← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - NBA Player Rankings #23-21: Bam Adebayo, Evan Mobley, Jaylen Brown
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iHeart Podcast
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Jason LT
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- [00:40]
Jake Hofer
I'm Jake Hofer and this is back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight widetail hunting pros a focus thought provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?
- [00:58]
Unknown Speaker
Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.
- [01:03]
Jake Hofer
Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
- [01:10]
Dr. Lea Tritate
If you're looking for another heavy podcast about trauma, this ain't it. This is for the ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant, loud, science, soft and whole. The Unwanted Sorority is where Black women, femmes and gender expansive survivors of sexual violence rewrite the rules on healing, support and what happens after. And I'm your host and co president of this organization, Dr. Lea Tritate. Listen to the Unwanted Sorority. New episodes every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:42]
Freddy
We're breaking down SummerSlam, the biggest party of the summer on Wrestling With Freddy. From our bold picks to storyline breakdowns, we will discuss who walks out with gold, who shocks the night and which matches steal the show we call the winners, the upsets and the chaos to expect. Plus whatever swerves nobody saw coming. Listen to Wrestling With Freddy as part of the My Kultura Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:10]
Unknown Speaker
The Volume.
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Jason LT
Foreign welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. Got a jam packed show for you guys today. We're continuing our player rankings. We have three more players we're getting to today. Number 23, number 22 and number 21. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for more content throughout the year. Last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We talked about this after the first video, but our mailbags over the course of the rest of the summer are going to be more geared towards the player rankings. Obviously, ask whatever questions you have and if I see a very interesting question that's not related to the player rankings, we'll get into it. But this is all very subjective and all very up for debate. As we talked about in our first video, there's very little separating number five from number 14 on my list and number 15 all the way from the 40th guy that I considered for this list. There's a lot of room for argument there. And so if you guys disagree with any of my placement, a guy too high, a guy too low, a guy who missed the list who should have made it, a guy who made the list, who shouldn't have made it. Anything that you disagree with, right? Mailbag with a colon drop your kind of like counterpoint. Keep it short, keep it brief, like elevator pitch for what you guys disagree with and we'll argue about those in our mailbags throughout the rest of the summer. Now it's gonna be a little tricky. This Friday's mailbag is just gonna be reacting to our first video because I'm going out of town, I'm going to Alaska, and I'm gonna be gone for like 10 days. So the first two Fridays will just have the one mailbag this Friday that reacts to the first video, but the rest of the the list, we have like five additional mailbags that will be recording over the course of the list where you guys will have plenty of opportunity to argue about what you disagree with. So make sure you guys get those into the comments. So without any further ado, let's talk some basketball. Number 23, Bam Adebayo, a guy who's dropped from where he was last year in the top 20. For me, his season in review, he played in 78 games, averaged 18.1 points per game. That was his lowest since 2020 9.6 rebounds per game, 4.3 assists per game is highest since 2021. 2.0 stocks per game is 1.3 steals per game. Last year was the second highest total of his career. Now his efficiency is where things are going to get pretty interesting. And I have a lot of different stuff I want to get into with Bam here. So he was just 49% from the field last year. That was the lowest mark of his career to this point. Now part of it was the increase in his three point volume. People are going to shoot lower percentages on threes. That's going to affect your field goal percentage. He had never taken more than one 3 point attempt per game in the first several seasons of his career. Last year was the first year that he attempted over one. He attempted almost three threes per game. So that obviously plays a certain role in the drop in his field goal percentage. But he also shot poorly on twos. He shot 52% on twos, which is his lowest mark since his rookie season. He's had three straight years from 2020 to 2022 in the past where he averaged the same points per game, 18 points per game, but shot 57% on twos over the course of those three seasons. So substantially lower this year than levels he's reached previously in his career. He's flat out regressing as a shot maker inside the arc. He shot below 40% on floaters and hooks last year, which is brutal for his position at the center position. When you do so much work rolling out of ball screens, your ability to short range shot make either beating switches with quick, quick hook