NBA Player Rankings #23-21: Bam Adebayo, Evan Mobley, Jaylen Brown

our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnlt so you guys don't miss a show announcement. So forget about a pocast few where we get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight tell us a super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson is doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for more content throughout the year. The last but not least,

keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We talked about this after the first video, but our mail bags over the course of the rest of the summer are going to be more geared towards the player.

And so if you guys disagree with any of my placement, a guy too high, a got too low, a guy who missed the list who should have made it, a guy who made the list who shouldn't have made it, anything that you disagree with, right mail bag with the colon, drop your kind of like counterpoint, keep it short, keep it brief like elevator. Pitch for what you guys disagree with, and we'll argue about those in our mail bags throughout the rest of the summer.

to the first video. But the rest of the list, we have like five additional mail bags that will be recording over the course of the list, where you guys will have plenty of opportunity to argue about what you disagree with, so make sure you guys get those into the comments. So, without any further ado, let's talk some basketball. Number twenty three Bam out of Baio, a guy who was dropped from where he was last year in the

top twenty for me. His season in review, he played in seventy eight games, averaged eighteen point one points per game. That was his lowest since twenty twenty nine. Point six rebounds per game, four point three assists per game is highest since twenty twenty one, two point zero stocks per game is one point three steals per game last year was the second highest total of his career. Now his efficiency is where things are going to get pretty interesting, and I have a lot of different stuff I want

to get into with Bam here. So he was just forty nine percent from the field last year. That was the lowest mark of his career to this point now. Part of it was the increase in his three point volume. People are going to shoot lower percentages on threes. That's going to affect your field goal percentage. He had never taken more than one three point attempts per game in the first several seasons of his career. Last year was

the first year that he attempted over one. He attempted almost three threes per game, so that obviously plays a certain role in the drop in his field goal percentage, But he also shot poorly on twos. He shot fifty two percent on twos, which is his lowest mark since

his rookie season. He's had three straight years from twenty twenty to twenty twenty two in the past where he averaged the same points per game eighteen points per game, but shot fifty seven percent on twos over the course of those three seasons, so substantially lower this year than levels he's reached previously in his career. He's flat out

regressing as a shot maker inside the arc. He shot below forty percent on floaters and hooks last year, which is brutal for his position at the center position when you do so much work rolling out of ball screens, your ability to short range shot make, either beating switches with quick quick hook shots or catching on the roll and spinning into a quick hook, or making floaters on the role. Those are vitally important parts of shot making at the center position, and he was below forty percent

on them last year. He used to just be better at it. He's fifty two percent on floaters and hooks in twenty twenty one, fifty five percent on floaters and hooks in twenty twenty two. So, for whatever reason, and I really don't have an explanation for it, he just hasn't been able to recreate what he did in years

past and elevate from there to that next level. It kind of came to the surface, if you guys remember as an issue for Bam during the twenty twenty three finals in the series against Denver, he was consistently getting quality short range looks, layups a little bit further away from the rim, short hooks, floaters, little bank shots. He was getting all of these looks and he just wasn't making them against Denver, and he was becoming a problem because they were the kind of shots that were open

in their offense. Often his touch it's not just on hooks and floaters. Either on layups, it's been an issue. He shot just fifty percent last year on layups. That's way below where his peers are at the center position again Bam fifty percent, Anthony Davis sixty percent, Carl Anthony Towns fifty eight percent, if he eats the Zubats fifty seven percent, nikolea Jokic sixty seven percent. You guys get

the point. Compared to his peers, he really struggles on short range shot making layups, hooks, floaters, that sort of thing, and that has ended up being an issue for him as he's failed to kind of take that next step

as an offensive player. There was kind of like this inflection point for Bam in right around that twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three phase when the Heat made those back to back conference finals runs in their NBA Finals run, where it kind of felt like he was either going to improve as a finisher and become like one of those legit second tier stars like Anthony Davis, or he was gonna plateau, and instead he's kind of regressed.

