Loving how, on some of these second channel videos, there’s no intro, no typical TH-camry speeches, just straight to the point. I also feel the quality and presentation on both channels has 100% improved in these last few months. Keep it up mate.
earned a sub from this Mavs fan. watching this made me remember how great the Mavs were this season and lifted my spirits after a tough Finals series. really wanted Mavs-Nuggets this year - would’ve been super entertaining but hopefully in the future we can see a Luka vs Jokic playoff series
@@justinrhymes1179 lol he said most clutch tho and there was nothing clutch about Bron passing to G Hill with Curry gaurding him then proceeding to pout on bench prior to OT and only score 2 points in garbage time 😂
Hot take: The suns choosing to extend Quentin Richardson over Joe Johnson in 2005 is one of the most underrated horrible gm decisions and biggest what ifs in nba history. If the suns had a reliable shot creator in crunch time like iso joe, then they easily could have won in 2006 and maybe even in 2007 or 08.
The take about Kobe and Curry having the same level of influence is f-ing wild. Kobe might have had more cultural impact because he is charismatic Lakers player with some strong similarities to MJ, but Curry influence on the actual game is like 10000x greater.
you must be not even 18 years old yet lmfao. Curry happened and people still say Kobe when shooting a basketball or even throwing paper in a trash bin. saying Curry has an argument but it's equal at best to Kobe's influence.
@@haunter93til lol, I'm 35 next month, I've watched the Lakers three-peat live. I dont really like Kobe and I dont really like Curry either, it's not even a preference thing. I just value actual impact on the game a lot more than cultural impact. Cultural impact is just mostly marketing bullshitery and Kobe was a pretty easy guy to market around. Impact on the game is actually other players and coaches recognizing the things you're making as revolutionnary. Kobe is just a slightly worst MJ, he didn't really bring anything new, he was even actually a bit outdated. There is nothing wrong with that tho, but the few times is impact on the game is brought up it's when someone is talking about a ball hog or about a dude taking hard mid-range fadeaways (something that he took from MJ anyways). That's not much. Curry on the other end litteraly changed the game (for better or for worse, that's not even the point).
Hot take: Domantas Sabonis is probably the player whose box score overstates his actual value the most, if you look at his stats he seems like a top 15 player but if you actually watch him play he’s not even top 30.
sabonis is a great basketball player, he is fun to watch, he puts up numbers but while he is a great player to have most teams wouldnt win a lot with him as the second option even if their 1st option is great.
His assists especially are hugely inflated. I’ve seen Sabonis have triple doubles where I couldn’t have remembered a single assist with a gun to my head, and if you watch them back a lot of them are extremely generous calls.
Hot take: Jacob called me a hater earlier in the season during a Hot Takes livestream when I said the Kings would be a play-in team, and look at that, they finished as the 9 seed.
Not-so-hot Take: Most NBA voters don’t even watch basketball. They just scroll Twitter and keep up with the narratives. For example, Stephen A recently said he feels good about the Knicks because players like Grimes have been ballin.. Grimes isn’t even on the Knicks anymore Chris Broussard once kept Avery Bradley out of his defensive teams because “Booker dropped 70 on him” when Avery didn’t even play in that game.. crazy!
@@brendanolson618 I think this narrative started from NBA storyteller some years ago and a lot of people have run with it. It doesn’t help that John Stockton is now crazy conspiracy theorist guy.
@@swpdiscipleA look back at the second part of NBA Storyteller’s video will show that he hypothetically goes through what people would say about John Stockton if he never was the all time assist leader. He compared Stockton to Chauncey Billups; still a pretty darn good player.
@@fortynights1513 fair point. The funny thing is that Chauncey Billups is kinda the dividing line between a true hall of famer (he just got in) and a good player. I still think that’s underrating JS. To me, Chauncey Billups is closer to Terry Porter but if the Trailblazers won in 1990 or 1992.
craziest part is rusty mentioned dame as among the greatest point guards of all time lol bro has never made it to the finals much less come close to being the all time leader in assists and steals
Very Hot Take: The All-Overrated NBA Team PG: Allen Iverson (Inefficient offensively not to mention his defense ) SG: Kobe Bryant (Not top 5 in my opinion whereas some have him top 2-4) SF: Carmelo Anthony (Inefficient/Playoff dropper) PF: Karl Malone (Playoff choker and dropper one of the biggest sellers alongside James Harden) C: Wilt Chamberlain (Padded stats while sacrificing team success before joining the stacked Lakers) One reason they are so beloved is because they have iconic/cool names if Carmelo Anthony was named Tony Smith no one would care
Hot take about Wilt: If he played like 1967 his whole career, then we’d be talking about his shooting splits the same way we talk about his seasons of 40+ points per game.
You did NOT just say Carmelo gets the spotlight just cuz he got a cool name. 💀 Also nobody calls AI a great defender, he’s praised for his character, he took the 76ers to the finals on his own. But most importantly because, like Kyrie, he’s just one of those players whose game is beautiful.
@@Xlaeflicks Volume scorer on mid efficiency, mid rebounder, not a good passer or defender and his playoff numbers drop off from the regular season coming from a Denver fan he is overrated by NBA fans
Hot Take: Trae Young and Dejonte Murray is who everybody thought Luka and Kyrie would be this year. Two ball dominant guards that can’t coexist on the court together.
If anything the Play In has made the regular season more important. The end of the regular season is actually exciting with the Play In given that we have more teams pushing to get a place in for a chance for the playoffs. It's wild that anyone could think otherwise.
I think the regular season should be reduced to 60 or 70 games if they'll keep the play in. It's too many games and injuries will be cut down making for a higher quality product.
@@brendanolson618prolly said Stockton sucks bc he’s a shit person. Just guessing tho, don’t act like I said that and go off on me. You seem like you would do that for some reason lmao
It’s so funny seeing everyone switch up on the play-in. From the moment it was announce I was a fan of it because win or go home games are always fun. I think I was in the minority at that time. It’s refreshing to see people come around on it and recognize how much better it’s made the NBA season/postseason Same with the in season tournament. So many people shitting on it when it was announced and now that it happened and went really well everyone loves it People are way too averse to change. Sometimes the people running the leagues actually know what they’re doing lol
Hot take: I’m sick of his Stockton slander!!!!! To not include Stockton among the best pgs is like not including wilt among your top 10. Yeah he ain’t THE goat but don’t minimize his greatness. His stats are unmatched.
i think his stats are the least impressive thing about him, they are very inflated, he won and won a lot and thats much more important. i dont consider stockton an all time great player but i cant argue with his success. thing is cp3 has won basically just as much and is better as a player since he was the 1st option for portions of his career while stockton was always 2nd.
I agree. Apparently the guy who averaged 17 and 14.5 in a season, all time assists & all time steals leader, & made multiple all defensive teams sucks 😂 but this idiot put Dame Lillard in the top 10 cuz he can make deep 3s. I thought Rusty knew ball pretty well but now I won’t be watching anymore.
@@brendanolson618If there’s one thing about Rusty that I notice: He tends to come off as hating things he finds underscrutinized. He thinks Stockton was a good player (I asked him about Stockton in a stream once, and his view of his potential actually sounded higher than what I expected). But he thinks that Stockton was misutilized and that the career totals he put up were evidence of that misutilization, and he think he’s overrated because the totals are what are most often cited when he’s ranked high all time.
Hot take: If paul pierce was in Jayson Tatum’s position Boston would have at least 2 more titles because Paul Pierce was a more clutch and frankly better player in the Playoffs.
@@isaiahthomas4444 Being humble and saying the truth usually don’t go together well. Pierce has personally worked out with Tatum and wants to have a good relationship with the C’s even after they did him dirty so of course he says that. I tell my little brother he is a better boxer than I ever was and thats also not true
@@ericksoler1221 it's not debatable. Tatum is LITERALLY the better Celtic. Better defender, scorer, rebounder, passer. Tatum is the ONLY dude who averaged 30 w/ great defense and ppl think he's ass 💀. 💩 Take
Hot take: Luka has been a top 5 player in the league since his second year. He was the best player in the first clippers series and at the time Kawhi was seen by many as the #1 player in the world since he had just won in the year before.
@jeune22 Jordan just did a lot more in that time, though. I think that’s the major difference, when you get down to it. Kobe peak, LBJ peak, MJ peak, the other MJ peak, and probably a few others could compete. But those ones specifically I’d probably put over him, especially Bron and MJ (Jordan) Edit: Oh also, even though I agree that Jordan didn’t really have that level of longevity (Wizard years were cool tho), Larry was dealing with injuries a lot during some of those years, but he just pushed through it. By the time the Olympics came around, he was having to do loads of work just to get up and play. MJ on the other hand was completely fine stepping in and out of retirement
Hot take: The NBA should add 4 expansion teams too the Western Conference and move the Grizzlies and the Pelicans in the East too make the East and West more balanced and too deal with how overly competitive the NBA has become compared to 10-20 years ago
The NBA will move the Wolves before they move the Grizzlies or Pelicans. The Wolves have no Western Confrence Team around them and are natural rivals with the Bucks, Bulls, and Pistons. Memphis and NO have other teams close to them in the West.
