The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Player Rankings #25-23: Chet Holmgren, Cooper Flagg & OG Anunoby

Episode Date: August 8, 2026

Jason kicks off his top 25 NBA players ranking with Chet Holmgren (OKC Thunder), Cooper Flagg (Dallas Mavericks), and OG Anunoby (New York Knicks). All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. Welcome to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week. We are starting our top 25 player rankings finally today. Hopefully you guys enjoyed our episode on Wednesday where we went over the rules and like how the list works, as well as our seven honorable mention players

that we went over in that video. Today we're hitting 25, 24, and 23. You guys know the joke before we started. Subscribe to the Hoops on our YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. We need about 6,500 more subs to get to our 150,000 goal. so you guys can help us a lot by scrolling down and hit that subscribe button. If you already subscribe, like this video, sign up for post notifications.

That helps us a lot. And then last but not least, before we get started, we are going to be doing starting a week from today, starting next Friday, we're going to be doing mailbags on Fridays that covered the list. So if you disagree with the ranking, a player that you think is too high, too low, a specific two players that you think should be swapped, whatever it is, drop them in the mailbag, mailbag, colon, in the comments underneath these videos, Mailbag, colon, write your comment about the player, and we'll get to them in our player rankings, mailbags starting next Friday.

All right, without any further ado, let's talk some basketball. Number 25, Cooper Flagg. Impressive rookie of the year campaign, 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game, 55% true shooting, 2.1 stocks per game. Some huge games, too, 345 plus point games,

635 plus point games, 11 double doubles. He had 13 games stretch late in the year where he averaged 26 points, seven rebounds and six assists with 2.7 stocks per game. Got to the foul line a ton in that stretch. Seven free throw attempts per game. His downhill attack earned him quite a few trips to the free throw line. The shooting, his jump shot, not good. 0.83 points per shot. Broken down by distance when he was inside of 17 feet, 43%. Two's outside of 17 feet, 33%. Three's just under 30%, like 20. and a half. Breakdown by type, 28% off the catch

really struggled when he was unguarded, just under 27% on catch and shoot threes when he was open. And on film, one of the big things that stood out to me when I was prepping for this, he really slows down his release on catch and shoot threes.

Like if you watch the difference between when Coupe takes a pull-up, pull-up threes or pull-up twos, he really takes off and gets a bunch of I'm talking like you'll see, you freeze frame and he's got his legs extended in there like two, two and a half feet off the ground. Like he jumps on his pull up jump shots. Then on his catch and shoot threes, he like really slows himself down. He barely jumps and it's almost like he's taking a set shot.

And one of the things you'll notice is he leaves a lot of those catch and shoot threes short off the front of the rim because of that kind of difference in his lift. Now, what ends up happening when you do that, when you jump really high on one and then like set shot on the other, you know, between catch and shoot and off the, off the dribble jump shots, you end up having problems with both because there's no consistency between the two. Like I've talked about this before, like when you're taking a catch and shoot three or you're taking a step back three, if I take the step back three video and let's say, you know, you do an in and out to a crossover, hard step to your left, you plant that left foot way out to catch your momentum and you rise in fire.

If I pause right there on when your feet gets set and I play the video, it should look exactly like you're catching shoot jump shot. With exception of like, obviously there are certain situations like post fades, you know, mid-range fades where like, you're snaking a pick and roll and you're taken off at the elbow and landing damn near at the other elbow. Yeah, there are certain types of shots, especially in the mid-range where you're like drifting. But specifically threes, I don't care if you're taking it against a drop cover. just like off a hesitation dribble or you're taking it off of a side step, step back,

whatever it might be, if you're taking it off of the catch, you're taking it off the move off of the catch. If I freeze frame off of you, like right when your feet gets set and play the video, they should all look the same. That's your best chance to have consistency there. And again, I'm not trying to be overly critical of coop here. Like this is actually a super common trend among like young basketball players, aspiring shooters, players that are still learning how to shoot.

