The Deep 3 Podcast - We Put 2025 NBA Shooting Guards In A Tier List | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

NBA Shooting Guards tier list! #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

Last week, we started our yearly, early season, positional tier list, starting with the point guards. We put 15 of the 30 starting point guards in the league into a cheer list based on how much you want them on our team to build around. Keeping that in mind this time with off guards, shooting guards. Where do you guys want to begin? Should we set the standard? Sure. Anthony Edwards. Estir. Welcome to Estier.

He has had a slow start this year. Don't care. He still Anthony Edwards. Now, I was hoping if he would have kept up that pace for the, I guess, it's the first game that he played the first two games. He would be in a tier of his own. But sadly, I don't think he is right now.

He might as well be in a tier of zone. We'll get to that conversation. But despite the slow start we've seen year after year of him getting his team in the conference finals, him leveling up as a defender when he did, the shooting jump he made last year. The fact he's playing point guard now

and their offense is still good. He's the most well-rounded, take over a game, highest ceiling player on this list. Exactly. Devin Booker. I think he's, I think he belongs in the next tier as well.

Talk about well-rounded. Like, it's him and there's Anthony Edwards. Of course, he's not the defender that Anthony Edwards is, but there's been so many years and where he's been tasked to forcibly be a point guard has been pretty, but it's not like a complete tire fire. Yeah, it's not the worst thing. He can do it, but it's also never worked.

You know, this never led to, like, a good offense. So we always get too generous with S-tier. There's always the inclination to put everybody that's in the, like, conversation-ish. S-tier should be like, you are the guy, like, at the top, you know, like, you stand alone. And I feel like it's pretty undebatable that you'd rather have Anton Booker these days.

days. Yes, that, that is true. Like, is there any car, is there any part of you that could argue that Booker is better or you'd rather build their own Booker? I kind of want to not his fault, Devin Booker a little bit. Even with that, we can't not as fault. It is not his fault at all. Yeah. Even with that in mind. If that's the case, and that's how you want to set this, then okay, because there's no universe where I'd rather have Devin Booker over Anthony Edwards. If there's no universe and not even a convo, I feel like that's the definition of a tear break. No universe. He's probably right. I would always want Anthony Edwards over DeBook. Yeah, like, there really is a universe. It doesn't matter what

the team construction is or situation is yeah rather having it okay is it would you disagree was there is a world in which i mean i feel like there might be one universe uh at least at least one i feel like no universe was a little disrespectful but an overwhelming majority of them obviously is the is the guy but i do feel like if you get we could get booker into a into not a dumpster fire of a of a organization yeah and i could see that team having a deep playoff run as well for sure I would view it like So if there's a redraft of the league You have the gods of the top

The Big Man Go You're at the number five pick Both are available Is there any part of you That would think about Selecting Booker Over Anthony Edwards If we're going for this year

Sure yeah just this year Not really I don't think it would be Maybe I'd talk to my staff about it Okay Just this year Yeah just this year

I talked to my staff about I would be like the Lakers owner I'm cleaning your house You're not doing it You're getting fired Yeah and it's not about Booker I'm fully ready to like not his fault him.

The team just completely disintegrated around him. He should be a shooting guard, should be the lethal off-ball force he once was, shouldn't be tasked with being a primary pick and roll ball handler being the true point guard. All of it not his fault. Still think Anceteer above. Austin Reeves.

What do we do with this guy who's currently, I think, still averaging near 30, like eight assists a game, inflated from the time that Luca missed, but we do know he clearly took a step forward. He currently has a better rim-fugal percentage than shake-o to us Alexander. He's not a, he's not a,

Devin Booker range, or are we going to put him in the same tier as Devin Booker right now? Because it feels weird to say, but the production is the production. Yeah.

And Booker's a better defender, but it's not like Booker's such a good defender that it's going to be a tearbreaker to anybody really, but he is a better defender. Passing low key? I don't know if there's a gap there anymore. Like Booker is a good passer.

So is Reeves. It's hard because you want to give Booker for clearly being the better score because he's Devin fucking Booker. How much is awesome here's how much is awesome here to produce that we view that as an equal score? Christmas, we got to get to Christmas.

