West contender rankings, LeBron James vs. Donovan Mitchell, Steph Curry's longevity

of a guy like Lebron. So we're gonna dig into that a little bit. There's some big picture stuff with like Lebron versus Steph in the recent history versus all time. We've got questions surrounding some theoretical Los Angeles Lakers trades, all sorts of interesting stuff to get into today. You guys know the job before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss

any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, Underscore JCNLT So you guys don't miss show announcements, don't forget a better podcast fee wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave your 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 and the last, but not least, if you want to get a question into this mail bag, all you gotta do is go to our full episodes on YouTube and in the comments drop mail bag with a colon and then write your question. You're gonna ask questions about absolutely anything to get into the mail bag. We're also highlighting, specifically in this series questions that are related to the player rankings list. I'm gonna try to get to several

of those in here as well. So you disagree with where I have a guy ranked. You think he's too high, I think he's too low. Just tell me where you think you should be ranked, explain why, give a little elevator pitch, and we'll get into those debates in our Friday mail bags as well. All right, let's talk some basketball. So first question, I have been feeling that the Rockets aren't real contenders for an overly simplistic reason. KD is

too old. When is the last time we saw a player as old as KD be the best player on a championship team. Lebron in twenty twenty was two years younger than KD will be by next year's playoffs. You have to go back over forty years to Careem Abdul Jabbar in nineteen eighty five to find a guy at least as old as KD is now so on a championship team, and it's two guys are widely considered to be two of the top three players of all time in Lebron in Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I just don't see

KD being that third guy to accomplish this feat. But is this too simplistic? Also, you don't have him ranked as a top ten player, and it's exceedingly rare to win a chip without a top ten player. So this is actually a really interesting topic to me as it pertains to the age of Kevin Durant. How much can he help their offense really and is there any sort of precedent for this sort of thing?

a brand new city. As you can imagine, it's kind of scary and a little bit lonely at times when you uproot your life and you move up to a completely different area, right, And Adam's just been Adam and his family have just been super kind to us.

to Cleaning the Glass. So in theory, if you follow like a basic logical pathway, you add Kevin Durant to that situation, you substantially improve your biggest weakness and you become a much better basketball team.

very good perimeter defender. We were talking about in the KD ranking video how good he is defending on an island. So I think Houston is going to be an incredible defense again. So in theory, Katie makes them so much better, right because he addresses that need. But I do think it is a bit more complicated than that, for the record, for you any further, I still see Houston as a top tier contender in the Western Conference. In that group of three with Denver and Oklahoma City and Houston, I

view them firmly in that tier. But the things that I'm about to explain are why I view them as a clear third place or a third like third most likely to actually get out of the conference because of the question marks surrounding them. Offense is a lot more complicated than defense continuity matters. You have to learn how to play together. Denver added some guys, but they're going to be playing the same style of offense with the same core players that they've been playing with for over

a half decade now. Offense is going to come easy for Denver this year. Okloma City's offense has some cracks in it, sure, but they're basically running it back again with the same dudes play in the same way for the third consecutive year. And while I view Kevin Durant as one of the better offensive players in the league, he's not what I would call a traditional offensive engine, a guy whose specialty it is to just make five man offense flow and be super easy. He's a scorer.

He's one of the very best ever. But he's a scorer. He's the guy who takes a good offense and makes it elite. And it's just about roles, right like that there's a certain diminishing return when you have offensive engine types. I've talked about this, like if you wanted to theoretically pair a Luca with a Chris Paul in his prime, or with a you know, with a Nikoli, Right Like, there's a diminishing return when you have multiple of those offensive engine types. But like a lot of those kinds

of guys aren't gonna be the elite shot makers. That are the types of dudes that lift good offenses into elite offenses, Right Like, this is a unique trait that Kevin Durant has. He made the Golden State Warriors unbeatable when he was there because they already had an engine in Steah. They were already in a great offense, and he took them from being that to being all time great, like the possibly the greatest offense of all time. Right

