The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 25 NBA Players: Kyrie Irving is still ELITE, why De'Aaron Fox is underrated

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

Jason Timpf begins his rankings of the Top 25 NBA Players with Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks and De'Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings. Jason breaks down both players' biggest strengths and weaknesses and shares what he expects during the 2024 NBA season. Will Kyrie and Luka Doncic keep the Mavericks in NBA Finals contention? Is there another level for De'Aaron Fox and the Kings?   Players 25-24: 04:00 - Introduction to Player Rankings 16:00 - Jason's Tiers for Rankings 19:00 - Players in Contention for Top 25 26:00 - #25: Kyrie Irving 35:00 - #24: De'Aaron Fox (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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Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. Deposit and eligibility restrictions apply. See eligibility terms and responsible gaming resources at dkng.c.com slash MMA. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume. I hope all you guys are having a great week. We are starting our annual player rankings today.

We're going to take some time off the start of the show to kind of go over the rules for this particular list, the differences between this list and the list we had last year, as well as the years that preceded that. And then we're going to get into the players, starting with number 25 and number 24 today. You guys know the drill 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 also helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. And the last but not least,

keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of this list. Specifically, if you guys disagree with anything on this list, drop your case for it in the comments. And we'll take time, especially when I get back from vacation, to actually go over some of your guys's responses and we'll kind of argue back and forth

about some of the specific placements of some of these guys on this list. So major differences between this list and last year. So last year I did a bragging rights list and I laid out explicitly at the beginning my particular rules, but it led to a lot of confusion and I think it was a flawed process

and one of the main reasons why is I really like that format for the top. of the list. And again, for those you guys who missed it from last year, the bragging rights type of format is like, what did you accomplish last year? Right? Whereas in a vacuum kind of list is more of like, if I was drafting a team, irrespective of any circumstances that actually exist in the NBA today, if I was drafting in a vacuum players to build a team for this upcoming season, that's a totally different perspective than who had the most successful previous season, right? And so while I like that format for the top, because I like having

like a real bragging rights type of champ, it really leads to some problems down the line. And while I really believe that winning has to mean something, and that's why we need a bragging rights list, I don't think it makes sense after we get past the top. So a great example last year is like Luca, right? So like, I've consistently in a vacuum had Luca as a top five player, but he had a really rough year last year. Not only did his team miss the playoffs, but it was a tough end of the year for him. He wasn't playing good basketball, especially on the defensive end of the floor, right? And so that's one of those things where that's not an appropriate way to really categorize the fact that, like, sometimes you can just have a bad year and everything can go wrong.

And while it might mean that you don't have the bragging rights, it's just tough to kind of quantify all of that in a list. So the way we're going to address that is we're going to have an in-a-vacuum list. And then at the very end, I'm going to pick the three or four guys that are candidates for the best possible season from last year, are bragging rights guys, and we'll rank those guys at the very end. And we'll just do the top. It'll be like three, four, five players. You know, it'll be like, you know, is it Jason Tatum, the guy who was the best player on the Celtics most of the year and won the title. Was it Luca Donchich, who took his team of the finals? Was it Nicola Yokic who won MVP? We'll take a list of those guys, the very short list at the top, and we'll

rank them for a bragging rights list at the very end. But for our actual top 25 players list this year, we're going to do it purely in a vacuum. So the question is, what does in a vacuum mean for this particular list? I want to go through, I've got, let's see, I've got four specific rules that we're going to follow for this list. Rule number one, it is completely irrespective of any team circumstances from last year. So if your case for a player is,

but so-and-so won a lot of games, that's a team accomplishment. We're going to specifically be looking at how does this player contribute personally to the success of his team within the context of, like if I was building a roster from scratch, right? So again, don't think of this purely as a reward for success from last season.

That's what we're going to use our bragging rights list for. Secondly, how would you build a team? How easy would it be to build a championship contender around this player from scratch? So like what responsibilities does he fulfill? Can he create shots in the half court at high volume? Can he anchor a high level defense? can he guard opposing superstars? Can he play off the ball and on the ball?

Can he play in different styles? Can he score in versatile ways as circumstances shift around him in the playoffs, right? We're going to be looking at a lot of different details into how a player would impact winning if I was trying to build around them, right? So for instance, a lot of you guys know that I highly value half-court offensive initiation. and I'll just give you guys like a basic kind of example. I tweeted out a poll today between Jalen Brown and Devin Booker. And there are two players that I have very close in my list. But for me, as you guys know,

Devin Booker's ability to like put the ball in his hands and run 25 pick and rolls a game if I had to and to like really lean on him to create offense, it's easier for me to build athleticism and dirty work around that to construct a useful basketball team, then it is for me to take Jalen Brown as the best player on a team that I'm running everything through offensively and then try to supplement him.