But I think that's going to be. what kind of helps turn around things for Cooper with his jump shot. It's just getting some consistency in the amount of lift that he uses on both his off-the-catch shots as well as his off-the-dribble shots. He was 38% on pull-up two's broke down like we talked about earlier. It was better when he was inside of 17 feet. 30% on pull-up threes. Now, the jump shot is a real swing skill for Cooper.

We're going to talk more about specific play types in a few minutes. But one of the consistent things that really stood out to me when I was watching Cooper's film is that his size, the downhill force that he plays with, and then his vertical pop, make it really easy for him to get good looks at pull of jump shots. Like, there's a certain unguardability to being that big, that athletic, that aggressive towards the rim, but also having the ability to rise and fire from any spot on the floor.

Cooper was getting good looks at jump shots. He just wasn't making them. Once he becomes an elite jump shooter, the sky's the limit. And he had some really strong indicators from his rookie season, like he was 83% at the foul line. He was 52% on over 150 floaters. Like, that shows that he has really good touch. So it's just about tying together all those details.

Thousands of reps to continue to refine the touch. Some just slight changes to his form to get some more consistency between the different types of shots that he takes. He's going to have to pay the price at the gym over the next few summers, just thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. but if he does, he'll reap those rewards, and I think he's going to reach a level of unguardability with that pull-up jump shot.

Short range scoring, like we mentioned, 52% on 151 attempts on floaters. Had a little hook shot. Didn't take a ton of them. He was 16 for 27. That's 59%. Had some really impressive work in low volume in the post, which we'll talk about in a minute.

And then at the rim, 58%, which really is a respectable number for a rookie, a high volume in poor spacing. He also got there a ton, 6.7 attempts per game. That's really strong volume. As a matter of fact, he ranked 21st, Cooper Flag, ranked 21st in the entire NBA in the volume of attempts at the rim. He got to the rim more than Che goes Alexander as a counter example. So really, really impressive aggressiveness from Cooper driving the basketball.

We'll talk about all the different ways here in a minute. Let's get into the playtimes. Really effective in transition, 1.22 points per possession on over 300 possessions. So 366 total transition points last year, which ranked 24th in the entire NBA. in the entire NBA in transition points. Spot up possessions. Cooper, you know, he didn't shoot well, like 28.6% on spot up threes, but he showed real upside attacking closeouts last year

and finishing in the short range on wonderful pull-ups and at the rim, which really boosted his spot-up efficiency despite poor jump shooting. He's just really good at taking those close-outs, turning that, like, you know, kind of like throwing that little pump-bake and turning his shoulder, getting that leverage and just going screaming downhill. This is what's so impressive about that. To shoot 28.6% on spot-up threes. But because he made 57-2s driving closeouts

and shot almost 60% on them, he actually converted spot-ups at 0.99 points per possessions, which is below average, but only barely, like just barely below average and better than you'd think, considering he couldn't make catch-and-shoot three. He was a legitimate threat in spot-up situations because of his drives. And another thing where if he figures out that catch-and-shoe,

and shoot piece, he can become even more devastating attacking in offball situations when he gets to catch on the perimeter against the closeout. Pick and roll. Now, this, I actually thought this was one of the more impressive parts of Coup's game last year. He ran 717 pick and roll, it's pretty high volume, got 0.93 points per possession, including passes, 44th percentile, so just below average. But on film, you can really see the vision of him eventually becoming a very efficient, very talented pick and roll player. First of all, it gives him his best ability to get downhill as an initiator in the half court. Like, we'll talk more about ISO in a minute, but ISO was one of the uglier parts for me when I was watching Coop's film because his first step quickness is not like a strength of his, right?