@@uuh4yj43lmao. Where would they even put 4 teams? Vegas & Seattle I got it…Mexico City is perfect beside for the elevation being way higher than even Denver. So that’s not happening anytime soon plus it’s Mexico and has that stigma. I don’t see any other big market where you’d put an NBA team let alone two. They’re not adding teams unless they’re gonna be + revenue, the owners would never agree to it. Vegas & Seattle would both be above average markets and they’d contribute $ instead of taking it in revenue sharing. Plus they’re already hesitant to cut the pie another two ways, they’re not gonna add 4 teams and dilute their share by 13% or whatever. Not unless some obscenely rich person wanted to give them like $15M for a team in like Kansas City or something and agree to awful terms where they don’t share revenue for the first x years. Just ain’t happening. The NBA is finally at a place where there’s enough talent to add 2 more teams in the next 5-10y. Adding 4 isn’t tenable in any way.
This is probably a colder take compared to others, but Anthony Edwards is pretty much everything Andrew Wiggins should've been, and then some. An athletic wing that can create shots off the dribble, and a walking highlight reel with a dawg mentality. Yeah, Wiggins has a ring and all, but with the talent he had, he should've had at least 2 rings by now. Just goes to show that you need a top tier mentality to actually succeed
I 100% agree with the John Stockton take, I dare ANYONE who thinks otherwise to go watch a single highlight video of this man play during any point of his career, go on, do it... people will bring up his personal accolades, like his assist titles and steal titles, meanwhile the truth is that 90% of his assists came from setting up wide open guys in a set offense, or finding wide open rim running bigs or setting up transition lobs in the open court, as for his steals, and this might admittedly be a hot take, but, you cant convince me that players in the 80's and early 90's knew how to dribble the ball, ok?💀🙏 No shit my mans was getting steal titles when the offensive player is dribbling the ball like its his first time playing the sport...also, its not just Stockton's numbers that are inflatted because of the era, blocks, steals, rebounds and assists were all CRAZY inflated up untill pretty much the late 90's because of be it rules or player skill level...like, ever wonder why NO PLAYER ever averages 16 rebounds anymore? The last guy to do so was fucking Rodman back in 97'...or how no player has averaged 12 assists since Stockton in 95'?...how no player has averaged 4 blocks since Mutombo in 96'?...or maybe how no player has averaged 3 steals since Alvin Robertson in 91'
First off, I’d totally agree that Stockton is overrated (at least by those who refer to him as a top 30 player or so). That said, three questions: 1. What should he be considered better at: passing the ball or stealing it? 2. What’s a player who he should be considered about as good as? 3. Could Victor Wembanyama average four blocks a game at some point?
@@fortynights1513 anyone who says he's top 30 is a joke of a person...also: 1. If you look at the gap between Stockton and the next guy on both the all-time steals and the all-time assist leaderboard, then without giving it too much thought you can easily come to the conclusion that he was a better passer (he is literally THOUSANDS of assists ahead of everyone else💀) 2. Tbh, idk, I'd personally put him in the same class with people like Kidd or Nash, yk, point guards that were REALLY GOOD, but not quite the best, even at their peak 3. Wemby damn near averaged 4 blocks in less than 32 mins a game this season 💀💀💀, he might well do it next season, or at the very least at least in his prime years, whenever those are...also, this is gonna sound like an excuse, and its really not, its just facts, but Wemby is 7"4 with an 8ft wingspan😅, and for the most part bro camps around the paint, again, FOR THE MOST PART! so yeah no shit
@@Minej_MosurisThe gap for assists is a larger percentage than for steals (Jason Kidd has about 82% of Stockton’s steals and about 76% of his assists), so I could see why you would say he was a better passer than pickpocket. The reason why I asked the first question is because whenever people talk about how Stockton played or is overrated, I see more discussion of the assists than the steals, and those who call him overrated don’t typically bring up the steals at all. And him being as good as Nash or Kidd? Interesting. When NBA Storyteller called Stockton overrated in his “no left” video, he argued that he should be considered as good as Chauncey Billups. And while Wemby is very tall obviously, he clearly can defend well, and it’ll be interesting to see how many shots he can block in his career in particular.
@@Minej_MosurisWhat can I say, people sometimes forget that the person that responds to them is an actual human being and not a wall. My general philosophy is not to say anything that I wouldn’t say in person, but that’s just me. Just like people have etiquette at a dinner table, people could probably be taught etiquette on social media; but that’s just my opinion.
Giannis has become so underrated and overlooked and it’s getting out of hand. The argument has become Luka vs Jokic for best in the world despite Giannis having one of the most efficient scoring seasons in NBA History while being a far better defender than either of those guys. Picking them over him by a small margin is fine, but it has become increasingly common for Giannis to not even be mentioned in these conversations. On top of that, ESPN seems to absolutely hate hime and whether they want to admit it or not it seems like the average nba fan and nba youtuber alike have talked about him less and less this season. Its as if he’s been forgotten by some and hated by others through no fault of his own. Love the channel btw!
I feel like touching on wing players in the next main channel vid would be interesting, I know it was touched on in the PF vid, but I can’t help but feel like there could be more to talk about
Hot take: The 2013 finals was better than the 2016 finals and it isn’t close. Everyone’s says the 2016 finals is better but that’s just because of the 3-1 comeback storyline. Every game game in the 16 finals was a blowout except for game 7. Where as in the 2013 finals 3 or 4 of the games in that finals where close. Also game 6 and 7 of the 13 finals were arguably 2 of the best finals series ever and Game 6 of the 13 finals gave of us the second greatest clutch shot in finals history only behind Jordans in the 1998 finals.
I appreciate that Jacob answered my hot take. Yeah, I know it would be brand suicide to trade him. He's my favorite player, so it'd make me sad personally, but I'd also love him to get another ring and he's only got a few more years. Without position idk if we can get any notable help. Getting a superstar with those picks would be unlikely, but it'd give the Warriors a far better chance than Steph retiring, leaving the Dubs with only their picks. They're likely gonna be bad for a generation, probably more. Just hoping we can lower the odds of that happening.
Do you still think Steph is someone who can still be the best player on a championship team in 2025 and beyond? No knock on him, but he’s about to go into his age 37 season. And good question, one of the best in the video
Hot Take: i think joker has the vurry effect when it comes to his team mates where he makes them look so much better then what they are they fit into the system so when it comes to free agency a lot of teams will spend big bucks on them only to under preform on the team the next season
Saying third options today would be title winners 20 years ago is pretty hilarious considering Shaq and Duncan were the 2 best players in 2004. No third option guy on any team now is leading a team past those 2 guys
Hot Take: Defensive advanced stats should basically always be discounted before analyzing player impact by watching the game. Defense is not accurately documented in statistics, and watching a game and seeing what the player does tells you MUCH MUCH more than stats do
As true as this is, more casual fans will probably continue to prefer stats since stats are by far the most accessible information and also much easier to digest than gameplay. This isn't even to knock on casual fans; many people just simply don't have the time to watch EVERY single game. You're right though - what actually happens in games will always be more important than the numbers.
@@sfzndothis and defensive metrics simply aren’t close to as far along as offensive ones. It’s harder to quantify. The stats for Cs are ok, like rim protection numbers and stuff…but even those are very noisy. You should never rely on stats alone regardless, but it’s even worse for defense. I wish there was a way to track rebounding better too, bc there are some guys that don’t box out v well but get infinite boards and ppl think they’re great rebounders. I’m a DET fan and Drummond was a very overrated rebounder. He was good, but not best in the NBA good like some thought. Sabonis is an overrated rebounder for example, he routinely doesn’t box out in crucial moments, gets over the back fouls in the bonus, etc.
I think not all stats are easily understood, especially in conjunction with the on screen action that you’re seeing, but I don’t think they’re bad, especially certain advanced ones, and especially if you’re sort of “balancing” then out with eachother. Consistently, the best defenders and defensive teams rank highly with those stats Edit: Also yeah, there are more particularities with the stats that can be used in the future
Ah cool, thanks man! Shot making because at the end of the day, that’s what the games about. Being able to read a double doesn’t matter if you never draw the double in the first place.
