The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Player Rankings #12-11: Donovan Mitchell & Kevin Durant

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Jason continues with his NBA player rankings list, following up Joel Embiid at No. 14 and Kawhi Leonard at 13 with Donovan Mitchell and Kevin Durant. He breaks down why this range of players is so hard to rank, why he ultimately put Cleveland Cavaliers guard Spida Mitchell at 12 and why new member of the Houston Rockets, KD, slots in at 11. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

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She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman.

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Good to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. It feels amazing to be back from Alaska. Just an absolutely unbelievable trip. If you stick around to the end of the show today, I'll tell you guys about it, just because I can't imagine it going any better

than it did. You know how anybody who's ever been to Alaska knows. There's a little bit of a crap shoot with weather and we just got so lucky and I got to see so many cool things. I'll talk about that trip more at the tail end of the show. Today we're getting back into our player rankings with number 12 and number 11, the beginning of a segment of this list that was far and away the hardest segment for me to rank, but we're getting to two more players today. You guys know the joke before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight.

It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, if you guys want to get questions into the mailbags, we're doing Friday mailbags geared around the player rankings here for the next month or so. Again, if you disagree with the ranking, if you think a guy should be higher, lower, should have made the list, shouldn't have made the list, whatever it is you disagree with, just lay that out as concisely as you can, a little elevator pitch.

a comment under this video that says mailbag with a colon, and we'll get to it in our mailbags on Fridays throughout the remainder of this list. All right, let's talk some basketball. All right. So this was by far the hardest section of this list for me to rank. Kauai Leonard and Joel Embed are very clearly at the bottom, right? Like, we all know that Kauai can outplay the top players in the league. We saw him do it against Yokic in game two, if I remember correctly in that first round series. He's capable of reaching that level. We know Joel Embed when he's healthy could very well be one of the top two or three players in the entire NBA, right? But they both obviously have this injury history that pushes them towards the bottom.

And Kauai is obviously in better shape now as someone who was able to finish his last playoff run. So he got the nod for number 13. Joel was at number 14. That was pretty straightforward, right? But there is an incredibly minuscule gap between number 12 on this list and number five. For example, I'll just go ahead and spoil today's rankings. I have Donovan Mitchell at number 12 and Kevin Durant at number 11. We'll obviously do deep dives into both of those players today. Donovan Mitchell was just the best player on the second best team in the league this year. He averaged 30 points per game on 57% true shooting in this year's playoff run.

He made first team all NBA and he finished fifth and MVP voting. He had a 48 point playoff game and a 43 point playoff game just in this last playoff run. And there isn't a case for him to be above of anybody that I have ahead of him on this list, for me, at least personally. I think you could argue him to be higher, but for me, I couldn't find a case to move him up from 12. Top five in MVP voting, first team all NBA, and I struggle to put him higher than 12. That's the nature of this part of the list. And Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant.

KD catches a ton of crap online, and I disagree with most of it. I don't blame him for what went wrong in Phoenix. He was getting crap online for not leading his team and shot attempts since 2018. I don't view that as a negative for KD. I view that as a positive. We're going to talk about that today.

I think he's going to massively improve Houston's ability to compete for a championship, and I think he firmly meets the criteria of this tier, which again, this tier, the criteria is a player who on any given night can outplay the very best players in the world. They just struggle to consistently get to that level. Katie very much is in that tier. And like, I don't have them in my top 10.

It's just a testament to how deep this league is. The top 12 is completely insane. I moved the names around a half dozen times. Multiple guys went up and down several spots in different versions of this list before I landed. where I landed. The point is, we are very much splitting hairs at this point. And if you disagree with me and you go, Jason, I have KD at five. Jason, I have Donovan Mitchell at five. I, you know, I'm going to argue against it, but I'm not, there's such a small gap there that I think it's at least defensible.

The guys that I have above these guys at this point in the list, I just viewed having a more reliable night-to-night trait. So maybe an apex athlete who brings insane motor every night or an offensive engine. You guys know how I feel about offensive engines. I don't think Durant or Mitchell kind of fall into that specific category.

Guys who make offense easier for everyone on the roster every single night. Or a defensive monster, like a guy who's just an absolute pain in the ass athlete with super long arms that no one can deal with on the defensive end of the floor that just sets a super high floor for everybody. Those are the kinds of guys

that I ended up favoring. over Donovan Mitchell and Kevin Durant. But these gaps are incredibly close. I just wanted to emphasize that. From 5 to 12, I mean, you could just shake it up and like a bunch of Yatzi dice and just kind of see how it lands and you're going to be able to make a decent case for that ranking. But let's get started with number 12, Donovan Mitchell.