This is actually crazy, even with the influx of his three point shooting, which is legitimate, like he had never attempted more than one three per game. He attempted almost three three three pointers per game this year, and he made thirty six percent of him, which is very respectable as a three point shooter. But even with that influx of like a more efficient shot profile, he posted a true shooting percentage of just fifty six percent last year,

which was the lowest mark of his entire career. This is a big part of how he slipped out of the top twenty for me, despite the fact that Tyrese Haliburt and Damian Lillard Jason Tatum have dropped out of the list entirely, which should have bolstered him against that. But I dropped him because he's just regressing as an offensive player and it's preventing the Heat from getting to

their ultimate goals in the postseason. The lack of shot making for Bam is especially frustrating because of how amazing he is at everything else, including passing out of the

center position. When it comes to that part of offense, being that five out dribble handoff folkrum, going side to side, making reeds at a two million game, being the guy that ties everything together for that offense, he's actually great at that there are only four centers in the entire NBA who meet the following criteria at least twenty five minutes per game, so a guy who plays a lot, a usage rate of at least twenty percent, so guy who has the ball a lot, and an assistant turnover

ratio of at least two to one. There's four guys in the entire NBA at the center position that meet those criteria, and the other three guys are not very athletic Demonisibonis, Nicola Vucevich. Those guys are right around two to one, and then Yokich, who's better than three to one, who obviously is kind of the anomaly, but those are like skill focused centers who are great playmakers. And then it's Bam. Bam is the fourth guy on that list.

Another way to put it is like this, Bam is the only truly athletic center in the NBA who can playmake at that elite like at that elite level of efficiency and volume or he's not turning the ball over. He's top five and assists per game among centers. He's the only guy who brings that athleticism in that like refined playmaking at that center position in the entire league.

You combine that with his unbelievable defensive versatility, which we're about to get more into in a minute, and you have a player that had a truly sky high potential, like top tier superstar potential, if he could have just added reliable shot making. That's why I've been so keyed in on that piece of his game over the last few years, and it just kind of feels like a missed opportunity. He's regressing when it should be something that

he's improving on. But again, he's an excellent playmaker. He's fifth and assists per game among centers overall. We talked about that modern dribble handoff fulkrum in the NBA, like when you have guys that can score and pass out of action guards having a big who can flow from side to side, meaning like run that first action. Oh

it doesn't work. Quick, make yourself available at the top of the key, catch turn, and go to the other side of the floor dribble handoff while always being able to make the reads out of it, like, oh, they're overplaying me. I'm gonna fake the dribble handoff and go to the rim or setting the good screens that free the guys up passing to guards as they backcut or if they get top locked and are forced to backcut.

The playmaking that you do out of that. There's all of this stuff that in terms of decision making and playmaking you need from the center position in order to run five out offense in the modern NBA, and offense that the Heat run more than many teams in the NBA. BAM's great at that. And then again the defensive end of the floors where Bam really separates himself. Bam didn't have his best defensive season last year. Zero point seven blocks per game were the lowest since his rookie since

his rookie year in the NBA. Now context there, he's playing with more two big looks. That's going to put him in some different situations playing alongside Killo where and I generally think it was the least motivated he's been as a defender since he came into the league. As the Heat were just so far away from achieving their postseason goals, he finished outside of the top five and Defensive Player of the Year voting for the first time since twenty nineteen.

the rim. But Ad put on a bunch of weight and hasn't been able to move his feet on the perimeter as well. It hasn't been as good defending switches. Bam is legitimately awesome switching out onto the perimeter. One of the unique things he does that many other big struggle with. We're gonna talk about this when we get

to Evan Mobley. But one of the things that like Evan Mobley struggles with is when he gets switched onto quicker guards, he gives too much space and those guys get really comfortable with their pull up three point shooting. Evan got lit on fire on pull up threes in ISOs this year, kind of prevented him from being as good of an ISO big as as he could have been,

as good of a switching big as he could have been. Bam, You'll see him like two feet out outside the three point line picking up pull up shooters way out on the perimeter. He's way more active with his hands to disrupt the rhythm and flow of pull up shooters so they can't comfortably settle into pull up jump shots, while also having the speed laterally and the recovery athleticism to deal with quickness getting past him. He's unbelievable defending on switches.

