Houston Rockets will be a top 5 seed in west with potential to be the 1 number one seed in the west and top 9 seed overall. Orlando Magic will be a top 4 seed in the east with the potential to be the number 2 seed in the east and a top 9 seed overall.
@@generalock3015 😭 can I say this is generational hate? Bro came here during the game to do this. I’m a Mikal fanboy, and if he’s seriously having to fix his jumper, he has the yips. He needs to be spark plug on the bench or focus on wing defense heavier than offensive space until he gets his shot right.
Hot take: Joel Embiid will go down in history more as a medical miracle than for basketball. People will disagree on whether his positives(scoring and defense) make up for his negatives(foul baiting and playoff futility), but everyone can agree that a 7 footer getting 6-7 leg surgeries, 2 facial surgeries and still be able to win an mvp and be second in the race a bunch is insane and would not have been possible even in the 2000s
Embiid as a whole is a bit of a miracle. Barely played basketball before high school age and constant injuries. If this were any other era dude would’ve been out of the league by year 5, sports medicine has come so far the past decade
Hot take: More American players should go to European basketball leagues instead of college (or even younger). Learning fundamental basketball from top professional coaches and experienced players would provide more benefit to a promising young player than college's inconsistency of skill levels/programs. This would mainly be an option for the better recruits in the country that could get realistic gametime in leagues like in Spain/Turkey/Greece and potentially in Euroleague/Eurocup.
it should probably become a more serious option for some players but there are alot of players that need the US/college media spotligth for their careers, some are also probably not phisically and mentally ready to compete in a professional mens league in a far away country.
Not even necessarily in place of college. They should go when they are 14. Or even younger. Like soccer players go to Europe at that age of younger. Remember those teams have youth teams as young as like 6 years old... THATS the advantage Euro players have. They play in pro organizations as young as grade school. "But what about their schooling!" I have news for you those teams have better schools for their players than the average American public school. FAR better. It's like a free private school education AND they give parents coaching and clerical and like janitorial jobs at decent pay if it's needed. It's win win all around.
Not just that, but it should be far, FAR away from AAU, unless you’re already very practiced and are trying to play in the league as soon as you can. For almost any young player, taking the approach of mostly practice and one game, fundamentals, team oriented basketball, is the way to go. Not in some cheesy shit either, just comfortably building your skill level in and around other players, and actually being able to practice instead of having to play all the time. Other than that, hooping with friends is the best thing IMO
Yh I agree players like dragic, luka had polished games when they came to the league luka averaging 22 in his first season was already looking like an all-time great just because he spent substantial time in europe
Carmelo Anthony from 2004-2011 shot 39% of his shots within three feet of the rim, shooting 60% on those shots, while also attempting 8 free throws a game making 80% of said free throws. With the added context of playing in the dead ball era when he played with big men such as Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, etc., who could not space for the floor, saying he is not better than Jimmy at scoring is insane revisionist history. Jimmy is the better player, but Carmelo is one of the 15 greatest scorers ever.
Hot Take: Players aren’t softer now like the media and oldheads say whenever a player misses games. The game now actually leads to more injuries than the more physical eras. The amount of space leads to more explosive changes of direction and speed, the freedom of movement rules led to a bigger emphasis on lateral movement and sliding your feet, and the lack of post ups lead to an increase of jumpshots and layups taken, which leads to more freak landing space accidents. All of these factors put more and more strain on the joints and tendons of the players which leads to more soreness and non-contact injuries.
I think an part of this which is just as if not more important is the sheer amount of basketball these guys play over their lifetime. At this point nearly everyone in the NBA is either a 7 footer who may have come into it late, or a guy who has probably averaged 3+ hours on the court a day since they were a kid. When you hear how much Kobe practiced, It's an impressive feat of dedication, but I have to question how many people can put their bodies through that much and not break down by 28.
100% agree,the speed and athleticism is definitely part of the issue, running into Steven Adam's at full speed is like hitting a wall. Question iswhat is the solution? You can't ask players not to play all out when they can and have been molded to be the biggest, strongest and fastest. NFL same issues. And btw I'm an old head, 40 th anniversary of getting into basketball, Bird n Magic in the finals.
Yep, the game is now tougher to play at a professional level. Not only do you have to keep up with the speed of the game, but you need serious durability now given the fact that today’s game naturally lends itself to no contact injuries.
Hot Take: I've come to the point in the GOAT debate where I don't mind where Jordan or Lebron is on the list as long as they're both in the Top 2 spot. Where I have issues with is when people pretend Jordan would be average to barely an All Star in today's NBA or the take where LeBron would be garbage in the 80s and 90s Hell, as long as either of them are in the Top 3 I'm good.
In general, when it comes to how "X old famous player" would favor in the modern NBA, I think it the old player would do well. Like imagine someone like Iverson in today's NBA where travel/carrying is a super light whistle for anybody not named Jordan Poole, and how refs favor offensive players on drives/fouls.
Tbh Jordan vs Bron is boring to me because it’s so emotionally charged and frankly, i don’t care what you say as long as they’re your top 2. I think them being the best 2 players ever is just objective truth. Anybody who puts either player under 2 is a hater.
@@carlod5818 As he should, the 60s is the 3d weakest era in NBA history and after the top handful of players there is a steep decline in skill. Wilt was the 2nd best player in his era and Russell is barely a top 10 player ever
I also take issue with the haters on both sides; both Jordan and Bron would be amazing in any era. But my hot take is that those two don't necessarily occupy the top two spots leaps and bounds over everyone else. I think that's unfair to the greatness of Kareem, Wilt, Bill, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Duncan, and probably more. You could make a strong GOAT case for any of those guys, it's not JUST Jordan and Bron.
Hot take: Westbrook should’ve stayed in Washington. Wouldn’t have been a contender for a ring but averaging a triple double every night and ending his career as one of the greatest scorers of all time is better then being a joke on the Lakers/Clippers
tbh some teams just don’t have the realistic cards to contend most times. The Wizards being a playoff team year in year out for a few years is as good as they could’ve realistically gotten in this era. Westbrook-Beal would’ve been a solid 45 win team for a few years
Rings matter, and I think he wants to win. I’m sure he’d have some great stats, but what would those stats really mean if he’s not actually contributing towards winning?
Hot take: Draymond Green is criminally underrated in all time lists. He belongs in the NBA 75 list. The ultimate glue guy and one of the best big defenders in NBA history while being 6'5, also an offensive capable player. Even with his flawed 3PT shooting he can be useful since he's a great screener and a great short roller and passer. And he has a fierce competitiveness, especially in his prime. Draymond Green has 3 blocked game winning shots in the NBA Finals! (LeBron, George Hill and Kyle Lowry) He's an INCREDIBLE playoff riser. He just plays incredibly better in the playoffs. People throw Rodman into the top 50 all the time, Draymond has also won a lot of chips and he's a better version of Rodman. And Draymond been a dominant defender in the worst era to be a defender too! not allowing you to be physical. He's also been incredibly more important than Klay Thompson who gets the flashes because he puts the ball in the basket. Draymond is a ceiling raiser and not a floor raiser. So people are adamant to put him over people like Dame Lillard or Carmelo Anthony (to give some examples) who are good floor raisers, but if the goal is to win a championship and not just being relevant, you should pick Draymond over them in a all time draft. People also use to give out points for being revolutionary, and Draymond been pretty revolutionary if you think about it. And this is a second hot take maybe but LEADERSHIP (and its true, you can say Draymond isnt a great leader because of the KD, or the inexcusable action on JP) is understated when talking about players in an all time ranking. Granted, its much more subjective, especially off court. But on court Draymond is one of the best leaders i have seen. Vocal, directing traffic, calling out teammates so they dont make the same mistake twice. Most young players said he teached them a lot.
I agree with everything you said except I think you don’t understand what a ceiling raiser is. Being a ceiling raiser doesn’t mean that picking that player in a vacuum increases your odds of winning a championship over a floor raiser. Being a ceiling raiser means that you make already good teams great. I’m taking Dame and Melo over Draymond in a vacuum, but if I know that my team already has a volume scorer and solid role players than give me Draymond.
Athleticism is code for black. It means leaping and jumping for blocks and dunks. And it is used that way by everyone in basketball. It makes sense when you realize.
@@shorewall Maybe a little excessive on the race point, but I agree. Mitchell Robinson is strong as shit, but people don’t really think about that as much since he’s not super exceptional elsewhere, and also gets injured. Steven Adams is the strongest, but again, you get it. I think athleticism being defined as a lot of what it’s usually defined as is ok, but people often forget endurance like Jokic or Curry, strength as much like Adams as I said, or things like balance or coordination
To me, there is “loud” athleticism and “quiet” athleticism. Loud is the stuff that immediately stands out like strength, size, vertical, and speed. Quiet is the subtle things that when make a bigger difference than most people give them credit. Hand-eye coordination, balance, conditioning/endurance, flexibility/durability, and even things like court-mapping, awareness, and processing speed.
Let’s put it this way. Peak for Peak, in the playoffs, as the main guy on a contender, give me Jimmy. His playmaking, defence, and scoring in high leverage moments are better than Melos scoring. But in terms of “Legacy” or “greatness” I’d probably take Melo.
@@fortynights1513 I don't even get how this is a "hot take". Melo did one thing, score, that's it. He didnt play defense, he didnt lead, he didnt provide vet leadership, he didnt do anything outside of scoring a lot of points. I wont even go as far as to say Melo had a better regular season career because its still dependent on other people doing everything ese needed other than putting up some points.
I think the thing the user was trying to say about SGA was that he's the same age as Tatum and Booker but doesn't get nearly the hate for not delivering or getting far in the playoffs. He's still talked about like he's young and full of potential but those other two (at least until last year with Tatum) are/were seen as failures because they hadn't won a Finals
He also gets talked about like he will get better because he is young when Luka who is younger then shai gets talked about like he has hit his ceiling.
Yea that’s a dumb take, what year other than literally this year were the thunder expected to ever have postseason success with shai and he became a “superstar” later than both of these dudes
that’s so not true btw… i only see shai hate atp from nba casuals. literally every time shai gets brought up everyone calls him a free throw merchant or overrated.
Hot take: Demar Derozen didn't come into the league too late he played too early. for his career on competitive playoff teams the raptors were generally better when he was off the floor and Lowry was on the floor. The primary reason for this is his lack of spacing ability and defense. If he were coming into the league today he would have been used more as a point guard with his athletic ability and lack of spacing. He would get to be used as a facilitator like he has been since he left Toronto and he would be hid off ball on poor offensive player similarly to Luka is. Sure in the 2000s he would have fit right into the style of play but today he would have a unique skillset from a PG simular to SG
Hot take: Almost every player that just gets buckets and doesn't do anything else well at a high level, similar to someone like Zach LaVine, can never be a starter in the NBA on a good team because of how teams can scheme against that player in the playoffs, target him on defense, and deny him the ball on offense. The only plausible role for someone like that is to be a 6th man off the bench, which is why players like Malik Monk and Bogan Bogdanovic thrive so much in a limited role.
So you’re saying Zach wouldn’t start for the Denver Nuggets or Milwaukee bucks?? Like let’s be serious, this is a very dumb take. He is unquestionably a starter on playoff teams
Hot take: wemby in his rookie season was already a better passer out of the post/midrange area than embiid and could see and make the reads that embiid would often miss.
Hot Take: Kawaii is traded by January, i know they just gave him a contract but i cant see them letting a 35yr old harden shoot 30 shots a night in there new arena ,I think he's shipped out for some young pieces/ picks
Hot Take: Zion Williamson, yes is an injured player, is insanely over-hated and under appreciated for his talents. Hes, a top 3 driver of all time, good passer, underrated defensively (recently), and has immense gravity to make the game easier for his teammates. Kawhi and Ja get consistently rated in the top 20, with no concerns about his injuries or availability, whereas Zion gets ranked so low on people’s lists because of his unavailability. All anyone says about him is that he’s fat and out of shape and he’s good when he’s healthy, just regurgitating what everyone else says. When delving into his actual career, he has shown that when he plays at his best, he can be a best player on a championship team, in 2023 was in the MVP discusssion before he got healthy. Also his career has become a huge what if, because i’d argue if zion was not injured from the beginning of his career he’d be a top 6 player right now.
