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

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.)

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Episode Transcript

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(01:39):
All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at the volume.
Happy Friday, everybody'll ball. 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 joke before we
get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so
you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't

(02:00):
miss show announcement. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever
you get your podcast on Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful.
V leave a rating and a review on that front.
In the 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,

(02:22):
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 thirty GMS, I should say twenty five GMS.

(02:44):
If I had twenty five GMS and we were drafting
for a season that starts in October, meaning a training
camp all the way through a potential NBA Finals series
in June, who is the player 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

(03:05):
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, or you a playoff riser,
a playoff dropper, or 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 twenty five picks later

(03:25):
or thirty picks later or whatever, and I have to
pick another player and another player until I got up
to fifteen. And obviously whichever player I pick 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, and I'll

(03:47):
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 I might 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 yeah, to

(04:07):
find a guy that fits better with the 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 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,

(04:30):
So without any further ado, Number seven Jason Tatum. Last
year seventy four games, played twenty six point nine points
per game, eight point one rebounds, four point nine assists,
a slight dipping usage, he went down from a little
over thirty two percent usage percentage to thirty point two percent.
It's actually his lowest usage rate since twenty twenty, to

(04:50):
be expected with the influx of Drew Holliday as well
as Christops Porzingis and just Jalen Brown improving as a
ball handler, 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 one point six
stocks per game, shooting splits forty seven percent from the field,
thirty eight percent from three, eighty three percent from the line,

(05:14):
which amounts to fifty five percent in effective field goal
percentage and sixty percent and true shooting percentage. For the
first time in his career, he's had two seasons in
a row over sixty percent true shooting. His shooting stats
per Synergy, he got one point zero five points per
jump shot, excellent off the catch, one point two to
three points per shot when he's shooting off the catch,

(05:36):
far more efficient when he's open, though, which I thought
was interesting. One point four to three points per shot
when he was unguarded versus one point one point one
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

(05:56):
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 zero
point nine to seven points per shot off the dribble. Again,
this is that's the same number that Lebron had, right
Lebron was also at zero point nine to seven. But

(06:17):
there's a big difference. Lebron attempted three and a half
per game. Tatum attempted seven and a half per game.
And that's always been my big, my biggest complaint with Tatum.
You 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.

(06:38):
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

(06:59):
gonna 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,
forty percent 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, Like it doesn't mean you have to

(07:20):
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, more aggressive off the catch threes, or more
bullyball towards the basket. That could be something that bumps
his efficiency up from sixty percent true shooting to sixty
two to sixty three percent true shooting and his scoring
volume up, And that's that's one of those things that

(07:42):
I'd like to see him 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 thirties, 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 seven year run here where Tatum is
going very high volume on pull up jump shots without

(08:03):
making them above a point per shot, which I think
is where I think you gotta be over a point
per shot to be taking him as often as Tatum does.
Did get one point zero five points per face up jumpers,
so like jab step jumpers in ISO, he took one
hundred and sixty five of them to last year, which
is over two per game. I thought that was interesting.
Shot forty percent on floaters, albeit on low volume, and

(08:24):
sixty three percent at the rim. Now that's a little
like anything over sixty percent 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 sixty seven percent, Kawhi seventy two percent,
Luca seventy one percent, kd seventy two percent, Tatum sixty
three percent, Obviously, I think he should be closer up

(08:45):
into that sixty seven sixty eight percent. 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 torqu 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

(09:07):
to miss shots. Play type data one point one zero
points per pick and roll, which is excellent. That's the
eighty seventh percent tile on seven hundred and twenty six
seven hundred and twenty six possessions. Mostly about his passing ability,
which we're going to talk a lot about today. Like
Tatum only shot forty two percent in ball screens and
still got one point one points per pick and roll.
And the main reason why is because he was the

(09:28):
main 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, eighty five percent of
Tatum's ball screens are run directly from the top of
the key. So he doesn't run left side pick and roll,

(09:49):
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. And
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,

(10:13):
for instance, let's imagine Tatum at the top of the
key with the ball in his right hand. Okay, and
let's pretend that we have, you know, a shooter on
the right wing. Shoot her in the right corner, shoot
her in the left corner, and Porzingis is gonna come
set it for Tatum, and he's gonna slip to the
left wing where there's a vacancy. So as he sets
that screen, Tatum is gonna come off, and as he's

(10:33):
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 a screen on Tatum's right hand side,
Derek White's defender is going to hedge to try to

(10:55):
stop Tatum from turning the corner because again, if he
doesn't hedge, Tatum's just going right downhill because that not
gonna be able to fight through that screen to stop
Jason Tatum with the full head of team. 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 gonna be open for a second.