Even last year and what everyone considers to be a down year, he was still amazing on the perimeter and switches. Statistically, there were one hundred and fifty one players in the NBA last year who defended at least fifty ISOs. Bam Allouja zero point six to two points per possession in ISO that ranked third on that list, third out of one hundred and fifty one players. He does this while also being very good in traditional coverages. He gets up to the level of screens quickly and at the level

coverages and can disrupt pull up shooters. He can contest in the mid range. He can protect the rim. He obviously is in his protecting the rim as some of the taller, longer centers in the NBA, but he's good enough at it in conjunction with.

fan of Bam in the heat. But you can't do a whole lot better in the modern NBA than a big man who can legitimately anchor any defensive coverage at a Defensive Player of the Year level, giving you an enormous amount of flexibility from opponent to ponent, both in the regular season and in the playoffs, while also being a legitimately good dribble handoff fokram on offense that can

kind of get guys set up in the right spot. Now, his lack of touch, especially around the rim, prevents him from reaching that second tier of superstars in the NBA, but his overall value is still enough to put him at twenty three on this year's list. All right, number twenty two Evan Mobley. Nothing says summer like long days, clutch plays, and firing off a few bets on the game, all with DraftKings Sportsbook. As the season heats up, so do the bats and DraftKings Sportsbook hasts you covered with

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and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources see dkang dot co slash audio. Last season in review for Evan played seventy one games. Very award heavy season for Evan. He won Defensive Player of the Year. He was First Team All Defense, second Team All NBA, made the All Star Game, and was tenth in MVP voting. It's a

hell of a breakout season for the young star. His averages he averaged nineteen points, nine rebounds, and three assists two point five stocks per game. His efficiency used fifty six percent from the field, sixty two percent on twos. He doesn't have amazing touch on short twos, like forty percent on floaters and hooks fifty three percent on layups. Those marks are only slightly ahead of where bam Adebayo was, but he had one hundred and ninety four dunks last year.

Bam only had one hundred and forty. Now, some of that is that Evan Mobley played with better ball handlers, but some of it is also that Evan Mobley is a better vertical spacer and that was something that allowed him to be way more efficient on twos than bam Adebio was last year. He also shot thirty seven percent from three on three point two attempts per game last year in the regular season, more than double the attempts of any previous season in his career, and he shot

well in the postseason. He shot forty five percent from three in the postseason on four attempts per game, so the jump shot feels real. He's legitimately a substantially better jump shooter than bam Ade Bio. He was sixty percent in effective field goal percentage and a career high sixty three percent in true shooting, seven percentage points ahead of where bam Adebayo was last year. Evan Mobley, in my opinion, has become flatly a better offensive player than bam was

or is. The perimeter jump shot is more reliable. He's added some of the ability to run action. I do think bam is a better like five out dribble handoff fulkrum, but Evan Mobley has closed the gap in terms of offensive initiation with some of his ability to run offense, to run inverted action, and his superior jump shooting and his vertical spacing, like we talked about earlier, it made

Evan Mobley a very dynamic roleman. Evan Mobley scored one point one seven points per roleman possession last year compared to just zero point nine seven for bam Ata Bio, so twenty points better per one hundred roll man possessions. And again, some of that is the gap in ball handling, but most of it is just that Mobley has become a better offensive player. Evan Mobley shot thirty eight percent on pick and pop three's last year. Bam shot twenty three percent on pick and pop three, So three is

when he was slipping out of ball screens. Those are generally wide open regardless of who the ball handler is. So like that, again, there is an obvious ball handling gap between those two teams, but I think there's an obvious gap in offensive refinement between Evan Mobley and Bamadabayo as well. Here's some play type data for Evan Mobley. He's a hyper efficient play finisher. One point one to seven points per roleman possession. That's sixty six percentiles of pretty far above average.

