Player The unfortunately low-ceilinged Shaolin monastery of Victor Wembanyama

All the criticism about Wemby and he’s in his 3rd season already competing for MVP (not to mention clear DPOY favorite) when some were shouting from the hills at the start of the year that he wasn’t taking a 3rd year leap because he was getting rattled by Phoenix in that one game. Dude is allowed to have “subpar” nights here and there.
 
It’s 2026, we use actual metrics to help determine how good a player is rather than sorting by points per game like it’s 90’s.

Shai is having another disgustingly efficient season for the best team in the league even while dealing with lots of injuries to main guys. Yea the foul baiting sucks but that’s on the competition committee to fix, not Shai.
hm. would be interesting to hear which metric are you looking at then, since all advanced stats that i can see show MJ is vastly better in any given season..
 
hm. would be interesting to hear which metric are you looking at then, since all advanced stats that i can see show MJ is vastly better in any given season..
SGA this year: 45.4 points (66.5 TS%), 6.5 rebounds, 9.6 assists, 2 steals, 1.2 blocks, 3.1 turnovers per 100 possessions. 31.3 PER, 0.330 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

MJ in 1991 (widely considered his peak): 42.7 points (60.5 TS%), 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 3.7 steals, 1.4 blocks, 3.3 turnovers per 100. 31.6 PER, 0.321 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

I'm not arguing that SGA this year is better than MJ ever was...but it's a little ridiculous to act like his year so far isn't at least comparable to some of MJ's best years. Really the only argument is "The NBA sucks in 2026 and SGA is a foul-baiter!" in which case there's no point in debating anything because no numbers will matter :st-lol:
 
SGA this year: 45.4 points (66.5 TS%), 6.5 rebounds, 9.6 assists, 2 steals, 1.2 blocks, 3.1 turnovers per 100 possessions. 31.3 PER, 0.330 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

MJ in 1991 (widely considered his peak): 42.7 points (60.5 TS%), 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 3.7 steals, 1.4 blocks, 3.3 turnovers per 100. 31.6 PER, 0.321 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

I'm not arguing that SGA this year is better than MJ ever was...but it's a little ridiculous to act like his year so far isn't at least comparable to some of MJ's best years. Really the only argument is "The NBA sucks in 2026 and SGA is a foul-baiter!" in which case there's no point in debating anything because no numbers will matter :st-lol:
It’s not that the NBA sucks in 2026,but it is a different league. Scoring is way up, and defense is hamstrung. The difference in Scoring is around 7-8 points per team per game. That’s not insignificant.
 
SGA this year: 45.4 points (66.5 TS%), 6.5 rebounds, 9.6 assists, 2 steals, 1.2 blocks, 3.1 turnovers per 100 possessions. 31.3 PER, 0.330 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

MJ in 1991 (widely considered his peak): 42.7 points (60.5 TS%), 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 3.7 steals, 1.4 blocks, 3.3 turnovers per 100. 31.6 PER, 0.321 WS/48, 12.0 BPM.

I'm not arguing that SGA this year is better than MJ ever was...but it's a little ridiculous to act like his year so far isn't at least comparable to some of MJ's best years. Really the only argument is "The NBA sucks in 2026 and SGA is a foul-baiter!" in which case there's no point in debating anything because no numbers will matter :st-lol:
i'm sorry, what???

ah you're looking at the per possession metrics.. perhaps you should normalise it with the league std deviation then... but mj is notoriously not an efficient shooter so if that was your point, fine..
 
Last edited:
It’s not that the NBA sucks in 2026,but it is a different league. Scoring is way up, and defense is hamstrung. The difference in Scoring is around 7-8 points per team per game. That’s not insignificant.
In an attempt to adjust for era scoring differences (because I don’t necessarily disagree with your point)…

Eyeballing it on BkRef, teams averaged around 108 points per 100 possessions in 1991. MJ’s 42.7 points per 100 / 108 = 39.5% of the league average for teams

SGA’s 45.4 points per 100 / league average of 115 points per 100 = 39.5%

MJ’s TS% was +7.1 compared to league average (60.5% vs. 53.4%). SGA is at +8.6% compared to league average (66.5% vs. 57.9%).

Again, I’m really not sitting here and saying that SGA is better than prime MJ. Just pointing out that the fact we’re even talking about comparable numbers with one of the most highly regarded seasons of all-time should speak to how good SGA has been this year.

And the post I responded to was saying that SGA’s metrics aren’t close to any of MJ’s seasons lol.
 
Lol I think it is the first time I see people spinning the ball with a middle finger 😂

Lebum low-key gave the alien nickname and did not get his royalities for it. 😂
I think you can’t trademark a word like alien, and the little alien face is clearly, and long term, in the public domain. Wemby can put them on his shoes, but can’t sue if anyone else does. But, I mean, who would?
 
Wemby glaze aside -- I'm surprised at many names/positions on the list; from Raynaud being so terribly low for all the praise he's gotten on this board, to Jokic being so high for his bad defensive reputation. Looks like he's been putting in work on that end this season.

Also, Kornet's position gave way to noticing one of my pet peeves regarding stats - badly defined X/Y axis on graphs. Kornet has a Help Defensive Activity rating of 3.... what? Possessions per game? The Y axis is similarly terrible. Guess the original page has further info, but the graph is pretty confusing besides stating the obvious, lmao
 
Also, Kornet's position gave way to noticing one of my pet peeves regarding stats - badly defined X/Y axis on graphs. Kornet has a Help Defensive Activity rating of 3.... what? Possessions per game? The Y axis is similarly terrible. Guess the original page has further info, but the graph is pretty confusing besides stating the obvious, lmao
BBall-index is one of those sites with ton of advanced metrics and their own names for stats, I got no clue what these actually represent, but you get the point.
 
Back
Top