shots or catching on the roll and spinning into a quick hook or making floaters on the roll. Those are vitally important parts of shot making at the center position. And he was below 40% on them last year. He used to just be better at it. He was 52% on floaters and hooks in 2021, 55% on floaters and hooks in 2022. So for whatever reason, and I don't, I really don't have an explanation for it, he just hasn't been able to recreate what he did in years past and elevate from there to that next level, it kind of came to the surface, if you guys remember, as an issue for Bam during the 2023 finals in the series against Denver, he was consistently getting quality short range looks. Layups a little bit further away from the rim, short hooks, floaters, little bank shots. He was getting all of these looks and he just Wasn't making them against Denver and it was becoming a problem cause they were the kind of shots that were open in their offense often. His touch, it's not just on hooks and floaters either. On layups it's been an issue. He shot just 50% last year on layups. That's way below where his peers are at the center position. Again, bam, 50% Anthony Davis 60% Carl Anthony Towns 58%. If it's a Zubots, 57% Nikola Jokic, 67%. You guys get the point. Compared to his peers, he really struggles on short range, shot making, layups, hooks, floaters, that sort of thing. And that has ended up being an issue for him as he's failed to kind of take that next step as an offensive player. There was kind of like this inflection point for Bam in right around that 20, 22, 2023 phase when the Heat made those back to back conference finals runs in their NBA Finals run, where it kind of felt like he was either going to improve as a finisher and become like one of those legit second tier stars like Anthony Davis, or he was going to plateau and instead he's kind of regressed. This is actually crazy. Even with the influx of his three point shooting, which is legitimate, like he had never attempted more than 13 per game. He attempted almost 33 points, three pointers per game this year and he made 36% of them, which is very respectable as a three point shooter. But even with that influx of like a more efficient shot profile, he posted a true shooting percentage of just 56% last year, which was the lowest mark of his entire career. This is a big part of how he slipped out of the top 20 for me, despite the fact that Tyrese Halliburton, Damian Lillard and Jason Tatum have dropped out of the list entirely, which should in theory have bolstered him against that. But I dropped him because he's just regressing as an offensive player and it's preventing the Heat from getting to their ultimate goals in the postseason. The lack of shot making for Bam is especially frustrating because of how amazing he is at everything else, including passing out of the center position. When it comes to that part of offense, being that five out dribble, handoff, fulcrum, going side to side making reads at a two man game, being the guy that ties everything together for that offense, he's actually great at that. There are only four centers in the entire NBA who meet the following criteria. At least 25 minutes per game. So a guy who Plays a lot. A usage rate of at least 20%. So a guy who has the ball a lot and an assist turnover ratio of at least 2 to 1. There's four guys in the entire NBA at the center position that meet those criteria. And the other three guys are not very athletic. Demonis Sabonis, Nicola Vucevich, those guys are right around 2 to 1. And then yich. Who's better than 3 to 1, who obviously is kind of the anomaly. But those are like skill focused centers who are great playmakers. And then it's Bam. Bam is the fourth guy on that list. Another way to put it is like this. Bam is the only truly athletic center in the NBA who can play make at that elite, like at that elite level of efficiency and volume where he's not turning the ball over. He's top five in assists per game among centers. He's the only guy who brings that athleticism in that like refined playmaking at that center position in the entire league. You combine that with his unbelievable defensive versatility, which we're about to get more into in a minute, and you have a player that had a truly sky high potential, like top tier superstar potential if he could have just added reliable shot making. That's why I've been so keyed in on that piece of his game over the last few years. And it just kind of feels like a missed opportunity. He's regressing when it should be something that he's improving on. But again, he's an excellent playmaker. He's fifth in assists per game among centers overall. We talked about that modern dribble handoff fulcrum in the NBA. Like when you have guys that can score and pass out of action, Guards having a big who can flow from side to side, meaning like run that first action. Oh, it doesn't work quick. Make yourself available at the top of the key catch turn and go to the other side of the floor. Dribble handoff. While always being able to make the reads out of it. Like, oh, they're overplaying me. I'm gonna fake the dribble handoff and go to the rim. Or setting the good screens that free the guys up, passing to guards as they back cut or if they get top locked and are forced to back cut. The playmaking that you do out of that. There's all of this stuff that in terms of decision making and playmaking you need from the center position in order to run five out offense in the modern