really not bad. He was specifically successful in inverted ball screen situations, meaning when he was handling the ball in either Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland or one of the shooters like Sam Merrill or Max Strew's would come up screen for him and then slip out to the three

point line. It kind of created some very simple reads for him, like if the guards screened and the guard's man didn't help, he would just turn the corner and go downhill and he'd either get all the way to the rim or he'd make a kick if someone stepped over to help. It was a pretty simple set of reads. If the guard lingered in a hedge, then the shooter would slip out free and he would just pitch it back to the shooter as he got to the three

point line. It was a very simple kind of order of operations for Evan Mobley that allowed him to be effective and one of the hardest actions to guard in the NBA. That kind of like ghost screen action with a bigger ball handler involved. When he passed out of inverted ball screens. The Calves got one point zero six points per possession last year, which is very good. I also thought Mobley played well in the playoffs. His jump shot was going in at a higher clip than the

regular season. He was making his hook shot, his shot creation was successful. He ran fifteen of those inverted ball screens in the playoffs and got nineteen points. That's great. That's a great number. He ran fourteen post ups in ISOs for thirteen points, which is not amazing, but it's above his regular season efficiency. I thought the Caves held up well on the offensive glass in that series, where in us past that was something that Evan Mobley and

Jared Allen both had struggled with. I thought last year was just a monumental step forward in Evan Mobley's development as a basketball player.

on switches. In that list of one hundred and fifty one players who defended at least fifty ISOs that Bam was third place on, Evan Mobley ranked sixty sixth on that list. He allowed twenty seven more points per one hundred ISOs than bam Adebio did. And his weakness, again, we talked about it a little bit earlier when we were talking about Bam. Bam was picking up pull up shooters outside the three point line and stunting at the ball, which allowed him to prevent himself from allowing easy pull

up jump shots over the top. Evan was consistently back on his heels further back behind the three point line, and so he contained the ball well. Excuse me, he contained the ball well, but he gave up a lot of easy pull up three point shots on his heels in those ISO situations. He does have a good amount of scheme versatility. It's worth mentioning. He does a lot of work and two big looks as like a low man on the back line. He can do a decent

job in switches. Again, he's not bad at it. He's just not nearly as good as some of the other bigs in the league because of him being kind of passive and on his heels, and he does protect the rim reasonably well. Evan Mobley getting the Defensive Player of the Year award again, I disagreed with that. I thought that had more to do with the Cavs just winning a shit ton of games and being kind of like

an award geared around team success. I do still believe Evan Mobley is an excellent defender overall, even if I don't necessarily believe he was deserving of the accolades that he got last year on the defensive end. The best way for me to explain how I landed with Bam at twenty three and Evan Mobley at twenty two is to say that I believe Evan Mobley is the better offensive player, and I believe Bam is the better defensive player.

But I believe the gap between how good Evan Mobley is on offense and how good BAM is on offense is bigger than the gap between how good BAM is on defense and Evan Mobley is on defense.

his lowis in twenty twenty one. He was dealing with the knee issue throughout the year, which is going to be a big part of the way we framed things for Jalen Brown. In this particular segment, he averaged twenty two points per game. That was his lowis in twenty twenty six rebounds four point five assists, which was by far a career high from him. The increase in assists mainly stemmed from Jalen becoming a much more willing passer out of his one on one situations, specifically ISO's and

post ups. For example, in the twenty twenty four season, when he passed out of iso or passed out of post ups, he generated just zero point ninety five points per possession. In the twenty twenty five season, he passed out of ISOs and post ups about a time and a half as frequently, so he did it a lot more and he generated one point three zero points per possession when he passed out of those situations. The specific improvement that I noticed the most on tape was him

