Hoops Tonight - Top 25 Players in the NBA: Paul George and Jaylen Brown crack top 20

more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So number eighteen is one of my all time favorite players,

Paul George. Now again, every single time I say something like this, I always want to qualify it with I don't think I'm an NBA player, don't think I'm particularly close. I have way too much respect for NBA players and what they've accomplished making it to that level. So when I talk about my game like this. It's never intended to be like that. It's just the way I like to talk about basketball. This version of myself right now here in my early thirties. The player that I try

to be like the most is Paul George. I'm like completely obsessed with his Fluidity is the word that I like to use to describe him. Fluidity to me, has to do with the basketball concept of energy transfer. It's getting the basketball from a dribble combination or a move some sort of footwork up into a jump shot. And the hardest part of that type of transfer that move

is getting the ball to the rim. And the only way to get it there is you have to have a fluidity with the basketball, meaning you have to be so sharp with your handle that as you go from that crossover. Let's just use crossover as an example. Could be anything. It could be an in and out dribble between the legs, behind the back, step back, whatever it is.

But let's say in this crossover dribble, getting ball to flow directly into the shooting pocket and up into the shot without having any sort of hitch, Because a hitch breaks that energy transfer and causes you to lose power, which makes it harder to get the ball to the rim. So energy transfer is the first big part there in that fluidity, then there is the power in your legs.

I always joke with the young players that I work with that we focus so much on dunking, but the number one thing you'll need leg strength for is having the ability to get to your spots and not lose

power along the way. If I do a crossover step back move and I just push hard off my right foot and I have to stick my left foot out to stop my side to side energy to get myself to go straight up and down and to get the lift I need out of that shot to get the ball to the rim, there's a huge leg strength element. So leg strength and fluidity are the two most important parts of getting that energy transferred from the dribble combination

to the top of the shot. I don't think there's anybody, or as in terms of a wing, a guy who plays at a similar size that is better at doing that energy transfer into a pull up jump shot than Paul George. I think his ability to get to jump shots out of dribble combinations is straight up beautiful basketball, and that is why he is one of my favorite players. That's why I try so hard to replicate him in my own drills and work to try to build that

into my own game. And I think that's a big part of why he's so popular with young basketball players around the entire basketball community. I think a lot of people were surprised at the NBA Draft at how many people said Paul George was their favorite player. Famously, Brandon Miller said that, and again, I think that's a big part of that. Paul George, to me, represents a lot of a lot of the specific skill traits that basketball players strive for, and that's why I'm such a huge

fan of his now. He would be a lot higher on this list if it wasn't for his lack of availability. He missed the playoffs last year, and he missed sixty one games the year before that, which in large part led to them missing the playoffs entirely taking that tough

loss in the play in tournament. This year, though, in terms of production, still as good as he's ever been twenty four to six and five on fifty nine percent true shooting, played in fifty six games, but missed the final nine games of the regular season and missed the entire playoff run. So again, that's why I look at Paul George as a guy that is, you know, at his very best, closer to that ten to fifteen range, but we're dropping him here as a result of availability.

He did have a very balanced creation season. One point zero four points per possession and pick and roll that's seventy third percentile, one point zero seven points per possession in ISO that's seventy fourth percentile, one point zero seven points per possession in the post, sixty third percentile, so well over a point per possession in every single static half court shot creation situation. He also was one point one eight points per possession in spot up situations. That's excellent.

That's in the top tier that in the NBA. All super impressive considering he didn't shoot the ball exceptionally well. For all of the talk that I just all of the things that I just said about Paul George's fluidity, he didn't actually shoot great percentages relative to his fear appears at pull up jump shots, So like thirty eight percent on pull up jumpers, forty seven percent when you

wait that for threes. Again, Kevin Durant best in the world at it shoots him at about fifty five percent, right, So a big part of that though, and this is something that I think needs to be considered here. Paul George takes a lot of really tough pull up jump shots. And one of the advantages when you're Kevin Durant is like, there's no really, there's not really much of There's not really such thing as a tough jump shot for him.