NBA. An offense that the Heat run more than many teams in the NBA. Bam's great at that. And then again, the defensive end of the floor is where Bam really separates himself. Bam didn't have his best defensive season last year. His 0.7 blocks per game were the lowest since his rookie since his rookie year in the NBA. Now context there, he's playing with more two big looks. That's going to put him in some different situations playing alongside Khalil Ware. And I generally think it was the least motivated he's been as a defender since he came into the league. As the Heat were just so far away from achieving their postseason goals, he finished outside of the top five in Defensive Player of the Year voting for the first time since 2019 last year. I do still believe in Bam as an apex defender in this league. I think that he will continue to operate closer to that top five defensive player of the year type of caliber player. Looking forward in his career. I look at last year as more of like an outlier. The big differentiator for Bam is that he's essentially a hybrid between a traditional rim protecting big and kind of like a legitimate wing in terms of his ability to move his feet on the perimeter. He brings the best scheme versatility defensively out of any center in the league. Aside from maybe Victor Wembanyama. I think he's the best switching center in the league. Bam. There was a time when I thought it was Anthony Davis and you could argue AD is still maybe a better defender all around because of how good he is at the rim. But AD put on a bunch of weight and hasn't been able to move his feet on the perimeter as well. Hasn't been as good defending switches. Bam is legitimately awesome switching out onto the perimeter. One of the unique things he does that many other big struggle with. We're going to talk about this when we get to Evan Mobley, but one of the things that like Evan Mobley struggles with is when he gets switched onto quicker guards. He gives too much space and those guys get really comfortable with their pull up three point shooting. Evan got lit on fire on pull up threes and isos this year. Kind of prevented him from being as good of an ISO big as he as he could have been. As good of a switching big as he could have been. Bam, you'll see him like two feet outside the three point line picking up pull up shooters way out on the perimeter. He's way more active with his hands to disrupt the rhythm and flow of pull up shooters so they can't comfortably settle into pull up jump shots while also having the speed laterally and the recovery athleticism to deal with quickness getting past him. He's unbelievable defending on switches. Even last year and what everyone considers to be a down year, he was still amazing on the perimeter and switches. Statistically, there were 151 players in the NBA last year who defended at least 50 ISOs. Bam allowed just 0.62 points per possession in ISO that ranked third on that list. Third out of 151 players. He does this while also being very good in traditional coverages. He gets up to the level of screens quickly and at the level coverages and can disrupt pull up shooters. He can contest in the mid range. He can protect the rim. He obviously isn't as good protecting the rim as some of like the taller, longer centers in the NBA, but he's good enough at it. In conjunction with being one of those truly elite top tier switching defenders that he makes life very easy for Eric Spoelstra. Schematically, because they can build out any defensive scheme that they want, Bam can do literally anything you ask him to do. One of the most versatile defensive foundations in the game, Bam can be a frustrating player in his lack of developing upside has certainly prevented Miami from reaching their ultimate goals and his regression there is like, like I said, downright frustrating, especially if you're a fan of of Bam in the Heat. But you can't do a whole lot better in the modern NBA than a big man who can legitimately anchor any defensive coverage at a defensive player of the year level, giving you an enormous amount of flexibility from opponent to opponent, both in the regular season and in the playoffs, while also being a legitimately good dribble handoff fulcrum on offense that can kind of get guys set up and in the right spot. Now his law, his lack of touch, especially around the rim, prevents him from reaching that second tier of superstars in the NBA. But his overall value is still enough to put him at 23 on this year's list. All right, number 22, Evan Mobley. Nothing says summer like long days, clutch plays, and firing off a few bets on the game. All with DraftKings sportsbook. As the season heats up, so do the bats, and DraftKings sportsbook has you covered with live betting, home run props, odds boosts and more. Whether you're chasing dingers or jumping in mid game, there's always action to be had. 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- [21:05]
Jake Hofer
I'm Jake Hofer and this is back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight whitetail hunting pros a focused, thought provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?
- [21:24]
Unknown Speaker
Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.
- [21:29]
Jake Hofer
Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [21:36]
Dr. Lea Tritate
Sometimes it's hard to remember, but going.
- [21:38]
Jason LT
Through something like that is a traumatic experience. But it's also not the end of your life.
