The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 25 NBA Players: Anthony Davis is BACK...are Lakers? + Tatum PERFECT for Celtics

Episode Date: August 31, 2024

Jason Timpf continues ranking his Top 25 NBA players with Jayson Tatum and Anthony Davis. Jason shares why Tatum is the perfect star for a loaded Boston Celtics team as well as why he believes he will break out of his recent shooting slump. Later, Jason breaks down why Anthony Davis is back to superstar form for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, despite what people may think. The show concludes with Jason answering listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Timeline: 4:00 - Introduction 7:00 - #7: Jayson Tatum 32:00 - #6: Anthony Davis 53:00 - NBA Mailbag (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hope all of you guys had a great week. We are continuing our player rankings today with number seven as well as number six. Then we'll get into some of the arguments from the comments at the tail end of the show. You guys know the Joe. 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. Don't forget about our podcast feed, wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. Don't forget, it's helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front.

And last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. If you disagree with the ranking, make your case, and we will include it in the mailbag, the mailbag segment that we do at the tail end of these shows as we move forward with the list. All right, let's talk some basketball. Remember, as I have to kind of throw. out as a disclaimer at the beginning of every single one of these videos. This is not a who's the best basketball player just right now for a game that's tomorrow or for a series that starts tomorrow.

The entire premise of this list is if I had 30 GMs, I should say 25 GMs, if I had 25 GMs and we were drafting for a season that starts in October, meaning a training camp, all the way through a potential NBA final series in June, who is the player that? that brings the most value within that context. So it's a combination of three factors. Your durability in the regular season, as well as your motor in the regular season, so how hard you play on a night-to-night basis.

Two, how well your game translates to the postseason? Are you a playoff riser, a playoff dropper, a guy who kind of stays at his level? And then three, how versatile are you? Because theoretically, if I picked you with my first pick, I would have to turn around 25 picks later or 30 picks later, and I have to pick another player and another player until I got up to 15. And obviously, whichever player I picked first has a direct impact on what I need for my

second pick and my third pick and my fourth pick. A highly versatile player will give me lots of flexibility and who I can add around them. A very one-dimensional player will give me not as much flexibility. I'll have to be very deliberate about the types of players that I put around them. So for instance, like if I have a very versatile player and in my second pick, I might just take the most talented player available. Whereas if I had a limited player in terms of versatility and my second pick came around, I might have to pass on the most talented yet to find a guy that fits better with a specific style that he wants to play. So again, that's the criteria for

this list. I just have to keep throwing it out just so that we don't have any confusion in terms of like where these guys are ranked. Like both of these guys today are guys that I would have lower on this list for a playoff series that starts tomorrow. But that's not. how this particular list is working. All right. So without any further ado, number seven, Jason Tatum, last year, 74 games played, 26.9 points per game, 8.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists. A slight dip in usage. You went down from a little over 32% usage percentage to 30.2%. It's actually his lowest usage rate since 2020 to be expected with the influx of Drew Holiday, as well as Christop's Forzingis, and just Jalen Brown, improving as a ball.

handlers, so just a lot more sharing the load, so it makes sense that his usage would dip. He had a very specific offensive role on this team, which we'll get more into later. He had 1.6 stocks per game. Shooting splits, 47% from the field, 38% from 3, 83% from the line, which amounts to 55% in effective field goal percentage, and 60% and true shooting percentage. For the first time in his career, he's had two seasons in a row over 60% true shooting. His shooting stats per synergy. He got 1.05 points per jump shot.

Excellent off the catch. 1.23 points per shot when he's shooting off the catch. Far more efficient when he's open though, which I thought was interesting. 1.43 points per shot when he was unguarded versus 1.11 when he was guarded. Now, that makes a lot of sense to me because as we've talked a lot about, his shot has become very hitchy and like it's got a long load up and he really tucks that elbow in and it just kind of looks a little funky. and so like if he's got lots of time to set that whole routine up, it's going to go in at a high rate. But anything disrupts that, whether it's an off-the-dribble jump shot or more of a contested jump shot, he tends to struggle.

Shot just 0.97 points per shot off the dribble. Again, that's the same number that LeBron had, right? LeBron was also at 0.97, but there's a big difference. LeBron attempted 3.5 per game. Tatum attempted 7.5 per game. And that's always been my biggest complaint with Tatum. You've got to take and make pull-up jump shots as an on-ball creator. It's an important coverage beater.

And it's okay to be a mediocre pull-up shooter when you do everything else that Tatum does, right? You know, it obviously brings a ton of size to the table. It's better playmaker than most of his peers at his position. An extremely versatile defensive player, like if he was also just a deadly pull-up shooter, he'd be one of the best players in the league, right? But like, with that being the case, with you being a mediocre jump shooter, you want to use it primarily as a counter and coverage beater, right? Like the way LeBron uses it.

He's going to put a few up every game just to keep the defense honest, but it's not something that makes up a large portion of his shot volume. For Jason Tatum, 40% of his field goal attempts are pull-up jump shots. And that's where I get critical of him because I just feel like if you just tweaked that a little bit, it doesn't mean you have to do it the way LeBron does, but let's say you cut it down from seven and a half to four and a half. And those additional three attempts were like more aggressive off the catch threes or more bully ball towards the basket.

That could be something that bumps his efficiency up from 60% true shooting to 62, 63% true shooting and his scoring volume up. And that's one of those things that I'd like to see him to address. But there's another version of this where Tatum is playing the long game. And maybe he's betting on like now he's bad at it, but maybe five years from now when he's in his early 30s, it's a huge part of his game. And maybe that'll all work out,

and then that's what we'll look back at this as. But at this point in time, we're on a several-year run here where Tatum is going very high volume on pull-up jump shots without making them above a point per shot, which I think is where you, I think you've got to be over a point per shot to be taking them as often as Tatum does.

Did get 1.05 points per face-up jumpers. Those like jab step jumpers in ISO. He took 165 of them too last year, which is over two per game. that was interesting. Shot 40% on floaters, albeit on low volume, and 63% at the rim. Now, that's a little, like, anything over 60% is good, but it's a little disappointing for a player as big and strong as he is.