@@dbl-j5185this is why players like luka, jokic, and lebron always torch double teams because they know how to make the right pass out of it and make advanced reads out it by manipulating weakside defenders with their eyes to make the skip pass to corner or to the rolling big man. This is why I’m high on trae young and think he’s better than players like Ant and fox.
hot take: if wemby was on the timberwolves instead of gobert, they would be the clear favorite for the chip. and if rudy was on the spurs they wouldn’t have gotten 20 wins.
Yall like to hate on Rudy it was funny at first but now it's just infuriating. Wemby is the better player but saying Rudy wouldn't get 20 wins with the spurs is disgusting
hot take: young youtubers put recent players like cp3 on top of their all time lists even if they didn't accomplish anything more than one mediocre finals appearence in his whole career rather than players who won or played well because they didn't watch any games before 2000s and media outlets along with nba sponsors told them he's the best 🤷
He was gonna get the MVP in 2008 if Kobe wasn’t there, and otherwise just didn’t really have incredible teams for the most part. More as a negative thought, he has outright choking moments in key Playoffs games, especially with getting the ball stolen or losing it
I usually watch Rusty when I’m folding laundry. I watched his ‘overrated player’ video on my lunch break and was looking for something to watch as i took my clothes out and found this. Used to pray for times like these 👌🏻👌🏻🙏🙏🙏🙏. Thanks for the consistency
Hot Take: Tim Hardaway was just as instrumental to the ball handling evolution as Allen Iverson was. Hardaway was in the league for almost a decade before iverson and became one of the first guys in the league that had a go-to dribble move that always got him a bucket. If you hear people who played against him talk about him, they always say this his crossover was elite and hard to guard. He didn’t invent the crossover, but he was the first player to consistently use it in the league and popularized it for the next generation of players, including iverson
14:30 I think the NBA introduced the Play-in Tournament with an upcoming extension in mind. Probably within the upcoming 5 years we will see 2-6 new teams. Probably 6 Teams, one for each division.
Btw: the second best team in the west does not necessarily mean they have the best shot at beating Denver by default, its also how you match up with Denver.
Hot take: instead of using accomplishments to compare players all time the list should be based off just which player was more talented and an overall better basketball player.
Hot take: Cavs should have put Evan Mobley in the Donovan Mitchell trade instead of Lauri Markkanen. Lauri is a way better fit in the current Cavs offense and is just overall better than Mobley right now. Evan doesn’t fit with Allen at all and can’t space the floor consistently. But idk, would love to get your opinion on this. Love the content btw.
Hot take: there should be a certain amount of difference In the 9th and 8th seed to have a play in in that conference. Any team could loose one game and if a bad team beats a good team that could rob us of a good 1st round series
Hot take: Prime Tmac v Prime Kobe is a wash talent wise. Switch them and I think things go very similarly for them with no injuries. But peak vs peak, I think Tracy was on Kobes level.
I like the play-in a lot. But i think there should be a rule where if a team is x amount of games behind they should not get in. for example this year in the east i think miami and philly should play between them for the 7th and 8th seed. In that way u reward teams for playing well in the regular season and not only consider placement (then the bulls and hawks would have to catch them to get in the play-in). I hope my point was clear😅
Hot Take: John Wall will make the hall of fame. Even though he was a 5 time all star, there have been players who have been an all star a few times like 5 for instance and I think he will make it in.
Hot Take: Small market and most longtime owners are the biggest problem in the NBA right now. Most of the messed up cap space shenanigans have originated from these owners lobbying the NBA to incentivize home grown talent from staying only to cheap out on the home grown talent (like when MJ lobbied for the supermax) and the ineptitude of these franchises doesn't boil down to having small markets but the owners not only refusing to invest in the payroll of the players but investing in cheap (and usually bad) front office personnel, scouting, coaching. These effects mostly just punish the teams that have been able to effectively run a team
I think Chris Paul has definitely tarnished his career these past couple years. I still think he could be top 3, but most people won’t since it’s all recency bias. I can’t defend him fully though because he doesn’t have a ring and that matters. I think if you want to be one of the greatest players to ever play, you need to have at least one ring and not a ring like Tracy McGrady has.
He made a video a few years back about it, but if he has more thoughts to add, it could be an interesting video, and for some people, a thought they haven’t seen him fully express.
Also side note about Thomas: He still averaged 9 assists per game in one of the championship seasons, which is a lot for the most common passer on a title team. As for high assist totals, apart from the passing abilities of the players who put them up, it’s considered an indicator that your team’s offensive scheme is too predictable and easy to disrupt because everyone would just guard all the players other than the point guard. I guess people didn’t grasp the concept that more assists (without any other context) does not mean the player is a better passer.
hot take: the knicks will make the finals and the wcf between the nuggets and mavs will go 7 games and so will the nba finals and the ecf between the celtics and knicks
This take is from @whatshorts but I did kind of think of this before he made a video about it. Coaches are almost useless in the nba when you’re coaching a legend like Lebron James or Kevin Durant, Giannis(etc). Lebron knows more how to win than a rookie pro coach and most coaches in the nba so what makes you think he’ll even listen to them? You can also have the best coach in the nba like Greg Poppovich but he won’t take a team like the pistons to the playoffs no matter how good the coach is. Any other pro leagues, college or high school need a good coach but at the highest level of the nba, ego and talent makes coaching inneffective.
Hot Take: This shouldn’t even be considered a hot take but with the way people talk about him it is: Jayson Tatum is clutch. He had a lackluster showing in his first finals appearance at 25 years old, while nursing an injury, and since then people have acted like he has always been un clutch and garbage in the playoffs, which verifiably not true. People love to gloss over the fact that he single-handedly won the sixers series last year, scoring 16 in the 4th quarter of game 6 after having an awful first three quarters. He then proceeded to drop 51 in game 7, the most in history. He also has the 50 point playoff game against the super team nets when Jaylen brown was injured and the Celtics had no chance at winning. 46 point game 6 against the bucks. He took the Celtics to game 7 against the lebron cavs as a rookie and was the Celtics’ best player in that run. He was one point off of Kareem’s record for most playoff points as a rookie. He is a great defender and has multiple clutch defensive plays throughout his career. I can go on. The narrative that he’s overrated and not clutch is bullshit and only exists because he plays for the Celtics and is a Kobe fan
I hear that Tatum is inconsistent in the playoffs more than “not clutch” typically. Also, he was injured in the finals? What was hurt? And when people talk about clutch performance, I rarely see defensive plays brought up (aside from a few highlight blocks). I once commented that he should be fifth in the MVP voting (behind Luka, Shai, Jokic and Giannis; though not necessarily in that order), and someone told me that Anthony Edwards should be ahead of him. I’ve also heard that Jalen Brunson could be ahead of him in the MVP vote. Either way, sounds like a really good player who is probably a tier below the best of the best.
Chris paul over Isaiah is crazy. Post season achievement is the most important legacy you can have. Chris paul is choker. You can be most talented player of all time but if you choke most of time in playoffs. You are not top 3 point guard of all time. you trippin.
Hot take: the NBA needs to reform the play in. If a team is a ninth seed and finishes under 500 they don’t qualify. The playin should only be triggered if a team finishes with at least 41 wins
Hot take: I feel like Giannis is probably the most weirdly discussed player in the top 30 of all time. When people talk about him, they start with his shortcomings (there are evident, but I think that makes him even greater if you think how much he’s dominating despite them). Also, they fail to mention that in 2022 Celtics series, Middleton was injured and Brook Lopez was coming off an injury (and was bad). Not mentioning that Jrue Holiday was horrific. They also fail to mention that he got badly injured in 2023 against the Heat, which affected his performance in the series. I have no issues with Jokic and Doncic which I love, but when they are missing players or are injured, seems like they get more passes than Giannis. Just my thoughts 💭
Minnesota is Denver’s biggest opponent. Are they the second best team in the west? No probably not, however I feel they matchup against Denver far better than any other team in the association. If Denver falls (and I don’t think they will) it’ll be to Minnesota.
Hot take: the talent discrepancy across the board is actually insane between right now and the very recent past. If the 2018 knicks went against the 2024 pistons, the pistons would win 99/100 times and the knicks had a better record that year with their stat leader Marcus Morris being traded half way through the year.
Hot take: the talent discrepancy across the board is actually insane between right now and the very recent past. If you have 1 all star and some decent players around them today you are the 10th or 11th seed. Throughout nba history until like 2022 yoi could be a 3 to 7 seed with that same exact roster
Hot take: the kings disrespect needs to stop. Fox is a star and the biggest all star snub of the last 10 years. Saboins does not have empty stats they directly contribute to winning and Monk is the perfect explosion of the bench. No team has better energy or chemistry
Hot Take: "Revisionist history" is rarely a thing. Usually, the mistakes come from people who didn't see the event (not fans yet, too young, etc.) who don't know the intangibles involved and just look at the stats.
