The Deep 3 Podcast - Tier Listing NBA Player Archetypes | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Ranking every archetype of NBA player! #nba   Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/   Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW   Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794   Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree   Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/   Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg   Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_   Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are going to put archetypes of NBA players into a tier list. Everybody thinks about prospects through the lens of what they could be. Could they be a 3-and-D wing? Could they be a lead guard? Could they be a rent protector? We describe players into buckets. We're going to put those buckets of players into this tier list. So get ready to talk about the types of players you want your team.

Okay. Okay. First one. Big guards. A. Arguably yes. They're pretty great archetype. That is like the way now.

Luke is a big guard Cade's a big guard Magic I'll say A Not S Is not the best archetype out there Well because it comes with the turnover issue Pretty much all the time

It's very hard for a big guard To be like Massive turnover suppressor That's why Shea is so unique But there's still a ton of like advantages that you don't get anywhere else So are you no longer on turnovers Don't Matter Island

No that's probably my worst take of all time Okay you turn it around Rest in peace to turnovers They do matter Who would have thought? Yeah, we have the analytics were caught up to you. They found you.

They got the SUVs pulled up. They got a bunch of calculators. Joe Missoula came with a crowbar, beat the fuck at you. Honestly, that would, I mean, he scares the shit out of me, dude. Okay, A's a good place to start. Okay, next. Passing Bigs.

Pretty great. They're usually not great defenders. I, yeah, we see good passing Biggs come by all the time. Last one to come to memory recently is like Derek Queen or whatever. What type of defense? And or is he? Outside of Yokish, they're mostly frauds.

So I'm feeling C or D. It's valuable, but it's not like... At its best, it's valuable. A middle-tier passing hub big usually has mixed results. I'm gonna give them C. Yeah, I don't know. I think C's fair.

I just think it's kind of been tainted by Shangoon, Sabonis, and Yokic. You don't have to be bad defense to be a good passer. Like, they're not automatically connected. It's just like... That's what we have right now. Like Hartstein's a good example.

The white ones can't play defense. You could be a black passing how big. Like Hartnstein. Maybe go B then. B? Yeah, the idea of it is still really good. If you can get it to work, it's a great thing. Okay.

Okay. Next. LeBron Stoppers. F. What the fuck? Headline by, Damari Carroll. Who's a list of Damari Carol? PJ Washington

Jay Crowder Jeez Yeah PJ Tucker Yeah PJ Tucker's who comes To mind for me I think OG

I know we were drafted by the Raptors At the end of Lebronto To be a Lebron stopper Would it work If they could time travel And back To like

When Lebron was killing him That would be interesting What draft was OG Was he 18 or 17 I think he was He was 18 He was a rookie When the Raptors won the title

I'm pretty sure Oh okay So he probably Yeah yeah you're right So he probably wasn't really drafted for LeBron in mine. LeBrona just left. Wait, OG was 18?

He was in the 18 draft too. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He was on 17, I think. Was he? Because 18 draft, that's like Luca and Trey and shit.

That's not his draft plus? No. I think he's like 1716. I can't remember it all. You're probably right. Yeah. It's one of those two. But 17 feels old.

Is he the same age of him? Years old. I feel like he wasn't 18. 18 just stacked. They're both stacked. It's 17. He's the 23rd pick in 2017.

Yeah. 23rd. Damn. He was supposed to be LeBron Stopper. Then Kauai came said, I got it. All right, next. Thick centers. Thick centers.

Is that Glenn Davis? Headline by Glenn Big Baby Davis. Who doesn't love thick centers? I love a thick center. C.S. Honestly. I love a tubby center. It's honestly the most fun archetype.

Obviously, Yokic, the tubby center of all time. Chat counts. Yes. That's probably the two best offensive centers of all time, both of which very thick. Yes. There's been maybe like one five-year period. where a thick center couldn't really exist. Every other, like, moment in NBA history,

it was a great guy to have. Yeah, it's like, you're not really a good NBA era unless you have a poster boy thick center. There has to be one to keep things balanced from all the, like, Greek gods that are built like that. When you want tubby guy dominating everybody. Did all kind of beat as a thick center? Definitely right.

