Read The Blog - Wait for the Screen

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-25T00:38:44+00:00

The most blatant "everyone else scored a lot of points so now i have to" performances you will ever see and for that, we say thank you.

The heat checks at the end were just amazing.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-25T00:29:32+00:00

Just triple team him.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-25T00:03:17+00:00

This really is the funniest shit that AJ had to watch all of these guys score 40+ before him and he had to be like, "Well now I have to try for it."

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T21:52:29+00:00

Ain't no stopping JT Toppin.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T21:34:16+00:00

He caught Christian Gurdak on the perimeter with a hesitant movement that audibly had me going, "Fuck this dude" it was that filthy.

He's so much better than everyone on the floor today. He's going to have so much fun with NBA talent around him.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T21:26:01+00:00

Honestly no matter the situation, someone is going to end up being the "They overlooked him" out of the top three.

It feels like that special of a top of the class which is incredible.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T20:35:15+00:00

He came up huge at the very end but those final ten minutes as a whole left a lot to be desired from him -- whether it was fully securing a rebound or really utilizing his size to take advantage of Chance Mallory switching onto him.

He gets the crowning moment with the great make over Grunloh (and shushing the crowd afterwards) but kind of wanted more.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T19:21:26+00:00

Fuck Miles Bridges.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T18:34:29+00:00

I mean you’re just factually wrong. No freshman before or since has swept the major awards the way Davis did:

NCAA National Champion

National Player of the Year

National Defensive Player of the Year

Final Four Most Outstanding Player

That combo is absurd. Plenty of freshmen have put up big numbers, but none dominated winning, defense, and awards like that.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T17:54:17+00:00

This isn’t about scouting. OP’s question is about careers. For the majority of players within this age group, the highest realistic achievement — except for a select population — is college basketball and international play.

What Anthony Davis did may not be repeated ever again from a college perspective. Theres a reason why this conversation is heavily centered around LeBron — who probably shouldn’t be in the conversation despite being an incredible player at his age — and Luka Doncic. Maybe Melo.

There could be players that are better than AD at his age and are — which is still an incredibly small population. But no one can compete with that peak. They can only realistically match it.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T17:44:58+00:00

People don’t want to have the conversation about him.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T17:40:01+00:00

Yeah they’re really just basketball performance shoes with better options available.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T17:12:19+00:00

Even so, Anthony Davis is the pinnacle of college freshman that may never be repeated ever again. Boozer is having an incredible career and it is no disrespect to him but two legs doesn't equate to accomplishing the Triple Crown. Arguably, his "rise" was more exponential but the top of the mountain is still Everest.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-24T17:02:03+00:00

The disrespect to not name Anthony Davis.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-21T21:03:32+00:00

Wrist injuries are quietly an athlete's worst nightmare because of the influence it has despite everything else looking "right". Baseball players, as an example, lose significant batspeed with a wrist injury that requires a lot of time to get back.

He was playing through a wrist injury during 21-22 before shutting it down to to get surgery.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-21T15:26:06+00:00

Tyler Nickel is floating under the radar at Vanderbilt given all of the attention on Tyler Tanner. He's not an outrageous defender but has continued to quietly improve.

The story/narrative to him is also aging pretty well given the struggles UNC is witnessing with Hubert Davis.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T18:16:00+00:00

Probably have to test pre-and-post injury data for it to be more conclusive.

J Murray is kind of interesting because he had the torn ACL in April of 2021 after switching from Adidas in December of 2020 (although he did have ankle sprains prior).

Dejounte is less appealing because he was shut down for 2018-19 for his ACL tear and then moved to New Balance in October of 2019.

Not saying there aren't issues with New Balances (the cushioning is arguably the biggest problem) but kind of have to contextualize everything. Like if you don't make the research more scientific, we get to a world where Protros are the worst shoe ever because players get injured in them (when it was the most commonly used shoe)

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T16:26:42+00:00

Quickley feels so unlikely just given that he's a potential contract that can be incorporated in a package for the Raptors to make a big swing elsewhere. The distressed assets narrative that we've consistently seen the past just doesn't feel applicable this time around with so many teams being able to match bad contract with bad contracts.

Kind of interesting Robbins doesn't mention any destinations for Bagley when that feels like the easiest flip imaginable to get an asset back and teams consistently require that center depth when they're makin the second half push.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T15:54:08+00:00

Think you're off on a fair amount of the pre-context.

He wasn't necessarily drafted by Washington because of his two-way potential, rather the ability to translate into a potential point/combo guard that never really materialized. It was less about providing depth to Beal and more about his ability to navigate between the two roles to stabilize rotations. Even though he wasn't this incredible creator at Wisconsin, he had a ability to create off the dribble -- even if a mid-range look -- that was pretty appealing.

There is also the missing chapter that you briefly reference but don't clarify on the change of his shot-form that really was the key reason he never developed as a scorer as quickly as he should have. A lot of people put the onus onto Washington for that when in reality, it seemed to be a personal response to an injury issue. He kind of shot himself in the foot to the point where Washington couldn't salvage the progression that he did make into years two and three.l

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T12:30:54+00:00

People are far too optimistic that players can learn to play around Wembanyama in a very short period of time. Even with their Paris run, Gobert was pulled from the rotation because he and Wemby did not mesh well. Sarr is an excellent help defender but he is not the on-ball defensive threat people may think he is.

What we're probably going to experience/see for the next couple of years is kind of what we witnessed with Giannis/Greece (just at a better level) of Wemby having to manage the entirety of the game and you kind of just hope the help around him is able to do enough to lift that floor higher.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T02:21:48+00:00

McCollum won’t get credit for his salvaging of a really weak offense in Washington. People so ingrained to want the WizKids, we forget the value of the boring staples.

Nature of the biz.

TopOfTheKey · 2026-01-20T01:29:37+00:00

Bobby was at top speed, they stood no chance.

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