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Audio. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing. a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad,

Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

helped make you funny. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves.

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The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genschen went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me.

And she likes Clay. Listen, Lernerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner, I heart women's sports.

Last year in review for Donovan, he played in 71 games. That was as healthiest season since 2019, which was his second year in the league. He averaged 24 points, five rebounds and five assists, one point five stocks, 44% from the field, 37% from three, 82% from the line, 53% an effective field goal percentage. That's just field goal percentage weighted for threes and 58% in true shooting. Really stacked up the accolades this year. He finished his sixth consecutive All-Star. appearance, first team all MBA and fifth and MVP voting. For me, like a classic example of

why box score watching is so silly. Donovan, his numbers were down across the board year over year. Points per game down. Rebonds per game down. Rebonds per game down. Fugle percentage down. Block steals down. Three point percentage down. Free throw percentage down. Everything was down year over year. and he was flat out better this year than he was the previous year. Keep that in mind when we get to KD and we start talking about his field goal numbers because it's the same kind of idea that I think a lot of people get hung up on. Now, to be clear, yes, box score production is an important manifestation of how you're producing for a basketball team,

but it is not the only manifestation of how well a basketball player is playing. The evidence is in the play type data. Even though Donovan Mitchell's individual statistics weren't as impressive as the previous season, when Donovan did more with the basketball, and when Donovan had, you know, he was running a lot more pick and roll every game. He was just more on the ball, right? Even though his numbers came down, even though his individual statistics weren't as impressive, Donovan did things that helped the Cleveland Cavaliers as a team score more points. just shot creation data.

In 2004, Donovan ran 162 pick and rolls, ISOs, and post-ups, including passes, got 1,083 points. That's 1.02 points per possession, which is decent for a star guard, but it's nothing to write home about. In 2025, he ran 1,316 pick-and-rolls,

ISOs, and post-ups, obviously higher volume with him being healthier, but 1,405 points. That's 1.07. points per possession. That's five points better per 100 possessions than he was the previous year. That puts him into an elite tier as a high volume shot creator. The Cleveland Cavaliers functioned better as an offense with Donovan Mitchell this year

than they did last year, even though his individual scoring volume and percentages went down. So the question is how? How did Donovan Mitchell help the calves this year compared to last year? And the short answer is he bought him. to what Kenny Atkinson was trying to do with that Cavs offense, getting them to play more fast-paced, more in transition, more ball-in-player movement. It required quicker decision-making, and most importantly, it required Donovan to give up the basketball more

and to play more in the flow of the offense. And he did just that. Here's a simple stat to demonstrate how much Donovan Mitchell gave up the basketball last year. For MBA.com's tracking data, in 2024, Donovan Mitchell, average 6.3 minutes of possession time per game. In 2025, that dropped from 6.3 to 4.9. Another way to put it is Donovan's time of possession drops by 22.3% year over a year.

That's a significant decrease there. And yet, despite a 22.3% decrease in his time of possession, his scoring volume only dropped by less than 10%, a little over 9%. From 26.6 points per game to 24 points per game. He basically refined his role to fit exactly what the team needed. He took a step back and allowed the finally healthy version of Darius Garland to do more of what Darius does best, which is initiate the offense with his dribble penetration and that advantage creation just greased the wheels in so many different ways for the

Cavs, as we know. And then in shorter bursts when the situation called for it, Donovan stepped in and was super aggressive. He actually shot the ball, or I should say pass the ball less per touch last year than the year before. So he actually passed the ball less when he had it. But that was what the team needed. The team needed him to seed control of a large portion of the offense to Darius in a larger extent than he did in previous years, and for him to, when he had the ball, do what Donovan Mitchell does best, score the damn basketball.

The team needed him to be a score. And so he took back some of his touches and refined and simplified his approach to being more of a score. In short, he cut down on his touches, but focused on what he does best. And that led to a explosive scoring season for the Cavs offense.

Donovan was lethally efficient in pick and roll this year. He's actually more efficient as a score in pick and roll this year than he was the year before, despite his shooting percentages being down across the board overall. He was one of only six players in the entire NBA last year to attempt at least 500 shots in pick and roll and to get over a point per shot. He did this by shooting 50% on twos. Again, that's a big part of that shot making in pick and roll, right? Filled by a deadly floater. He shot 52% on over 150 floaters this year.

