The Deep 3 Podcast - We Tier Listed Every 2nd Option In The NBA | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Every NBA contender's 2nd option tier listed! #nbaCheck out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLWListen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthreeFollow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacgMo'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 every NBA second option into a tier list. I say every, you know, I'm lying, there's not 32 players here. I mean, 30, we're going to put all the second options

on the contenders that can actually win playoff series. So there is 19 teams represented here, all their second option star players, S through F, decide the hierarchy of the league. How do you guys feel about your team's second option? My team? Your team?

Terrible. I don't have a second option. I have a great second option. Who's your second option for? Is it OG or cat? No, that's a crazy question. I mean, OG's

his defense is crazy. All right, who's the first name up, Bissol's? First name up. Sangoon. You could do worse. I think you see. I'm going to see. Not horrible. Honestly, the fact that his off-wall game is so mediocre. You can't put him very high even though he's an all-star. He's not a good rim finisher off a dump-off passes.

He doesn't space the floor. Not a good defender. Not a good defender. He really needs the ball to provide value. Yeah. And your second option, by definition, they shouldn't have the ball as much. Yeah. If the transition, like somebody like him should be thriving, playing next to somebody like KD.

And the fact that the Rockets still have just a little bit of hiccups in their, in their offense. And the only time that we saw those to be like dominant is for a 10-game stretch when Shin'oom's 3 was falling, I can't really, I can't really get behind that. Yeah, I think we go see. Okay. Next up, who we got? Next up, we have Austin Reeves. Reeves, the second option I think we go

I didn't want to say A But I What consensus is probably not there yet But this is the second option You're right He's one of the best second option to lead He's not top top tier So

I think he's top tier actually Like S tier? I don't know if he's S tier necessarily He's at least A He's one of the better scoring second options on this list I can get behind A I don't know if S I think

If I'm a number one option on the team And I go down with the ankle injury or whatever for like three minutes, you know? Yes, what? Also really going to go down with the angle as well. Nah, but he has a little bit at.

Sure. I guess as much as anybody, but he can actually carry an offense on the benched units. Like, he can actually play offball next to a star and still provide value and carry bench units and carry you to wins when your star player misses. That's at minimum A. Yeah, like he just works well with you in

any scenario that your team is in. He could be us, honestly, as a second option. He's probably one of the, I haven't done the mental exercise yet, but he probably is like a top five six or top three second option the league. He probably will move up. Again, we're trying to make these S is more exclusive. If we're saying S, you have to be like an amazing second option. Like that makes you championship contender because you have this guy there. He's definitely not that. I think

it is fair. All right. Okay. Next. Jalen Duren. I mean, right next to Shangoon or a tier below. I think it's a tier below shangoon because he was dog shit in the playoffs and now he's an entry to the season grumpy at best. If you put Shangoon in that business lineup, I think they take care they end up taking the end of winning of course but he they went a little bit more clearly because he's not going to be as bad defensively or provide no type of value literally on the last seven months my bf yeah yeah if we're talking about right now he is at the lowest point in his career yeah so it depends how how harsh we want to be i think i think i think d's okay i think we can

assume some sort of bounce back d's all right yeah we can assume he'll weather the storm and learn from that ass open and d's okay okay okay Next, we have C.J. McCollum. Fucking D. He won two games for us in the playoffs. That was dope. He had a good week. Yeah.

That was a great week. And that matters. Sure. A week matters to some extent. I can say that. He did have a shook for a second. Yeah, it's closer to F and C though. That's also true.

But he's not F. Yep. Put him right in D as well. Okay. I love how averages work. Exactly. Mr. 83, Bam, out of bio. And he's a fantastic second option.

I think you might be S. He feels like an end- I feel like the scoring just has to be a little bit more consistent. And the spacing has to take a big step this year. Yeah, for me to go S. I think we can go A. Yeah, I think he's the best player in A.

I think if we're going to keep S being stingy and you've got to be like amazing, amazing to be there, he could break into that year if we see him playoff of Yon is good. But I think A is a good assumption because the defense. And I'm not even asking him to score 83 anymore. Like he doesn't have to do that. every single, every single night. Can I get 43?