He's so damn tall that even tougher jump shots for him are easy, right, And Paul George is more standard in terms of the measurables for a wing, like when he's going into a random environment, like if he's going on the road to play Brooklyn and he's going against Mikale Bridges mcale Bridges, he's not given up. He's not that doesn't have much of a physical advantage there. So he goes down to New Orleans and Herb Jones is guarding him, doesn't have much of a physical advantage there.

So he's kind of like average size, so to speak, at his position, And so when he takes a lot of those really really tough, contested pull up jump shots, that actually kind of nukes his efficiency. He took four hundred and thirty three pull up jump shots this year. That was his most common shot type by far. As a matter of fact, that was forty three percent of

his attempts overall. I think it's kind of a curse of his skill set, and this is something that I personally have to fight all the time because I obviously just playing in pick up runs and men's leagues in Tucson, Like I don't there's maybe ten college level players that in the entire city at any given moment, which means he might have two or three of them at any

given run. And so as a result of that, like I can be lazy sometimes and I can just take a step back three really whenever I want, because it's easy. I can just get to it whenever I want. But the reality is is like I've better served to be more physically aggressive Because'm bigger and stronger than everybody. Right, That's kind of the way I look at it. With Paul George. It's almost like he's cursed by his own skill set. He's so damn talented and so damn good

at taking and making those tough shots. Like, again, thirty eight percent seems low, but when you look at the shot quality. I mean, he's hitting thirty eight percent are really tough shots, and that goes to show you how incredibly skilled he is. And so I think that's the thing that he's been fighting for the most part over the course of the last half decade. Paul George is at his best when he goes to the rim first.

And if you look at the twenty twenty one playoff run, which was kind of his breakout point, which we'll get to in a minute, he was getting to the rim and finishing in the restricted area three times a game, and that was a huge part of what drove his big breakout playoff run, right, And so that's always the curse with Paul George. I believe he's capable of being as efficient as the top guys in the league at his position if he kind of tweaked his shot selection

even a little bit more. But again, despite going thirty eight percent on pull of jump shots, he's still at a fifty nine percent true shooting this year. A big part of that was his incredible spot up shooting, like we talked about earlier, and then he also got to the rim a good amount this year. Two point five makes in the restricted area per game sixty nine percent there, which is excellent. Also drew a good amount of fouls, so he was bolstering his efficiency with all of those

little things that bolster efficiency. And so if you can kind of tweak instead of forty three percent of his attempts being pull up jump shots, getting that down to thirty five percent, trying to get more advantage situations, attacking the basket more, turning his back to the basket, and

attacking out of the post more. I think those are ways that he can bump up into that because like all the best pull up jump shooters in the league are up above sixty percent truth shooting, like even Devin Booker's up above sixty percent true shooting, and Paul George has actually never had a season above sixty percent truugh shooting. And so I think that is the next step for him is just kind of tightening up his shot selection a bit. Now. The twenty twenty bubble was a low

point for Paul George. He was barely getting to the as a matter of fact, he got to the rim less than two times to less than two makes in the restricted area per game. That season really fell apart in the Denver series in particular, lost his confidence, but then it clicked for him. And again, this is why I always tell you guys, don't define a basketball based a basketball player based on two weeks worth of games. That's what I've been telling you about Jaylen Brown. That's

what I told you about Kevin Durant last year. Right after the twenty twenty low point for Paul George in twenty twenty one was his best playoff run by a mile. Like I said, he started prioritizing getting to the rim first three makes per game in the restricted area. And it again, it's why is it so important to get to the rim first? When that is your bread and butter and your pull up jump shot is a counter. You'll notice defenders will be on their heels versus on

their toes. Now, imagine I'm guarding you and you are prioritizing pull up jump shots and you're taking you know, half your shots off the jibble like that. In my defensive stance, I'm gonna be up on my toes and I'm gonna be forward, and I'm gonna be leaning and getting my arm into your shooting pocket to try to disrupt that energy transfer. Like we were talking about earlier.

Right now, if you're getting to the rim a lot more and you're only taking a pull up jump shot on a third of your possessions, now I'm probably gonna be guarding more back in my stance, a little bit ready to take quick retreat steps rather than having to quick lunge forward to contest a pull up jump shot.