Donovan was one. of only eight players in the NBA to attempt at least 150 floaters and make more than half of them. We're going to talk about it more when we get to here in just a second, but he had a really useful set of counter moves in the mid-range. And he's always had these, but he's really refined it into a super efficient part of his game. We'll get to that in a second. Then he shot 36.4% on pull-up threes, and that's a very good number because of the efficiency boost that you get from that three-point shot. That was 1.09 points per pull-up three in pick-up. roll. That's very good.

Classic for Donovan Mitchell is a combination of what we've talked about with a lot of the athletic guards in the league. The combination of that downhill burst mixed with the pull-up jumper that can get defenders either on their heels or he can easily pull up or up on their toes where he can easily go past them. And then again, this is where the mid-range counters come in. Donovan had this ridiculous over-the-top gather, I should say has, he's had it for years, this ridiculous over-the-top gather that he would pull over a defender that would step underneath him and he'd step into a floater out of that. And then he was really nasty with that Euro step. Those little moves in the mid-range allowed him to quickly get separation, almost like John Morant-esque,

with his ability to quickly get separation in that short range, that five to 10 foot range, where he could get to an easy shot that he could make over 50% of the time, which removed some of that variance and gave him a reliable piece of shot making. That gave him the ability to be one of only six players in the NBA that shot over 50% in pick and roll on a massive volume with that over a point per possession, I should say, on that massive volume of over 500 attempts in pick and roll. He also scored really efficiently off the ball.

Don't even got 1.11 points per possession in spot-up situations. Fueled by him shooting a crazy 47% on unguarded catch-and-shoot threes and then some really good close-out attacking when guys would chase him off the line. The biggest boost for Donovan Mitchell on this list, the reason why he is higher than many of the guys who scored more points per game than him this year, is the simple fact that Donovan's one of the best playoff risers in the NBA. Darius Garland, who did not make my list this year, he hits many of the similar markers that Donovan hits

that we've talked about in this segment. Darius was excellent shooting in pick and roll, had an excellent floater. He shot like 43% on pull-up threes in pick and roll. Darius, I would actually argue in terms of just the regular season is a better offensive engine than Donovan Mitchell because of his ability to consistently cut teams to pieces with his dribble penetration and pass effectively out of it.

It really greased the wheels for this Cavs team. Their offense was actually four points better per 100 possessions this year when Darius was on versus off. But consistently, every single year, whether it be because of health or him struggling in that environment or a combination of both, Darius just kind of falls apart in the postseason

relative to his regular season impact. Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell is like straight up one of the very best playoff scores of this era. Once again, last year, 30 points per game in the postseason on 57% true shooting. for six consecutive playoff runs spanning 47 games. Donovan Mitchell is good for 35 and 5 on 59% true shooting in the playoffs. To put it very simply, he is one of the very best playoff scores in the entire NBA.

And that puts him in this special tier of players who is capable of outplaying any top tier superstar on any given night. which is what put him in this group in. Now, defense has always been a bit complicated for Donovan. But I actually think Donovan's made real strides over the last couple of years. He's never been good on the ball. He competes there better than he used to. You guys remember how bad it was in Utah.

It just was just a disaster on the ball there. But nowadays, he still struggles a little bit, even though he competes better because he can get too handsy. He commits a lot of fouls. He's just overly physical on the ball as a defender. But he's made major strides over the last. the last couple of years as an off ball defender. The main thing is, is it's an excellent opportunity for him to weaponize that trait,

that he loves to be physically aggressive and go after the basketball. Well, on the ball, that can give up dribble penetration too easily. Off the ball, it actually is useful for him digging down on driving lanes or digging down on cutters. And so Donovan has gotten really good at, like, digging down into the lane, attacking the basketball, but having the foot speed and the fundamentals in terms of his closeouts to get back out to the perimeter to a shooter. And that's made him a very good help and recover player.

So as a result, like, the Cavs defense was actually better this year with Donovan Mitchell on the ball versus off. And it's given him the ability to meet that mandatory minimum, which we always talk about. Like, in order to be one of these guys in this tier, you have to be able to at least fill a role on a team as a useful defender.

You have to be able to do something that helps your team on that end of the floor. And Donovan has found that role. Off the ball, he can dig down into the lane, attack the basketball, and he can recover out to the perimeter with really quality closeouts for a star player at that position.