that that's what Kevin Durant did to that group. So like I do think Kevin Durant obviously makes the Rockets a better offense, the question is will he be able to improve their offense enough? Like this is more complicated than just KD graded offense equals Houston graded offense. I mean, guys like I see similar issues with the Los Angeles Lakers,

and they have substantially more offensive talent. They're not surrounding, you know, Luca with a bunch of defensive specialists the way that Houston is going to be surrounding Kevin Durant with the Lakers have a shit ton of offensive talent, and yet they went through extended stretches both in the regular season with Luca and in the Timberwolve series last year, or they didn't look like a good offense because it takes time and effort that continuity builds naturally for you

to become a good offense even with high level offensive pieces. Houston does not have an elite offensive player. Now excuse me, an laite offensive roster. They added an elite offensive player. They added some shooting, like I think Dorian Pinney Smith is gonna help. But it's going to be a process. How all of this works out for Houston, how this season goes for them will depend on what level they can get to on offense. Does he make them a little bit better that's not gonna be enough. Does he

make them a lot better. That's where they could end up reaching their ultimate goals and competing for a championship. I think a big part of the job is gonna be figuring out how to turn the attention that KD draws into easy offense for the rest of the guys. Essentially, what I'm saying is having KD function more as an offensive engine than as a score all the time.

and you're gonna overplay the paint. You're gonna try to get the ball out of his hands, and you're gonna try to concede decent catch and shoot looks to mediocre jump shooters. That's what every team is gonna try to do. So the key will be taking advantage of Kd's unique ability to invert spacing. Kade was the best jump shooter in basketball last year. We talked about that in his ranking episode. He's gonna come off of wide pin downs and he's gonna draw a second player to the level.

He's gonna come off of ball screens on the ball and he's gonna draw two to the ball. And that sort of thing, that specific ability to bring multiple defenders out to the perimeter, that can be used to turn all of that overhelp into dunks not threes.

next helper in that line? If they on ball, guy's on the ball and the screen defender is showing on the ball and the lowman is tagging the roller, the next guy in the rotation is literally going to be the guy up on the wing. It's it's easy to get behind that guy. There are dunks to be had there. That's what the Golden State Warriors have been doing to teams with high steph pick and roll for years and years and years, turning that two on the ball sequence

into dunks. So now just this is where you gotta take advantage of a men Thompson's versatility, because now imagine whether it's shanng Goon setting the pick and him short rolling in a men Thompson working the baseline or a mental screening and rolling and Shangun working the baseline. It's going to be pivotal that they establish timing. And this is what is gonna take time. This is what the

continuity brings. Through thousands of reps, you can get to the point where you have that timing down pat and you can try to set up the floor so that a men's working the baseline or Shangun's working the baseline, and the other is in the short roll spot and it's you know, someone like Dorian Phinney Smith on the wing. That's the kind of option where it's like, Okay, now we're using a men not spacing the floor, but as

a dunker, we're using Shane Gun whoever it is. One of them is a dunker and the other as a decision maker in the middle of the floor. And the only three point shooter you can tilt it to is gonna be a you know, a Fred van Vliet or a Dorian Phinney Smith. Better options than in the past it was Dylan Brooks right Like, it's one of those things where that geometry setting up that flow, getting the timing down so that they can go bang bang bang, dunk bang bang bang, wide open corner three for Dorian

Phiney Smith. You know, like that sort of that sort of sequencing is going to be what breaks this offense open into being elite again.

to draw the double teams closer to the basket. The closer the double team is to the basket, the easier it is to force it to become a ree for somebody.

The more double teams that Kadie draws twenty five feet from the basket, the more dunks and layups you're going to generate, which obviously are going to suit an athletic Houston Rockets team that doesn't necessarily shoot the ball super well, that's what's going to suit them more so, again, I think figuring out that progression, figuring out that timing, making sure that your off ball offensive players are playing in a spot where they're most comfortable rather than when they're uncomfortable.