Now when I'm on my heels and I'm further back, when you do take a pull up jump shot, suddenly that really tough jump shot that you're taking off the dribble becomes a much easier jump shot because the defender's

not up in your shooting pocket. I would venture to guess if you actually sorted through all of Paul George's pull up jump shots and looked at quality, the ones where he has good separation, I bet you he shoots over fifty percent on, and then the ones where he doesn't get great super separation, he's probably in the low thirties. And that probably dictates where his percentage lies there kind of firmly in the middle, right. And so that's why

it's so important to attack the rim first. You keep defenders on your heels, on their heels and you make it so that you can get to your pull up jump shot at a higher quality in higher quality situations. But that rim first approach led to his best playoff run ever twenty nine nine four fifty eight per century shooting basically knocked out the one seed Jazz, the one

seed Jazz by himself. They lost in six in the Conference finals, and in that series was the Deandrayton game winner in Game two that stole a game that the Clippers were in good position to win. So he came very very close to making it to the NBA Finals without Kawhi Leonard. That was his best playoff run ever,

right after his ugliest playoff moment ever. And the unfortunate thing is we just haven't seen him in the playoffs since then because of his injury history, so we haven't really seen him have an opportunity to demonstrate that he can do that consistently. Lastly, Paul George is still capable of being an outstanding defensive players, not what he used to be a few years ago. He was in the top tier of perimeter defenders, but there's been some drop

off there. However, in a playoff series, you're never worried about Paul George, He's going to be in above average, a huge positive on that the ball which has to be factored in here. You're not gonna be losing that matchup. So in summary, he's probably in the second tier of three level scores in the NBA. Main thing there is just bumping up his efficiency a little bit, and his overall volume is typically around twenty four points per game. Obviously the best guys are around twenty seven to twenty

eight points a game. Right. He's also an outstanding off ball player, knocks down, catch and shoot threes and attacks well with an advantage, and a very good defensive player. And the big downside here is his availability. Hasn't played a playoff game in over two years, which is what keeps him lower on the list at this point. For instance, the guy I had ahead him that we're about to talk about, Jaylen Brown. I actually think in a healthy

playoff situation, I'd take Paul George over Jalen Brown. But Jalen Brown plays in a million games every year and is always available in the postseason, so that has to be a difference maker here because once again Paul George was unavailable this year and Jalen Brown wasn't he was available, and that has to factor in so number seventeen. Jalen Brown recap career high twenty seven points, career high seven rebounds, three and a half assists per game, which matched his

career high. He was really good for two rounds in the NBA Playoffs. Through the first two rounds against Atlanta and Philly, averaged twenty five points per game, shot fifty four percent from the field and forty seven percent from three. But then he completely fell apart in the Miami Heat series. Averaged nineteen points per game. In that series, he was

seven for forty three from three. I spent a lot of time I had more turnovers than assists and kind of just kind of fell apart, lost his mojo, lost his confidence. But I spent a lot of time today in particular, diving into that series and trying to figure

out what specifically went wrong for Jalen Brown. And we are going to get to that in a few minutes because it was different than what I expected on rewatch, But I want to spend some time talking more about Jayalen Brown's positive Before that, there were only five players in the entire league this year that played in at least sixty games, scored at least twenty six points per game, grabbed at least six rebounds per game, and dished out

at least three assists per game. Again, that's not a crazy barrier like basement level, right, twenty six six and three, So that's that's pretty that's that's below those markers for most of the top players in the league. So twenty six six and three and just playing over play in less than three fourths of the games, playing sixty of eighty two games, that's a very low bar Five guys

did that. So again, as we're talking about the supermacs here, when it comes down to what you're getting, and again, don't remember, don't forget that he was great through the first two rounds of this year's playoffs, and he was great for the most part in last year's playoffs when they were two wins away from the title. So take away that little two week disaster against Miami. He's been one of the most reliable and productive guys in the whole league. And that's why he deserves the amount of

money that he makes. That's why he's a definitive top twenty player. Even with the weaknesses that he has, so don't let two weeks of bad basketball overshadow that. Now, let's talk about the Miami Heat series. Really, I thought the Miami Heat series, upon rewatch, exposed his inefficiencies as an on ball creator. Now, during the regular season, he was decent in pick and roll one point zero three points per possession sixty sixth percentile, so little above average.