You look at Darius Garland, and we talked about it. Like, Darius Garland, he's not a better score than Donovan Mitchell. I don't even think he's a better playoff offensive player overall than Donovan Mitchell. But in the regular season, Darius Garland is a better offensive engine.

than Donovan Mitchell. But even in that context, the Cavs defense was five points worse per 100 possessions with Darius on versus off. And it undercut a lot of his success. It's a big part of why he didn't make this list this year in addition to the playoff struggles that we talked about. Donovan has become a useful defender for a good defense. That was the mandatory minimum that he needed to reach as a small guard and he got there. So now, why isn't Donovan Mitchell higher on this list? Jason, he's fifth and MVP voting.

He made first team all NBA. Why is he all the way down at 12? The big thing for Donovan is I just don't think he has enough of that, like, game management flow of the game piece, that offensive engine piece that you need to compete with the elite offensive players that are above him on this list. So let's look at last year. In the playoffs, the injuries start to stack up.

Darius Garland's got the bad toe. He's not moving as well as he used to. He's not cutting the defense. up the way he used to, he's sitting out for entire games. A lot of their shooters go cold in large part because of that lack of advantage creation. And so Donovan Mitchell, like, kind of flashed a lot of the old Donovan Mitchell, right? Really taking control of the offense in more of a heliocentric manner. In the, excuse me, in the regular season, his usage rate was below 31%.

In the postseason, it was over 37%. So he kind of like reverted back to that hyperaggressive on-ball heliocentric. kind of ball hoggy type of player, right? And for the record, I don't blame him for that. It was the right thing for him to do in that situation. Darius didn't have it. He needed to be more in control of things. I do not blame Donovan for that.

It was the best chance that Cleveland had to survive their set of circumstances. But when Donovan goes that route, he misses a lot of the easy reads that are available to him, and it can be a lot of make or miss feast or famine type of stuff and it can lead to him not having the same level of offensive impact as the guys that are above him on this list. For example, in this postseason run when Donovan Mitchell was on the floor, the calves managed 117.6 points per 100 possessions, which is fine,

but it's well below what the calves were producing in the regular season and it's well below what they did when Darius Garland was in control, especially in the regular season, right? So like, I just don't see Donovan as that overall offensive engine that you get from the offensive players that I have above him on this list. I have a couple of guys on the list above him that are more defensive-minded players, but are defensive weapons, I should say. But among the offensive players in this tier, Donovan's lack of that high-level playmaking talent is what kept him below. The next step for Donovan, if he wants to move up this list, get into that top seven, top eight, for me is that game management piece.

Becoming the type of guy who you can give control of the offense to, and he's going to average eight, nine assists per game, like the Damien Lillards of the world, right? Because he weaponizes that downhill force to generate advantages early in possession that grease the wheels for his offense. That's the next step. But for right now, I have Donovan as the 12th best player in the NBA.

Number 11, Kevin Durant. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay.

Jenchian went. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, Good luck.

Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. This was an impossible one for me. I'm just such a huge fan of Kevin Durant in his game, and I really do believe he's going to be amazing for Houston this year. But again, every time I looked at a guy above him, I just personally couldn't unseat. one of those guys. But again, if you argued KD as high as five, I could at least respect the case there. Same goes for Donovan. Is this more, again, a testament to how talented the rest of the NBA is?

Our top 12 is insane right now, as you guys will see as we continue to work through this list. Last season in review for KD, 62 games played. He averaged 27.6 rebounds and four assists, two stocks per game. 53% from the field, 57% on 2. It's just outrageous from 2. We're going to talk more about that in a minute because that's considering almost no rim attempts

relative to his peers. 43% from 3, 84% from the line for a 60% effective field goal percentage and 64% in true shooting. The shot making from KD is just completely outrageous. Like, just listen to these numbers. KD was the best jump shooter in the entire NBA last year.

He shot over 50% on all jump shots. Even if you wait it for threes, he got 1.21 points per attempt that ranked number one out of the 58 players to attempt at least 500 jump shots. Kevin Durant, best jump shooter in the NBA last year, end of story. 48% off the catch. 51% when unguarded.

