Rank these peaks (one season)

[IdolW0rm]

Rank the following 10 peaks

Donovan Mitchell
Mitch Richmond
Klay Thompson
Brandon Roy
Jrue Holiday
Mike Conley
Sam Cassell
Kyle Lowry
Terrell Brandon
Drazen Petrović

[AEnigma]

Brandon Roy is not someone I think belongs in this group. In 2009, he was right on par with Kobe and Wade offensively (both were better defenders though and had extended peaks while he was more of a flash in the pan).

[IdolW0rm]

Brandon Roy is not someone I think belongs in this group. In 2009, he was right on par with Kobe and Wade offensively (both were better defenders though and had extended peaks while he was more of a flash in the pan).

I also think he is in another tier. Not quite Wade or Kobe level in 09 (maybe in spurts, but not consistently). Just want to hear people's opinion. Made this thread based on more or less raw box-score on offense, not what I actually think of the players. Have Roy and Drazen clearly above on offense.

[Bwelc679]

Although ranking is such a low hanging fruit conversation and without more descriptive parameters it's such a useless and confusing question, I love this **** and thank you for your question lol.

I have decided to treat this question as if all of these players are in their peak year body and they all get an entire off-season with elite basketball trainer Drew Hanlen to prepare them for the next season which is extra important for players of previous eras. With this in mind, I ranked the players as who I would choose to be my first selection for an expansion team that only has 1 year to try and win an NBA championship. I am also going in with the assumption that I will be adding more talented players to my roster after this first selection is made. So without further ado, here is my ranking of your listed players in their peak form:

