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Foreign. Welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Thursday everybody. Got a quick show for you guys today. We are hitting Grizzlies Timberwolves from last night as Memphis has won nine of their last 12 games. And then I thought in this slowdown stretch here surrounding the in season tournament where we don't have a lot of basketball to talk about, it'd be fun to kind of take a step back and take a quick look at who I think have been the 10 best players in the NBA so far this season. Just looking at what they've done this season, much harder than you think because there's like 12 or 13 guys that have legitimous legitimate cases to be in a list like that. So just talking Grizzlies, Timberwolves, a little bit of big picture Grizzlies. Then we'll get into the top 10 players in the league. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to The Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. Subscribe you don't miss any more of our videos. Scroll down and hit that like button that helps us a lot on YouTube. And then lastly, if you want to get questions into our mailbag if you want. We've already done our mailbag for this week but if you want to get one in for next week's mailbag, drop them in our full episodes here on YouTube. In the comments write Mailbag with a colon. Write your question. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Grizzlies beat the Timberwolves 116 to 110 for their ninth win in their last 12 games. Kind of a fun game back and forth in the first half. Minnesota made a run to start the second half. They've been a very good second half team this season. They went up nine in the early part of the second half. But then Memphis really tightened the screws on defense and flip the script and they basically stiff armed the Wolves from there. As a matter of fact, from the 8:53 mark of the third quarter through to the end of the game, The Timberwolves scored just 36 points. 36 points in 21 minutes of basketball. There's two things to keep in mind. There's yes, Anthony Edwards was out, but the Wolves have actually been a pretty solid offense without him. They have a 116 offensive rating and almost 1200 possessions with Anthony Edwards off the floor. Now obviously when Ant is out there that shoots up to a 122 offensive rating and is one of the most valuable players in the league, he's going to show up on our list later. But the point is they are capable of scoring without Ant. And then secondly, during this 9 and 3 stretch for Memphis, Memphis has been the third best defense in the league. We'll dig into some of the reasons why later, but the point is very impressive effort from a Memphis defense to shut down a decent offense there without Anthony Edwards down the stretch, but Memphis took control by dominating that specific matchup. Minnesota did miss some decent looks, especially in the early fourth quarter. A few wide open threes, Dante got a wide open one, Nas Reed had a wide open one. JD McDaniels had a wide open one. Is like as a team in the fourth quarter, Minnesota was 1 for 6 on catch and shoot three. So definitely a little bit of shooting variance there. But Memphis does deserve a lot of credit. Like they're loaded with good perimeter defenders. I thought they did an awesome job on Minnesota's guards throughout the entire game. And then Jaren Jackson, he really dominated Julius Randle on both ends of the floor. But again, we're talking defense right now on the defensive end in that fourth quarter. Multiple stops on Julius Randle one on one, forcing him into a miss at the rim on a drive where he got a great contest and absorbed that physicality. He stonewalled a baseline drive off the right side and actually poked the ball away from him. Again, that's their primary offensive weapon with Anthony Edwards out. And I thought Jaren just did a great job on him. And then the team as a, as a whole kind of swarming him and taking advantage of the fact that he can sometimes get a little tunnel visiony. And then Jock Landale, and again he was the offensive hero in this game, but he also had some good deflections and rim protection sequences at the rim. They won that game with their defense, no question, allowing just 48 points total in that second half down the stretch on offense, Jock Landale was the hero. He just kept burning Rudy Gobert for helping at the rim with these catch and shoot threes. Now some of that was Rudy Gobert's fault. There was one in particular where Jalen Wells was driving down the right lane line and Dante DiVincenzo kind of had him under control. He Was chested up, he was in position, he wasn't going to have any sort of finish. He was going to have to basically pick up his dribble and throw a contested kick out pass. But Rudy Gobert did him a favor, parked right underneath the basket and help. And that allowed Jalen Wells to just throw an easy little pitch out to Jock Landale on the right wing and he just nailed the catch and shoot three. And as a matter of fact, Landale hit three threes in the final seven minutes of that game. And each one of them felt like a shotgun blast to the chest to this Minnesota team as they were trying to get a win there. And Jaren Jackson, I thought he was the best player on the floor last night. We talked about the job he did defensively earlier against Julius Randall, but he went 28 and 12 last night. 