52% on off the dribble jump shots. He had a rough year and pull-up threes. Didn't take very many. He took 73 all year, shot just below 33%. But Kevin Durant shot 56% on pull-up mid-range jump shots. In short range, when he got inside of 17 feet, he hit 58%. that's one of the most reliable shots in the NBA right now. It's encroaching on that Yokic territory of like mid-60s,

high-60s of like unbelievable reliability and immunity to variance. KD's become so incredibly deadly on those short-range jump shots. That shot making led to insanely efficient isolation numbers. KD was the best ISO player in the NBA last year by a mile. There were 22 players that shot out of ISO at least 200 times. KD's 1.16 points per possession was far and away, number one. To give you an idea, Shay was in second place, and he was a full six points per 100 possessions less efficient

shooting out of ISO than KD was. On twos in ISO last year, KD shot 59%. 109 for 186. He's just the best to ever do it. When you need a bucket, there's never been a better guy to give the ball to. I was seeing the clips going around on social media the other day while I was gone

of that Serbia-USA game. And that still to this day is my very favorite basketball memory that I can think of. Just the intensity, the stakes, the fear, the legit, fear that they were going to lose and then seeing everyone step up and specifically Katie, Steph and LeBron run the show down the stretch and each one of those three guys

show their greatness in unique ways from like Steph keeping the team afloat early in the game with the shooting and then late in the game hitting that three coming off the left wing that was the lead changing shot. He had the transition layup as well. LeBron James showcasing his versatility. He's guarding Yokich on one end of the floor, having those two somehow having the leg strength to get those two crazy transition finishes in crunch time. And then in the final minutes, I think they were up to at the time, super important possession. I think it was under a minute, if I remember correctly. They desperately need a bucket. And Steph, LeBron, all those dudes, they turn to Kevin Durant and they say, get us a bucket. I'm standing off my couch,

screaming at the TV, like get a bucket, KD, we need a bucket. And he hits that left to right crossover and hits that pull-up jumper and knocks that shit down to send him to the gold medal game. It wasn't a fluke. He's literally the very best player in the NBA still at it today. And he's been the very best player at it that I've ever seen. This is where I want to touch on that shot attempts thing. So KD has been very active on social media in the last couple of days

regarding several things. But the big one was this idea that KD hasn't led a team in shot attempts since 2018, as if it's a bad thing. I think this is one of KD's strengths. This is where we have to get away from box score watching. Look, scoring the basketball is a very important basketball trait, and I'm not going to roll my eyes at guys who are putting up big points per game numbers. It's too hard to score in the NBA to just gloss over that.

But we had 25 players in the NBA last year average at least 24 points per game. Not all points per game totals are the same. The goal of an NBA offense is for the team to score points, not for an individual player to score points. And there are a lot of guys in the NBA that can score the basketball, but at the expense of the rhythm and flow of their teammates and of the offense overall. Kevin Durant is the best I've ever seen at scoring the basketball in the flow of an offense. meaning doing so without disrupting the rhythm of his teammates,

without stopping ball and player movement. This is what makes him so easy to fit in any basketball situation. Every time he changes teams, it just looks like such a natural fit on the offensive end of the floor. This is why I think it's going to fit so great for him in Houston. I think it comes down to how comes down to two things. First of all, Katie is excellent at scoring off the ball, both in spot-up situations and attacking in the action.

that NBA offense runs. So like driving closeouts. KD, when he drove closeouts, shot 64% on twos last year. That's insane. That was on 81 attempts of once a game, more than once a game, he put the ball on the floor against the closeout

and make almost two thirds of them. Like, that goes in hand in hand with him shooting over 50% on unguarded catch-and-shoot jump. shots. So you just an incredibly useful spot-up player if you can create an advantage for him, but then he also could score out of action. He shot 60% out of dribble handoffs. He shot 48% coming off of off ball screens. He's excellent at scoring in the flow of NBA offense. And then when he's on the ball, he's always super decisive and super efficient with his dribbles. KD averaged just 3.3 seconds per touch last year and just two dribbles per touch.

That's per MBA.com's tracking data. Now compare that to a guy like Luca Donchich, who averaged seven seconds per touch and four dribbles per touch. Now, Luke is a better player than KD, but I'm trying to show the difference in just the quickness, how quickly and how efficiently KD attacks when he has the ball. And even though I do believe in Luca and his supreme ability, I have talked about how him dribbling the air out of the basketball can disrupt the rhythm and flow for other players. It's been part of the reason why I've talked so much about LeBron and Austin

and how they have to become better catch-and-shoot players because a lot of LeBron and Austin's on-ball ability can get a little bit of a diminishing return in the context of a Luca-led offense because he can dribble the air out of the basketball. KD, him being hyper-efficient, him taking less than half as much time per touch and less than half as many dribbles per touch as a Luca Donchich is what makes him super easy to play with.