- [21:44]
Dr. Lea Tritate
That was my dad reminding me and so many others who need to hear it that our trauma is not our shame to carry and that we have big, bold and beautiful lives to live after what happened to us. I'm your host and co president of this organization, Dr. Lea Tritate. On my new podcast, the Unwanted Sorority, we wade through transformation to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like and sounds like in real time. Each week I sit down with people who've lived through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the systems that failed us. We're going to talk about the adultification of black girls mothering as resistance and the tools as we use for healing. The Unwanted Sorority is a safe space, not a quiet space. So let's lock in. We're moving towards liberation together. Listen to the Unwanted Sorority. New episodes every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [22:39]
Jason LT
Last season in review for Evan played 71 games. Very award heavy season for Evan. He won Defensive Player of the year. He was first team all defense, second team all NBA, made the all star game and was 10th in MVP voting. It's a hell of a breakout season for the young star. His average is he averaged 19 points, nine rebounds and three assists, 2.5 stocks per game. His efficiency used 56% from the field, 62% on twos. He doesn't have amazing touch on short twos like 40% on floaters and hooks, 53% on layups. Those marks are only slightly ahead of where Bam Adebayo was, but he had 194 dunks last year. Bam only had 140. Now some of that is that Evan Mobley played with better ball handlers, but some of it is also that Evan Mobley is a better vertical spacer, and that was something that allowed him to be way more efficient on twos than Bam Adebayo was last year. He also shot 37% from three on 3.2 attempts per game last year in the regular season, more than double the attempts of any previous season in his career. And he shot well in the postseason. He shot 45% from three in the postseason on four attempts per game. So the jump shot feels real. He's legitimately a substantially better jump shooter than Bam Adebayo. He was 60% in effective field goal percentage and a career high 63% in true shooting seven percentage points ahead of where Bam Adebayo was last year. Evan Mobley, in my opinion, has become flatly a better offensive player than Bam was or is the perimeter jump shot is more reliable. He's added some of the ability to run action. I do think Bam is a better like 5 out dribble handoff fulcrum. But Evan Mobley has closed the gap in terms of offensive initiation with some of his ability to run offense to run inverted action and his superior jump shooting and his vertical spacing. Like we talked about earlier, it made Evan Mobley a very dynamic role man. Evan Mobley scored 1.17 points per roll man possession last year compared to just 0.97 for bay metabio. So 20 points better per 100 roll man possessions. And again some of that is the gap in ball handling, but most of it is just that Mobley has become a better offensive player. Evan Mobley shot 38% on pick and pop threes last year. Bam shot 23% on pick and pop three. So threes when he was slipping out of ball screens, those are generally wide open regardless of who the ball handler is. So like that. Again there is an obvious ball handling gap between those two teams, but I think there's an obvious gap in offensive refinement between Evan Mobley and Bam Adebayo as well. Here's some play type data for Evan Mobley. He's a hyper efficient play finisher. 1.17 points per roll man possession. That's 66 percentile, so pretty far above average. 1.59 points per possession on cuts. That's in the 92nd percentile. That's that awesome vertical spacing and his good hands around the basket. Very good in transition, very good in offensive rebound situations in action. If you go back two years to 2024, Evan Mobley ran just 153 pick and rolls isos and post ups including passes last year that skyrocketed up to 339 more than double. Now the efficiency was only okay, 0.91 points per possession including passes on all three play types combined. Again not excellent. But it was his first season as like a high volume creator and that's really not bad. He was specifically successful in inverted ball screen situations, meaning when he was handling the ball and either Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland or one of the shooters like Sam Merrill or Max Drews will come up screen for him and then slip out to the three point line. It kind of created some very simple reads for him. Like if the guard screened and the guards man didn't help, he would just turn the corner and go downhill and he'd either get all the way to the rim or he'd make a kick if someone stepped over to help. It was a pretty simple set of reads. If the guard lingered in a hedge, then the shooter would slip out free and he would just pitch it back to the shooter as he got to the three point line. It was a very simple kind of order of operations for for Evan Mobley that allowed him to be effective in one of the hardest actions to guard in the NBA. That kind of like ghost screen action with a bigger ball handler involved when he passed out of inverted ball screens. The Cavs got 1.06 points per possession last year, which is very good. I also thought Mobley played well in the playoffs. His jump shot was going in at a higher clip than the regular season. He was making his hook shot. His shot creation was successful. He ran 15 of those inverted ball screens in the playoffs and got 19 points. That's great. That's