Specifically because Jalen Brown doesn't see the floor as well as Devin Booker does, he doesn't shoot the ball as well as Devin Booker does, he can't like really spam those kinds of actions. So that's my basketball worldview. If you guys have a different basketball worldview and you don't value that like surgical in the half court offensive initiation as much as I do, you're probably going to have some different rankings than me. But I have to let you guys know that up front

because that's a specific kind of framework for how this list works. Like when I'm building a championship contender, my number one priority is who's going to run my offense? Who's going to be the primary guy who gets the defense into rotation? Once the defense is in rotation, Now it's everyone's playing with an advantage, and I can make lesser players fulfill achievable roles. But I got to get the defense into rotation consistently, and so that half-court offensive initiation piece is really valuable for me. The third piece that we're going to be looking at is durability.

This is in a vacuum, not for a playoff series that starts tomorrow, but for an 82-game season, starting with the training camp, So a month of ramping up into 82 games over damn near, what is it, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, damn near seven months of basketball. Basically six months of basketball in the regular season. And then from there into four two-week rounds of postseason basketball. Who is best equipped to be reliably available for that long of a stretch of basketball, right? So that's the third piece of it. And then the fourth piece we're looking at is the ceiling. The ceiling still matters.

I'll give you an example. Kauai Leonard. Kauai Leonard has a major issue with reliability. The dude hasn't been able to finish a playoff run in four consecutive seasons. However, what if the clippers do get to the playoffs and they're healthy? What if Kauai is on the floor tomorrow for the game? All of a sudden it doesn't matter how you feel about the 82 if he's better than your player right now for a series that starts today.

What that means is, while obviously durability is going to be a hit for a guy like Kauai, when the chips are down and it's time to throw down and we're trying to win games in an actual playoff setting, how high of a level can your player reach? So Kauai Leonard, even though he has some huge demerits in the sense of his reliability, you always have to account for the, well, what if this is the year that Kauai Leonard is healthy? Another example is LeBron James. LeBron James gets a lot of flack at this point in his career for easing his way through the regular season and missing time, although he was available for the most part last season.

But guess what last year? He was healthy for the playoffs and he played at a top five level in the playoffs. So, like, again, as we factor in LeBron, obviously for the 82, there's a certain limitation there. But his ceiling is still such that if he is available, we have to factor that in. So those are the four main categories there. I do not care how good your team was last year. I'm looking specifically at how you can contribute to winning in a vacuum on a fresh basketball team built from scratch. Two, how easy is it to build around you?

What responsibilities specifically do you fill? Three, how available are you? And four, when you really need to hit the gas, how high of a level can you hit? How high is your ceiling? That's how we're going to rank these top 25. And then again, at the very end, we're going to do a separate video

that's going to have nothing to do with this list where we're going to zero in on a handful of guys who are all candidates for the best possible season this last year. And then we'll talk about who, who gets to be the guy that walks around the league next year saying, like, I'm the dude who was the best last year, based on what I actually did, based on what we actually accomplished.

Team success will be a major factor in that one. So those are kind of the initial pieces of framework that make this list work. I do have two other notes. One, the talent pool is insane. Go ahead just right now, if you have some time, try to just make a list. It doesn't have to be perfect.

You're not sharing it. but just sit down for a minute and list out the top 25 players. You'll find out quickly that it's very, very difficult. Why? Because there are a lot of players that if I threw a name out, you would think that guy's a top 25 player. In fact, I started at, when I began this process, my preliminary list of candidates,

the guys were like, I basically just treated as like, if I looked at this guy and someone said, hey, I have this guy in my top 25, it's like, it's like passable. Meaning like there is a defensible case for this player to be one of the top 25 players in the NBA. My preliminary list was 45 players long. So there were 20 guys that reasonably could be considered top 25 guys who didn't make my list. I'll give you guys one example. Paul George.

Paul George is a guy that was clearly in the top 20 for me last year. And a guy that I think the majority people would think, like if I said, oh, Paul George's top 25 player, you'd be like, yeah. Sounds right, right? It's Paul George. He's top 25 player. But I had him just outside of my top 25 because the league is just incredibly stacked with talent. That said, there's not a large gap.

