The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible week. We are also live on AMPS, so if you're listening on YouTube or on the podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We are continuing our player rankings today with number twelve and number eleven before we go ten through one over the course of the next two weeks. You guys know the drill before we
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dollars off. Terms apply. Download Game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. Starting with No. Number twelve. Devin Booker finished the season averaging twenty eight points, five rebounds, and six assists per game. Sixty percent true shooting, and then went up an obscene level from there in the playoffs thirty four points, five rebounds, and seven assists on sixty nine percent true shooting through
two rounds. Had one of the craziest pull up jump shooting hot streaks I've ever seen in my time watching basketball. In back to back home games home wins against the Denver Nuggets, he was nineteen for twenty five on pull up jump shots, including six for ten from three oh and in the paint, he was sixteen for twenty one in those two games, meaning he averaged eight makes per
game in the paint. To go with the outrageous pull up jump shooting, he did cool off in Games five and six, shots just twelve for thirty two from the field as they lost those last two games kind of got their butts kicked too. Average margin of victory for Denver in those last two games was twenty one points.
It's the weirdest thing about that series, like Phoenix was both the only team that got two wins off of the Denver Nuggets and the team that got their ass kicked the most, because outside of those two wins, they just got pretty much dominated. So it was kind of a strange playoff run from that perspective. But so I want to zoom out before we zoom back in on
Devin Booker. To me, I told you guys kind of coming in that there were tears, and to me, everybody from roughly about number thirteen all the way to number thirty nine call it with the fourteen guys that I had that were kind of honorable mention, those are all really close. There are the guys that have listed. I've listed based on who I think is better, for sure, but there's small gaps between all of those guys. But from here on, from number twelve on, starting with Devin Booker,
I believe these are the superstars in the NBA. I view this as a very exclusive club that includes a top tier regular season performance for a team as well as a top tier playoff performance for a team. I think there's only twelve of these guys in the entire NBA, but I thought Devin Booker this year cracked into that group.
And I want to zoom in in exactly why so that you guys can see because I do think there are some specific check marks that I look at for that superstar tier, and I think Devin Booker is officially hit those Oh and by the way, they're my one through twelve. I do have those split into two tiers as well, So like one for one through three for
me is like my top tier superstars. These are the guys that I think are just a small level above the rest of the superstars, and then from four to twelve, it's all very close, and you can actually make a case for any one of the guys from four to twelve to be above any of the other guys. And totally would respect and understand if any of you guys disagreed with the order that I had in this stretch. But as I look kind of below Booker, I see
a little bit of a drop off. Like shaeke Yio justs Alexander is insane, but he needs to build a playoff resume. He literally has not played a playoff game as the number one option on his team, so I can't call him a superstar, right. Damian Lillard has only won two playoff games in the last four years and has missed the playoffs a couple times, So like that's it's hard for me to put him in that group until he kind of gets back to the point where
he's playing meaningful basketball. And then Anthony Edwards, who I had at fifteen, is just twenty one years old and has only played in eleven playoff games himself and has
never gotten out of the first round. So, like as we go up from Dame Sga and Anthres, this clear elevation in regular season dominance in playoff dominance within the recent years, and so that's where I have that delineation there at number twelve with Devin Booker, he was one of only nine players in the regular season last year to average twenty seven, four and five at least twenty seven points, four rebounds and five assists, only nine guys.
Devin Booker has now played in forty three career playoff games, all in the last three seasons, and in those forty three playoff games, he's averaged twenty eight points, five rebounds, and five assists on sixty percent for shooting. That's a ridiculous resume for a twenty six year old shooting guard.
So in my opinion, as you kind of zoom out on this three year stretch, in the regular season, for three years now, he's twenty seven, five and five on fifty nine percent for shooting, and in the playoffs he's twenty eight five and five on sixty percent your shooting. So he actually has consistent regular season dominance and he goes up a little bit of a level in the playoffs. So the last box there for being considered a legitimate superstar is can he be the best player on a
title team? And in my opinion, the answer is absolutely yes, because let's not forget that three years ago, a lesser version of Devin Booker was the very best player on a team that came two wins away from an NBA championship. You can tell talk all you want about that being the season after COVID and all the weird factors that were at play there, but you guys know how I feel about that kind of stuff. Everybody's dealing with the same circumstances. A win is a win is a win.