Denver and Oklahoma City you're on. But there are clearly some bigger question marks for them than there are for other teams, lighter range of potential outcomes for them on the offensive end of the floor, And where Houston ends up this year will come down to how those particular question marks pan out. Now to the other two parts of your question, though, how does Katie's age factor into all of this? It entirely depends on how they play.

and that's just a lot. But if they can figure out more ways to use the attention he draws to initiate offense again, more double teams further from the basket, or aggressive shows at the level coverages further from the basket. That's where you can find ways to kind of like turn the way he's guarded into points rather than forcing him to really physically carry that load. And I think, I think if they can figure that out, I don't

think his age will be a problem. Why because this is a really young and athletic Houston team and they're going to anchor him with so much size and athleticism that you know, like even when we were talking about Katie's rim pressure, Katie's rim pressure is going to factor in for me when it comes to you know, the player rankings list when we're talking about in a vacuum basketball.

But this team is going to generate so much rim pressure in transition, and a men Thompson through his through his ability to you know, just get by people and to get aggressively closer to the basket, Alprin Shangun's power game, like Newston is going to be fine on the on the rim pressure find it's more just like the greasing the wheels, creating advantages and making basketball easier for them. That's the thing that I think KDE's going to be able to help them with. It's kind of a unique

fit in that sense. But yeah, like I'm whether or not Katie's age role is going to come down in large part to how they play. Minutes per game I think would also be a factor. Like Houston's an elite defense, so they're going to be able to sit him for sixteen minutes a game and still give themselves a great chance to win.

of those guys now. But I think KD is every bit as good as everyone else that I have on this list up to number five. That's where that kind of line of demarcation is so I think KD is plenty good enough.

the main reason his total usage numbers were down. That's just an eleven percent decrease in his minutes, and his time of possession per game decreased by twenty two percent. So I don't care about the minutes going down. By all indications, even just watching the calves, Donovan Mitchell had the ball less. He was clearly in a different role. It wasn't simply just that his minutes were cut down. He literally dropped in time of possession by almost a fourth.

That is a huge change and approach from Donovan Mitchell year over year.

then health has to matter. Spider played seventy one games last season, was healthy going into the playoffs, and average thirty. It seems unfair to blame anything on him regarding their playoff run last season, seeing as he was without his wingman and his secondary playmaker Garland for the entire playoffs, and he still had a damn near fifty point game and is a notorious playoff riser. Think back to the

bubble again. I love Lebron, but he hasn't been fully healthy going into either of the last two playoffs, and you wonder if he can maintain the intensity as a primary secondary option for four series. It's tough to bank on a fully healthy Lebron season through the playoffs, whereas Spider is smacking his prime, So I'm taking him for health and availability. Thanks and keep up the great work. Best basketball in the game. Thank you so much for

the kind words. We're going to really dive into this one because I think it's an interesting debate, the rivalries, the marching bands, the upsets. Saturday's just got way more fun. College foo fotball is back. Think you know the game. Put your college football knowledge to the test with DraftKings Sports Book and turn your picks into big payouts. From live betting during the game to rivalry week odds boosts,

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in Ontario. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co, slash audio. There are a couple things that I disagree with for you, like spite of playing seventy one games, was a little out of the ordinary. He typically does

miss significant chunks of the season. That was one of the seasons where he played more than usual, and even though he averaged high scoring numbers, I didn't think he did an amazing job in terms of flow of the game, like floor management type stuff like we talked about when we were doing the Donovan Mitchell video, and even though he put up big scoring numbers the team, even though he was surrounded by a lot of shooting and quality role men talent, the Cavs did not put up good

offensive ratings when Donovan Mitchell was in control of the offense. So, like, I push back on a couple of those specific things, but I want to dive into this because I don't see a large gap between the two. Anybody that I have ranked five to twelve, I could see a case for any player to be ranked above any player, Like there's absolutely a case.

bit better than Donovan Mitchell. But the point is is like anywhere from five to twelve, you could argue anybody over anybody, Like, if you're gonna make a case for Lebron to be down at twelve, you're going to focus on some of the inconsistencies in the regular season with his effort or some of the stuff with his age.