a great number. He ran 14 post ups and isos for 13 points, which is not amazing, but it's above his regular season efficiency. I thought the Cavs held up well on the offensive glass in that series where in years past that was something that Evan Mobley and Jared Allen both had struggled with. I thought last year was just a monumental step forward and Evan Mobley's development as a basketball player. Now on the defensive end. I actually think Evan Mobley is a tiny bit overrated. I would not have given him defensive player of the year last year. I do believe that Evan Mobley is a very very good defender. But for instance, I do think that Bam at a bio is a better defensive player than Evan Moby. I do not view Evan Mobley in the conversation for best defenders in basketball. Again, a big part of it is he wasn't very good on switches. In that list of 151 players who defended at least 50 ISOs that Bam was third place on. Evan Mobley ranked 66th on that list. He allowed 27 more points per 100 ISOs than Bam at a bio did. And his weakness again, we talked about it a little bit earlier when we were talking about Bam. Bam was picking up pull up shooters outside the three point line and stunting at the ball which allowed him to prevent himself from allowing easy pull up jump shots over the top. Evan was consistently back on his heels, further back behind the three point line. And so he contained the ball well. Excuse me, he contained the ball well, but he gave up a lot of easy pull up three point shots on his heels in those ISO situations. He does have a good amount of scheme versatility. It's worth mentioning he does a lot of work in two big looks, is like a low man on the back line. He can do a decent job in switches. Again, he's not bad at it. He's just not nearly as good as some of the other bigs in the league because of him being kind of passive and on his heels. And he does protect the rim reasonably well. Evan Mobley getting the Defensive Player of the Year award. Again, I disagreed with that. I thought that had more to do with the Cavs just winning a ton of games and it being kind of like an award geared around team success. I do still believe Evan Mobley is an excellent defender overall, even if I don't necessarily believe he was deserving of the accolades that he got last year on the defensive end. The best way for me to explain how I landed with Bam at 23 and Evan Mobley at 22 is to say that I believe Evan Mobley is the better offensive player and I believe Bam is the better defensive player. But I believe the gap between how good Evan Mobley is on offense and how good Bam is on offense is bigger than the gap between how good Bam is on defense and Evan Mobley is on defense. I think that gap is smaller. And no matter what, it's a really impressive step forward for Evan Mobley in his development. The next step is going to be improving as a switch defender and continuing to improve overall as an offensive initiator and as a three point shooter. All of this lands Evan at 22 in this year's rankings. All right, number 21. Number 21 in this year's player rankings is Jalen Brown. Last season in review for Jalen, he played 63 games. That was his lowest since 2021. He was dealing with the knee issue throughout the year, which is going to be a big part of the way we frame things for Jaylen Brown. In this particular segment, he averaged 22 points per game. That was his lowest since 2026. Rebounds 4.5 assists, which was by far a career high from him. The increase in assists mainly stemmed from Jaylen becoming a much more willing passer out of his one on one situations, specifically ISOs and post ups. For example, in the 2024 season when he passed out of ISO or pass out of post ups, he generated just 0.95 points per possession. In the 2025 season, he passed out of ISOs and Post Ops about a time and a half as frequently. So he did it a lot more and he generated 1.3, 0 points per possession. When he passed out of those situations. The specific improvement that I noticed that most on tape was him passing out of the post. He did a lot better job this year when he would get in the post of just kind of probing until that second defender would come and making the appropriate kickout passes on time, on target to shooters. The Celtics did shoot super well on his post kickouts this year, but there was also a market improvement in the quality of the threes that he was generating, and I tend to think those things are associated. So obviously a little bit of shooting luck, but a lot of shot quality as well. He generated 32 made threes out of post ups for his teammates in just 63 games this year. Last year, in 70 games, he generated just 20. That increase in overall playmaking ability from Jalen made up for some of what was a pretty down year for Jaylen Brown as a shooter. But I want to get into some of the specific reasons why, because it's very fascinating. First of all, let's just get through the numbers. He was 46% from the field. That's the lowest since his rookie year. He was 53% on twos, lowest since his second year in the league. 32% from three, lowest since his rookie year. 52% in effective field goal percentage. Excuse me, the 32% from three. That was the lowest of his entire career. 