I do not believe in diminishing playoff success, regardless of the circumstances. I feel the same way about the bubble the year before that. I feel the same way about the lockout year. I just don't care. To me, everyone's got the same circumstances. A win is a win is a win, and the bottom line is is it was two really close games too that kind of swung the outcome of that series. The Suns were this close, and
that was a lesser version of Devin Booker. So I absolutely think Devin Booker can be the best player on a legitimate championship team. And I mean on that team, his second best player is Chris Paul and his third best players Deandreton or maybe Michael Bridge, depending on that you ask. So I didn't actually think he had some
sort of super team either. I think that you can easily, relatively easily build a championship quality roster around Devin Booker, and I actually have Kevin Durant above Devin Booker on the list this year, but we'll see how it plays out. Devin Booker has a chance over the course of the season to demonstrate that he's a better player. And like I said, the gap between four and twelve is really non existent in this group, and all those guys can
be jumbled around in a bunch of different ways. But as we look at that Superstar list, I think he's clearly at the bottom of that list, but I think he's clearly on the list. Consistent regular season dominance, consistent playoff dominance, even going up a level, a clear pattern of winning basketball games for your team, and you get to be in the club if you do those things. That's just the way that I view it. Devin Booker's turned himself from a pure scorer into a really versatile
offensive engine. The Sun scored one point zero five points per possession of possession and pick and roll with Devin Booker this year. That was seventy fourth percentile. He's actually become a very good passer out of pick and roll over the course of the season. That was one of the biggest things that stood out to me every time I watched the Suns this year was just how gifted he was at making the right play as he was
coming off of ball screens. He was down in ISO situations in the regular season, down to zero point eighty seven points per possession, kind of just fluky, missing a lot of shots, but he was great in the post one point one points per possession, which was in the sixty ninth percentile. His shot making was ridiculous forty seven percent on catch and shoot jumpers, forty three percent on pull up jumpers, and he made four point nine pull
up jumpers per game. Which was second in the entire league against you guessed at Kevin Durant in first place. He was forty nine percent on runners in a really really good mark of sixty eight percent in the restricted area, which for a two guard is really really good, although somewhat low volume, only two point six makes per game, which is in the middle of the pack for starting
guards around the league. That's kind of like one of the biggest weaknesses in my opinion in Phoenix's roster is they've got tons and tons of offensive skill, but they don't generate a lot of rim pressure. As a matter of fact, between Beal, kd and Booker all combined last year, I think they were right around like eight restricted area makes per game. That's I mean, I think I think the top tier guys in the league are averaging that
by themselves. So they're not getting a ton of rim pressure from those guys, and that's going to be the interesting thing to look at with that team. But as we've seen with teams like Denver, if you're really good at everything else, you can win anyway, and so that
will be the challenge for Phoenix this year. These are Devin Booker's ridiculous shooting percentages during this year's playoff run sixty three percent on catch and shoot jumpers, fifty on pull up jumpers, fifty eight percent on floaters, and seventy one percent at the rim. Legitimately one of the most accurate shot making playoff runs I have ever seen in my time covering the NBA, albeit only in two rounds. One of the key things in my opinion, that has
helped Devin Booker reach the superstar level. When we talked a little bit about this yesterday, especially when we were talking about Jamal Murray or two days ago with Jamal Murray, he's actually committed to the defensive end, and I think I think the tool that Devin Booker used to kind of reach this level is his competitiveness. Seven. Booker is
a freaky competitor. He talks a lot of shit. He takes this stuff super personally, and I think that's kind of a need when it comes to winning basketball games at the highest level, and he has channeled that into just working and committing on the defensive end of the floor. Now, he's not the quickest player or the most athletic player in the league, and he doesn't have great size, so even at that level of commitment, he's just become more
of like an average defensive player at his position. But again, so many of these stars, they're giving you a lot on one end and taking away on the other end, and it diminishes their overall winning impact by becoming average on the defensive end. Devin Booker has made it so that his offensive impact can shine through as a basket for the basketball team. Not to mention, it sets an example when your stars are willing to commit, that works
its way down the roster, and then other people defend it. Also, it also just flat out helps you win games to have another player on the floor that's at least average defensively at his position. He's become a very well rounded player. He's a bona fide top tier three level score, a very good playmaker, and an average defensive player at his position. To me, that puts him in the superstar tier. We got twelve of them in the league. He's at the bottom of that list, but he's on the list, and
