Tag: Featured

Ranking the best No. 2 guys in NBA history

HoopsHype ranks the best No. 2 second-fiddle players in NBA history, including Dwyane Wade, Scottie Pippen, Kyrie Irving and much more.

There’s no shame in being the second-best player on an NBA team, especially if the player ahead of you on the pecking order is an all-time great and your team is doing a lot of winning in the process.

For some players, accepting the No. 2 role on a team is more difficult than it is for others. One player on this list even took the second-fiddle role on his own team after becoming a superstar and winning a championship with that same team.

Below, we present the best No. 2 guys in NBA history, the best Robins to all-time great Batmans.

Norman Powell: ‘I thought about quitting basketball a few times’

Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell discussed how he’s become a Most Improved Player and NBA All-Star candidate after nearly quitting basketball with HoopsHype Senior NBA Insider Michael Scotto. Plus, Powell’s NBA journey, how the Clippers have transitioned without Kawhi Leonard and moved on from Paul George with his help and James Harden, how Intuit Dome has changed the organization, Steve Ballmer stories behind the scenes, and the goals behind his Understand The Grind foundation and clothing brand.

Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell has become a Most Improved Player of the Year and All-Star candidate in his 10th season. Yet, the California native nearly walked away from basketball before his career began.

After overcoming depression and doubts to make his dream a reality, Powell hopes to influence the next generation to chase their dreams and be an inspiration.

Powell discussed the goals behind his Understand The Grind foundation and clothing brand, his NBA journey to become a Most Improved Player and All-Star candidate, how the Clippers have transitioned without Kawhi Leonard and moved on from Paul George with his help and James Harden, how Intuit Dome has changed the organization, Steve Ballmer stories behind the scenes, and more with HoopsHype.

Global Rating: Who should make the All-NBA Teams?

Here’s how the All-NBA Teams would look as of today according to Global Rating, our advanced metric that evaluates player performance during the season. According to the recently changed rules, positions are no longer factored in when selecting …

Here’s how the All-NBA Teams would look as of today according to Global Rating, our advanced metric that evaluates player performance during the season.

According to the recently changed rules, positions are no longer factored in when selecting All-NBA teams. However, to make the lineups more realistic, we’re sorting them with guards first, forwards in the middle, and centers last.

Just for fun, we’ll explore how a 5th, 8th, or 10th All-NBA Team might look too.

Ranking: The players with the most buzzer beaters in NBA history

HoopsHype put together a list of players with the most game-winning buzzer beaters shots in NBA history, including Jordan, Kobe and LeBron.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… BUZZZZZZ.

If you grew up a basketball fan, chances are that at some point, you have been in your driveway, local park or in the gym shooting around, dreaming about having the ball late in a close game and hitting a game-winning buzzer-beater.

Today, we put together a list ranking the players with the most buzzer-beaters in NBA history, a list featuring the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Dwyane Wade and more all-time, memorable players.

Some players surprisingly not on the list include Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and James Harden.

Check out the full list below. (For the record, the average stats are for games where the player hit buzzer-beater game-winning shots).

Top NBA trade candidates for the 2024-25 season

Top NBA trade candidates for the 2024-25 season, including reporting on all 30 teams from HoopsHype Senior NBA Insider Michael Scotto.

Following the blockbuster Karl-Anthony Towns deal to the New York Knicks ahead of the season, who are the next top trade candidates around the league?

HoopsHype outlined the top players who could be on the move for all 30 NBA teams, including new reporting where applicable.

NBA teams in history with super long rotations

The Warriors are trying a new approach this season with their rotation, featuring 13 players averaging between 14 and 30 minutes per game so far. The strategy seemed to work well early on, with 12 wins in the first 15 games, but not so lately, as …

The Warriors are trying a new approach this season with their rotation, featuring 13 players averaging between 14 and 30 minutes per game so far.

The strategy seemed to work well early on, with 12 wins in the first 15 games, but not so lately, as evidenced by four straight losses and Stephen Curry suggesting they may need to make some changes.

Steve Kerr is hardly the first coach to employ a deep rotation in the NBA. Here we have listed all the teams in league history with no players averaging 32 minutes per game and how that approach worked for them.

12 players making an efficiency leap in the NBA this season

HoopsHype ranks the 12 players who have made the biggest efficiency leaps from 2023-24 to 2024-25, including Chris Paul and Josh Hart.

The first quarter of every NBA season is a blast because there’s so much to learn. We’re creeping up on the 20-game mark for most teams, which means we’re starting to feel a little more grounded in our new evaluations of players, teams, and coaches – although plenty can still change.

Sample sizes at the player level are still small, but they’re not infinitesimal anymore. We can feel better about directional reads on where they’ve improved (or where they haven’t).

In today’s numbers-driven NBA, efficiency is king. We wanted to look at who has optimized their shot diet and leveled up their shotmaking compared to previous years to become a more effective scoring option. I looked at everyone in Basketball-Reference’s qualifying list of players from this year and last year and narrowed it down to players who have attempted at least 7.5 shots per game this season, leaving me with a pool of 119 players. Below are the 12 (the top decile) with the biggest jump in true shooting percentage (TS%).

We’re not at the point where these things are capital-T truths yet; a whole lot of the season still has to go on, and not everyone on this list will remain here if we re-run the exercise at the end of the year. But these players have made such significant jumps that it has to mean something, even if they come back to Earth eventually.

Global Rating rankings: The best in basketball right now

The season is in full swing, and so is Global Rating, HoopsHype’s primary metric for evaluating basketball players’ performance worldwide. This rating system combines individual and team stats to rank players based on their court impact, while also …

The season is in full swing, and so is Global Rating, HoopsHype’s primary metric for evaluating basketball players’ performance worldwide. This rating system combines individual and team stats to rank players based on their court impact, while also factoring in missed games. For a detailed breakdown, click here.

Below, you’ll find rankings showcasing top performers this season, in the last 365 days, and more.

Ranking: The highest-paid NBA draft classes ever

We can argue all day about what the best draft class ever was, with some people saying 1984, others 1996, and some others 2003. But when it comes to money, the answer is pretty clear-cut: the 2011 draft class, which features max players like Kawhi …

We can argue all day about what the best draft class ever was, with some people saying 1984, others 1996, and some others 2003.

But when it comes to money, the answer is pretty clear-cut: the 2011 draft class, which features max players like Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, and Jimmy Butler, ranks No. 1 in terms of career earnings in NBA history.

That is due to change in the future with salaries continuing to grow and more recent draft classes entering their prime. But it’s going to take a while since the 2011 players have already made $3.5 billion and will continue to cash in big bucks in the following years.

You can check the all-time ranking with the top earners from each class below.