52% in effective field goal Percentage, lowest since his rookie year. 56% in true shooting percentage, lowest since 2019. So why does efficiency dip the way that it did this year? I think it mostly had to do with his knee. There's this thing that I talk about a lot in this show called energy transfer. It's a concept for jump shooting in general shot making in basketball, essentially. Like if you make a move to get to anywhere on the floor, even if you're just in a catch and shoot situation at the end of that sequence, you are transferring energy from your feet, up through your knees, up through your hips, up through your shoulder, elbow, forearm, all the way through the wrist on the snap of the. The snap of the jump shot, right? And if you get less power than you usually get out of one part of that system, the entire calibration of it gets thrown off. I thought it was evidenced by a couple of key areas in his shooting efficiency. Take a look at this. His jump shooting was down mostly across the board. Like overall, 1.04 points per shot on jump shots in 2024, 0.92 points per shot in 2025. So 12 points per 100 jump shots worse overall on jump shots off the dribble 0.85 points per shot last year. The year before 1.00 points per shot. So 15 points per 100 off the dribble. Jump shots worse. Contested catch and shoots 2024-104202-50986 per 100 worse. Right. But in wide open catch and shoot shooting, he was actually up year over year. He was 1.14, 2024, 1.18 in 2025. Now, before we dig into why that's interesting, let's talk about his rim finishing too. In 2024, he got to the rim 7.3 times per game and shot 62% there. According to Synergy, 2025, just 6.7 attempts per game and just 60% at the rim. So a little bit worse in both volume and efficiency. So what does it tell us? That Jalen has improved as a playmaker and improved as a wide open catch and shoot guy year over year, but that he struggled on contested jump shots off the dribble jump shots and his rim volume and efficiency both dropped year over year. It sounds to me like the game continues to slow down for him and his skill set is continuing to refine, but that he was obviously dealing with a struggle to get lift and separation, which is going to make a lot of sense for a guy who's dealing with knee issues. What are the shots that are going to require extra oomph in your lower body in that energy transfer contested catch and shoot jump shots, shooting off the dribble and out of footwork and getting to and finishing at the rim. That's where he saw the drop off. Now it's at least worth mentioning that he's about to turn 29 years old and he has a ton of miles on his body relative to most NBA players his age. For perspective, he's played 4,500 playoff minutes. LeBron James has played 12,000. So a way to look at it is Jaylen Brown, already at just age 28, has played 38% of the playoff minutes that LeBron James has played, and he's well into his 40s now. So Jalen's dip in athleticism and the associated struggles as well as the reality of his age and the amount of mileage on his body, that's a big part of how he slipped a little bit down the list for me this year. I'll be curious to see if he's able to overcome that knee issue and get back to 100% next year. Or if it's something that lingers and that can become a problem as things continue throughout his career. Next year will be our first opportunity to see Jaylen Brown in a truly featured primary shot creator role. Last year Jalen's volume was sizable, especially in one on one situations. He ran over 500 pick and rolls and, or excuse me, over 500 post ups and isos. But his overall shot creation volume is still low relative to his peers at the top of the league. He was good though. 1.01 points per possession in pick and roll including, including passes on 453 reps. That's slightly above average. One point per ISO, including passes on pretty high volume. 302 reps. That was the 13th most in the entire NBA. Efficiency, efficiency for that. Once again, slightly above average. He was 1.28 points per possession in post ups including passes, which is excellent. That ranked number one. Jalen Brown was number one out of the 18 players to run at least 200 post ups last year. Now again, some of that is influenced by the fact that the Celtics shot super well on his kickouts. I think they shot like 60% on his kickout threes out of post ups. But it's worth mentioning again, when I looked at the film, the kickouts were happening more frequently and he was generating better shots than he did in previous years. So some of it was shooting variants, some of it was also the quality of shots he was generating. I expect Jaylen Brown to continue to thrive at volume in ISO and post up situations. They tend to present the simplest reads in a 4 out 1 in system. So for instance, if you're on a cleared side post up for Jaylen Brown. Very easy reads for him. If you put him on the left block and he's got the ball in his right hand, you double from the top. It's an easy kick out up to the wing. For a three point shot, you double off the opposite wing. He can rifle that pass to the opposite wing. I've seen him make that specific pass many times. They could get a little tougher when they load up and make the weak side corner available. But Jalen will is typically pretty good at getting deeper into the paint making the kickouts. They're easier reads. ISO, same sort of thing. Cleared side ISO, exact same reads. We just covered wing ISOs and four out one in. It's pretty simple. If the defender is funneling you towards the baseline and you drive. If you drive and they don't help off the strong side corner, you're going to face help off of the weak side corner. If they rotate down the reads to the wing. If they don't the reads to the corner. It's a pretty simple set of reads out of an ISO. If you do get to the middle, if they pinch down from the nail, you pinch up to you pitch it out to the wing. You if they stay glued to the wing and you