Yeah. So you want to go B now, but if he's still averaging 28 or 26 by Christmas? He's at the very top of B. Okay, yeah. Yeah, especially now that LeBron has come back, if you can, and I don't think, obviously, LeBron's not going to tank Austin Reefstock or whatever, but now that there are just more pieces on that team, you can still continue to do what you say, scored 28, okay, fine, you're that guy now.

Yeah, okay, if we get to Christmas and he's still, let's call it 25 points per game, which is crazy for a second option, and he's the, second scoring option over LeBron still insanely efficient he's currently shooting 80% at the rim that's not going to maintain but if he's still elite at the rim elite getting to the free throw line great off the dribble jumper can playmaker averaging over five assists as a second option he can be in a one day yeah yeah oh wait a little bit Alex Caruso amazing role player amazing role player key part of a championship one of the best primitive defenders of a generation got to put him at C tier though he's face a C tier like any team would love to have him on

your roster. He does everything extremely well. He doesn't necessarily, like, have any dire parts of his game that could kill an offense or defense at all. Like, great player. Stefan Castle coming to this year where he's taken a leap as a score. He's a legit elite driver these days. A little bit overtask early in the year as a playmaker. A lot of turnovers, but he's not, he shouldn't be a point guard. He was kind of forced to. He was a lot of turnovers. He was averaging damn near six turnovers a fucking game. It's crazy. But amazing on-ball defender, kind of like a what's his name

a Nemhard archetype where he can defend on ball and be a secondary playmaker with a little bit of scoring juice that's fine I think that Caruso still as far as role players go still kind of like

it takes a lot to be as impactful as Caruso so I would put Castle in D right now I think he's still a level below Caruso Caruso is better but do you think it's the same tier of player like do you think we'll get to a point where like D should be like

very average players maybe and we could do some reshuffling but I still I still look at Alex Caruso in a very very high light and I don't know if Castle's there yet and it's no I think it's hard it's hard to get there because we haven't been to like a playoffs

And you know what it's hard because you view Caruso as this like elite role player in this tier where in his role he's going to be this like insanely niche and Stanley impactful player versus Castle so views like a young building block and that's like something that has a higher ceiling so he's further away from that ceiling and his peers are like other young stars

before he's at in that development I think he might be at like elite role player he could be there's also like a very real world in where like the San Antonio Spurs are good on Stefan Castle trying to be like this damn near all star level guard

and they just ask him to be someone like Alex Russo and he will fucking thrive at that role too so I kind of maybe he is see yeah I think he is definitely see I think he's there and M Hard because the talent is there he's not like nothing on offense you know he's a very good driver yeah yeah i think you see see this i agree just because i think

i think we should be careful with the d thing because we're going to put some people in d there we're going to be like we'd so much rather have castle than that guy yeah r j barrett now with that that that's a detail he is producing so yeah he's scoring but you know he's not having a terrible year for rj bear standards so funny the other day i was rewatching the charlotte hornets game versus the tarna raptors and then my girl was watching with me and she looks like was like, you know, whoever that dude is,

he's so bad. She watched the worst five minutes of RJ Barrett's career and I was crying, bro. I was dying. I was like,

you don't even know what people are saying? She's in the lab grind. She was like, what the fuck is he doing? Getting beat on backscreens? Oh my God. Yeah.

Locked in. Everybody on here is a starter. So D tier isn't bad players. I think he's in a clearly lower tier than these two guys and see. Yeah, because it's,

he's in an interesting, the whole Raptor's team is just like interesting at this point you're still trying to figure it out but if you're trying to put rj bear on other teams i do feel like it's going to be very very hard for him to get his game off and be impactful on not not only just the winning team but even like some of the upper echelon beat b tier level teams yeah so d's fine yeah never going to be a great defender he's athletic and like can contribute he can slash has his shooting moments not a bad player that is there's f tier for this list like you shouldn't be a starter yeah d tier is you're an average starter yeah

theory. Norm Powell. I'm a heater. Put Norm Powell in B tier, A tier, S tier. He is who I really don't care where we put Norm Powell, but he is dominated right now. He's averaging 25. He's shooting nearly 50% from the three point line. He is an all-star this year in the East. Yes. Without a question. Here's the thing. So we're doing it early in the year. Insane start. Do we think he'll maintain that? Do you think he'll maintain that? Do you think he is? But that says more so about the Eastern Conference. Well, it's actually a little bit of both. I disagree. because he was on the line last year of being in all-star.