No. Not in the spirit. You need to be like, I don't want any muscle definition. Like Kenny Lofton type timing. Yeah, yeah. Next, three in D wings. I mean, pretty goddamn high. A, R.

Yeah, we can do A. We do A. I'm cool. It's kind of essential to win a championship. If it's a real like three point shooter, though, I don't want like three attempts a game. I want. Yeah, okay. There's a lot of fake demon three and D wings out there that masquerade is that, but really they're like Max Schurce or something and they're just like solid at both.

A real three D wing, a real OG and OB? Yeah. Rare. Rare demons. Yeah. A real J. Crowder. All right. Not too much.

Alright next No 3 and D wings So they do have D Just no 3 Yes I mean I like it when they have D at least And so Asar is the poster child for this

Yeah I guess I don't know Because like he's good But nobody else is that good at defense It's classic bro It's possible you have enough D that it's worth it Like Ben Simmons Okay now I'm thinking

I don't know Ben Simmons is a lot of D Tony Allen Tony Andre Roberson Robeson Helody Prime Van Bando? Oh, calm, damn.

Prime. I don't know. You lost me. He might have never had a prime. I don't know. Now you put Bando in my head and there's not enough D in the world to make you want Bando. So I think we have to go see. That's real.

Or, you put it in D. They'd be as you. Put him in D. Correct. That's like you said. It's only right. It's good writing. Okay.

Elite writing. All right. Next. No three and no D wings. You do neither. Who's the face of this? Evan Turner. Oh my God.

Just playmaking wings Slashing and playmaking at Sitz Who? I'm not This is one of the most Irritating ones Of all time honestly Maybe like the Mara de Rosen

Two like that Oh No three No D No RJ Barrett action Ah he got a little He got a little bit of a 3D's days Mm-hmm

That's gonna say he's got a little D Nah Just so So what did you do go F I mean you just don't want these players Right Yeah no I hate Yeah they're F

They're useless. What do you do? I hate these guys. Yeah. It's terrible. Like I think of Evan Turner, Michael Carter, Williams,

just guys who just exist out there in the way of a level. I feel like logically the last three things just have to be in this order. There's no way. No 3, no D is better than no 3 and D.

That would make no sense. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next. Play your podcaster. It's a good. archetype athlete creator game men's they pulled the mic immediately let you know about games

to the playoff series i like it not on my team beat here uh on my team i'll go f bro let's focus in please so jemal murray started twitch streaming at night after games when he went four for 18 from the field you wouldn't like it i'd be in the chat would you be getting subs no i'd be getting banned So we go see right in the middle If you're not on my team It's cinema If you're on my team

I hate you Yeah See Okay next Pass only point guards No threat to score Ah man They're fun as fuck

They used to be But the fun is limiting it shit 2005 was fun Nowadays Most of NBA history It was cool Yeah I think

Analytics had to ruin my favorite archetype Hallie's like the closest thing to a pass-only point and he's not even pass-only Yeah, he's game winning shots Who's like the last guy who was somewhat important in Josh Gitties Like Ricky Roch Giddy I was gonna say Rubio Rubio jumps out to me to last guy Well Rondo 2020 championship I guess is the last one that had like an important role

Yeah But even then he was a good shooter then too Where do we go with this in today's league? In today's? I would say D in today's league Yeah, today's league D Yeah you better but they are fun you gotta get a bucket it is what it is. Okay. Next. Guards who can only score.

Camp Thomas. Oh, God. That's too many of these. Oh, man. It's really hard to play around these guys. You better be the best score in the league. And even that if you're the best score in the league, you're probably has such a basketball IQ that allowed you to do that, that you know to do other things. So there's really no scenario which you only score if you're a good basketball player. Kind of got to be F. Yeah. Yeah. The last like guy, I would say like, Ant a couple years ago was like the last guy to be really, really elite at scoring was like pretty poor passing.

