battle of the NBA’s next point gods

think i'm all in on haliburton now that i've actually watched him play and not just seen some nash-esque stats on paper

sga is the safest pick though, he was the best last year and is currently the best this year too

Agreed on SGA, if Lamelo Ball didn't have ankles made of sticks he'd be a contender.

my current rankings are

1) SGA — has been good on both bad teams and good teams. three level scorer and can get to the line with ease and plays well above average defense for his position. will be an MVP candidate the next 5 years at least
2) haliburton — sort of just a better version of trae, honestly no idea how his shot falls with those mechanics but can’t argue with the results. unclear if he has the mindtype to ever be an average defender but he’s already in the conversation for the best non-jokic offensive player in the whole league.
3) edwards — love this guy so much, imo projects to be the best defender of this crew, but has a ways to go as a playmaker in comparison to the other two and might have a hard ceiling as a shooter, time will tell
4) ja — I am skeptical of this player archetype in general, I just don’t think guys who don’t have at least 2/3 of playmaking, defense, and outside shooting are serious 1A championship types, obviously he has a lot to prove on and off the court. but clearly he’s a borderline all-nba talent already and still very young
5) fox — seems like he is what he is at this point, a guy who is never really going to play serious defense but is an elite playmaker. the clutch stuff seems bound to regress
6) maxey — super cool player, has shown a lot as a scorer and playmaker with a larger role but I have some doubts about his ceiling due to size and defensive projections
7) trae — has somehow turned himself into a less than abominable defender over the years. passing savant though the question of whether he’s actually a good shooter or just plays one on TV is unanswered at this point
8) lamelo — earns an incomplete grade, in all likelihood will unfortunately be a what-if guy
9) cade — just a complete zero unfortunately, some hope that it’s organization dependent though given his pedigree and basic stats he’ll always command a contract which will limit his role flexibility. unclear what he does well apart from looking the part of a “guy”

i got 1 shai 2 ant 3 hali

Completely sentimental one for Maxey because I love this hooper so much.

current rankings:

shai
fox
ant
morant
trae
hali
maxey
melo
cade

future career projections:

ant
shai
hali
fox
trae
maxey

cade (who knows really)
melo (those ball lower leg limbs just cant stay healthy, a natural baller but not sure he has 'the mindset')
morant (no self awareness, too reckless, will prob flame out quick and not currently an a team that is willing to pay to win)

Trae’s played better in the last 7 games or so but I still think his biggest weakness is bad turnovers and poor shot selection that leads teams to easy buckets. The hawks defense is always on its heels.

for future value, i think ant is the guy. he just has a rare mentality to go with his otherworldly athletic gifts.

gonna vote shai tho, cause he is arguably already the best guard in the whole darn league.

based on choosing which 'point god' I'd want to build a team around, SGA. If it had just been who would I build a team around, I might have chosen Ant Edwards.

i wouldn't vote for him over any of these guys (probably) but what's the deal with darius garland? looks like his numbers are down across the board this year.

trying to win a chip, it's between shai and ant. who would bring the most joy into my life to cheer for? hali

voted shai

i wouldn't vote for him over any of these guys (probably) but what's the deal with darius garland? looks like his numbers are down across the board this year.

― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Thursday, December 7, 2023 11:41 AM (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

sharing the court with donovan mitchell is hard

very good poll

and lol cade

I write this as one of the few that watches every Pistons game!

my condolences!

my rankings were forward looking btw. hali is an MVP candidate already honestly I think

could make a case for ant too, best player on the team with the best record in the league doing it on both ends

Point Zion

zion is bad its sad to see

gotta be SGA:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/basketball-star-shai-gilgeous-alexander-wins-lawsuit-undo-home-sale-1.7052140

https://i.cbc.ca/1.7015288.1698859234!/cumulusImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/lakefront-mansion-in-burlington.jpg

look at those big houses right next to each other thats what 8m gets you in toronto these days smh

changing my rankings from this morning to:

current rankings:

hali

(big gap)

shai
fox
ant
morant
trae
maxey
melo
cade

the halliburton question is the toughest one for me cuz i feel like the only thing separating him from being the trae young experience is that he is shooting like steph curry and not like trae young. but what if this is just who he is

i’m doing deep meditative thinking before posting my rankings bcuz the last time we did this i submitted one of the wrongest posts in ILH history

should luka not be included in this exercise? he is a few months older than ja and younger than trae/fox

too big

i’m doing deep meditative thinking before posting my rankings bcuz the last time we did this i submitted one of the wrongest posts in ILH history

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 7, 2023 8:15 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