Like he's not dusting good defenders off the dribble unless they're closing out at him, you know, in some sort of advantage situation. But the ball screen pretty naturally gets the defender into trail position as he's chasing you over the top of the screen, right? And he's really talented it when he gets into those circumstances. He can start and stop his speed, you know, like, you know, he's patient with his attacks, doesn't rush into the lane, puts the defender in jail,

he's big and strong enough to kind of pin the defender on his backside. He has really good footwork, man, like there were, there were some plays, there was one, I can't even remember which TV he was playing against, where he kind of gets over the top of the screen, has the defender in trail position, stops and puts him in jail for a second, drives down the left lane line,

engages the big, the big steps over, and he just like pivots into a spin move through the second defender who's trying to trap him from behind and then goes all the way to the right side of the basket and finishes with the layup. And I'm like, man, like the way that he could, because again, like athleticism is one thing,

but footwork is the tool that allows you to use your athleticism. Footwork is what gets you from point A to point B, right? Like think of it more like natural talent versus technique. Athleticism is a natural talent. Footwork is a technique. You can have great athleticism but not have, usefulness on the basketball court if you don't know how to move from one spot to the other.

Cooper has excellent footwork on all of his counters, spin moves, step-throughs, Euro steps, all that kind of stuff. He just has excellent footwork on his drives. And then he has the short-range scoring piece. This is the huge upside for him in the short term, right? Like I talk about his jump shot. His jump shot's going to come around eventually,

but like right away, he can stop short of the rim and make these floaters and make them at a pretty high clip. And so that makes him a very, very good pick and roll player already with a lot of potential to improve as the jump shot continues to come around. Now, he's not the most high level playmaker you'll ever watch. He'll sometimes get into trouble

on his drives and like leave his feet early to throw a reckless pass or force something to the roller that's not there. But he's always been very good at taking easy reads that show up in these actions. He showed, like, threw some really impressive skip passes to the opposite corner out of double teams and

you know, ball screens where the low man comes over. Not just in picking but also in ISO's. He had a couple of ISO post-ups where, like, you face doubles and, like, dribbled away to get some space and then, like, threw a beautiful cross-court pass to the opposite corner that some Mavericks player would miss because no one on that team could shoot last year. But, like, it's the easy reads where he excels.

Like, when there's, like, a guy getting left open as part of the coverage, he'll take advantage of it. Nail help, simple swing pass. You know, like lob passes as if the big steps up in ball screen, he'll hit the occasional lob pass to, like, Musa C, or, you know, a Marvin Bagley before he left the team. But he'll run inverted screens with guards too. And like he'll just throw a little pitch to, you know,

Max Christie or Clay Thompson slipping out of the screen and like a guard guard screen. Like he makes all the simple reads. It gets him downhill where he's very good at changing pace and using advanced footwork to get to his spots, has the short range scoring to kind of tie it off in the short term. Once again, the jumper will be the swing skill. If he can get the pull up three into the high 30s, the pull up two into the low 50s, I think the rim pressure, the short range scoring, the playmaking, I think he could all come together and he could become a really high-level pick-and-roll player.

ISO, these were probably the ugliest reps I watched from him in my film study out of any of the play types. The numbers were actually okay, 0.9 points per possession, which is like, you know, just a little bit below average, kind of like pick and roll for him. But it's more about the film here. Like when he's going against smalls, he can just relatively easily overpower his way close to the basket for one of his floaters that he shoots pretty well. It did pretty well against Smalls. But anytime he runs into a player, he can't overpower like a bigger forward.

He can kind of struggle to turn the corner in ISO's with his first step. And then it turns into a lot of contested mid-range jump shots. Now, once again, the upside there is if he can become a better jump shooter because he does have the ability to get the pull-up off because of his height in the threat of his drive. So really, again, it's just the thing is, is like he does have a foundational trait, which is a size strength and athleticism when he's downhill.