If Chris Paul and Anthony Davis could not lift NOLA out of poverty franchise status. Then i don’t really know what people expect unmotivated Zion to do. Guarantee bro will get traded to a real team and will magically lose the weight and start caring again.
Hot Take: The 2023 Knicks post OG trade would have won the bubble championship, dare I say easily. The Thibs coached team doesn't need any outside motivation to play incredibly hard and Randle without fans would shoot 42% from 3. Hell, recreate the bubble last year and they would have done it too.
The 2023 knicks would’ve been a problem for the Celtics, the issue is they didn’t stay healthy. If they had the same injuries in the bubble they had last year they would’ve lost just as they did last year.
Against LeBron? They were really good, but you know the reasoning you’re saying here is basically reasoning for the Heat that year, except the Knicks *might* be a better matchup. But l are they really, against a prime Bron, peak AD, and a slew of role players with multiple great guard defenders? Me thinks not Edit: The Randle part you mentioned is important, and so maybe the shooting would help push them. But you’re talking about relatively inexperienced players going up against a prime Bron and a lot of talent and experience
Hot Take: Big men needing to shoot is not just 3 point basketball minded talking, it is people finding out that big men should not just stand in the paint it is something they should always be able to do.
What people never realize about this has always been the case. If you have a center and power forward who can shoot for range to combine with a decent post game is going to give the other team’s offense way more options to score and facilitate offense. It automatically pulls the center out of the pain. I don’t know why that’s a bad strategy offensively.
Thanks for featuring me in the vid. I don’t think everytime someone is called a casual that it’s a form of elitism. However, like you said, if you haven’t watched 82 games of the wizards, you’ll have some person saying you’re a casual and you don’t know ball😂. Appreciate the opinion.
Age DEFINITELY was a huge a part of the SGA MVP discourse. It shouldn’t have been for sure but everyone was acting like this was his 2nd or 3rd year. I think Luka and Ant have showed way more than he did when he was their age. He had an amazing season but the hype was a little crazy TBH.
I dont even know who was bringing up his age because I never seen or heard it. I seen age brought up in regard to the entire team being young but not him. Also Shai had a very comparable season to Ant last season when he was 23, so Idk what you’re trying to say. And comparing anyone but say Lebron James to a 23 year old luka isnt really fair because that’s just how great he was for his age.
Seriously tho. That and people not understand how OKC got that far. They’re just that good, and they’re young. But Shai is only their best player, not some all time carry job GOAT
Hot take: Thibs, even if he plays his players a lot, he isn’t at fault for all the injuries. Matter of fact, most of them aren’t fatigue related : M. Robison: injured by Embitch J. Brunson: Freak hand injury while fouling: non fatigue related OJ: Was injury prone before so not surprising but I can see him being at fault on that one. Randle: Dislocated his shoulder on a fall: so non-fatigue injury. Bojan: Injured by defender falling on his ankle: non-fatigue injury Josh Hart: Soreness = fatigue injury so a case can be made here. But Randle and Bojan injuries did kinda force Thibs to play one of his few competent small forward longer . My Conclusion: 4 players were injured without it being his fault. And only 2 were his fault And that is if you count Oj( who has always been injury prone) .
That's just looking at the anecdotal evidence, with a sample size of a handfull. We know more workload leads to more injuries like more water leads to more wetness, so arguing whether it's his fault is kind of futile. We know for a fact he prefers maximizing line-up quality over minimizing injury risk, at least more than the average nba coach. This sets the statistical expectation that he would on average be responsible for more injuries than the average coach would over a long period of time.
The reason players like mahoud or steve kerr have boosted 3pt numbers is because of the shortened three point line in the mid 90s, but people always forget about that causing lots of the numbers to be misleading.
@@fortynights1513 Yeah he did, which could transition more easily into 3’s, which is why he was so good at that in the Olympics. Well that, and he played otherwise amazing during them
Hot take: People are sleeping on the Warriors this year. Sure it’s just the preseason, but they played 6 games and went undefeated. The last time they went undefeated in the preseason was 2022. Steph and Dray unlock the roleplayers they picked up and they’re also well set for a mid season trade if an opportunity comes up.
Totally agree. They won 46 games last year despite their second best player and defensive anchor getting suspended for 25 games. Combine a full season of Draymond with their offseason moves and they could make some noise.
@@rickharrison1737not to mention they got into a TON of clutch games that they lost. A few buckets here and there, and they could’ve easily had 50 wins
It really depends on how good kuminga can be and if wiggins can get back to his 2022 version. They should also get a big who can shoot during trades cus the paints gonna be clogged if its draymond and looney/tjd.
My brother, they played nearly all their starters against the young guys on the Lakers. Just to be clear, THAT was one of their wins. You gotta wait for the regular season I’d say, especially by March
Hot take: people will be shocked at how good Klay on the mavericks will be. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if he was shooting 41% from 3 by the end of the season
Seems pretty likely. he will be a 3rd option, so he should theoretically be getting better looks. I agree with the other guy though. I see him averaging around 15 a game on higher fg% than last year.
it would be the funniest thing ever if he just rides the bus to one more ring with Mavs and ends up having one more than Steph and Draymond when everything is said and done
Hot take: SGA, JDub, and Chet represent the ideal blueprint for a modern NBA 'Big 3'. All three are elite two-way players, each ranking in the top 10 at their respective positions. More importantly, their fit is seamless. The guard-wing-big combination is maximized with these three, allowing each to thrive without needing to 'sacrifice' for team success. On any given night, two of the three can compensate for whatever the third might lack, whether it's scoring, playmaking, or defense. This fluid dynamic not only showcases their skills but also underscores the crucial intangibles needed for a 'Big 3' to succeed: strong character, a commitment to continuously improving their chemistry, and a focus on winning above all else.
Hot take: Embiid making a conference finals is no longer good enough, he needs to make a Finals appearance to silence at least some of the hate that he gets. An ECF appearance would just be "took you long enough, damn" and his credibility is slipping every single season, especially with the roster(s) he has/had around him up to this point
Hot Take: Chet is one of the best center prospects of all time. There’s almost nothing on the floor he can’t do. He’s a really efficient scorer and he’s an elite level defender. I genuinely believe that within the next 5 years if he was to be on his own team, he could be the number one on a contender, and if it wasn’t for him having the same rookie season as maybe THE best center prospect of all time he’d probably get more praise than he already does.
I think it's fair. Butler has been the bigger factor taking his teams far in the playoffs compare to Carmelo Anthony who was very irrelevant second half of his career.
@@goodiegoodiegumdrops Carmelo Anthony played with way more all stars and hall of famers than Jimmy Butler did. AI, Chauncey Billups, Amare Stoudermire, Westbrook, James Harden, Chris Paul, Dame, PG13, Lebron, AD etc.
@@goodiegoodiegumdrops He had a chance in 2009, but he just didn’t play great enough. Even if he didn’t win the ring, he could’ve gone further in a few of those earlier Knicks runs. 2018 on OKC he didn’t play well and couldn’t accept a bench role, and he was just old on the Lakers
@@chief8268 A couple of those names don’t matter as much because of the overall team or when he joined them, but for the most part, that’s facts. Jimmy really only had 2019, and that came more down to Embiid than anyone, although they were great
Hot Take: Shaq and Kobe wouldn't have won more championships if they stayed together. Shaq began to regress not only after his first season with Heat, and Kobe benefited from the growth of not playing with someone like Shaq. Keeping them together sounds like a good idea in theory, but the strained relationship, coupled with where they were actually at in their careers gives me the impression they wouldn't just keep winning by default. Also the west was very competitive, Phil Jackson was still burnt out, and they would have needed to reshape the roster after the 2004 finals loss.
Everytime hear people talk about Jalen Brunson they only talk about him as a scorer and that's when you know they don't watch the games or they're just a casual. Id argue he is one of the top 3 guys in terms of running an offense, the knicks were super heliocentric around him but they always had good ball movement and guys that can't really create were still getting lots of opportunities because of Jalen's management and defense counters.
Hot Take: Jaylen Brown means more to the city of Boston, while Jayson Tatum means more to the Celtics. Tatum is undoubtedly the better player, while JB is undoubtedly the more interesting person with all of the off court aura that Tatum lacks. His recent Time cover is a great example, among many other dedications, speaking events, and so on.
I mean JB is just one of the smartest people in the NBA and one of the things from his draft was that he was too smart for the NBA. There's a chance he ends up being more known for things outside of basketball because he's way too smart.
I agree with what you said about both of them but not necessarily the Celtics/city of Boston take. I don't think the city of Boston gives a single F about those players outside of what they can do for the Celtics.
Hot take: The 2014 San Antonio Spurs could realistically beat any all-time team in a seven game series. The End of the Old with Tim Duncan and the start of the new with Kawhi Leonard, as well as still having Tony Parker, Manu, and even Danny Green as a 3&D guard. The spurs played the most complete basketball ever and definitely could beat the 96 bulls or 17 warriors or what not
@@firestar9650I don’t think they could on a roster level but if they played the same way they did in that 2014 finals then yeah they’re beating every single team in existence. Shot some stupid 40% from 3 and 60% from the field as a team for the 5 game series
Hot take: Every advanced stat has problems whether that be saying something different to what the name implies or changes based on positions For example usage percent has nothing to do with assists, passing or time holding the ball. Box plus minus/VORP uses constants causing an assist from a center to be worth nearly double of a point guard and steals/blocks from a point guard are significatly favored over a center. True shooting is forced to use estimations because they don't measure fga when fouled.
According to advanced stats Rudy Golbert is the best offensive player of all time. Enough said. Seriously his offensive efficiency is number one all time. Some other random guy who shouldn't be there is second. Jokic is third though...
@@Jonathan-A.C. but the problem is that many tell you something different from what you would expect it to mean based on the name so even that provides misleading data
@@BzBuck Well, that just comes down to an interpretation/understanding problem. Plenty of things like that in life. I think for the most part, people should spend more time learning these statistics rather than speaking about them
Hot take: Part of why the shooting guard position is dying out was because the pace went up from where it was in the early 2000’s. A player who only scored for you had more value when fewer points were scored in general, and if the pace hypothetically stayed at a similar level, the shooting guard position may not have died out.
@@bboywolf Most greats were either basically PG’s, or they were oversized SG’s who were more just wings overall. But I think many great PG’s could more accurately be put into the SG spot, whereas any big wings weren’t around SG spots or did those duties (besides like Klay Thompson, who I believe has been a SF)
hot take: everyone calls lou will the goat 6th man when its literally manu, it irritates me that people debate lou vs jamal (crawford) who both dropped off in the playoffs while manu played a significant role in championships as a 6th man
Jimmy is definitely higher all time than Melo, Carmelo doesn't nearly have the accolades that Jimmy has & Butler hasn't even retired yet. Only old heads think Carmelo is ranked higher
Hot take: elite level role players should be prioritised/highlighted in the lottery picks of the draft. There is an unnecessary expectation on the top 5-10 picks to become all-star level players. The lambasting of these lottery picks stifles their growth to become elite role players. Someone like Aaron Gordon has flourished as an elite role player with no all-star appearances, even though he was drafted at 4.
you have to think about players who have multiple peak years better than kawhis, like 93 jordan, 96 jordan, 91 jordan all better than 19 kawhi, or 12 lebron, 13 lebron, 16 lebron, 18 lebron. Not to mention larry bird, shaq, duncan, kobe, hakeem peak years. 19 kawhi might be top 30 but top 15 is a reach
Hot take: 2nd round picks are now more valuable than ever, or rather teams ands fans are now beginning to realize how valuable they actually are. There are a lot of really talented players around the globe who go unnoticed since most of the attention goes to the few players who are projected to be drafted early. The best example is by far Jokic, but you don't need to be that lucky for a 2nd round pick to be valuable, as long as they grow to be a good role player it's enough, and even if that doesn't happen It's still fine since nobody actually expected nothing from them. It's a low risk, high reward type of situation.
i agree but i think you worded the reason for it terribly, there is just simply so much more talent available nowdays that inevitably some will go unnoticed and fall to the second round.
Hot take: When I discovered that Rudy Golbert of all people has the highest offensive efficiency rating of all time I stopped giving any credence to combined advanced statistics... Imagine a statistical metric that says Golbert is the best offensive player of all time...
