 What's the word y'all? Today I wanna talk about ranking NBA players. No, I'm not giving you my top 100 lists or top 10 point guards, even though they kinda exist on the internet somewhere, whatever. But instead I wanna talk about the process of ranking players and why it's fun until it's not. Through my history as a YouTuber, I've had so many different opinions about ranking NBA players. When I was first starting, I was one of those people that spent so much time on ranking NBA players lists. Like I would see what Bleach Report was saying, I would see what ESPN was saying, I would see what Sports Illustrator was saying and make my own top 100 lists. And it was all and get fun. I would put it on one of my channels and just let it be that. And I did it so meticulously where I would sit down and try to decide, hmm, who's 91 and who is 90 and do I actually believe it? You know, those type of internal debates to put together good videos for y'all. And I was one of the weirdos. And that's how you know character growth is a real thing or person growth is a real thing. Because I was one of the people that I hate today. Oh yeah, I was one of the people that was willing to go to war for my own personal rankings. Oh, you think player A is the fourth best point guard? Why got him at number three? And you better tell me why you got him at number four or we gonna have to square up. Those are the worst kind of people in the world when it comes to sports. And I was one of them once upon a time, but again, I have grown a lot since then. I've grown a lot since then. And those are the people that make ranking NBA players tough. For example, me and my boys do it every single season. Top 10 point guards do centers. It's always lighthearted and fun at the end of the day. We do believe this stuff we're saying, but we're not gonna die on a hill saying that this player is number five while you got him at number six. And I did one thing. When we were doing positions, I played it, I put some bait out there. Yep, I put some bait out there just to see if we can hook one of those people I was talking about. Oh my God, I just sprayed everybody. My fault. I'm gonna see if I can find the list. This guy exists on Twitter somewhere. We have like a Twitter manager and he's been killing the game, shout out to him. So here's the list I created as bait for top 10 small forts. And I didn't even bait the top because if I really wanted to lay like big time bait, I could have made LeBron not number one or you know, something crazy like that. But the one piece of bait I dropped was Ogean and Nobby at seven. Now I'm not saying that Ogean and Nobby can't be the seven best small forward in the league but it was a controversial opinion at the moment and it still is. It's not something I necessarily believed to the tee but I was very curious to see what the comment section would say when we put him at number seven. I expected a lot of differing opinion and again that is okay. It is cool to have a difference in opinion and debate it and have fun. What I was looking for, what I was fishing for was a toxicity involved in it and it was a ton. Now, imagine me doing it with a small channel, a smaller podcast in comparison to Bleach Report, Sports Illustrated and things like that and how much buzz those lists get from making the controversial take. I did it and my mitches was on fire. Now imagine how many people actually click Bleach Report's article, actually click ESPN's article to get it talking. So I had that time in my life where I was the weirdo kid that would get angry at other people for having an opinion. We're past that. But then as my channel started to grow, I completely did a 180 where people would ask me, Kenny, who do you think is better between Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook at the height of Russell Westbrook? And I would answer to them, it doesn't matter. And because it doesn't matter, I won't rank it. And yes, that is true. It doesn't matter at the end of the day but just because it doesn't matter doesn't mean we can't have fun doing it. At the end of the day, me doing gaming, gaming, playing 2K, there are a lot of things that don't matter but you dedicate a lot of time into. So that was my excuse for it but in reality, honestly it was because I was afraid to say the wrong thing or say a controversial thing that would end up having people leave the channel. Again, my whole life I've been thinking about becoming a YouTuber and as the channel started to grow, I'm like, oh, I don't wanna stop this progression. So I can't tell you that I think Steph Curry is better than Russell Westbrook because the people that love Russell Westbrook might unsubscribe and might hate me. And I have grown a lot since then too because at the end of the day, I do not care nowadays. I just don't. And I think that's the best mindset to have when you're doing ranking anything or having an opinion in