passing out of the post. He did a lot better job this year when he would get in the post of just kind of probing until that second defender would come in, making the appropriate kickout passes on time on target to shooters. The Celtics did shoot super well on his post kickouts this year, but there was also a market improvement in the quality of the threes that he was generating, and I tend to think those things are associated. So obviously a little bit of shooting luck, but a

lot of shot quality as well. He generated thirty two made threes out of post ups for his teammates in just sixty three games this year. Last year, in seventy games, he generated just twenty. That increase in overall playmaking ability from Jalen made up for some of what was a pretty down year for Jalen Brown as a shooter. But I want to get into some of the specific reasons why, because it's very fascinating. First of all, let's just get

through the numbers. He was forty six percent from the field. That's the lowest since his rookie year. He was fifty three percent on twos, lowest since his second year in the league, thirty two percent from three, lowest since his rookie year. Fifty two percent in effective field goal percentage. Excuse me the thirty two percent from three that was the lowest of his entire career. Fifty two percent in

effective field goal percentage, lowest since his rookie year. Fifty six percent in true shooting percentage, lowest since twenty nineteen. So why did efficiency dip the way that it did this year. I think it mostly had to do with his knee. There's this thing that I talk about a

lot in this show called energy transfer. It's a concept for jump shooting in general, shot making in basketball, essentially, like if you make a move to get to anywhere on the floor, or even if you're just in a catch and shoot situation, at the end of that sequence, you are transferring energy from your feet up through your knees, up through your hips, up through your shoulder, elbow, four arm, all the way through the wrist on the snap of

the snap of the jump shot right. And if you get less power, then you usually get out of one part of that system. The entire calibration of it gets thrown off. I thought it was evidenced by a couple of key areas in his shooting efficiency. Take a look at this. His jump shooting was down mostly across the board, like overall one point zero four points per shot on jump shots in twenty twenty four, zero point nine to two points per shot in twenty twenty five, so twelve

points per one hundred jump shots. Worse overall on jump shots off the dribble zero point eighty five points per shot last year. The year before one point zero zero points per shot, so fifteen points per one hundred off the dribble jump shots, worse contested catch and shoots twenty twenty four one point zero four, twenty two twenty five zero point nine to eight six per one hundred worse, right, But in wide open catch and shoot shooting he was

actually up year over year. He was one point one four, twenty twenty four, one point one point eight, and twenty twenty five. Now, before we dig into why that's interesting, let's talk about his rim finishing two. In twenty twenty four, he got to the rim seven point three times per game and shot sixty two percent there. According to Synergy twenty twenty five, just six point seven attempts per game and just sixty percent at the rim, So a little

bit worse in both volume and efficiency. So what does it tell us that Jalen has improved as a playmaker and improved as a wide open catch and shoot guy year over year, but that he struggled on contested jump shots off the dribble jump shots and his rim volume

in efficiency both dropped year over year. It sounds to me like the game continues to slow down for him and his skill set is continuing to refine, but that he was obviously dealing with the struggle to get lift and separation, which is going to make a lot of

sense for a guy who's dealing with the issues. What are the shots that are going to require extra oomph in your lower body in that energy transfer, contested catch and shoot, jump shots, shooting off the dribble and out of footwork and getting to and finishing at the rim, That's where he saw the drop off. Now, it's at least worth mentioning that he's about to turn twenty nine years old and he has a ton of miles on his body relative to most NBA players his age. For perspective,

he's played forty five hundred playoff minutes. Lebron James has played twelve thousand. So the way to look at it is Jalen Brown already at just age twenty eight, has played thirty eight percent of the playoff off minutes that Lebron James has played, and he's well into his forties now.

So Jalen's dip in athleticism and the associated struggles, as well as the reality of his age and the amount of mileage on his body that's a big part of how he slipped a little bit down the list For me this year, I'll be curious to see if he's able to overcome that knee issue and get back to one hundred percent next year, or if it's something that lingers and that can become a problem as things continue

throughout his career. Next year will be our first opportunity to see Jalen Brown in a truly featured primary shot creator role. Last year, Jalen's volume was sizable, especially in one on one situations. He ran over five hundred pick and roles and excuse me, over five hundred post ups and ISOs, but his overall shot creation volume is still low relative to his peers at the top of the league.