So pick and roll has a foundational trait for him because it kind of has a baked-in angle for him by virtue of the screen, right? Isos are tougher for him because he doesn't have access to his foundational trait as much, but he still has the ability to shoot over the top. So that's why the jump shot is such a swing skill for him there. Post-ups, though, are another angle that don't, are another kind of like situation that take the emphasis off of his first step quickness and put the emphasis on his size, which is a strength for him.

The post-ups look flat-out awesome and are a really exciting part of his, development and something that I think Mavs fans should be really excited about and that the Mavs coaching staff should be looking to explore more. 1.17 points per attempts on points per possession on 54 reps, including passes. That's in the 79th percentile in efficiency. He personally shot 61% on his own shot attempts out of the post this year. Again, the post up unlocks three of Cooper's best traits. His size, his excellent footwork, like we talked about, and his short-range scoring. A lot of times, he'll just get into those spots and he will literally just rather than backing a dude down,

he'll catch on like the left, the left block, the ball in his right hand, and he'll just dribble into the lane and take a floater. But again, like he's already close to the basket. He doesn't need to turn the corner. He's just trying to like get a little bit of an angle to take a little floater, right? But like he can pivot over either shoulder. He's got like a little short turnaround jump shots where he's more efficient there than he is when he's further away from the basket. There's a lot of upside for Cooper there out of the post that I want to see him continue to explore. And again, he's got a nice little hook shot, too, that I think he could use even more. On defense, I thought it was a really solid first campaign.

Showcase high-level off-ball defense as a secondary rim protector, as well as jumping passing lanes. Had some really impressive blocks on rotations at the rim. He can, like, even on some of these ISOs where he's defending, he can, like, get beat on the ground, but just recover and block that shit just simply because of the athletic tools that he has. statistically he was a great on-ball defender. He defended 62 ISOs according to Synergy and allowed just 16 made shots and just four additional shooting foul.

So in other words, they scored on him just 20 times in 62 tries in ISO this season. It's really impressive. The main guys he struggled with, if you look at the times he did give up baskets, mostly power players. Like Palo went through his chest,

you know, Jalen Brown went through his chest, Kauai Leonard went through his chest. Like those kinds of guys can power through. as he's still a smaller version of himself. He'll put on muscle, but those are the only guys he's really struggling with there. But even then, like, he can cause problems with his length there. Like, he had one where Nas Reid was trying to bully him, and he, like, pulled the chair and then met him on the other side of the basket and just

blocked him off the glass. Or Brandon Ingram tried to, like, bury him on a post up towards the short corner, and he just, like, overplayed the strong hand and used his length to, like, knock the ball away from him and get his steal. This is ultimately what put Cooper into the top 25 for me. I just think he has an extremely high. high floor. He's a weapon in transition. He's a useful off ball player because he can slash closeouts. He's a really good post up player already. He's average and pick and roll right now,

but he's showing a lot of upside there that I think he'll continue to figure out. And there are flaws that I think are fixable for him. And he's a good defensive player, both on and off the ball. That's the floor. And the upside is crazy. Like, I think he's going to improve as a jump shooter. I think he's going to have a really good year as a pick and roll player. His tools are outrageous. I think his post-up volume is going to get increased. I think we can book Cooper for 23, 7, and 6 this year with high-level defense. And I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if he got up to 25 points per game.

A lot of that just depends on how healthy Kyrie Irving is and whether or not he gets traded and how much usage he gets. But if he gets the ball anywhere near as much as he got it last year, he's going to get to 25 points a game. I'm a huge believer in Cooper flag. I think he's going to be several spots higher than 25th. when we redo these rankings a year from now. Today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook.

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Bell, connection is everything. What's up fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out, she beat Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi.

You get the palm, Naomi. I mean, you get the harm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Number 24, Chet Holmgren.

An award-filled third campaign for Chet. Second defensive player of the year voting. We should probably just call this the non-Wemby defense player of the year because no one's taking that from Wemby for a while. but second and defensive player of the year. His first all-star selection, third team all NBA, first team all defense. It's hell of a season for Chet. 17, 9, and 2 were his averages with 2.5 stocks per game.