Like, if you look at his peers around the league, like LeBron, 67%, Kauai, 72%, Luca, 71%, 81%, KD, 72%, Tatum, 63%. Obviously, I think he should be closer up into that 67, 68%. The main reason there, I think, is he just is always, sticking his arms out, looking to draw fouls. When he's going up to the basket, he's losing all of his strength. It's a simple question of torque, right? Like if you're coming up through your power line, you can weather contact more.

But if you have your arms out, there's just more torque there for the defender to pull on and you lose that momentum going up to the basket where you start to miss shots. Play type data. 1.10 points per pick and roll, which is excellent. That's in the 87th percentile on 726 possessions, mostly about his passing ability, which we're going to talk a lot about today. Like Tatum only shot 42% in ball screens and still got 1.1 points per pick and roll. And the main reason why is because he was the main like entry point for Boston's driving kick attack.

So the vast majority of Tatum's ball screens took place at the top of the key. It was interesting because I was watching a bunch of them this morning and they were all like right at the top of the key, right at the top of the key. And then I actually dug into the numbers on Synergy, 85% of Tatum's ball screens are run directly from the top of the key. so he doesn't run left side pick and roll. He doesn't run right side pick and roll. He runs most of his pick and roll right in the middle of the floor. From there, it's usually either Porzingis pick and pop or a ghost screen with one of the guards.

Those are the two primary actions that he'll run. Obviously, Horford could do the same thing that Porzingis does. But from there, Tatum's literally just waiting for a gap to generate as that defender lingers before that guy slips. So, for instance, let's imagine Tatum at the top of the key with the ball in his right hand. and let's pretend that we have, you know, a shooter on the right wing, shooter in the right corner, shooter in the left corner.

And Porzingis is going to come set it for Tatum, and he's going to slip to the left wing where there's a vacancy. So as he sets that screen, Tatum's going to come off. And as he's coming off, in all likelihood, that defender is going to hedge or try to find an opportunity to step in and stop, to try to step in and stop Jason Tatum from turning the corner, right? Same thing applies to a guard. Let's say Derek White sets the screen.

as Derek White comes to screen on Tatum's right-hand side, Derek White's defender is going to hedge to try to stop Tatum from turning the corner. Because again, if he doesn't hedge, Tatum's just going right downhill because that defender's not going to be able to fight through that screen to stop Jason Tatum with the full head of steam. So as that screen is getting set, and as that guy is showing on Tatum's right-hand drive, every single time Porzingis or Derek White, whoever it is,

can slip to that left wing and he's going to be open for a second. That is an important part of how Boston's offense works. Boston's offense is not a Luca Donchich, you know, heliocentric. We're going to dribble the ball across the floor slow. We're going to cross half court at 16 seconds. We're going to get into a guard guard screen, and then we're going to get to get a switch, and then we're going to run a ball screen with like nine on the shot clock, and I'm either shooting or I'm throwing the lob or I'm skipping to the corner,

and that guy's shooting. He might have time to drive the close out, but that's it. That's not how Boston's offense works. They want to get their spacing earlier in the clock. They want to get an initial advantage. In this case, Derek White slipping to the left wing or Porzinga slipping to the left wing. And then from there, that guy is going to drive that close out to try to draw additional defenders and make reads out of it. They want multiple driving kicks in the same possession to get high quality shots, right?

That's like how Boston's offense works. And to Tatum's credit, like even though he didn't shoot super well, especially in the postseason, but even though he's not like the kind of on-ball score that some of his peers are at the top of the league, he's very deliberate about creating that initial advantage, which is specifically what Boston needs, right? Like, as soon as you get that initial advantage, it's just simple drive-and-kick basketball from there,

but you've got to get that initial advantage. As we talked about over the last couple of years, when Boston was at their worst, it was when they would forego that to take early clock shots, like dribbling up the floor into transition threes, quick early clock isos from Tatum or Jalen Brown, right? Like that was when they would kind of get out of their flow offensively. Got to have that kind of stuff for late clock situations,

but ideally for Boston's offense in the early part of the clock, they want to create that initial advantage, which is something that we saw a lot of from Tatum this particular year. Again, 87th percentile, 726 possessions. That's a pretty big volume. That's not the high volume list over 1,000, but that's to be expected. He's playing with Drew.

He's playing with Derek. He's playing with Jalen, right? So, like, he's not going to get as many reps. but that's just really, really efficient shot creation within the context of what his team needs. Again, like a lot of times, obviously it's not as applicable for this list because this list is very much in a vacuum. But when we're actually in the season, what do I always tell you guys? How good a basketball player is really only matters within the context of his team. So like, is Jamal Murray as good of a two guard as some of the other two guards around the league?

No, but within the context of Denver, his ability to hit pull up jump shots is profoundly valid. valuable as a ceiling raiser for that team. Same goes for Tatum. Can I pick Jason Tatum up and drop him in Dallas and have him be as good of a shot creator as Luca Donchitz? Hell no, right? But within the context of Boston, where you just need him to create that initial advantage so that they're super talented offball players can capitalize on that advantage through driving kick, he's actually one of the more valuable shot creators in the league. And so again, it doesn't apply as much to this list, but within the context of Boston, that's what makes Tatum so impactful. He's the key that unlocks their defense,

and he's the guy that initially creates the advantage for them on the offensive end of the floor. In ISO, 1.07 points per possession on 591 possessions, including passes. That's 79th percentile. In our high volume list, under the 24 players to attempt at least 250, Tatum ranked 10th in efficiency, which is obviously very good in that upper kind of upper half area there. Post-ups, 238 possessive. 2.47 points, 1.04 points per possession, slightly above average. That's in the 54th percentile. Again, Tatum was a very efficient shot creator in the Boston offense for several

reasons. One, he took eight threes a game. And as we talked about earlier, the off-the-catch ones, he was hitting at a high rate. He also took seven free throws a game. So despite the fact that he took eight inefficient pull-up jump shots a game, he still got to 60 percent true shooting because the rest of Tatum shot diet outside of those pull-up jump shots are more efficient shots, catch-and-ch-ch-and-ch-ch-chew-threes, stuff that's more towards the rim. And that's why I keep saying, like, if he could somehow just take, like, literally go from seven and a half, eight pull-up jump shots a game to like four, then that's where he could just get up into that, like, true super-duper star efficiency

where he's getting 30 points a game on like 62, 63% true shooting, the way that his peers at the top of the league do. The biggest part of it, though, as I mentioned, was just, he has a really good understanding of his role in the Boston offense, creating that initial advantage with easy two-man game or three-man game, whether it's out of a horn set, but he just makes simple reads and he lets the talent do the rest. And so, as I said, many times over the course of the year last year,

Tatum, in a weird way, was kind of the perfect star for that group. You know what I mean? Like, I think obviously if you put Luke on the Celtics, they win the title. But, like, there's a probably a little bit of a diminishing return by having a very ball-dominate guy on a team that has that much ball handling. Whereas Tatum's, like, to his credit, very, very, very willing to just do what the team needs him to do. Hey, Tatum, we need you to score a lot.