Like, Paul George is not substantially worse than the guy that I have ranked at 25. It's a small gap because of how talented all these guys in that list of 45 are. And by the way, I'm going to read the full list of 45 here shortly so that you guys can see my preliminary list. Point is, there will be a lot of guys. that could be top 25 players that won't make this list.

So just be prepared for that. And the same goes for the top of this list. I have a guy outside of my top 10 that I never in a million years would have thought that I'd be ranking him outside of the top 10 in this list. But I think there are 11 players that are kind of in that tier and somebody has to be cut. And I literally can't make the case for him over anybody above him.

That's not a product of that player not playing at a top 10 level, that's just the reality of how much talent there is at the top of the league. And that's my last note. We are splitting hairs here, guys. I have four tiers for the list. I have top tier superstars. These are the perennial MVP candidates. Like I expect for multiple years to come, they will be in the MVP voting race, like in that top five type of race for MVP. Then I have my second tier superstars. These are the guys that are not in the MVP race, but on

any given night can play like one of those guys at the top of the league. They're just not as consistent and reliable every night, but on any given night, they can outplay or be better or as good as the dudes at the top of the league. Then I have my third tier stars. These are the

last group of guys that can still be the best player on a championship team, but they need a ton of talent support to get there. And then I have my fourth tier stars. These are the guys that are not quite good enough to be the best player on a championship team, but can be the second best player on a championship team. Within those tiers, the players are all bunched up on each other. So, for instance, like the guy I have ranked sixth on my list is very close to the guy

I have ranked 11th on my list. The guy I have ranked 18th on my list is very close to the guy I have at 25. Because within those tiers, they're very close. the actual tears themselves, and I will explain them to you when we hit those breaks, the tiers themselves are meant to actually represent a gap. But within those tiers, they're very close. Point is, is this is up for debate.

It's very subjective. And like I said in the intro, I want you guys to make the case for why you think I'm wrong in the comments. I'm recording these first few videos I'm recording before I go to town for vacation. So I won't be able to, like, react to your mailbag questions because these are going to be released long after I record them.

But when I get back in town on the 18th, we're only going to be a small portion of the way through this list. And one of my plans is, after I hit whatever the next few players are, I'm going to go to basically a mini mailbag at the end where I bounce off of you guys and your disagreements. So if I say something in these player rankings videos that you guys disagree with,

break it down, break down the basketball in the comments. I promise you if you say, screw you, Jason, you're wrong, you're an idiot. I'm not going to respond. There's just nothing. There's no conversation to be had there. But if you say, hey, Jason, for instance, number 25 for me, if you disagree with that guy or you rank him outside, you say, hey, how do you have that guy above Paul George? Break it down for me. Explain the basketball. And we'll talk about it. And we'll talk about it in our mailbag sessions when I get back from vacation. All right, this was my preliminary list. These were the 45 guys that I considered for the

top 25 players in the league list. These are not in order. These are specifically in order of the NBA standings. What I did is I went team by team, starting with the East one seed down and then the West one seed down. And I just listed the players on those particular rosters that I think could be considered top 25 players. This was my preliminary list.

Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Yana Santinacumpo, Damien Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Palabon, Cairo, Tyrese Halliburton, Pascal Seaccom, Joelle M. Bede, Tyrese Maxie, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, BAM at a bio, Trey Young, Scotty Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Sheigildes Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Nicola Yokic, Jamal Murray, Anthony Edwards, Carl Anthony Towns, Kawhi Leonard, James Hardin, Luca Donchich, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Dejante Murray, Brandon Ingram, Deirin Fox, DeMar de Rosen, DeMontas Sabonis, Stefan Curry, Alperin Shangoon, Lori Markinen, John Morant, Desmond Bayne, Jaron Jackson Jr., and Victor Wenbenyama. That's the 45 players that I came with. Again, like, obviously there are guys in that list that a lot of them that are, that I never actually truly considered to be in top 25.

However, these are guys that I just thought had a case. That was my initial list that I worked with, and then I broke it down from there to get to the top 25. Preparing for your upcoming fantasy football draft, do you wish that you could wave a magic wand and somehow know who exactly your league mates are going to take? Well, with draft intel from fantasy pros, you'll know exactly how your league. league-maids draft better than they do. Draft Intel will automatically analyze your league's history to see who rushes to the draft board first to take a quarterback, who takes too many rookies, and who is going to reach for their favorite teams players over and over again. Everybody hates a homer and every league has one of them. But right now, you can put all that

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Kyrie Irving was one of only seven players in the league last year. to average at least 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists, on at least 60% true shooting, and to play a minimum of 50 games. That's a very basic baseline, 25-5-and-5, at least 60% true shooting, which is high-level efficiency, and a minimum of 50 games, meaning you played the majority of the season. Kyrie did it on 60.8% true shooting, basically 50-40-90, 49.7% from the field, 41.1% from 3, 90.5% from the line.

