The Deep 3 Podcast - We Picked The Greatest Sidekicks In NBA Team History | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

The GOAT NBA sidekicks for different NBA teams! #nba Subscribe to our NFL show, House Call!: https://www.youtube.com/@house_call 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm going to name an NBA team and I want you to tell me who is the greatest sidekick in this NBA team's history so not their goat not their most legendary moment player the best sidekick for that team Cleveland Cavaliers

I mean Kyrie is the best sidekick especially because they got they got a ring so you can you could say Kyrie if you want to say that they you know because of how it ended

go old school go like Mark Price or something like that I think we go, Kyrie. I think Kyrie's moment is like the most quintessential modern NBA sidekick moment. Yeah, I agree. Someone just comes in,

does his job. The hardest part of the job, of course, which is just getting buckets, can play defense here and there. But when you lose at the end of day, no one's ever talking about you as the reason why you lost.

And this is like the perfect title for Kyrie Irving on the Cavs being the most gifted sidekick we could imagine. Exactly. He gets a lot of glaze, a lot of hate in either direction. He is the most elite sidekick

you could imagine. Team number two, Los Angeles Lakers. Think about all. all their legendary teams, who is the best number two option? It's funny because it really is. It's 01 or 2000 to 2003 Kobe. It's the greatest sidekick of all time.

What about? Oh, no, no, no, no. Is there any argument for either Magic or Kareem? Because obviously these are all great players, all top 10 players of all time, but who embodies sidekick the most? I think that's- I might.

I don't think so because Magic ended up taking, like, they lose in the finals in 84, and Magic is choking. he gets like that nickname of tragic Johnson and like they're not they're not doing that to the to the psychic like that I definitely think that whole era of Kobe is remembered and some people like to discount him in all time conversation because they're like yeah you were the sidekick too shak yeah kind of crazy that Kobe is their greatest ike and then grew into their team go like having both periods but yeah he was probably the greatest psychic of all time during that era

that's what makes people that was it makes it harder to talk about Kobe and his overall legacy and this why we see people he'll hella overrate him at times and also underrated him I'm talking about this is exactly what I just said like he didn't come into game four Shaq fouled out

what does he do tells everybody to calm down I got it starts knocking down buckets I agree with you come on man read a book sometimes don't ask for 2004

next up Toronto Raptors greatest Kyle Arii I would I would argue Fred Van the week no

Fred Van Bleet was going crazy He was but that was like That wasn't even psychic That was like supporting character That's their greatest like man in the chair He played He played he played He played his way into psychic

He was okay I think for me It's Lowry It's clearly Lowry The greatest player of all time Is their greatest psychic of all time Exactly It's weird because back in 2015

2017 or whatever I felt like he was the best player Compared to Marrosa And even though tomorrow would get All the late game shots And he would be the points for game leader And all that Kyle Lauer was the fucking

include that team. He was their best player but was also okay with being the psychics. That's what DeMarre needed to be as impactful as he could be. Exactly. And then he gets to be

an actual sidekick with Kauai. He is the perfect psychic. He was able to delegate and then be perfect for a position when it was time to win a championship. Yeah, it's definitely Kyle Lowry.

Warriors. Steph. It's Kevin. Is it really Kevin? Who seemed to he go to? Who won the finals MVP? Who a lot? Who gave him the space

to say you can come in here and win final. I just look at points per game and I see he has more than him so he is the best player. I'm going to be, what are we a child? So I think it might be

Steph Curry weirdly enough. It's coming to right. It's either KD. The real answer is Ramon Green. Is Jermon or Clay? It's Jermon Green by far. Draymond Green is the greatest psychic in modern NBA history.

Besides Kobe might be the greatest psychic of all time. The way he compliments Steph Curry, you can have your little quibble back and forth who's better KD Steph. Who's the glue that brings it together?

Over Pippin? Yeah, so I can't go with that, Dremont. He's more complimentary to bringing out the best of Steph than Pippin is to bring it out the best of Jordan. Obviously, he won more

and he's probably better, but I think Dremont embodies a psychic more. He's better than Dremont. But Dremont embodies what a psychic needs to do more. He lifts Steph Curry more than Pippin lifts Jordan,

I think. I'm not sure. I'm not sure either. I've never thought about this a single second, but I think of your second. This is a whole new thought. Yeah,

but I think so. Like, obviously Pippin's better and like, you know, everything of that sort, not going to argue anything like that. Before a sidekick, you want him to compliment your best player, cover up his weaknesses, allow his strengths to thrive. I don't think anybody's elevated a superstar better than Dremont. I think you can argue that with Pippen because you get to, because he's telling Jordan, I get to, I have to cover your man, right? Like, I'm covering the best wing.