He was good, though, one point zero one points per possession and pick and roll including including passes on four hundred and fifty three reps.

post ups last year. Now, again, some of that is influenced by the fact that the Celtics shot super well on his kickouts. I think they shot like sixty percent on his kickout threes out of post ups. But it's worth mentioning again, when I looked at the film, the kickouts were happening more frequently and he was generating better shots than he did in previous years. So some of it was shooting variants, some of it was also the

quality of shots he was generating. I expect Jalen Brown to continue to thrive at volume in ISO and post up situations. They tend to present the simplest reads in a four out one in system. So, for instance, if you're on a cleared side post up for Jalen Brown, very easy reads for him. If you put him on the left block and he's got the ball in his right hand, you double from the top. It's an easy kick out up to the wing for a three point shot. You double off the opposite wing. He can rifle that

pass to the opposite wing. I've seen him make that specific pass. Many times they could get a little tougher when they load up and make the weak side corner available, but Jalen will is typically pretty good at getting deeper into the paint making the kickouts. They're easier reads ISO, same sort of thing, cleared side ISO exact same reads we just covered wing ISOs in four out one in. It's pretty simple. If the defender's funneling you towards the

baseline and you drive. If you drive and they don't help off the strong side corner, you're gonna face help off of the weak side corner if they rotate down the reads to the wing. If they don't the reads to the corner, it's a pretty simple set of reads out of an ISO. If you do get to the middle, if they pinch down from the nail, you pinch up to you pitch it out to the wing. If they stay glued to the wing and you get past that guy, they're probably gonna help off the corner.

it can get tough for him. I do think it's a coverage he's gonna see quite a lot this year too, especially since he'll be surrounded by less talent. Teams will switch less against the Celtics, there will be more loaded up pick and roll traditional coverages. My guess is that Jalen Brown struggle here. I think we'll see a pretty high turnover rate from him this year. I think his efficiency in pick and roll per per possession including passes will flirt with a point and maybe dip below a point.

But if he can prove me wrong here. He does have the potential to have a special offensive season, especially if he can get his knee back to one hundred percent. But my guess is it's going to be really nice in ice in post up situations about that, he'll struggle in pick and roll, and then overall it'll be kind of a mixed bag from him this year. On defense, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jalen Brown.

I think he's just one of the absolute apex perimeter defenders in the league when he really locks in there, certainly in the top tier. He's just such an amazing weapon to have on a roster. He even brings the switch ability that gave Boston the championship ceiling they had in the past. We talk so much about Jason Tatum and his ability to guard centers and how that made things work because they could switch. Well, that only works that the guy that's guarding the guard can also switch

on to center, which Jalen Brown could effectively do. Obviously, this year will be different, and that you probably have way too much offensive responsibility to be that apex defender while also doing everything he needs to do on offense. But it's still an important part of his skill set that we have to factor in when we're considering a list like this. Jalen Brown's dropped a bit on this list as his body has started to let him down a bit in the playoffs, especially, he shot very poorly

on long jump shots, very poorly at the rim. He was just fifty five percent at the RAM in the postseason. But again, as an Apex perimeter defender and a bona fide secondary shot creator in this league, I think he's firmly entrenched in the top twenty five. I have him at spot number twenty one this year. All Right, guys, This's all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting and supporting the show. Remember

to get your mailbag questions in. It won't be for a couple of fridays that we get to this particular episode in our mail bags, just because I'm going out of town to Alaska. But I do plan on going through all the videos and finding all of the arguments for our mailbags. So if you disagree with any of the rankings in any way, shape or form, give a quick elevator pitch and the YouTube comments with as a mailbag question, and we'll get to them in our mail

bags throughout the remainder of the list. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.