And if you're going to argue him up to five, you're going to be like, well, the guy that was playing in the first round against Denver two years ago looked like a bona fide top tier superstar, and like, when you have that, dude, you just give yourself a really good chance.

he wasn't even close. He was like more like a third tier superstar because he had this broken foot and he could barely move and it was affecting him in a bunch of areas of his game. I thought he was at that level in twenty twenty four. It was sneaky one of his better playoff series, just got nuked by a couple of Jamal Murray game winners, but they led the majority of the series. He averaged twenty eight points, seven rebounds, and nine assists on sixty four percent tru shooting.

He hit clutch shot after clutch shot after clutch shot. It just the Nuggets did more on offense at the end of those games. It just wasn't enough to win the series. And again, Denver's one of the great teams of this era and they're defending champs at that point in time, right, and I thought he was fine against Minnesota. He was right at that second tier superstar level, certainly better than he was in twenty twenty three when they made the Western Conference Finals run, but not as good

as he was in twenty twenty four. So to your point, it's kind of like a roll of the dice with Lebron as far as which player you're gonna get when you get to the postseason. But that's the first point that I have to hone in on here. Lebron's floor is just so high as a basketball player still to this day, Like injured foot Lebron in the Western Conference Finals run five points per game on fifty eight percent

turre shooting. Again, not the thirty points per game on fifty seven percent ture shooting that Donovan Mitchell just put up, but still really good. Scoring twenty five points per game on fifty eight percent your shooting. Go look, just just go look at the NBA dot com website, sort by points per game and look at how many players were averaging that type of scoring on that type of efficiency. In this year's postseason run ten rebounds per game and

seven assists per game. Ten rebounds per game is a huge foundational boost to a basketball team. And like say what you want to say about Lebron's regular season defensive effort, He's still a very good playoff defender to this day, while helping to anchor your defensive rebounding while becoming an excellent catch and shoot player. Last two playoff runs, he's eighteen for thirty seven on catch and shoot jump shots.

It's forty nine percent. He can still generate offense, not at the level that Donovan Mitchell does now, but still really good at it because of his playmaking talent and his size and strength and like yeah, like Donovan Mitchell had a more impressive regular season. He led a kick ass Cleveland Cavaliers team to a phenomenal season, but it's important to acknowledge that that was an excellent Cavs team.

Darius Garland's phenomenal ability to just beat people off the dribble and slice teams up in the paint made made things easier for everybody. Evan Mobley becoming like a legit awesome two way player, Jared Allen established himself as one of the better regular season centers in the NBA. They're insane depth of three and d off ball talent that Kobe Altman put together. It was an awesome team. That roster actually makes a shit ton of sense for Lebron James.

A point guard who can break the defense down, elite defenders that can shoot, elite defenders in the front line, that anchor things that can handle some of the physicality,

tons of high level off ball role player talent. That's literally why this summer, when Lebron and all the rumors around the Lakers started popping up, everyone's like hmm, what if he went to Cleveland because it just makes so much basketball sets And again, like Lebron, even on the low end of what you're gonna get in the postseason, his floor is just still so high and you might just get one of the top six or seven players in the league when you get there, which is a

ceiling that I don't think Donovan Mitchell can reach. So like, I just still think Lebron's a better basketball player than Donovan Mitchell, even at his old age. And for the record, I believe if you swapped him right now, like right now, even with the Jankee lineup stuff, you'd have to move Strews to the two and play Lebron at the three next to Mobley and Allen. It'd be a little bit funky.

I think that's a better team. Frankly, I'd make that team a gigantic favorite to win the Eastern Conference, and I'd give them a substantially better chance to win the title. I like, I think Lebron is a bit better than Donovan, but I also think the fit, the surrounding talent, all that shooting a point that can help break the defense down. Like I even think just in pure basketball fit that matches up better with Lebron in Cleveland than Donovan Mitchell

does in Cleveland. So yeah, I again, that's just my take. You're not wrong for putting Donovan Mitchell above Lebron. Again, I think there's a clear case you can make. I think it's a defensible position. But I still think Lebron's a better basketball player than Donovan Mitchell. By the way, I'm gonna be hitting him very soon, so it's not like I have him astronomically high. I just have him ahead of the guys that I have below him on the list right now. Next question, Austin Reeves and Jared