Okay, I can do that. Hey, Tatum, we just need you to create the initial advantage. Okay, I can do that. Hey, like, Jalen Brown's got to going tonight, and he's got this two-man game thing going on with, you know, Derek White, why don't you go just spot up this for the second half here? And he'll do that. I mean, that was part of the discussion in the postseason run. and Tatum had some really wise things that he said in post-game pressers where he'd say things like,

I'm not going to like try to hijack the game, pull on the rope when someone else has it. Like in a lot of ways on a roster like this that has five, you know, $30 million plus players, it just makes a lot of sense to have a guy like Tatum leading the way. On defense, it's interesting because like I don't think Tatum is an A plus at anything, but he's like a B at everything, right? And that extends to the defensive end of the floor specifically with versatility, right? Like, is he the, is he in the top tier of perimeter defenders? No, it hasn't been really since that 20-22 season was the best I've seen him play on the ball on defense.

He's put on a little bit of weight, not as quick laterally as he used to be, right? But like, he's still a very, very good on-ball defender who can guard guards and wings. Is Tatum like this freaky athletic, dominant backline defender? No, but like, he can guard big strong players. he can guard centers. That was a huge part of what made Boston's defense work as well as it did in the postseason, right? Like the main defensive scheme for Boston is they want to put Tatum on your center. And the main reason why is they're going to put Jalen Brown on your best offensive initiator on the perimeter.

That way, any 1-5 pick-and-roll or 2-5 pick-and-roll, whoever your star is, any pick-and-roll with their center and their main ball handler, Tatum and Brown are just going to switch. And that's another piece of Jalen Brown's defense. of versatility that he can guard centers as well, right? But then from there, that gives Boston deflexibility to look over your roster and be like, that dude's the worst above the break shooter. So I'm going to put our center on him.

That way, if he goes and stands in the corner, it's an easy rotation, right? Tatum's under the rim guarding the center. You're basically like the low man. And your center, it's just an easier close out to get back out to the corner. And if they put him above the break, it's a longer close out, but that's your weakest above the break shooter. That was how Boston would pack the paint and cause massive problems for opposing offenses.

Again, I've said this a million times, but the best example of that was the Dallas series. It's just like completely and utterly crippled Dallas's offense with that sort of adjustment. That's a versatility piece that Jason Tatum brings to the table. Again, like, is he an A plus defensive rebounder? No, but he's a very, very good defensive rebounder, right? And so, like, he just does a lot of things really well.

and as a result of that, it just kind of allows you to plug and play him in all these different roles, and he's also 6-9, and he's also young enough to play with a lot of motor. There is, you know, we're going to get more to this in a little bit, but, like, Tatum's floor is extraordinarily high compared to the other guys on this particular list.

Now, the playoff run was bizarre, right? Shot below 50% and 16 of the 19 games. So he shot above 50% just three times. And as some perspective, he did so nine times. the previous year and nine times the year before that. So 18 games over 50% shooting in the previous two playoff runs, just three last year. The main issue was the jump shot. He got just 0.80 points per shot, points per jumper in last year's playoff run. It was 0.95 the year before that,

1.08 the year before that, 1.10 the year before that. So we are on our fourth consecutive year of a steady downward trend in Tatum's playoff jump shooting. So I'm hoping that that just a blip, and then he's going to crawl out of that, but that is a weird trend. Tatum took 179 ISO jump shots, either off the dribble or in face-up situations, made just 49 of them in the playoff run. That's 27%. And like, here's the thing. Do I think that Jason Tatum settles for too many bad pull-up jump shots? Yes, we've talked about that a lot in this show. But I also think that this is just a slump. I think it's just temporary. I think he'll eventually work his way through this issue,

and I think he'll get back to form. his touch is too good. Like this isn't a guy that has bad touch who's going to be a consistently bad shooter. This is a guy who's consistently a great touch and he's just kind of in a weird kind of thing with his form where he's tweaking it a little too much and he's just a little bit of a funk.

But like, especially after it reached a crescendo of embarrassing shooting in the Olympics, I think if I remember correctly, he went 0 for 16 on jump shots in the Olympic qualifiers, or excuse me, the Olympic exhibitions as well as the actual Olympic tournament. So, like, it hit the absolute peak of Tatum's slump in that Olympic run.

I think he's going to take a lot of time this summer to iron that out. And my guess is he comes into next year and shoots the ball pretty well pretty quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little lingering slump in the first week of the season. But I would imagine by November that Tatum will be back cooking on all gears in terms of his jump shot. In summary, Tatum's ceiling isn't nearly as high as his peers at the top of the league. As I mentioned earlier, he doesn't really have like an A plus trait. Like every other guy is an A plus trait. Like Yokic is an A plus playmaker, A plus post-core.

Luca Donchich, A-plus perimeter initiator, right? Like Yonison Tenacoumpo, A-plus athlete with A-plus rim pressure, A-plus defensive impact. Sheikilis Alexander, like A-A-A-plus perimeter initiation, right? Anthony Davis, A-plus defensive player. All these guys have like A-plus traits. Tandem doesn't really have one of those. He doesn't have an elite first step, and so he can't consistently get to the rim

or finish there at a super high rate. He's a good passer, but he's not a great passer. He's a good shooter, but he's not a great shooter, and he specifically struggles anything that's not, like, off the catch. So, like, it's just one of those things where, like, that's going to limit his ceiling in a lot of ways, right? But his floor is probably the highest out of any player on this top 11 except for Yokic.