10 for 18 from the field, 2 for 3 from 3, 6 for 6 from the line. A lot of these like old school one on one buckets, straight up against Julius Randall or straight up against Nas Reed. The one on ones against Randall were hilarious because Jaren was really trying to back him down. And Randall's got a little bit lower center of gravity, so he's like getting up underneath him. He's clearly taking it personal, trying to hold his ground. And so the ISOs turned into something that looked more like sumo wrestling rather than post basketball. But Jaren just kept getting to one of his little hooks or one of his little short jump shots and he just kept scoring over the top. He beat him with a nice off the dribble drive to getting to his right hand. Jaren's combination of size and power, but also really good touch and footwork going over both shoulders, that just makes him really difficult to guard. As a matter of fact, he's 60% this season on floaters and hooks. That's not quite Jokic territory, but it's better than everyone else. A lot of you know, most of the good bigs in the league are in the mid-50s in that department. He's just super efficient on his short range shot making. It's been one of his foundational traits as a player for a long time and he just was the best player on the four last night. Back to back monster games from Jaren. He also had 31 a couple of nights ago against the Clippers. But once again it's a lot of defense and it's a lot of gaining margins with the Grizzlies during this streak. They're third in defensive rating in their last 12 games. As we mentioned earlier, they are third in paint points allowed per 100 possessions. A lot of two big looks alongside Jaren Jackson. Brandon Clark coming back just in time with some of the injuries they've dealt with at the center position. They are plus 10 points per game in points in the paint. They've been doing a ton of damage in transition as of late too. In the last six games, they're averaging 26 transition points per game. That's pretty far above their season average to this point. And they're only allowing 19 transition points per game. So that's seven more points of margin every single night. They're plus 1.4 points in second chance points every single game. So plus 10 in the paint, plus seven in transition every night, plus a point and a half on on second chance points. That's a lot of margin that they're gaining to help them win night to night in the regular season over the course of the last month. The Grizzlies are sneaky. One of the most well run teams in the league, especially when it comes to acquiring like good modern basketball talent. Like say what you want about their stars, Jaws Jaw, and we don't know how he fits really into any of this moving forward. He briefly came back for two games, but then he ended up spraining his ankle again. So he's out again and when he is out there, it just kind of changes the pace that they play with when they get into the half court. Jaren Jackson was awesome last night, but he's obviously a flawed player. He's not a good rebounder and you basically can't play him at the 5, which makes him complicated to build around. Right? But when it comes to the depth of talent on this roster, you can tell they have a clear basketball identity, a clear type of guy that fits their basketball culture. They like these big guards and athletic wings that have a good combination of like competitive motor and athleticism, but also high basketball iq. They target smart athletes. They're not looking for guys that are just athletic for athletic sake. They want guys that can make good reads. They want guys that know how to do their job in the defensive scheme and then that competitive motor, meaning the willingness to both work within games in terms of their work ethic on the ball, getting up and pressuring, but also the work behind the scenes. And they're betting that even though those are not necessarily the most refined skill guys, they're betting on their ability to refine that over the years because they believe in their competitiveness and they believe in Their natural basketball gifts and how those will eventually materialize into good two way players. And they just have guys that are hits and guys that I think are going to be hits, like Jalen Wells has been a hit and over the course of the last month or so he's been shooting the hell out of the basketball as well. Cedric Coward, I think he's going to be a two way monster over the years and he's been a big part of their defense in this run. And he's got like this, you know, when I look at the offensive end for a lot of these guys, I'm looking at like natural fluidity. We've talked about this, like with VJ Edgecomb for instance. Like I know that he's going to be able to get to his spots because he has a natural fluidity getting separation from defenders and getting two shots even if he's not making them. And I see a lot of that with Cedric as well. Like there's a natural fluidity between ball handling and footwork to where I think once he improves as a shooter, I actually think he'll have a lot more to his offensive game than people think. And then when they go to their bench it's like, it's Vince, It's Vince Williams Jr. He's got a ton of all around basketball skill. Cam Spencer didn't play last night, but he's been really good for them. Even a guy like Olivier Maxson's prosper, like I know he hasn't played a ton this season, but when he does he looks kind of like a natural fit. And I just thought he was a smart signing for them. A two way guy that was a cast off from Dallas. And you watch him last night and he's guarding and he's attacking the rim with athleticism on drives and he's getting put backs and just looks like he fits into their culture really well. You could tell they looked at it and they were like, hey, this guy looks like a guy who might be one of our guys. Looks like he might be a Memphis Grizzly type of basketball player. Let's bring him in and you know, we talk about this all the time, but it's a proven formula. When you have a half dozen guys who can like really guard on