I'm allowing you to just go out here and drive the offense. You don't have to be a, like, pseudo playmaker. I can kind of handle that at the same time. time that's why like pippin loki is doing all of the things that that draymond does yeah and he's better so but but i don't know if there's anybody that's ever been so confident like step really got blessed with being with the perfect complimentary player in NBA history with draymond it might yeah it might be one too i'm not i'm not going to give jremont the night right now i think i am going to go pippin but anyway i'm sure he is a great he is a great he has six rings

and he's better than jermont he is yeah yeah miami heat's funny enough this is this is dwen weight another one where their greatest sidekick is their goat. Yeah. Because this is, it's the, it's the Kyle Lurie thing of I'm allowing you to delegate. Like, I'm delegating. We're not going to talk about how his knees were going, you know, and how the bar just snatched it. No, in 2011, they failed because of lack of delegation as one of the reasons. Yeah.

2012, they came around and he said, please take off. My knees hurt. I need you to take more shots. I choose to be a sidekick now. And they went dominant. And he was not one of the greatest sidekicks of all time, too, because he kind of was forced to you so like you said. Yeah, listen, he was quickly humbled and said, I'm going to get out ahead of it before the knees breakdown. I want you to take over the team. Yeah. They load managed

in 2013. They were starting to not play him. Yeah, that's sick. Those needs are. 10 years, 10 years, people get to year 10 so quick now. Yeah. Bro, fucking Devin Booker is in year 11. That's insane, imagine. Imagine if they just started saying like, yeah, Devin Booker is not, he's not going to play back to backs anymore. I couldn't imagine that's happening. That's happening. to debug our fucking D. Aaron Fox's damn near in your 10. Well, I can imagine it's just fine because I'm watching Joel and beat today. Donovan, show me your best first down celebration. Okay, that's what's in your bag?

Mind you, that's 2024 Eagles. There you go. We're taking a quick break to show you, Donovan's first down celebration to remind you to check out our NFL show, House Call, the playoffs are around the corner. It's going to be hilarious watching us give a week-by-week update of Donovan's team, my team, the quest to find out what Mo's favorite team is going to be in the NFL in his first season as a fan. check it out right now a lot of the same format you know and love from t3 but in the nfl

we're doing it every single week posting tuesday full episodes shorts every single day do us a favor check it out like subscribe next up boston celtics all right so there's there's there's coozy that or actually was it coozy no not really but like it's hard because those old teams have so many guys yeah they were they had like four stars at the time like is it coozy is is it Havelacek? Is it Mikhail? Is it so on? Like, parish. Like, they had so many eras of, like, different versions of team.

The second best player changed, but they always had three stars. This is so hard. Jalen Brown, welcome to the conversation. You got finals MVP. You got it. You got it. You guys were there together for seven, eight years, climbing this hill.

I'm going to give you the nod. Also, because I don't feel like going through anybody pre-19-1990. Jalen Brown, shout out to you. I guess. So, sidekick is tough. like Kevin McHale's a sixth man that was their second best player it might have been him

bro you have there's so many options for real conversations because they have the most elite sidekicks of all time because within the team it kept changing and especially like

within the Bill Russell era he's not a score like that so everybody else can be that guy J.B faith consistency and your hard work pays off you know like that I guess I'll just think

Kevin McHell but they had two many options to say who's to say next up oklahoma city thunder it's russell westbrook is it russ i think so they made one finals with russ obviously i mean there's there's a team that won a championship it might be jad up at this point jd up won a championship as a sidekick they don't have anybody else that could say that russ can't say he dropped fucking 40 in the finals never made an all mbcd i don't know to parse that like it's like obviously russ is more iconic as a sidekick than j w is he made a finals but so he has something to

his name. Yeah, but he filled in admirably, admirably when Katie went and got hurt. Yeah, but talking about like, again, going back to the Dremont and Scotty Pivot conversation what a true sidekick is and how you cover up the weaknesses for your superstar. He's a damnere, just

a good or a better playmaker than Shea. Obviously, he can scale up and guard two, threes, fours, sometimes even we've seen it last year, five as well. He can be the primary leading score. Russ is a good sidekick, but he's not necessarily complimentary.

I disagree. I think he might compliment Kevin Durant offensively more than J-Dub does shit. I don't know. Because early in his career, Katie wasn't a passer like that. Like Russ as a lead lead

playmaker really allow Katie to go out and get four straight scoring titles. I don't think, like they just want 20 games without J-Dub. Like, I don't think that Shay really needs J-Dub. Plus they were,

they were also like, obviously they didn't get a ring. They were still super successful. They went to like, they went to a finals, they went to four conference finals, or actually either four or six but they did not go to six conference vitals

it might have been four in a six year span is okay is what I'm thinking wow since you'd be crazy to only make it out of one other one time we'd be talking about him being one and five in the car's finals that was the case that wasn't true but also I feel like it's there's a lot of times where Russell's counterproductive as a sidekick and was doing too much forcefully

that really happened post KD though no with come on with KD too like a big talking narrative was like oh my god this guy's taking more shots than Prime KD like Well, that's just the media trying to put away because two black men who were best friends. They were taking press conferences together. They were clearly brothers.