You know what he's going to do. He's predictable in a good way to play an offense alongside of. You know when to cut, when to relocate, when to screen, because he's not pausing. He's super decisive. We've all played with guys like that before that dribble the air out of the basketball,

and you like don't know what to do. You don't know if you're going to cut or relocate. You don't even know if he's looking at you. You don't know if he's trying to set something else up. That unpredictability can be difficult to play off of. If you're playing basketball with Kevin Durant and you pass in the ball and he has an advantage he likes with some good spacing, you can count on him to quickly put the ball down or throw a jabstet

and do something super efficient. One or two dribbles, rise in fire, within a, like two or three seconds max. He's not going to stop and stare. He's going to attack quickly, and that makes him super easy to play with. And it's not like, you know, I saw some of the criticism,

oh, it's because KD doesn't want all that response. Bullshit. Yeah, like, every time the game's on the line, KD wants the ball. He's always been that guy. He's literally one of the best clutch players ever. I mean, he literally,

the whole beef he had with Dremont literally stemmed, from him wanting the basketball at the end of a game. It's, it is this hyper-efficient, quick, decisive scoring that fits extremely well in the team context. We've talked a lot about this idea, the scoring player versus the offensive engine and how scores can be susceptible to variance

and scores can disrupt the flow. A bad game for a score is way worse than a bad game for an advantage crater. Not as much so for a guy like Kevin who shoots well over 50% from two and on his pull-up jump shots. He makes over half of his jump shots so he's less susceptible to variance. And he's so quick and so decisive that he's just super easy to play with and he's never going to disrupt the flow of your offense. Now, why did I leave Katie down at 11?

It has nothing to do with defense. Do I wish Katie would have devoted more energy and focused to defense over his career? Sure. But even in that context, he's still an excellent defender. even today. His tools are just insane and he can move. He's got good anticipation. He's good both on the ball and off the ball. He's been well over a block per game for years. That's that offball anticipation and his ability to use his length at the rim. And he's a nasty ISO defender because he has that length and mobility to give ground to keep the ball in front, but also close that gap and

get great contests. Guys shot just 12 for 45 from the field. against KD and ISO last year. Out of 151 players to guard at least 50 ISOs last year, his 0.76 point per possession ranked 16th. 16th out of 151. He's literally one of the best isolation defenders in the NBA. KD being outside of the top 10 came down to three things for me. One, he's declined as a defensive rebounder.

He posted his lowest rebounds per game total since, or rebounds per game number since his rookie season. Two, he straight up does not pressure the rim. He averaged just 2.8 shot attempts per game at the rim last year. That ranked 228 in the NBA. Guys like Kevin Herder and Corey Kispert attempted more shots at the rim per game last year than KD. A lot of it has to do with the Achilles injury. He's stopping short a lot of the time.

But him not threatening the rim prevents him from generating some of the advantages and kick-out opportunities that his peers generate. And then lastly, he's just not the same level of playmaker as his same. peers at the top of the league. Now I'm hoping KD proves me wrong on this particular point. I saw KD reach crazy heights as a pick and roll passer in Brooklyn. And he's kind of just gone away from that, that role of the high volume pick and roll weapon. And I actually think Houston could really benefit from it. So I'm hoping they dig that back out of KD and I hope that we get to see a higher level playmaker this year. But in the last several years, he has not been the

level of advantage creator, the guy who generates easy opportunities for his teammates, as his peers that are above him on this list. Overall, this was one of the hardest rankings for me to make. You could easily argue KD as high as number five on this list. But for right now, I haven't met number 11. All right, before we get out of here, guys, I'll tell you a little bit about Alaska. So we had gone on an Alaskan cruise when my wife, I was working for this company. she got an incentive trip a while back where we got to go with a bunch of the people that were in her

industry. And it was like a loop that went out of Seattle. And the loop was kind of a bummer in a couple of different ways because one, you just didn't get to see all the same ports. When you're doing a seven-day loop, you've got to account for a return trip. So there's like three of the seven days. You're just on the ocean. And so you just don't get to spend as much time. Each port call is like five hours, four hours. So you're just like really not having the time to explore all. all of the different areas that you're going. And then secondly, because you're going in a loop, you don't get to go as far up into Alaska,