OER doesn't mean best offensive player, it means the average number of points scored by a player per shot taken. It is missing a lot of context. Gobert takes mostly assisted shots near the basket, and he scores on low volume. He doesn't have to create his own shot nor playmake, he usually just has to put the ball in the hole at close range after his teammates set him up. All of those things lead to a very high OER. You have to combine many stats to get an overall picture of a player's ability.
Hot take: The NBA Hall of Fame has become too lenient, handing out inductions like participation trophies. If you look at players like Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, they don’t meet the standard of excellence expected for such an honor. Melo was a prolific scorer, sure, but he never won a championship, and he didn’t lead his teams to any real success in the playoffs. In baseball, guys like that don't make it in-just having some standout years isn’t enough.
how has it become lenient? go look at the earliest entries of the hof it’s filled with unknown people ntm there are people in the hof without a single accolade to their name like sarunas marciulonas
In Carmelo's defense it's not just the nba HoF but the basketball HoF. So he does have a college championship and final four mvp. He also has 3 Olympic gold medals and a bronze plus one of the best Olympic scorers. So his college and Olympic career plus being 12th in all time nba points, 10 time all star, and 6 time all nba would make him a HoFer
I think it’s perceived as more lenient because the “basketball” part shores up a lot of missing legacy pieces from an NBA career. Now if you wanna talk bad and lenient HOF’s, the NFL has Naismith beat every day of the week
@@KaigiroPro Football Hall Of Fame isn’t just too lenient in some areas, it’s also inconsistent in others; the latter being the worse aspect in my opinion.
Hot Take: This is the most condensed talented period in NBA history. In the history of the NBA most rings are rewarded to 3 generational talent per generation. The 60s were all Bill Russell, 80s it was Bird and Magic, the 90s were Jordan, Isaiah, and Hakeem, the 00s was Tim, Kobe and Shaq, the 10s was Curry, Lebron, and Kawaii. Not having a repeat winner so far in my eyes shows how talented everyone in the league is rn.
Also I didn't mention all time greats that were on the same team as another all time great when they won. Didn't mention the 70s either because that is the only generation with a very diverse group of winning teams. And yes ik that there were people that won outside of those people but the vast majority of wins goes to the people I listed I mentioned Kobe and Shaq because they both won rings without eachother
opposite is true, the 70s were the weakest era and due to that had 0 dynasties. today the bench player might be more talented but the 00sinto 10s had the most talent at the top ever. shaq kobe dwade duncan dirk lebron all within 10 years
Isiah was in the 80’s, not really the 90’s. They barely lost the ECF in 87, should’ve probably won in 88, and then won in 89 and 90 Edit: And they were built up from the 80’s and were prominent in the 80’s. After 91, they basically disbanded
@@bboywolf 70’s definitely the weakest, but this era more overall, especially further on down the best 100 to 150 players. As you said tho, I don’t think it beats the 2000’s. 90’s was mostly Jordan and Hakeem, but 2000’s had peak Shaq, Kobe was great the whole time, Timmy was as well, and even other top players were amazing like Nash, Dirk, and KG
Hot take: everybody talks about making the season shorter to reduce injuries, but b2b games are the biggest problem. There’s no reason teams should have weeks where they are playing 5 games in 7 nights. If the NBA doesn’t want teams load managing, there should be no less than 2 days between games. The clippers have been impacted probably the worst by injuries in the last 5-6 years, they also have been towards the top of the league for most b2bs, coincidence I think not.
Hot take: Dpoy is too stat oriented. Yes spg and bpg are huge parts of defense and should be valued heavily in the dpoy convo, but a lot of the best defenders aren’t exactly stuffing the stat sheet and are affecting defense in ways that don’t show up in the box score. Take for example someone like Herb Jones. He doesn’t average an absurd amount of stocks but the way he impacts defense is insanely valuable.
@@fortynights1513 he locking up points guards and centers and getting crazy good contests. I’m not saying he doesn’t have good defensive stats he does but a lot of what makes him so great defensively doesn’t show up in the box score
Hot Take: Jordan would still be an effective player in todays era. People underestimate how much of a freak athlete he actually was. He had an acrobatic layup package that rivals D.Rose. His athletic ability would be an even greater advantage in todays game of pace and space, and would allow him to be possibly the best slasher in the league. Also people often bring up Derozan as what he would be today, but thats not really an insult. Derozan's game has proven to be effective for winning basketball, as shown in his stints with the Raptors and the Bulls and even the San antonio spurs to an extent. So in short Jordan would be Derozan with freak like athletic abilities and a more finese like finishing ability.
@@winter9242 Nah Kawhi has a totally diffrent frame than MJ, his finishing is also more of a bruiser rather than slasher. Their mid-range games are similiar and you could argue their defense is comparable. But i think a more athletic Derozan who is a noticibly better defender would be the best comparision.
I think players with glaring weaknesses, if they find their niche somewhere, do so by circumstance. They get traded around and sometimes, there just happens to be a them shaped whole somewhere, maybe even after another player misses some playing time and they get to take their spot for a bit.
Hot take: There are really only a couple championship level teams each year plus a couple that have what it takes but are unlikely due to injury/age. Others can make it deep in the playoffs but aren’t constructed well enough to have what it takes. For example, this year those would be Boston and OKC (maybe Minnesota) as legit contenders and then Milwaukee and Denver where everything would need to go right but it’s possible for them too. The formula of championship pedigree, All-NBA level talent, elite defense, shooting, depth, and collective buy-in is rarer than people are willing to acknowledge. Historically this tracks 9/10 times, where if you look back at former champions you’ll be able to place them into one of these two groups. This isn’t to say that other competitive playoff teams are wasting their seasons, but it’s difficult to recognize and market that a 50+ win team is still building their way to true contender status through postseason experience and player development.
Hot take: Joel Embiid and Bronny James face a similar situation this season. To avoid being called a disappointment they have to (at minimum) achieve greatness in the playoffs. But no one expects either of them to pull it off despite the bar being set excruciatingly low for them to just play a game.
Hot take #1: The Warriors made a big mistake in trading Jordan Poole. Not only did they trade him after his altercation with Draymond that they failed to address correctly, but it was also after a down year for Poole, which is common for young players. Yes, his contract was the main reason for the trade, but that's on them for paying Poole THAT much money THAT early. Poole is not/will not be a star or anything, but I'm sure that he would be much better for the Warriors than Draymond has been since the incident. Hot take #2: A superstar's ability to make teammates better is a two-way street. While the (super)star is the leader generally and should make it a priority to elevate their teammates, their teammates should also take it upon THEMSELVES as well. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Hot take #3: The NBA should do a trial run of a 1-16 playoff format. If the response among fans AND players is favorable, then they should make it the new format. If not, then they should stick a pin in it for another day.
Hot Take: Cade Cunningham will win MIP next year not only make the all-star team, but will make the all-nba team, and will be in top 10 MVP discussions. Finally getting some spacing around him, even it's slightly worse than mid is gonna be huge for the space that he would be able to operate getting at the rim and creating for guys. The pistons will be in playoff discussions. I think a 2022-23 shai type of year from cade could happen.
People who think that the rules of basketball in the 40's and 50's are archaic need to study the very early history of the sport. When the sport was first invented, dribbling wasn't a thing, the number of players on the court wasn't regulated at five, free throws didn't exist, all shots were worth 1 point, out of bounds wasn't a thing since you were allowed to throw the ball against a wall without penalty, tips offs were done after every basket and goaltending wasn't a penalty. Although small rules were adjusted since (hand-checking, etc)., the only two rules as obvious as the stated since the NBA became a thing in the 40's are the shot clock and the three-point line.
Hot Take: SGA is on the same level as jayson Tatum. They’re both capable of dropping 30 (one just happens to play on a more stacked roster), similar levels of playmaker, Tatum is the better rebounder and defender. Also, Shai hasn’t had the playoff opportunity that Tatum has, so we haven’t really seen what he looks like in a deep playoff run where you get less foul calls and midrange baskets are covered more.
Hot take: Sam Presti has been the best GM in the league ever since he became one. Building multiple contenders from almost exclusively drafting players is incredibly difficult, let alone doing that all within the same decade. He also did all of this with one of the smallest market teams in the league, which once again adds to his long list of drafting good players. IF a larger market team like the lakers had him, he would likely already be in some best GM ever convos (due to all the free agent signing advantages that come with larger teams).
Tbf, Presti has made some questionable decisions (refusing to pay luxury tax to keep the KD-Russ-Harden trio together, trading Ibaka after Durant's departure, letting Durant walk away for nothing), but I agree overall.
I disagree. The East has 3-4 contenders while the west has 2-3 (depending on how you feel about certain teams). It’s not a huge enough disparity to override the depth of the west
Hot Take: James Harden has become one of the most underrated players of all time just because of the hate he got for foul bating. And the reputation that he l consistently underperformed in the playoffs is just bs. Harden is easily a top 5 scorer of all time and a top 15 playmaker. For some reason I keep people saying current Luka is better than Harden “by a mile”. Which is close but Luka actually underperformed in the finals and i’ve heard nothing about it.
I agree with you on almost all your points. I think current Luka is definitely not better than harden all time, however I don’t think Luka underperformed as he was already on his final legs and I think the knock on harden in the playoffs is more about his overall aggressiveness to get the stats he easily gets in the regular season, while even though Luka’s stats were down in last year’s finals he was still aggressive during the games for the most part.
@@jasonmoukala8909 Who’s really that much better? I mean I think I agree off rip he isn’t, but he’s gotta be like top 10. He was so good for so long, both for efficiency and volume, as well as had depth of playstyle and was good enough of a playmaker to facilitate easier offense Edit: Plus, he’s not yet better than Harden on defense. I’m sure he can be, but Harden wasn’t a bitch in those later Houston years, and he came into the league being a defensive guy. He just has asthma and too much offensive responsibility
I’d say Luka is better, but barely. Not better career yet. I think he needs more time, and since the Finals weren’t the best time for him (injuries, little dimensionality with teammates beyond Luka, first Finals ever), it’ll take some time
Hot Take: John Wall will make the hall of fame. I think he will make it in because the hall of fame is not hard to make it in for basketball compared to MLB, NFL and there were players who accomplished less that made it in.
Hot Take: Regular Season wins are not 1 and done metric towards winning the chip that year and especially being dominant. The 72-10 Bulls are worse and I think performed worse in the Finals than they could’ve because they put more effort into winning the RS (it was also GP’s defense on MJ), and the 73-9 Warriors were clearly less dominant than the 67-13 2017 Warriors and the 2018 Warriors (who I think went 58 or something) (I have more thoughts than this about it, but I’ll keep it short)
Hot Take: Despite this past draft being considered weak, i think there it very possible for it to have 3 or 4 future all stars, about the same as almost any draft. So why is it considered weak? Lack of All-NBA potential or lack of players who can be immediately successful. If anything this is a perfectly fine draft and i think the bigger issue is that there is no one stand out player like wemby in his draft but instead multiple players who can compete for being the best in the draft.
4:20 “If we’re talking about pure basketball ability, leave what they accomplished aside” I agree, but why does this seem to be an egregious position when weighing GOATs? I’ve always found it strange/ inaccurate to prioritize TEAM success when discussing who is the greatest basketball player. And for the sake of a Hot Take, I believe that when you remove all team accomplishments, Lebron is significantly better than Jordan, or anyone else - but likely not for long with Wemby in the horizon.
Hot take: miami should trade Butler and build around bam and herro: at 35 he is on the downside of his prime but could still be useful for title contenders. Young talent and picks could help their future
Hot take: Brandon Ingram is going to have his best season of his career. He started the first game off with a leisurely 33 points, shot very efficiently from the field and got a few important defensive plays and had a lot better shot selection, getting to the rim a lot. It's not even that hot of a take, but the disrespect in this video really inspired me to post it. I don't understand at all where all of a sudden BI is not a great player anymore, because his contract ran out and NOP is strapped for cap space. Still the best playmaking wing in the league, but if he goes to the basket more (where he is elite) or shoots more threes (where he has been solid), instead of all midrange jumpers, for sure he is a modern all-NBA level scorer.
Hot take: the fact that LeBron lost 6 times in the finals shouldn't be used as one of the reasons he can't be the goat, Cause if this is one of the reasons he can't be the goat that makes losing before the finals is better than losing in the finals.
The criticism of his 6 losses are more so because of the quantity and quality of talent that he played with in most of them-often of his own choosing-that he could've won with but failed to. 2 of those losses (2007 and 2011) were because he simply did not step up, although I don't think that would've changed the result in 2007. His inability or unwillingness to maximize what he often had control over (coaching and teammates mainly) throughout most of his career is the probably biggest criticism against him. If he was 6-4, it would be a bit different.