that's a very big deal in my opinion. Moving on to number eleven, Kawhi Leonard. This is a player who at his peak, I genuinely believe is a top five player in this league. He's gonna be. I won't reveal it right now for the sake of the suspense, but I would either if he was. If I was just looking at healthy peaks, i'd have him at either four or five in this current field of superstars. I thought he demonstrated that pretty profoundly in the two playoff games
he played this year before he got hurt. He's down at eleven because of health issues. End of story. Looking at his last three seasons, he looked great in a playoff run and then got hurt in the middle of a series, missed in a season entirely, and then looked great in a playoff run before getting hurt in the middle of a series. So it doesn't really matter how good you are if you're never able to actually complete a playoff run, which is why I have him down
at number eleven. But at his best, he's so clearly better than just about everybody in the league that I have to have him up at eleven. I still think that there's all let's just put it simply. There is a chance, a non zero chance, probably a pretty decent chance, not a great chance, but a decent chance that Kawhi can finish the season this year. If he does, he's a top five player. That flips all of the math and all of the way that we have to project
this NBA season. So in my opinion, if we're factoring that in and you're a superstar, so I still have Kawhi Leonard at the superstar level. This year, he played in fifty two games. Scoring volume was way down twenty four points per game, seven rebounds, four assists, but super efficient sixty two percent true shooting off off the charts creation season one point one four points per possession of
pick and roll, which is insane. That's ninety second percentile, although somewhat low volume, only four hundred and forty five possessions one point zero eight points per possession in IO. Do you guys remember that list I had of the twenty five players that I considered high volume ISO players
running at least two hundred and fifty. Kawai came in on eighth at that list, at eighth with that list at one point zero eight points per possession, and then he was one point one to two points per possession of the post. There were thirty one players in the NBA this year that ran at least one hundred and fifty post ups. Kauai came in at seventh on that list with one point one to two points per possession,
so still super super versatile with his shot creation. He's, as we kind of zoom out from there, sixty two percent true shooting. Obviously low volume compared to his peers, but in terms of actual shot making efficiency, some top
tier stuff from Kawhi this season. And then he had two incredibly dominant playoff games thirty five points, seven rebinds and six sists on sixty seven percent true shooting, which, by the way, in the twenty twenty one playoff run before he got hurt, he was at sixty eight percent true shooting on thirty three points per game for eleven games. So he's only played thirteen playoff games in the last three seasons because of his injuries. But in those thirteen
playoff games, he's been off the charts good. And that's again why I keep talking about how I view his
ceiling so high. But obviously we've talked enough about his injuries to this point, so I want to kind of focus on why Kawhi is such a dominant playoff player compared to his peers, because again, as we look at that, you know, averaging, what's that over two years, somewhere between thirty and thirty five points per game, probably closer to thirty one thirty two, right, because of the small volume this year, But like thirty two ish points per game
on sixty seven and a half percent true shooting. That's like way better than everybody. That's like Steph Curry's right. That puts you in the very top tier in terms of offensive production. Right, And we know that that's not flukey because we've seen Kawhi do it as a finals MVP and in long playoff stretches before that. So what is it about Kawhi Leonard that makes him so freaking good in the NBA playoffs? I put it down to four things. First of all, he has no shot making weaknesses.
Forty eight percent on catch and shoot jumpers this year, fifty percent on pull up jumpers, forty six percent on floaters, sixty percent on hooks out of the post, and sixty five percent at the rim. Those are all off the charts good percentages. If he gets to a spot, he's got a really good chance of making it. Secondly, he's one of the strongest players in the league at his position. We talked about this a lot with Anthony Edwards yesterday.
It's about the concept of getting to your spots when you are physically strong, especially when you have a low center of gravity, meaning you have strength in your legs.
That makes it so that when you fight for position anywhere on the basketball court, whether that's setting your man up for a screen, whether that's ducking into the post, eneral calling for post position, just for an iso if you're fifteen sixteen feet away from the basket, whether that's dealing with hand checking in ISOs, dealing with hand checking and pick and roll, putting your defender in jail, in pick and roll, dislodging your defender when you're posting up
on those back down dribbles. Every single one of those things becomes infinitely easier when you have a strength advantage, particularly with a low center of gravity. And so in my opinion, that's what gives Kawhi the ability to get easy shots so frequently. He's so good at getting to his spot. Now again, we talked about this a little bit with the strong guys yesterday. There are guys that are more skilled than the big, strong guys in the league.