the perimeter and you can really pressure the ball for 48 minutes, that makes for a super strong defensive foundation night tonight. We were talking about this with Detroit yesterday then. Especially when you have guys who can protect the rim, which Memphis definitely does, it just makes for that classic kind of bracketing effect of having real size and athleticism at the rim and dudes who are getting up into the ball on the perimeter. I just think the Memphis front office deserves a ton of credit. There are a lot of teams in the league where it's really hard to tell what their front office likes. I mean, I root for one of those teams in the Lakers. You don't know what their basketball identity is. Each offseason kind of feels like a different approach. Not hard to tell with Memphis. They just keep finding the same types of dudes who fit their culture and who add to what they're trying to do on both ends of the floor. Memphis Grizzly is playing some really good basketball right now Want to know where I bet on basketball during the holiday season? It's Hard Rock Bet. Not just because it's the presenting sponsor of our show, but because they make it easy to bet on my favorite teams, players and leagues in just a few simple taps, Especially with their brand new for you page that recommends picks based on my favorites and who I like to bet on. 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I got into this a little bit of debate between Shay and Luka. I say a little bit. It was like 45 minutes but with the nerd sesh guys on their pod the other day, so that'd be fun. Again, this is just we're a third of the way through the season. There are a lot of guys who could be considered here. So like for instance, Alperin Shangoon would have been like 11th for me on this list. I think he's been every bit as good as some of the guys ahead of him. It's just the nature of how many talented players we have in the league right now. And I just wanted to briefly touch base on how I think the top 10 has looked. Strictly looking at how guys have played from the start of this season to where they're at right now. A combination of like their availability, how good they've been when they've been on the floor, how valuable they've been to their team when they've been on the floor, and how their team has been performing in the win loss column. That's kind of what I'm combining here for these top 10 guys. Again, just how I feel right now. Top 10 players in the league based on how they've played this season. Number 10, Anthony Edwards. Sneaky. Having the best statistical season of his career. He's averaging a career high 29 points per game on 50% from the field, 42% from 3 and 83% from the line, 64% true shooting. He's been deadly with his pull up. 3. He's been getting to the rim more and finishing at a higher clip at the rim than he ever has in his career. I think that's a a sign of just like the level of maturity he's developed in terms of the pacing on his drives, like slowing down, not just flying downhill and throwing something off the glass, but being more methodical about when he hits his gaps, waiting for the defense to react in a way that gives him an opportunity to go to the rim. It's weird because he's been a little bit of a downtick in his playmaking this year, but overall he's just been better because he's just been more methodical on his drives, and I think that's made him a better player overall. What's hurting him on this list is he's already missed more games than he did in the entire previous two seasons combined. So there's a little bit of an availability issue. And the Wolves just haven't been very good this season. They're 17 and 10, but they're just 2 and 8 versus teams that are.500 or better. Obviously there are some guys in this list that are also producing statistically but that are winning at a higher clip. Say take for instance a guy like Jalen Brunson, right? Number nine, Tyrese Maxey. Just an insane year over year leap from him, 32 points and 7 assists per game on 60% true shooting with only 2.7 turnovers per game. So really high efficiency from Tyrese Maxey. We're going to be talking a lot about turnovers, especially when we get later into the list. I think turnovers, especially in the modern NBA, when you're dealing with teams that push in transition all the time, the turnovers are like, they're not always pick sixes, but like teams are getting crazy offensive ratings off of turnovers around the league, sometimes as high as 130, 140. They can be really deadly to your defense. And so taking care of the basketball is an important part, part of being a primary offensive weapon for your team. He's shooting a preposterous 49% on catch and shoot threes this season, generating a ton of offense with his ability to drive the basketball. And it's kind of a combination of that classic conundrum of like, if you play off of him, he's got the threat of the shot, you play up on him, he's got this absurd speed. It's been a major driver of this team on offense. Again, I've been like a little disappointed with Tyrese in terms of some of his work on the margins. Like, I think he's been pretty bad off the ball on defense, losing shooters, losing cutters, losing crashers. But overall, I think he's been doing a carry job for the Sixers offense and I think he's taken a leap into a completely different caliber of player than what he was in years past. Number eight, Steph Curry. The warriors have obviously been super disappointing this season, and that certainly doesn't help Steph's case on a list like this. But if you watch the warriors, you know it's not Steph's fault. Like I. I'm actually docking him More here for availability than anything else. He just keeps getting banged up and missing games. But when he's been healthy and on the floor, he's been amazing. 