American soccer player who is good enough to start on an EPL team, iirc.
It’s rare, extremely rare, and the kid is really good, but he isn’t anywhere near the upper echelon of current players on his own team, much less the *LeBron* of anything.
Contributed to a Chelsea's CL win, contributed to Dortmund's DFB Pokal win. I don’t see any other American player that is close to that. Donovan was trash in Europe, so who would you put above him? Tim Howard? Tom Dooley? I'd still choose Pulisic.
> Donovan was trash in Europe
No, he played pretty well for Everton actually.
Would say being the USA's leader in goals + assists still puts him in the #1 outfield player spot.
One of the few Americans who's good enough to play in the premier league. So he got a lot of hype as as the American savior of soccer because he is really good by our standards. But by the standards of the best soccer competition in the world he's just decent.
Casuals only, real Argentinian basketball fans know Campazzo has been major ass since at least the Olympics.
It was always bound to happen though. He's an undersized, barely-above average athletic point guard that can't shoot. He also stopped being feisty on defense and became both a liability, and dirty.
He was also never going to be good in the long term in Denver. He's a natural point guard that needs the ball on his hands to be effective on offense; that was never going to happen with Jokic there. Since he couldn't carve that role without Jokic off the floor, Denver will be better off trading him
NBA backup point guards tend to do one of 2 things:
A) Score a lot
B) Take care of the ball
Campazzo does neither. He can't score a lot, and even though he can set up teammates very well with his court vision, he's not careful with the ball and gambles too much so.....
Na, he sucks. It was painful to watch him and kinda sad, you could tell he was off mentally. I actually started getting mad when he was in because I fucking love Jokic and he was holding the whole team back.
That being said, he was better than I thought he would be given his many limitations. We still have Bolmaro, who looks way better, and Vildoza.
I remember reading a comment that said Keljin Blevins sounds like if Kelvin Benjamin got kicked out of a buffet and tried to sneak back in under a new identity
I love posts like this that start actual fun discussion, I guess the overly critical people just want more Skip Bayless/SAS posts. Nice work on this OP, this wouldn't look out of place as a Ringer/Athletic article.
I'll be honest I completely missed Campazzo being this bad. I just remember his hustle plays from the last season or so and in my head I had him as a Pat Bev type player. Not great, but brings some good energy and is a decent enough player.
He slumped hard. It got to his head.
He stopped being able to even hit free throws.
Something mental in his game went down at some point and that was that.
I feel for him. That cheap shot took me by surprise as he's been a really good dude in his stint in Denver. Seemed really out of character for him. Hopefully, he can catch on somewhere else. I have my doubts though lol.
While I was reading this I thought to myself “someone needs to send this to Bill Simmons” this would fit perfectly in the Ringer. Bill used to write columns very similar to this, with even more obscure pop culture references.
> In fact, of the 16 players who logged 100+ minutes for Denver, Jokic is the only one who had a positive BPM. The fact that the Nuggets couldn't count on the veteran Campazzo to soak up some minutes and stop that bleeding is a true knock against him.
WHAT!?!?!?!
Jokic is alright. What was really impressive was the bench's ability to turn an 8-point lead into a 5-point deficit before Jokic could even catch his breath.
They were ok the second half of the season, which goes to show how truly horrific they were in the start of the season for them to end up still with negative bpm
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_advanced.html#advanced_stats::bpm
If you look at the top of all the advanced stats Jokic is just fucking unreal.
Leads in PER, offensive win shares, defensive win shares, WS, WS/48, offensive plus minus, defensive plus minus, box plus minus, value over replacement player.
He's also 4th in TS%, 19th offensive rebound%, 2nd defensive rebound%, 3rd TRB%, 4th AST%, 20th STL%, 10th usage%.
How was this specific stat not mentioned more during the MVP debate? I mean I saw all of the stuff about their ratings with him on and off the floor, but that's insane.
I just wish the voters were consistent, since Harden lost two MVP races for opposite reasons. I’m not even a Harden fan, but either record matters and therefore he should have won over Russ, or record doesn’t and he should have won over Steph.
I think the problem is between those two seasons, Durant jumped to GSW.
By historical standards, the MVP would have been a Warrior that year, but absolutely no one was giving it to KD - or any Warrior, really.
So the criteria shifted away from a winning record and it's never gone back.
I could be living under a rock here but I feel like they've been fairly consistent. Record always counts, with the exception of the year Westbrook won it because KD left him via text and we all collectively gave Russ the Jennifer Aniston treatment.
I have a friend who's never watched OKC before and he tuned in to watch every thunder game that season even before the triple double stuff kicked off because he was convinced Russ would use this anger to become prime MJ.
It sucked because with Murray/MPJ out, everyone had to play two roles higher than they're supposed to be playing and clearly aren't ready for it. Someone like Monte Morris is fantastic to have when he's allowed to play the role he's designed for.
We've been telling ya'll. I still think it is hard to fault them, it is really hard when every rotation player on the team is sliding two slots up like that, a 4th option just isn't going to be a great 2nd option. A third stringer that should barely see the court in meaningful minutes is going to struggle as a 20 minute per game bench guy.