And then we can, you know, keep it moving. Yeah, but he's the best player. He's definitely better than reuse. He's the best player day. Okay. Okay. Next. Paul George.

Ooh. He doesn't do a lot. He doesn't do a lot. He's so inconsistent at this point in his career. He doesn't have the lows of Shangoon because Shangoon, like, his lack of ability to finish plays could be a problem. But he also doesn't have highs like that. Like, he's just there.

He's just a role player. Yeah. Now, the lows of Paul George be pretty low. now. I guess, but like you don't have to have the ball in his hands very much. So like if the lows are there, he's just based on the floor. Like, it's easy for him to glide through a game and not impacted that much. Yeah, I don't think he'll ever be the reason, or right now as he speaks,

should be the reason why you lose or win a playoffs. It's probably deep. He's just not as impactful as these other guys. He just, the ceiling isn't there for him to win a game. Are we doing too much on Jalen Dirk? No. No. No, fuck no.

Do you see him in the playoffs, bro? No, I did. Like, when's last time you looked at them stats? When was the next time, like, you've seen him get backdored? He's got to prove he's going to play in playoffs first. Because, like, now, too, he was getting legit backdoor it every year. He currently doesn't have a contract as recording this on Thursday,

the first of October. What time is the deadline? Tonight at 11 p.m. Damn. Okay. Generation. Next. Lamello ball.

I'm going to say beef right now. He might, he can elevate super, super high, but this is going to be the first time that we've really seen him as a second option. And I think it's going to be the first time. we see it and it's immediately going to work i think a i think he's with his playmaking next to a star score like aunt is going to do so much to elevate him we talk about reves being a because when you're playing without the star you can be so great and still provide value to me it's all about well obviously lemo can do that too considering he was a first option and i think he has way more impact on making

aunt better than reeds does to making lucca better yeah i think he's a clear a okay i agree i thought i was gonna have to argue is that just like an ant specific thing though and like for where the the wolves are maybe but i think it's a lamello playing with the star scorer type of thing and it can be any star score. It's the first time we finally seen it. I think it would be great. Like if you play with like Tatum or something, like you'd think the results would still be.

That would be filthy, I think. Okay. Also, to your point about Duren, I think C.J. and Paul George might just be F. Yeah. Loki. I want to do that?

If we're using the full tier-less. CJ, yeah. On a consistent basis, for Duren was an all-M-B-A player. Yeah, I think Paul George is probably closer to C.J. Than Dern. Yeah.

Okay. That's your guy now, though. That's your second option. Hey, well, we'll talk in December. I don't know about. What you've been talking about? April. All right.

Next. Pascal Seaccom. Solid B. Yeah, he's the most B. Solid. Really? I feel like because he is so solid, we have to go A. The other guys above, like, Austin Rees is one of the best slashing guards in the league.

La Melle's one of his pastors in the league. And Bamadabio was a god-tier defender. I don't know, man. Pascal's had moments. He's, like, he's like, he's like the best. best of all the, when it comes to like singular traits, he's so well-rounded compared to all these guys. There's not like a real, like painful weakness that's on Michael Lamella or Austin Reeves. And even Bam can give you at times. That sounds like beating me though. That sounds like

the well-roundedness rather than the one like game-breaking skill to build the team around. That sounds like the definition of B. That's why he's better than the Shangoon. Would he have been A during the championship year or the finals year? I don't think so. I think he's always in B. Nah, I think especially during the championship year, we probably could have gotten to to A. The team is so good. I think, see all. I think, see, He's still as good as he wasn't that year. Like, I think he's just always been this, and the team's perfectly equipped to get the most out of him. But, you know, I'm just a real.

He's an all-stars as other guys are, so it's not crazy to put him on that footing. I just don't think he's a given. I think he's up there. Yeah, I think year in and year out, like, Pascal's going to come in and he's going to do exactly what he does. And that consistently gives your star player a little bit more wiggle room because you don't have to worry about. Oh, is Pascal going to show up? He's going to do it. He's going to do his job.