30 points per game on 66% true shooting. Literally some of the highest volume and efficiency scoring of his entire career. And then once again, just like last year, according to Cleaning the Glass, when Steph is on the floor, they have an offensive rating of 1 20. He is a elite offense in and of himself and it craters down to 109 when he's off the floor. If he can stay healthy and stay off the floor, he's closer to like the sixth or fifth best player in the league and just a guy who's playing some unbelievable basketball hidden in a franchise that has failed to provide him with the supporting talent he needs to compete in this league. Number seven, Victor Weminyama. The best defensive player in the league when he's healthy. Game breaking defensive talent that is capable of feats like what he did to the Thunder in the in season tournament semifinal. A predictable leap on offense year over year. He's over 25 points per game and over 60% true shooting for the first time in his career. He's actually at 60 or excuse me, he's actually at 26 points per game to start the season. A few issues that have popped up that have kept him down in this list. He keeps missing games. Again, he's only played in 13 games a season and he's had a little bit of a turnover issue. Especially when facing swarming defenses that don't let him work one on one. That was a big trend that kind of popped up there after the first couple weeks of the season. That first couple of weeks he was allowed to work one on one a lot and he was putting up massive numbers. Definitely gotten tougher for him since then. That's clearly the next step. Managing physicality, managing double teams, finding a way for him to get closer to the rim for easier shots without it resulting in turnovers without him getting kind of blown up off of his base. Number six, Jalen Brunson. A career high 29 points per game on 60% true shooting. This season he's been getting more spot up opportunities than ever thanks to the new offensive system that Mike Brown has installed. And he's functioned really well in that new system. Fewer one on ones, more drives to start possessions. He's starting the engine in a lot of ways for them. But then he's also having opportunities to rest and work off the ball and attack with an advantage that really is the big one to me when it comes to the increase in scoring volume while maintaining efficiency, just a lot more attacking with an advantage rather than having to go one on one against a set defense. And he's helping to spearhead one of the best year over year offensive leaps that we've seen in the league. The Knicks as a team this season are 5 points per 100 possessions better on offense than they were the year before. And then within this season they crater by 13 points per 100 possessions on offense. When Jalen Brunson goes to the bench, he's just become one of the best offensive engines in the league. And especially in the context of how they've been winning as of late in the in season tournament winning, you got to have him pretty high on a list like this. Number five, Giannis Antenokounmpo. To be clear up front, I'm not dropping him off of what I consider to be the top four top tier superstars in the league. This is more just how guys have played this season and he's just missed too much time. He's missed 10 games this season and that's what's docking him in this situation. But when he's been healthy, he's been an absolute monster. He's had the most efficient scoring season of his career. 67% true shooting on 29 points per game, 44% from three, albeit on small volume. It's been weird. He's been less efficient on his mid range jumper than he was last season by pretty wide margin, but slight uptick in 3 point volume. And he's been very efficient on those threes when he's taken them. Just needs to find a way to stay on the floor. It's the main thing standing in the way of, of his standing in the league right now. Like I had him four coming into the season. You know, there's a lot of like buzz about oh, Giannis is actually every bit as good as Jokic or Giannis is actually every bit as good as Shane. It's like that may or may not be true, but he just can't stay on the floor. And it's continued to be an issue whether he's missing postseason games like he had in previous seasons or missing chunks of the regular season. He's just as he's entered into his 30s, he's just become a little bit more injury prone than he was in years past. Number four, the guy you have to put past Giannis just because of how good he's been so far this season. Obviously if I'M drafting a team for just this season and everyone's healthy. I would take Giannis over Cade, but Cade for me is number four at this point in the season based purely on what we've seen to this point. Just a quintessential offensive engine in this league. The Pistons score at a rate of 120 points per 100 possessions, so 120 offensive rating. When he's on the floor, he's been absolutely dominant in crunch time. He's 26 for 48 from the field in the last five minutes of games when the, when the score is within five points. He's already made four more clutch shots than he did in the entire year last year as he's turned a team that was 21 and 23 in clutch games last year to 14 and four to start this season. Really the biggest difference between where they were this time last year and where they are this season, 27 points and nine rebounds per, nine assists per game, excuse me, on 57% true shooting and it still feels like he's going to eventually get better as a shooter and as a finisher as the years go by. The three point shot has been ticking up as of late. He's still just barely scratching the surface of his potential