We saw this, we saw this jump from him. And now that he is in Miami and Tyler Hero has been out, they haven't missed the beat because Norm Powell is out here having the greatest late stage jump of all time. Before the season, he said, I don't care about my age. I feel like a budding star at 32. Seems like he was on to something. And we were like, yeah, okay, SoundCloud Rap, a bit.

Get a job. Taking you 10 years to develop. All right. He's a great score. Amazing shooter. off the screen does everything fits into that scheme with the pace they play the transition opportunities fantastically obviously isn't the playmaker obviously isn't like an above average defender does that deserve to be in B tier or is that just is that kind of like the inverse of

caruso where you're so good at scoring but don't bring the other stuff that you're still like top of C yes the day the buckets are I will say they're plentiful but yeah norm pal is like a great right he's the complete opposite of Caruso in the best ways he's like the coolest gadget player in the league, but he's not like necessarily the main weapon that you want to surround your team around. Yeah. An amazing scoring role player, which is a very important thing to have especially a team like the heat that are

built around Bam out of bio who's not going to be your primary score. Yeah. But still a role player, just like in a, people think about the bucket. It's usually the best players. So it's like the inverse of what people think about when they think about role player. Yeah, I think you see. But like these players in C are fucking great. So it's not an insult for this list. We might have to

reclassify C. Dude, the shooting guards are good, man. So we could put If you want to put Austin Reeves in A and then move some of these guys up, but C just isn't bad for this list. This is just a, the shooting guard position is as deep. It does,

yeah, these guys in C don't feel like C2 players at all. 25 points a game. We have, actually, we got to move on. That's the one thing. Like,

we have a first team, all, all defense level guy in Caruso. And a 25 point per game all started this year in C tier. Like both of those feel like they should be a little bit high. Do you want to put Austin Reeves in eight? I think,

yeah, Austin, he might have to go. He might have to go. 28 a game, Brian, like eight assists a game this year, too. Okay, Austin Rees, welcome to A tier, Norm Powell, welcome to B tier. I guess Caruso B tier? Yeah. Okay,

there we go. Next up, Christian Brown. He has not been good this year. He's had a very bad here after being paid. Is it D or is it C? Because we've seen him be good. Obviously, he's a very good defender. Can run in transition. It has been a non-threat offensively for a lot of the season. It's a lot, a lot of the

so with Jamal Murray we talk about him anybody who plays with Yokin you talk about in a certain way because you understand that there is an attribute boost that you get by playing with Yokish plus five immediately you're right if we're talking about like building a team or just having on your team minus Yokic I'm not sure of I'm sure he should be fine

but I'm not sure the impact that he would bring so I think that feels like a D tier for right now if we can go D keep it pushing okay Desmond Bain obviously highly touted four first-time picks to get him came in couldn't make a shot hit a game winner though

At his best I think he's beat here But so far this year He's been playing like D In the middle With the respect that I gotta give him He might be C right now Is Norm Powell that much better Than Desmond Bain though

Are we gonna overreact that hard To 12 games Even if we give Norm Powell the boost And you think it's real Like that's just where Dez and Bain always has been As a 22 point per game score That can give you a lot of other stuff

Yeah let me not let like Jamal Mosley and his game plan like fool me into thinking that Desmond Bane is worse this year he probably put him in B tier. Put him in B tier but you are on watch to fall to see. Yeah.

You got 15 games to turn it around Desmond but we're going to give you a lifetime achievement award and put you in B but you were on watch. Dyson Daniels. See, that's just clearly see right. Even from averaging 14, take out our best score, he's averaging eight points. Doesn't make any sense, right?