Yokic is the one guy, I think, who, especially because he's kind of a groundbound player to begin with, that even when he gives somewhat inconsistent effort, his overall impact is just so high. But like other than Yokic, I think Tatum has the highest floor on this list. He consistently plays hard, especially on defense, and he's versatile enough to fill a variety of roles on both ends of the floor, gives you a ton of flexibility when you're building a roster around him. He's a safe bet for at least 27 points per game on at least 60% true shooting because he takes a lot of threes and he gets to the foul line a lot. And like he takes and makes, it takes and misses a bunch of bad shots and it just doesn't matter because he takes so many threes and because he has the,

the ability to get to the foul line the way he does. And then as I mentioned earlier, he's very willing to embrace different types of roles offensively, being a volume score, being an advantage creator, being more of like a spot up guy if he needs to, right? So like here's the thing. When we get to May slash June and everyone is healthy, like Tatum's probably last out of these 11. guys, if not second to last. He's in that 9, 10, 11 area in terms of like everyone's healthy, the shit's on the line tomorrow. But other than Yokic, he's the guy who's most likely to get me to May and Jew. And that's an important part of this journey, especially when there is many talented teams in the league. You can book him for 70 plus games. You can book him for 27, 8, and 5

on 60% true shooting with elite versatile defense. Nobody else in this tier is as safe a bet in terms of pure availability and production. Even Janice has become a health question mark. Even the young guards like Shea or Ant, they can't impact a game defensively the way that Tatum does. That makes Tatum an excellent foundational piece despite his shortcomings. That's why I have him at number seven. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

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Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye They said that George Bush didn't like black people.

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Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Number six, Anthony Davis, last year, 76 games played 24.7 points per game, 12.6 rebounds per game. That was third in the NBA behind DeMonna Sabonis and Rudy Gobert.

Also had a career high since joining the Lakers 3.5 assists. A lot more opportunities for him to make plays as the Lakers shifted towards a five-out offense. He did have one higher assist year in New Orleans. I think it was the year right before he left. But with the Lakers, especially with as much ball handling as the Lakers have, for him to get three and a half assists is actually really impressive. Just 2.1 turnovers per game. Again, big part of it was the five-out offense and him just having more opportunity to make plays there. Second piece of it is this was by far Anthony Davis' best post-up season of his career, both as a score and as a passer. Also got 3.5 stocks per game, including finishing fourth in the league and blocks per game.

His shooting splits, 56% from the field, 27% from 3, obviously just has never been able to get that jump shot back to where it was in the bubble. 82% at the line amounts to 57% in effective field goal percentage and 62% in true shooting percentage. Similar to Tatum, the first time in AD's career, first time in AD's career that he's had back-to-back seasons of at least 60% true shooting. Shooting stats per synergy. As I mentioned, jump shot, not great. 0.82 points per jump shot. 0.87 off the catch, 0.77 off the dribble. Now he's aware of it, really low volume. He only takes 3.5 jump shots totally. total every game has really leaned in this phase of his career into more short-range scoring,

which is something that I actually am a big believer in. This is something I've been begging Joel and B. to do more of. And he's been excellent there. Fifty-eight percent on hooks, 51 percent on floaters, and 70 percent at the rim. Now, how has AD turned himself into such a useful short-range score? It's a combination of two things. First, attacking out of the post in ISO, right? And just think like what he did to Nicole Yoke. in the first round. Just against slower-footed guys, just quick baseline moves to get to the other side of the rim for reverse layups, really aggressive driving moves, gets big guys out of position, gets to the

foul line a lot that way. And then also just turning his back to the basket, he's got a nice little right shoulder fade, and then he's got a nice little left-shoulder hook that he's hitting at a very high percentage, again, almost 60%. Now, that's not quite like Nicole Yokic efficiency, but it's still really, really good. excuse me, he shot I think it was 58% on floaters and 51% on hooks. But anyway, he was over 50% on both.

But anyway, the other piece of it is scoring out of ball screens, right? So, like, I talk a lot about how, with Joel Embed, I talked a lot about how, like, scoring is, there's lots of different ways to score, right? Like, they're scoring as an initiator, and then they're scoring in the flow of the offense. This is what we've always credited Kevin Durant for, is he can do both so well that you can, like,

plug KD into any system anywhere in the league, and he's just going to find a way to get his 30 efficiently without really bothering the flow because he can score in the flow of the offense. Meaning as multiple players are touching the ball and there's lots of player and ball movement, he can still score within that flow, right? This is something where AD does the majority of his scoring.

And it's often looked at as a weakness for whatever reason. And we're going to do some talking later because I think AD's scoring volume is completely flying under the radar for whatever reason when he's actually. actually been like an incredibly dominant playoff score. And like the reputation AD has offensively doesn't even make sense compared to what the production actually is. But AD's scoring primarily operates in the short range and primarily in the flow of the

offense. Like again, shooting 58% on floaters, that's one of those things where when you're running five out offense and he's going to one side of the floor, throwing a dribble handoff, throwing a pick, rolling into the lane, looking for the ball, didn't get it, okay, run over, set the next pick, rolling into the lane. Did he get the ball? he's the finisher in those plays, right? And he can do it both ways.

Like he can catch in the short roll, make that little floater over the top that he's been hitting at a really high percentage. Has a chance to roll all the way to the rim, boom, vertical spacing. He's one of the guys you can throw a massive target to above the rim and he can go and finish. That's super valuable scoring

because it doesn't require you to run plays that are designed to give him the ball. It doesn't require you to force feed him. It doesn't require you to build his rhythm. Like he just can play alongside Austin Reeves Dilo, all these other ball handlers, and he's just a cog in that system, and he's just spitting out 25 point nights, 30 point nights all the time. And that's super valuable when you're trying to build a roster around a guy. Again, like, imagine I'm building a team, and like, I'm getting

25 points a night, and I do not have to worry about whether or not AD fits with my next pick. My next pick, it's like, is it a pick and roll guard? Is it another wing? Whatever I want to, to do, AD is going to fit seamlessly with that guy, which is a super useful piece of team building. Play type data. 1.17 points per possession on the roll. He shot 57% rolling to the basket. Anthony Davis, to continue on that point we were just talking about, made 162 field goals on the role last year.