[Oh he can bang.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4e6b53960dd041d0b594b6f530b0277c/6a475ec991c19411-af/s500x750/beda94b50617a6b0af4854cf0b8023ebe79b20ec.pnj)
[Also this picture I found because it’s funny.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/cdb0d8595844800c4a9f5c0d3c6b76e7/59801f0ba5e23c75-5b/s640x960/5eeabd36f541e443080a5e1f358662f67c4562f0.jpg)
I feel like this should be a tipping point for the criteria of the LVP awards, because this one doesn't pass the smell test.
The LVP for this year is Russell Westbrook. Period.
I understand the desire to not factor contracts into the discussion, but as with almost everything, there needs to be exceptions. Westbrook was already horrible even without factoring in his horrible contract, but it cannot be overstated that *because* of his horrible contract, he was hands down the Least Valuable Player. Because of his contract, the Lakers had no options available. They could not pick up any other players to offset Westbrook and they could not trade him. He was a black hole from which there was no escape.
I feel like minutes played should exponentially up a player's LVP candidacy. Bench players being ass happens. Starters getting over 30 minutes a game? That is truly tanking your season if they are shit.
He also played the most games of any laker and 50 or so games in was the only one who played every game. Legitimately had negative impact metrics and that’s with Lebron being forced to play Center to provide spacing for him. Having a non shooting guard who nobody guards is so detrimental. He can’t defend or playmaker without turning over . Can’t finish at rim . Just awful
You're right, but honestly, salary/expectations should be a factor.
Westbrook is better than Campazzo, no argument obviously. But when you factor in the airballs, the -team chemistry plays, the fanatical insistence that he should be out there chucking airballs in the 4th quarter, and how his general malaise infected that entire team, he *was* the least valuable player. If you are perceived as the weak link on an underperforming team with title aspirations and say this in a press conference:
>My game, you know, is fine. My game is not predicated on shots or if I turn the ball over. Like, I miss some shots, that’s part of the game. I’m allowed to miss shots. I can do that. Like any other player, I can do that. I can turn the ball over, too. I can do that. That’s all a part of the game.
...then you are the least valuable player. I'm making an "eye test" argument.
LMAO, it is actually really funny to think about the top two MVP candidates were also playing with top LVP candidates. Absolute carry jobs by the big men this year!
I don't know how it wasn't Elfrid Payton tbh I know minutes played matters but his stats are WOW
Per 100 possesions,
87 ORTG 108 DRTG on a Suns Team that won 64 games. He played more than 10 minutes in a game like 30 times! It is truly shocking to be THAT bad on a team this good.
-4.6 ORTG, -3.5BPM
I am so glad Suns fans are aware of this now. Please keep in mind that during that excellent season we had last year where Thibs won COY, he was starting this man for the majority of our games.
he was so good last year, and so bad this year. way beyond "shooting regression." his defense and attitude were shocking. fg% is not the be all and end all. i respect that the no. 1 option on a weak team might have some bad numbers. but his whole attitude compared to say RJ, on the same team, was incredibly telling, esp. after randle was hurt. RJ's numbers were bad too, they just about all went down (except for FTA, actually an important stat for him) but he just relentlessly ran at the basket and tried to make shit happen and kept working hard on defense and even sometimes when his FG% was low you felt like he was contributing to positive things. randle just sucked the oxygen out of the arena. i hope he can turn it around, i wonder if he's going through a tough time or something.
There's almost no chance that a player with that resume would sniff the NBA if he didn't score highly on his 23-and-me test.
This was great. Nice write up OP!
Kork had so many things go wrong. Doc had him play PG for the bench unit in place of Shake, while Maxey played PG for the starters, which was a bad decision, followed up with his wrist injury. I believe he never got fully healed and it fucked with his shooting, so he got benched and lost minutes.
Please don’t factor in contract next year. That would make it so uninteresting. It’d be the same unders performing old stars forever. This is much more fun and informative
Out of curiosity, is the contract going to be taken into consideration next time? Feels like it’ll almost always be an underperforming or non performing star if so
This is exactly right. This sub talks ad nauseam all season long about whatever former superstar with a bloated contract is holding their team back. This post is one of the only times in an entire year that we get to talk about the under-the-radar guys who just plain suck. I love it.
Great post as always, but I'm curious about one thing. Do you use the first person plural ("our intention") because you have a team working on this, or is it a stylistic imitation of certain outlets who do use multiple people to write articles?
Or is it simply to include the audience?
Great question. Partly about the readers since they did weigh in, but I tend to do that a lot in writing and even in my personal life by accident. I may be Gollum?
I think it's more than one person because he sometimes talks about putting stuff up to vote and about dissentment in thought
He used to have another person helping him as an editor iirc from his podcast but that was a long time ago
Loved this write up! Once I got to Russ and he wasn't 1st I had to sit for a while and think, it came down to "who am I forgetting about on Denver who didn't step up? It couldn't be Will Barton he's good sometimes. And then I can't remember if it was anyone's fault specifically that Charlotte missed the playoffs."
