New York Knicks

The 2023 NBA Draft could go down as a special class, with talented prospects such as Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller and the Thompson twins as well as some interesting depth pieces.
But will it ever be considered one of the best draft classes in NBA history? That remains to be seen.
Today, we're going to identify the cr&egrave;me de la cr&egrave;me of NBA draft classes.
The 2003 NBA Draft
The 2003 NBA Draft featured multiple generational talents that would come to define the NBA for the next two decades. Led by LeBron James, this class also included household names such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Not only did this draft have star power, it was also very deep. Twenty-seven players from the 2003 class played at least 10 seasons in the NBA: James, Wade, Anthony, Bosh, Kyle Korver, David West, Zaza Pachulia, Nick Collison, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, James Jones, Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich, Dahntay Jones, Steve Blake, Mo Williams, Luke Ridnour, Willie Green, Matt Bonner, Travis Outlaw, Keith Bogans, Darko Milicic, Mickael Pietrus, Sasha Pavlovic, Josh Howard and Luke Walton. This class featured nine All-Stars and plenty of quality role players.
The 1984 NBA Draft
The 1984 NBA Draft stands as a legendary class, and some might argue that it's the greatest draft of all-time. Two of the top three picks &mdash; Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon &mdash; would ultimately etch their names in the annals of basketball history and redefine greatness. In addition to Jordan and Olajuwon, players like Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Alvin Robertson showcased their immense talent as well. This class produced five Hall-of-Famers and seven All-Stars.
The 1996 NBA Draft
The 1996 NBA Draft changed the landscape of the league, heralding the arrival of future Hall-of-Famers and icons. Led by the legendary Kobe Bryant and the enigmatic Allen Iverson, this class boasted an array of talent that reinvigorated the game. This class also featured Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace, Stephon Marbury, Peja Stojakovic, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Antoine Walker, Marcus Camby, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Derek Fisher. The 1996 NBA Draft was deep, producing 10 All-Stars and five Hall-of-Famers. Jon Finkel recently revisited this star-studded class in his book "1996," and he <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/revisiting-the-starstudded-1996-nba-draft-kobe-bryant-ray-allen-steve-nash-allen-iverson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ran a terrific excerpt on Basketball News</a>.
The 1985 NBA Draft
The 1985 NBA Draft was certainly special. This class featured 10 All-Stars including Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Joe Dumars, Detlef Schrempf, Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, &nbsp;AC Green, Terry Porter and Michael Adams. The class also featured Arvydas Sabonis, an overseas legend and terrific Portland Trail Blazer. Like the 1996 NBA Draft, this class has the star power and depth to be considered one of the best drafts in NBA history.
The 2009 NBA Draft
While not as immediately illustrious as some of the other classes on this list, the 2009 NBA Draft proved to be a treasure trove of talent. This class exemplified the importance of patience and player development, as Stephen Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday and Jeff Teague would all go on to become All-Stars. Griffin missed his rookie year with an injury, but dominated as soon as he stepped on an NBA court. Curry battled injuries early in his career, but would become a four-time champion and two-time MVP. Harden went from being an elite sixth man to an MVP once he got the opportunity in Houston. This class also featured Brandon Jennings, Ricky Rubio, Tyreke Evans, Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, Patty Mills, Danny Green, Taj Gibson and Patrick Beverley among others.
Which class is the greatest in NBA history? <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tweet us your thoughts</a>!&nbsp;

Basketball News examines the crème de la crème of draft classes throughout NBA history.