This is part of it, but another part is people simply taking a certain narrative too far to the point where they actually create false scenarios. (Example: Joel's mvp being said to only won cause of race despite Everyone in the NBA world calling out the singular man who said that point. Or something like Chris Paul "playing poorly in the finals" just to name a few)
Hot Take: just want to add something about Dallas. They have been a completely different team since the trade deadline. Since then, they are a top 5 defensive rating, and they have the 2nd best record in the league. I could easily see Dallas beating Denver
Hot take: Evan Mobley can still be a top big man in the next 4 years, but the cavs need to run more offense through him. If they can keep Donovan, Even needs to eventually become the second option over Garland.
I don't know if it's a hot take but I am from Europe and I have never heard of the sacramento kings. I know nothing about them they do not exist to me. Everytime I look at the list of NBA teams I am surprised by them. They need to up their marketing or something idk. Sorry if they're your team.
Hot take: Jokic is going to become the new Larry Bird. Here's what I mean. You know how in the draft whenever there is a tall white guy that can shoot nearly every comparison they get is "Larry Bird" when in reality they're a role player at best or out of the league within a couple years? I think Jokic is going to be the Euro version of Larry Bird in that regard. Anytime a tall, white European player is on the draft board that can pass a little, score a good amount and rebound, he's going to be called the "next Jokic." I'd also say the same effect will happen with Luka for white, European guards.
Hot Take: Rudy Gobert is a massively overrated defender and was a large reason for the Jazz never being a serious contender. By extension the T-Wolves are a first/second round bounce largely because of him. Wemby is 100% the DPOY, and it pisses me off that he’ll be put into conversations he does NOT belong in because of all the DPOYs he’s won. Ben Wallace clears him
They went 6 games with the Champ Nuggets in 2023, and at least look to be getting to the 2nd round this year. Not that there aren’t other factors for them winning, but it’s him. And he didn’t have anything close to the caliber of defenders on his team during the Jazz years
Duncan Spurs, Kobe Lakers, Magic Lakers, Jordan Bulls, Nowitzki Mavs, Bird Celtics, Jokic Nuggets and if we go with championless players, Ewing Knicks, Miller Indiana
Hot Take: Kevin Durant's championships should not be devalued based on his decision to go to the Warriors. The Warriors were a 73 win team and lost in the finals. Naturally, in any sport, when you lose, you look to get better. Its the nature of sports in general. Teams always attempt to stockpile the most talent possible to win. I get the warriors without KD proved they could win but after losing to the cavs what else were they gonna do? And why should KD have chosen to go to a lesser team? Who criticizes the Dodgers or their players for the amount of money they spent to win a Champiomship? Or the LA Rams and any of their players who went all in to win a championship by spending as much as they could to stack the deck? Real Madrid and their galaticos dont get criticized for stacking the deck. Teams like PSG dont get criticized for stacking the deck either. PSG is criticized for stacking the deck and losing. The Yankees are no different. Assessing KDs greatness as lesser based on his decisions and circumstances is completely fair. But devaluing his championships like some people do just doesnt make sense to me.
Hot Take: I genuinely believe that the NBA needs to get rid of conferences or expand the league. The 1 and the 2 seed in the east being a 14 game difference and then the west almost having a 3 way tie for first while also having a 9th and 10th seed with 45+ wins battling for a play in spot when the east has the 39 win hawks and 36 win bulls playing for a play in is ridiculous to me. get rid of conferences!!!
Hot take: the only way Donovan Mitchell stays in Cleveland past this season (after a likely short playoff run) is if the Cavs sign Bronny and Lebron comes to Cleveland. Lebron fits with Cleveland’s roster beautifully, brings legendary leadership, and would give the Cavs their first true shot at contention during his tenure on the team.
Hot take: JaVale McGee could have been All-Time rim protecter but he had too many lapses in his younger days and the game evolved away from his play style into his prime and later years. Leading to him essentially being played off the floor during meaningful minutes.
i think isaiah thomas was interdental to ball handling but he wasn’t the one to change the game. it was pete maravich. He became arguably the best college player of all time using his dribbling and shooting and a lot of other players emulated what he was doing. then you have guys like thomas and tim hardaway who iterated on it before iverson blew up the league and changed the game for good
Loving how, on some of these second channel videos, there’s no intro, no typical TH-camry speeches, just straight to the point.
I also feel the quality and presentation on both channels has 100% improved in these last few months. Keep it up mate.
earned a sub from this Mavs fan. watching this made me remember how great the Mavs were this season and lifted my spirits after a tough Finals series. really wanted Mavs-Nuggets this year - would’ve been super entertaining but hopefully in the future we can see a Luka vs Jokic playoff series
Isaiah scored 25 points in a quarter on a messed up ankle in a Finals Game.
That was the most clutch performance in defeat that ever happened.
He deserves to be respected for sure, but Chris Paul's longevity is definitely to be respected as well.
Lebrons 51 in 2018 might have something to say about that last point
Him or Draymomd in 2016 game 7
@@justinrhymes1179 Bron wasn’t injured. Zeke did his damage on 1 foot.
@@justinrhymes1179 lol he said most clutch tho and there was nothing clutch about Bron passing to G Hill with Curry gaurding him then proceeding to pout on bench prior to OT and only score 2 points in garbage time 😂
Hot take: The suns choosing to extend Quentin Richardson over Joe Johnson in 2005 is one of the most underrated horrible gm decisions and biggest what ifs in nba history. If the suns had a reliable shot creator in crunch time like iso joe, then they easily could have won in 2006 and maybe even in 2007 or 08.
what an insane take...i love it
Joe was looking for a max, he's not worth a max
@@opiniononionthey didn't even give Amare Stoudemire the max
They had no defense they weren’t winning 💩
agree agree agree
especially how Q performed in post seasons.
The take about Kobe and Curry having the same level of influence is f-ing wild. Kobe might have had more cultural impact because he is charismatic Lakers player with some strong similarities to MJ, but Curry influence on the actual game is like 10000x greater.
Kobe impact/influence on the people is greater than curry impact
i think he meant cultural
you must be not even 18 years old yet lmfao. Curry happened and people still say Kobe when shooting a basketball or even throwing paper in a trash bin. saying Curry has an argument but it's equal at best to Kobe's influence.
@@haunter93tilCultural influence it's Kobe over Steph for sure, but, Curry influence on the actual game of basketball is matched by none in history.
@@haunter93til lol, I'm 35 next month, I've watched the Lakers three-peat live. I dont really like Kobe and I dont really like Curry either, it's not even a preference thing.
I just value actual impact on the game a lot more than cultural impact. Cultural impact is just mostly marketing bullshitery and Kobe was a pretty easy guy to market around. Impact on the game is actually other players and coaches recognizing the things you're making as revolutionnary.
Kobe is just a slightly worst MJ, he didn't really bring anything new, he was even actually a bit outdated. There is nothing wrong with that tho, but the few times is impact on the game is brought up it's when someone is talking about a ball hog or about a dude taking hard mid-range fadeaways (something that he took from MJ anyways). That's not much.
Curry on the other end litteraly changed the game (for better or for worse, that's not even the point).
Hot take: Domantas Sabonis is probably the player whose box score overstates his actual value the most, if you look at his stats he seems like a top 15 player but if you actually watch him play he’s not even top 30.
Tbh hes just a better offensive version of steven adams
Yuppp and EPM agrees
sabonis is a great basketball player, he is fun to watch, he puts up numbers but while he is a great player to have most teams wouldnt win a lot with him as the second option even if their 1st option is great.
@@uuh4yj43 i feel like he would be so great for the warriors
His assists especially are hugely inflated. I’ve seen Sabonis have triple doubles where I couldn’t have remembered a single assist with a gun to my head, and if you watch them back a lot of them are extremely generous calls.
Hot take: Jacob called me a hater earlier in the season during a Hot Takes livestream when I said the Kings would be a play-in team, and look at that, they finished as the 9 seed.
Hot take: The 2018 draft class will go down as a top 3 draft class of all time ( The same draft class Rusty horribly evaluated coming into the league)
Lol a draft headlined by Luka, SGA and Brunson isn't top 5 let alone top 3
84, 96, and 03 alone guarantees that it won’t reach top 3, has a chance at top 5 tho
He horribly evaluates most drafts because he even admits he doesn’t really pay attention to players until they get to the league.
@@goddammitnappa1617 can you evaluate ? Like with a long was message listing the names and arguments for your case?
That's be cool
@@tdup191Grayson Allen?
Not-so-hot Take: Most NBA voters don’t even watch basketball. They just scroll Twitter and keep up with the narratives.