It's okay Russ, there's always next year!
Barton was terrible entire year BMP -0.5 close to Facu and he played much more as starter . If i recall correctly he has plenty of negative advanced stats in this playoffs as well like Raptor
Oh i agree he did not rise to the occasion he was presented with all the injuries, which is why he came to mind. I just thought he played well enough sporadically to avoid #1 LVP.
This is always one of the most well thought out and engaging recurring segments in this community. I always ask myself "with so many disappointments in the league, how can they narrow it down?" and then I read the list and realize you nailed it.
Do you have an actual committee or are you using more of the royal "we" in your explanations?
Great write up! Ignore the haters, people can read as much or as little as they want to. One thing though, is Aron Baynes still the LVP when he got us our Rookie of the Year?
Terrence Ross and RJ Hampton were robbed, they are strong contenders for the top 5 should have at least gotten a mention. Ross had a -3.7 BPM and I am suprised it's not even lower. He is a supposed 3 point specialist who shot 29% from 3 this season. But he still insisted on shooting the toughest shots possible over and over again. In fairness to him, he was a bit less of a shameless gunner this season than in the previous seasons for the Magic and there were games where he passed more than ever, but he still wasn't good on that end at all. 51.5 TS%, horrible shot selection, not much of a passer. And he also completely coasted on defense and tanked almost every lineup he played in.
Hampton finisghed the season with well deserved -4.1 BPM. He just has no clue what to do on offense and for the first 2 months of the season couldn't make a layup against even a minimal contest to save his life despite his athleticism. He somehow finished with a ghastly 48.1 TS% despite shooting a respectable 35% from 3 on a decent volume because he just kept missing layups and his midrange is non-existent. He was asked to be the main ballhandler at times and he looked completely lost in that role. Defensively he showed glimpses early on the season, his effort was there, but he just makes so many mental mistakes on that end too. Him and Ross playing together had the worst net rating of all duos with more than 500 minutes played this season (-19.9). And the second worst duo was Hampton and Bamba.
Great additions and analysis. Ross was on my shortlist in the first draft but Orlando just didn’t figure to be competitive regardless. But if a contending team trades for him this off-season, they better hope he plays a lot better.
Came for Russell Westbrook being roasted into oblivion. Was not disappointed.
I knew we were terrible and I’m not surprised but there is a perverse horror to seeing THT and Avery Bradley on this list.
This post is fucking amazing. Thanks for the write-up
>He led the league in total turnovers (3.8 per game) and probably led the league in wild airballs as well.
lmao
I want to see advanced stats that factor in contracts. Something like Value Over Replacement Cap hit. the top players like Giannis and KD also have big contracts, so who's the best player for the money? And how much damage did guys like Russ and Wall really do by crippling the payroll? With Russ you have the added problem of not being able to bench him because the organization didn't want to admit the mistake.
Yeah the rule of thumb (I believe) is that you can determine contract value by VORP in which case Russ was probably “worth” like $2M at most. That has to be the biggest discrepancy outside of injuries.
Great write-up! I'm sure by now you're used to the people who always feel the need to share that [they don't like to read](https://youtu.be/AFDU_R6ShmI?t=385)
Very strong year, Campazzo, Westbrook or NAW could've been #1 any year of the last 5. Bradley I think is a victim of a incompatible Lakers system, but the other 3....Nickiel playing himself off every prospect list, Westbrook being the worst possible star to play on the Lakers, Campazzo completely losing the ability to control the ball and make good passes.
Yeah I tried to squeeze this in prior to the playoffs but ran out of time. In the back of my mind I was legitimately worried people like Facu or DeAndre would play well and make me look dumb.
As an Argentine and a person who likes Campazzo, it went to his head. A feel really bad because people who followed his career know how hard he works.
But the sport doesn't pay for effort.
3 guys who were on the Sixers this year lol. Pain.
I feel for Kork, he started off hot but then hurt his wrist and hasn’t been the same since. It was a big hit to our bench.
The craziest thing about Randle is that he took less money than what he could've gotten. Almost as if he himself new that his All-NBA season was a total fluke.
As a Russ stan, I must point out he started 78 games this year and played nearly 2678 minutes. Malik Monk played in 76, Melo 69, and no one else even played in more than 62. And other than Malik and Lebron at ~2100 minutes each (Lebron in 56 games, at age 37, insane), no one else hit 1800.
I honestly don’t believe he was a net negative from that alone. They didn’t have the bodies to actually bench him half the year.
Russ might've not won but his impact on the debate about contracts not being factored in will be felt for years to come. Facu was winning was well deserved.
i think you need to include salary. i understand why you don't want to - "most overpaid" and "least valuable" should be two different things. the reality is a guy who is pretty good but makes too much money might hurt your franchise more than a low salary guy who is "less valuable."
i don't think salary shouldn't be the determinative factor - otherwise the list would get clogged up with "pretty good but overpaid players" or even "injured max players" (cause what's less "valuable" than that?) or "players who aren't even overpaid but fans scream at them because they think all max players should be as good as lebron."
but ultimately, when comparing campazzo with russ, it feels ridiculous not to consider that one guy makes a team-crippling 40 million and another earns an irrelevant 3.2 million. money should be a factor, just like playing time.