(11:17):
That is an important part of how Boston's offense works.
Boston's offense is not a Luca don chicic, you know, heliocentric.
We're gonna dribble the ball across the floor slow, We're
gonna cross half court at sixteen seconds. We're gonna get
into a guard guard screen, and then we're gonna get
to get a switch, and then we're gonna run a
ball screen with like nine on the shot clock, and

(11:39):
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. 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's slipping to the
left wing or porzingis slipping to the left wing, and
then from there that guy is going to drive close

(12:00):
out to try to draw additional defenders and make reads
out of it. They want multiple drive in 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

(12:20):
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

(12:41):
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, eighty seventh percentile,

(13:03):
seven hundred and twenty six possessions. That's pretty big volume.
That's not the high volume list over a thousand, 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 gonna 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

(13:24):
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 valuable as a ceiling razor for that team.

(13:46):
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 Luka doncic Hell. No, right,
But within the context of Boston, where you just need
him to create that initial advantage so that their super
talented off ball players can capitalize on that advantage through
driving kick. He's actually one of the more valuable shot

(14:07):
creators in the league, and so again 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 one point zero seven points per possession on
five hundred and ninety one possessions including passes, that's seventy

(14:28):
ninth percentile. In our high volume list of the twenty
four players to attempt at least two hundred and fifty,
Tatum ranked tenth inefficiency, which is obviously very good. In
that upper kind of upper half area. There post ups
two hundred and thirty eight possessions two hundred and forty
seven points one point zero four points per possession, slightly
above average. That's in the fifty fourth percentile. Again, Tatum

(14:49):
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 sixty percent true shooting because the

(15:09):
rest of tatum shot diet outside of those pull up
jump shots are more efficient shots catch and shoot 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 thirty points a game

(15:30):
on like sixty two sixty three percent 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,

(15:51):
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. But I think obviously if you put Luke
on the Celtics, they win the title. But like there's
a there's a probably a little bit of a diminishing
return by having a very ball dominant guy on a
team that has that much ball handling, whereas Tatum's like

(16:12):
to his credit, very real, 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

(16:33):
was part of the discussion in the postseason run and
Tatum had some really wise things that he said in
postgame pressers where he's say things like I'm not gonna
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,
thirty million dollars plus players, it just makes a lot
of sense to have a guy like Tatum leading the

(16:55):
way on defense. It's interesting because, like, I don't think
Tatum is an a plus at anything, but he's like
a bee at everything right, and that extends to the
defensive end of the floor, specifically with versatility, right like
the is he in the top tier of perimeter defenders. No,
it hasn't been really since that twenty twenty two season
was the best I've seen him play on the ball.

(17:16):
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 back line 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

(17:38):
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 gonna put Jalen Brown on your best offensive
initiator on the perimeter. That way, any one to five
pick and roll or two five pick and roll, whoever
your star is, any pick and roll with their center
and their main ball handler, Tatum of Brown are just

(18:00):
gonna switch. And that's another piece of Jalen Brown's defensive
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 gonna 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

(18:22):
the center, you're basically like the low man and you're
a 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 million times, but the best example of
that was the Dallas series. It just like completely and

(18:44):
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.