Exploring the 5 best draft classes in NBA history

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Brandon Miller scored 24 points and Mark Sears made seven of eight free throws over the final 1:04 to help No. 2 Alabama top Arkansas 86-83 on Saturday.
Miller delivered his second straight huge game for the Crimson Tide (25-4, 15-1 Southeastern Conference) since police alleged in courtroom testimony that he brought a gun to former teammate Darius Miles, who is charged with capital murder in a fatal shooting.
The week&rsquo;s details cast a different light on Miller&rsquo;s regular pregame introduction, which is a Tide staffer giving him a pat down. Coach Nate Oats said after the game that intro for Miller is now over.
Fellow freshman Nick Smith Jr. of Arkansas (19-10, 8-8), another potential NBA draft lottery pick who helped keep the Razorbacks in it with a late 3-pointer, scored 24 points. Davonte Davis added 21 points for Arkansas, Council scored 20, and the rest of the team combined for 18 points.
Jahvon Quinerly had 16 points and seven assists for the Tide, and Noah Clowney had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
NO. 1 HOUSTON 76, EAST CAROLINA 57
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Marcus Sasser scored 22 points to help Houston clinch outright possession of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title.
Tramon Mark added 20 points for the Cougars (27-2, 15-1), while J&rsquo;Wan Roberts had 17 points and 12 rebounds in Houston&rsquo;s ninth straight victory.
East Carolina (14-14, 5-10) had an energetic home crowd for the first-ever visit from a No. 1-ranked team to Minges Coliseum, as well as the program&rsquo;s first game against a top-ranked opponent in more than 31 years. But the Cougars never trailed and led for all but 56 seconds. Ezra Ausar scored 15 points to lead the Pirates.
NO. 3 KANSAS 76, WEST VIRGINIA 74
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Dajuan Harris was one point shy of a career high, scoring 17 points to help lift Kansas over West Virginia.
The Jayhawks&rsquo; stifling defense kept West Virginia from attempting a shot in the final 20 seconds. The Mountaineers&rsquo; Joe Toussaint traveled on their final possession of the game. Baskets by K.J. Adams and Kevin McCullar extended the Jayhawks&rsquo; lead to 75-68 late as they grinded out the victory.
Harris led Kansas (24-5, 12-4 Big 12) with 7-of-9 shooting from the field and had six assists and six steals.
Erik Stevenson led West Virginia (16-13, 5-11) with 23 points. Tre Mitchell scored 20, Kedrian Johnson scored 15 and Emmitt Mathews Jr. had 13.
NO. 17 INDIANA 79, NO. 5 PURDUE 71
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Jalen Hood-Schifino scored a career-high 35 points and Trey Galloway added 10 of his 13 in the second half to lead Indiana over Purdue.
The Hoosiers (20-9, 11-7 Big Ten) snapped a seven-game losing streak in West Lafayette and pulled their first season sweep in this bitter rivalry since 2012-13.
Zach Edey led the Boilermakers with 26 points and 16 rebounds and Fletcher Loyer added 14 points. Purdue (24-5, 13-5) has lost three of four and blew a chance to clinch a share of the conference crown in front of its home fans, who stood outside in chilly temperatures and snaking lines for hours before tip-off.
NORTH CAROLINA 71, NO. 6 VIRGINIA 63
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Pete Nance scored 22 points to lead North Carolina past Virginia.
Nance shot 7 of 10 from the floor and was 4 of 4 from behind the arc, the most 3-pointers the fifth-year forward has made in ACC play. He added two assists and four blocks.
R.J. Davis notched the fourth double-double of his career with 16 points and 10 rebounds for North Carolina (18-11, 10-8 Atlantic Coast Conference), which got a much-needed boost to its NCAA Tournament resume with a Quadrant 1 win &mdash; the first of the season for the Tar Heels.
Jayden Gardner had 19 points and 12 rebounds to lead Virginia (21-6, 13-5), which lost its second in a row. Armaan Franklin added 14 points.
ARIZONA STATE 89, NO. 7 ARIZONA 88
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Desmond Cambridge Jr. hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer and Arizona State rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat Arizona.
The Wildcats (24-5, 13-5 Pac-12) built a 10-point lead midway through the second half before going more than six minutes without a field goal as Arizona State pulled ahead by one.
The Sun Devils (20-9, 11-7) went up 86-85 on Warren Washington&rsquo;s layup with just a minute left, but Pelle Larsson put Arizona back up on a layup with 29 seconds left. Arizona State&rsquo;s DJ Horne missed a jumper with 4 seconds left and the Sun Devils had a final shot after Oumar Ballo hit one of two free throws.
Catching the ball with 2.4 seconds left, Cambridge launched a shot from beyond half-court to finish with 19 points and give the Sun Devils a big boost in their bid to make the NCAA Tournament.
NO. 9 BAYLOR 81, NO. 8 TEXAS 72
WACO, Texas (AP) &mdash; Jalen Bridges had 17 points for ninth-ranked Baylor, which overcame a huge deficit with an impressive run right after freshman standout Keyonte George left injured early and beat Big 12 co-leader Texas.
Adam Flagler had 14 points for the Bears (21-8, 10-6). Dale Bonner added 13 points, including seven in an quick spurt after halftime while Flo Thamba had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Dylan Disu had a season-high 24 points for Texas (22-7, 11-5), which twice got even early in the second half but never could regain the lead.
NO. 10 MARQUETTE 90, DEPAUL 84
MILWAUKEE (AP) &mdash; Kam Jones and Tyler Kolek each scored 22 points while helping Marquette clinch a share of its first Big East regular-season championship in a decade.
Kolek also had 14 assists as Marquette (23-6, 15-3) rolled to a 49-28 halftime lead and hung on after DePaul (9-20, 3-15) got close down the stretch. Marquette has won nine of its last 10, while DePaul has lost 10 straight.
This is Marquette&rsquo;s first conference title in 2013, when the Golden Eagles shared the Big East crown with Georgetown and eventual national champion Louisville.
Umoja Gibson led DePaul with 20 points and eight assists. Nick Ongenda added 16 points and 12 rebounds.
NO. 11 TENNESSEE 85, SOUTH CAROLINA 45
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Josiah-Jordan James came back from missing four games with an injury to score 18 points to lead Tennessee to a rout of South Carolina.