Vanderbilt for Jaden McDaniels. I see this as a mutually beneficial trade for both teams. What are your thoughts. It's an interesting trade on the surface, especially when you view it through just a short term lens. Right, Like Austin Reeves provides secondary ball handling to a Minnesota team that desperately needs that kind of like skill guard off of Anthony Edwards right, and Jaden McDaniels makes the Lakers Stantiley more athletic and gives them that starting caliber small forward

that they desperately need. But it comes with a fatal flaw for both teams. For the Lakers, part of the reason why they value Austin Reeves is the proven pathway to success with Luka Dancic, which is another kind of like pound the ball type of shot creator that can run, spread, pick and roll with similar types of players that Luca plays with, and just run a reasonable fact simile of what Luca does to spell Luca when he's off ball and to carry the offense when Luca's off the floor.

I think the Lakers view Austin Reeves as their Kyrie Irving or their Jalen Brunson in terms of being that secondary ball And now there's a much more complicated conversation we can have about whether or not Austin's capable of that. Jalen Brunson is top ten on this list this year, and Kyrie Irving is one of the best number twos of all time as a guy who's literally won a

championship in that role. And I don't think anybody's under any delusions thinking that Austin Reeves is better than Kyrie Irving, and I don't think any of us are thinking that right. So there's a complicated conversation you could get into, which is like, are the Lakers making the right decision betting on Austin Reeves being their number two with Luca?

trade Austin. And then the second piece of it is, if you trade Jaden McDaniels, the Timberwolves suddenly have a gaping hole at the small at the small forward position. Like ar Vanderbilt, you included him in that deal. If he started next to Julius Randall, I think that would be a spacing disaster, especially with Rudy Gobert on the floor. I don't think Terrence Shannon is ready for a starting role yet. If you start Dante DiVincenzo, you're gonna start

having size issues. I just think it would be plugging one hole but creating another hole in the process. So I just don't think it makes sense there. If the Lakers are going to make a move for like an elite starting two or three, somebody in the JD McDaniels, ilk even like Herb Jones, and they're not gonna move on like an Andrew Wiggins something along those lines because he's too old. I think they're gonna have to wait

till the middle of the season. I don't see anything that makes sense right now, because again, they have to have a plan for a ball handler coming back, or they need to be able to get that player without including Austin Reeves, which then puts you into a different class of player right or at least a player that's not yet available that can drive the market price down.

They're gonna have to wait till something takes shape elsewhere around the league, like oh, the Pacers fall out the gates and decide they're willing to get rid of an Aaron Nee Smith for example, like or like Andrew Nevhart would be like a pipe dream because he'd be a guy that could also be that secondary ball handler off

of Luca. But like you're if you could get a player like that, it's gonna have to materialize at some point down the line, because I just don't think it exists right this right at this point, and I think it's probably more likely because of the Lakers are so hesitant to give up draft assets at this point, holding out for the superstar that they're gonna pair Luca with.

I think it's probably more likely that they end up getting older options, like someone like a Conavious Callwell Pope out of Memphis right like on a buyout, or maybe you because CACP has a player option after this coming season for over twenty million dollars, So like maybe you ship out expirings guys like Gabe Vincent and Max Kliba and you just tell Memphis like, we're not giving you anything else, but we'll take CASEP and clear your books next summer and we'll take ACPs as a starting too.

That would be the kind of deal that I think is more likely for the Lakers than something that's kind of splash year and bigger, because I just think that they're trying to play the slow game with Luca, which I think again the problem with playing the slow game with Luca is whatever you anticipate, you can get that big carrot that you're thinking about that's going to drive

all the success in the Luka doncic Era. You got to also factor in that you're losing an All NBA player like Lebron is probably going to be an All NBA player this season, and that might be the last time.

go mortgage your future. As I've said, I don't think the Lakers need to go move Austin a first round pick and all these swaps and second round draft compensation and everything in under the sun to go get a thirty year old Andrew Wiggins. I'm not saying that I've said on the record, I don't think that the Lakers should move on Andrew Wiggins unless they can do it without including the first round pick, because I understand their situation.

