The Deep 3 Podcast - We Predicted The Best Players In The NBA 5 Years From Now | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Who will be the top 10 players in the NBA 5 years from now? #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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's talk about what the NBA will look like five years from now. And when I say that, I mean, we're going to rank the top 10 players in the NBA in 2030. We're going to try to project guess who we think is going to be dominant in the league. We're going to take turns going, Donovan, Mo, me. We're going to go in circles picking player one by one until we have a list of what we project to be the best players in the world five years from now. Five years from now is a long time and so much can happen, bro. Yes, these will certainly be wrong as hell. But it's a fun thought experiment.

Donovan, who do you think will be the number one player in the world? world five years from now. I think the baby goat would be the number one player. Victor Weminyama. The hell, safe assumption. That's a pretty good one.

So do you think Yokic and Shea will have taken a step back by then? Or was Wembe just going to be one of the guys? So I think Wembe is just going to be one of those guys. Yeah. Yonkech is going to be 35. He's still going to be great, but I don't think he's going to be the best player in the world.

Yeah. 35 isn't like. Don't let LeBron and Curry fool you. People get old. And Kevin Durant. Yeah. People get old. That is true.

And also, who knows is when we. if Yokch is going to want to be playing until he's 35 years old. I don't know. I guess that's the point. Maybe he'll retire early. I still feel like Yokic will be... I do too, because the nature's game doesn't say anything will fall off. I think offensively he'll be pretty much exactly the same.

That's fine. But defensively, do we think he'll be a little steps lower? Yes. Yeah. Holding the title for best player in the world for like eight years, only people... There's LeBron, Jordan, Kareem, like, those...

It's those types of Bill Russell. Obviously, Yoki... just like on that level like he's amazing he's great but like not on that level those are five top five players in all time so to your point yeah that's pretty impossible to do narrative's linking on i'm just saying oh oh oh i'm just saying convos okay okay and we're just talking we're just having discourse for discourse sake whatever but yeah i think in in five years wendy will be in year eight that's peak right in the middle of your prime yeah he'll probably be like the best defender in the world by far like they probably

won't be a close second unless chet also is one the best defenders of all time Do we feel like his offense is going to be quite good enough to compare to, like, Shea, who I think will still be just as good? Most definitely. Yeah. Most definitely, yeah. He's already developing that. Stop questioning it so much. He's going to be the best player in the world.

Number one is hard, Darren. You got to talk through it. Number one is it difficult. He's already developing that three-point shot. He's already top ten. Yeah, exactly. In year two. And he's not even close how good he's going to be.

Clearly not even close. The offense has so much room to go still. I think number two is pretty simple. I'm going to lean towards Shay. Okay. Five years. or not he's going to be like, what, 31 years old, and there's not much to his game

that should be able to follow. He's going to be still, like, in the peak prime of his career. Coming off six straight championships? Yeah. He's so tough. God. Six straight champions is crazy.

Yeah, I think Shay's a good pick. Aunt could be in the conversation, but I think, I think Shay will always be better. The only thing would be like, do you think, like, Anne's a little bit younger, but 31, Shay still going to be firmly in his prime. There is no reason to believe he'll fall off physically. I probably feel a little bit better about him,

than Luca at this point you gotta have to and then like you said yokech would be 35 but i will go yokech number three i still think yokech will still be a top tier player in the NBA his offensive skill set passing doesn't go away he will always be big he will always have touch that will not go away at all he's not vertically inclined whatsoever as is doesn't matter if he loses a step vertically he'll be just as good it'll just be hard to know what the defense will be like but it's not like that's exactly holding up his impact right now yeah i agree i actually had this exact same third through three already I feel like 30 is easy. I did not have enough for me.

I feel confident. 35 isn't that old. Yes, it is. Is it? You're talking like it's 37. Like, I'm expecting some. We saw Chris Paul go to the finals at like 35, 36.

Most superstars are still great at 35 unless they get like a James Harden, tub of hamstring injury. Yeah. It's not going to happen. Yeah. Third best player in the world is still, when Chris Paul went to the finals, he had Devin Booker alongside him. It's not like he's leading the charts and like being the best player in the world.

I think almost every player, all the best offensive players of all time were pretty great at 35 unless they got hurt. 35 is like the end of their run though. This might be the last year. This might be the last year. I mean, listen, Shay and Webby passed him up. I'm not saying he's exactly the same as he is there now.

Three's high. Three's high for me. I don't feel bad about his skill set transferring that hard. Like, I don't. It's okay. It's just someone like Janus that I completely understand. That 35 is way more risky. He's not on my list.

I'll tell you that right now. Wow. He's not in your top 10? Wow. I'm putting him in the top 10 somewhere. He for sure is. I hope that pick, yeah, he for sure is. Who's number four?