That was the second most in the entire NBA. Anybody want to guess who was number one? This is actually an insane stat, and this player had 90 additional. made field goals. I'll give you guys a couple seconds, but it's not who you're thinking it is. Nicola Vucevic from the Chicago Bulls had 250-something made field goals in the role. But still, Anthony Davis, second most in the entire league, more than twice as many as Embed. Mbid had like 70-something, and AD had 162. And again, that's the point I was trying to make when we were talking about Embedd at number 11.

It's the point I'm trying to make today. Scoring within the flow of the offense has a ton of. of value. Scoring in a heliocentric manner also has a ton of value, but they both have a lot of value, and the ability to score with others gives flexibility to your team building process. 107 offensive rebound putbacks. That was the second most in the entire NBA. Rudy Gobert was number one with 110. So again, just garbage time buckets. He's just giving you more than one additional bucket a night just on a missed shot that someone else misses. He's just grabbing and putting it back into the basket. But he also had a very good individual shot creation season. It was the best

of Anthony Davis's career. And this is a big part of why I put him higher on this list. He's doing both, despite the fact that you don't really need him to within what most teams would use AD as, right? He got 1.04 points per ISO. That's 124 reps for 129 points. That was 70th percentile. And then 1.09 points per post-up. Four hundred and forty-three reps for four hundred and 83 points. That ranked sixth out of the 18 players to run at least 250. So he was one of the upper third high volume post-up players in the entire league, as well as being a 70th percentile ISO score as well. He brings a really nice mix of on-ball creation in the flow finishing, garbage buckets like drop-offs and offensive rebound putbacks. So here's the thing. I disagree

with the idea or the assertion that AD is a limited offensive player. Can he be the offensive engine the way some of his peers can't know. But those guys also can't be a defensive foundation the way that AD can, right? Like the offensive engine types are your Yokic, your Luca, your Shagios Alexander, your like even LeBron James a little bit at this point in his career, Tyrese Halliburton. There are a bunch of these guys that are like, they're just every single possession, they're going up the floor, getting your defensive rotation and going. none of those guys are in the same stratosphere as a defensive foundation as Anthony Davis. Even Joel Embed, who I would consider to be an offensive engine, is not in the same stratosphere as Anthony Davis as a defensive player.

And so, like, again, like, you got to play both sides of that coin. And despite that, AD is 19th in the league in scoring. He was one of only three players in the entire NBA last year to average at least 24 points on at least 55% shooting from the field. It was him, Janice, and Yokic. And again, as I mentioned earlier, I specifically love the idea of a guy who can give me 25 points a game while also primarily running the offense

through a different player. That's a real asset with team building. And then AD consistently takes his scoring to another level in the postseason, but he did so in a big way against Denver, 28 points per game, 63% true shooting. He ran 34 post-ups and ISOs for 40 points,

1.18 points per possession. That is outstanding. guys remember every one of those, that was when he was just consistently one-on-one, just frying Nicola Yokic on an island to the point where Mike Malone had to literally switch him off. And all of that, while being the very, being the very best defensive player in the world, in my opinion, and one of the top three rebounders in the world. And AD specifically has a level of defensive versatility that most of his peers don't have. There are a lot of rim protectors that can't defend in multiple multiple coverages. AD is an outstanding drop coverage big way back at

the rim, high drop coverage big coming up to the level, blitzing, he's got the length to be bothersome there, and he can switch onto any type of player. He's got great foot speed to contain, and he has great length to contest. Now, the one defensive weakness that Anthony Davis has is he can struggle with groundbound power bigs, right? These are guys like Sabonis or Yokic, guys that are like lower to the ground and use strength to dislodge AD from his base to create separation to finish. But here's the thing. The guys in the league that are big and strong enough to handle those types of offensive players aren't capable of doing anything else that AD can do defensively.

He wouldn't be able to switch or to move up to the level and back quickly or do any of those things he does defensively if he had a different body type where he was big and strong enough to withstand Joe the big power guys like Embed or Yokic or Sabonis, right? And like, here's the thing, like, Embed is the guy I keep talking about is like the guy who can guard Yokic and I watched Yokic go through him easily

in the Olympics. So like, I think that that's being a little nitpicky and it's a big part of why I think AD is still the best player defensively in the world. AD is so dominant on defense that in the 2023 series against Golden State, every single adjustment made by either team had to do with AD. Golden State was trying their best to keep him away from the rim and out of the action that they were running with Steph and ball screens, and the

Lakers were doing everything they good to keep him in the action. It was crazy how much he was the fulcrum of every adjustment in that particular series. So most of you guys disagree that I have AD this high. So I want to just kind of break down why in a quick synopsis why I have AD so high. One, he's a top five defensive foundation for the regular season. Doesn't give consistent effort the way guys like Gobert do, but then again, guys like Gobert don't have near the offensive responsibility. And even with that somewhat inconsistent defensive effort, AD is still a top five regular season defensive foundation.

He was first team all defense this year, and he was fourth in defensive player of the year voting. That's pretty straightforward evidence of that. He's the best defender in the world when he needs to be. in big moments in regular season games or big stretches in regular season games, and then also in the playoffs, he's the best defensive weapon that we have in the league. I think Wemby will overtake him in the next year or two, but I think AD still has that spot as of right now. Three, AD has been very available as of late.

He has a reputation among some people who aren't paying attention as being a guy who's always hurt. He's been available in 128 of the Lakers' last 137 basketball games, including 21 consecutive playoff games. So yeah, 2021, 2021, 2020. two, rough years for AD in terms of availability, but he's been consistently available since then. Four, he is one of the rare players in the league who actually goes up a level in the playoffs. Consistently in his career, his numbers have been better in both points and rebounds from the regular season to the postseason. Last year, he averaged 28 points and 16 rebounds on 67% true shooting.

Here's a basic stat to explain the chasm between the perceptual. of who AD is a playoff player and the reality. Most of you guys probably don't know this, but Anthony Davis has played in 60 playoff games, Mbid is played in 59. So they played in basically the same amount of playoff games. Who do you think has more 30-point playoff games between those two guys? You probably think it's M-Bed.