(19:06):
And he's also six ' nine and he's also young
enough to play with a lot of motor there is
you know, we're gonna 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 fifty percent and
sixteen of the nineteen games, So he shot above fifty

(19:26):
percent just three times, and as in perspective, he did
so nine times the previous year and nine times the
year before that. So eighteen eighteen games over fifty percent
shooting in the previous two playoff runs just three. Last year,
maybe is shoot was the jump shot. He got to
zero point eight zero points per shot, points per jumper,
and last year's playoff run it was zero point nine
to five. The year before that, one point zero eight

(19:49):
the year before that, one point one zero 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's just a blip and then
he's gonna crawl out of that. But that is a
weird trend. Tatum took one hundred and seventy nine ISO
jump shots either off the dribble, either off the dribble

(20:10):
or in face up situations, made just forty nine of
them in the playoff run. That's twenty seven percent. 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

(20:32):
guy that has bad touch who's gonna 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 it's just a little he's just in
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 oh for
sixteen on jump shots in the Olympic qualifiers or excuse me,

(20:56):
the Olympic exhibitions, as well as the actual Olympic tournament.
So like it hit its z like the absolute peak
of tatum slump in that Olympic run. I think he's
gonna 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 like week of the season, but I

(21:17):
would imagine by November that that Tatum will be back
cooking on all gears in terms of his jump shot.
In summary, tatum 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 a an A plus trade
like every other guy is an A plus trade like
Yokich is an A plus playmaker, a plus post scorre

(21:38):
Luka Doncic a plus perimeter initiator right like Jannison, Tenna
Koopo a plus athlete with a plus rim pressure, a
plus defensive impacts, Shaye gillss Alexander like AA plus perimeter
initiation right, Anthony Davis a plus defensive player. You know,
all these guys have like A plus traits. Tatum didn't

(21:58):
really have one of those. Like he 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 that's gonna limit his ceiling in a lot of ways. Right,

(22:20):
but his floor is probably the highest out of any
player on this top eleven except for Jokis. Jokic 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 Jokic, I think Tatum
has the highest floor on this list. He consistently plays hard,

(22:41):
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 twenty
seven points per game on at least sixty percent true
shooting because he takes a lot of threes and he
gets to the foul line a lot, and like he
takes in it takes and misses a bunch of bad

(23:01):
shots and it just doesn't matter because he takes so
many threes and because he has the ability to get
to the fout 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 write. So, like, here's the thing,
when we get to May slash June and everyone is healthy,

(23:23):
like Tatum's probably last out of these eleven guys, if
not second to last, Like he's in that nine ten
eleven area in terms of like everyone's healthy, the shit's
on the line tomorrow. But other than Jokic, he's the
guy who's most likely to get me to manj you,
And that's an important part of this journey, especially when
there are as many talentedly teams in the league. You
can book him for seventy plus games. You can book

(23:46):
him for twenty seven eight and five on sixty percent
through shooting with elite versatile defense. Nobody else in this
tier is as safe a bet in terms of pure
availability and production. Even Yamis has become health question mark.
Even the young guards like Shay or Ant, they can't
impact the game defensively the way that Tatum does. That

(24:07):
makes Tatum an excellent foundational piece despite his shortcomings. That's
why I have him at number seven, Number six. Anthony

(24:30):
Davis last year seventy six games played, twenty four point
seven points per game, twelve point six rebounds per game
that was third in the NBA behind Demana Sabonis and
Rudy Gobert. Also had a career high since joining the
Lakers three point five 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

(24:51):
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.
Two point one turnovers per game, and 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's best post
up season of his career, both as a score and

(25:12):
as a passer. Also got three point five stocks per game,
including finishing fourth in the league in blocks per game.
His shooting splits fifty six percent from the field, twenty
seven percent from three. Obviously, just has never been able
to get that jump shot back to where it was
in the bubble. Eighty two percent at the line mounts
to fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage and
sixty two percent in true shooting percentage, similar to to Tatum,

(25:36):
the first time in AD's career. First time in AD's
career that he's had back to back seasons of at
least sixty percent true shooting shooting stats per Synergy. As
I mentioned, jump shot not great, zero point eight two
points per jump shot, zero point eight to seven off
the catch, zero point seven to seven off the dribble.
Now he's aware of it. Really low volume. He only
takes three and a half jump shots total every game.

(25:59):
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 Embiid to do more of, and he's been
excellent there. Fifty eight percent on hooks, fifty one percent
on floaters, and seventy percent at the rim. Now how
has Ad turned himself into such a useful short range score.