get past that guy, they're probably going to help off the corner. You make the kick to the corner. It's like those one on one situations present reads that I think Jaylen Brown can handle really well. So increasing his volume because he's the primary guy, he's just going to get into a better rhythm and it'll make him even better at making those basic reads. I think he's going to be fine in picking in ISO and post up situations. Now whether or not Jaylen Brown has a truly great season leading the Celtics will come down to his work and pick and roll. That is not a skill set that comes naturally to Jaylen Brown when he has to read lots of moving parts, navigating a defender behind him and in front of him, looking off defenders. Some of the more complex help and recover situations that you see in pick and roll, tougher angles, tougher passing reads, that's where it can get tough for him. I do think it's a coverage he's going to see quite a lot this year too, especially since he'll be surrounded by less talent. Teams will switch less against the Celtics. There will be more loaded up pick and roll traditional coverages. My guess is that Jaylen Brown struggles here. I think we'll see a pretty high turnover rate from him this year. I think his efficiency in pick and roll per per possession, including passes, will flirt with a point and maybe dip below a point. But if he can prove me wrong here, he does have the potential to have a special offensive season, especially if he can get his knee back to 100%. But my guess is it's going to be really nice in ISO in post up situations about that he'll struggle in pick and roll and that overall it'll be kind of a mixed bag from him this year. On defense. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jalen Brown. I think he's just one of the absolute apex perimeter defenders in the league. When he really locks in there certainly in the top tier, he's just such an amazing weapon to have on a roster. He even brings the switch ability that gave Boston the championship ceiling they had in the past. We talked so much about Jason Tatum and his ability to guard centers and how that made things work cause they could switch. Well, that only works if the guy that's guarding the guard can also switch on to centers, which Jaylen Brown could effectively do. Obviously this year will be different in that you probably have way too much offensive responsibility to be that apex defender while also doing everything he needs to do on offense, but it's still an important part of his skill set that we have to factor in when we're considering a list like this. Jaylen Brown's dropped a bit on this list as his body has started to let him down a bit in the playoffs especially. He shot very poorly on long jump shots, very poorly at the rim. He was just 55% at the rim in the postseason. But again, as an apex perimeter defender and a bonafide secondary shot creator in this league, I think he's firmly entrenched in the top 25 and I have him at spot number 21 this year. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Remember to get your mailbag questions in. It won't be for a couple Fridays that we get to this particular episode in our mailbags just because I'm going out of town to Alaska. But I do plan on going through all the videos and finding all of the arguments for our mailbag. So you disagree with any of the rankings in any way, shape or form, give a quick elevator pitch in the in the YouTube comments with a as a mailbag question and we'll get to them in our mailbags throughout the remainder of the list. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show and I will see you guys next time.
- [43:04]
Jake Hofer
I'm Jake Hofer and this is back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight whitetail hunting pros a focused, thought provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?
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Unknown Speaker
Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.
- [43:28]
Jake Hofer
Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
- [43:34]
Dr. Lea Tritate
If you're looking for another heavy podcast about trauma, this ain't it. This is for the ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant, loud, soft and whole. The unwanted sorority is where black women, femmes and gender expansive survivors of sexual violence rewrite the rules on healing, support and what happens after. And I'm your host and co president of this organization, Dr. Lea Tritate. Listen to the Unwanted Sorority New episodes every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Freddy
We're breaking down SummerSlam, the biggest party of the summer on Wrestling With Freddy. From our bold picks to storyline breakdowns, we will discuss who walks out with gold, who shocks the night and which matches steal the show we call the winners, the upsets and the chaos to expect, plus whatever swerves nobody saw coming. Listen to Wrestling With Freddy as part of the Michael Tura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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iHeart Podcast
The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila, and we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices Podcast brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms, but not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much and women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your choice. Listen to the Good Mom's Bad Choices Podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast podcast network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.