Not so much in ISO in post up situation zero point eighty eight points per io in the regular season. That's thirty ninth percentile. Zero point nine points per post up in the regular season, that's thirtieth percentile. Remember when I give you points per possession data, I'm giving that including passes. Most of his success as a basketball player right now comes in transition and in spot up situations.

Transition was his most common playtype. Jalen Brown scored four hundred and ninety five points this year just in transition. That was third most in the entire NBA. Little trivia for you guys, who do you think one ahead of him? Number one's obvious, Yannis. Who do you think was second? The answer is Shay Gilges Alexander. But and Shay continues to just have a bunch of wild stats that don't

even make sense. But again, the third best transition threat in the entire NBA, and then spot up was actually his second most common play type. He was super aggressive off the catch, especially driving closeouts. Three hundred and seventy two points scored in spot up situations that ranked twentieth in the entire NBA this season. So again, even though the production is fantastic, the majority of it is coming in advantage situations. Transition is an advantage situation and spotting

up is an advantage situation. In the Miami Series, Miami really shut off his transition opportunities and his jumper failed him, so the two easiest baskets that he was getting were taken away. To give you an idea, in the regular season, Jalen Brown averaged seven point four points per game in transition. The heat held him to four, so almost half that. In the regular season, Jalen had a forty nine percent

effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers. In the Miami series, he went just seven for twenty seven on catch and shoot threes, including just or ketch and shoot jumpers, including just four for twenty four on catch and shoot threes. That's just thirty three point three percent an effective field goal percentage. So he lost about half of his transition production and he lost about a third

of his spot up efficiency. And when you took those two things away, suddenly the only way he could impact the game was in the half court offensively, attacking his set defense right, and especially since his defensive commitment and production has declined, when that wasn't going well for him, those half court set situations, it was a big problem. Early in the series, Miami went with small guards on him to try to attack his handle, a lot of

Gabe Vincent, Kyle Lowry. He had six turnovers in the first game, and then in Game seven, I thought Eric Spolster did something really smart. He ended up putting Jimmy Butler on him from the opening tip, and he just

sapped him of confidence. He had eight turnovers in the game, a lot of just like Jalen Brown trying to drive to the left and he you know, we'll talk more about his handle in a second, but he's just not really good at protecting the ball right now, and so Jimmy Butler would just reach around the backside of him and swat the ball away, and then you could just see like it just deflated Jalen Brown. And I think

those things are connected in the shot result department. Like these four for twenty four on catch and shoot threes. He was one for six on wide open threes and the defender was at least six feet away. And this is a guy who was an outstanding shooter in the regular season. He shot over forty percent on pull up jump shots, you know, forty nine percent effective fielgal percentage on catching shoe jumper. So he's a good jump shooter who couldn't make a shot against Miami. And I think

a big part of that was confidence. I will always say that feeling good about yourself is just as important a part of the game of basketball as anything else. Confidence, rhythm, flow, all these intangible things they do matter. I know that all of the analytics guys don't like to pretend those things exist, but they do. And anybody who's played the

game of basketball knows that that stuff really matters. And Jalen lost confidence as a result of the way Miami was guarding him, and then he started to miss his easy shots. They took away those transition dunks and easy baskets that helped him gain his confidence, and that's where he fell apart. And this is where the band like in those like static situation, static situations in the half court.

That is where his ball handling became an issue. Now, when I watched Jalen Brown play, I think ball handling is more complicated than people think. I don't think Jalen Brown doesn't have control over the basketball. Like I bet you if you asked Jalen Brown to do a ball handling drill, he's gonna look like he's got great control over the basketball. The main flaw I was seeing with Jalen Brown was exposing the basketball. Now one of the most important parts I talk about this with my young players.

We do a ball pressure drill every single every single day now in practice when we do our early morning training sessions. And what I tell the bigger guys is is like identify your advantage. Like if you're a quicker player, then you want to go around people and use your speed. But if you're a bigger player and you are exposing the ball in front of you and trying to go around people, the smaller guys just going to reach in and take the basketball away from you. If you're a

bigger player, you have to protect the basketball. You have to turn your body and it's almost like a full court post up. Remember Andre Miller. You see Chris Paul do this a lot to this day. When you like the players that don't have a quickness advantage, they just

protect the basketball. That's all they do. They just turn their back and they kind of do a full court post up up the floor kind of spin and spinning back and forth to where they get to to where they get to a spot where they can do something within the offense. And what's great about Jaylen Brown is he has such a physical advantage over everybody, like you should never be able to get away with putting Gabe Vincent on Jalen Brown or Kyle Lowry on Jalen Brown.