I would just include Dalton and maybe a swap and a second round pick and see if you can squeeze Wiggins out of them, you know, like, because obviously making a move for Wiggins is a win now type of move that doesn't have as much long term upside.

I the Lakers would hold on to the first round pick because of their pipe dreams of Giannis, And I'm saying I think that a first round pick spent on a twenty six year old, legitimate, awesome three and D guy at the small forward position would be mutually beneficial to this era and the future.

I think that the asset management piece and the lack of valuation from the lakers of super high levels starters as opposed to superstar talent. I think that lack of value placed on super high level starters is going to be a mistake in this Luca era. I think Luca is such a unique star. He's such an offense in and of himself that he's not as dependent on super

super high level superstar support. That's why he can make get it done with Kyrie Irving or get it done with Austin and like or not with Austin a guy like Jalen Brunson, right, and by the way, like that Celtics team is an all time great. They lost Luca personally needed to make some improvements, especially as a defender and getting into better shape. There are checkpoints that Luca has to hit in order for that build to work

in order to win a championship. But like, Luca kind of grants you the grace of not necessarily needing a top tier superstar next to him. Same with Jokic, Right, That's how Jokic won the title. He's such an offense to himself. He's such an elite, high end engine that he can win with really high level starters rather than needing, you know, to have Giannis next to him. Right, that's the unique thing that these ultra indomitable offensive engines bring

to the table. And if Luca gets in great shape and he doesn't tire out at the end of games, and he gets better on defense, I do think he can win a title surrounded by super high level starters and a legitimate secondary creator the ilk of the Kyrie Brunson variety. Right, So, like that to me is the pathway. And so I think that's where I just differ with the Lakers, and they're kind of big picture like basketball philosophy.

It's like, I don't think the Lakers have a big picture basketball philosophy, or at least if they do, it's being drowned out by the superiors. Like I know, there are really smart people that work in the Laker front office underneath Rob Polinka, and like I just I am not sure if the Rob Jeanie, you know, Kurt rambis craft out has the appropriate vision for what works in

the modern him yet even under Luca. And so that's what kind of freaks me out a little bit, is like I don't I think if you ask them like what Herb Jones is worth, they would probably speak more like they would not be willing to spend as much as some of the smarter teams in the league would be willing to spend to get a guy like that, when the reality is is alongside Luka Doncic, when he would generate Herb a million butt naked corner threes and his ability to guard on the perimeter and funnel into

a rim protector and all those sorts of things that Herb Jones can do in the context of Luca, that's worth more than even if you picked up Herb and put him somewhere else. Like, Luca is such a unique player in the way that he drives value for that type of role player, And I just hope that the Lakers value that sort of thing eventually, Jason, I don't know if this mail bag, if this is mail bag, but I've watched Curry and Lebron go at it for the last five years, and I've noticed that Curry tends

to outplay him in regard to impact. A lot of people don't want to accept it, but I seriously think he's been better than Lebron for the last couple of years. A lot of general fans point to stats to show that it's close, but in my opinion, Curry's impact has been great, far greater than Lebron's, and I've noticed that Lebron's stats make him often better than he I can't this is what must have just been a type of it says make him out out to be better than

he is. In the last three to four years. He slacks off a lot on defense, and his points seem to be a bit hollow or empty. Don't get me wrong, but he's still been a top five player the last five seasons. But I could I could definitely be wrong, but I was wondering on your thoughts about how about this, especially since most NBA fans don't watch games and just

point to stats to show how close it is. So more or less, you're just saying you think Lebron or STEP's been better than Lebron for the last couple of years. You said far better. I don't think it's far better, but I actually agree with you. I think Steph has been better than Lebron over the last few years. Lebron is super old now and he's just more prone to injuries that makes it harder for him to.

And it was just because he had to carry such crazy load right in the run up to the playoffs, because of their predicament, because they waited so long to make a trade. And maybe Steph will be healthy from here on out.

struggling to score effectively. Lebron was great in Game six, especially like the Lebron was awesome at times in that series, and again in Game six, he was a fucking monster. But Steph was the better player in that series. But the Lakers were the better team and the better team won. Similarly, you'll hear Warriors fans constantly talk about how they went three to one against Lebron in the finals. I thought Lebron was the best player in all four of those series.