<3

I re-read that thread yesterday and tbh if it were not for my homerism, we all basically whiffed

should luka not be included in this exercise? he is a few months older than ja and younger than trae/fox

― Clay, Thursday, December 7, 2023 8:20 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I consciously excluded him due to already being too established

that's about what i figured

the halliburton question is the toughest one for me cuz i feel like the only thing separating him from being the trae young experience is that he is shooting like steph curry and not like trae young. but what if this is just who he is

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 7, 2023 6:14 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the shooting is what it is at this point, 200+ game sample size of 48/41/86 splits

trae 370+ games 44/35/87

trae offsets it a bit with 8-9 FTA per game to halis 3-4

luka is a forward to me

i do think there is something about trae young being a verifiably average-ish shooter from 3 while also being one of the league’s great hoisters that drags down his team in a way that stats don’t fully quantify. there is not much ego in halliburton’s game

trae could shoot a good % if he took better shots but that would require doing more than standing five feet behind the three point line when he doesnt have the ball

haliburton def seems like a team joy everyone eats type of guy

yeah i was going to say i think the major other difference between trae and tyrese is that all tyrese's teammates seem to like him

one of the pod guys i think it was zach was talking recently about how halliburton basically had to force himself to shoot as much as other people want him shooting bcuz it’s in his nature to facilitate first. i don’t think trae young has this issue…

one of the pod guys i think it was zach was talking recently about how halliburton basically had to force himself to shoot as much as other people want him shooting bcuz it’s in his nature to facilitate first. i don’t think trae young has this issue…

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 7, 2023 7:34 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if thats the case then he really is a nash disciple

nekias agrees:

Nash with 75 shot tendency https://t.co/00jACRiFnm

— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) December 7, 2023

There have been 17 games in NBA history where a player has 25+ points, 15+ assists, and zero turnovers.

Nobody has done it more than once except for Tyrese Haliburton, who has done it three times since Nov. 12, including tonight.

Unreal.

— Wheat Hotchkiss (@Wheat_Hotchkiss) December 8, 2023

shai is the best all round player right now. in order:

shai
hali
fox
ja
trae
lamelo
maxey
cade

ant doesnt belong on this list.

i would caveat that shai isn't up to handling the entire distribution load like hali is. shai gets a lot more help in that department. its his scoring and defence that give him an edge right now.

EPIC BATTLE OF THE PGs! 🔥

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and De'Aaron Fox put on one hell of a scoring show in the Kings' thrilling 128-123 victory over the Thunder 👀

De'Aaron: 43 Pts, 7 Ast, 2 Stl, 14/23 FG
Shai: 43 Pts, 9 Ast, 6 Reb, 13/27 FG pic.twitter.com/brgt1mk59k

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 15, 2023

maybe it's true garland doesn't really belong on this list but his touch is so soft, it's crazy. i love him so much. career 45/38/86. 23 years old. averaging 6 assists and 20ppg.

he's also ahead of tatum and holiday in "defensive win shares" whatever tf that is

id def take him ahead of some of the guys on the list

garland has a very aesthetically pleasing game it’s true

id def take him ahead of some of the guys on the list

― lag∞n, Saturday

who?

let’s just come out and say it: darius garland is hot af

isn’t myles turner supposed to be a good rim protector? was that overstated or is he just worse now? is every player on the pacers so bad at D that his rim protection is meaningless?

the stuff about the mavs personnel being bad falls on deaf ears for me given how they played defense when j kidd got there and despite even more horrific decisions by the front office including one of the worst moves in the NBA period over the last 3 year (letting brunson walk) have still been better as a team overall since carlisle left even taking last year into consideration

yes - every player on the pacers is so bad at D that his rim protection is meaningless.

and he is maybe a bit worse now.

yeah i’m gonna have stop you guys here and say that i don’t thinking punting on defense is chess not checkers coaching lol. i guess it’s hard for me to watch spo teach a bunch of g leaguers how to consistently play good defense when his best players are constantly in and out of the line up and not think that punting on defense is an abdication of coaching duties. you’re the coach!

they dont have heat culture tho

at one point the mavs actually out cultured the heat!

crazy to think about how so much has changed

the last time carlisle coached a top half of the league defense was the 2016-2017 season

the last time he coached a top 12 defense was 2011-2012

In the last 5 games, the Pistons have a net rating of +.7 when Cade Cunningham is ON, and are -37.2 in the 49 minutes when he is OFF.

— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) December 30, 2023

i’ve seen enough—cade is the mvp

“Even dating a pretty girl gets boring after a while if she can’t guard anybody,” - Rick Carlisle, out of context, about his team.