So are we talking D then? Non-thread offensively, regressed offensively? No. He creates looks. He's the best place. Playmaker out of C&D. He's the best defender out of C&D as well. But he's just no longer the same offensive threat. Last year, him, he was B this year right now.

See. Just don't take enough to him. She shoots no threes, bro. That kind of sounds like D. He's such a weird player. That kind of sounds like you're describing D right now. No, he's not D because he's getting his shot and he's not making the most of his opportunities.

We want to give him credit from last year. We can keep him in C, but it sounds like he's on D-watch. I think that defense is too special to be on D-watch. too special and also with the playmaking that he does too I view him in similar lights as Caruso just different strengths both elite defenders Caruso can shoot Dyson Daniels he can playmaking out of the dress

He'll pay a lot more than Caruso Yeah he is for now Stop bringing about you right now You're talking about money right now Derek White's Not having a good year shooting 30% from three this year It's looking like you have him next to two other stars Oh Derek White's a third star

You may have a little more responsibility Oh, Derek White's a role player. He tricked us. He tricked us, man. He tricked you too. Sounds like C-tier. It's just a worst survivor for him. He's not in his pride.

You, well, he fell off. That's the angle. I said earlier in the episode, trade Derek White. Yeah. I don't know. He showed that he can't scale up, but he's still amazing when he can beat his proper role. So if you want to say that still be because we know what can happen when Jason Taylor's back, I'm fine with that. Or if you want to say, if you can't scale up at all that you're to see.

It's going to be. Well, yeah, that's why because Caruso can't scale up offensively. Exactly. So, all right, B. Want to keep me B? I mean, he's just cool. Do you think he's going to keep shooting 30% from 3?

Obviously not. No, it's going to get better. And I think if we kept, if we kept Dyson Daniels and C basically because of his reputation, we can do the same with Derek Quakers. Yeah, we know who Derek Quires. And we know he's just, you know,

construction that isn't the best version of him and it will get better even in that construction. Tyler Hero. And my B-Tier's getting crowded. I mean, the lead. the position's kind of talented. I can't. I can't see him in the same light as Austin Reeves and Devin Booker

because they have their different edges in different ways. He's the Austin Reeves last year. They were on... They're in the same conversation. It's just tough because we're awarding Austin Reeves because you guys decided to reshuffle all these. So like now it's weird because we can't put that hero next to different Booker.

But he's pretty much deserving to be in Austin Reeves conversations unless you want to really, really believe Austin Reeves has taken that true star league. and this is 100% real and like he is all-star Tyler Hero average like what 25 last year yeah five assists and whatnot

like this year Austin Reeves is better than an all-star version of Tyler Tyler Hero last year yeah but keep mind it is because the dynamic of who's missing games for those raw numbers I just need it's again

for a lot of people you get your reputation stamp once we get to the playoffs and if we can get there you've never seen that with Tyler I know and well no we haven't seen that with Austin Reeves and so if we can get to one

um to one run where he doesn't have wet leg syndrome and he's not pissing down his leg then maybe maybe we can't stamp him right now it feels like he's outside the club waiting to get into a tier awesome Reeves what are you talking about here tyler Reeves oh Reeves do you want to put Reeves oh we're not putting me back down we were past that I don't I'm saying because Tyler Hero also like for the for all the same reasons where it feels like he's not yet at debon booker tier. Oh, Boston Reeves is better than these guys. You decide to move it to B, so now we can't do that. We can make, we can make a Reeves tier, a purgatory tier. No, he's going to be the worst

name. We already, we've already decided our fate. We're putting a tier on eight. Because you guys didn't want to put the role players in C tier. Everyone got coward up. We always put people too high. I mean, shit, man. I think these players are good, bro. They are good. Me too. I enjoy basketball. In my defense, I do be trying to hate. Yeah, I think beaters okay. You're too away if you're hating. Now you're trying to glaze too much. Not even. Lou Dort That's S-tier, man He's the fuck out of here

He really transcends the sport Because he could be First Team All defense In the NBA He could be first team all prize A linebacker He's awesome I love Lou Dork

The one above all Blue Dort based off of what we've seen Last year Because this year he's just injured And he's shooting like 30% From 3 point line Put him in C tier Nice C tier