I feel the way about all those guys in A2. I'm not 100% there with Lamello on a night to night basis. Yeah, that's fair to say. With Lamello, we're more so projecting a little bit. And with Pascal Seacom, like, we've seen him be mad consistent. And I think that consistency, like, lends to him being A. I'm not mad at project. I'm not mad at myself for projecting a Lamello will be more impactful than Siacom.

In the first time he's in that perfect role for him. I feel like it's a safe assumption. But it is an assumption. so I do recognize that that's a risk. I think we do give Siakamei. He doesn't get respect a lot. Okay. All right.

Next. Jamal Murray. But after the playoffs, I'm sorry. You got to be beating me. Sure. How many years are we going to see him get absolutely locked the fuck up by the Timberwolves

and give Yokic no help at all? How many years are we going to see the same story playout? Are we can keep calling a playoff riser just because he did it before? And one time does carry a lot. You're right. Yeah, he got a championship out of it. And shout out the bubble.

He's had some runs where he was amazing. and he's had an equal amount where he was absolutely terrible. Should you be C? No. C? No. He's a great way better.

Because I think even Shangoon like as bad as the end of the season was I think Shangoon he's obviously not elite at doing like the number one stuff but I think he can, he might be able to scale up a little bit more than Jamal. I don't want him to do though. I think there's no ceiling when you have Shangoon do more.

You don't think he also like here. They're the same tier? He's not locked up by Aiden. Not locked up by Ayn. Yeah, but like Jamal's shooting himself out of series as well. I think regular season, Jamal is much more valuable, and that matters to get into the playoffs. So, yeah, I think Lamel. I think, I think, Jamal Murray is a better player.

If you tell me they're the same tier, though, I don't think it's insane. But to me, this is more about shangoon slender. I just think. Fair. But the collapses for Jamal have just been so bad. But he was shooting curry numbers in the regular season, so. Which makes the collapse even worse. I agree. That's like, hey, yeah, that's such a fool gaysy year.

And that's why you're not sniffing Austin Reeves talk to me. Damn, it just feel weird seeing Lamello up there and this clear tier between them. Yeah, it's projection. And I think it's a good projection. He's, the way, I think we've all kind of like bought into, to Minnesota. They better perform, man. Yeah. Like, this, this has to work so well.

And Lamella has to walk in day one. and be such an additive player. And I think this is one of the rare situations. Yeah, I agree. But I also do think this is one of the rare situations where two star players come together and it works immediately. You really see that.

Yeah, and let's make things clear. We will switch up on Lamello as soon as we can if we need to. If it fails, we will switch up. Let that be clear. Lamello fans, this is only allied territory for now. If it doesn't work, we will switch up. Okay. Okay, next.

France. See? Yeah, it's kind of hard I am very confident in Franz And I think if he was one option You can do a lot more And I think Palo Bancaro not being good enough One option

The team shooting not being good enough The defensive infrastructure falling apart Is all a bigger part of why they failed? It would help a lot if Franz could shoot the ball better Yeah, as a number two Yeah If you're not that kind of shooter It's really hard to play off of the main guy

Yeah, C's just like a Just a deeply not deeply flawed basketball player Who's really good but it's just hard to work around. So he belongs in that to your savvy. Okay, speaking of deeply flawed players, James Hardin. Oh, at this point of his career, B or C? I don't think we can go B.

I would say C more than more than B, but also he's just going to let you down. Yeah, it is what it is at this point. He's very old. And that shows itself in a lot of ways. See, he's cool. Very old man. Yeah. So the media day picture looks very old.

Not D? No. calm down. It's Jalen Duren talks there. All right. Another Jalen? They both disappear. Jalen Green.

Oh, this might be F for real. I'll go if. All right. All right. We got to move Paul George up. Yeah, that's fine. I don't know. Yeah, Paul Drs would probably be D.

He is better than, he is much better than Jaylen Green. He's in a different tier than Jailen Green. Yeah, let's let Paul George say and D. C.J. can be an F with Jailen Green. You got a guy now. A D tier's second option. Is CJ as bad as Jyn Green?

No, of course not. He's way better than him, but he's a, tier below Jalen Dern. Okay. Try Young. Maybe the easy answer is we just don't overreact. We put Dern and C tier.