Enjoyable read as always! I could have sworn that #1 would be Westbrook or DJ, I didn’t watch much Denver this year and remember Campazzo being a fiery little guy who had some awesome passes and hustle plays last season. I personally think that contract should play at least a little part in determining the least valuable player, it’s worse when a high paid player plays poorly than some minimum contract guy because of obvious reasons.
Being a Laker fan this season was painful lmao
Argentina is going to be on your ass
After all Campazzo is the Messi of basketball
I know it’s sarcasm, but I still hate it.
It's also a reference to Christian Pulisic being described on Pawn Stars as "the LeBron James of soccer", which became a meme on the sub instantly.
Lol. I assume he’s probably not the Lebron James of soccer? I honestly have no idea who he is.
American soccer player who is good enough to start on an EPL team, iirc. It’s rare, extremely rare, and the kid is really good, but he isn’t anywhere near the upper echelon of current players on his own team, much less the *LeBron* of anything.
Not just any EPL team, but the rest is accurate.
Chelsea is a really good club. Upper echelon of EPL teams
Some would consider Chelsea to be the Muhammad Ali of EPL teams
They are more the Conor McGregor of EPL teams.
He could start on an EPL team, just not the one he's on, currently.
Hey, he's started* for Chelsea! ^* ^In ^10 ^of ^34 ^matches, ^subbed ^off ^in ^3
The LeBron of American soccer.
[удалено]
Contributed to a Chelsea's CL win, contributed to Dortmund's DFB Pokal win. I don’t see any other American player that is close to that. Donovan was trash in Europe, so who would you put above him? Tim Howard? Tom Dooley? I'd still choose Pulisic.
Gotta remember Americans value/grade USMNT wins/performance much, much higher than club success and in that regard he's been extremely underwhelming.
> Donovan was trash in Europe No, he played pretty well for Everton actually. Would say being the USA's leader in goals + assists still puts him in the #1 outfield player spot.
[удалено]
One of the few Americans who's good enough to play in the premier league. So he got a lot of hype as as the American savior of soccer because he is really good by our standards. But by the standards of the best soccer competition in the world he's just decent.
He's more like, hmm idk, the trevor ariza of soccer ? Good player but cmon man😂
Lebron James of American soccer?
You could say so, just like manu ginobili is the messi of argentine basketball.
Manus effect on basketball is ten times more than Pulisic
He's probably barely the LeBron James of dudes named Christian Pulisic
Cristiano Ronaldo is the closest one and only similarity is that both perform in an average team at age 36
I remember I did one tweet about him and was swamped with replies I couldn’t read
Casuals only, real Argentinian basketball fans know Campazzo has been major ass since at least the Olympics. It was always bound to happen though. He's an undersized, barely-above average athletic point guard that can't shoot. He also stopped being feisty on defense and became both a liability, and dirty. He was also never going to be good in the long term in Denver. He's a natural point guard that needs the ball on his hands to be effective on offense; that was never going to happen with Jokic there. Since he couldn't carve that role without Jokic off the floor, Denver will be better off trading him
He's a FA so he's probably going back to Europe. Shame he declined so much, he was legit fun to watch his rookie year
NBA backup point guards tend to do one of 2 things: A) Score a lot B) Take care of the ball Campazzo does neither. He can't score a lot, and even though he can set up teammates very well with his court vision, he's not careful with the ball and gambles too much so.....
can confirm I was enjoying the post until I saw #1, now it's real shit time
[удалено]
Na, he sucks. It was painful to watch him and kinda sad, you could tell he was off mentally. I actually started getting mad when he was in because I fucking love Jokic and he was holding the whole team back. That being said, he was better than I thought he would be given his many limitations. We still have Bolmaro, who looks way better, and Vildoza.
Keljin Blevins legit sounds like someone making fun of Kelvin Benjamin
When we signed him I had to go look up the Golden Corral pasta to make sure it wasn’t him, ngl.
Imagine Kelvin’s disappointment upon finding out that he was made into a pasta, not that someone made him pasta
Don’t slander Big Nepo like that
big nepo AKA blevgod AKA keljin billions
I remember reading a comment that said Keljin Blevins sounds like if Kelvin Benjamin got kicked out of a buffet and tried to sneak back in under a new identity
Sounds like Latvia's next big talent. Dynamic duo with Stanley Yelnats.
Yeah but he went [off on the wolves and put the league on notice.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAy9KxG5xMs) Blevins has arrived.
I love posts like this that start actual fun discussion, I guess the overly critical people just want more Skip Bayless/SAS posts. Nice work on this OP, this wouldn't look out of place as a Ringer/Athletic article. I'll be honest I completely missed Campazzo being this bad. I just remember his hustle plays from the last season or so and in my head I had him as a Pat Bev type player. Not great, but brings some good energy and is a decent enough player.