James, who suffered an ankle injury against Vanderbilt on Feb. 8, shot 4 of 7 on 3-pointers for the Volunteers (21-8, 10-6 Southeastern Conference). Jahmai Mashack scored 14 points, Zakai Zeigler had 13 points and 11 assists, and Olivier Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic scored 10 each.
Hayden Brown led the Gamecocks (10-19, 3-13) with 18 points.
NO. 12 GONZAGA 77, NO. 15 SAINT MARY&rsquo;S 68
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) &mdash; Drew Timme scored 19 points and Gonzaga earned a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title with a win over Saint Mary&rsquo;s.
Anton Watson had 17 points and Malachi Smith added 13 off the bench for the Bulldogs, who have won or shared the conference title in 11 straight seasons. Gonzaga (25-5, 14-2) also reached the 25-win mark for the 16th season in a row &mdash; and avenged a loss to the Gaels earlier this month in Moraga.
Logan Johnson led the Gaels (25-6, 14-2) with 27 points.
Because the teams shared the regular-season title, the WCC will use the NCAA&rsquo;s NET rankings to determine the top seed for the conference tournament.
FLORIDA STATE 85, NO. 13 MIAMI 84
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Matthew Cleveland&rsquo;s 3-pointer as time expired capped Florida State&rsquo;s comeback from a 25-point second-half deficit and a win over Miami.
Jordan Miller had given Miami the lead on a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left. But Cleveland let fly from about 25 feet and the ball swished to give the Seminoles (9-20, 7-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) their best moment of the season.
Cleveland and Darin Green Jr. each had 20 points for Florida State, which also got 13 from Caleb Mills and 11 from Jalen Warley.
Miller led Miami (23-6, 14-5) with 21 points. Norchad Omier had 15, Isaiah Wong scored 14 and Bensley Joseph added 12 for the Hurricanes, whose seven-game winning streak and perfect home season were ended.
NO. 18 UCONN 95, ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 86
NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points, Adama Sanogo added 18 points and nine rebounds, and UConn beat St. John&rsquo;s.
Andre Jackson Jr. had 15 points, Joey Calcaterra also scored 15 to lead a strong effort by Connecticut&rsquo;s bench and the resurgent Huskies (22-7, 11-7 Big East) avenged an 11-point loss to St. John&rsquo;s at home last month.
UConn won for the sixth time in seven games, closing in on a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament.
AJ Storr had 20 points and Posh Alexander added 18 for the Red Storm (17-13, 7-12), who had won three of four.
NO. 14 KANSAS STATE 73, OKLAHOMA STATE 68
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) &mdash; Markquis Nowell had 22 points, eight assists and four steals in Kansas State&rsquo;s third straight win, beating Oklahoma State.
Keyontae Johnson added 17 points for the Wildcats (22-7, 10-6 Big 12), who swept the regular-season series.
Kalib Boone scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half on Senior Day for Oklahoma State. Caleb Asberry scored 13 points and John-Michael Wright added 12 for the Cowboys (16-13, 7-9), who have lost four straight.
VILLANOVA 79, NO. 19 CREIGHTON 67
PHILADELPHIA (AP) &mdash; Eric Dixon scored 18 of his career-high 31 points in the first half, Cam Whitmore added 17 and Villanova defeated Creighton.
Dixon also set a career high with six 3-pointers for Villanova (15-14, 9-9 Big East), which has won five of six.
Arthur Kaluma scored 19 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner had 18 for Creighton (18-11, 12-6). The Bluejays have lost three of four following an eight-game winning streak.
NO. 22 SAN DIEGO STATE 73, NEW MEXICO 71
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) &mdash; Lamont Butler&rsquo;s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave San Diego State a win at New Mexico.
After Jaelen House&rsquo;s steal and end-to-end run for a layup with 5.6 seconds left gave New Mexico a 71-70 lead, Butler unhurriedly brought the ball up court before dropping his shot, giving him 10 points for the Aztecs (23-5, 14-2 Mountain West).
Darrion Trammell scored 18 points to lead the Aztecs. Matt Bradley added 11 as San Diego State won its sixth straight.
Jamal Mashburn Jr. finished with 20 points for New Mexico (20-9, 7-9) and House had 15.
OKLAHOMA 61, NO. 23 IOWA STATE 50
AMES, Iowa (AP) &mdash; Jacob Groves led Oklahoma with 16 points as the Sooners knocked off Iowa State.
The Sooners (14-15, 4-12 Big 12) had lost nine of their previous 11 games but erased an early 11-point deficit and seized control with a 17-2 run in the second half.
Groves shot 4 of 5 from the 3-point line. Tanner Groves added 9 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
The Cyclones (17-11, 8-8) shot just 31%. Gabe Kalscheur led Iowa State with 12 points.
NO. 24 TCU 83, TEXAS TECH 82
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) &mdash; JaKobe Coles made two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining, and TCU beat Texas Tech despite blowing a 12-point lead in the final eight minutes.
After De&rsquo;Vion Harmon&rsquo;s steal and layup put the Red Raiders in front by one with 12 seconds remaining, Coles caught a pass from Emanuel Miller in the lane and was fouled by Fardaws Aimaq going up for the shot. The Horned Frogs (19-10, 8-8 Big 12) weren&rsquo;t in the bonus.
Harmon&rsquo;s desperation 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded wasn&rsquo;t close, ending a four-game winning streak Texas Tech (16-13, 5-11).
Mike Miles Jr. scored 24 points for the Horned Frogs, who had lost five of six and were coming off a loss to No. 3 Kansas at home. Miller had 14 points and 12 rebounds for TCU.
Aimaq scored 19 points, Harmon had 18 and Kevin Obanor finished with 17 points and nine rebounds for Texas Tech.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 69, NO. 25 TEXAS A&amp;M 62
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) &mdash; Tolu Smith had 17 points and Shakeel Moore had 14 as Mississippi State knocked off Texas A&amp;M.
Cameron Matthews had 11 points for the Bulldogs (19-10, 7-9 Southeastern Conference), who held the Aggies to one field goal in the final 14 minutes and outscored them 34-18 during the same time period.
Wade Taylor IV led Texas A&amp;M (21-9, 13-3) with 21 points, including four 3-pointers, and Henry Coleman III and Andersson Garcia each had 11.