For example,
Stephen A recently said he feels good about the Knicks because players like Grimes have been ballin.. Grimes isn’t even on the Knicks anymore
Chris Broussard once kept Avery Bradley out of his defensive teams because “Booker dropped 70 on him” when Avery didn’t even play in that game.. crazy!
a lot don't even go on Twitter like what's Twitter but do agree most don't watch games though.
John Stockton definitely doesn’t suck.
I couldn’t believe he said that bs lol
@@brendanolson618 I think this narrative started from NBA storyteller some years ago and a lot of people have run with it. It doesn’t help that John Stockton is now crazy conspiracy theorist guy.
@@swpdiscipleA look back at the second part of NBA Storyteller’s video will show that he hypothetically goes through what people would say about John Stockton if he never was the all time assist leader.
He compared Stockton to Chauncey Billups; still a pretty darn good player.
@@fortynights1513 fair point. The funny thing is that Chauncey Billups is kinda the dividing line between a true hall of famer (he just got in) and a good player. I still think that’s underrating JS. To me, Chauncey Billups is closer to Terry Porter but if the Trailblazers won in 1990 or 1992.
craziest part is rusty mentioned dame as among the greatest point guards of all time lol bro has never made it to the finals much less come close to being the all time leader in assists and steals
Very Hot Take: The All-Overrated NBA Team
PG: Allen Iverson (Inefficient offensively not to mention his defense )
SG: Kobe Bryant (Not top 5 in my opinion whereas some have him top 2-4)
SF: Carmelo Anthony (Inefficient/Playoff dropper)
PF: Karl Malone (Playoff choker and dropper one of the biggest sellers alongside James Harden)
C: Wilt Chamberlain (Padded stats while sacrificing team success before joining the stacked Lakers)
One reason they are so beloved is because they have iconic/cool names if Carmelo Anthony was named Tony Smith no one would care
Hot take about Wilt: If he played like 1967 his whole career, then we’d be talking about his shooting splits the same way we talk about his seasons of 40+ points per game.
Also sixth man: Jamal Crawford
And coach: Doc Rivers
You did NOT just say Carmelo gets the spotlight just cuz he got a cool name. 💀 Also nobody calls AI a great defender, he’s praised for his character, he took the 76ers to the finals on his own. But most importantly because, like Kyrie, he’s just one of those players whose game is beautiful.
@@Xlaeflicks Volume scorer on mid efficiency, mid rebounder, not a good passer or defender and his playoff numbers drop off from the regular season coming from a Denver fan he is overrated by NBA fans
Who gives a shit about your opinion?
😂😂😂
Hot Take: Trae Young and Dejonte Murray is who everybody thought Luka and Kyrie would be this year. Two ball dominant guards that can’t coexist on the court together.
If anything the Play In has made the regular season more important. The end of the regular season is actually exciting with the Play In given that we have more teams pushing to get a place in for a chance for the playoffs. It's wild that anyone could think otherwise.
I think the regular season should be reduced to 60 or 70 games if they'll keep the play in. It's too many games and injuries will be cut down making for a higher quality product.
Where did dames name come from on the all time point guard list💀💀
Bro said that shit and said John Stockton sucks. These people are clowns
???
@@brendanolson618prolly said Stockton sucks bc he’s a shit person. Just guessing tho, don’t act like I said that and go off on me. You seem like you would do that for some reason lmao
Dame is a top 12 PG of all time
@@brendanolson618trust, Stockton is hella overrated. Doesn’t take a genius to pick and roll with Karl Malone lol
Hot take: people will look back years from now and call this Luka mvp snub one of the worst mvp decisions in league history
🧊
Lol
Shut up. No one cares. Jokic is just as good on a better team.
The correct take not hot
This is a fact bro the fact it’s happening and this is already the consensus shows the system is fucked
It’s so funny seeing everyone switch up on the play-in. From the moment it was announce I was a fan of it because win or go home games are always fun. I think I was in the minority at that time. It’s refreshing to see people come around on it and recognize how much better it’s made the NBA season/postseason
Same with the in season tournament. So many people shitting on it when it was announced and now that it happened and went really well everyone loves it
People are way too averse to change. Sometimes the people running the leagues actually know what they’re doing lol
If I averaged 100 points for an entire playoff series and still lost I'd quit basketball.
Basketball isn't just an offense though. Why do you think most get starters from outer leagues who emphasize defense.
R/Whoosh
Hot take: I’m sick of his Stockton slander!!!!! To not include Stockton among the best pgs is like not including wilt among your top 10. Yeah he ain’t THE goat but don’t minimize his greatness. His stats are unmatched.
Lol the fact he has CP3 rated higher than Stockton made me unsub
He doesn’t think much of the original idea of a point guard to my knowledge
i think his stats are the least impressive thing about him, they are very inflated, he won and won a lot and thats much more important. i dont consider stockton an all time great player but i cant argue with his success. thing is cp3 has won basically just as much and is better as a player since he was the 1st option for portions of his career while stockton was always 2nd.
I agree. Apparently the guy who averaged 17 and 14.5 in a season, all time assists & all time steals leader, & made multiple all defensive teams sucks 😂 but this idiot put Dame Lillard in the top 10 cuz he can make deep 3s. I thought Rusty knew ball pretty well but now I won’t be watching anymore.
@@brendanolson618If there’s one thing about Rusty that I notice:
He tends to come off as hating things he finds underscrutinized.
He thinks Stockton was a good player (I asked him about Stockton in a stream once, and his view of his potential actually sounded higher than what I expected). But he thinks that Stockton was misutilized and that the career totals he put up were evidence of that misutilization, and he think he’s overrated because the totals are what are most often cited when he’s ranked high all time.
Hot take: If paul pierce was in Jayson Tatum’s position Boston would have at least 2 more titles because Paul Pierce was a more clutch and frankly better player in the Playoffs.
Pierce is largely thought of as a meme. But the man was clutch
Paul Pierce has even said he's not better than Tatum. This level of hate is crazy 😂😂😂
@@isaiahthomas4444 Being humble and saying the truth usually don’t go together well. Pierce has personally worked out with Tatum and wants to have a good relationship with the C’s even after they did him dirty so of course he says that. I tell my little brother he is a better boxer than I ever was and thats also not true
@@Daro7200 Paul Pierce the analyst is a joke more often than not but Paul pierce the player was one of the most cold blooded shot makers of all time
@@ericksoler1221 it's not debatable. Tatum is LITERALLY the better Celtic. Better defender, scorer, rebounder, passer. Tatum is the ONLY dude who averaged 30 w/ great defense and ppl think he's ass 💀. 💩 Take
Hot take: Luka has been a top 5 player in the league since his second year. He was the best player in the first clippers series and at the time Kawhi was seen by many as the #1 player in the world since he had just won in the year before.
Arguably.
That's really cold
Hot Take: birds prime from 84-89 stacks up against almost anyones and the only reason he isnt top 3-5 is because of longevity
Wouldn't say that's a hot take
@@Bqbackup idk a lot of people dont put bird in all time convos, like hes better than kobe but nobody views him that way
@jeune22
Jordan just did a lot more in that time, though. I think that’s the major difference, when you get down to it. Kobe peak, LBJ peak, MJ peak, the other MJ peak, and probably a few others could compete. But those ones specifically I’d probably put over him, especially Bron and MJ (Jordan)
Edit: Oh also, even though I agree that Jordan didn’t really have that level of longevity (Wizard years were cool tho), Larry was dealing with injuries a lot during some of those years, but he just pushed through it. By the time the Olympics came around, he was having to do loads of work just to get up and play. MJ on the other hand was completely fine stepping in and out of retirement
Hot take: The NBA should add 4 expansion teams too the Western Conference and move the Grizzlies and the Pelicans in the East too make the East and West more balanced and too deal with how overly competitive the NBA has become compared to 10-20 years ago
to only needs one o
also I want to say I posted this on the last one and like a two days later Sporting Logically had this same take which I though was hilarious
The NBA will move the Wolves before they move the Grizzlies or Pelicans. The Wolves have no Western Confrence Team around them and are natural rivals with the Bucks, Bulls, and Pistons. Memphis and NO have other teams close to them in the West.
lets make the league shittier speedrun
@@uuh4yj43lmao. Where would they even put 4 teams? Vegas & Seattle I got it…Mexico City is perfect beside for the elevation being way higher than even Denver. So that’s not happening anytime soon plus it’s Mexico and has that stigma. I don’t see any other big market where you’d put an NBA team let alone two. They’re not adding teams unless they’re gonna be + revenue, the owners would never agree to it.
Vegas & Seattle would both be above average markets and they’d contribute $ instead of taking it in revenue sharing. Plus they’re already hesitant to cut the pie another two ways, they’re not gonna add 4 teams and dilute their share by 13% or whatever. Not unless some obscenely rich person wanted to give them like $15M for a team in like Kansas City or something and agree to awful terms where they don’t share revenue for the first x years. Just ain’t happening.