(26:20):
It's a combination of two things. First, attacking out of
the post in ISO right like and just think like
what he did to Nikolea Jokicic 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
and gets to the foul line a lot that way,
and then also just turning his back to the basket,

(26:41):
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 sixty percent.
Now that's not quite like Nikola Jokic efficiency, but it's
still really really good. Excuse me a shot. I think
it was fifty eight percent on floaters and fifty one
percent on hooks, but anyway, he was over fifty percent

(27:01):
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 Embiid, 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

(27:24):
he's just going to find a way to get his
thirty 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.

(27:46):
And we're going to do some talking later because like
I think AD's scoring volume is completely flying under the
radar for whatever reason when he's 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 eighties scoring primarily operates in the short

(28:06):
range and primarily in the flow of the offense. Like again,
shooting fifty eight percent 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,
thrown 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,

(28:28):
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

(28:50):
play alongside Austin Reeves, dil Lebron, all these other ball handlers.
He's just a cog in that system. And he's just
spitting out twenty five point nights, thirty point nights all
the time. And that 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 twenty five

(29:10):
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 do.
AD is gonna fit seamlessly with that guy, which is
a super useful piece of team building. Play type data

(29:31):
one point one seven points per possession on the role,
he shot fifty seven percent rolling to the basket. Anthony Davis,
to continue on that point, we were just talking about
made one hundred and sixty two 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
ninety additional made field goals. I'll give you guys a

(29:55):
couple seconds, but it's not who you're thinking it is.
Nikola Vucevich from the Chicago Bulls had two hundred and
fifty something made field goals in the role, but still
Anthony Davis second most in the entire league, more than
twice as many as Embid. Embid had like seventy something
and ad had one hundred and sixty two. And again,
that's the point I was trying to make when we

(30:16):
were talking about Embiid at number eleven. It's the point
I'm trying to make today. Scoring within the flow of
the offense has a ton 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.
One hundred and seven offensive rebound putbacks that was the

(30:37):
second most in the entire NBA. Rudy Gobert was number
one with one hundred and ten. So again, just garbage
time buckets, he's just given you. He's given 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

(30:59):
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 one point zero four points per ISO that's
one hundred and twenty four reps for one hundred and
twenty nine points that was seventieth percentile, and then one
point zero nine points per post up four hundred and

(31:19):
forty three reps for four hundred and eighty three points
That ranked six out of the eighteen players to run
at least two hundred and fifty, so he was one
of the upper third high volume post up players in
the entire league, as well as being a seventieth percentile
ISO score as well. He brings a really nice mix
of on ball creation in the flow, finishing garbage buckets

(31:41):
like drop offs, and offensive rebound put backs. 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 know,
but those guys also can't be a defensive foundation the
way that he Ad can. Right, Like, the offensive engine
types are your Jokic, you'r Luka, your che Jiosus Alexander,

(32:05):
You're like even Lebron James a little bit at this
point in his career, Tyrese Haliburton. 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 Embii,
who I would consider to be an offensive engine, is

(32:25):
not in the same stratosphere as Anthony Davis as a
defensive player, and so like again, like you gotta play
both sides of that coin. And despite that, eighty is
nineteenth in the league in scoring. He was one of
only three players in the entire NBA last year to
average at least twenty four points on at least fifty
five percent shooting from the field. It was him, Giannis

(32:46):
and Jokic. And again, as I mentioned earlier, I specifically
loved the idea of a guy who can give me
twenty five points a game while also primarily running the
offense through a different player. That's a real asset with
team building. And then eighty consistently takes his scoring to
another level in the postseason, but he did so in
a big way against Denver. Twenty eight points per game,
sixty three percent true shooting. He ran thirty four post

(33:09):
ups in ISOs for forty points one point one eight
points per possession. That is outstanding, And you guys remember
every one of those. That was when he was just
consistently one on one, just frying Nikola Jokic on an
island to the point where Mike Malone had to literally
switch him off and all of that while being one
of the very being the very best defensive player in

(33:30):
the world in my opinion, and one of the top
three rebounders in the world. And eighty 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 coverages. Eighty is an outstanding drop coverage big
way back at the rim, high drop coverage big coming

(33:51):
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 is 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,

(34:12):
guys that are like lower to the ground and you
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, Like he wouldn't be able