A recap of Saturday's slew of action in top 25 NCAA men's college hoops.

Miller has another big game as No. 2 Alabama tops Arkansas

A list of 12 of the top talents in modern NBA history to have never appeared in an All-Star Game.

The 12 best modern-history players to never make an NBA All-Star team

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Trayce Jackson-Davis returned to Indiana so he could celebrate a banner season.
On Saturday, the fourth-year forward added another big piece to his legacy.
He scored 25 points and then watched Jalen Hood-Schifino break free for the clinching dunk with 2 seconds left to give No. 21 Indiana a 79-74 victory over No. 1 Purdue &mdash; and a quick storming of the court.
It&rsquo;s the fourth time the Hoosiers have beaten the nation&rsquo;s top-ranked team at Assembly Hall, and the first since upsetting Michigan almost exactly 10 years earlier.
&ldquo;I just think it&rsquo;s a toughness factor,&rdquo; Jackson-Davis said, explaining why this team is different. &ldquo;I feel like teams in the past that I&rsquo;ve been on just weren&rsquo;t that tough, honestly. We&rsquo;ve kind of played with a chip on our shoulders since we got punked by Rutgers and we&rsquo;ve kind of found our niche and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re doing.&prime;
The only guy that&rsquo;s been even close to Jackson-Davis&rsquo; productivity over the past month has been Purdue&rsquo;s Zach Edey, who had 33 points and 18 rebounds.
But it was Jackson-Davis who walked away with his sixth win in seven games by moving within 16 points of becoming the first Indiana player to ever score 2,000 and grab 1,000 rebounds. He finished with seven rebounds and five blocks, becoming the first player to have 25 points and five blocks against a No. 1-ranked team since Marcus Camby in November 1995 against Kentucky.
Fittingly, Jackson-Davis and the Hoosiers (16-7, 7-5 Big Ten) celebrated with their fellow students, who rekindled memories of Christian Watford&rsquo;s buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat No. 1 Kentucky in December 2010. And this time, the fans lingered on the court long after the final buzzer as they pumped fists and danced to the sweet sounds emanating from the pep band.
It marked the first time in the 216-game series Purdue (22-2, 11-2) was ranked No. 1.
&ldquo;They were our sixth man honestly and we fed off of it,&rdquo; Jackson-Davis said. &ldquo;That was the most electric crowd since I&rsquo;ve been here. They really helped us.&rdquo;
But Indiana also played pretty well, forcing 16 turnovers and shooting 52.6% from the field against a defense that had held 24 consecutive opponents to 70 or fewer points. It won despite getting outrebounded 38-22 and nearly blowing a 16-point lead.
The 7-foot-4 Edey positioned Purdue for the charge by scoring eight of Purdue&rsquo;s first 10 second-half points to cut a 15-point deficit to nine. He then added the final six points in a 12-4 spurt that make it 67-65 with 5:40 to play. And when Braden Smith&rsquo;s layup made it 71-70 with 2:03 left, even Boilermakers coach Matt Painter sensed the fans&rsquo; angst.
&ldquo;If you can flip that or tie it or take the lead there, it&rsquo;s just a different feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard to overcome that, the air kind of goes out of it, things get quiet in your own arena.&rdquo;
Instead, the Hoosiers forced three turnovers and eventually closed it out with four free throws, a layup from Hood-Schifino and the dunk off a perfectly designed inbound pass from second-year coach Mike Woodson, who has won both home meetings against Indiana&rsquo;s archrival.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know the play was going to go that way, obviously,&rdquo; said Hood-Schifino, who had 16 points. &ldquo;But in the last timeout, I told coach I&rsquo;m going to get this last bucket, so I was happy.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Purdue: Even on an uncharacteristic day, the Boilermakers showed why they are the nation&rsquo;s top team. The matchup with Edey is so difficult, Purdue can exploit it at will.
Indiana: The Hoosiers did everything they needed early &mdash; making shots, ramping up the pace and making life generally difficult for the Boilermakers. And down the stretch they showed the mettle of a team that was the preseason conference favorite.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Purdue entered the day with a nine-game winning streak and as the only one-loss team in Division I, so another loss may not knock them out of the top spot. Indiana, which reappeared Monday in the Top 25, has solidified its spot despite losing earlier this week at Maryland.
SPECIAL MOMENTS
Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame radio announcer Don Fischer was honored at halftime for calling his 50th season of play-by-play. He&rsquo;s tied for the fourth-longest active tenure in Division I basketball with Kevin McKinney of Wyoming. Then during the final media timeout, the Hoosiers thanked ESPN color analyst Dick Vitale with a video tribute to his career. Vitale stood and waved to the crowd in appreciation.
UP NEXT
Purdue: Returns home Thursday against Iowa.
Indiana: Hosts Rutgers on Tuesday.