The Warriors were just obviously. Similarly to the Lakers Warriors series in twenty twenty three, the Warriors were just obviously better teams. The twenty fifteen Calves were decimated by injuries. In that series, Kyrie and Kevin Love out, there was a massive talent gap, and then the KD Warriors are literally the greatest roster ever assembled in the history of the NBA. People were just being dense for whatever reason, at least among the Warriors fans that look back on

that era. I mean, if the Lakers traded for Yannis tomorrow and Luca and Yannis knocked Jokic out of the playoffs, that doesn't mean that Luca or Janis are better than Jokic. That's incredibly stupid logic. But for whatever reason, Warriors fans make that very case when arguing Steph over Lebron. When the second and third best players in the league at the peak of their powers played on the same team,

they beat Lebron twice. So my take is for the entirety of Lebron's prime, Lebron was a better player than Steph, but Steph in his late prime has been better than thirty eight thirty nine, forty year old Lebron. And lastly, the gap in both of these cases is close in my opinion, which I think is a testament to the greatness of both of them. So, for instance, like I do think Lebron is better than Steph during that whole era,

but Steph got close. He got close to the guy many folks consider to be the best basketball player ever. That's an incredible feather in Steph's cap. That's a big part of why I have Steph as the fifth best perimeter player of all time. He legit competed like Whent toe to toe and competed against the goat.

build a championship team. No one's come close to that. And last little bonus, Steph topic here again. He just suffered that injury in the postseason, which kind of takes away from this, But he's putting together a sneaky little case for longevity on his own, like amongst small guards at his age, to make second team All NBA. Like most small guards fall apart rapidly in this phase of

their career, and Steph just hasn't. I'm curious to see how long he'll drag out this level of play, because, like I still have him pretty high on the list this year, I have him above Lebron again, But at the same time, he just got hurt and he just missed a playoff series, so hopefully that isn't a sign of things to come.

So like, whether or not it was a fluke will play a big role in where I rank Steph next summer, right, like, if he gets hurt again this year, then like if he gets hurt again this year, or if he's dealing with the nagging injury that causes him to play below his peak when we get to the postseason, all of a sudden, those same cases you're making about Lebron and his health and his ability to stay at his peak

now apply to Steph as well. So that's gonna be That's gonna be something I have an eye on this year. I am on Steph being healthy, and that's why I have staff as high as he is. You guys will see where he ranks on the list this year when we get there, But like, I'm gonna be keeping an eye on that because I think that's gonna play a big role in where ranks next year. Last question, non

basketball question. So as a fan for years now, I'm happy for you and the misses as you guys embark on a new chapter in life and congratulations.

of stuff, major TV shows and movies and stuff. With my best friend Luke, and we haven't done an episode in a while, in large part because I was in my busy season and right after that I immediately moved across state lines, so it was just like super like just a tough transition period. And Luke just had a new baby, so like he's been dealing with that too, so we've been kind of like not working for a while here.

But to be clear, and we did, we covered and Or, but covering and Or was the last time that we did episodes, and so a couple of things. First of all, Luke's my best friend and me moving to Denver doesn't change that, and we're gonna continue to record. We got him set up with remote equipment and I'll just be doing two Sons podcasts from here and we'll do it

over zoom calls. I think it'll be even funner, even more fun for both of us because it'll be opportunities for us to hang out again, because we'll obviously be hanging out less being you know, nine hundred miles apart. But yeah, we're gonna The main thing is, I'm actually trying to work out something with him on Tuesday or Wednesday this week because I watched the first two episodes of Alien Earth on Hulu and I loved it, and episode three is tomorrow night, and so I'm trying to get Luke.

of thing. Like We've done a ton of content over the years that I think, especially when you're doing TVs and TV and movie.

suporting the show. We'll be back on Monday with number nine, number nine, and I will see you guys no. Number eight because number nine is Jaylen Brunts and we just hit so I'll see you guys on my day for number eighth,