Exactly where the rest of both players are Cam Thomas I'm sorry That's a D tier I don't even know We might have to put FD, bro I straight up I do not want Cam Thomas with my team

Like yeah If I'm a GM That's F2 I just like he's talented He can do He can put the ball in the basket And I'm sure there's a team out there That can harness that in some positive way

I don't want to be that GM That tries to figure that out Right now he is the face Of like tank commanding Michael Poor Jr. Start going off When Cam Thomas left the lineup McHill Bridges did terrible

And that one time He played with Cam Thomas For too many games Tank commander Cam Thomas Yeah, not a lot of teams. Who'd rather have him and RJ Barrett? RJ.

He touches his other assets of the game. A little bit. A little bit. He'll pass a little bit, rebound. I know he'll try. He'll get to the rim. Yeah, I'll take RJ. RJ can get to the rim.

He's can't finish when he gets there. Yeah. I'm taking RJ. This sounds like, it sounds like F tier for Camp Thomas right now. I don't think he's F. Damn. See, you got time to hate. Maybe.

Got time to put somebody low. Yeah. They didn't want to do it. Everybody clammed up. Nobody's trying to be real anymore. Everybody wants to be PR safe. Nobody wants to say what it is. C.J. McCollum.

F. Quickest off of my life. Yeah. You're not going to tell me what I can and cannot say F tier. Is he falling off completely? Yeah. He's like below 40% focal percentage this year. Yeah, he's not good, bro.

Is there any part of you that, like, the Wizards are a goddamn tire fire and, like, the shot quality is obviously terrible? Is there any part of you at things if a contender saves him? I think that's part of it, but the shot quality is terrible also because of him, too. Yeah, because he has to force it. Like, it's truly terrible over there. Like, that's the worst offensive ecosystem in the league. Yeah, he got send there to die. But, like, you think if you put him on a reasonable team, he could be as good as R.J. Barrett still?

Maybe, but it looks like the basketball left him. Does it? Okay. Yeah, it's up to your right. There's just a lot of instances where I'm, like, watching the Wizards, and I'm trying to see how, um, Trey Johnson is developing, Alexar and Kishon, George, and Leap, he's Mankin. and then C.J. McCallum. Stepping back. You know that wallow me?

We're just like, I sit right there. I'm like, bro, pass the fucking rock, bro. Damn. All right,

CJ, after here. It's probably, we're probably riding him off a little too quick. But maybe we're not. Two point,

he's 34. Fair. Maybe we look up in January. This is what happens. Fair. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough.

I should have put Clay on this list. Nah, no, that's too mean. Zach Levine. Zach Levine. A lot of people will say, People have written him off

as ever being able to win and what Pubbo would say C tier, I still feel like part of me is like it's not his fault. He's not great. He's not A tier or anything crazy. But like, is he that different from Tyler Hero?

Like, I think he's one of the more hyper-efficient guards, one of the best shooters in the league. Offensively, when it comes to scoring, he has a lot in his bag. Defense don't talk to me.

Rebound. You don't talk to me. Playmaking, it's not much there. And I think that's, you're right. I'd rather have normal power right now than Zach would be able.

don't know. If money, probably money is a big factor for that. It's a lot easier to stomach the one-way score because he's making half as much. Well, if he wasn't, though, like,

that's not my fault. Well, this contract's going to end pretty soon. And he's going to get a reasonable deal. And exactly me making $24 million a year might be pretty goddamn enticing again. Now, we also felt the same way. There's a lot of guys where we kind of feel like that.

Where, listen, the deal is, is about to get up. We're going to get them on a much more manageable deal. Are you going to go the way of Norman Powell and re-ignage, and reignite your career or is it going to skew more towards

the Bradley Beal era? And I'm not saying he's going to be that bad and break his hip, but we are asking to get a second acting in your career on a team-friendly contract and it might not just, it just might not happen. He's not performing that poorly right now.

I feel like he might be posted to that. He's shooting 50% from the fields, 40% from 3, averaging 22 points a game while just casually shooting like 88% with no point guards, no room protection, no wing defenders, nothing going for him that makes sense on that team. Like, he shouldn't be this efficient at all. I don't think it's his fault.