which is like the further you get up, the cooler it is, right? For those of you guys have been, you know what I'm talking about. And so we really wanted to go back for two reasons. We wanted to go outside of a work context. We wanted to be able to enjoy it more just like without the, all of the constraints that came from my wife's job at the time. And then two, we wanted to do the one way. We wanted to do a one-way cruise so that you could actually spend a lot of time,

at each port. Now, I'm not much of a cruise guy, but you kind of need to do a cruise to experience the majority of Alaska just because a lot of these places are not accessible by road. And you get to see a lot of really cool things that you only get to see on a boat in that sort of instance. So like, for instance, we got to see the Hubbard Glacier on this particular trip. That is the largest tidal, a tidal glacier in the entire world. So you're not going to see that. unless you take a cruise ship into that bay, right? So I'm not much of a cruise guy, but it's kind of the way you have to do it. And so we travel with my parents, which was a lot of fun. I haven't traveled with my parents since I was a kid, since I was a teenager, basically. And so my dad was always big into

outdoorsy stuff. And so it kind of just worked out with our schedules. And my dad and mom are both finally retired. And so we were able to do it. And we did a whole, we did a little trip to Victoria beforehand. So we like went up to Vancouver and we got an Airbnb in Victoria. We had the weather was amazing in Victoria. We went to like Bouchard Gardens, which is a really cool, like, basically like a botanical garden that's up there where you can get to see some incredible stuff. And, you know, hung out in that area. We had a, the weather was just so great. I got like great views of like Mount Olympus.

And you could literally see blue glacier from inside Victoria. You like got to see seaplanes landing and all this good food. It was kind of a fun little trip before we went on the cruise. And got to take the ferry to and from Victoria from Vancouver, which was beautiful. as you kind of get into all those islands that surround Vancouver Island. Then we left out of Vancouver. And if you've been on the Alaskan cruise before,

you know, the ports that are in the southern end are not super interesting. Like, Ketchan, it's not my favorite place. It's just super rainy there all the time. The one thing that was cool is when we went three years ago, for whatever reason, there just wasn't a lot of salmon activity. I think we just got there a little too early, but we got there at like the peak of the salmon returning.

And so, as you know, the salmon, they like go out to ocean. and then when they're ready to reproduce, they go back up into fresh water, like by jumping up these like creeks and rivers and stuff, and then they spawn and then they die, right? And so like you see them out in the ocean up against these like, where you know, whatever you call it, the deltas where like the rivers in the ocean meet

where it's like a mix of fresh and ocean water. And they like practice jumping and you just see them jumping. You literally look off the shore and you just see hundreds of salmon just jumping in and out of the water. And then, like, you'd see them jumping up the creeks. You'd see them climbing those salmon ladders. It's basically like a structure that the locals build to help the salmon get upstream. So that was kind of cool, but it's just so rainy up and catch a can.

And then we went to Juneau and the weather was amazing. And Juneau, we got super lucky there again. But, like, we went to go see Mendenhall Glacier and we, like, canoed up to. It was super cool. But it's retreated so far back that it's literally out of the water now. Like, when I went there three years ago, it was in the water. And now Mendenhall Glacier is, like, completely out of the water. you're canoeing to it, they have all these, like, orange signs that, like, demonstrate

different times in the history where the glacier was further out. I can't remember the exact number, but, like, it retreats at some crazy pace. It was, like, 200 feet per year or something like that. So that one's, like, really retreating back in there. And thankfully, we did all that stuff first, because each subsequent port that we went to that was further to the north was crazier and crazier that we got to see. And, like, the Hubbard Glacier was absolutely unbelievable. But we just got perfectly clear weather. So as you're like pulling in, you see this massive glacier, but out in the distance, just all these like 15,000 foot peaks. I have always had a thing for super tall mountains, particularly volcanoes, but I've also had a thing for super tall mountains.

And you get to see, we got to see Mount St. Elias, which is over 18,000 feet. That's now the tallest mountain that I've ever laid eyes on. So that was super cool. We got to see it on a very clear day. I got to see another big volcano up there. I can't remember, I think it was, I can't remember what was called, but it's the volcano that's right outside of Sitco. We got a crazy view of it as we were going around on the cruise ship. But then, you know, my mom and my wife were shopping in Juneau, and I was looking at our itinerary, and we had like six hours to kill in Seward. And Seward was the final port.