(34:32):
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 with stan Joel the
the big power guys like Embiid or Jokic or Sabonis,
right and like, and here's the thing, Like Embiid is
the guy I keep talking about, is like the guy
who can guard Jokic, And I watched Jokic go through

(34:55):
him easily in the Olympics. So like, I think, I
think that that's a 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 twenty twenty three 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

(35:17):
of the action that they were running with Steph in ballscreens,
and the Lakers were doing everything they good to keep
him in the action. It was crazy how much he
was the folkrum 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

(35:39):
the regular season. Doesn't give consistent effort the way guys
like go Bear 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

(36:02):
the best defender in the world when he needs to
be in big moments in regular season games, are big
stretches in regular season games, and then also in the playoffs.
He is the best defensive weapon that we have in
the league. I think wemb 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 aren't paying attention as being a guy who's

(36:22):
always hurt. He's been available in one hundred and twenty
eight of the lakers last one hundred and thirty seven
basketball games, including twenty one consecutive playoff games. So, yeah,
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty 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

(36:44):
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 twenty eight points
and sixteen rebounds on sixty seven percent for shooting. Here's
a basic stat to explain the chasm between the perception
of who AD is a playoff player in the reality.

(37:07):
Most of you guys probably don't know this, but Anthony
Davis has played in sixty playoff games. Embiid has played
in fifty nine, so they've played in basically the same
amount of playoff games. Who do you think has more
thirty point playoff games between those two guys? You probably
think it's EMBIID, No AD does. AD has twenty three
thirty point games and beat has twenty one. Who do
you think has more forty point playoff games between those

(37:27):
two guys? You probably think embiat Nope, it's ad eighty
has three forty point playoff games and bid has two.
That's just a quick look at scoring, and eighty's doing
that while the offense is being run through different players.
Embiid is being force sped 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

(37:50):
dominant and impactful playoff players in the league, and he
had a rough series against Jokic two years ago in
twenty twenty three, 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 Embiid, AD can play

(38:10):
in a variety of styles and schemes on both ends
of the floor. Do you want to run five four
out like the MAVs and just spam high ball screens
with a space four eighty 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.
Aight is one of the best post players in the league.
Do you want to play five out with a ton
of ball in player movement? Aight is awesome at that too.

(38:32):
We just saw that last year he had one of
the best offensive seasons of his career. What about the
defensive end. 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. Eighty's your guy. 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? Eighty is one of the best

(38:53):
switching defenders in the world, So he fits the criteria
from my list very well. I will concede that his
weakest 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, Ady's been
strong in that area as of late. The second category,

(39:16):
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 whereas I have some limitations if I

(39:39):
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, and I
think it's pretty simple. One, he's somewhat non traditional, right

(40:00):
He's a defensive star right where 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,

(40:21):
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.

(40:44):
Just what he did trying to fit in alongside everyone else.
All right, bailback, I agree with ninety percent of your takes,

(41:09):
but ANT is simply too high on this list. Recency
bias kills media members and fans so much. So I'm
not gonna get too far into it because Ant is
next for me at number five. So we're gonna do
a lot of talking about it in the next video,
but I'll do a really quick synopsis of it. First
of all, Aunt just came off of a Western Conference
Finals run where he averaged twenty eight, seven and seven

(41:29):
on sixty percent trough shooting. In the process, he swept
a KD super team and eliminated the defending champs, including
in game seven, completely shutting down Jamal Murray in the
second half of Game seven. Like, that's an insane playoff run.
And if, like literally, if any of the guys that

(41:49):
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 of different factors there. I think Luca's aura had
an impact, right, Like we've seen that before, right, Like
Jason Tatum awesome. The entire twenty twenty two playoff run

(42:11):
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 twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
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 in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
the playoff, the Playing Game in twenty twenty one, the

(42:32):
series in twenty twenty three, Steph was much more at
Lebron's level, but in twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen, Lebron
just not played him. And like even Lebron in his
early part of his careers, like in his career, like
he'd run into that Celtics team and he would struggle.
He run into the Spurs team and struggle under the
aura of guys like KG Paul Pierre's, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan.
That's like a typical thing that we see happen with