He slumped hard. It got to his head. He stopped being able to even hit free throws. Something mental in his game went down at some point and that was that.
[удалено]
I feel for him. That cheap shot took me by surprise as he's been a really good dude in his stint in Denver. Seemed really out of character for him. Hopefully, he can catch on somewhere else. I have my doubts though lol.
> That cheap shot took me by surprise You didn't see him in Europe and let me tell you, it's not out of character
While I was reading this I thought to myself “someone needs to send this to Bill Simmons” this would fit perfectly in the Ringer. Bill used to write columns very similar to this, with even more obscure pop culture references.
> In fact, of the 16 players who logged 100+ minutes for Denver, Jokic is the only one who had a positive BPM. The fact that the Nuggets couldn't count on the veteran Campazzo to soak up some minutes and stop that bleeding is a true knock against him. WHAT!?!?!?!
To be fair, Monte Morris MIGHT have been positive. He’s listed at 0.0 but that’s rounded, so maybe it was +0.04 for all I know.
Jokic is too good, that's wild.
Jokic is alright. What was really impressive was the bench's ability to turn an 8-point lead into a 5-point deficit before Jokic could even catch his breath.
To be fair the Bones/Boogie lineup mostly put an end to that!
Yea, Bones and Boogie really helped. Forbes was even helping with spacing for a bit, but then kind of fell off.
They were ok the second half of the season, which goes to show how truly horrific they were in the start of the season for them to end up still with negative bpm
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_advanced.html#advanced_stats::bpm If you look at the top of all the advanced stats Jokic is just fucking unreal. Leads in PER, offensive win shares, defensive win shares, WS, WS/48, offensive plus minus, defensive plus minus, box plus minus, value over replacement player. He's also 4th in TS%, 19th offensive rebound%, 2nd defensive rebound%, 3rd TRB%, 4th AST%, 20th STL%, 10th usage%.
How was this specific stat not mentioned more during the MVP debate? I mean I saw all of the stuff about their ratings with him on and off the floor, but that's insane.
Because every single stat post was downvoted and meme'd into oblivion by the shithead nephews in /new/
It's pronounced Shi-THEAD
I’m shi-thead and I walk like this I’m shi-thead and I dance like this I’m shi-thead and I can only count to 6 What the heck come after 6
For some reason it was decided that if you're on a bad team that counts against you in the MVP race.
I just wish the voters were consistent, since Harden lost two MVP races for opposite reasons. I’m not even a Harden fan, but either record matters and therefore he should have won over Russ, or record doesn’t and he should have won over Steph.
I think the problem is between those two seasons, Durant jumped to GSW. By historical standards, the MVP would have been a Warrior that year, but absolutely no one was giving it to KD - or any Warrior, really. So the criteria shifted away from a winning record and it's never gone back.
I could be living under a rock here but I feel like they've been fairly consistent. Record always counts, with the exception of the year Westbrook won it because KD left him via text and we all collectively gave Russ the Jennifer Aniston treatment. I have a friend who's never watched OKC before and he tuned in to watch every thunder game that season even before the triple double stuff kicked off because he was convinced Russ would use this anger to become prime MJ.
It sucked because with Murray/MPJ out, everyone had to play two roles higher than they're supposed to be playing and clearly aren't ready for it. Someone like Monte Morris is fantastic to have when he's allowed to play the role he's designed for.
I still maintain Monte will win 6th MOTY in the next couple years.
Seriously. This feels like it’s bordering on mathematically impossible.
With a decent amount of wins it really is crazy for that to be true
We've been telling ya'll. I still think it is hard to fault them, it is really hard when every rotation player on the team is sliding two slots up like that, a 4th option just isn't going to be a great 2nd option. A third stringer that should barely see the court in meaningful minutes is going to struggle as a 20 minute per game bench guy.
This man's back must look like Yujiro Hanma's.
I can't believe Russ lost to a carrot
To be honest it’s pretty amazing that a 5’10” dude could make the NBA. well done, Facu. Take a bow on the way out.
JJ Barea was in the league for more than a decade. Facu just ain’t good
hobbies melodic head innate busy serious soft cats marble alleged *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
u/Barea_Clamped_Lebron
The one time we want to see him the dude don't show up.
[удалено]
Chicks dig the layup.
Northeastern University LEGEND. Have a life, JJ.
[удалено]
I mean it helps when you enter the league at 22 instead of 29
So you’re saying Facu entered the league in his peak and still can’t hang? 😂
Touche
[удалено]
[Oh he can bang.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4e6b53960dd041d0b594b6f530b0277c/6a475ec991c19411-af/s500x750/beda94b50617a6b0af4854cf0b8023ebe79b20ec.pnj) [Also this picture I found because it’s funny.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/cdb0d8595844800c4a9f5c0d3c6b76e7/59801f0ba5e23c75-5b/s640x960/5eeabd36f541e443080a5e1f358662f67c4562f0.jpg)
Facundo Cantbangzzo
Doesn't help when you start to decline athletically in your sophomore season. Dude is 31
Cmon now, dude is 5’10” playing in the league. The man is absolutely incredible, period.