The rockets are a guaranteed playoff team this season with the talent pool, great coach and teams like the Warriors,Clippers, Kings that i’m predicting to drop we have a good chance of being a playoff team. The rockets have the talent to win 46-49 games and beat top 2-4 seeded teams/ bottom seeded teams based off of their roster, coaching and off nights alone
I think Mavs, Nuggets, OKC, and TWolves are a lock for top 4, and Pelicans are probably gonna be the 5th. Beyond that, it’s wide enough for the Rockets to win a spot
2 way players are overrated, specifically in player vs player discussions. I roll my eyes every time an offensive juggernaut is casually waved off when compared to a 2 way player because aT LeAsT tHeY pLaY dEfEnSe. There are people who genuinely think Tatum deserved the MVP over Luka, SGA, and Jokic because aT LeAsT hE pLaYeD dEfEnSe. Same with people the year before saying Embiid deserved it over Jokic. Seriously, unless we’re talking about a DPOY level defender vs a literal traffic cone, individual defense gets extremely overvalued by the typical NBA fan, and definitely not the smoking gun they think it is.
I'd heavily disagree, there are a few who take it too far (see Jokic haters, he's not even actually bad at defense he just has strengths that don't often get noticed and flaws that are easily noticed not great by any means, but not bad either), but that's a small population in comparison to the people who barely even think about defense.
@@fortynights1513 tatum is near all nba level defender due to his versatility and iq that gets overshadowed because of how good his teammates are on defense. SGA is average, he just gets a lot of steals playing passing lanes wc doesn't work all the time. Luka can be good esp at using his body but inconsistent. Jokic is good esp at positioning himself and has great hands but still average at rim protection
Hot Take: I believe teams that drafted their players should be allowed to exceed the cap without luxury tax on a prorated contract they would have gotten on another team. So the extra cash from the super max is exempt from luxury tax. This will incentivise teams to draft properly and actually develop their talent. Instead of punishing teams that took time to develop all their young stars. Team owners would have to actually draft properly. Big market teams will also be less likely to tempt away up and coming superstars cos teams will have the bird rights and wont be punished for keeping the players l.
Hot Take: Nostalgia, flashy playstyle, and lack of remembering context has a lot people overrating certain 2000s stars to a ridiculous extent. I’ve seen people say VC, TMac and AI are all above Harden All-Time .
Hot take: “Heat Culture” is unsustainable past a few short years and runs into a wall quickly. Being a fan of the Heat, it isn’t uncommon to hear “look at our record when we’re healthy” or to see fans praise the culture while dismissing the possibility that it has diminishing returns at one point. The constant injuries, eventual fatigue and the fact that these teams seem to only have a 3-4 year run before needing a complete retool are all signs that the system Miami uses, while it does have its perks, depletes players in the long run. Mental, physical and emotional exhaustion are all factors every iteration of the Heat had to deal with before a need to retool. This isn’t because the Heat picks injury prone players, it’s because Heat Culture is by its nature depletes its players and can’t sustain itself beyond a short burst.
Hi rusty love your videos, here’s a hot take: The Suns will end up with the two seed, but AGAINA get bounced in the first round. Budenholzer will bring them to a TON of regular season games, but their lack of good defense (that which I think Vogel deserved more respect for) will prove to be their downfall.
Rusty, you didn’t understand the SGA part being overrated. What he’s trying to say is that SGA isn’t that young and he’s around the same age as booker, tatum and luka, yet he doesn’t get the same critique. He has no playoff success and only won one playoff series, whereas the other 3 have done more. He’s not young anymore and we need to see more playoff success NOW, not in 3 years when he’s almost 30. He should be criticised like embiid for lack of playoff success.
You can't compare shai's teams to embiid, Tatum, or booker's teams. They have choked. Shai hasn't had a chance to choke. I think shai and Luka are perceived similarly, with Luka mostly having an edge.
Hot take: Kawhi would’ve won at least 2 extra chips if he stayed on the raptors. I changed my mind on this after getting in an argument, as at first I definitely disagreed, but after thinking about it he 100% makes the finals in 2020 and probably wins. Misses the finals in 2021, sure. Probably makes it in 2022 and also has a good chance in 2023. Those Raptors teams were still pretty good for a couple years without Kawhi, I mean there was a 4 year stretch where Kawhi, Fred, Pascal and Lowrly were all all-stars. Add Kawhi? I don’t see how they aren’t extremely dominant especially with how weak the East has been up until now.
Hot take: as someone who doesn’t have enough time and can only watch about 30% of nba games, youtubers like rusty, hoop venue, jxmmy, thinking basketball, etc, are the best way to keep up with the nba (better than highlight reels and leagues better than sports center 💀). y’all can call me a casual if y’all want 🤷🏽♂️
Because he couldn’t. Career 59.1% shooter 0-3 feet from the rim, would have been placed him at 223rd place in the league last year, and he only took 28.1% of his shots from 0-3 feet from the rim.
Hot take: the Timberwolves are the 3rd best team in basketball going into this year. Defense will still be the best in basketball, what you lose in KAT's shooting you gain in Julius being able to get out on fast break better and being able to attack mismatches better, they have 2 6moy candidate level players in Naz and Donte and Ant will take another step.
Hot Take: Kawhi/PG Clippers was not a failure, different franchises have different standards for success, if your team has NEVER made the conference finals, losing in the conference finals can't be a failure. They accomplished more than Lob City ever did but are looked at less fondly because of media narrative.
Hot take: FG% is a bad and outdated stat that should never be used. 2pt% and 3pt% should be separated in the basic box score, with eFG% used more when looking at a players overall efficiency. Combining two shots of unequal value does not make sense. Imagine combining 2 point shots with Free throws, it would drastically misrepresent efficiency. FG% distorts perceptions of players who take higher volume of 3 pointers as their fg% can undersell their efficiency within the arc (ie Steph Curry). Imagine combining 2 point shots with Free throws, it would drastically misrepresent efficiency. FG% distorts perceptions for players who take higher volume of 3 pointers.
Curry has only ever shot 50% FG once in his career, the rest is just because the sheer volume of 3s he takes tanks his fg%. It’s why I think 50/40/90 is actually a bit overrated cuz it usually means they didn’t have high volume 3pa
@@alphabrother6823 Agreed. Players have shot better in 2pt%/3pt%/ft% splits and overall efg%, ts%, etc than some of the 50-40-90 years, but the 3pt volume just changes the math of the fg%. It's one of those stats that's factually correct but very misleading, since it's rarely accompanied by the necessary context
wrong, fg% is the most up to date and consistent stat you can use. there is no world where a 70%fg player is inefficient just like a 40%fg player can never be efficient. efg% combines 3s and 2s like they're even remotely similar which makes no sense. a lot of players are boosting their ts% and pps by overshooting 3s like james harden and so they get accurately assessed as inefficient chuckers. steph is teetering on shooting too many 3s and he only gets away with it because he's curry. dame is the best example.
@@alphabrother6823 consdiering 504090 overrated means you have no clue on how the game works. those numbers are the benchmark for efficiency for 2 3s and fts... the onyl jumpshooters that have actually made a difference in the playoffs are all 504090 guys. there is a significance in shooting those splits
hot take: Jalen Brunson is a top 10 player in the league OVER Anthony Edwards. stat wise: last year, regular season AND playoffs, he averaged more points and more assists. he is also more efficient from three and normal fg% with a higher true shooting %.
As a former pro, I'm happy to call myself an NBA casual fan, I'm not even from the US. But I hate it when some NBA fanboys are trying to talk about BASKETBALL like they know better. Coaches know more than most players... players know more about playing the SPORT than most fans, if not all
Ben Simmons's biggest issue is that he does not care about basketball. He just likes the money and the perks with it. He never had any real interest to get better. And he's been that way since he was in LSU.
Hot take: Luka will never win a chip as the number 1 option. We’ve seen thought out NBA history that one guy holding the ball for the majority of a possession isn’t a winning formula. It’s the same reason other all time greats like AI, harden, and Melo couldn’t get the job done because a offense that is so reliant on one player will always break down in the playoffs.
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
![[#2024MAMA] BIGBANG (빅뱅) - 뱅뱅뱅 (BANG BANG BANG) + FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EQsYfiPR9uM/mqdefault.jpg)
Drop YOUR Hot Takes about the first week of the season in the comments below!
Houston Rockets will be a top 5 seed in west with potential to be the 1 number one seed in the west and top 9 seed overall.
Orlando Magic will be a top 4 seed in the east with the potential to be the number 2 seed in the east and a top 9 seed overall.
Lebron James was a better 3 point shooter than Larry Bird- Rusty Buckets
Hot take: Rusty could as easily pass as a high school senior and a 42 year old divorced dad of three
How’s this a hot take
His reach permeates a diverse range of demographics.
😊 he
He should become a actor.
😂😂😂😂😂
Last time I was this early Mikal Bridges still had a functioning jumper
He be shooting that thang like an orangutan now
@@ChibiMalzaharprobably labrum injury trying to throw that shit team on his shoulder to a single W
He looks awful rn 😂 five firsts for a role player
@@generalock3015 😭 can I say this is generational hate? Bro came here during the game to do this. I’m a Mikal fanboy, and if he’s seriously having to fix his jumper, he has the yips. He needs to be spark plug on the bench or focus on wing defense heavier than offensive space until he gets his shot right.
trebuchet bridges
Jimmy Butler: Carmelo Anthony over me!!!
Melo: Meet me in the carpark and we'll see what's up.
Hot take: Joel Embiid will go down in history more as a medical miracle than for basketball. People will disagree on whether his positives(scoring and defense) make up for his negatives(foul baiting and playoff futility), but everyone can agree that a 7 footer getting 6-7 leg surgeries, 2 facial surgeries and still be able to win an mvp and be second in the race a bunch is insane and would not have been possible even in the 2000s
Credit Embiid for having as much of a career as he’s had.
Embiid as a whole is a bit of a miracle. Barely played basketball before high school age and constant injuries. If this were any other era dude would’ve been out of the league by year 5, sports medicine has come so far the past decade
Facts
He will go down in history as a fragile dirty player that won his mvp by crying. Nice try doe.
@@pyotrbagration2438
?
What he said isn’t even much if any of a compliment to him. Cmon bro
Hot take: More American players should go to European basketball leagues instead of college (or even younger). Learning fundamental basketball from top professional coaches and experienced players would provide more benefit to a promising young player than college's inconsistency of skill levels/programs. This would mainly be an option for the better recruits in the country that could get realistic gametime in leagues like in Spain/Turkey/Greece and potentially in Euroleague/Eurocup.
it should probably become a more serious option for some players but there are alot of players that need the US/college media spotligth for their careers, some are also probably not phisically and mentally ready to compete in a professional mens league in a far away country.
Not even necessarily in place of college. They should go when they are 14. Or even younger. Like soccer players go to Europe at that age of younger. Remember those teams have youth teams as young as like 6 years old... THATS the advantage Euro players have. They play in pro organizations as young as grade school. "But what about their schooling!" I have news for you those teams have better schools for their players than the average American public school. FAR better. It's like a free private school education AND they give parents coaching and clerical and like janitorial jobs at decent pay if it's needed. It's win win all around.
Not just that, but it should be far, FAR away from AAU, unless you’re already very practiced and are trying to play in the league as soon as you can.
For almost any young player, taking the approach of mostly practice and one game, fundamentals, team oriented basketball, is the way to go. Not in some cheesy shit either, just comfortably building your skill level in and around other players, and actually being able to practice instead of having to play all the time. Other than that, hooping with friends is the best thing IMO
@@carlod5818
Yeah, not necessarily a whole league, but do any programs that can help teach you and build you up
Yh I agree players like dragic, luka had polished games when they came to the league luka averaging 22 in his first season was already looking like an all-time great just because he spent substantial time in europe
Carmelo Anthony from 2004-2011 shot 39% of his shots within three feet of the rim, shooting 60% on those shots, while also attempting 8 free throws a game making 80% of said free throws. With the added context of playing in the dead ball era when he played with big men such as Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, etc., who could not space for the floor, saying he is not better than Jimmy at scoring is insane revisionist history. Jimmy is the better player, but Carmelo is one of the 15 greatest scorers ever.