It’s the fourth time the Hoosiers have beaten the nation’s top-ranked team at Assembly Hall.

Jackson-Davis, No. 21 Indiana beat Edey, No. 1 Purdue 79-74

It&rsquo;s the most wonderful time of the year. The days are long, the nights are warm and the NBA Finals have come back around.
The Finals stage is where legacies are made. The entire season leads up to this series.
But with the good comes the bad; such is the nature of life. For those with allergies, like myself, June also brings about itchy eyes and a runny nose. And for basketball purists, the bad comes in the form of recycled cliche talking points that, at times, dwarf the discourse surrounding the game itself.
The Finals are where we finally find the answers to season-long, and sometimes career-long, questions.
Can Dirk Nowitzki lead a team to a title?
Did Kobe Bryant need Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal?
Is LeBron James clutch?
This season is no different.
Today's question du jour: Does Stephen Curry need a Finals MVP and another championship sans Kevin Durant to shore up his legacy as one of the 10 best to ever play the game?
One might think the Golden State Warriors would be impervious to these conversations. After all, they won an NBA championship in 2015, the same year they entered the upper echelon of the league before questions could even emerge. And yet, here we are &mdash; eight years, six Finals runs and three titles later &mdash; questioning Curry&rsquo;s greatness and ultimate legacy.
So, what is the answer to that aforementioned question?
First, let&rsquo;s take a look at Curry&rsquo;s legacy. In short, he is an all-time great who's responsible for revolutionizing the Three-Point Era.
It is too simple to reduce Curry to just "the greatest shooter of all-time&rdquo; and limit his skills to only one facet of his game. Because not only is Curry the greatest shooter ever, he is also an elite finisher with both his right and left hand, and he sports one of the best handles we&rsquo;ll ever see. And yet, despite all of his on-ball skills, he is even deadlier off the ball.
In the words of Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers, who joined The Morning Roast on 95.7 The Game on June 7: &ldquo;This guy is a made-man. Forget about this Finals; it's already been done. He's already done it. He's already proven it. I don't know what else he has to continue to prove.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Bob Myers believes Steph Curry has nothing left to prove in the NBA Finals 🐐 <a href="https://t.co/JXkLpiRj4b">pic.twitter.com/JXkLpiRj4b</a>
&mdash; 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) <a href="https://twitter.com/957thegame/status/1534234887221219328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Myers is correct. Curry has cemented himself as an all-time great.
But all titles matter, and winning this one is important for Curry&rsquo;s legacy. Just as the fourth title mattered to LeBron. Just as the fourth and fifth mattered to Kobe. Just as the fifth and sixth mattered to Michael Jordan.
They all matter when cementing your legacy.
And that&rsquo;s because, unlike other accolades, championships are not debatable. Being the last team standing is a matter of fact, and not decided on by a select group of media.
Players aren't awarded titles. They win them. Curry&rsquo;s greatness is shown by reaching this objective season after season. With each new ring, it cements what should never be up for debate.
Finals MVP, however, is a subjective award. And when it comes to subjectivity, Curry&rsquo;s greatness regularly gets called into question. Being a pioneer in any industry means having your name etched into the history books, but with that comes some bad: you&rsquo;re ahead of your time. And, as a result, people often can&rsquo;t keep up with your greatness as it happens.
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Take the 2015 NBA Finals, for example, Curry&rsquo;s impact was not immediately visible on the box score; although, he was no slouch there either. Curry finished the series averaging 26.0 points, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game on .443/.385/.885 shooting splits. (An efficiency dip from the regular season, where he averaged 23.8 points, 7.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game on a .487/.443/.914 slash line.)
They were numbers that paled in comparison to LeBron, who finished the series with averages of 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists per contest, leaving many to believe Curry failed in the role of a superstar on the biggest stage.
Dominance in the form of counting stats is easy to quantify, but dominance in creating an ecosystem that benefits those around you &mdash; is not. Thus, the true value of Curry is hard to measure.
And that&rsquo;s why, of the 11 votes for Finals MVP, LeBron received four, Andre Iguodala received seven and Curry received headlines calling Matthew Dellavedova his kryptonite.
That&rsquo;s right. Curry received no votes, and Iguodala won the 2015 Finals MVP.
Many voters point to the tides turning after Game 3. The Cleveland Cavaliers had taken a 2-1 series lead, and the Warriors adjusted by swapping Iguodala in for Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup &mdash; a rare move that offered major benefits on both sides of the ball.
At a distance, the case for Iguodala over Curry for Finals MVP is such:
Iguodala guarded the best player in basketball and limited LeBron&rsquo;s impact to sub-40% shooting, the Warriors never lost a game once he entered the starting lineup, and, as a starter, he averaged 20.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. He also shot 47.8% from the floor and 40.9% from three, numbers that closely resembled Curry&rsquo;s with much better efficiency.