The NBA is finally at a place where there’s enough talent to add 2 more teams in the next 5-10y. Adding 4 isn’t tenable in any way.
This is probably a colder take compared to others, but Anthony Edwards is pretty much everything Andrew Wiggins should've been, and then some. An athletic wing that can create shots off the dribble, and a walking highlight reel with a dawg mentality. Yeah, Wiggins has a ring and all, but with the talent he had, he should've had at least 2 rings by now. Just goes to show that you need a top tier mentality to actually succeed
The Warriors lost some crucial players from their chamionship in the following off-season after they won it.
I 100% agree with the John Stockton take, I dare ANYONE who thinks otherwise to go watch a single highlight video of this man play during any point of his career, go on, do it... people will bring up his personal accolades, like his assist titles and steal titles, meanwhile the truth is that 90% of his assists came from setting up wide open guys in a set offense, or finding wide open rim running bigs or setting up transition lobs in the open court, as for his steals, and this might admittedly be a hot take, but, you cant convince me that players in the 80's and early 90's knew how to dribble the ball, ok?💀🙏 No shit my mans was getting steal titles when the offensive player is dribbling the ball like its his first time playing the sport...also, its not just Stockton's numbers that are inflatted because of the era, blocks, steals, rebounds and assists were all CRAZY inflated up untill pretty much the late 90's because of be it rules or player skill level...like, ever wonder why NO PLAYER ever averages 16 rebounds anymore? The last guy to do so was fucking Rodman back in 97'...or how no player has averaged 12 assists since Stockton in 95'?...how no player has averaged 4 blocks since Mutombo in 96'?...or maybe how no player has averaged 3 steals since Alvin Robertson in 91'
First off, I’d totally agree that Stockton is overrated (at least by those who refer to him as a top 30 player or so).
That said, three questions:
1. What should he be considered better at: passing the ball or stealing it?
2. What’s a player who he should be considered about as good as?
3. Could Victor Wembanyama average four blocks a game at some point?
@@fortynights1513 anyone who says he's top 30 is a joke of a person...also:
1. If you look at the gap between Stockton and the next guy on both the all-time steals and the all-time assist leaderboard, then without giving it too much thought you can easily come to the conclusion that he was a better passer (he is literally THOUSANDS of assists ahead of everyone else💀)
2. Tbh, idk, I'd personally put him in the same class with people like Kidd or Nash, yk, point guards that were REALLY GOOD, but not quite the best, even at their peak
3. Wemby damn near averaged 4 blocks in less than 32 mins a game this season 💀💀💀, he might well do it next season, or at the very least at least in his prime years, whenever those are...also, this is gonna sound like an excuse, and its really not, its just facts, but Wemby is 7"4 with an 8ft wingspan😅, and for the most part bro camps around the paint, again, FOR THE MOST PART! so yeah no shit
@@Minej_MosurisThe gap for assists is a larger percentage than for steals (Jason Kidd has about 82% of Stockton’s steals and about 76% of his assists), so I could see why you would say he was a better passer than pickpocket.
The reason why I asked the first question is because whenever people talk about how Stockton played or is overrated, I see more discussion of the assists than the steals, and those who call him overrated don’t typically bring up the steals at all.
And him being as good as Nash or Kidd? Interesting. When NBA Storyteller called Stockton overrated in his “no left” video, he argued that he should be considered as good as Chauncey Billups.
And while Wemby is very tall obviously, he clearly can defend well, and it’ll be interesting to see how many shots he can block in his career in particular.
@@fortynights1513 this finna sound random af, but I cant belive we're genuinely having a civilized discussion😭... thought that was impossible in 2024
@@Minej_MosurisWhat can I say, people sometimes forget that the person that responds to them is an actual human being and not a wall.
My general philosophy is not to say anything that I wouldn’t say in person, but that’s just me.
Just like people have etiquette at a dinner table, people could probably be taught etiquette on social media; but that’s just my opinion.
Giannis has become so underrated and overlooked and it’s getting out of hand. The argument has become Luka vs Jokic for best in the world despite Giannis having one of the most efficient scoring seasons in NBA History while being a far better defender than either of those guys. Picking them over him by a small margin is fine, but it has become increasingly common for Giannis to not even be mentioned in these conversations. On top of that, ESPN seems to absolutely hate hime and whether they want to admit it or not it seems like the average nba fan and nba youtuber alike have talked about him less and less this season. Its as if he’s been forgotten by some and hated by others through no fault of his own. Love the channel btw!
I feel like touching on wing players in the next main channel vid would be interesting, I know it was touched on in the PF vid, but I can’t help but feel like there could be more to talk about
Thanks for including my take
Are you a basketball prophet?
@@jeffgauthier725 yes
Hot take: The 2013 finals was better than the 2016 finals and it isn’t close. Everyone’s says the 2016 finals is better but that’s just because of the 3-1 comeback storyline. Every game game in the 16 finals was a blowout except for game 7. Where as in the 2013 finals 3 or 4 of the games in that finals where close. Also game 6 and 7 of the 13 finals were arguably 2 of the best finals series ever and Game 6 of the 13 finals gave of us the second greatest clutch shot in finals history only behind Jordans in the 1998 finals.
The ray allen shot is the clutchest shot in nba history.
Way more on the line with ray allens shot lol, drop the nostalgia goggles
The jordan shot was more iconic but not as clutch as the ray shot
I appreciate that Jacob answered my hot take.
Yeah, I know it would be brand suicide to trade him. He's my favorite player, so it'd make me sad personally, but I'd also love him to get another ring and he's only got a few more years. Without position idk if we can get any notable help.
Getting a superstar with those picks would be unlikely, but it'd give the Warriors a far better chance than Steph retiring, leaving the Dubs with only their picks.
They're likely gonna be bad for a generation, probably more. Just hoping we can lower the odds of that happening.
Do you still think Steph is someone who can still be the best player on a championship team in 2025 and beyond?
No knock on him, but he’s about to go into his age 37 season.
And good question, one of the best in the video
Hot Take: i think joker has the vurry effect when it comes to his team mates where he makes them look so much better then what they are they fit into the system so when it comes to free agency a lot of teams will spend big bucks on them only to under preform on the team the next season
Saying third options today would be title winners 20 years ago is pretty hilarious considering Shaq and Duncan were the 2 best players in 2004. No third option guy on any team now is leading a team past those 2 guys
Kobe, KG, and Dirk were high bars to clear too.
Hot take: Jared Butler will be the starting PG on the Wizards next year
Hot take: magic in the modern nba would be Ben Simmons plus 2 or 3ppg. Two big point guards with great playmaking ability and solid defenders.
The play in was a fantastic league format addition.
Hot Take: Defensive advanced stats should basically always be discounted before analyzing player impact by watching the game. Defense is not accurately documented in statistics, and watching a game and seeing what the player does tells you MUCH MUCH more than stats do
As true as this is, more casual fans will probably continue to prefer stats since stats are by far the most accessible information and also much easier to digest than gameplay.
This isn't even to knock on casual fans; many people just simply don't have the time to watch EVERY single game. You're right though - what actually happens in games will always be more important than the numbers.
@@sfzndothis and defensive metrics simply aren’t close to as far along as offensive ones. It’s harder to quantify. The stats for Cs are ok, like rim protection numbers and stuff…but even those are very noisy. You should never rely on stats alone regardless, but it’s even worse for defense.
I wish there was a way to track rebounding better too, bc there are some guys that don’t box out v well but get infinite boards and ppl think they’re great rebounders. I’m a DET fan and Drummond was a very overrated rebounder. He was good, but not best in the NBA good like some thought. Sabonis is an overrated rebounder for example, he routinely doesn’t box out in crucial moments, gets over the back fouls in the bonus, etc.
I think not all stats are easily understood, especially in conjunction with the on screen action that you’re seeing, but I don’t think they’re bad, especially certain advanced ones, and especially if you’re sort of “balancing” then out with eachother.
Consistently, the best defenders and defensive teams rank highly with those stats
Edit: Also yeah, there are more particularities with the stats that can be used in the future
Hot take: being able to read a double-team is the second most important skill for an offensive star
What's the first? Shooting? Dribbling? Iq? Athleticism? I'm not disagreeing with you I just wanna know.
@@dbl-j5185 iq most likely. The league's top players all have great iq
Ah cool, thanks man! Shot making because at the end of the day, that’s what the games about. Being able to read a double doesn’t matter if you never draw the double in the first place.