🎯
Thank you man
Hot Take: Players aren’t softer now like the media and oldheads say whenever a player misses games. The game now actually leads to more injuries than the more physical eras. The amount of space leads to more explosive changes of direction and speed, the freedom of movement rules led to a bigger emphasis on lateral movement and sliding your feet, and the lack of post ups lead to an increase of jumpshots and layups taken, which leads to more freak landing space accidents. All of these factors put more and more strain on the joints and tendons of the players which leads to more soreness and non-contact injuries.
I think an part of this which is just as if not more important is the sheer amount of basketball these guys play over their lifetime. At this point nearly everyone in the NBA is either a 7 footer who may have come into it late, or a guy who has probably averaged 3+ hours on the court a day since they were a kid. When you hear how much Kobe practiced, It's an impressive feat of dedication, but I have to question how many people can put their bodies through that much and not break down by 28.
100% agree,the speed and athleticism is definitely part of the issue, running into Steven Adam's at full speed is like hitting a wall. Question iswhat is the solution? You can't ask players not to play all out when they can and have been molded to be the biggest, strongest and fastest. NFL same issues. And btw I'm an old head, 40 th anniversary of getting into basketball, Bird n Magic in the finals.
That's a great hot take tbh. It was called the deadball era for a reason. Everybody was camped and clogging the paint.
More pace and space leads to more injuries
Yep, the game is now tougher to play at a professional level. Not only do you have to keep up with the speed of the game, but you need serious durability now given the fact that today’s game naturally lends itself to no contact injuries.
Hot Take: I've come to the point in the GOAT debate where I don't mind where Jordan or Lebron is on the list as long as they're both in the Top 2 spot.
Where I have issues with is when people pretend Jordan would be average to barely an All Star in today's NBA
or the take where LeBron would be garbage in the 80s and 90s
Hell, as long as either of them are in the Top 3 I'm good.
In general, when it comes to how "X old famous player" would favor in the modern NBA, I think it the old player would do well. Like imagine someone like Iverson in today's NBA where travel/carrying is a super light whistle for anybody not named Jordan Poole, and how refs favor offensive players on drives/fouls.
Tbh Jordan vs Bron is boring to me because it’s so emotionally charged and frankly, i don’t care what you say as long as they’re your top 2. I think them being the best 2 players ever is just objective truth. Anybody who puts either player under 2 is a hater.
@@1994khalid24 i think putting wilt in the debate is fair but he usually gets discarded because of the era he played in
@@carlod5818 As he should, the 60s is the 3d weakest era in NBA history and after the top handful of players there is a steep decline in skill. Wilt was the 2nd best player in his era and Russell is barely a top 10 player ever
I also take issue with the haters on both sides; both Jordan and Bron would be amazing in any era.
But my hot take is that those two don't necessarily occupy the top two spots leaps and bounds over everyone else. I think that's unfair to the greatness of Kareem, Wilt, Bill, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Duncan, and probably more. You could make a strong GOAT case for any of those guys, it's not JUST Jordan and Bron.
Hot take: Westbrook should’ve stayed in Washington. Wouldn’t have been a contender for a ring but averaging a triple double every night and ending his career as one of the greatest scorers of all time is better then being a joke on the Lakers/Clippers
What would prevent him from becoming a joke in Washington?
tbh some teams just don’t have the realistic cards to contend most times. The Wizards being a playoff team year in year out for a few years is as good as they could’ve realistically gotten in this era. Westbrook-Beal would’ve been a solid 45 win team for a few years
His overall numbers would be better but it’ll just stay padding on a first round out/play in team
Rings matter, and I think he wants to win. I’m sure he’d have some great stats, but what would those stats really mean if he’s not actually contributing towards winning?
He got traded to the Lakers
Hot take: Players that are good at one thing are normally not good starters.
Hot take: Draymond Green is criminally underrated in all time lists. He belongs in the NBA 75 list. The ultimate glue guy and one of the best big defenders in NBA history while being 6'5, also an offensive capable player. Even with his flawed 3PT shooting he can be useful since he's a great screener and a great short roller and passer. And he has a fierce competitiveness, especially in his prime. Draymond Green has 3 blocked game winning shots in the NBA Finals! (LeBron, George Hill and Kyle Lowry)
He's an INCREDIBLE playoff riser. He just plays incredibly better in the playoffs.
People throw Rodman into the top 50 all the time, Draymond has also won a lot of chips and he's a better version of Rodman. And Draymond been a dominant defender in the worst era to be a defender too! not allowing you to be physical. He's also been incredibly more important than Klay Thompson who gets the flashes because he puts the ball in the basket.
Draymond is a ceiling raiser and not a floor raiser. So people are adamant to put him over people like Dame Lillard or Carmelo Anthony (to give some examples) who are good floor raisers, but if the goal is to win a championship and not just being relevant, you should pick Draymond over them in a all time draft.
People also use to give out points for being revolutionary, and Draymond been pretty revolutionary if you think about it.
And this is a second hot take maybe but LEADERSHIP (and its true, you can say Draymond isnt a great leader because of the KD, or the inexcusable action on JP) is understated when talking about players in an all time ranking. Granted, its much more subjective, especially off court. But on court Draymond is one of the best leaders i have seen. Vocal, directing traffic, calling out teammates so they dont make the same mistake twice. Most young players said he teached them a lot.
Draymond, please log in to your main account
I agree with everything you said except I think you don’t understand what a ceiling raiser is. Being a ceiling raiser doesn’t mean that picking that player in a vacuum increases your odds of winning a championship over a floor raiser. Being a ceiling raiser means that you make already good teams great. I’m taking Dame and Melo over Draymond in a vacuum, but if I know that my team already has a volume scorer and solid role players than give me Draymond.
Hot take: using Luka and Joker to state that athleticism is overrated is wrong. We just overlook how great of an athlete they are.
Athleticism is code for black. It means leaping and jumping for blocks and dunks.
And it is used that way by everyone in basketball. It makes sense when you realize.
@@shorewall
Maybe a little excessive on the race point, but I agree. Mitchell Robinson is strong as shit, but people don’t really think about that as much since he’s not super exceptional elsewhere, and also gets injured. Steven Adams is the strongest, but again, you get it.
I think athleticism being defined as a lot of what it’s usually defined as is ok, but people often forget endurance like Jokic or Curry, strength as much like Adams as I said, or things like balance or coordination
To me, there is “loud” athleticism and “quiet” athleticism. Loud is the stuff that immediately stands out like strength, size, vertical, and speed. Quiet is the subtle things that when make a bigger difference than most people give them credit. Hand-eye coordination, balance, conditioning/endurance, flexibility/durability, and even things like court-mapping, awareness, and processing speed.
Let’s put it this way.
Peak for Peak, in the playoffs, as the main guy on a contender, give me Jimmy.
His playmaking, defence, and scoring in high leverage moments are better than Melos scoring. But in terms of “Legacy” or “greatness” I’d probably take Melo.
Ergo: Melo has a better regular season career but Butler has a better playoff career?
@@fortynights1513
Yep, and Playoffs matter more
@@fortynights1513 I don't even get how this is a "hot take".
Melo did one thing, score, that's it. He didnt play defense, he didnt lead, he didnt provide vet leadership, he didnt do anything outside of scoring a lot of points. I wont even go as far as to say Melo had a better regular season career because its still dependent on other people doing everything ese needed other than putting up some points.
@@fortynights1513anyone with a brain would rather have Jimmy than Melo.
I think the thing the user was trying to say about SGA was that he's the same age as Tatum and Booker but doesn't get nearly the hate for not delivering or getting far in the playoffs. He's still talked about like he's young and full of potential but those other two (at least until last year with Tatum) are/were seen as failures because they hadn't won a Finals
He also gets talked about like he will get better because he is young when Luka who is younger then shai gets talked about like he has hit his ceiling.
Yea that’s a dumb take, what year other than literally this year were the thunder expected to ever have postseason success with shai and he became a “superstar” later than both of these dudes
that’s so not true btw… i only see shai hate atp from nba casuals. literally every time shai gets brought up everyone calls him a free throw merchant or overrated.
also…. tatum has had 5 chances up to this point in the playoffs and finally delivered and shai has had one chance
@@aggghgaabkyea he doesn’t get any legitimate criticism
Hot take: Demar Derozen didn't come into the league too late he played too early.
for his career on competitive playoff teams the raptors were generally better when he was off the floor and Lowry was on the floor.
The primary reason for this is his lack of spacing ability and defense.
If he were coming into the league today he would have been used more as a point guard with his athletic ability and lack of spacing. He would get to be used as a facilitator like he has been since he left Toronto and he would be hid off ball on poor offensive player similarly to Luka is.
Sure in the 2000s he would have fit right into the style of play but today he would have a unique skillset from a PG simular to SG
Fascinating
Hot take: Almost every player that just gets buckets and doesn't do anything else well at a high level, similar to someone like Zach LaVine, can never be a starter in the NBA on a good team because of how teams can scheme against that player in the playoffs, target him on defense, and deny him the ball on offense. The only plausible role for someone like that is to be a 6th man off the bench, which is why players like Malik Monk and Bogan Bogdanovic thrive so much in a limited role.
Could Zach Lavine and players like him have held more value in the 2000’s when fewer points were scored?
So you’re saying Zach wouldn’t start for the Denver Nuggets or Milwaukee bucks?? Like let’s be serious, this is a very dumb take. He is unquestionably a starter on playoff teams
Hot take: wemby in his rookie season was already a better passer out of the post/midrange area than embiid and could see and make the reads that embiid would often miss.
this isn't really a compliment rookie embiid was a terrible passer
@@NichMak-q1d think he talking about current biid
Hot Take: Kawaii is traded by January, i know they just gave him a contract but i cant see them letting a 35yr old harden shoot 30 shots a night in there new arena ,I think he's shipped out for some young pieces/ picks
Hot Take: Zion Williamson, yes is an injured player, is insanely over-hated and under appreciated for his talents. Hes, a top 3 driver of all time, good passer, underrated defensively (recently), and has immense gravity to make the game easier for his teammates. Kawhi and Ja get consistently rated in the top 20, with no concerns about his injuries or availability, whereas Zion gets ranked so low on people’s lists because of his unavailability. All anyone says about him is that he’s fat and out of shape and he’s good when he’s healthy, just regurgitating what everyone else says. When delving into his actual career, he has shown that when he plays at his best, he can be a best player on a championship team, in 2023 was in the MVP discusssion before he got healthy. Also his career has become a huge what if, because i’d argue if zion was not injured from the beginning of his career he’d be a top 6 player right now.
I’m sure he’ll grow into it (figuratively, lol), but all that hasn’t mattered since he hasn’t been playing or has been overweight
If Chris Paul and Anthony Davis could not lift NOLA out of poverty franchise status. Then i don’t really know what people expect unmotivated Zion to do. Guarantee bro will get traded to a real team and will magically lose the weight and start caring again.
@
He’s already losing the weight on the Pelicans
Hot Take: The 2023 Knicks post OG trade would have won the bubble championship, dare I say easily. The Thibs coached team doesn't need any outside motivation to play incredibly hard and Randle without fans would shoot 42% from 3. Hell, recreate the bubble last year and they would have done it too.
The 2023 knicks would’ve been a problem for the Celtics, the issue is they didn’t stay healthy. If they had the same injuries in the bubble they had last year they would’ve lost just as they did last year.
Against LeBron?
They were really good, but you know the reasoning you’re saying here is basically reasoning for the Heat that year, except the Knicks *might* be a better matchup. But l are they really, against a prime Bron, peak AD, and a slew of role players with multiple great guard defenders?
Me thinks not
Edit: The Randle part you mentioned is important, and so maybe the shooting would help push them. But you’re talking about relatively inexperienced players going up against a prime Bron and a lot of talent and experience
Hot Take: Big men needing to shoot is not just 3 point basketball minded talking, it is people finding out that big men should not just stand in the paint it is something they should always be able to do.
What people never realize about this has always been the case. If you have a center and power forward who can shoot for range to combine with a decent post game is going to give the other team’s offense way more options to score and facilitate offense.
It automatically pulls the center out of the pain. I don’t know why that’s a bad strategy offensively.
Thanks for featuring me in the vid. I don’t think everytime someone is called a casual that it’s a form of elitism. However, like you said, if you haven’t watched 82 games of the wizards, you’ll have some person saying you’re a casual and you don’t know ball😂. Appreciate the opinion.