Take a closer look, and we can see how that&rsquo;s all the more reason Curry deserved the Finals MVP. Without taking anything away from Iguodala, who was a valuable piece that allowed the Warriors to unlock this lineup, Steph made it unstoppable.
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Introducing Iguodala into the starting lineup in place of Bogut allowed the Warriors to play a five-out lineup with passing.
Curry, being the best shooter ever, gets the most attention, and the way he moves off-ball &mdash; constantly in motion and always a threat to shoot &mdash; opens the floor up for all of his teammates in ways that are not yet quantifiable. Curry running by two defenders and pulling them towards him is not a screen assist, but it still opens up a driving lane or a shot in a similar way.
Iguodala directly benefited from that gravity. According to NBA.com, 46% of the shots Iguodala took were considered &ldquo;wide open&rdquo; with the closest defender at least six feet away, and 20% were considered open with a defender four-to-six feet away.
With Bogut on the floor, the Cavs could tilt their defense toward Curry without any blowback. With Iguodala&rsquo;s passing and shooting in Bogut&rsquo;s place, the Cavaliers' defense was forced to make a choice. More often than not, their decision was to dare Iguodala to shoot, and to his credit, he knocked them down.
Curry&rsquo;s court vision and decisive actions create excellent opportunities for teammates, as he led the Warriors in assists. Iguodala was the prime beneficiary, accounting for nearly 40% of his points as a starter in catch-and-shoot situations, according to NBA.com. (That includes all of his made field goals in the deciding Game 6.)
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Decades from now, when people think back on the Warriors&rsquo; first championship, losing Finals MVP to Iguodala won&rsquo;t be an indictment on Curry and his game, but instead on our ability to appreciate what doesn&rsquo;t show up in the box score.
It&rsquo;ll be a capsule in time, defined by our limited scope.
The predicament is similar to the NBA's 2007 Defensive Player of the Year award.
Marcus Camby won the award, given to the best defender in a season, over Tim Duncan, who finished third behind San Antonio Spurs teammate Bruce Bowen.
Despite being one the greatest defensive anchors of all time, Duncan never won the honor &mdash; a gaffe on the part of voters and a result of our limited ability to measure defense.
In 2007, after finishing with his second blocks title in what would be a three-year reign, Camby was awarded Defensive Player of the Year instead.
Over time, we&rsquo;ve come to learn that blocking shots, though flashy and easily quantifiable, is far less a marker of a great defender than one who deters opponents from even attempting a drive.
NBA.com can track how well opponents shot against you in various areas on the court, and despite Camby&rsquo;s higher blocks-per-game average of 3.3 to Duncan&rsquo;s 2.4, players shot 8.3% worse when met by Duncan over Camby in the restricted area.
Blocks per game also remains the sole stat that favors Camby over Duncan defensively. The Denver Nuggets even performed better defensively with Camby on the bench.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 67.1558%; height: 132px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Defensive Metric</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">Marcus Camby</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">Tim Duncan</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Defensive Efficiency</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">105.6</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">96.5</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Defensive Win Shares</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">5.1</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">6.8</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Defensive Box Plus-Minus</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">3.9</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">3.2</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Opponent FG% in RA</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">60.5%</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">53.2%</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 29.0771%; height: 22px;">Defensive Pts Per Poss.</td>
<td style="width: 16.18%; height: 22px;">+2.5</td>
<td style="width: 13.7594%; height: 22px;">-8.8</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
And though not one of these stats alone is a clear indicator of which player is a better defender, all of them together make it pretty obvious that Duncan was better than Camby in 2007.
Then, there are other factors that can&rsquo;t be measured, like how often the presence of a defensive force such as Duncan prevents teams from even passing to a guy guarded by the stalwart.
Defensive Player of the Year awards began in 1982-83. Ten of the first 28 winners led the NBA in blocks. Since then, no player who led the league in blocks has gone on to win DPOY. Nowadays, it would be laughable to base a defensive argument on something as basic as blocks.
I think this is how we&rsquo;ll understand Curry not winning a Finals MVP in his first three chances, namely in 2015. The Finals MVP is supposed to highlight the most valuable player during the most important stretch of basketball all year. That was undeniably him.
The mark of a great offensive player is that teams would prefer to play 4-on-3 versus 1-on-1, and in 2015, Iguodala benefited from being the man open. But that&rsquo;s entirely thanks to the gravity of Stephen Curry.
Because, at the end of the day, every NBA defense is trying to get the ball out of Steph's hands.
And, in the words of Max Kellerman, they want Iguodala.&nbsp;
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Imman Adan details how Stephen Curry's impact can't be quantified by looking back on the 2015 NBA Finals.