Now in his defense, Boston in general, and this falls on Joe Mizula not do a very good job of setting up Jalen and Jason for success in spacing situations. Miami is so good at clearing the side and just giving Jimmy Butler all the space in the world to go to work. And that was part of the issue. Even when Jalen Brown did get by his man, there's Miami defenders digging down on him. And again, it's not

that he's losing control of the basketball. It's guys swatting down at the basketball, Jimmy Butler reaching from behind, it's the gay Vincent and Kyle Lowry digging, digging at the ball from down load. That's where he's losing control of the basketball. And so I think for Jalen Brown, it's

a couple of different things. It's seeing the floor better, so knowing when not to drive, because sometimes it's like there's not really an advantage to be gained, because even if you beat your man, you're just getting into traffic. And even if there's a pass available for you there, everyone's diving at the basketball. There's usually uncalled fouls in those situations because the refs can't see anything and you're

just gonna end up turning the basketball over. So number one is just be more deliberate about when to attack. And then number two is use your physical advantages. You're a bigger and stronger than just about every guy that plays your position, and certainly a very good athlete, and so using that as he's a very strong player too. Turn your back, turn your back and protect the basketball.

Gave Vincent's on you clear the damn side, get the ball in your left hand, work off the bounce by bumping Gabe off until you get to a spot where you can make something happen. And I think, again, he's too talented to not eventually figure this stuff out. He's too good of a shooter. He's got a lot more of that creative shot making ability even than Jason Tatum does. That's why he was over forty percent on pull of

jumpers during the regular season. He was lights out for two rounds of the playoffs this year, and really damn good for four rounds last year. It was just a perfect storm that led to a bad series, a really well coached team that was taking away his easy opportunities. Jimmy Butler bam out of Bio and Eric Spolser kind of sapping him of his confidence and leading him to even struggling easy opportunities. And then he had to lean heavily on his weakness, which is to at a half

court shot creation that will get developed in time. He's too talented, he's still young. I'm a big believer in Jalen Brown, and I think he's going to be a perennial All NBA guy. Now in insummation, he's one of the most reliable and productive stars in the league. Again, only five players went for twenty six, six and three in the last and played at least sixty games this year. Jalen Brown was one of those five. That's why he

made second team All NBA this year. That's why voters considered him a top ten player in the regular season this year. He's also one of the very best transition weapons in the entire NBA. And he's one of the best athletes in the NBA, which brings me to my final point. Jalen just like every Celtic, declined as a defensive player this season. It was really the main reason they didn't win the championship or have at least a

better chance to than they ended up with. He has the athletic tools to be one of the very best and most versatile defenders in the NBA. If he wants to be a perennial All NBA player, if he wants to be a guy that's making second team third team every year, he has to recommit himself to the defensive end of the floor. All right, Number sixteen, a guy that I still don't think people realize how good he is.

Jamal Murray first season back from a major injury is always a bit uneven anybody who suffered a lower extremity injury. I broke my foot once, so I have not the same type of rehab length, but I have a similar kind of experience. I didn't trust my foot to even plant on, even when it was healthy. I didn't trust it for a long time, and that sucks because in that particular season, I was like awful in non conference play, and then in conference play I ended up making an

All conference team. So I played much better as soon as I kind of clicked into form, as I kind of trusted my foot again. Imagine you had surgery. I just walked around in a boot for a couple months. Imagine you were in surgery, and not only that, you barely moved for months as part of your initial phase of your healing. Then you go through this slow, painstaking rehab and you're finally back. Obviously there's gonna be hesitation.