Age DEFINITELY was a huge a part of the SGA MVP discourse. It shouldn’t have been for sure but everyone was acting like this was his 2nd or 3rd year. I think Luka and Ant have showed way more than he did when he was their age. He had an amazing season but the hype was a little crazy TBH.
I dont even know who was bringing up his age because I never seen or heard it. I seen age brought up in regard to the entire team being young but not him. Also Shai had a very comparable season to Ant last season when he was 23, so Idk what you’re trying to say. And comparing anyone but say Lebron James to a 23 year old luka isnt really fair because that’s just how great he was for his age.
Seriously tho. That and people not understand how OKC got that far. They’re just that good, and they’re young. But Shai is only their best player, not some all time carry job GOAT
@@bbgod2525
Good point
Hot take: Thibs, even if he plays his players a lot, he isn’t at fault for all the injuries. Matter of fact, most of them aren’t fatigue related :
M. Robison: injured by Embitch
J. Brunson: Freak hand injury while fouling: non fatigue related
OJ: Was injury prone before so not surprising but I can see him being at fault on that one.
Randle: Dislocated his shoulder on a fall: so non-fatigue injury.
Bojan: Injured by defender falling on his ankle: non-fatigue injury
Josh Hart: Soreness = fatigue injury so a case can be made here. But Randle and Bojan injuries did kinda force Thibs to play one of his few competent small forward longer .
My Conclusion: 4 players were injured without it being his fault.
And only 2 were his fault And that is if you count Oj( who has always been injury prone) .
I agree, it was more split. Goddamn Embiid is to blame at least as much
One big argument is that you ain’t getting hurt on the bench (bar some freak accident)
@@27泓佑劉
Also true ^
That's just looking at the anecdotal evidence, with a sample size of a handfull. We know more workload leads to more injuries like more water leads to more wetness, so arguing whether it's his fault is kind of futile. We know for a fact he prefers maximizing line-up quality over minimizing injury risk, at least more than the average nba coach. This sets the statistical expectation that he would on average be responsible for more injuries than the average coach would over a long period of time.
@@WadaMalone
This.
I agree some injuries aren’t on him, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t promote a more injury risky approach
The reason players like mahoud or steve kerr have boosted 3pt numbers is because of the shortened three point line in the mid 90s, but people always forget about that causing lots of the numbers to be misleading.
How much would Steph Curry shoot from three with a mid 90’s three point line?
Don't think it would have mattered THAT much for Curry. His range is so crazy. But for some guys... Melo would have loved it.
@@Ben-zr4hoDid Melo take a good volume of long twos?
For 96 specifically. Otherwise I believe it was normal sized
@@fortynights1513
Yeah he did, which could transition more easily into 3’s, which is why he was so good at that in the Olympics. Well that, and he played otherwise amazing during them
Hot take: People are sleeping on the Warriors this year. Sure it’s just the preseason, but they played 6 games and went undefeated. The last time they went undefeated in the preseason was 2022. Steph and Dray unlock the roleplayers they picked up and they’re also well set for a mid season trade if an opportunity comes up.
Totally agree. They won 46 games last year despite their second best player and defensive anchor getting suspended for 25 games. Combine a full season of Draymond with their offseason moves and they could make some noise.
@@rickharrison1737not to mention they got into a TON of clutch games that they lost. A few buckets here and there, and they could’ve easily had 50 wins
It really depends on how good kuminga can be and if wiggins can get back to his 2022 version. They should also get a big who can shoot during trades cus the paints gonna be clogged if its draymond and looney/tjd.
I’m not sure that I disagree but it’s still funny that this comment happens every year. But I mean who knows.
My brother, they played nearly all their starters against the young guys on the Lakers. Just to be clear, THAT was one of their wins.
You gotta wait for the regular season I’d say, especially by March
Hot take: people will be shocked at how good Klay on the mavericks will be. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if he was shooting 41% from 3 by the end of the season
If Klay averages more than 15 ppg I'll be genuinely shocked
Seems pretty likely. he will be a 3rd option, so he should theoretically be getting better looks. I agree with the other guy though. I see him averaging around 15 a game on higher fg% than last year.
I doubt he has 41 this year. Maybe 41 since January, not the whole season. He is showing inability to get to open shots by running too slow
it would be the funniest thing ever if he just rides the bus to one more ring with Mavs and ends up having one more than Steph and Draymond when everything is said and done
Hot take: SGA, JDub, and Chet represent the ideal blueprint for a modern NBA 'Big 3'. All three are elite two-way players, each ranking in the top 10 at their respective positions. More importantly, their fit is seamless. The guard-wing-big combination is maximized with these three, allowing each to thrive without needing to 'sacrifice' for team success. On any given night, two of the three can compensate for whatever the third might lack, whether it's scoring, playmaking, or defense. This fluid dynamic not only showcases their skills but also underscores the crucial intangibles needed for a 'Big 3' to succeed: strong character, a commitment to continuously improving their chemistry, and a focus on winning above all else.
Hot take: Embiid making a conference finals is no longer good enough, he needs to make a Finals appearance to silence at least some of the hate that he gets. An ECF appearance would just be "took you long enough, damn" and his credibility is slipping every single season, especially with the roster(s) he has/had around him up to this point
2014 Spurs is the gold standard of team oriented basketball.
I agree. They were pretty much the template for what the Warriors were.
Hot Take: Chet is one of the best center prospects of all time. There’s almost nothing on the floor he can’t do. He’s a really efficient scorer and he’s an elite level defender. I genuinely believe that within the next 5 years if he was to be on his own team, he could be the number one on a contender, and if it wasn’t for him having the same rookie season as maybe THE best center prospect of all time he’d probably get more praise than he already does.
I think it's fair. Butler has been the bigger factor taking his teams far in the playoffs compare to Carmelo Anthony who was very irrelevant second half of his career.
Well jimmy always had atleast one comparable teammate and has usually been the #2 guy at most on each team
@@goodiegoodiegumdrops Carmelo Anthony played with way more all stars and hall of famers than Jimmy Butler did. AI, Chauncey Billups, Amare Stoudermire, Westbrook, James Harden, Chris Paul, Dame, PG13, Lebron, AD etc.
@@goodiegoodiegumdrops
He had a chance in 2009, but he just didn’t play great enough. Even if he didn’t win the ring, he could’ve gone further in a few of those earlier Knicks runs. 2018 on OKC he didn’t play well and couldn’t accept a bench role, and he was just old on the Lakers
@@chief8268
A couple of those names don’t matter as much because of the overall team or when he joined them, but for the most part, that’s facts. Jimmy really only had 2019, and that came more down to Embiid than anyone, although they were great
@@Jonathan-A.C. Carmelo was such a let down in New York, making the playoffs only 3 times and passing the first round once.
I would take Butler over Carmelo any day if the week. Butler cares about winning.
Hot Take: Shaq and Kobe wouldn't have won more championships if they stayed together. Shaq began to regress not only after his first season with Heat, and Kobe benefited from the growth of not playing with someone like Shaq. Keeping them together sounds like a good idea in theory, but the strained relationship, coupled with where they were actually at in their careers gives me the impression they wouldn't just keep winning by default. Also the west was very competitive, Phil Jackson was still burnt out, and they would have needed to reshape the roster after the 2004 finals loss.
Everytime hear people talk about Jalen Brunson they only talk about him as a scorer and that's when you know they don't watch the games or they're just a casual. Id argue he is one of the top 3 guys in terms of running an offense, the knicks were super heliocentric around him but they always had good ball movement and guys that can't really create were still getting lots of opportunities because of Jalen's management and defense counters.
Countering defenses is one of his best skills. I always find it exciting to watch
Hot Take: Jaylen Brown means more to the city of Boston, while Jayson Tatum means more to the Celtics. Tatum is undoubtedly the better player, while JB is undoubtedly the more interesting person with all of the off court aura that Tatum lacks. His recent Time cover is a great example, among many other dedications, speaking events, and so on.
I mean JB is just one of the smartest people in the NBA and one of the things from his draft was that he was too smart for the NBA. There's a chance he ends up being more known for things outside of basketball because he's way too smart.
I agree with what you said about both of them but not necessarily the Celtics/city of Boston take. I don't think the city of Boston gives a single F about those players outside of what they can do for the Celtics.
Fantastic point 🙌
@@BLee09
They might when he starts releasing those new shoes he’s made
Hot take: The 2014 San Antonio Spurs could realistically beat any all-time team in a seven game series. The End of the Old with Tim Duncan and the start of the new with Kawhi Leonard, as well as still having Tony Parker, Manu, and even Danny Green as a 3&D guard. The spurs played the most complete basketball ever and definitely could beat the 96 bulls or 17 warriors or what not
We'll never know because we don't have a time machine, unless you can build one
@@Yinon776Which is why its a take and not real. I would love to see like a 2014 spurs and a 2006 suns maybe…
@@firestar9650I don’t think they could on a roster level but if they played the same way they did in that 2014 finals then yeah they’re beating every single team in existence. Shot some stupid 40% from 3 and 60% from the field as a team for the 5 game series
Why the 06 Suns? They almost lost to q Lakers team that was Kobe and I guess Odom and a bunch of D Leaguers...
@@Ben-zr4hojust because of how fast the seven second or less suns played against the spurs, i think it woulsve been a fun hypothetical
Hot take: Every advanced stat has problems whether that be saying something different to what the name implies or changes based on positions
For example usage percent has nothing to do with assists, passing or time holding the ball. Box plus minus/VORP uses constants causing an assist from a center to be worth nearly double of a point guard and steals/blocks from a point guard are significatly favored over a center. True shooting is forced to use estimations because they don't measure fga when fouled.
According to advanced stats Rudy Golbert is the best offensive player of all time. Enough said. Seriously his offensive efficiency is number one all time. Some other random guy who shouldn't be there is second. Jokic is third though...
They should never be the only way you measure a player. Just one aspect in a tool belt of other tools
@@Ben-zr4ho
Well there are many stats he sucks in offensively, but there’s a couple he’s good in. But yeah, I agree with the premise
@@Jonathan-A.C. but the problem is that many tell you something different from what you would expect it to mean based on the name so even that provides misleading data
@@BzBuck
Well, that just comes down to an interpretation/understanding problem. Plenty of things like that in life.
I think for the most part, people should spend more time learning these statistics rather than speaking about them
Hot take: Part of why the shooting guard position is dying out was because the pace went up from where it was in the early 2000’s.
A player who only scored for you had more value when fewer points were scored in general, and if the pace hypothetically stayed at a similar level, the shooting guard position may not have died out.
shooting guard position is the weakest position in nba history lol
@@bboywolf
Most greats were either basically PG’s, or they were oversized SG’s who were more just wings overall. But I think many great PG’s could more accurately be put into the SG spot, whereas any big wings weren’t around SG spots or did those duties (besides like Klay Thompson, who I believe has been a SF)
hot take: everyone calls lou will the goat 6th man when its literally manu, it irritates me that people debate lou vs jamal (crawford) who both dropped off in the playoffs while manu played a significant role in championships as a 6th man
Jimmy is definitely higher all time than Melo, Carmelo doesn't nearly have the accolades that Jimmy has & Butler hasn't even retired yet. Only old heads think Carmelo is ranked higher
😂
Hot take: elite level role players should be prioritised/highlighted in the lottery picks of the draft. There is an unnecessary expectation on the top 5-10 picks to become all-star level players. The lambasting of these lottery picks stifles their growth to become elite role players. Someone like Aaron Gordon has flourished as an elite role player with no all-star appearances, even though he was drafted at 4.
Hot take: If we are only talking PEAK YEAR 2019 Kawhi Leonard is top 15.
you have to think about players who have multiple peak years better than kawhis, like 93 jordan, 96 jordan, 91 jordan all better than 19 kawhi, or 12 lebron, 13 lebron, 16 lebron, 18 lebron.
Not to mention larry bird, shaq, duncan, kobe, hakeem peak years.
19 kawhi might be top 30 but top 15 is a reach
Any other wing would have won a championship with that raptors team. Kawhi is overrated
@@Christo_Trismegistus how do you know that?