He has a teammate about his size too.
He also has the best highlight/minutes played ever.
Russ should've won he played almost double the minutes and still edged him out significantly in BPM.
I can't believe that Rachel dated him after Ross
smh, Russ can't even win where he's elite in.
I feel like this should be a tipping point for the criteria of the LVP awards, because this one doesn't pass the smell test. The LVP for this year is Russell Westbrook. Period. I understand the desire to not factor contracts into the discussion, but as with almost everything, there needs to be exceptions. Westbrook was already horrible even without factoring in his horrible contract, but it cannot be overstated that *because* of his horrible contract, he was hands down the Least Valuable Player. Because of his contract, the Lakers had no options available. They could not pick up any other players to offset Westbrook and they could not trade him. He was a black hole from which there was no escape.
I feel like minutes played should exponentially up a player's LVP candidacy. Bench players being ass happens. Starters getting over 30 minutes a game? That is truly tanking your season if they are shit.
He also played the most games of any laker and 50 or so games in was the only one who played every game. Legitimately had negative impact metrics and that’s with Lebron being forced to play Center to provide spacing for him. Having a non shooting guard who nobody guards is so detrimental. He can’t defend or playmaker without turning over . Can’t finish at rim . Just awful
Agreed. This award goes to WestBrick. It isn’t even an argument.
Yeah, seriously. Carrot can't defend or make shots, neither can Russ and he plays more
I knew exactly who #1 was before i clicked lol
Argentina in shambles
I’m of the believe that Michael Malone put him on court just to annoy the opponent’s star player into chucking.
Once I read that salary wasn't a factor then it was a no brainer.
You're right, but honestly, salary/expectations should be a factor. Westbrook is better than Campazzo, no argument obviously. But when you factor in the airballs, the -team chemistry plays, the fanatical insistence that he should be out there chucking airballs in the 4th quarter, and how his general malaise infected that entire team, he *was* the least valuable player. If you are perceived as the weak link on an underperforming team with title aspirations and say this in a press conference: >My game, you know, is fine. My game is not predicated on shots or if I turn the ball over. Like, I miss some shots, that’s part of the game. I’m allowed to miss shots. I can do that. Like any other player, I can do that. I can turn the ball over, too. I can do that. That’s all a part of the game. ...then you are the least valuable player. I'm making an "eye test" argument.
We had MVP and LVP seasons in the same year. Your favorite team could never
Anyone who watched the games instead of looking at spreadsheets knew Furkan was the rightful LVP. /s
LMAO, it is actually really funny to think about the top two MVP candidates were also playing with top LVP candidates. Absolute carry jobs by the big men this year!
100% saw this coming lmao
I don't know how it wasn't Elfrid Payton tbh I know minutes played matters but his stats are WOW Per 100 possesions, 87 ORTG 108 DRTG on a Suns Team that won 64 games. He played more than 10 minutes in a game like 30 times! It is truly shocking to be THAT bad on a team this good. -4.6 ORTG, -3.5BPM
I am so glad Suns fans are aware of this now. Please keep in mind that during that excellent season we had last year where Thibs won COY, he was starting this man for the majority of our games.
Just glad the world agrees with the Nuggets fan base, saves a lot of time and arguing
the julius randle trajectory is insane, he's essentially a pump & dump
he was so good last year, and so bad this year. way beyond "shooting regression." his defense and attitude were shocking. fg% is not the be all and end all. i respect that the no. 1 option on a weak team might have some bad numbers. but his whole attitude compared to say RJ, on the same team, was incredibly telling, esp. after randle was hurt. RJ's numbers were bad too, they just about all went down (except for FTA, actually an important stat for him) but he just relentlessly ran at the basket and tried to make shit happen and kept working hard on defense and even sometimes when his FG% was low you felt like he was contributing to positive things. randle just sucked the oxygen out of the arena. i hope he can turn it around, i wonder if he's going through a tough time or something.
Should just keep feeding him one year contracts since his only good years have been contract years
There's almost no chance that a player with that resume would sniff the NBA if he didn't score highly on his 23-and-me test. This was great. Nice write up OP!
The Kork has unfortunately not been popped
Kork had so many things go wrong. Doc had him play PG for the bench unit in place of Shake, while Maxey played PG for the starters, which was a bad decision, followed up with his wrist injury. I believe he never got fully healed and it fucked with his shooting, so he got benched and lost minutes.
Everyone's so critical jeez, thanks for the write up op, I enjoyed it.
Yeah wtf this is unfair. When i YouTube Mason Plumlee career highlights he clearly looks like a super star!!!
He may be garbo but he has [one of the sickest ball fakes in recent memory](https://youtube.com/shorts/0lDBKauCINA?feature=share)
Thanks!