No, AD does. AD has 23, 30-point games, M-Bed has 21. Who do you think has more 40-point playoff games between those two guys? You probably think M-Bed. Nope, it's AD. AD has 3-40-point playoff games, M-Bed has 3-40-point playoff games,

Embedd has two. That's just a quick look at scoring. And 80's doing that while the offense is being run through different players. Embeddd is being force-fed the ball in these playoff settings and is not producing at the same level that Anthony Davis does. Anthony Davis is one of the most dominant and impactful playoff players in the league. He had a rough series against Yokic two years ago in 2023, and he had some health issues,

and I think that has caused people to just completely underrate the guy. And then lastly, the last piece, piece number five, versatility. Unlike a guy like Embed, AD can play in a variety of styles and schemes on both ends of the floor. Do you want to run five, like four out like the Mavs and just spam high ball screens with the space floor? AD is excellent for that. Do you want to play out of the post and run off ball action, kind of like the Warriors do? Well, AD is one of the best post players in the league. Do you want to play five out with a ton of ball and player movement?

AD is awesome at that too. We just saw that last year. He had one of the best offensive seasons of his career. What about the defense event? You want to run deep drop coverage because you have excellent point of attack guys? He's your guy. You want to run high drop because you can struggle at the point of attack? AD's your guy. He does a lot of that with the Lakers, right? Do you want to have a blitz look or like a zone look? Well, AD can do both really well. Do you want to have a switching look? Ad is one of the best switching defenders in the world. So he fits the criteria from my list very well. I will concede that his weak, category is that regular season availability piece, but he's been available in the regular season over the past year and a half. And so like in the first area, which is like regular

season, availability and impact, AD's been strong in that area as of late. The second category, playoff translatability, I think he's one of the best playoff performers in the league, and he's uniquely one of the guys who actually goes up a level in that setting. Game becomes more physical, more rock fights, AD is more valuable. And then the third piece, versatility. As if I draft Anthony Davis, the world is completely open to me in terms of players that I can draft with that second pick, whereas I have some limitations if I pick some different players. He is a highly versatile player who is easy for a GM to build around. That just puts him in a really, really good spot in terms of how he could be valued in this context. Last note,

I'm curious as to why AD is one of the most underrated players in the league. I think it's pretty simple. One, he's somewhat non-traditional, right? Like he's, a defensive star, right? That's his primary impact. And people think he's a bad offensive player, but hopefully after today we can put that myth to rest. Two, people don't really like the Lakers, which I get. There's a lot of Lakers fans and a lot of Lakers media coverage.

I totally understand why some people get sick of that. And then lastly, because the Lakers don't have good role players. They don't have guys who can play both ends of the floor outside of LeBron and AD. And so as a result, the team just is kind of mediocre. Like, they're not a top tier contender. They're in that second tier of teams. And as a result of that, they like don't get the respect. especially with the team that has both LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the team.

And so I understand that that's like the reason, but I'm hoping that over the course of time, people gain a little bit more respect for what AD brings to the table. And I think the Olympics were another great example of that, especially on the versatility front, just what he did trying to fit in alongside everyone else. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

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Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun-tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I agree with 90% of your takes, but Ant is simply too high on this list. recency bias kills media members and fans so much. So I'm not going to get too far into it because Ant is next for me at number five, so we're going to do a lot of talking about it in the next video. But I'll do a really quick synopsis of it. First of all, Ant just came off of a Western Conference finals run where he averaged 28, 7, and 7 on 60% true shooting.

In the process, he swept a KD super team and eliminated the defending champs, including in game 7 completely shutting down Jamal Murray in the second half of Game 7. like that's an insane playoff run. And if like literally, if any of the guys that we have in the top four had that same playoff run, everyone would be like, oh, this is what superstars do. But for some reason with Ant, it's getting overshadowed.

And I think the main reason why is because he ran into Luca and he really struggled. And there were a couple different factors there. I think Luca's aura had an impact, right? Like, and we've seen that before, right? Like Jason Tatum, awesome. The entire 2022 playoff run ran into Steph. had a bad series, right? Steph when he was younger, like,

you'd be really good playoff player, and then he run into, like, 2015, 2016, Steph wasn't very good when he ran into LeBron. There was, like, a little bit of a struggle there for Steph to get to the point where he was competing at LeBron's level in those series, 2017, 2018, the play-in game in 2021, the series in 2023,

Steph was much more at LeBron's level. But in 2015 and 2016, LeBron just outplayed him. And, like, even LeBron, in his early part of his careers, in his career. He'd run into that Celtics team and he would struggle. He'd run into the Spurs team and struggle under the aura of guys like KG, Paul Pierce, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan. That's a typical thing that we see happen with young stars.

And so Ant had an iffy series in the Western Conference finals against Luca Donchich, who we all agree is one of the top two or three or three players in the league. Like even Bucks fans will have him third. Right? So like for whatever reason, that whole playoff run just got swept away, even though he was like literally fucking incredible for the first two rounds, right? So I think that's a little ridiculous.

To be clear, a lot of this has to do with the criteria of my list. If everyone was healthy and I had a playoff series starting tomorrow, it would be lower. He'd be in the 9, 10, 11 range. But the playoff series doesn't start tomorrow. In this scenario, his first playoff game would be like nine months from now. And he'd have another 80 plus games of experience before them. and so like that to me like i actually think i'm projecting ant is going to be a top five player this

year but the main reason why like as i as i mentioned i didn't see much of a gap between five and eleven in this list so if you told me you had an if you in the comments are like i think aunt's number 11 i'd be like cool got it i have mb at 11 i don't have much of a gap at all between aunt and mb that's that's not the way this list is meant to be organized these guys are splitting hairs, right? However, what did I say the tiers were called? Bottom tier was like best players that can't be the best player in a championship team. That second tier was worst players that can be the best player in a championship team.

The tier that we just finished today, or finishing, yeah, the tier that we just finished today is like superstars that aren't perennial MVP candidates. What's my top tier? Perennial MVP candidates. I think Anthony Edwards is going to be a top five. MVP candidate each of the next five years. He just finished seventh in MVP last year, and he wasn't as good in the regular season as he was in the postseason.