So he was a 255-5-5-50-40-90 guy. Again, one of only seven players in the league to hit those benchmarks. That's insane, guys. In the playoffs, 22, 4, and 5, worth mentioning his usage rate dropped substantially. He went from about 28% usage percentage in the regular season to below 25% in the postseason, had something to do with his scoring, taking a little bit of a drop. but he was still largely in that, like he still shot just below 50% from the field and over 40% from three through the first three rounds. It wasn't until the NBA finals that he kind of fell apart. He had a tough NBA finals and it basically came down to his pull-up jumper failing him.

So to give you an idea, Kyrie Irving in the regular season, 1.04 points per pull-up jump shot. In the first three rounds of the playoffs, 1.06 points per pull-up jump shot. in the finals, just 42 points on 51 shots, which is 0.82 points per shot. So that was the main thing that really let him down in the finals is he just lost that little extra bit of efficiency when it came to his pull-up jump shot. And we're going to talk about it later, that's a huge part of Kyrie's shot diet. Takes almost half his shots are pull-up jump shots. And so when that failed him in the Boston series, it just led to his impact taking a little bit

of a dip. But still, 22, 4 and 5, most importantly, I thought he was still pretty good on the, on margins, like in terms of his dirty work in the postseason run. I thought he competed hard at the point of attack. He rebounds better than most small guards. Like, Kyrie's never a guy. As long as you're good around him, you never really have to worry about him not pulling his weight. Like, obviously if you have a bunch of bad defensive personnel around him, it can be an issue, but Kyrie generally holds his own when it comes to the details of the game. Shot creation data, this per synergy. In pick and roll, 1.02 points per possession, including

passes for Kyrie that was in the 69th percentiles. he's one of the better pick and roll players in league. ISO, 1.03 points per possession, including passes. That was 68th percentile. He also, we're going to do high volume lists. Remember, this is what we did last year. If you're over 1,000 pick and rolls, you're in the high volume list. If you're over 250 ISOs, over 250 post-ups, so you're in the high volume list.

And I have Kyrie just over the minimum for ISOs. He at 1.03 points per possession, it was 68th percentile league wide, but he was 14th out of 24 players to run at least 250 ISOs. Excellent spot-up player. Converted spot-up possessions at 1.31 points per possession. That's insanely good. That's in the 92nd percentile around the league.

His shooting stats. This is crazy. One point, I'm sorry. 1.3 points per catch-and-shoot jumper. That was 92nd percentile. He was 1.3-1 points per spot-up possession. That was 95th percentile. So I undersold him in the spot-up area a little bit.

But shot the ball extremely well in catch-and- shoot situations. 1.04 points per pull-up jump shot. That was in the 79th percentile. His face-up jab-step jump shot, 1.18 points per shot. That was in the 84th percentile. He shot 55 percent on floaters. He took almost two of them a game. And he shot 61 percent at the rim, which is insanely good for a small guard.

So to put it simply, last year, Kyrie is one of the best shot creators in the game. And as we mentioned, he was one of only seven players to hit at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists on at least 60 percent true shooting and at least 50 games. The other guys on that list are all big shots, Anthony Edwards, Nicola Yokic, Luca Donschich, LeBron James, Che Guezsche-Elez, Alexander, Janice, Antenacupo. That's some quality company there for Kyrie Irving in terms of what he did as an offensive initiator this year. He's a better playmaker than he gets credit for. 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's 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 which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper 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, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. 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. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong and Wilfredel from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars. Traders. And we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor.

So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Yeah.

Just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion of the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists. to a bunch of ha-hoo. Ha-ha-hoo. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into PodMeets Twirled

for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about and they are experts at everything. Here, the Nick Dick and Poll Show,

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I like that saying. It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah. It is an actual Polish saying. Better version of, Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time.

I actually thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick, Dick, and Paul show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Joe Rodano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please!