Career high, 65% true shooting. And this was fueled by a 9% increase in his efficiency at the rim. There was no increase in his free throw volume or three point efficiency volume, anything like that. It was all at the rim. 9% better at the rim this year than he was last year. It was mainly fueled by the offense. like he was just fed so many more opportunities to finish cuts and rolls this year.

As a matter of fact, Chet in the 2025 campaign got just 1.16 makes per game on cuts and rolls. In this 2026 campaign, he got 1.84 per game. So almost double the opportunity to finish cuts and rolls this season than he did last year. A product of the continuity and like all the reps that him and these guys have together, but also just the wonderful basketball fit between him and Isaiah Hartenstein. And again, like, I just think about the play that eliminated the Lakers in the second round series with that, you know, at the end of the sweep. Blitz is Shay on the ball screen. Short roll past Isaiah Hartinstein. Easy little drop off past the Chet who gets the dunk. Like the tick-tac-toe sequences that OKC got to take advantage of Chet as a vertical spacer were really dialed in this year.

And he's just a really gifted vertical spacer. Super high standing reach, very quick off the ground, great hands. Just made him really difficult to handle there. the shooting. He's kind of like plateaued a little bit as a pro as a jump shooter. He's stayed right around four attempts per game every season of his career. 37% as a rookie, 38% as a sophomore, 36% last year. So no real trajectory there either direction. Shot just 27% from three in the Spurs series.

There's some struggles there. I want to talk about we'll get to, I want to talk about the Spurs series really at the end of this, of this segment. breakdown of the jump shooting by distance 49% inside of 17 feet 48% on long 2's 36% from 3 huge difference between when he was guarded and unguarded.

44% when he was open 34% when he wasn't kind of a slow release which we'll talk more about when we talk about the Spurs series in the playoffs 38% when he was open 32% when he was guarded hooks and floaters doesn't really take many 27 all season just 5

in the playoffs but he shot well 16 for 27 in the regular season, four for five in the playoffs. Probably something he should explore more. Again, 20 for 32. Let's bump that volume up. That's something he's very good at, right? Just those little short, you know,

hooks, floaters, short turnaround jump shots, things like that. Very modest self-creation leap last year. If you look at the 2025 campaign, pick and rolls, ISO's post-up, so like anything he would create about twice per game, 2025, about four times per game in 2026.

So still low volume, but trending in the right direction. He doubled his volume year over year. Below a point per possession in 2025, just about a point per possession, just over a point per possession in 2026. So significantly more efficient and double the volume, but he does have a long way to go there to be like a legitimate scoring option or shot creation option. The main reason that Chet is on this list at 24, despite being a pretty flawed offensive player and coming off of an extremely disappointing playoff run, is that I view him as one of the best defensive anchors in the league. Chet was the best non-Wembe defender in the entire league last year, like we talked about earlier.

very gifted rim protector, good at doing it without fouling as well, like uses verticality extremely well. We'll talk about it in a minute. Probably could stand a foul a little bit more. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but great timing, great mobility on his rotations to the rim,

but he's also an excellent switch defender. And that's really the key with him is the versatility, right? Like, if you have him in a drop coverage, you can protect the rim. If you have him in Helpside, like if Isaiah Hartenstein's defending Pick and Rolls and he's the low man, devastating rim protector,

but he also can switch. which is a really useful weapon against pick and rolls, right? Especially when Isaiah Hartensinstein's on the floor, too, and they don't have to worry about size on the back line. Chet defended 86 ISOs last year and allowed just 0.85 points per possession. That was 17th out of the 50 players who defended at least 75 ISOs last year. A lot of reps, really solid defense from him on an island. Just really good at navigating that special balance as a tall player

between like giving space to kind of bait players into jump shots, but knowing you have the length to recover, but also giving space in a way that allows you to beat them to spots when they try to drive. That's really the combination of fluidity, like athletic fluidity, like mobility and length with Chet that makes them so devastating in switch situations. But that versatility is what makes them so valuable. You can run from the five spot. Any pick and roll coverage you need, deep drop, high drop, you know, switching things along those lines. And then, And also from the four spot, he's like a devastating low man. You know, when he's on the floor with Isaiah Harten Steiner with Jalen Williams, right?