1. Brandon Roy: clear stud of the group who was on his way to first team NBA selections if he didn't lose his knees. A basketball genius who maximized every ounce of athleticism he had while playing the game in an incredibly controlled fashion with both confidence and intellect.
2. Donovan Mitchell: The rest of the list is much more difficult then the first selection and I am not a huge Donovan Mitchell fan so this was not an easy selection. I ended up choosing the player who has proven he has the ability to be the best offensive player on an elite playoff offense. Mitchell is a scorer in every sense of the word and does not shy away from big games and big moments. He scored 71 points in a game in a fairly controlled fashion and did so by scoring at all three levels in an efficient manner. Mitchell is not my take for the second best player on this list but if we are talking strictly who gives me the best shot at winning playoff series then he is my best chance WITHOUT knowing who they will have as teammates. I love some of these other point guards and consider them better basketball players then Spida but, point guards thrive by setting up other superstars to help them self actualize and if the rest of the team ends up being considerably less talented than the players I am ranking then Spida is the only one who can win a series with limited help. Rant over.
3. Klay Thompson: I am starting to get frustrated with myself for undervaluing point guards so much and overvaluing these scorers. This is a guy reaction post and I am not sure why it's going this way but maybe it's due to the fact that there are so many talented point guards that I am more confident I can get a good one to team up with one of these shooting guards who don't have nearly as many good choices for replacements. Regardless, Klay is my number 3 because he is an elite shooter and wing defender. I am not one of those guys who think Klay is on the same level of Reggie Miller or even peak Ray Allen for that matter but I do have a lot of respect for his game. The biggest concern is that he is not great off the dribble and does generate even close to the number of free throws that his contemporaries do. If Klay can figure this out and attack the rim with more vigor, then he could be even better than 3 on this list. You can never have too much shooting and I believe Klay to be as good as anyone not named Steph when it comes to that skillset.
4.Sam Cassell ***
5. Mike Conely ***
6. Kyle Lowry ***
I chose all three of these guys for the 4-6 spots and wouldn't mind if you mixed up the order but for me, to win in the playoffs, this is the order I would choose. Sam is such an underrated star. Yes I said and mean it when I say the word star. Sam is a winner who has been hitting huge shots since his rookie season and like a fine wine, he got better the older he got (until the vinegar took over during the Celtics year). At age 34, yes! Age 34, Sam was at the peak of his powers! And this was before the advancement of modern medicine that has helped Curry and Durant be so effective. Sam can be the leading scorer on a championship team and I will use the 04 timberwolves as example for this. Sam was the second best player and the best scorer on that team that in my opinion, was the best team in the NBA that season. Sam was all NBA and was killing it in the playoffs with multiple 40 point games when he got hurt during the western conference finals and they lost in 7 games to the Kobe and Shaq Lakers. Think about that, they took the Lakers to 7 games with there second best player and best scorer hurt. If Sam plays at full health then the Wolves make the finals and beat one of my favorite teams (the team first Pistons) in the finals which would have made Sam Cassell, at age 34, the best scorer on a championship team. I know I know, we can play the what if game with everyone and change all of history but this one is legit. Think about it, was this Pistons team unbeatable? KG needed an offensive lead and Sam showed up for the job and ran with it. Absolute legend of a mid range shooter who only needs a cm to get his shot off. I am actually starting to get confused why I don't have him as #2. Ok, I'll put down my glass of Tang and calm down.
Mike Conely at age 29 was **** incredible. He really took a step forward that year and was looking like a stud in both the regular season and playoffs. His efficiency jumped and he was ballin. He got injured the next year and never reached that peak again but got pretty dam close a few years and I'm not sure it was sustainable anyways. Regardless, at age 29, Conely was better than any season of Lowry who I believe has the better career. Lowry is awesome. He is a complete player and tenacious defender who plays the game like CP3 lite. I have too many bad memories of him going cold in the playoffs for me to put his peak above the other two PGs but his championship makes it that I wouldn't think you were dumb for picking him instead. His counts more since Sam's was before his peak.
7. Mitch Richmond
8. Jrue Holiday
9. Drazen
10. Terrell Brandon
Mitch Richmond was a hell of a scorer and I would be super interested to see how he would be utilized in a modern NBA. Would they use his size to do more post ups or would they use him defensively like a PJ Tucker while being 1000x better offensively? Contrary to Michael Jordans comments and everyone's insistence on pointing them out, Mitch was not a positive defender and could be lazy on that side. He was a good on ball defender when motivated and I think the old man to man only rules limited our ability to assess his talent. If he is fully committed and locked in as a switch everything PJ Tucker defender type, than I think he could be as good as anyone not named Roy but that is a huge if and idk if there is any reason to think he would be.
Jrue Holiday is a defensive stud who IF he played offense in the playoffs the way he does in the regular season then he would also shoot to the top of this list. Spoiler alert. He doesn't.
Drazen is another huge what if? His shooting was incredible and maybe the era change would unleash him as an all NBA type player, but that's too many maybes for me.
Although you would never guess it from this list, Terrell Brandon was one of my favorite players growing up as a Bucks fan. Unfortunately he never was the same player in Milwaukee that he has shown glimpses of in Cleveland and the era really worked against him. If he plays in today's era then he has a shot at being a Dearon Fox like scorer so he is not a bad consultation prize for being last on this top 10.

Thank you for asking this question and letting me escape my boring morning of an everyday work week. I really do appreciate this community and having people to talk with about this meaningless mumbo jumbo. An extra huge thank you to anyone who actually read my post. That means a lot. Love you guys!

[Owly]

Otoh, without looking this up ...
Drazen has a significantly worse box-peak than at least most of these.

He's by reputation (and this is fuzzy) a poor defender that means at best not really gaining much ground and often losing a bit on this end.

He is, fwiw - and how much one weighs these things and believes in the samples can vary; fwiw, I tend toward the lower-weighting end - among the all time playoff fallers.

My guess then, is that Drazen would, unfortunately, be clearly at the bottom here.


Brandon's RS box-peak (same year as Penny's: a little better by each of PER, WS/48 and BPM) might surprise some (Cleveland's pace perhaps takes some shine off the raw numbers).