If Ant played the way he did in the postseason in the regular season, he would probably finish second or third in MVP. That's the thing. It's the cutoff. The tier cutoff was perennial MVP candidates that automatically put Ant in at number five for me, because that's the way my tiers worked. Now, here's the thing. Let's talk about it.

Out of all those players, so Ant, A, D, T, T, Tatum, LeBron, KD, Steph, Embed. Right? Do I get that right? Yeah, I think so. So that's our seven guys. Let's talk about him. Is Embed going to win, be an MVP candidate next year? I don't think so because of load management, right? Anthony Davis, I think he has a shot, but I don't think the Lakers are good enough. And AD, one of the issues is he doesn't play as hard consistently in the regular season as some of his peers, so I don't think AD would get it. Is it Jason Tatum? I don't think he's good enough, and I don't think.

think his team is good enough. Tatum has just one top five MVP finish in his entire career. Is it KD? No, he's too old. LeBron no, he's too old. Steph, no, he's too old. So that's really it. Like, of all those guys who is most likely to be a top five MVP candidate each of the next five years, it's obviously aunt. I think he'll finish third or fourth an MVP next year. so like for me like that just was the cutoff was anse a perennial MVP candidate

now within the context of the totality of the criteria I want to wait to break that down until we get to the show on Monday and we will go into detail because the other thing too is like he's a freaky athlete

and he plays super hard he played 79 games last year and 79 games a year before that so like you can book Edwards for 80 games and MVP level production, that's a huge value add. And then the guy that everyone thinks is a bad playoff player,

the guy that I'm ranking like 9, 10, 11 in terms of like for a series that start tomorrow, just average 28, 7 and 7 on 60% true shooting in a Western Conference finals run. So like I get it, I know people are lower on Ant than I am. And to be clear, I'm not basing this on last year. I am projecting. I think Ant is going to be the fifth best foundational piece of a franchise for an entire season this coming year. That's the way that that is supposed to work. But again, we'll get much

more into that as we head into next week. I think there should be something said about players like Janus, Ad, and Tatum, who are elite defenders, but also managed to put up 25 to 30 points per game while being the focal points of their respective teams' offenses. Yes, their offense may be inconsistent at times and not as flashy, but aside from a few brutal series, they've been always elite two-way player performers. Totally agree. And by the way, that's why I have all those guys ahead of the older guys like KD, LeBron, and Steph, even though those guys are better for a playoff series. It's all about like just overall two-way impact over an 82 game context. It's just a comment I'm going to read. I don't have any response, but it's just a comment

that I thought made an interesting point about Tatum. I've got to say, I appreciate hearing all the Tatum defending. I've always loved the show, but as a Celtics fan, there have been a few times where I was really disappointed with how often you pointed out his flaws and how rarely you give him credit for what he did right. Don't get me wrong, and no way am I saying that pointing out Tatum's flaws wasn't all unwarranted. He does have flaws, and I'll be the first one to tell you night to night, Tatum can look like one of the best players in the league, and then other days he can have days where he smokes four or five easy layups, but even on those off nights, he finds ways to impact the game in big ways.

However, over the course of this last postseason, I was very encouraged by Tatum, because even with the massive shooting slump he was in, he was impacting the game in every other way. He intentionally got switches onto Luca, drove right past him, forcing someone to come help, leading to wide open kickout passes. I just wanted to take time to give you credit for being upfront and unbiased, even when you've said you don't necessarily love Tatum's game. From time to time, you still give him his credit and came to his defense against players,

those of us who have watched on the channel for a long time, know you love and root for. So I just wanted to be sure you know as a basketball fan that I appreciate the objectivity. And as I said in the comment on the last video, he was absolutely right. There's one thing we can all agree on. It's about the basketball.

Love the show. Thank you so much for the kind of words in the sport, and I totally agree about your breakdown of Tatum in the way that he is discussed. and I know that I've been a little too negative with him over the course of the last year. The big thing is like, and I was actually tweeting about this this morning, like, it's interesting. He's a 26-year-old superstar, like in the heart of his prime who's in like a massive slump. Like a, like you went from having everything we just talked about in the playoffs to like going 0 for 16 on jump shots in the Olympics and getting benched.

Like it's just interesting. It's an interesting story. And that's why we've been talking about it a lot. And like there's something to be said about like consistent success is. boring, right? And that's something I try to fight against, but it's kind of natural that it comes out and I just have to do a better job. AD is a proven number two guy. How can he be above Braun when Braun leads them in all the high leverage moments, runs the offense, and still outscores AD per game in the regular season and playoffs. First of all, AD could absolutely

went on his own with the right roster. I mean, we just saw Tatum win. I think the Celtics would still win the title if they had AD. I actually think they'd be a little better with AD than if they had Tatum, the main reason why is I think if you gave me Jalen Brown, Anthony Davis, Derek White, Drew Holiday. Like, if you gave me that type of defensive foundation, I think they'd be the best, I think they'd be one of the greatest defenses of all time. And then the second piece of it is Katie and Steph.

You can't, like, I understand for MVP purposes. Like, I don't think AD is going to win an MVP because he plays next to LeBron. But, like, that doesn't mean AD's not still a top tier superstar. Like, KD and Steph played together for years. That doesn't mean that neither of them get to be called a superstar just because they play alongside another one. Like I don't, like, again, like, that, that, that to me shouldn't matter. Again, like, it was a different thing in Golden State, too, because they didn't just have KD and Steph. They also had Clay. They also had Draymond. They also had Andre Aguadol.

Like, that team was ridiculous. But I don't necessarily think for the sake of this type of list you would punish AD. Like, for instance, in that era that Katie and Steph were playing together, I thought they were the second and third best players in the league. Like, even though they were playing together, I thought it was LeBron, Steph, KD. Like, they were still right there. so staggering that after 20 years, this guy is still an all-MBA performance talking about LeBron. I've never seen anything like it, and over 50 years following the league.

Players like Kareem had incredible longevity, but none of them were playing at this level at the end of their careers. Got to be one of the strongest reasons to think of LeBron as the greatest ever. Jordan may have had the greatest peak ever, but he was a shell of himself when he retired. What we're watching is nearly a miracle. I totally agree, and that's LeBron's case. As I've said, it is similar kind of framework. we've crafted this list as like if you were starting a season that starts in October.