And again, aside from a fluky hip injury, which was, again, a crazy rim confrontation from Andrew Wiggins, just kind of a bizarre play, he's been overwhelmingly available to his team. And he hasn't missed a single playoff game, which is a huge boost on a list like this, right? Just having Chet on the floor gives your defense a great chance to get stops. Combine that with elite play finishing as a vertical spacer on a lot. offense. He's a knockdown wide open three point shooter. He shoots him well when he gets lots of space.

And he has some ability to put the ball on the floor and score. Put all that together, he just has an extremely high floor as a basketball player. And that's what keeps him on this list despite the rough end of the season. Now let's talk about the San Antonio series. There are three things from that series that I think are worth talking about

that if Chet can fix, he can flip the script. And the first part is just mental, it's confidence. The most disappointing thing about what Wemby did to Chet is how he responded mentally. Like he, there just wasn't really much of a fight from him. It looked like Wemby kind of sapped him of his confidence. They will play the spurs in the playoffs again at some point.

And Wembe will try to do it to him again. And step one is stay in the fight mentally. Stay locked into who you are as a basketball player. Hang on to the rope. Don't stop throwing punches. The, the numbers from this are crazy. Chet took 10 shots, 49 times in the regular season. and six times in the first two rounds of the playoffs,

six times in eight games, just once in seven games against the spurs did he attempt 10 bill goals. That can't happen. That's you losing who you are as a basketball player as a product of what's taking place in the mental dynamic of the game. So that's the first part. It just has to stick with it mentally. Stay in the fight.

Second piece has to speed up his catch-and-shoot release. Perhaps the most disappointing statistical thing about Chet's performance, performance in the final or in the Western Conference finals was his lack of three point volume. The spurs closed out hard on his catches, mainly with guards, and he was constantly spooked out of his release into like pump fakes or drives when he was supposed to be spacing the floor. And a big part of that is his release is just slow and has like a big windup. So as a result, his volume drops against elite defenses and his efficiency when he's contested drops off.

like we talked about earlier, massive drop-offs for Chet in his three-point percentage when there's a contest versus when there's not a contest. At his size, he's got to get quicker and more fluid with his release. At the very least, if all of the other parts of his game fail him, he needs to be a threat outside the three-point line, especially considering Isaiah Hardinstein is such an important part of how the Spurs, of how the Thunder have to compete against that particular Spurs team. I actually think in general he could benefit from playing faster,

like even in his one-on-ones, like he's never going to win a leverage battle. He's too upright, too skinny, right? So he's got to win on the floor with his speed and with his length. And so just in general, like catch and rip, catch and go quick, catch and shoot quick. I just want everything with Chet to be kind of like sped up a little bit. I think that will help him a lot. The third piece of it is actually the defensive end of the floor.

I also thought that Chet allowed the dynamic with Wembe to negatively affect his aggressiveness around the rim defensively. We talked about this during the series. he was nowhere near physical enough and the Spurs guards consistently finished through his chest and around him at the rim. And this is where I think Czech could actually stand to pick up more fouls.

Be more physically aggressive in his contests. Meet players further out. Hold his ground more. Rim battles can be won on the ground every bit as much as they can be one in the air. And I thought last year there was a little too much of this. Just go vertical and don't bring any aggressiveness to those rim confrontations,

Spurs players went right through him. Overall, I think this series would be very good for Chet's career. Obviously, you never want to lose, and you certainly never want to be embarrassed. But embarrassment can be a great motivator. And I think Chet's going to have a great offseason. I think he's going to come into next season as a very different basketball player.