Number four, Anthony Edwards. Okay. That feels good. I think he does have. He'll reach the top five player. He'll reach in the conversation for best in the world any given year. Damn. The rate in which he's improving at this age and you feel good about the like intangible

side that he's going to keep, continue to work hard. I feel safe about that too. Exactly. Wow. Yeah, we have to put him there. I don't necessarily feel safe about it because at number five, I'm putting Luke at Donches. And I think at any given year in,

20, 31, like, those two could damn near be interchangeable. But right now, I think Luke is a lot more safer because there's no question to his game. Just question two is, like, things outside of basketball, which is his health. Yeah, I would have put Luke above him too, but I'm not mad at him. We're going to be in year 12 of Luca. At that point? 31 years old. He'll be fine.

I don't know. A lot of wear and tear. You right. High usage guy playing from a young age. Like, if the stuff is true that he is slowing down athletically, I want to see one more year of that to see how he bounces back after this scrutiny. But if he doesn't bounce back and he is still slow and it's just a new era and he's

playing like a 30 year old 26, maybe he's like just aged a lot because he played from such a young age. Yeah, don't make me bring out the highlight tape. Oh, God, man. The 2019, 2020, 2021, Luca, he was moving different. He's like, dunking on people. Yeah, but then again, he's so much better in 2024 than he was then

despite being slow. That's not the point of the video. Yeah, well, the point of the video is just to show you, he don't have bunnies no more. Yeah, agreed. But I'm just saying it doesn't matter. He's better If I put three cones out and I say, do a shuttle right now, he can't do it as quickly as he did three years ago. That is the point of the video. You're trying to make all.

He's smart. I don't care about that. That's not what I'm saying. It's better despite it still. So I'm not terribly worried. I would have went Luke above AMP, but four and five. These are the four and five to me. Okay.

It's not bad. So, like, so far. At six, this one's tough to, because to me, it's between Janus and Cooper Flag. Whoa. I kind of want to. I kind of run. I would put Jason Tatum, but I'm scared of the Achilles.

Really? It is still an Achilles. I guess six? I don't know because I mean, he's the number one pick. Like, he's going to be that level of player. He's one of the best prospects in a long time. I wouldn't be shocked if he's a top 10 player in the world. I wouldn't either.

In your five, that won't shock me at all. He's going to be a dominant defender. He's going to be kind of like Tatum in which he can play on off ball, play with anybody, make everybody better. I don't think he'll have the... Actually, I'm going to say I don't think. I'm not guaranteeing he has the on-ball capabilities that Tatum developed, but I also think he'll be a better

defender. He has more size, like, I would put Tatum here for sure if he didn't tear as Achilles just now. And that's such a big question mark that five years from now, who knows that affects his aging curve? So to be safe, I will go Janus at 6. Okay, what a good cop out. That's a great cop out. Yeah. But I said the flag thing

to say, I'm starting to entertain that. The three names was Janus Flagg Tatum to me. Because five years is a long time. You can't just do the players that are best today. One of these players in this is, well, undoubtedly, I haven't been the league right now. Yeah. So, like, so pretty soon, the young guys. The first six players

are like in the league right now. That's what I'm saying. Pretty soon, Flag has to enter the conversation. Some young guys like Moby at the end of the conversation. So someone's going to sprout up one of these guys. Yeah.

And I think Cooper Flagg is a pretty safe bet to be the guy to jump up. Sure. Okay. Actually, I know I said when Flag is six. But I'll go Yannis. I'll say Yonis will take a step back

but he'll still be a dominant player. Yeah, I think 35 year old Janus should still be a demon not to like top two, three player guard. I like this. I had him run this range to you. Yeah, like Anthony Davis in Spurs in the last few years

could we argue to be the sixth best player in the world? Can Yannis be that level that we saw Anthony Davis in 2024? Absolutely. Yeah.

Or like Kevin Durant in 2024? Yeah. Like he does not have the jump shooting that makes people assume he'll age poorly. I think barring injury, obviously, which is a big thing

with all these guys at this age, freak athletes of this nature stay freak athletes for a long time. And he's so big and so talented that even if he does take a step back athletically and isn't quite the same, he can transition to being a Mari Stademeyer

and be a pick and roll guy and finally embrace being a big man like he has a lot of ways to provide value as he ages yeah okay i don't feel terribly bad about that now 36 and onwards i'll maybe i'll start getting questions but 35 years old i do not to still have it all right a seven chair hungren oh wow no okay that's a good first surprise chair humgren chat chair homegren is going to be 28 years old in five years yeah chair hungren just signed the extension he got his money he's a champion we already know know what he was able to provide for this team, we're having a broken hip, barely having any

