As more of a random thought and fun mini-project, I've considered the idea of a top 25 under 25 player ranking for historical seasons (in a manner parallel to how Ringer does their MLB 25 under 25 most recent years).
With the help of Proxy, I've compiled some names that reasonably would be (most of) a top 25 - in chronological order:
If hesitant to rank Mikan because of lack of info/footage, some HMs include Doncic / Howard / Draymond / Nowitzki / Barkley / P. Hardaway or whomever may come to mind for any potential poster!
With all of that said, how would you rank / tier these 25 players? Looking to start some friendly debate/discourse here!
Mogspan wrote:I think they see the super rare combo of high IQ with freakish athleticism and overrate the former a bit, kind of like a hot girl who is rather articulate being thought of as “super smart.” I don’t know kind of a weird analogy, but you catch my drift.
rk2023 wrote:As more of a random thought and fun mini-project, I've considered the idea of a top 25 under 25 player ranking for historical seasons (in a manner parallel to how Ringer does their MLB 25 under 25 most recent years).
With the help of Proxy, I've compiled some names that reasonably would be a top 25 - in chronological order:
If hesitant to rank Mikan because of lack of info/footage, some HMs include Doncic / Howard / Draymond / Nowitzki or whomever may come to mind.
With all of that said, how would you rank / tier these 25 players? Looking to start some friendly debate/discourse here!
Era-Relative 1. 62 Wilt -> took greatest team ever to a possession with probably subpar help, has multiple arguments for best ever era-relative peak
2/3. 60 Russell/09 Lebron -> Celtics are at a stronger point, Russell is presumably not yet at his apex? Could be an opening for Lebron here. Most valuable regular season player ever maybe(wilt/russell are probably the best arguments), postseason elevation from an individual standpoint, but shooting variance proves costly. Empirically has a case as best non-big defensive season, corraborated by 2010 without Ben Wallace, GOAT or near-goat scoring/creation combo for 9/10. The best argument against is thatthe shooting variance of the time would always limit Lebron's ability to garuntee playoff success the way russell or potentially Wilt could.
4. 71 Kareem, great offensive production in rs and postseason, defenses are 4 points better with Kareem during this 4 year stretch, incredible impact as a rookie, seems to be able to reach the level of the 91/96 bulls(3rd best team ever per sansterre IIRC) with less extra steps, corraborated by leading a 62-win team without co-star
5/6/7. 77 Walton/02 Duncan/64 Oscar seems kareem-level via WOWY, case for second best defender ever after Russell, sansterre makes a compelling case Walton was the impetus for the 86 Celtics outlier-level performance despite only playing limited minuities, best passing big of all-time at that point. Duncan improves from being able to lead an extremely dominant team with relatively limited support(for all-time level teams at least), and is able to win nearly 60 with very limited support, outplays shaq, playoff elevation across the board, ultimately outmatched by an unfair opponent. Oscar did make the worst offense into the best offense in the league and has some "uh maybe 3rd most impactful player ever" stuff, but impact was inconsistent evidently, and offense probably doesn't have the same influence as defense.
8. 89 MJ, team drops from 88 but that can probably be explained by Oakley depature(knicks slant to offense so defense isn't affected but team holsitically improves, Bulls do no such thing, and drop off defensively. 88 is probably a better regular season, but 89 might be a better playoffs.
9.88 Hakeem has a case vs peak MJ assuming health probably, and has maybe the best first round exit performance ever after arguably era-best(arguably) rs lift when he's on the court, but other metrics(while extremely limited in terms of sample/relevance) cast at least some doubt, and ultimately health outweighs off-court/fo context considerations for me.
10.2020 Giannis. if this was 2019, i might have it 7 or 8, but by 2020, the teams had the plan and Giannis hadn't yet adjusted. His regular season is top-5 worthy but shooting variance, injury, and schematic adjustments hurt him here.
Absolute/In a Vacuum(using the "average era impact" approach) 1. 2009 Lebron 2. 2020 Giannis[/b] 3/4. 2014 Curry/02 Duncan 5/6/7/8/9. 2021 Jokic/89 MJ/88 Hakeem/02 KG 9/10/11. 08 CP3/01 Kobe/98 Shaq (may explain later with time)