I think he's gotten maligned as the face of empty stats. And part of that is probably there's some truth of that. He's not Devin Booker. He's not at that level. But he's not this like hopeless, terrible player you can't win with. You're right. I think earlier in the year or earlier in his career, everyone compared him to Devin Booker. We see the athleticism.

We see him growing as a shooter and all that. And then people are like, oh, he's a one-way player. He's just driving off his athleticism scaled all the way into skill and just forgot about certain ancillary parts of his game. And now we talk about Zach Levian the most, like, lose your way ever because he's done nothing but played for losers and has forever been irrelevant.

Outside for maybe one year, one playoff series, against some Milwaukee Bucks. That's it. He's been in hell. I think he's B-Tier. He's really good, man. I think he's pretty comfortable with Norm Powell and Tyler Hero, if you want to keep him

in the same conversation. Yeah. I mean, I'm not voted. I think he's great. Does anybody in B2, we should move down? Do we want to hate on Desmond Bain or Derek White for having bad starts of the year? Are we okay with his big-ass tier?

If anybody would go down this dare quite. I don't know. But even, yeah, maybe. I don't want to do it, but that would be. We don't got to do it. Yeah, C-tier feels really standalone. These are all players who are like very flawed in their own right. Yeah.

So it feels right. Okay. C-tier is flawed starters that are still overall good. D-tier's average starters because they're flaws. F-tier, I don't want you. Yeah. I would not want you on my starting lineup at all. Last name, Donovan Mitchell.

Obviously, it's been the SRA. do we feel like there's an opening with Anthony Edwards slow start to the year that I don't really care that much about because it's only 10 games but it hasn't been the strongest start D-Mitch is an amazing score we know who he is

we know the playoff elevation which really is like he just taking more shots in the playoffs you know he'll turn it on when needed unload the clip first team all NBA a couple years ago last year unloading the clip is

it's very valuable though he's giving you 30 year this year right now same thing we do same extra as Devin Booker We know those are the big three, and we know those guys have always been in the conversation for the last five years or so. And we know Anthony Edwards has elevated in recent years to where he's being talked about as the best American in the NBA, top five to seven player. Nobody really does that for Devin Booker.

There's a little bit more of that for Donvin Mitchell. Some people put them in those conversations, whether they be right or wrong, let others decide. Even all that together, if you had to rebuild the team right now and you're tasked with picking them, is there any part of you that would pick DeMitch over Anthony Edwards? No. There's no conversation for us here. No, he's just the best brother in there. Yeah, sorry, bro. I can't, for me at this point in time now,

when I think about who I'd rather build my team around and debug, even if you want to open that conversation or Donovan Mitchell, I think at this point in time, I'm getting really into the weeds of the conversation, all fantastic scores, all amazing shooters, all just like guys so you can build your offense around. But I think I'd rather have. have Devin Booker and Ant

over Spider right now. You know that Devin Booker over Spider? I think so. Wow. It's a really close conversation. Yeah, it's close. I don't think at that point it's just simply because of like size.

I don't know. I don't know. That's such a hard debate now these years. I keep going back and forth. I'd probably go Donvin Mitchell, but it's a conversation. Either way, I think they're both behind it. Yeah.

I agree. There's, it's a lot of standalone for sure. It's a perfect distribution. B tier being the fattest. Probably how he should. should be. Wait, B tier being what?

The fattest, the biggest tier. Gotcha. So there we go. I don't think there's much to complain about here. Unless people probably get mad to some

of the people in B tier are having bad years. Like, put them down to sea, they suck. Maybe they do suck. We'll give it 15 more gains before we decide Desmond B

and Derek White are washed. Are we doing too much for our last Caruso? No. No. If you have Norm Powell B, I was Chris when you'd be B.

They're both specialists on one side of the ball. Well, being competent on the other side. Actually, I think Caruso is more competent offensively than Powell is defensively.

Powell's not a black hole, but he's not plus at all really. Yeah. Okay. I like this, though. This is fine with me. And what do you know, a perfect tier list? Whoa, we just keep on going. Going and going and going.