only in spurts, which is something that I've always believed in. And then lastly, when he's engaged physically, when he needs to be at the end of games in important situations, He's got plenty

of defensive versatility. That's all of the reasons why when Lebron James is at his peak, I believe in him as a bona fide top tier player even at this age. But that's not reality. And again the theme of the show is reality. The reality is is we don't know if Lebron's gonna have his jump shot back next season, and we don't know if he'll be healthy for the

majority of the season. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty safe bet he's gonna miss a third of the regular season and he'll probably be playing through some sort of nagging injury when we get to April. I hope that that doesn't happen. And but like I just would be shocked if it didn't happen. I would be genuinely surprised. If Lebron was just trucking along, played seventy five games this year and was just ready to go for the postseason and top to top shape, I just

would be I would be shocked, wouldn't you, guys? And so how do we not factor that in in this list? Guys? He turns thirty nine years old in December thirty nine. It was completely unprecedented for him to play at the level he played at age thirty eight. It's not going to get better from here. If it did, it would be highly unusual. As for the jump shot, as I talk about a lot on the show, lift is one

of the most important elements of jump shooting. And it's not just in the vacuum of the jump shot, it's in the flow of actual basketball games. I've got a bunch of I did a workout yesterday at the Richard Jefferson Center with five of my younger college friends who are still playing playing in college, and they're all just in town for like a week before they had out

of town. And every summer when these guys come back, I just do workouts with them, and they're all in incredible shape, and they're at a higher level than a lot of the players I normally play against in Tucson. And I was playing with them yesterday, and like just the fatigue element just from like like running around and playing like crazy intense physical basketball against real basketball players.

There's a fatigue element, and like getting the like you go to rise up into your jump shot and the lift you're accustomed to getting just isn't there. It's not, oh, do you have enough lift to get the ball to the rims standing by yourself and a gym doing a shooting drill. It's Lebron James at age thirty nine trying to get lyft into a jump shot, playing against young kids who feel great and their bodies are all in great shape. And then look at the pace the NBA

is played out. Now, look at how the floor is spread and all of the driving and kicking, the sheer amount of distance traveled in an NBA game right now is unprecedented, and Lebron at age thirty nine, is trying to keep up on a team that has a defensive identity, and so that's the thing is like, I'm more like

fifty to fifty on this. Like with the injury thing, I feel relatively certain going to miss at least a third of the season, and I'd say that there's probably what like a seventy percent chance he's dealing with some sort of nagging injury come April. With the jump shot thing, it could be either one of two things is true. Either it was just a slump or this is a byproduct of his decline and he's not quite getting the lift he needs and so he's starting to leave jump

shots short more often. Or he's having to use his arms more in a shot, which is always a disrupts muscle memory. So we don't know. I thought this was one of Lebron's most impressive seasons in terms of competitive force of will and doing whatever his team needed to float the ship under less than ideal circumstances, and when in healthy and when in rhythm and healthy, I think he's one of the very best players in the league.

But in my opinion, those guys above him on this list are just a safer bet to be at their individual ceilings as players, and their individual ceilings as players are higher than Lebron's basement when he's playing with nagging injuries. And so that's why I have Lebron James down at eight and outside of the top five for the first time in well over a decade. One last thing before we get out of here, I had some Luka Doncic fans ask why did I have Lebron up at four

after missing the playoffs the year before. It's fair question, but it's a very simple explanation. You guys know this. I always give enormous leeway two champions And yeah, I know you think, oh, Lebron, he won his titles in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen. In twenty sixteen, Yeah, you're right, But guess what do you remember when Janis won the title, the title that has Giannis really high on this list

in terms of recognition of his ability. Yiannis won the title not that long ago, and that was just nine months after Lebron James and won a finals. MVP should have won the league. MVP, in my opinion, and was clearly the best player in the world. We are not that far removed from Lebron James being in that situation. It was very clearly roster oriented. That's why they won the freaking title. Russell Westbrook trade two awful years right, then get rid of Russell Westbrook immediately back in the

Western Conference Finals. I thought Lebron deserved a great deal of leeway as a four time NBA champion and a four time finals MVP, with one relatively recently. Then Luka don chicch who got his ass kicked in the Western Conference finals once. Okay, so like and for you Luca fans, again, this is the most important detail. I am unbiased in the way that I apply that rule. If Luca wins a championship, I'm gonna be giving him the same leeway. Guys.

If Nikola Jokic missed the playoffs this year because he got hurt, or Jamal Murray got hurt and Michael Porter Junior got hurt and the West was stacked and he ended up in a tough playing game on the road against Minnesota, and Jokic went for thirty eight, seventeen and fourteen and they lost, and he missed the playoffs. I'm not dropping Jokic very far. Probably still have him at the top unless someone else has a truly great playoff

runt to supplant him. Why because he's the defending champ, not young Luka Doncic who hasn't accomplished anything in the league. Yet again, you guys, remember to me, talking about what Luca is capable of is fantasy basketball. That's theoretical. Talking about a guy who hoisted the trophy, that's reality. We play the games so that it's not theoretical. Theoretical only goes so far. What's the saying from Oppenheimer theory will

only take you so far or whatever. That's the real If it was all theoretical, we would give all these guys a two K rating and give the trophy to the guy who had the highest two K rating. That's not how it works. You play the games. The games are what matters. The games lead to the trophy. The trophy has to mean something. And yes, I gave more leeway to the guy who had four trophies than the guy who has zero. And that's always going to be the way that I do this. And again, when it

comes down to this, stuff. It's all subjective, and I guarantee you. Even if I guarantee you, even some of you on this who listen to this show who see the game very similarly to me, will have a very different list. There hasn't been a single person I've put on this list that I haven't gotten complaints about. I got complaints about how high Jamal Murray was, how high Anthony Edwards was, how low Devin Booker was, how low Kawhi Leonard was, how low Damian Lillard was, how low

Donovan Mitchell was. Everyone complaints because there're subjective lists, and that's just the way this stuff goes. I will say that I'd much rather have you guys give a basketball case. I've seen a lot of people disagree for one reason or another in the comments, and they write out all the reasons why. I always enjoy those because you're giving

me your basketball perspective on why you disagree. But when it's just like, screw you, dumbass, why do you have so and so above whatever, like that doesn't move the conversation forward at all. I mean, we disagree, though, I guarantee you, if you made a list, obviously something on your list that I think is pretty foolish as well, but that's the nature of just how stacked the league is,

how difficult these decisions are. I mean, I obsessed over this Lebron one forever, but I feel like I feel like for me, I made the right decision putting him down at eight. But I guarantee you guys that when I come back to record for the next show, I will be getting absolutely slayed for having Lebron solow, because as crazy as every other fan base can be, you've never seen anything like Lebron James fans and how they

can react about this kind of stuff. But that said most of you guys, obviously, I tend to overly focus on the negative and I have to be better about that, and I will be working on it as we go into this season. Most of you guys have been very positive and supportive, and I do sincerely appreciate that we are almost to the end of this list. We have seven more players. We will be back tomorrow with number seven.

Some of you guys might have a guess as to who that is, but in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your night. I'll see you guys. Then the volume