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the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coutura Podcast Network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He had a 2.82 assist-to turnover ratio. He was one of only 12 players in the league last year to post a usage percentage over 25% and an assist to turnover ratio over 2.5.

over 2.5. So like a much better playmaker than you would think for Kyrie Irving, right? And he was one of the most efficient high volume scorers in the league as well. So this is a guy that, you know, I think he's gone under the radar because of his past. But he's still just like in the short list of the best offensive players in the league and brings a ton of value as you saw as the second best player on a team that made it within three wins of an NBA championship last year. I was really impressed by his versatility.

Like I said, he rebounded. It was over five rebounds a game last year in the regular season. He defended better than most small guards at his position. People will point to his rough NBA finals as like the reason that Dallas lost, but that's not, in my opinion. Like, Luca was just as destructive to their defense as Kyrie Irving was to their offense. And the real problem, in my opinion, that broke down that Dallas attack was they didn't have a role player who they could count on to defend, but also hit above the break threes, which played perfectly into the schematic approach that Boston had, which was essentially conceding those above the break threes to their role players.

It couldn't make them. I thought it was a roster issue. I didn't think Luca and Kyrie were the... Could they be better? Yeah. Luca needs to be better defensively. Kyrie needs to be more reliable as a score in those settings. But the main reason they lost was that inability to space the floor above the break

and how Boston kind of capitalized on that. Kyrie's weaknesses. His health, I have three of them down. The health piece, he played more than 60 games just once since leaving Cleveland. just 58 last year, you can basically book Kyrie to miss one out of every four games. So that's obviously an issue. He's undersized. His impact as a rebounder went down a level in the postseason after the athleticism and effort ramped up.

He went from 3.6 attempts per game in the restricted area in the regular season to just 2.8 in the playoffs. That's a sizable reduction there. It's basically 25%. And then he's still a bit reliant on pull-up shooting. So he attempted 18.1 shots per game in the postseason. 8.6 of them were pull-up jump shots. So that's basically half. And that's how it should be, given his skill set and how big he is.

And he's one of those guys. This is not like Anthony Edwards or Jason Tatum last year in the regular season where you're like, dude, why are you taking so many of these? You're not hitting enough of them. He got well over a point per possession on those pull-up jump shots. So he needs to take them. But as we know, and this is just how it leads to where he is in the rankings, despite being one of the better offensive initiators in the league,

he's way down at 25, and a big part of that is he's undersized, so he's relying on his pull-up jump shot a lot. And when you rely on your pull-up jump shot, that leads to a lot of variance, and he went cold in the finals, and that ended up impacting him quite a bit. So in summary on Kyrie Irving, still on the short list of guys who are good enough to be the second best player on a championship team.

He's one of the best offensive initiators in the league still. He competes in the dirty work areas of the game, which makes him easy to build around. He's an excellent off-ball score, making him even easier to build around. And by all accounts, he's been an excellent locker room guy in Dallas now that he has his financial future set up, which is why in this current version of our NBA player rankings,

I have Kyrie Irving ranked at 25. Number 24, Deerrin Fox. Last year, his counting stats, he played 74 games. That was the second straight season with at least 70 games played. He averaged 26.6 points per game, 4.6 rebounds per game, 5.6 assists per game and 2.4 stocks that steals plus blocks per game last year. He actually led the league in steals last year for the first time in his career. His shooting splits. He was 46.5% from the field, 36.9% from three on eight attempts. So that was by far the best three-point shooting season of

his career. 73.8% at the line for a total of 57% in true shooting percentage. Did miss the playoffs, but there's some important context there. Malik Monk, Sacramento's second best perimeter shot creator got hurt at the end of the year. And as a result, Sacramento lost five of their last seven games. And if you look at where they were in the standings, they finished one game behind the Lakers. So had they won one of those last seven, and then gone three and four instead of two and five, they would have ended up hosting the Lakers in that second play in game, and they had the Lakers number all season, especially at home. So like I, like in all likelihood,

if Malik Munk doesn't get hurt, there's a much better chance at the King. just get in. Obviously, like LeBron A.D., single game setting, maybe they overpower him, but I look at it in a more encouraging sense. Deeran Fox has been the best player on his team, the primary offensive initiator on a team that has a terrible defensive front court, which makes it way difficult to win in the modern NBA. Second best perimeter shot creator is a guy who comes off the bench for them, and they won 48 and 46 games in the last two seasons in a jam-packed Western conference. So like I'm more of, this is a great example of what we were talking about at the

very beginning when I was going through the intro and just some of the rules. Don't pay attention to the team success piece when it comes to Deere and Fox here. He legitimately has carried the Kings to being a very good team in a vacuum. He would be a more, a higher contributing winner than what he has been in Sacramento on a team that isn't really set up to compete in the NBA. Again, Deer & Fox is an example of a guy last year on my more bragging rights format that he would have suffered, and he would have potentially fallen out of the list entirely. But I don't want to do it that way. I want to make sure that we acknowledge the realities of the surrounding supporting cast within the context of this list.