Hot take: 2nd round picks are now more valuable than ever, or rather teams ands fans are now beginning to realize how valuable they actually are. There are a lot of really talented players around the globe who go unnoticed since most of the attention goes to the few players who are projected to be drafted early. The best example is by far Jokic, but you don't need to be that lucky for a 2nd round pick to be valuable, as long as they grow to be a good role player it's enough, and even if that doesn't happen It's still fine since nobody actually expected nothing from them. It's a low risk, high reward type of situation.
That depends on the scouting and development team of a franchise.
i agree but i think you worded the reason for it terribly, there is just simply so much more talent available nowdays that inevitably some will go unnoticed and fall to the second round.
Hot take: When I discovered that Rudy Golbert of all people has the highest offensive efficiency rating of all time I stopped giving any credence to combined advanced statistics... Imagine a statistical metric that says Golbert is the best offensive player of all time...
OER doesn't mean best offensive player, it means the average number of points scored by a player per shot taken. It is missing a lot of context. Gobert takes mostly assisted shots near the basket, and he scores on low volume. He doesn't have to create his own shot nor playmake, he usually just has to put the ball in the hole at close range after his teammates set him up. All of those things lead to a very high OER. You have to combine many stats to get an overall picture of a player's ability.
Hot take: The NBA Hall of Fame has become too lenient, handing out inductions like participation trophies. If you look at players like Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, they don’t meet the standard of excellence expected for such an honor. Melo was a prolific scorer, sure, but he never won a championship, and he didn’t lead his teams to any real success in the playoffs. In baseball, guys like that don't make it in-just having some standout years isn’t enough.
how has it become lenient? go look at the earliest entries of the hof it’s filled with unknown people ntm there are people in the hof without a single accolade to their name like sarunas marciulonas
In Carmelo's defense it's not just the nba HoF but the basketball HoF. So he does have a college championship and final four mvp. He also has 3 Olympic gold medals and a bronze plus one of the best Olympic scorers. So his college and Olympic career plus being 12th in all time nba points, 10 time all star, and 6 time all nba would make him a HoFer
I think it’s perceived as more lenient because the “basketball” part shores up a lot of missing legacy pieces from an NBA career. Now if you wanna talk bad and lenient HOF’s, the NFL has Naismith beat every day of the week
@@KaigiroPro Football Hall Of Fame isn’t just too lenient in some areas, it’s also inconsistent in others; the latter being the worse aspect in my opinion.
Hasn’t _become_ that way, but I think it should value sheer winning more
The lakers will be a top 2-4 seed with good health
Not hot take: chonky rusty buckets is the GOAT
Hot Take: This is the most condensed talented period in NBA history. In the history of the NBA most rings are rewarded to 3 generational talent per generation. The 60s were all Bill Russell, 80s it was Bird and Magic, the 90s were Jordan, Isaiah, and Hakeem, the 00s was Tim, Kobe and Shaq, the 10s was Curry, Lebron, and Kawaii. Not having a repeat winner so far in my eyes shows how talented everyone in the league is rn.
Also I didn't mention all time greats that were on the same team as another all time great when they won. Didn't mention the 70s either because that is the only generation with a very diverse group of winning teams. And yes ik that there were people that won outside of those people but the vast majority of wins goes to the people I listed
I mentioned Kobe and Shaq because they both won rings without eachother
@@blakethecyborg177Granted Shaq was a second option in 2006, but point taken
opposite is true, the 70s were the weakest era and due to that had 0 dynasties. today the bench player might be more talented but the 00sinto 10s had the most talent at the top ever. shaq kobe dwade duncan dirk lebron all within 10 years
Isiah was in the 80’s, not really the 90’s. They barely lost the ECF in 87, should’ve probably won in 88, and then won in 89 and 90
Edit: And they were built up from the 80’s and were prominent in the 80’s. After 91, they basically disbanded
@@bboywolf
70’s definitely the weakest, but this era more overall, especially further on down the best 100 to 150 players. As you said tho, I don’t think it beats the 2000’s. 90’s was mostly Jordan and Hakeem, but 2000’s had peak Shaq, Kobe was great the whole time, Timmy was as well, and even other top players were amazing like Nash, Dirk, and KG
Hot take: everybody talks about making the season shorter to reduce injuries, but b2b games are the biggest problem. There’s no reason teams should have weeks where they are playing 5 games in 7 nights. If the NBA doesn’t want teams load managing, there should be no less than 2 days between games.
The clippers have been impacted probably the worst by injuries in the last 5-6 years, they also have been towards the top of the league for most b2bs, coincidence I think not.
Hot take: Dpoy is too stat oriented. Yes spg and bpg are huge parts of defense and should be valued heavily in the dpoy convo, but a lot of the best defenders aren’t exactly stuffing the stat sheet and are affecting defense in ways that don’t show up in the box score. Take for example someone like Herb Jones. He doesn’t average an absurd amount of stocks but the way he impacts defense is insanely valuable.
What does Jones do well that is nowhere on a stat sheet?
@@fortynights1513 he locking up points guards and centers and getting crazy good contests. I’m not saying he doesn’t have good defensive stats he does but a lot of what makes him so great defensively doesn’t show up in the box score
Hot Take: Jordan would still be an effective player in todays era. People underestimate how much of a freak athlete he actually was. He had an acrobatic layup package that rivals D.Rose. His athletic ability would be an even greater advantage in todays game of pace and space, and would allow him to be possibly the best slasher in the league. Also people often bring up Derozan as what he would be today, but thats not really an insult. Derozan's game has proven to be effective for winning basketball, as shown in his stints with the Raptors and the Bulls and even the San antonio spurs to an extent. So in short Jordan would be Derozan with freak like athletic abilities and a more finese like finishing ability.
Disagree. Jordan's nearest comp today is kawhi leonard, not derozan and kawhi is nowhere as athletic nor as good at passing like MJ
@@winter9242
Derozan is similar, but Kawhi also gets injured a lot. I think he’s sort of a tweener between them, but better overall, as you said
@@winter9242 Nah Kawhi has a totally diffrent frame than MJ, his finishing is also more of a bruiser rather than slasher. Their mid-range games are similiar and you could argue their defense is comparable. But i think a more athletic Derozan who is a noticibly better defender would be the best comparision.
I think players with glaring weaknesses, if they find their niche somewhere, do so by circumstance. They get traded around and sometimes, there just happens to be a them shaped whole somewhere, maybe even after another player misses some playing time and they get to take their spot for a bit.
Hot take: There are really only a couple championship level teams each year plus a couple that have what it takes but are unlikely due to injury/age. Others can make it deep in the playoffs but aren’t constructed well enough to have what it takes. For example, this year those would be Boston and OKC (maybe Minnesota) as legit contenders and then Milwaukee and Denver where everything would need to go right but it’s possible for them too. The formula of championship pedigree, All-NBA level talent, elite defense, shooting, depth, and collective buy-in is rarer than people are willing to acknowledge. Historically this tracks 9/10 times, where if you look back at former champions you’ll be able to place them into one of these two groups. This isn’t to say that other competitive playoff teams are wasting their seasons, but it’s difficult to recognize and market that a 50+ win team is still building their way to true contender status through postseason experience and player development.
HOT TAKE: Players are allowed to take mid range shots. That doesn't make them bad players with bad "shot diets"
Hot take: Joel Embiid and Bronny James face a similar situation this season.
To avoid being called a disappointment they have to (at minimum) achieve greatness in the playoffs. But no one expects either of them to pull it off despite the bar being set excruciatingly low for them to just play a game.
Hot take #1: The Warriors made a big mistake in trading Jordan Poole. Not only did they trade him after his altercation with Draymond that they failed to address correctly, but it was also after a down year for Poole, which is common for young players. Yes, his contract was the main reason for the trade, but that's on them for paying Poole THAT much money THAT early. Poole is not/will not be a star or anything, but I'm sure that he would be much better for the Warriors than Draymond has been since the incident.
Hot take #2: A superstar's ability to make teammates better is a two-way street. While the (super)star is the leader generally and should make it a priority to elevate their teammates, their teammates should also take it upon THEMSELVES as well. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Hot take #3: The NBA should do a trial run of a 1-16 playoff format. If the response among fans AND players is favorable, then they should make it the new format. If not, then they should stick a pin in it for another day.
Hot Take: Cade Cunningham will win MIP next year not only make the all-star team, but will make the all-nba team, and will be in top 10 MVP discussions. Finally getting some spacing around him, even it's slightly worse than mid is gonna be huge for the space that he would be able to operate getting at the rim and creating for guys. The pistons will be in playoff discussions.
I think a 2022-23 shai type of year from cade could happen.
People who think that the rules of basketball in the 40's and 50's are archaic need to study the very early history of the sport. When the sport was first invented, dribbling wasn't a thing, the number of players on the court wasn't regulated at five, free throws didn't exist, all shots were worth 1 point, out of bounds wasn't a thing since you were allowed to throw the ball against a wall without penalty, tips offs were done after every basket and goaltending wasn't a penalty. Although small rules were adjusted since (hand-checking, etc)., the only two rules as obvious as the stated since the NBA became a thing in the 40's are the shot clock and the three-point line.
Hot Take: SGA is on the same level as jayson Tatum. They’re both capable of dropping 30 (one just happens to play on a more stacked roster), similar levels of playmaker, Tatum is the better rebounder and defender.
Also, Shai hasn’t had the playoff opportunity that Tatum has, so we haven’t really seen what he looks like in a deep playoff run where you get less foul calls and midrange baskets are covered more.
This isn’t much of a hot take these days, most have SGA over Tatum
Hot take: Sam Presti has been the best GM in the league ever since he became one. Building multiple contenders from almost exclusively drafting players is incredibly difficult, let alone doing that all within the same decade. He also did all of this with one of the smallest market teams in the league, which once again adds to his long list of drafting good players. IF a larger market team like the lakers had him, he would likely already be in some best GM ever convos (due to all the free agent signing advantages that come with larger teams).
Tbf, Presti has made some questionable decisions (refusing to pay luxury tax to keep the KD-Russ-Harden trio together, trading Ibaka after Durant's departure, letting Durant walk away for nothing), but I agree overall.
Hot Take: East > West. The West is far deeper especially for the 7/8 Seed, but the east has more legit contenders.
I disagree. The East has 3-4 contenders while the west has 2-3 (depending on how you feel about certain teams). It’s not a huge enough disparity to override the depth of the west
Hot Take: James Harden has become one of the most underrated players of all time just because of the hate he got for foul bating. And the reputation that he l consistently underperformed in the playoffs is just bs. Harden is easily a top 5 scorer of all time and a top 15 playmaker. For some reason I keep people saying current Luka is better than Harden “by a mile”. Which is close but Luka actually underperformed in the finals and i’ve heard nothing about it.
I agree with you on almost all your points. I think current Luka is definitely not better than harden all time, however I don’t think Luka underperformed as he was already on his final legs and I think the knock on harden in the playoffs is more about his overall aggressiveness to get the stats he easily gets in the regular season, while even though Luka’s stats were down in last year’s finals he was still aggressive during the games for the most part.
Top 5 scorer all time? No
@@jasonmoukala8909
Who’s really that much better? I mean I think I agree off rip he isn’t, but he’s gotta be like top 10. He was so good for so long, both for efficiency and volume, as well as had depth of playstyle and was good enough of a playmaker to facilitate easier offense
Edit: Plus, he’s not yet better than Harden on defense. I’m sure he can be, but Harden wasn’t a bitch in those later Houston years, and he came into the league being a defensive guy. He just has asthma and too much offensive responsibility
I’d say Luka is better, but barely. Not better career yet. I think he needs more time, and since the Finals weren’t the best time for him (injuries, little dimensionality with teammates beyond Luka, first Finals ever), it’ll take some time
@@Jonathan-A.C. who’s better? Kobe, mj, Kareem, kd, Steph, bron, wilt, Jerry west, Shaq,etc
Hot Take: John Wall will make the hall of fame. I think he will make it in because the hall of fame is not hard to make it in for basketball compared to MLB, NFL and there were players who accomplished less that made it in.
Hot Take:
Regular Season wins are not 1 and done metric towards winning the chip that year and especially being dominant. The 72-10 Bulls are worse and I think performed worse in the Finals than they could’ve because they put more effort into winning the RS (it was also GP’s defense on MJ), and the 73-9 Warriors were clearly less dominant than the 67-13 2017 Warriors and the 2018 Warriors (who I think went 58 or something)
(I have more thoughts than this about it, but I’ll keep it short)
Hot Take: Despite this past draft being considered weak, i think there it very possible for it to have 3 or 4 future all stars, about the same as almost any draft. So why is it considered weak? Lack of All-NBA potential or lack of players who can be immediately successful. If anything this is a perfectly fine draft and i think the bigger issue is that there is no one stand out player like wemby in his draft but instead multiple players who can compete for being the best in the draft.