type of like real time to rehab and come back and was still so impactful defensively. As he gets older, he gets more muscle on him, he gets, he gets more comfortable in his body at an NBA level, his offense develops. That is a top 10 player in the world. And I do think that him and Shay, like those two guys, I don't want to say it because it's very like, it's very doom and gloom. one of the one of those three is going to have to go it's not going to be chet and it's not going to be shay they're not going to go i'm not going to happen i don't know chet's going to be the one that's ascending yeah this is putting a lot of faith in his development which i also have feel good about but it's not crazy honestly it's a three-point shot comes along and gets back to what we saw gonzaga back to we saw as a rookie and he can once again shoot at a high level being fucking ruddy gober at three point shot gets you're pretty close to top ten so if he makes any leap with the ball in his hands any leap strength-wise as a play finisher gets back to the trajectory he was on his first year this is not ridiculous at all that hip is scary to me man it's so so so but i will say i'll put cooper flag of him i feel good about that bit yeah okay so at number

eight ooh i realize this is my last selection fuck god damn it you know there's gonna be some some surprises chet was the first one yeah i'm gonna go in and have to go ahead and have the second one someone who's very underrated someone who could blossom someone who will be also i think Chet's going to be like 27 years old, five years from now. This guy's going to be 28 years old. Jalen Johnson, you were going to be a top 10 motherfucking player in 2030, bro.

Congratulations. This is something that no one's going to see coming. He's going to develop that in-between game. He's going to be one of the better defenders in the league. He's going to be one of the best playmakers in his position, too. He's already averaging like, bro, raw, 2010 and 5 already. He didn't even develop shit yet.

That in-between game is coming. Have you seen those off-season and videos? Come on now. There's someone's going to bloom and blossom. You thought it was going to be Chet. I'm saying it's going to be Jalen McDonson. This guy. Yeah. This guy here.

Hammer. Hamers is not enough for you. Chainsaws. Machetes. Someone's going to take a leap and he's a great. Ballistic missiles. 2008 Bitcoin is what I call Jalen Johnson. Brass knuckles to the skull. right now this is ridiculous but it's your pick yeah yeah yeah five years or no we're gonna come

back i'm gonna tar and for the lines god damn that sounds painful this is ridiculous basketball i would think cooper flag won that'll be a top 10 player in the world we better go jason tatum at 10 all right it's in your hands it's it's just we'll go we'll go we'll go tatum we'll go tatum i think it does feel disrespectful i did have the only other pick that I had where I was kind of on the fence in somebody that I wanted to get into this list, but freaking Jaylen Johnson took this spot. Mobley? Yeah. Yeah, Mobley for sure

should be on here too, but we got Jaylen fucking Johnson. That's who I wanted. But then this guy wants to... Jalen Johnson is a great player, but he's a great fucking bet. Will drop kick him in the face in five years. He's going to be much better than him. All right, we'll see. We'll see about that. Yeah, Mobley is number 11 for sure.

Moby will be in this level. Him and Shet will be side by side for a long time, I think they'll do it differently, but I think those are both going to be the two of the best, the two best defenders outside of Wemby and two of the better two-way bigs in the league. You think Jalen Johnson is going to be better than Palo in five years? He very well could be. No, I didn't know, could be. You put him at eight.

Is it going to be saying he's going to be better than Palo in 10 years? Yeah. All right. You don't believe that at all. He's already a better playmaker. That was the least inspiring, yeah, of all time. Better playmaker, he under, when it comes to his role, he understands it very thoroughly. When you didn't believe it two seconds.

is already much better as well. Stop me. You don't believe that. 2008 Bitcoin, bro. They didn't believe back then either. And look at them now. Come on now. I'm trying to be a seer and talk to you guys with the future.

You just don't have the fucking vision. That's not wrong with you people these days, bro. I got a, fuck. Shout up, something Jack put me on to. I'm going to use it for you. Four horses, four limbs, running in four different directions. What the fuck? That's what we got to do.

That's good. Well, there is just basketball. We don't have to take it to those. No, man, you have to be sent us to death for that. Honestly, the electric chairs through you, man. Yeah. What the hell?

That's crazy. I'll give you credit because there is going to be somebody that jumps up that we don't see. Exactly. There's going to be somebody. However, it is shameless for you to say it's Jaylon Johnson. No, it's not. He averts 25, 10, and 5 off of doing nothing. Where are you pulling numbers from?

25. 20, 10 and 5. He's not LeBron. Damn there is, bro. I've been saying, you. He's. He's up the hell 25-10-5

He made that shit up He's up the hill Bro, watch him average 24-10-A-Rive next year I didn't look at no stats That's an all-timer I don't look at no stets