in this league and he's already the best player on a 215 number one seed in the Eastern Conference. Number three, Luka Doncic. This has been one of my biggest changes from before the season. I want to be clear. This is, this goes both ways. It's not just that Luke has been somewhat disappointing, which we'll talk about in a second. Shay's also taken a leap. Shea is 5% year over year better in true shooting percentage while also cutting his turnovers to 1.9 turnovers per game. So Shay's just considerably better than he was last year, fueled by an improved three point shot. Obviously the drop in turnovers as well. And Luka, I mean, after shooting incredibly well in his first three games, ever since the first three games of the season, Luka's just 43% from the field and just 32% from three with 4.5 turnovers per game and a lot of just like grifting in the middle of the floor trying to work his way to the foul line to bolster his scoring rather than focusing on making shots. And there's been just frankly a massive chasm in efficiency between him and Shake Elders Alexander and that's become a big differentiator between them. I even think, more so than anything on the defensive end of the Floor. I think Luke has actually been pretty solid on the defensive end. I Shay's obviously a better defender than him and I think some of the stuff with Lucas defense is more matchup dependent, specifically teams that can truly space the floor and drive. That's where he becomes a bigger issue. To me, the turnovers and the lack of efficiency on actual shots is what's hurting him. Again, like when you think about it, we talked about this a little bit earlier in the show, but when you look at how much of the game is geared around the transition attack, like you have, you know, roughly, you know, 1/5 to 1/4 of the possessions in the game that are played in transition. And you look at how efficient teams are off of live ball rebounds and you look at how efficient teams are off of live ball turnovers and like especially in the Lakers ball screen attack because they don't pop. Like they don't have bigs that pop, they have bigs that roll. And so when you run pick and roll at the top of the key and you've got your big man rolling and you've got your guard driving, you're typically only going to have one person above the foul line, which can lead to floor balance issues. So those turnovers on cross court passes or even when he's trying to grip, there's a lot of plays where he's trying to grift there at the foul line and he'll like pump fake, pump fake and then lean into the guy and shoot and he'll miss. And then he turns and starts complaining to the refs while the team's running out the other way in transition. He had a brutally bad one in that spurs game at the end of the first half where they gave up a dunk to Harrison Barnes because he was complaining at the refs after a turnover. And it's like it's. It's one of those things where just in general with Luca, there's this obvious statistical performance. The free throws boost his true shooting percentage to where he's still relatively efficient compared to what you think looking at is his shooting percentages. But you're just getting considerably more missed shots and considerably more turnovers per game, which are fueling the transition attack for the opponent, which effectively is like cutting him off at the knees in terms of the how impactful he is. Again, I'm splitting hairs here. I'm comparing him to the very best players in the world. I just think it's become a differentiator between him and a guy like Shay. I was talking with, with Carson and I didn't agree with everything Carson was saying. One of the things Carson said is like, he thinks Shay is like forever going to be better than Luca. I think Shea's obviously better than Luca now. And there's probably, it's probably more likely than not that Shea stays better. But basketball is a what have you done for me lately sport. Luka is going to have his chances to improve. He could play better starting tomorrow. Right, like, or tonight, I should say like. There's a, there is a path for Luka to flip this script and to get back to being a better basketball player than Shay. But he's lost ground at this point and it's going to take a long, it's going to take a lot of work for him to get past him. The big thing is just cleaning up that efficiency. You know, I think, I think in general with Luca, it's not just the turnovers either. It's the little grifty stuff around the lane line. It's the two or three awful step back threes. He takes every game that are as bad as turnovers. To, to me, Luka's just got to trim the fat. This is the phase of the, like, he's averaging an efficient 35 points per game with what, nine assists per game or whatever it is. It's really easy to look at that and just be like, oh, he's incredible and he is, but there's like a big chunk of that that's being undercut with some of the mistake making. He just has to refine that over the course of the next few seasons. Jacobs, Alexander, to me, is the clear number two. Again, we talked about it earlier. 