No, fuck that. Okay. Trey Young. I think for now C. Yeah, C or B. If we gave Lamello credit, we think he'll fit to his role well. If we want to get Trey on that credit too, okay, he's much smaller than Lamello and has shown much less scoring impact than Lamello.

Tier below. I think C's okay. But he could very, very quickly prove to me he'd be. I think if we're projecting, rejecting on this list and assuming like, yeah, he will take a slight step back and help provide more offense to guys like AD SAR, set up SAR specifically and really like help unlock all these guys. Also not being as much of a hindrance as he's been before in the past when it comes just jacking up a lot of shots and being like OD inefficient. He could be B. And I think that he that's what he might end up being.

Maybe. But he's got to prove it to me. So does Lomello too. No, Llemeo was great last year. he was good last year it was good last year okay was trying to get it off no Treyong was bad last year

oh it didn't play a lot last year but in recent years he's been bad for his standards and I believe he can be good again Lamello showed me a lot more value than Trey Young has in recent years it is it is crazy though that like Lamella had the best year of his career and immediately his team was like

yeah we don't want to anymore yeah that's selling high because you don't believe in his ankles how much how much is that factor into anything I don't know. I mean, if he gets hurt again, he gets hurt again. I can't do much with that. I hope it doesn't happen.

That's all I can do is all. Should he move Trey up? I think we should. I don't think so. I think he's perfectly and sit next to Shangoon, two flawed players that have their skills, obviously, and if they prove to us,

they figure some stuff out playing next to stars this year, they can quickly move up. I don't think he's earned his way to be. No one's earned a way into anything. Yeah, but I don't, sure. I don't think he's earned for us to assume he'll be. I think just the fervor with which we're talking about,

Lamello, I do think we should move Trey up a little bit. I think Lamello's better than Trey Young right now. And I don't feel that bad saying that. I don't know if he's two tiers better than him right now. I think he showed two tiers of faith in him as a second option next to really good players. Him as the second option? Yeah, I think one being much bigger and not having the defensive liability that comes. Being a second option, defensive liability is tough.

Like you can deal with that when it's your star, do everything engine. When it's not that guy, you're not asking him to provide that much value. having no hope of being good on defense is tough to stomach. Lamello just has hope of being good on defense because he's six, seven. Yeah, he luckily was a defensive liability all his entire life though. He's not that bad. He's not like non-starter. You cannot do anything.

You cannot have any good defense. You can just theorize it because the height, that's it. It's not theorizing. They had a good defense with the whole second half of last year. Like they, he's been parts of competent defenses. Trey Young is tiny and it's just impossible. Yeah, that is true. Never been a top 10

Top 10? Fuck, no. Now was Trey Young there. The highest you've ever been probably was like 18 or 17. But when he left, it became Totsan immediately last year. Yeah.

So, yeah, it's half the ball is a non-starter. I just don't see Lamello as that big of a hole. Yeah, for sure. I can understand that. Okay. And I just,

I don't realize, I just fear that Tray Young's falling off more than I do Lamello by a meaningful amount. I just kind of having in my head that maybe he's just never going to be a good scorer again. And like, I'm not saying it's for sure, but I'm scared.

Yeah, this is all to improve a year for him If you want to say C, I can understand I think I personally haven't If y'all have him Yeah, that's fine It's fine, it's fine, it's fine Okay, okay Okay, Dave

Oh, I mean I'm kind of thinking it's I'd like win healthy I think J-Dub and I think his ability to score I think his his versatility Defensively His running maintenance

Like he's he's S tier Yeah, the fact that he can play off ball as a slasher as a spacer play on ball obviously the secondary creator is an elite primitive defender can defend Biggs defensive playmaker he does so much you want next to a star Yeah he's like an even better

version of a complete player that Siakum is right here He's like plus five across all actual actually When he's at his best has his ring as a championship secondary player Like this is the type of player we'll look back on in history And say that's an elite second option that made his star player better Yeah Is Bam not S? I'm looking at it? We're putting J-Badash.