And Kuai has great touch for the record, like, he's got better touch than the Anthony Edwards and Lebron James comps that I used yesterday, but he probably has less touch than the top tier guys right in terms of scoring, right, Like, he doesn't have the same touch as Steph Curry or Kevin Durant, Devin Booker. You know, those guys all probably have a little bit better touch than Kawhi Leonard does
in a vacuum. But the difference is is Kauai is always getting great looks, like fantastic looks, and so he hits them at an insanely high percentage. And to me, that comes down to that strength the comp that I use. And we talked about this actually when we did our player rankings last year, but I'll do it again here. I look at Kawi's uh fadeaway jumper as the perfect example of this. The vast majority of guys who shoot
fadaway jumpers do it with their athleticism. Like even as we go back to Kobe and MJ like they do a shoulder bump, but most of their separation that they're getting on those fadeaway jumpers is just outrageous athleticism. Like Michael Jordan could do a drop step into a pivot fadeaway over his left shoulder and make it look so outrageously quick that the defender just didn't have a chance to get there, and so he's getting a good look
every time. Kawhi does it one hundred percent with strength, and I think that's kind of one of his calling cards and what allows him to be so efficient shooting over both shoulder out of the post. He doesn't hit that shoulder and then fade, He hits you hard with that shoulder and almost goes straight up and down. Go on to YouTube and just look up Kawhi Leondard highlights from any one of his big scoring games and just pay close attention to his turnaround fadeaways over both shoulders
out of the post. He is not fading a dramatic amount. He is getting into your body with physicality and rising up for largely pretty straight up and down jump shots. And that's the difference. Because guys like mj would shoot fifty percent on post fadeaways with ridiculous fading athleticism, Kawhi is shooting ridiculous percentages on post fadeaways by going straight
up and down. So again, he buys himself leeway with his touch just by virtue of him having such a ridiculous strong base and the footwork to get to his spots on any spot on the floor. So one, his redous shot making to his strength compared to his peers. Third, he can impact the game at a very high level defensively, that always is a huge part of playoff winning impact. And then lastly, Kawhi Leonard has worked really hard to become to become an above average playmaker. He used to
be flat out bad at it. Kawhi averaged two point three assists per game in San Antonio. He logged an eight assist game just once in his entire time. There was a playoff game against the Houston Rockets in twenty seventeen. He's done it twenty one times since joining the Clippers and has averaged five assists per game during his time
in a Clippers jersey, which is perfectly fine. That's like right around where his peers are, right Like, most of the big scoring wins in the league are somewhere between four and a half and five and a half assists per game Like that, that's just what those guys average. So Kawhi legitimately went from being a guy who was bad passing the basketball and not good at setting up shots for his teammates to perfect fine at it. He took a one of his biggest flaws and turned it
into something that no longer hurts his game. This season, he was over a point per possession in every single type of pass out of pick and roll, out of ISO and and post up situations. He also handled traps well one point two to nine points per possession when he was trapped in pick and roll and that happened almost once a game to him this year, and then handled doubles out of the post super well one point
one points per possession passing out of doubles in the post. So, like obviously like it's Kawhi is is a super interesting example of a of an archetype of player that is more of a late bloomer, right. And this is what
makes Jabari Smith Junior so exciting. Is like You're looking at these guys that come out of college and they have like maybe one thing that stands out as a skill, Like I remember early on Kawhi Leonard showed some flashes of shooting ability Jabari Smith Junior was actually a really good shooter at Auburn, but like there's a lot of raw stuff outside of that, like mostly a defensive player, so was Kawhi, you know not couldn't put the ball
on the floor. Neither could Kauhi. Like those guys struggled in a lot of those areas, and then there's like two phases to their development when they get into the league.
It's like the learning the skill piece, like just relentless reps in the gym by yourself with the trainer going, working on your pull up jump shot, working on your ball handling, working on all these different drible combinations and footwork, right, But then there's the on court reps part of it, and when it comes to making reads and becoming a decent passer, you just need a shit ton of five
on five reps against NBA level competition. And so that's why when I look at guys like Kawhi like to go from two point three assists per game for his entire San Antonio career, which by the way, he was consistently in MVP conversations, won multiple Defensive Players of the Year if I remember correctly, and also was literally one
Finals MVP, multiple long playoff runs. Just was a dominant player in that run and was a bad passer, and he's taken that and turned it into something that actually helps his game a good amount now with the Clippers. I think that's a testament to his work ethic and a good example looking forward when we look at really competitive, really hard working young forwards that have a lot of raw potential, and that's what I'm looking for with Jabari
Smith Junior in the future. But Kawhi Leonard again bona FIE top five player in the league when he's healthy, and he's a bona fi top five player in the league when he's healthy, and obviously we have to factor in his health in this list, which is why I
have him down at eleven. But all I'm hoping is that we get to see Kawhi finish the season healthy this year because I think the league is better when he's playing, because I think he's a lot of fun to watch, and I think he's a really good example for young basketball players on the things that they can work on to become better in every situation on the court. That's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
appreciate you guys. We have number ten coming on Monday, and we'll go ten, nine, eight, seven, six Monday through Friday next week, and then five four three two one on Monday through Friday the following week. Because always, I appreciate you guys, and I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday. The volume