Understanding Stephen Curry's gravity and a 2015 NBA Finals MVP gaffe

Nikola Jokic kept the Denver Nuggets from blowing another game with a history-making performance.
He had 26 points and 22 rebounds, rallying Denver past the Los Angeles Clippers 103-100 on Sunday night after the Nuggets wasted a 17-point lead.
Jokic also had eight assists, becoming the first player to record 25-plus points, 20-plus rebounds and five-plus assists in consecutive games since Charles Barkley in 1988.
The Nuggets led by 19 points against Charlotte in their previous game at home and lost just before Christmas. It made for a tough holiday at coach Michael Malone's house.
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t very much fun to be around. I was kind of a scrooge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I apologized to my wife, my daughters and my dogs.&rdquo;
Jokic had 29 points, 21 rebounds and five assists in the Charlotte defeat. For a while Sunday, it looked as if the Nuggets would give away another one, this time on the road.
Luke Kennard almost made it happen. He came off the bench from foul trouble and hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 19 seconds remaining that got the Clippers to 101-100.
&ldquo;It was a little bit of an adventure there at the end,&rdquo; Malone said.
Jokic was trying to catch an inbounds pass when he got fouled by Eric Bledsoe, sending them both crashing into the Clippers bench. Jokic made both free throws to extend the Nuggets' lead to three.
Brandon Boston Jr. took the Clippers&rsquo; final shot under heavy pressure from Davon Reed, but his potential tying 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer. Reed just signed a second 10-day contract with Denver.
Boston and Bledsoe led the Clippers with 18 points apiece. Bledsoe had 10 assists. Ivica Zubac had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The Clippers were playing without Paul George, who is sidelined for up to a month with an ulnar collateral ligament tear in his right elbow. They lost for the fourth time in five games.
&ldquo;We're missing our best closer,&rdquo; Terance Mann said. &ldquo;We got to a close game and nearly stole it.&rdquo;
After scoring just five points in the third, Jokic scored nine in the fourth in addition to pulling down seven rebounds.
Will Barton added 17 points for Denver, which snapped a two-game skid.
&ldquo;We needed this one,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;We responded the way we needed to, getting stops, sharing the ball.&rdquo;
Jokic helped the Nuggets tie the game at 93-all in the fourth. He fed Barton for the tying jumper after scoring on a hook shot and hitting a pair of free throws. Jokic's 3-pointer gave Denver its first lead of the fourth, 96-94.
The Clippers erased a 17-point deficit in the third. They got outscored 10-2 to open the quarter, then closed on a 26-5 run to lead 83-79 going into the fourth.
Four reserves helped key the spurt, with Boston and Serge Ibaka hitting 3-pointers and Amir Coffey scoring on a drive. Bledsoe added seven points.
&ldquo;Our guys did a good job and we were in position to win the game,&rdquo; Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. &ldquo;I was happy and pleased with the way our young guys played.&rdquo;
Monte Morris scored all five Denver points. The Clippers' defense denied Jokic around the rim, leading to transition baskets for them on the offensive end.
&ldquo;We built a 17-point lead and then all of a sudden everything changed," Malone said. &ldquo;The Clippers became very aggressive, they got out and ran and had us on our heels. To weather that storm and stay together was great to see.&rdquo;
A total of four players were out because of health and safety protocols, including Clippers starter Reggie Jackson. Fellow starter Marcus Morris exited protocols before the game, but remains out while he goes through reconditioning. Denver's Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol were in protocols.
HE SAID IT
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost become normal and it&rsquo;s scary because you don&rsquo;t really want this to be what normal is.&rdquo; &mdash; Malone on the COVID-19 absences plaguing the league.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Jokic now has six games of 20-plus points and 20-plus rebounds, the most in team history since Denver joined the NBA in 1976-77. The previous record of five was held by Marcus Camby. ... They got back to .500 at 16-16. ... They traveled without six players.
Clippers: George complained of soreness in his elbow after Wednesday's win at Sacramento and had an MRI, which revealed the ligament tear. ... Backup big man Isaiah Hartenstein missed his second straight game with a left ankle sprain. ... Signed Xavier Moon to a 10-day contract under the league's COVID-related hardship allowance.
UP NEXT
Nuggets: At Golden State on Tuesday.
Clippers: Host Brooklyn on Monday to complete a back-to-back.