The offense just has to be slightly better. And the fit is what makes it won't be shocked. I won't be shocked at all if he's S. Let me see it worked really well with the honest. Yeah. Okay. Kyrie.

Coming off an ACL, 35 years old. Probably still around B though. I think if he was like healthy, healthy, Kyrie would be A. Definitely. But we can knock him a step down because of the ACL. Okay. We'll say you're an elder now.

You're B. If you show us, Uncle still got it. We'll put you A. Okay. Steph Castle. Oh, that's A. having an elite point of attack defender like that that can also play make and throw lobs to your big man

is a respectable shooter especially in the playoffs he's an extremely flawed player but his strengths are so strong and would he be great Nick without wemby I don't know but that motherfucker has wemby and he always will so he might just produce like a all the time yeah he's a for sure his shooting is so wildly streaky

and that's like the ultimate thing that will decide where he lies on most NBA like scales or whatever but he's a he's a okay scotty barnes a yeah could honestly what yeah what would it take to get him to us honestly just staying healthy next to kai the whole time i think sky's actually going to be s he's been healthy you want to say yes call it yeah i meant to do well staying healthy together like as long as him and kawai play 60 games together he's going to be s i think i think whenever we talk about scotty his perfect role is to be a number two yep and i think he should be s yep i agree because yeah the the talent and the production matches him being like the second option.

Again, he's a dream of true of a second option, bro. Like, what do you mean? You can play? You can play pretty much like guard literally all five positions and not really have much fits to you as well. You can score at a decent rate. You're a good finisher at the rim. Yeah, he's a dream teammate. Yeah, we've been, Scottie Barnes.

We've been begging for him to be Scotty Pippen. Now he gets a chance to do it. It's going to be beautiful. He's a little about overthinking. It's going to be perfect. Yeah, him and Zada are literally so far on this list. the only two players who you can add to any team in the NBA and they immediately get so much better.

You know it is. It's big wing defenders that can playmate. Yeah. That's the cheat code. Okay. Last big wing defender that can arguably playmate. Jalen Brown. You see the second option?

So you're the alpha? Is Tyrese max your team? He's the alpha. You know what? You're still a second option like you always have been? Put him in A. Damn. Put him in A.

Could it be yes? He has a finals MVP. Big wing. He's played the second fiddle role as well as you as you could. Yeah, I'm just hating. I'm kidding. But he obviously could be yes. I don't.

Yes, he's probably neck and neck with Jadab. So I guess he should be S. Yeah. I'd rather have Scotty Barnes, I think in that role just because of the turnover. I don't think Jalen Brown, he's obviously going to win championship as a second option. I don't think he has the like additive super effect that like maybe a Scotty Barnes defense might prove to have as like being a lineup cheat code. But he's so balanced, so good offball as a score. Yeah.

Is a good point of attack defender. If you weaponize that, have him defend the best wing. I do think that obviously the weaknesses, the turnovers are bad, the offball defense is terrible, all that stuff makes him a flawed player. But it probably does slown out to S. Scotty Barnes and Jalen Williams are also fucking flawed. Exactly. Yeah. I think because of how high his strengths are and he pretty much has like maybe one or two weaknesses

that aren't the worst weaknesses in the world. Scotty Barnes' jump shot has been wildly inconsistent and J-Dub can be a turnover machine here and there. Yep. And not to say that Jalen Brown can't, but his weaknesses aren't as big

out as those two. Yeah, yeah. Most people would probably rather have him than J-D-D-Ob as their second option. Sick. Traded away a S-tier second option

for a D-tier. Love my life. Salute. Salute. Is that the last one? Yeah. Salute. Yeah, I guess

a band might prove to be S tier. He loki could be that right now. And put him as tier? Yeah, let's give Ben Monte. Yeah. He's not. I'm mad proven too.

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Heat fans, hope you stay to the end of the video. I'm sure you didn't. So you'll be commenting. It's always heat hate with y'all. We put a messier.

Yeah, we put a messier. The MPC heat fans on our comments all the time. Okay. We were laughing at Clay Thompson. Jribling funny at the media day. They're back to heat hate. All right. dude, shut up.

Y'all did something, man, relax. Shut up. He just looks funny.