5% year over year leap and true shooting percentage fueled by a massively improved three point shot. That has been deadly for him in every phase, both off the catch and off the dribble. That off the dribble three has become a go to move for him in crunch time. Multiple teams this year have taken that shotgun blast to the chest. They're like, oh, we're making a run and it's a close game. But then Shay just hits a tough step back three and it just erases any momentum that you have. And then again doing all of this with cutting his Turnovers down to 1.9 turnovers per game. I don't think it'll stay quite that low as the competition has gotten more difficult. So for instance, against Phoenix and San Antonio, the last two games he had nine turnovers. I think his turnovers will tick up a little bit, but they do clearly look like they're going to be trending to be below where they were last season. And that's really the case for Shea. Like, if you're looking at Shea as a basketball player overall, his playmaking is at a higher level than it's ever been. You can't tell in the stats because his minutes are down, but if you look at a per per 36 level, he's like right around seven assists per 36 minutes. So there's a level of playmaking that he's reached and a level of scoring and scoring efficiency that he's reached. Like when you're a guard and you're scoring over 30 points per game and you're up over 65% true shooting like he is, I think he's at what, 67% true shooting. When you're in that territory, you're not Talking like unanimous MVP Steph Curry, 2016 type of numbers, right? Like that season, I think Steph was 30 points per game on 67% true shooting. Shay's going to rival that this year. That's the type of efficiency we're getting from the guard position. It's an entirely different ballpark than where Luke is at right now. And then you combine that with the lack of turnovers, which then helps their transition defense. Shay, you know, if you want to tell me purely if you're a Luca believer and you argue that Luke is better than Shay and you want to tell me like, you know, Luka is a more high volume scorer who's still very efficient and he's a better playmaker, I would agree with you on that. Like he is. He clearly does score at a higher volume and he does play make pretty well. But the gap between him and Shay is actually very small. As a matter of fact, On a per 36 minute basis, I think Shea's actually a little bit ahead of Luca right now. And then Shea's just dramatically more efficient and he's still a very good playmaker. So the gap there is really small. And where Shay takes a massive leap over Luca is Lucas shooting himself in the foot with damn near five turnovers a game over the course of this lot this recent stretch. And he's just missing so many more shots and every missed shot is an opportunity for a team to run out in transition. I think Shea's been a better player than Luka this year. I don't think he's been quite to Jokic's level, which we'll talk about in a second, but I think he's the clear Second best player in the league to start the season. Number one, Nicole Jokic. 30 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists this year, 72% true shooting. So career highs in scoring and inefficiency. There's even a gap, a pretty substantial gap between where Shai is and Jokic. And that just goes to show you the entire different level that Jokic is at as an offensive player right now. To me, he's the best offensive player in the history of the league. He's playing the very best basketball of his of his career. The Nuggets are 17 points better per 100 possessions on offense with him on versus off. And then here's the last stat I'm going to leave you guys with tonight that is the clearest indicator of what separates him from the package. If you throw the ball to Nicole Jokic in the post, regardless of what happens, he shoots, he passes. If you throw the ball to Nicole Jokic in the post, the Nuggets have scored 61% of their possessions score percentage. So not points per possession, not field goal percentage, not anything, just strictly. If I. If I toss the ball to Yokich in the post, what is my chance of putting points on the board? 61%. He's the most reliable individual play type in the league. He's the most reliable offensive player in the league. He's simply the best offensive player in the league. And when he's been on the floor, the Nuggets have scored at a completely preposterous rate. To me, he's the best offensive player of all time, playing at the peak of his powers. He's been having a pretty good defensive season as well. I have Nikola Jokic still as the best player in the world. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll be back on Friday with a mailbag. I'll see you guys then.
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Podcast: The Herd with Colin Cowherd (iHeartPodcasts, The Volume)
Date: December 20, 2025
Host: Hoops Tonight Host (Jason Timpf)
In this episode, Jason Timpf breaks down his current list of the Top 10 NBA players for the 2025 season, evaluating players solely based on this season’s performance so far. He also recaps the recent Memphis Grizzlies vs. Minnesota Timberwolves game before moving into a nuanced analysis of player performances, strengths, and areas for improvement.
[02:45–18:34]
[18:34–36:00]
Jason evaluates the top 10 based purely on 2025 performance, factoring in availability, current impact, and team success.
| Rank | Player | Key Stats / Notes | |------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1 | Nikola Jokic | 30/12/11, 72% TS, Offensive anchor, all-time efficiency | | 2 | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | Huge leap in TS%, low turnovers, elite play on both ends | | 3 | Luka Doncic | Stellar boxscore, but efficiency/turnovers, needs to trim the fat | | 4 | Cade Cunningham | 27/9, clutch dominance, cornerstone for Pistons | | 5 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Historic efficiency, season hampered by health | | 6 | Jalen Brunson | Offensive engine, Knicks’ leap, effective in new system | | 7 | Victor Wembanyama | Elite defense, major offensive step, limited by games played/turnovers| | 8 | Steph Curry | Still elite, let down by team/availability | | 9 | Tyrese Maxey | Massive improvement, shooting splits, defensive lapses | | 10 | Anthony Edwards | Career-best stats, availability and team record issues |