— Tony East (@TonyREast) December 30, 2023

I just feel like SGA has proven enough at this point and is playing well enough to annoint him as the winner here. and it truly pains me to point this out but I did vote for him a month ago as documented above

SGA in december: 32.6/5.5/6.7 with 3.3 steals and 0.8 blocks on .648 true shooting, despite having a weirdly bad 3 point shooting month (.256), just feels like he’s already arrived and planted his flag. hard to see now he ends up out of the top 5 of the MVP discussion at this point

he’s done enough in the last month to definitively say he’s the best of all these guys?

sga was the easy vote just because hes already really good, and also cool, most or maybe all of the other guys will never be as good as he is now

i’m not gonna tell anyone who voted for shai that they’re wrong. but it’s worth keeping in mind that ant edwards is 3 years younger than shai and the gap between them right now is definitely real but i wouldn’t say it’s massive or anything

I definitely wouldn’t fault anyone for choosing edwards either, but picking shai just feels like a bird in the hand situation to me. he’s doing it night in and night out, seems like he’s a playoff series win away from breaking into the luka/tatum tier

yeah its not hard to imagine ant maxxing out as better than shai, hes obvs got the stuff to do it just gotta put it all together

btw just started listening to the thinking basketball podcast best players under 25, they chose luka then ant 1-2 (shai doesn’t qualify), I recently watched the youtube for the channel for the first time and found the voices attached to the faces very upsetting, it seems like they should be reversed and someone should look into it

lol

hali last two games combined 43 points 43 assists 2 turnovers

fucking hell

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

point god shit

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

PBKR gotta be responsible for making the official ILH take maxey > ja

Completely sentimental one for Maxey because I love this hooper so much.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Wednesday, December 6, 2023 12:50 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

this video makes the observation that haliburton tends to avoid defenders rather than challenge them, which is an interesting approach, kinda seems like it wouldnt work cause the defense wouldnt be compromised enough but i guess when you see the court as well as him its ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WK-xtv3xWI

These shows are a complete waste of time lol

Malika Andrews: "Is Tyrese Maxey the best PG in the East?"

Brian Windhorst: "I think he could make a strong case…"

Kendrick Perkins: "…You know who I'm going with…Jalen Brunson!…proven in the big moments…"

Malika: "No one's taking Tyrese Haliburton?…"

Perk: "…excellent… pic.twitter.com/5RvJz4ElqB

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 13, 2024

absolutely haha

Really makes you appreciate ILH

always

This is the sweetest entrance I’ve ever seen 🥹😊 Brucey B is BACK pic.twitter.com/tbCgqj93Zf

— Katy Winge (@katywinge) January 14, 2024

brucie B ring night tonight

oops wrong thread

pacers are 14th in d rating, 4th in net rating, and 7-2 in the 9 games since carlisle said that "even dating a pretty girl gets boring after a while if she can't guard anyone"

carlisles war on pretty girls paying off bigtime

sadly for cade cunningham his career ended when a guy from the ringer wrote an article three weeks into the season about how he can't score at the rim. that being said, nice to see him finishing the month of february w/ a 22/5/7 line on 50/45/83 shooting. his TS% on the season is now up to 55% ... was 50% and 49% the last two years. FG% from 0-3 feet up to 61% on the season, up from 56% and 58% the last two seasons. while fighting god's toughest battle (being coached by monty williams) every single day...

good for cade hopefully he we get to play on a good team sooner than later

monty’s contract has to be up soon (checks the internet)

today is as good a day as ever to remember that ant edwards is 3 years younger than shai

so fuckin crazy

not easy to get to where shai is now ant can def do it but were also just a few games removed from him taking a 2 down 3 with 3 seconds left, ants ceiling is prob higher but shai is proven, think we had this exact discussion upthread tho

tho tbf re shai is proven neither of them have really played in the playoffs which is interesting

shai basically putting up kd numbers and he plays d, tho one weird thing he hardly takes any threes, which i guess is kd like too

Before shai turns 28 the 3ball will be solidly in his repertoire.

one would hope, his 3pt shot is pretty weird it starts really low i think he needs to tighten it up a bit to be able to get it off in more spots

couple years old but i think its about the same now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIWzFhM2IKQ

Need to add Coby White to this list I guess :)

― infinite wiggles (Spottie), Monday, December 18, 2023 8:58 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

he looked like such a strong, controlled finisher last night. i can't say i watched too many bulls games this season and i know he's had a great year, but at least in this instance the hawks purported "defense" seemed to be a not insignificant factor

I victory lapped one game too early

he does not belong in this convo