(42:52):
young stars. And so had an iffy series in the
Western Conference finals against Luka Doncic, who we all agree
is like one of the top two or three players
in the league, Like even Bucks fans will have him third, right, So, like, like,
for whatever reason, that whole playoff run just got swept away,
even though he was like literally fucking incredible for the

(43:13):
first two rounds, right like, And so I think that's
a little ridiculous, to be clear, A lot of this
has to do with quite the criteria of my list.
If everyone was healthy and I had a playoff series
starting tomorrow, Aunt would be lower, he'd be in the
nine to ten to eleven 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

(43:36):
another eighty plus games of experience before then. And so
like that to me, Like, I actually think I'm projecting
Aunt is going to be a top five player this year.
But the main reason why, like 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 Aunt, if you in the comments are like, I
think Ant's number eleven, I'd be like, cool, got it,

(43:59):
I have beat at eleven. I don't have much of
a gap at all between Ant and MB. 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

(44:21):
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

(44:42):
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 have probably finished 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 tears worked. Now, here's the thing. Let's talk about it.

(45:05):
Out of all those players, So Aunt, Ad, Tatum, lebron
kd Steph, Embiid, Right, I get that, right? Yeah? I
think so. So that's our seven guys, let's talk about him.
Is Embiid gonna win be an MVP candidate next year?
I don't think so because of load management, right, Anthony Davis,

(45:26):
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 piers, 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 his
team is good enough. Tatum has just one top five
MVP finish in his entire career. Is a KD No,

(45:46):
he's too old, Lebron knows too old. Steph no's too old.
So that that's really it, Like, of all those guys,
who's most most likely to be a top five MVP
candidate each of the next five years, it's obviously I
think he'll finish third or fourth in MVP next year.
So like for me, like that just was the cutoff.

(46:07):
Was ants a perennially 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 seventy nine games
last year and seventy nine games a year before that,
so like you can book edwards for eighty games and

(46:33):
an 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 nine ten to eleven
in terms of like for a series that start tomorrow.
Just averaged twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent
tru shooting in a Western Conference Finals run. So like,
I get it. I know people are lower on ANT
than I am, and I to be clear, I'm not

(46:55):
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 Giannis, ad and Tatum, who are elite defenders

(47:16):
but also managed to put up twenty five to thirty
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 playoff performers.
Totally agree, and by the way, that's why I have
all those guys ahead of the older guys like Katie
Lebron and Steph even though those guys are better for

(47:37):
a playoff series. It's all about like just overall two
way impact over an eighty two game context. It's just
a comment I'm gonna 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

(47:57):
credit for what he did right. Don't get me wrong,
in no way a 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 tonight. 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,

(48:17):
I was very encouraged by Tatum because even with a
massive shooting slump he was in, he was impacting the
game in every other way. He intentionally got switches on too.
Luca drove right past him, forcing someone to come help,
leading to wide up and 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

(48:39):
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 words in the sport. And I totally agree
about your breakdown of Tatum and the way that he

(48:59):
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 twenty
six year old superstar, like in the heart of his prime,
who's in like a massive slump, like a like he
went from having everything we just talked about in the
playoffs to like like going oh for sixteen on jump

(49:22):
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 better job. Ad is a proven number two guy.
How can he be above Braun when bron leads them
in all the high leverage moments, runs the offense and

(49:44):
still outscores Ad per game in the regular season in playoffs.
First of all, Ady could absolutely win 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 Jaylen Brown,
Anthony Davis, Derek White, Drew Holliday, Like, if you gave
me that type of defensive foundation, I think they'd be

(50:07):
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 gonna
win an MVP because he plays next to Lebron, But like,
that doesn't mean AD's not still a top tier superstar.
Like Kad and Steph played together for years, that doesn't
mean that neither of them get to be called a

(50:28):
superstar just because they play alongside another one, Like I
don't like again, like that to me shouldn't matter again,
like that, it was a different thing in Golden State too,
because they didn't just have Katie and Steph. They also
had Clay, They also had Draamond, they also had on
drag woodall. Like that team was ridiculous. But I don't
necessarily think for the sake of this type of list
you would punish a D. Like, for instance, in that

(50:50):
era that Katie and Steph were playing together, I thought
they were the second and third best players in the league.
I like, even though they were playing together, I thought
it was Lebron, Steph KD Like they were still right there.
Just so staggering that after twenty years, this guy is
still an all NBA performers talking about Lebron, I've never
seen anything like it. And over fifty years following the league,