general. You just cannot care. You just cannot care. Y'all been watching this channel but I be saying some crazy stuff at the end of the day and I just don't care. I've been right a hundred times, I've been wrong 300 times and it doesn't matter. It's all in good fun. And if you look at ranking NBA players and things like that and it's nothing but just good fun, then you can have fun as well. Now I'm not saying because it's fun, you can't debate but having civil debates is a lot different than just having completely toxic debates all of that. Now the different websites, things we're talking like Bleach Report and ESPN and things like that, they put out their list every single season. And the thing I hate about the ESPN list specifically because that's the only one I've been able to see because Bleach Report hasn't dropped theirs. The Washington Post hasn't dropped theirs. And I guess Sports Illustrated put theirs behind a paywall for the first time. ESPN is always behind a paywall but Sports Illustrated just started this year so I can tell you what the heck is on Sports Illustrated list. I only know about ESPN. And they do this thing, where they give you the cop out. No, bro, we ain't ranking players right now. We predicting it. So if we rogue it, don't matter because we're making a prediction. Which is like, that's kinda lame to me. So what do I think the best method is for ranking NBA players? There is no science behind it. I mean, you can look at advanced stats and some people do that but I just think that's so, that's not gonna tell the whole story. Just like looking at counting stats won't tell the whole story. Or just the eye test doesn't tell the whole story. I think you have to use a combination of all of those things and you probably will still be extremely controversial when you do that. Because every single NBA player is in a different role in a different organization and because of that they're in a different scheme. So I saw a lot of people debating when ESPN's article, I think they had Luca at number three and Steph Curry at number four. Who is the better player? Well, they're expected to do different things. They're both expected to be the guy on their squad but the way they do it is different and what is more valuable at the end of the day is Luca saying, hey, everybody else sit on the corner is at the wing. I'm a bing bing bing five out, step back three. Is that more valuable or is that better than Steph Curry running off double screens and hitting amazing and crazy threes? Which one is more important? And one thing that I think is snubbed a lot when people are ranking NBA players is the offensive side of the ball. I've said this for many, many years. I think people undervalue defense in the game of basketball, especially in 2021, where everybody is a God that can bing bing bing. I think Jess is important. Well, okay, it's not 50, 50, but I think someone being able to stop the Steph Currys of the world or slow the Steph Currys in the world should be as valuable as the people that can turn into the Steph Currys of the world. So I would take if the, ooh, actually, ooh, this is a real question for y'all. Would you rather have a player that was all offense, no defense or all defense, no offense? That's tough. That is really, really tough. And I'm trying to think about the extremes. There's not a player in the NBA that's no defense. There's not a player in the NBA that's no offense. These are professional athletes we're talking about, but I'm thinking about the closest thing to that. The first thing that came to mind for the defensive side of the ball is Matisse Tybal. He's not a zero on the offensive side of the ball, but we don't expect him to go out there and do much. Or I guess even a PJ Tucker type. PJ Tucker might be the best. He was in the finals playing great minutes without touching the ball. But what is the extreme of that? Who is the all offensive player that don't play no defense? It's hard. It's hard to find those players. Yes, we have below average defenders or even really bad defenders, but who is the guy that's just a zero? I'm gonna Google it and see what the names come up. Oh my God. Oh, they have like statistics for this. And again, it's advanced statistics. I, okay, let's just look at what they got. I don't know what this means, by the way. Crafted defensive player model, maybe. D Raptor, D LeBron. Who was D LeBron? They are saying last year, the worst defensive player in the lead was Anthony Simons, then Trey Young. Okay, all right. Oh, actually, if it's between pick and Trey Young or PJ Tucker, come on, let's be honest, Kenny. I tried to make a point about defense, but I can't if this is the alternative. Or maybe two, let's think about it at different levels. I say Lou Williams, number five on this list as the worst. Lou Williams or PJ Tucker? Who would you rather have? I don't know. Does this video make any sense? Probably not.