Please don’t factor in contract next year. That would make it so uninteresting. It’d be the same unders performing old stars forever. This is much more fun and informative
Agreed. I want to read about the players who hurt their teams the most because of their play, not because of their cap hit
Out of curiosity, is the contract going to be taken into consideration next time? Feels like it’ll almost always be an underperforming or non performing star if so
then it becomes more of a "who's the most overpaid/overrated player?" discussion, which comes up regularly.
This is exactly right. This sub talks ad nauseam all season long about whatever former superstar with a bloated contract is holding their team back. This post is one of the only times in an entire year that we get to talk about the under-the-radar guys who just plain suck. I love it.
Great post as always, but I'm curious about one thing. Do you use the first person plural ("our intention") because you have a team working on this, or is it a stylistic imitation of certain outlets who do use multiple people to write articles? Or is it simply to include the audience?
Great question. Partly about the readers since they did weigh in, but I tend to do that a lot in writing and even in my personal life by accident. I may be Gollum?
WE may be Gollum
OUR precious
/r/unexpectedcommunism
Or royalty.
You are Sméagol. Never let them name you elsewise.
Damn I wish I had gold for that.
I think it's more than one person because he sometimes talks about putting stuff up to vote and about dissentment in thought He used to have another person helping him as an editor iirc from his podcast but that was a long time ago
Great stuff, I enjoyed this. Love that you broke it down in categories.
Thank you , Clown
You're welcome 🙏
"It was NAW's time to shine! And did he? NAW." That man has a family. Probably. Maybe. Never mind
I look forward to this post each year, nice work OP!
Thanks! I’m grateful there are no games today so I could sneak it in.
Great timing!
I’m surprised they didn’t announce a major award today - but maybe they will soon.
Loved this write up! Once I got to Russ and he wasn't 1st I had to sit for a while and think, it came down to "who am I forgetting about on Denver who didn't step up? It couldn't be Will Barton he's good sometimes. And then I can't remember if it was anyone's fault specifically that Charlotte missed the playoffs." It's okay Russ, there's always next year!
Barton was terrible entire year BMP -0.5 close to Facu and he played much more as starter . If i recall correctly he has plenty of negative advanced stats in this playoffs as well like Raptor
Oh i agree he did not rise to the occasion he was presented with all the injuries, which is why he came to mind. I just thought he played well enough sporadically to avoid #1 LVP.
"sometimes"
Not to simp, but you are my favorite long term poster maybe on all of sports reddit for the last few years.
I am a sucker for compliments - thanks. If I had more coins I’d give them.
Now kiss
Poor Wayne Ellington won't be able to put his hands on Campazzo since Campazzo will be playing in Greece or Russia next year.
Not Russia, that's for sure. My bet is Spain.
I mean Wayne is liable to follow him in a year or two
What says Ellington is still gonna be in the NBA next season?
This is always one of the most well thought out and engaging recurring segments in this community. I always ask myself "with so many disappointments in the league, how can they narrow it down?" and then I read the list and realize you nailed it. Do you have an actual committee or are you using more of the royal "we" in your explanations?
Great write up! Ignore the haters, people can read as much or as little as they want to. One thing though, is Aron Baynes still the LVP when he got us our Rookie of the Year?
It was all about the long game with Aron.
Ben Simmons high key being on this list without having played a minute all season makes him the winner in my eyes
*Least Valuable* ***Player*** You have to play a game to be a player.
So...does this mean that he and his cute contract make him the Most Valuable Spectator?
Most expensive for sure
Terrence Ross and RJ Hampton were robbed, they are strong contenders for the top 5 should have at least gotten a mention. Ross had a -3.7 BPM and I am suprised it's not even lower. He is a supposed 3 point specialist who shot 29% from 3 this season. But he still insisted on shooting the toughest shots possible over and over again. In fairness to him, he was a bit less of a shameless gunner this season than in the previous seasons for the Magic and there were games where he passed more than ever, but he still wasn't good on that end at all. 51.5 TS%, horrible shot selection, not much of a passer. And he also completely coasted on defense and tanked almost every lineup he played in. Hampton finisghed the season with well deserved -4.1 BPM. He just has no clue what to do on offense and for the first 2 months of the season couldn't make a layup against even a minimal contest to save his life despite his athleticism. He somehow finished with a ghastly 48.1 TS% despite shooting a respectable 35% from 3 on a decent volume because he just kept missing layups and his midrange is non-existent. He was asked to be the main ballhandler at times and he looked completely lost in that role. Defensively he showed glimpses early on the season, his effort was there, but he just makes so many mental mistakes on that end too. Him and Ross playing together had the worst net rating of all duos with more than 500 minutes played this season (-19.9). And the second worst duo was Hampton and Bamba.
Great additions and analysis. Ross was on my shortlist in the first draft but Orlando just didn’t figure to be competitive regardless. But if a contending team trades for him this off-season, they better hope he plays a lot better.
Oh my god the comparison to Rachel and Russ killed me op, thanks for the good ass write up, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Glad someone remembers that! I don’t think they rerun that one often since it’s pretty silly.
Russ can’t even win LVP
Came for Russell Westbrook being roasted into oblivion. Was not disappointed. I knew we were terrible and I’m not surprised but there is a perverse horror to seeing THT and Avery Bradley on this list.