You can't have one these days. Before that, he wasn't even an elite for a little, but that's when like Andrew Wiggins was, that was like before he was on the boarders and he was trying to find his way in the league. He was before the defense, the path and the rebounding. He was like Miss Mad mid. So I think they're F. Okay. Next. White shooters.

S. Gotta love a good white shooter. What do you mean? A protected class, baby. Yeah, someone said they define American history. Yeah, you need them around. Lehar Maleswaltz. Another way to put it.

Yeah. You can look at this next one. You can look at this next one as another way to put it. Enforcer. Ah, okay. Good writing. Good writing.

The opposite of white shooters and enforcer? What do you mean by that? Regardless, I think. name some right now it's uh it's pod about basketball uh i like i like beat here for oh you want s hell yeah every team you're fucking send it well i guess they'll kick my ass if i put it any lower so it's true fair okay next bigs who want to be wings Oh, I hate these guys.

Jaron Jackson, rookie year. We just talked about it. So irritating. F. They're also the most infuriating, like, archetype to play with in a real-life scenario, too. Just get your big ass in the paint. Get your big ass in the paint and just be big, bro. You don't even have to, like, grab rebound.

Just exist down there for me, please, taking them space. Set a screen. It's as bigs who don't like setting screens. Oh, yeah. Who do you think you are? Yeah. But more like bad examples because Jaron Jackson, Porzengis, Bamb, like, all these are good players.

Who are the bad ones? Yeah. Let me pull up team logos real quick and I can tell you some bad ones. I would make it F? Yeah, like, what's his name? Bulbo. See, the man, both of them,

they flame out of the league because he can't play because it's a terror of archetyte be like dragon bender Yeah. Bull bull. But even like with like Nas Reid or Jaron Jackson

it's like they are good enough because they're good at wing things but like, you know, they would still be better if they just embraced like a few big man things. Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of the worst players in the league end up being this archetype. You still hear about him because they fucking are terrible. They do not exist no more. Speaking of, Nas Reid. As an architect. I feel like it would be disrespectful to anything less than S-tier, wouldn't it? I mean, it has to be. I guess.

He's fine. You guess. He's whatever, dude. That's fine. I wouldn't it say, let's see how he does this year, I guess. I think Minnesota might survive for him. You better hide your address online or you might get a bunch of pitchforks and cheese skirts on it. Okay.

Do they have key skirts there? I think so, right? It's Wisconsin. I know. I know it's in Wisconsin. No, no. In Minnesota, they probably do, I don't know, fucking crockpots or some shit. Crocots?

That's worse to get thrown at you, honestly. I mean, yeah, it's like 20 pounds. I don't want to get hit by that. Crock pots are heavy. Crockpots are serious. All right, next. 7-4 plus bigs. The Giants of the league.

The Taco Falls of the world. Symbulars of the world. I want to say Zach Eadie's one. There's a new one. I think he's on the Clippers now. Yeah, he used to be on the Mavs, I think, too. I'll go B tier. I feel like we're kind of like, you know, misled right now

because of Wembe and Edy and a few others. Most of these guys cannot move. It's like Boban Marianovich kind of guys and stuff. But when it works, it works. I just want to put him DT. But even Bobol is a fun time. Yeah. The entertainment factor can't be lost on us.

And we just treat him like a clown show. That's it, though. Like, look how big he is. That's all he got going for. It's a little disrespectful. Yeah. Dehumanizing? Kind of.

So, I mean, would it be more dehumanizing and put him down in D or F because they're too big? If anything, that's prejudiced to mix with the dehumanization. So I think you just put yourself in a corner. You better put him A. I'll stay in this corner. I'll stay in this corner. Sorry, man. They're D.

Okay. Okay. Wow. That was Mo. You think you know a guy. Next. Sorry, true colors are shown. Five nine point guards.