I was generally very, like, even though we didn't get a playoff sample size from Deer and Fox this year, I was generally very encouraged by Dearen Fox's first playoff series last year against Golden State. I thought he was pretty impactful defensively when he wanted to be. I thought he could really beat people off the dribble and generate good shots. So I think he's going to be a good playoff player in the long run. So that's not something I'm worried about with him. Shot creation data per synergy. Deer & Fox, 1.01 points per pick and roll, including passes.

He made our high-volume pick-and-roll list. Again, minimum 1,000 possessions. He, out of 15 players that logged at least 1,000 pick-and-rolls, he ranked 11th in efficiency. ISO, 1.04 points per possession, including passes. That was in the 70th percentile. He also made a high volume list, minimum 250. He ranked 13th out of the 25 players to log at least 250 ISOs. In terms of his shooting stats, he added a semi-reliable pull-up three this season. That was the major development. So, like, two years ago, 59 makes on off the dribble 3s, just 30%. This year, 120 makes 36%. So a substantial leap for Deeran Fox has a pull-up 3.4.

point shooter. Pretty good catch and shoot player. Not great, though. 1.08 points per shot. Really good when he was wide open, though. He shot 46% field goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. His overall pull-up shooting, 40% field goal percentage, 49% when you wait it for threes. 0.98 points per shot. Still not where he needs to get to, but a really big step in the right direction for Deer and Fox. 49% on floaters, on 161 attempts. He was a high volume floater guy. Again, a lot of them out of like Euro steps or we'd like drive into the lane and almost like slow himself down on a Euro and then get to that little left-handed floater. Shot 63% at the rim, which is solid for an athletic guard like him.

Like freaky athletes like him, I prefer above 65%, but that's still pretty good. Nothing to freak out about. His biggest weaknesses, he's an ineffective offball player. He converted spot-up possessions at just 0.98 points per possession, which is bad. That ranked 63rd out of 75 players to log at least 250. and he scored on a cut to the basket just 15 times all season. So a lot to improve on in terms of playing off the ball. That's going to be something to keep an eye on with Demarder Rosen joining the picture

and just how much more he's going to have to be able to convert those types of opportunities, especially since DeMarta Rosen's a very good passer. And then this is really not, I don't want to direct this purely at Deer and Fox because it's not just him, but there's an inconsistent defensive effort piece with him. And again, this was with everybody. When the Kings wanted to be, they were a very good defensive team because they had all of this speed, especially on the perimeter. But then they would have these extended weeks-long stretches

where they just did in guard. And Fox has the potential to be one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. So, like, obviously when it comes to that defensive effort piece, you're hoping for a little bit more from Deer and Fox. But, I mean, the way I look at it, like with Deiard, with DeMardo Rosen in the picture, he's just going to have more energy for that sort of thing. and I think we're going to get a very good defensive season out of Deer & Fox next year. In summary, Deer & Fox is the leading offensive initiator for one of the best offenses in the league.

The Kings are 9.4 points per 100 possessions better when Fox is on the floor versus off, according to cleaning the glass. And he has a real playoff superpower. He has good size for the guard position, and he's remarkably fast, which can be used for two of the most valuable physical exertions in basketball, which both involve winning at the point of attack. On offense, beating people off the dribble, on defense, containing people off the dribble. That's his superpower. That I think is a real thing that you can build around.

And he's added a decent jump shot to counter that. And judging by the massive improvement he had year over year, if he continues to improve on that trajectory, he could quickly vault way higher on this list if the jump shot comes around. Now, the Kings have issues that extend far beyond Fox. Like I talked about, they're a horrific defensive front court. That makes things hard. they didn't have another high volume shot creator. Now they do with DeMarter Rosen.

And again, 94 wins in that stacked Western Conference over the last two years, I think is pretty impressive given the limitations they have. So I have Deer and Fox as the 24th best player in the NBA going into next season. All right, guys, that is all I have for round one of our player rankings. In our next video, we'll be hitting a few more guys, probably three or four guys. In the next video, that I'll be coming out within the next couple of days. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. and I'll see you guys then.

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