Iq basically
@@dbl-j5185this is why players like luka, jokic, and lebron always torch double teams because they know how to make the right pass out of it and make advanced reads out it by manipulating weakside defenders with their eyes to make the skip pass to corner or to the rolling big man. This is why I’m high on trae young and think he’s better than players like Ant and fox.
hot take: if wemby was on the timberwolves instead of gobert, they would be the clear favorite for the chip. and if rudy was on the spurs they wouldn’t have gotten 20 wins.
Fax
Yall like to hate on Rudy it was funny at first but now it's just infuriating. Wemby is the better player but saying Rudy wouldn't get 20 wins with the spurs is disgusting
@@Ash38122 Who would put up Wemby's numbers for the Spurs? Because it sure as shit isn't gonna be Rudy
@@Ash38122they only got 22 and Rudy won’t score so I think it’s perfectly fair
hot take: young youtubers put recent players like cp3 on top of their all time lists even if they didn't accomplish anything more than one mediocre finals appearence in his whole career rather than players who won or played well because they didn't watch any games before 2000s and media outlets along with nba sponsors told them he's the best 🤷
Who should Chris Paul be considered about as good as in your opinion?
He was gonna get the MVP in 2008 if Kobe wasn’t there, and otherwise just didn’t really have incredible teams for the most part.
More as a negative thought, he has outright choking moments in key Playoffs games, especially with getting the ball stolen or losing it
Hot take: Luka is already higher all time than Damian Lillard
Obviously.
It's not even a hot take bruh, it's facts
This is not a hot take, it's just glazing😅
That ain’t a hot take fam
Hot take: Killian Hayes should win MVP this season and if you don't vote for him you DON"T know ball
corny comment
Nah I’d have to go with Thanasis Antetokounmpo
I usually watch Rusty when I’m folding laundry. I watched his ‘overrated player’ video on my lunch break and was looking for something to watch as i took my clothes out and found this. Used to pray for times like these 👌🏻👌🏻🙏🙏🙏🙏. Thanks for the consistency
Me and my boi will keep walking to the awards as they keep discussing how they don’t love our 11 chips
Hot Take: Tim Hardaway was just as instrumental to the ball handling evolution as Allen Iverson was. Hardaway was in the league for almost a decade before iverson and became one of the first guys in the league that had a go-to dribble move that always got him a bucket. If you hear people who played against him talk about him, they always say this his crossover was elite and hard to guard. He didn’t invent the crossover, but he was the first player to consistently use it in the league and popularized it for the next generation of players, including iverson
The UTEP 2 Step
14:30 I think the NBA introduced the Play-in Tournament with an upcoming extension in mind. Probably within the upcoming 5 years we will see 2-6 new teams. Probably 6 Teams, one for each division.
Honestly the play in has made the regular season better, getting above a 7th seed is super valuable
My hot take was that mavs hot take. I honestly think it could be their year
sizzle take: rusty is one of the most underrated sports channels on youtube 👑
Jason Kidd might be one of the most underrated players of all time
Btw: the second best team in the west does not necessarily mean they have the best shot at beating Denver by default, its also how you match up with Denver.
Grant williams is one of the most underrated modern day defenders
Hot take: instead of using accomplishments to compare players all time the list should be based off just which player was more talented and an overall better basketball player.
Hot take: Cavs should have put Evan Mobley in the Donovan Mitchell trade instead of Lauri Markkanen. Lauri is a way better fit in the current Cavs offense and is just overall better than Mobley right now. Evan doesn’t fit with Allen at all and can’t space the floor consistently. But idk, would love to get your opinion on this. Love the content btw.
Mitchell waa never staying long term. Trade him and Allen then rebuild around Garland and Mobley
@@tdup191 i feel like he might tho if the cavs can make it to the second round and at least put up a good fight against Boston
@@compched5358 rumor is only a Finals run would keep Mitchell there and thts not happening
Saying CP3 is WAY more talented than IT is insane
At what point do we say that the 2018 draft class is the best of all time.
Hot take: there should be a certain amount of difference In the 9th and 8th seed to have a play in in that conference. Any team could loose one game and if a bad team beats a good team that could rob us of a good 1st round series
Hot take: Prime Tmac v Prime Kobe is a wash talent wise. Switch them and I think things go very similarly for them with no injuries. But peak vs peak, I think Tracy was on Kobes level.
Hot Take: No matter how good of a season Giannis has, he will never win another MVP because voters think that he isn’t good enough.
I like the play-in a lot.
But i think there should be a rule where if a team is x amount of games behind they should not get in. for example this year in the east i think miami and philly should play between them for the 7th and 8th seed. In that way u reward teams for playing well in the regular season and not only consider placement (then the bulls and hawks would have to catch them to get in the play-in).
I hope my point was clear😅
Hot take: Current LeBron (less athletic) is just what Magic Johnson would be in todays NBA
Hot Take: John Wall will make the hall of fame. Even though he was a 5 time all star, there have been players who have been an all star a few times like 5 for instance and I think he will make it in.
Which shows how weak the standards for the HOF are.
John Wall was trash but the Basketball hall of fame is a joke, so you're probably right.
@@urbaindelva7869I will ask:
Who’s better: Wall or Shawn Kemp?
The latter isn’t in yet.
Hot (or maybe ice cold) take: If Wemby got caught gambling, even after just giving out a lifetime ban to Porter, Wemby would miss 1 year max.
Hot Take: Small market and most longtime owners are the biggest problem in the NBA right now. Most of the messed up cap space shenanigans have originated from these owners lobbying the NBA to incentivize home grown talent from staying only to cheap out on the home grown talent (like when MJ lobbied for the supermax) and the ineptitude of these franchises doesn't boil down to having small markets but the owners not only refusing to invest in the payroll of the players but investing in cheap (and usually bad) front office personnel, scouting, coaching. These effects mostly just punish the teams that have been able to effectively run a team
I think Chris Paul has definitely tarnished his career these past couple years. I still think he could be top 3, but most people won’t since it’s all recency bias. I can’t defend him fully though because he doesn’t have a ring and that matters. I think if you want to be one of the greatest players to ever play, you need to have at least one ring and not a ring like Tracy McGrady has.
Hot Take: Ray Felton is a top 3 pg of all time
Cold take
Rusty you have to make a video on your Isiah Thomas take and why in general traditional high assist PGs do not win championships
He made a video a few years back about it, but if he has more thoughts to add, it could be an interesting video, and for some people, a thought they haven’t seen him fully express.
Also side note about Thomas: He still averaged 9 assists per game in one of the championship seasons, which is a lot for the most common passer on a title team.
As for high assist totals, apart from the passing abilities of the players who put them up, it’s considered an indicator that your team’s offensive scheme is too predictable and easy to disrupt because everyone would just guard all the players other than the point guard.
I guess people didn’t grasp the concept that more assists (without any other context) does not mean the player is a better passer.
hot take: Cavs should have never traded for Donovan Mitchell. The trade rushed the timeline for development of their younger players.
I like the title very much
hot take: the knicks will make the finals and the wcf between the nuggets and mavs will go 7 games and so will the nba finals and the ecf between the celtics and knicks
“BABE A NEW RUSTYBUCKETS VIDEO DROPPED, QUICK SET THE TABLE FOR DINNER!”
Nah I prefer Thinking Basketball
This take is from @whatshorts but I did kind of think of this before he made a video about it. Coaches are almost useless in the nba when you’re coaching a legend like Lebron James or Kevin Durant, Giannis(etc). Lebron knows more how to win than a rookie pro coach and most coaches in the nba so what makes you think he’ll even listen to them? You can also have the best coach in the nba like Greg Poppovich but he won’t take a team like the pistons to the playoffs no matter how good the coach is. Any other pro leagues, college or high school need a good coach but at the highest level of the nba, ego and talent makes coaching inneffective.
TH-cam comment impossible challenge : don't use the word "overrated" under a NBA video. 99% of people fail
Hot Take: This shouldn’t even be considered a hot take but with the way people talk about him it is: Jayson Tatum is clutch. He had a lackluster showing in his first finals appearance at 25 years old, while nursing an injury, and since then people have acted like he has always been un clutch and garbage in the playoffs, which verifiably not true. People love to gloss over the fact that he single-handedly won the sixers series last year, scoring 16 in the 4th quarter of game 6 after having an awful first three quarters. He then proceeded to drop 51 in game 7, the most in history. He also has the 50 point playoff game against the super team nets when Jaylen brown was injured and the Celtics had no chance at winning. 46 point game 6 against the bucks. He took the Celtics to game 7 against the lebron cavs as a rookie and was the Celtics’ best player in that run. He was one point off of Kareem’s record for most playoff points as a rookie. He is a great defender and has multiple clutch defensive plays throughout his career. I can go on. The narrative that he’s overrated and not clutch is bullshit and only exists because he plays for the Celtics and is a Kobe fan
I hear that Tatum is inconsistent in the playoffs more than “not clutch” typically.