Demons. Tough. Little guys? Yeah. F. Get them out of here. They're done with them. Well, Isaiah Thomas was cool, but like, wait.

Faku Campa, dude. I got to send you that one highlight of Tauius's game winner like 10 years ago, man. U.S. You guys forget. You guys don't. remember stuff like that. No respect for Nate Archibald. No respect for Kay Felder. What is wrong with you? How dare you? A cute car? Fun guy. Julian Newman? All right. Fun is over. He's in the news lately, I guess. Oh, brother. What did he raise? Stand up immediately.

Jack the eyes lit up. I've heard. I've heard some stuff about him. He's finally a topic I can discuss. Hey, hey. It's crazy. It's a great time to show. Guys, At some point, you just have to accept, it's not that good to be famous if you broke. You know, just go get a job, man. And not him specifically, but like that whole kind of content. Oh, my God. All right, next. Slashing point guards.

Oh, S. I probably A. It's no Naws Rear. It can't be S. But I think A, I think this is one of the most fun archetypes to watch when they're really good. Yeah, like, obviously the expiration date is very, very, like, recent. It's so, it's so short. But at its peak, you will.

not have more fun watching any other archetype on the court. Yeah, this player is usually here for a good time, not a long time, for sure. Yeah. It's kind of crazy how it might be over for Jha already. I'm fucking hope not. For four good years. It's crazy. But it was sick.

Like, when it was, oh, my God, he was so good. I don't know. I appreciate every jump he makes. Now they're not, he's not jumping no more. All right. Next. Shot blocking guards. Tough.

That's fun as hell. Not that many of them, though. Like, super limited. You like Derek White, Shea, Cade, Duane Wade. I would put this S tier. This is like one of my

favorite plays to see it. You dork. It's cool. It's cool. You know why Michael Jordan was good? It's not because of his scoring. It's because of the turnover suppression and the way that he impacts defense.

Actually, Shea's defensive value is often overlooked because another point of attack defender when he rotates from the weak side he can turn it off with the room. Weekside help is cool, man. It's cool. Weekside room protection is cool.

Yeah. The S tier? I don't know. Position maxing. It's cooler than Nazareth. Hell no He doesn't understand who Nozri is

He just doesn't know Ignorances is disgusting That's fine I know I was there for fucking jelly fam or whatever It was cool I liked it Jelly fam

You're making it worse I remember It was cool Shout out to Isaiah Washington And whatever All right last one Bald defenders You need one of these on you

You gotta keep a ball defender in your back pocket Yeah Baldness just like gives them an edge too, bro. Like, you like activate and you turn into someone who you never been before. This guy doesn't give a fuck about anything. He's going on the foot. He's bald.

He's bald. He's not bad. Dude, the last bald guy who I saw leave everything on the line. Jared Dudley back in like, what, 2019 versus the Philadelphia 76ers against Ben Simmons. Motherfuck was taking charges. He was like 80 at that point in time. Have you guys in that movie, the other guys with Wolf Farrell? No.

No. I have. It's great. It's a great movie. Remember that scene when they found out he used to be a pimp? Yeah. And then he's staffed in a character. And he's like, what did he say?

He's like, Gator don't take no shit. Gator don't play no shit, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do remember that. That's ball guys in the go ball. They activate. They don't take no shit. Yeah. It's peak versions of themselves.

And for that, A, too? Yeah, sure. Yeah, you can give him a. Gated don't take no shit, baby. You can put a mess, honesty. Oh, nothing in beer, see besides one or two things. A real bell curve going on? It's like a reverse bell curve.

Oh, yeah, yeah, opposite. There you go. Yeah, you're a fucking idiot for that. What do you call? There's a name for that for a reverse bell curve. Reverse bell curve. That's all we need. Hey, you just said it, dude.

Fucking idiot. The next thing we're going to do. I don't even remember what next thing we're going to do is. I'm thinking about reverse bell curves. Thank you.