Hot take, devin booker is already the best player in Phoenix history, despite the fact that he doesn't have the mvps of nash.
Nope, Nash was much more of a winner, he'd win the title in 2007 if it wasn't for Robert Horry's cheap shot.
@@Yinon776 No guarantee of that.
4:20 “If we’re talking about pure basketball ability, leave what they accomplished aside” I agree, but why does this seem to be an egregious position when weighing GOATs? I’ve always found it strange/ inaccurate to prioritize TEAM success when discussing who is the greatest basketball player. And for the sake of a Hot Take, I believe that when you remove all team accomplishments, Lebron is significantly better than Jordan, or anyone else - but likely not for long with Wemby in the horizon.
Hot take: this season will be like the 2018 season for Kawhi and he will find excuses to not play until he forces his way out of LA
Hot take: miami should trade Butler and build around bam and herro: at 35 he is on the downside of his prime but could still be useful for title contenders. Young talent and picks could help their future
Hot take: Brandon Ingram is going to have his best season of his career. He started the first game off with a leisurely 33 points, shot very efficiently from the field and got a few important defensive plays and had a lot better shot selection, getting to the rim a lot.
It's not even that hot of a take, but the disrespect in this video really inspired me to post it. I don't understand at all where all of a sudden BI is not a great player anymore, because his contract ran out and NOP is strapped for cap space. Still the best playmaking wing in the league, but if he goes to the basket more (where he is elite) or shoots more threes (where he has been solid), instead of all midrange jumpers, for sure he is a modern all-NBA level scorer.
Hot take: the fact that LeBron lost 6 times in the finals shouldn't be used as one of the reasons he can't be the goat,
Cause if this is one of the reasons he can't be the goat that makes losing before the finals is better than losing in the finals.
The criticism of his 6 losses are more so because of the quantity and quality of talent that he played with in most of them-often of his own choosing-that he could've won with but failed to. 2 of those losses (2007 and 2011) were because he simply did not step up, although I don't think that would've changed the result in 2007. His inability or unwillingness to maximize what he often had control over (coaching and teammates mainly) throughout most of his career is the probably biggest criticism against him. If he was 6-4, it would be a bit different.
The rockets are a guaranteed playoff team this season with the talent pool, great coach and teams like the Warriors,Clippers, Kings that i’m predicting to drop we have a good chance of being a playoff team. The rockets have the talent to win 46-49 games and beat top 2-4 seeded teams/ bottom seeded teams based off of their roster, coaching and off nights alone
I think Mavs, Nuggets, OKC, and TWolves are a lock for top 4, and Pelicans are probably gonna be the 5th. Beyond that, it’s wide enough for the Rockets to win a spot
They can make it but it’s not guaranteed
2 way players are overrated, specifically in player vs player discussions. I roll my eyes every time an offensive juggernaut is casually waved off when compared to a 2 way player because aT LeAsT tHeY pLaY dEfEnSe.
There are people who genuinely think Tatum deserved the MVP over Luka, SGA, and Jokic because aT LeAsT hE pLaYeD dEfEnSe. Same with people the year before saying Embiid deserved it over Jokic.
Seriously, unless we’re talking about a DPOY level defender vs a literal traffic cone, individual defense gets extremely overvalued by the typical NBA fan, and definitely not the smoking gun they think it is.
I'd heavily disagree, there are a few who take it too far (see Jokic haters, he's not even actually bad at defense he just has strengths that don't often get noticed and flaws that are easily noticed not great by any means, but not bad either), but that's a small population in comparison to the people who barely even think about defense.
Not that he’s a better player than those other three, but is Tatum indeed a better defender than SGA, Jokic, and Luka?
@@fortynights1513 what? Are you seriously asking if tatum is a better defender than those 3?
@@winter9242Just curious because I haven’t heard anyone bring up defense for two of them, and I’ve heard Jokic has been better more recently.
@@fortynights1513 tatum is near all nba level defender due to his versatility and iq that gets overshadowed because of how good his teammates are on defense. SGA is average, he just gets a lot of steals playing passing lanes wc doesn't work all the time. Luka can be good esp at using his body but inconsistent. Jokic is good esp at positioning himself and has great hands but still average at rim protection
Rusty you are quasi media now. You start the change. I personally watch you way more than espn or bleacher report
Hot Take: I believe teams that drafted their players should be allowed to exceed the cap without luxury tax on a prorated contract they would have gotten on another team. So the extra cash from the super max is exempt from luxury tax. This will incentivise teams to draft properly and actually develop their talent. Instead of punishing teams that took time to develop all their young stars. Team owners would have to actually draft properly. Big market teams will also be less likely to tempt away up and coming superstars cos teams will have the bird rights and wont be punished for keeping the players l.
Hot Take: Nostalgia, flashy playstyle, and lack of remembering context has a lot people overrating certain 2000s stars to a ridiculous extent. I’ve seen people say VC, TMac and AI are all above Harden All-Time .
Hot take: “Heat Culture” is unsustainable past a few short years and runs into a wall quickly.
Being a fan of the Heat, it isn’t uncommon to hear “look at our record when we’re healthy” or to see fans praise the culture while dismissing the possibility that it has diminishing returns at one point. The constant injuries, eventual fatigue and the fact that these teams seem to only have a 3-4 year run before needing a complete retool are all signs that the system Miami uses, while it does have its perks, depletes players in the long run. Mental, physical and emotional exhaustion are all factors every iteration of the Heat had to deal with before a need to retool. This isn’t because the Heat picks injury prone players, it’s because Heat Culture is by its nature depletes its players and can’t sustain itself beyond a short burst.
Hi rusty love your videos, here’s a hot take:
The Suns will end up with the two seed, but AGAINA get bounced in the first round. Budenholzer will bring them to a TON of regular season games, but their lack of good defense (that which I think Vogel deserved more respect for) will prove to be their downfall.
bro is NOT KOT4Q😭😭 crazy how yall have the same take
Rusty, you didn’t understand the SGA part being overrated. What he’s trying to say is that SGA isn’t that young and he’s around the same age as booker, tatum and luka, yet he doesn’t get the same critique. He has no playoff success and only won one playoff series, whereas the other 3 have done more. He’s not young anymore and we need to see more playoff success NOW, not in 3 years when he’s almost 30. He should be criticised like embiid for lack of playoff success.
Is SGA not criticized like Embiid because of his personality vs Embiid’s?
You can't compare shai's teams to embiid, Tatum, or booker's teams. They have choked. Shai hasn't had a chance to choke.
I think shai and Luka are perceived similarly, with Luka mostly having an edge.
bro u can’t compare shai to them when it comes to playoff success that’s dumb asl. shai had one shot so far, u makin it like he a choker or sum
genuinely a bad take damn
I was more with you at the start
Hot take: Kawhi would’ve won at least 2 extra chips if he stayed on the raptors. I changed my mind on this after getting in an argument, as at first I definitely disagreed, but after thinking about it he 100% makes the finals in 2020 and probably wins. Misses the finals in 2021, sure. Probably makes it in 2022 and also has a good chance in 2023. Those Raptors teams were still pretty good for a couple years without Kawhi, I mean there was a 4 year stretch where Kawhi, Fred, Pascal and Lowrly were all all-stars. Add Kawhi? I don’t see how they aren’t extremely dominant especially with how weak the East has been up until now.
Hot take: as someone who doesn’t have enough time and can only watch about 30% of nba games, youtubers like rusty, hoop venue, jxmmy, thinking basketball, etc, are the best way to keep up with the nba (better than highlight reels and leagues better than sports center 💀). y’all can call me a casual if y’all want 🤷🏽♂️
Casual
Hot take: Technical fouls should be banned other than getting physical with another player or straight up yelling in a refs face
Hot take : great wing defender is better than great defender at center in the modern era.
This man really said Carmelo couldn’t get to the rim effectively….
Because he couldn’t. Career 59.1% shooter 0-3 feet from the rim, would have been placed him at 223rd place in the league last year, and he only took 28.1% of his shots from 0-3 feet from the rim.
@@Kaigiro you talking stats I’m talking eye test
Hot take: the Timberwolves are the 3rd best team in basketball going into this year. Defense will still be the best in basketball, what you lose in KAT's shooting you gain in Julius being able to get out on fast break better and being able to attack mismatches better, they have 2 6moy candidate level players in Naz and Donte and Ant will take another step.
Hot Take: Kawhi/PG Clippers was not a failure, different franchises have different standards for success, if your team has NEVER made the conference finals, losing in the conference finals can't be a failure. They accomplished more than Lob City ever did but are looked at less fondly because of media narrative.
Hot take: FG% is a bad and outdated stat that should never be used. 2pt% and 3pt% should be separated in the basic box score, with eFG% used more when looking at a players overall efficiency. Combining two shots of unequal value does not make sense. Imagine combining 2 point shots with Free throws, it would drastically misrepresent efficiency. FG% distorts perceptions of players who take higher volume of 3 pointers as their fg% can undersell their efficiency within the arc (ie Steph Curry). Imagine combining 2 point shots with Free throws, it would drastically misrepresent efficiency. FG% distorts perceptions for players who take higher volume of 3 pointers.
Curry has only ever shot 50% FG once in his career, the rest is just because the sheer volume of 3s he takes tanks his fg%.
It’s why I think 50/40/90 is actually a bit overrated cuz it usually means they didn’t have high volume 3pa
@@alphabrother6823 Agreed. Players have shot better in 2pt%/3pt%/ft% splits and overall efg%, ts%, etc than some of the 50-40-90 years, but the 3pt volume just changes the math of the fg%.
It's one of those stats that's factually correct but very misleading, since it's rarely accompanied by the necessary context
wrong, fg% is the most up to date and consistent stat you can use. there is no world where a 70%fg player is inefficient just like a 40%fg player can never be efficient. efg% combines 3s and 2s like they're even remotely similar which makes no sense. a lot of players are boosting their ts% and pps by overshooting 3s like james harden and so they get accurately assessed as inefficient chuckers. steph is teetering on shooting too many 3s and he only gets away with it because he's curry. dame is the best example.
@@alphabrother6823 consdiering 504090 overrated means you have no clue on how the game works. those numbers are the benchmark for efficiency for 2 3s and fts... the onyl jumpshooters that have actually made a difference in the playoffs are all 504090 guys. there is a significance in shooting those splits
@@bboywolf yOu hAvE nO cLuE oN hOw tHe gAmE wOrKs
Brother sga is underrated not overrated
I’m not putting Jimmy over Melo because his role players got insanely hot and that led to a finals run, let’s be serious here
Then, look at their all-around skills sets and impact on the court. Jimmy beats Melo in that regard.
I can’t agree wit butler over Melo 😭😭 but I don’t have a solid enough argument other than consistency to combat that.
hot take: Jalen Brunson is a top 10 player in the league OVER Anthony Edwards. stat wise: last year, regular season AND playoffs, he averaged more points and more assists. he is also more efficient from three and normal fg% with a higher true shooting %.
He’s better than AE but he’s not quite top 10 imo, close to it though
As a former pro, I'm happy to call myself an NBA casual fan, I'm not even from the US. But I hate it when some NBA fanboys are trying to talk about BASKETBALL like they know better.
Coaches know more than most players... players know more about playing the SPORT than most fans, if not all
Hot take: Donte Divincenzo will establish himself as an all star and win MIP
LeClown needs to retire so AD can have some success in LA.
Ben Simmons's biggest issue is that he does not care about basketball. He just likes the money and the perks with it. He never had any real interest to get better. And he's been that way since he was in LSU.
I don't think it's a hot take, but I heard you say the opposite: KAT is a better defender than Julius Randle
Hot take: Luka will never win a chip as the number 1 option.
We’ve seen thought out NBA history that one guy holding the ball for the majority of a possession isn’t a winning formula. It’s the same reason other all time greats like AI, harden, and Melo couldn’t get the job done because a offense that is so reliant on one player will always break down in the playoffs.
Hot Take: We can’t call players generational prospects anymore until victor wembanyama retires