The, my goat case list is like if I was starting a career, like if I was launching a franchise, like if we had all 30 franchises starting from scratch and it wasn't just one season, but we were playing out those players careers, I would want LeBron as the number one pick because I'm getting, we're about to have his 22nd straight year of like all-star level production. And, you know, like what, 19th straight year or 20th straight year of all MBA level production. Like that just, that gives me as a GM a lot of leeway to make mistakes, to figure out what works, to, you know, as we talk about, there's all these other things. Like, sometimes Katie and Steph join each other and they're just going to be really hard to be. Sometimes

your co-stars get hurt, right? Like Kyrie and Kevin Love, right? Like, sometimes you, uh, your star gets hurt, right? Like, there's just going to be really hard to be. And they're all these different things that can happen. And so what you're really looking for is shots at the table, right? Like, if it's like, it's like if we were playing roulette, if I was placing your bets for you, if I gave you just one bet, like you only have a, you know, slightly below 50% chance of winning, right? But like if I have, if I gave you five chances, like you're just, you're going to win

like one or two of them at least, right? And that's kind of the way I look at it in terms of, of that goat debate. Like, if I have 20 plus years of all NBA level, production from LeBron? That just gives me a really good chance to win more titles than the other players that have come in NBA history. I'm not a huge LeBron fan, but what's the argument for AD over him or Steph or Durant or MB?

Guys that lead their teams and are the number one options each night, and we've seen AD lead teams and wasn't very successful, although he was healthy last season. 21 and 22 cost of Lakers by his injuries. We take LeBron off that team. They're worse than you took AD off of it. Same as if we switch Steph with AD. The Lakers are good. are worse. Between injuries and inconsistency offensively, how do you have AD over guys like

K.D., Curry, LeBron, and Embed. If your take is defense, I would personally take an offensive juggernaut over a guy that is inconsistent on offense, but a defensive anchor. Thanks, keep up the good work. Thank you for supporting the show. You'll notice I have the offensive engines over him. I have, you know, Shea over him. I have Luca over him. I have Yokic over him. the only offensive vengeance I have below him are guys like Embed or Steph, who steps old and is showing some signs of decline, and Embed is constantly hurt. But, like, I agree that, like, the offensive engine types are over AD,

but, like, AD is a much more impactful regular season player than LeBron, in my opinion. Like, if LeBron sat out a regular season game, you felt like Austin, D.Lo, and AD had a good chance to win. But if AD was out and they were playing somebody decent, it was like automatic loss. That's what it felt like as a fan watching. And I can't remember the exact numbers, but they're like something like three and over the last 10 games that AD missed. So they pretty consistently lose when he's out. Again, I'm not going to put him over the offensive engine types at the top of the league,

but an overall impact, especially with what he brings defensively, I just have him above the guys that we have below. And I went extensively about that in the earlier part of this show. Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum are not better than LeBron's step for KD. Again, totally agree. Series starts tomorrow. Give me LeBron's step for KD. That's not how it works, though.

Format of this list. is October to June. I need to survive the regular season. Ant's going to play 79 games. Tatum's going to play 74 games. They're both going to put up crazy production. You know, LeBron, Steph and KD, they might play 70 games. They might also play 50 games. They might impact winning at a superstar level for 30 of those games and at a star level for another 30 of those games.

Whereas like Aunt Jason Tatum are just like their athletic wrecking balls that are going to play out, like just impact winning a ton over the course of 82 games. Two more questions. For the mailback, how much of LeBron's effort do you think is laziness and how much is necessary coasting? Or does it not matter? Lack of effort is lack of effort either way. Naturally, it's going to be a bit of both, but we've seen what happens when LeBron exerts too much throughout the whole game. He gets gassed and can't affect the game as much in second halves.

Love the show, keep up the great work. I think it's 100% necessary coasting. LeBron is just too much of a winner in his career to be lazy, but he's coasting to try to conserve energy. The problem is the Lakers roster isn't as good as you'd like it to be. to be able to actually allow him to coast the way that he does. Last question. Jason, thank you for taking the time to make these videos and to read this comment. I want to play a little devil's advocate for my guy. Now that we are at the top of the list, and in my opinion, he does not belong in this tier.

From all of the playoff teams, last year, only one team did not have a top 25 player on your list. I'm sure you know I'm talking about the Orlando Magic. I know you had him at 26 or 27, but there are players on the list that are at best number two on their team and some other players that have yet to accomplish anything in the NBA. If we are basing this list on the upcoming year's potential, I find it hard to believe that Palo Bunkero is not a top 25 player in the NBA. Thanks. Thank you again for the time and keep up the great content.

I'm almost certain he'll be in it next year. He's just on the fringe for me. Don't forget, I don't see much separation in that bottom tier. So from 18, which I think was BAM, all the way to 45, I kind of all have them in a similar grouping. like I think you could make a case for Paul George to be on this list. You can make a case for James Hardin to be on this list. You can make a case for Tray Young to be on this list.

You can make a case for Palo Boncaro to be on this list. A bunch of different guys that we can look at there. I'm a huge fan of Palo. That he had incredibly impressive first round playoff series. The Magic are going to be a team we cover very closely this year. But yeah, he just barely missed the cut for me in this year. And the main reason why is like I don't think he's good enough as a number one yet to really get his team that close.

The jump shooting and kind of just overall half-quarter. court decision-making piece just has a long way to go. But I'm a huge believer in Palo. Like, I remember we got in a big debate, me and San Vasini. And he's a big Franz Wagner guy, and I'm a big Palo guy. And, like, that's kind of where him and I disagree is. Like, he thinks Franz is going to be the best player in the long run. I think Palo is going to be really excited to see how that all shakes out, though,

especially now that we add KCP into the mix as a real veteran two guard. All right, guys, that's all I have for today and for the weekend. We will be back. We will be back, starting with number five and number four next Monday. As always, I appreciate you guys. It's the volume. The NFL seasons right around the corner. We'll be breaking down all the off-season storylines on the Colin Cowherd podcast.

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