Last player for today, number 23, OG An An Anobie. fresh off of an incredible championship winning postseason. OG and it will be cracks our top 25 list for the first time in his career. We very rarely get like role players on a list like this. Usually our list is dominated by ball handlers and like defensive centers that are in that like 18 to 22 points per game list. So you know, Chet Holmgren Bam, Atabio, like that kind of guy.

But the reason why OG is on this list actually has a lot to do with this ball handling ability. But that's a postseason question. Let's quickly go through his regular season stuff. modest regular season, 17, 5, and 2, 2.3 stocks per game, 62% true shooting, was second team all defense. So, like, good, but nothing like spectacular, right? OK shooting. He was very good off the catch, 42% catch and shoot threes,

48% unguarded catch and shoot threes. Brutal pull-up shooting season, though. He's just 28 for 104 on pull-up jump shots, one for nine on hooks and floater. So some dark spots in his, you know, some inefficient spots in his shooting numbers. 65% at the rim, though, which is very good. Play-type stuff, like, really a bad year for him as a shot creator.

He's well below a point per possession and pick-and-rolls, ISOs and post-ups this year. But O'G&Obi is one of the best playoff risers in the NBA, and last year was his biggest rise yet. He's built for playoff basketball, right? Combination of size and strength as well as speed that allows him to basically just win physical battles all over the floor. Leverage battles, speed battles, vertical battles,

you know, on offense, when he's trying to turn the corner on somebody, he blows through that shoulder because he's so strong. On defense, when a guy's trying to turn the corner on him, he regains control with this physical leverage, right? Fighting for rebound positioning, you know, getting through screens, all that kind of stuff. Speed battles, like just having to get up and down the floor in transition, keeping up with small guards.

He's guarding Deer and Fox in the finals for stretches, right? And then vertical battles, like the tip in in the NBA finals, like the blocked shots. He had seven blocks in the NBA finals. He wins all sorts of battles because of his physical tools. And that's what makes him a playoff riser. He's also just, in general,

always been very good at making shots when he can get separation. So like when you piece those two things together, it's generally what makes a playoff riser is like a guy you can physically handle all of the confrontations and get to his spots, but that's also capable of finishing plays when he gets there.

OG and an OBB average, 20 points per game in that playoff run on 72% true shooting. But it wasn't just knocking down threes, although he was a preposterous 60% on open threes in that playoff run just ridiculous. But OG, I thought was New York's second most reliable shot creator in the half court. If it felt like, when you were watching the Knicks this year,

if it felt like OG and an OB just would like get the ball with five on the shot clock and just go get a big bucket over and over again every time the Knicks needed him, that's exactly what happened. he took 41 shots out of picking rolls and his one-on-ones and he scored 53 points on them 1.29 points per possession.

O.G. and Inaobi is the only role player on this list because he's very simply the best role player in the NBA. He's a great perimeter defense option, both against quick guards but also power wings. His rim protection is a huge part of that title run for the Knicks. In transition and in help side, you saved them a game in the NBA finals with a transition block. Again, block seven shots in those five games. Average 6.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs, great rebounder.

Deadly play finisher scored 191 points in transition and spot-up situations, all on absurd efficiency, almost a point in half per possession. But you can also give him the ball and ask him to create a shot and he'll do it at a level of surgical efficiency. He was simply amazing in that title run for the Knicks, deserves a boatload of credit. And again, I mean, we didn't even, he won an NBA finals game with an offensive rebound tampon.

He's the best role player in the NBA. I feel like it's underselling him to even call him a role player with the work that he can do off the bounce. Just an incredible basketball player. I, I'm just really happy for him to have the moment that he did, and he very much belongs in our top 25 this year at number 23. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.

We'll be back on Monday with 22, 21, and 20. I will see you guys then. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our...

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