Oh, my God. I think right now, Russ is the greatest acting they ever had, mostly because of time played. Jado could get there, especially they're rattled off more championships. You see what they do? Do they do? Next up, Denver Nuggets. It's Jamal Murray. It has to be Jamal Murray.

This is the most iconic era of Nuggets basketball by fucking far. And there is, you will remember Yokic in this era of being his era. and you're going to remember Jamal Murray as being his psychic. Yes, you are going to remember Jamal Murray coming off of a Yolkid screen and taking a mid-range jumper. That is what it is. This entire era, this entire franchise,

all of their success is built off of this two-man game between them two. For now until Aaron Gordon has something to say about it until he goes four straight seasons, shooting 40% from three, winning another championship as a second best player on the team. Then hey, me, you're going to last mother.

Wait, they're winning a championship in the OKC era? Eventually, maybe. They might catch a year where OKC gets three. Are they eating on shade? he's time. Never mind. Can't do it. Let him let them happen.

Now, they're going to play together until they're 50 years old after Shea wins 10 titles. 10 titles is insane. San Antonio Spurs. Ooh. This is interesting

because I see, I guess it would be Tony Parker because just because Tony's like the starter and he was like Yes, Tony Parker. He did it.

It's Tony Parker for sure. he won a finals MVP correct he did want a final MVP just just think one singular win he's able to he's a great compliment for tim duncan because he's obviously like way more quick he can get to a spots way easier it's pretty hard to not give it to somebody who wins the finals MVP is a second option yeah exactly you kind of set yourself jela brown great as i can self exist me got it sorry kevin mackale sorry robert parrish sorry bob coozy Sorry, Paul Peters. We got his JV's time.

But yeah, I think we'll go Tony Parker narrowly over Mono. But they're honestly co-psychics. Yeah. You really can't separate the two. But then they went, they won before Monter got there, right? Was Tony Parker there? Yeah, because they had the one in 99. Yeah, with...

Oh, neither one of them were there yet, right? Not in 99. Okay, so no mind. Irrelevant. Okay. Memphis Grizzlies. Zibo. So who's the psychic?

Yeah, who's the alpha between Mike Connolly, Zeebo? and Markisole is the alpha. I think Zibo is the alpha, but Marcusol's the best player. So what does that mean? Who's the psychic? No, I don't think Zbo is. We're talking about alpha? What if there's ever a time to have the conversation is the grit and grind?

I think Mark's the alpha. I think Mike Connolly is the psychic in that situation over Zibo. Yeah, that's fair. Zeebo was the third best player on that team. So I guess like we're talking about basketball, yes. spiritual alpha and like the one that everyone's going to say he's the vocal leader of the team whatever but i i do think that that one in five combo especially since they since they outlasted everybody i'm just going to look at those two and i'll say mark is

the guy and connolly's the sidekickers blake riffin do they even do i don't know i feel in color we're talking about the clippers right now man embarrassment no no pa george love Disappointment? Paul Dork for what? Oh, man. Who's the greatest side-picking Clippers system? Yeah, man.

Humiliation kink. Yeah, I don't... Basically. Humiliation is their best sidekick. No, but humiliation kink isn't the sidekick. That's the alpha in the Clippers locker room at all times. That's their best player. All right, so...

It's got to be Blake Griffin, right? It's Blake. It's easy conversation. Unless it's some old player that I'm not thinking of right now. They didn't have... They weren't on anything. Yeah, for so long. Before Lobb City.

Yeah. Timberwolves Greatest sidekick This is bleak I'm not going to I know exactly what you're going to say Say it

It's Rudy Gour I think This is two conference finals With Rudy Gaubert Who else has been a Sikik on Timberwolves For two conference finals Yeah this is the most

Up they've ever been In their fucking life Brits Rittero changed this franchise It's broke ass life Literally Yo Rudy Gob bears I hate you because you're right

It's not a debate A sidekick man Wow he was hitting turnaround faders in game sevens in the playoffs. You're gonna get his jersey retired by the T-wolves? How many years before Rudy Gobert did the team ever have a top 10 defense?

It can't be that many. And they've done it every single year with Gobert. Man, this is crazy. How many years did Kevin Greyer lead him to top 10 defense? I couldn't tell you. It probably wasn't that many. Actually, I don't know. Man, pull out of my ass.

Maybe there was some. Maybe there's plenty. In the modern NBA, like, it really is Gobert. It's Rudy, man. Damn. What a, what? I do not. Not like that.

Not one bit. Sometimes it's two-thirds. But it's true. It's true. We got to give it to the Frenchman. And that's the last one.