We never even thought of it as a place to do an excursion because we're like, oh, we're just leaving. Like, that's when we get off the boat and that's when we'll go home, right? And then I looked at it. I was like, okay, we're getting off the boat at 7.30, and we're not getting on the train until 6 p.m. So we got all this time to do. And so I did some research and then I heard about this like Keeney Fjords National Park, this big national park that's like right by sewer, but you can't get there unless you go by boat or like helicopter, right? And so I found an excursion, like a boating

company that would take all four of us out into the into those fjords. And that ended up being like by far the coolest part of the trip. Even though we had amazing weather everywhere else, it was like super rainy. But even though the rain had some downsides, what was cool about it was the rain actually essentially lubricates the glaciers and causes them to move a little faster and to carve a little bit more. Caving for a glacier, all it means is as the glacier kind of flows downhill, these big pieces of ice like fall off into the ocean. And by like sheer luck, I happened to have my iPhone out like zoomed in on a spot where this massive piece of ice fell off of the Eilik glacier, which was one of the two glaciers that we went to go see. And it was the guy who was on the boat said it was literally the

biggest calving they had seen in the entire season. It launched like this massive wave, like this 30 foot wave that was like coming towards us from the, uh, from the glacier. So we had to like turn the boat away from it and like go further away so that we could like wait for the wave to spread out and like hit us at a lower at a lower level but i have a video of this you guys can find it's it's on my instagram and it's on my twitter at underscore jason l t but it was like literally one of the coolest things i've ever seen uh just watching that uh that piece of that glacier fall off and like one of the things that's cool with glaciers too is when it's super sunny they appear white but when it's super cloudy they appear like almost like a radioactive shade of blue because of the just the the lesser amount of

light that they're absorbing and so it just was like like this eerie, creepy, like cloudy, rainy day with these beautiful glaciers that were just like calving like crazy in front of us because of the rain. And it was just an incredible experience. And then like I kept waiting for things to get more difficult. But it's like then we get on this train, this Alaska Railroad train. And it goes from sewer up to Anchorage. And it's just four hours of incredibly beautiful scenery outside of a train. I saw three additional glaciers, beautiful mountains, the bay that goes there by, I can't remember what it's called, but the bay that goes there right by Anchorage is super pretty. It just was like one thing after another of incredible

sightseeing and I just felt so lucky. I felt so lucky that the weather was the way that it was. I felt so lucky that we got to see the things that we got to see. It was obviously super cool to get to spend some time with my mom and dad, which I haven't traveled with in years. And it just was a really special trip. I think it might be my favorite trip that I've ever gone on. A couple things if you're going to go to Alaska. There's several cruise ships that do it, several companies that do it. We use celebrity. I've been pleased with them. They give a very good experience. I actually think they're relatively affordable too. They have really good food, which is something that my wife and I are pretty picky on. We were foodies. We just really like to have good food.

But a couple of things to be prepared for. Do the one way. Don't do the loop because you actually get to spend so much more time in each of your ports and less time at sea. Also, the one way takes you further north in Alaska. Like you get to see Hubbard Glacier. You don't get to see that on the loop. You get to go up into seward, which you don't get to see if you're on the loop. So you get to see the better stuff that's further north than Alaska. A couple things, though. If you do the cruise, when you leave the last port and you go into the Gulf of Alaska, it's a famously rough ocean. And so, like, come prepared for, you know, sea sickness by having, you know, dramamine or, you know, weed or whatever it is you use to survive sea sickness.

Make sure you're prepared for that. And then if you want to do Alaska without doing a cruise, Seward kind of captures a lot of the same vibe as some of the other ports. And so just fly to Anchorage and then take the Alaska Railroad down to Seward, buying an Airbnb or a hotel somewhere there, and then just make sure you do the Kenai Fjords tour because it's just super cool and it's an awesome way to get to experience like the glaciers and a lot of like that kind of stuff that you get to experience in Alaska. But it was just a ton of fun. And I, uh, it's kind of crazy because I'm, we're,

we're preparing for our phase two of our move to Denver on Wednesday. So it's kind of hectic. And obviously there's work surrounding it, but like it just felt really nice to disconnect from a little bit. There's like almost no cell service out there. And Wi-Fi on cruise ships is terrible. So it was like an opportunity for me to disconnect from work a little bit. And I just, uh, I just highly recommend if you ever have a chance to go check out Alaska, go check it out. And if you want to see some pictures, I've shared quite a few on my Twitter feed, you guys can see them there. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll see you guys on Friday

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We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades.

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