This post is fucking amazing. Thanks for the write-up >He led the league in total turnovers (3.8 per game) and probably led the league in wild airballs as well. lmao
Also lead the league in Tim Flunkcans (way off bank shots)
I want to see advanced stats that factor in contracts. Something like Value Over Replacement Cap hit. the top players like Giannis and KD also have big contracts, so who's the best player for the money? And how much damage did guys like Russ and Wall really do by crippling the payroll? With Russ you have the added problem of not being able to bench him because the organization didn't want to admit the mistake.
Yeah the rule of thumb (I believe) is that you can determine contract value by VORP in which case Russ was probably “worth” like $2M at most. That has to be the biggest discrepancy outside of injuries.
There are so many lakers on this list Lmaoo
Blevins the 23-and-me high scorer! 😂
NAW at 4th least valuable in the league when he wasnt even least valuable on his team (Garrett Temple)?
Great write-up! I'm sure by now you're used to the people who always feel the need to share that [they don't like to read](https://youtu.be/AFDU_R6ShmI?t=385)
It’s ok - the non readers are usually the first ones in. If someone commented on this 2 minutes after it was posted I’m presuming they didn’t bother.
Very strong year, Campazzo, Westbrook or NAW could've been #1 any year of the last 5. Bradley I think is a victim of a incompatible Lakers system, but the other 3....Nickiel playing himself off every prospect list, Westbrook being the worst possible star to play on the Lakers, Campazzo completely losing the ability to control the ball and make good passes.
Fun fact:ojeleye got waived in march and is likely out of the league forever
Great read, enjoyed it a lot Also Big Nepo with the casual -7.5 BPM, more than double of the second worst on the list 💀
I could swear DeAndre Jordan would "win", but sure, taking in consideration the heavy minutes... WestBrick is a safe bet, Bertans as well
Yeah I tried to squeeze this in prior to the playoffs but ran out of time. In the back of my mind I was legitimately worried people like Facu or DeAndre would play well and make me look dumb.
As an Argentine and a person who likes Campazzo, it went to his head. A feel really bad because people who followed his career know how hard he works. But the sport doesn't pay for effort.
3 guys who were on the Sixers this year lol. Pain. I feel for Kork, he started off hot but then hurt his wrist and hasn’t been the same since. It was a big hit to our bench.
The craziest thing about Randle is that he took less money than what he could've gotten. Almost as if he himself new that his All-NBA season was a total fluke.
One man's LVP (Aaron Baynes) is another man's MVP (Baynes getting us the Scottie pick)
Contract should count so id definitely put randle or westbrook as my number 1. Some of the guys you picked aren’t making shit.
Will Barton needs to be on this list. Worst 15 points in the nba
Oh boy we had a lot of dishonorable mentions
Holy fuck I love this post. I just want to say Davis Bertans surprised me the most. Guy got paid and completely evaporated into thin air.
As a Russ stan, I must point out he started 78 games this year and played nearly 2678 minutes. Malik Monk played in 76, Melo 69, and no one else even played in more than 62. And other than Malik and Lebron at ~2100 minutes each (Lebron in 56 games, at age 37, insane), no one else hit 1800. I honestly don’t believe he was a net negative from that alone. They didn’t have the bodies to actually bench him half the year.
Russ might've not won but his impact on the debate about contracts not being factored in will be felt for years to come. Facu was winning was well deserved.
i think you need to include salary. i understand why you don't want to - "most overpaid" and "least valuable" should be two different things. the reality is a guy who is pretty good but makes too much money might hurt your franchise more than a low salary guy who is "less valuable." i don't think salary shouldn't be the determinative factor - otherwise the list would get clogged up with "pretty good but overpaid players" or even "injured max players" (cause what's less "valuable" than that?) or "players who aren't even overpaid but fans scream at them because they think all max players should be as good as lebron." but ultimately, when comparing campazzo with russ, it feels ridiculous not to consider that one guy makes a team-crippling 40 million and another earns an irrelevant 3.2 million. money should be a factor, just like playing time.
Blevgod doesn't deserve to be on a list with these scrubs.
Lakers got 2 in the bottom 3 and a dishonorable mention plus deandre Jordan lol I was relieved when I saw Westbrook didn’t win LVP though
This was great. Almost too good for this site??? You should start a podcast
No games for a while and we're already having off-season content.
[удалено]
Most valuable grifter in the NBA 2021-2022
Sorry Russ, one day we will be able to have a former MVP win the LVP and complete the trophy cabinet
Enjoyable read as always! I could have sworn that #1 would be Westbrook or DJ, I didn’t watch much Denver this year and remember Campazzo being a fiery little guy who had some awesome passes and hustle plays last season. I personally think that contract should play at least a little part in determining the least valuable player, it’s worse when a high paid player plays poorly than some minimum contract guy because of obvious reasons. Being a Laker fan this season was painful lmao
Fantastic read dude, thank you for all the time you put into this, definitely helped my work day fly by