Also, he was injured in the finals? What was hurt?
And when people talk about clutch performance, I rarely see defensive plays brought up (aside from a few highlight blocks).
I once commented that he should be fifth in the MVP voting (behind Luka, Shai, Jokic and Giannis; though not necessarily in that order), and someone told me that Anthony Edwards should be ahead of him. I’ve also heard that Jalen Brunson could be ahead of him in the MVP vote.
Either way, sounds like a really good player who is probably a tier below the best of the best.
Chris paul over Isaiah is crazy. Post season achievement is the most important legacy you can have. Chris paul is choker. You can be most talented player of all time but if you choke most of time in playoffs. You are not top 3 point guard of all time.
you trippin.
I thought i was the only one who thought that take was crazy
CP3 chokes every time in the playoffs. Regular season Point Guard - ok top 3. But when it really matters he isn't even top 10.
Hot take: the NBA needs to reform the play in. If a team is a ninth seed and finishes under 500 they don’t qualify. The playin should only be triggered if a team finishes with at least 41 wins
Hot take: I feel like Giannis is probably the most weirdly discussed player in the top 30 of all time. When people talk about him, they start with his shortcomings (there are evident, but I think that makes him even greater if you think how much he’s dominating despite them). Also, they fail to mention that in 2022 Celtics series, Middleton was injured and Brook Lopez was coming off an injury (and was bad). Not mentioning that Jrue Holiday was horrific. They also fail to mention that he got badly injured in 2023 against the Heat, which affected his performance in the series. I have no issues with Jokic and Doncic which I love, but when they are missing players or are injured, seems like they get more passes than Giannis. Just my thoughts 💭
Minnesota is Denver’s biggest opponent. Are they the second best team in the west? No probably not, however I feel they matchup against Denver far better than any other team in the association. If Denver falls (and I don’t think they will) it’ll be to Minnesota.
Which matchups in particular favor Minnesota in a head to head?
@@fortynights1513 they have KAT/Gobert to defend Jokic and Ant can go 1-1 with Murray.
Hot take: the talent discrepancy across the board is actually insane between right now and the very recent past. If the 2018 knicks went against the 2024 pistons, the pistons would win 99/100 times and the knicks had a better record that year with their stat leader Marcus Morris being traded half way through the year.
My brother thinks Play-off Jamal Murray is better than playoff harden, please tell us whos right 🙏
Hot take: the talent discrepancy across the board is actually insane between right now and the very recent past. If you have 1 all star and some decent players around them today you are the 10th or 11th seed. Throughout nba history until like 2022 yoi could be a 3 to 7 seed with that same exact roster
Hot take: Peyton Watson has the potential to be a DPOY as a 6th man
I love Payton but he is never winning it over wemby off the bench😭😭
Hell nah he’ll never win one
Never speak again 😭
Hot take: the kings disrespect needs to stop. Fox is a star and the biggest all star snub of the last 10 years. Saboins does not have empty stats they directly contribute to winning and Monk is the perfect explosion of the bench. No team has better energy or chemistry
Josh Green is not guarding Jamal 💀💀 he might play less than 10 mins per game. It'll be PJ Washington or Derrick Jones Jr
Yall not beating the clippers idk where this mavs hype came from but yall drunk or something 😂😂😂
Or exum
@@tyreerhodes2316you’re delusional and Kawhi or PG is going to get hurt
@@tyreerhodes2316 why do you think Mavs can't beat the Clippers?
@@JardermorderPast history.
Hot Take: "Revisionist history" is rarely a thing. Usually, the mistakes come from people who didn't see the event (not fans yet, too young, etc.) who don't know the intangibles involved and just look at the stats.
This is part of it, but another part is people simply taking a certain narrative too far to the point where they actually create false scenarios. (Example: Joel's mvp being said to only won cause of race despite Everyone in the NBA world calling out the singular man who said that point. Or something like Chris Paul "playing poorly in the finals" just to name a few)
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be a title contender in 3-5 years, I like the potential of Mobley but Garland makes me hesitant.
Not my take, but a co-worker told me Domantas Sabonis deserves all-NBA because 19-13-8 is “better than what Tim Duncan was doing in his MVP years.”
Hot Take: just want to add something about Dallas. They have been a completely different team since the trade deadline. Since then, they are a top 5 defensive rating, and they have the 2nd best record in the league. I could easily see Dallas beating Denver
Hot take: I'm starting to think center is the only position that hasn't died. There's just center and not center now
How about small forward? We still have Swiss army knives
the east this year isn’t historically bad (esp if you think back to the 2000s), the celtics are just historically good
Hot take: Evan Mobley can still be a top big man in the next 4 years, but the cavs need to run more offense through him. If they can keep Donovan, Even needs to eventually become the second option over Garland.
I don't know if it's a hot take but I am from Europe and I have never heard of the sacramento kings. I know nothing about them they do not exist to me. Everytime I look at the list of NBA teams I am surprised by them.
They need to up their marketing or something idk.
Sorry if they're your team.
I recognise the players on the team. Just the team name is a black hole that I just can't remember.
Least memorable team.
Hot take: Jokic is going to become the new Larry Bird. Here's what I mean.
You know how in the draft whenever there is a tall white guy that can shoot nearly every comparison they get is "Larry Bird" when in reality they're a role player at best or out of the league within a couple years? I think Jokic is going to be the Euro version of Larry Bird in that regard. Anytime a tall, white European player is on the draft board that can pass a little, score a good amount and rebound, he's going to be called the "next Jokic." I'd also say the same effect will happen with Luka for white, European guards.
Play in play offs prediction pleaseeee. I ve got Suns VS Boston in the finals. Scott Foster refing the warriors?
Hot Take: Rudy Gobert is a massively overrated defender and was a large reason for the Jazz never being a serious contender. By extension the T-Wolves are a first/second round bounce largely because of him. Wemby is 100% the DPOY, and it pisses me off that he’ll be put into conversations he does NOT belong in because of all the DPOYs he’s won. Ben Wallace clears him
They went 6 games with the Champ Nuggets in 2023, and at least look to be getting to the 2nd round this year. Not that there aren’t other factors for them winning, but it’s him.
And he didn’t have anything close to the caliber of defenders on his team during the Jazz years
Sick take dawg
@@alsorustybuckets I rescind my original take and admit i was a fool, but Wemby still clears Gobert
@@alsorustybuckets Ben Wallace also still clears
Duncan Spurs, Kobe Lakers, Magic Lakers, Jordan Bulls, Nowitzki Mavs, Bird Celtics, Jokic Nuggets and if we go with championless players, Ewing Knicks, Miller Indiana
Hot Take: Kevin Durant's championships should not be devalued based on his decision to go to the Warriors. The Warriors were a 73 win team and lost in the finals. Naturally, in any sport, when you lose, you look to get better. Its the nature of sports in general. Teams always attempt to stockpile the most talent possible to win. I get the warriors without KD proved they could win but after losing to the cavs what else were they gonna do? And why should KD have chosen to go to a lesser team?
Who criticizes the Dodgers or their players for the amount of money they spent to win a Champiomship? Or the LA Rams and any of their players who went all in to win a championship by spending as much as they could to stack the deck? Real Madrid and their galaticos dont get criticized for stacking the deck.
Teams like PSG dont get criticized for stacking the deck either. PSG is criticized for stacking the deck and losing. The Yankees are no different.
Assessing KDs greatness as lesser based on his decisions and circumstances is completely fair. But devaluing his championships like some people do just doesnt make sense to me.
Hot Take: I genuinely believe that the NBA needs to get rid of conferences or expand the league. The 1 and the 2 seed in the east being a 14 game difference and then the west almost having a 3 way tie for first while also having a 9th and 10th seed with 45+ wins battling for a play in spot when the east has the 39 win hawks and 36 win bulls playing for a play in is ridiculous to me. get rid of conferences!!!
Hot take: the only way Donovan Mitchell stays in Cleveland past this season (after a likely short playoff run) is if the Cavs sign Bronny and Lebron comes to Cleveland. Lebron fits with Cleveland’s roster beautifully, brings legendary leadership, and would give the Cavs their first true shot at contention during his tenure on the team.
Hot take: JaVale McGee could have been All-Time rim protecter but he had too many lapses in his younger days and the game evolved away from his play style into his prime and later years. Leading to him essentially being played off the floor during meaningful minutes.
i think isaiah thomas was interdental to ball handling but he wasn’t the one to change the game. it was pete maravich. He became arguably the best college player of all time using his dribbling and shooting and a lot of other players emulated what he was doing. then you have guys like thomas and tim hardaway who iterated on it before iverson blew up the league and changed the game for good