Obviously there's gonna be a lack of trust. That's an important part of the recovery process, and that's why I think Kay Thompson had a much better regular season this year than he did the previous year. It's not exactly uncommon when you see guys like Kevin Durant just step onto the court after a serious injury and look great. That's really rare, and that's kind of what makes Kevin Durant an alien. But in sixty five games played in this regular season, Jamal averaged twenty four and six fifty

seven percent true shooting. But he had twenty five plus points eighteen times, so it was clear that the ceiling was in there. He was just working through the rust and building that confidence in his knee. But then he goes up a huge level in the playoffs. Jamal Murray in this playoff run average twenty six, six and seven

on fifty nine percent true shooting. In a four game sweep of the Lakers, he averaged thirty three points, six rebounds, five assists on sixty five percent true shooting, including a bunch of really big shots in fourth quarters of those games to help put the Lakers away. Then he ends the season definitively as the second best player on a team that hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and that is why he deserves to be up as high on this list as he is. Winning matters to me and it

should matter to all of you. It's the reason we play this game, and that is why I have Jamal Murray as high as I do. I want to make sure we reward players who win basketball games. Only three players in the entire NBA playoff field this season averaged twenty five to five and seven. Only three Jamal Murray's teammate Nicole Jokich and Daron Fox, who did it in just one series, so twenty five to five and seven.

When it comes to playmaking and scoring, there aren't many players who who produced as well as Jamal Murray does on the playoff stage, and he was just as good in the bubble. But it really has been a revelation.

Now we can argue about what Jamal Murray actually is, and he will need to be a consistently great regular season player to move higher on this list, But simply looking at this year's postseason, he produced an impacted winning at a superstar level that has to be acknowledged just within this off this postseason, if I told you a player averaged twenty six, six and seven on fifty nine percent true shooting and won the NBA Championship, you'd be thinking a lot of big name guards and you'd be

calling that dude to superstar. That's what Jamal Murray did, and again he has to do it in the regular season to like truly get recognized at that level. But I think he's going to the dude came off a knee injury. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he averaged twenty three, five and seven this year. It's completely on the table. And so that's why I don't think he can be any lower than sixteenth on my list.

We have to acknowledge the winning the winning of an NBA championship, Jamal Murrady's half court shot creation in the playoffs this year was outrageously good. He ran three hundred and nineteen pick and rolls leading to three hundred and seventy four points. That is one point one to seven points per possession. That was first place out of seventeen players in the playoffs this year to run at least

one hundred pick and roles. Now, of course, he's running it with the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic. That is obviously a factor here, but Jamal is doing his part in those situations the shot making is ridiculous, and even when he's going one on one, he's successful ninety five points on ninety three ISOs and post ups. Anything over a point per possession and self creation in the playoffs is outstanding. And his shot making is ridiculous.

Forty five percent on catching shoot jumpers, forty six percent on pull up jumpers, fifty percent on floaters. He had ten dunks in the postseason run. Again, all superstars. Again, if I told you any of the top shooting guards in the league did what he did, we'd be calling them a top ten player. Now he's not a top ten player, and I think he needs to bridge two gaps to get there, and who knows if he ever will be able to. But in terms of his playoff production,

that's top tier stuff. First of all, he needs to put up regular season numbers close to this level of production. Why because that's what his peers do, and if you want to be on the same level as your peers, you've got to be able to accomplish what they can accomplish. He needs to be able to put up regular seasons like what Devin Booker does for instance. Secondly, he was a problem defensively for Denver in this playoff run, much more so than Nikolea. Jokicever was not in a way

that over like he raised his positive impact. I thought that he was a huge positive, But that is the next step for him. Devin Booker actually is a perfect comp because Devin Booker was kind of similar to him as a defensive player early in his career. But now Devin Booker's like a legitimately like solid average defen the

player at his position. And it's just because he fuels himself with competitiveness and gives a shit on that end of the floor, and especially on a team like Denver that has as much firepower as they do, he should be able to devote that much in terms of resources in that direction. And this is kind of the way I look at it. In these lists, everyone is really close to each other. Like I told you guys before, Number twelve on my list and number thirty nine are

really not that far apart. But these little things are what differentiate. Winning got him up to this level, and playoff production got him up to this level. But he's got to produce in the regular season and he's got to become at least an average defensive player, but kudo's the NBA champion Jamal Murray for rising all the way up to sixteenth in this year's player rankings. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We will be

back tomorrow with fifteen, fourteen and thirteen. As always, I sincerely appreciate your spport and I will see you guys. Then the volume