[1009] The "Perfect" NBA Player

The No Dunks podcast had an episode a few days ago where they drafted and created their "perfect NBA player." They basically had five categories to draft players from different eras and once a player was drafted you couldn't draft them again for other categories. So here's what I remember about the categories.

• Body/Athleticism. Also covers athleticism and injury history. So if you pick Derrick Rose then the risks of the ACL injuries are there. Actually I can't remember if they discussed that their player will have the same injury history or not.
• Shooting. I guess this involves scoring and not just shooting form and percentages.
• Ballhandling and playmaking. One category for both.
• Defense. I guess this is also overall.
• Personality. Forgot what this means but I guess it involves on and off court stuff.

Of course I came up with my own "perfect" NBA player but I gave myself some restrictions. First, I had to use current NBA players. Second, they can't be all-stars but they can have All-NBA or All-NBA defensive team selections. And I think that was it. So here's my "perfect" NBA player, who could be the ultimate role player or a possible all-star.

• Body/Athleticism: Aaron Gordon. He's got good size and athleticism, and as far as I know he hasn't had any major injuries.
• Shooting: Desmond Bane. I checked his Basketball Reference page and he has good FG%, 3P%, and FT% his entire career. Another candidate I was thinking of was Duncan Robinson but the past few seasons he was in a slump, however he did break out of this in the most recent Miami playoff run.
• Ballhandling and playmaking: Tyus Jones. He also has great assist-to-turnover ratios his entire career and as his minutes went up, he maintained his consistency.
• Defense: Matisse Thybulle. I was also considering Jaden McDaniels here but I think my recency bias remains with Thybulle. He probably has better defensive instincts, though I also don't know if he gambles too much or not.
• Personality. This was the hardest, but I decided to pick Steven Adams. Other players I considered were PJ Tucker and Josh Hart.

I also decided to try to create my all-time perfect NBA player, so here it is. I won't be getting the players the No Dunks crew drafted.

• Body/Athleticism: Lamar Odom. Chris Webber is still my all-time favorite NBA player but he was injury prone. Lamar Odom is my second favorite all-time, and I can't remember if he had any major injuries like Webber. Both of them were around 6 feet 10 inches and 230 or so pounds. Both of them had good athleticism.
• Shooting: Ray Allen. I don't even have to explain this, one of the greatest shooters of all time, plus he was also one hell of a scorer.
• Ballhandling and playmaking: Ricky Rubio. I've never been one to pay attention to point guards but I've always been a big Ricky Rubio fan.
• Defense: Scottie Pippen. I have no idea why no one drafted him. One of the best on-ball defenders of all time.
• Personality: Bill Walton. I just checked a list of all-time Finals MVPs and he was one of them. I also remember he loves ball movement and the team game, and off the court he was, and still is, a character. I wanted to pick other personalities but I was thinking that personalities also contributed to dominance on the court.

And there you have it, my current and all-time perfect NBA player molds.

Out.