(51:10):
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, 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 were watching
is nearly a miracle. I totally agree, And that's Lebron's case.
As I've said, like, it is similar kind of framework
we've crafted this list as like if you were starting

(51:32):
a season that starts in October. My goat case list
is like if I was starting a career, like if
I was launching a franchise, Like if we had all
thirty 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

(51:52):
we're about to have his twenty second straight year of
like all star level production, and you know, like what
nineteenth twenty straight year of all NBA 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

(52:16):
just gonna be really hard to beat. Sometimes your co
stars get hurt, right, like Kyrie and Kevin love right,
Like sometimes you your star gets hurt, right, Like, There's
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 but I was placing your bets for you,
if I gave you just one bet, like you only

(52:38):
have a you know, slightly below fifty percent chance of winning, right,
But like if I have if I gave you five chances,
like you're you're just you're gonna win at like one
or two of them at least, right, And that's that's
kind of the way I look at it in terms
of that goat debate, Like if I have twenty plus
years of all NBA level production from Lebron, like that
just gives me a really good chance to win more titles.

(53:00):
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 Embiid
Guys that lead their teams and are that 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 twenty one and twenty two cost of Lakers
by his injuries. We take Lebron off that team, they're

(53:21):
worse than you took Ad off of it, same as
if we switched Steph with Ad. The Lakers are good
and the Warriors are worse. Between injuries and inconsistently inconsistency offensively,
How do you have Ad over guys like KD, Curry, Lebron,
and Embiid? 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

(53:42):
good work, Thank you for supporting the show. You'll notice
I have the offensive engines over him. I have you know,
Shay over him, I have Luca over him, I have
Jokich over him. The only offensive engines I have below
him are guys like Embiid or Steph who's Steph's old
and is showing some signs of decline and Embiid is
constantly hurt. But I agree that like the offensive engine
types are over AD, but like AD is a much

(54:04):
more impactful regular season player than Lebron in my opinion,
Like if Lebron' sat out a regular season game, you
felt like Austin di 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 seven over the last ten games that AD missed,

(54:24):
so like they pretty consistently lose when he's out. Like
I again, I'm not gonna 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 Steph for KD again totally agree. Series starts tomorrow.

(54:47):
Give me Lebron Steph for KD. That's not how it works, though.
Format of this list is October to June. I need
to survive the regular season. AT's gonna play seventy nine games.
Tatum's gonna play seventy four games. They're both gonna put
up CRAI production, you know, Lebron, Stephan, Katie. They might
play seventy games. They might also play fifty games. They
might impact winning at a superstar level for thirty of

(55:09):
those games and at a star level for another thirty
of those games, whereas like Jason Tatum are just like
they're athletic wrecking balls that are gonna play like just
impact winning a ton over the course of eighty two 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

(55:29):
is lack of effort either way, that's really 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 one hundred percent 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

(55:50):
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 twenty five player on your list. I'm

(56:12):
sure you know I'm talking about the Orlando Magic. I
know you had him at twenty six or twenty seven.
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 Palamoncaro is not
a top twenty five player in the NBA. Thanks, thank
you again for the time and keep up the great content. Will.

(56:35):
I'm almost certain he'll be in it next year. He
was just on the fringe for me. Don't forget. I
don't see much separation in that bottom tier. So from eighteen,
which I think was bam all the way to forty five,
I kind of all have him 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 Harden to be on this list. You
can make a case for Trey Young to be on
this list. You can make a case for Palamonkaro to

(56:56):
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 didn't just
barely miss 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

(57:18):
just overall half 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 Sam Vessini and he's 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

(57:39):
real veteran two guard. All right, guys, that's all I
have for today and for the weekend. We'll be back.
We will be back starting with number five and number
four next Monday. As always, I appreciate you guys, and
we will see you then. The Volume the NFL seasons
right around the corner, will be breaking down all the
off season storylines on the Collin Cowherd podcast, my best

(58:01):
takes guests like my buddy Nick Wright. Check out the
Callin Coward podcast, part of the Volume network, available on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.