Nikola Jokic had 26 points and 22 rebounds, rallying Denver past the Clippers on Sunday night after the Nuggets wasted a 17-point lead.

Jokic has 26 points, 22 rebounds, leads Denver past Clippers

Hi, hello, and welcome to yet another edition of Roaming The Baseline! This will be a weekly endeavor where I point out some things that caught my eye: a hot or cold streak from a player, a developmental flash, a well-run play, a funny tweet, who knows? There will be film -- it&rsquo;s me, so of course there will be film -- but this will also be a bit looser. It&rsquo;s an extension of my Twitter feed, if you will.&nbsp;
With that said, let&rsquo;s roam the baseline.
BRING ME LIBERTY, OR BRING ME DEATH (BY PICK-AND-ROLL)
Well, well, well. If it isn't the New York Liberty, fresh off a 2-20 season, getting off to a 3-0 start. Quibble over the early strength of schedule if you will, but it's fair to say this team looks different.
That different look starts with Sabrina Ionescu, a dynamic lead initiator that combines high-level pull-up shooting with I-see-everything court vision. There isn't a surefire way to slow her down. You can attempt pressing her, but she's pretty darn good at navigating her defender into screens.
If you get caught on a screen against Sabrina, you're practically dead.
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Just peep the patience from Ionescu on this possession. She's able to get a little separation from Danielle Robinson as she flies off the screen. From there, the hang dribble freezes Teaira McCowan (#15), and causes Victoria Vivians (#35) to rotate over. A timely cut from Sami Whitcomb (#32) puts Kelsey Mitchell (#0) in a tough spot, freeing the corner skip to Betnijah Laney (who's making an early case for MIP).
Ionescu leads the WNBA in pick-and-roll possessions (32) by a wide margin, per Synergy. She's generating north of 97 points per 100 pick-and-roll possessions (passes included), placing her in the 83rd percentile right now.
This is obviously early season stuff, but Ionescu is also the only player that ranks in the top-five in scoring (21.0) and assists (9.0), while also leading the WNBA in three-pointers made (10). It wouldn't be a total shock for any of those designations to hold throughout the season if she stays healthy.&nbsp;
She's that darn good.
TEAIRA MCCOWAN, DOING HER WORK EARLY
Send this clip to every big (wo)man camp in the country.
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There is no play-call here. No frills. This is Teaira McCowan busting it up the floor, knocking Kylee Shook back and setting up shop in a threatening post position.&nbsp;
She's able to put Shook on her right shoulder to create a wider window for the entry pass from Robinson. There is absolutely nothing Shook can do to prevent the pass, nor does she have the length to bother the shot.
It's textbook stuff, stuff that McCowan was doing at Mississippi State. It's what she did as a rookie; for the life of me, I still do not understand why she didn't get more playing time last season.&nbsp;
If you want a number, I'll present you with this one: per Synergy, McCowan leads the WNBA in points (15) off those deep middle seals. Liz Cambage is the only other player in double digits (10).&nbsp;
JAYSON TATUM HAS FULLY ARRIVED
23 points. 7-of-10 from the field, 2-of-3 from three. Three assists, one measly turnover.&nbsp;
That's a darn good game for a hired gun off the bench. A play-finishing wing that sprinkled in some transition dimes or something.&nbsp;
The fact that this is what Jayson Tatum did during the third quarter of Tuesday night's play-in game is absolutely absurd.
There's only so much you can do against Tatum now. As I <a href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1383148215181135879?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote last month</a>, he's rounding out the rough parts of his game. He's gotten more comfortable operating in the intermediate areas. He gets downhill more often, and with more purpose. You don't luck your way into 17 free throws.
The fun part of getting good at the average stuff is that it simply unlocks more of your great stuff. In a way, the hesi-and-drive to Tatum's left against Rui Hachimura ultimately helps him set up this stepback against Davis Bertans.
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50 points. Big win. Playoff spot secured. The Leap is happening right before our eyes, folks.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HMMMM"
<ul>
<li>We're working with a 30-minute sample right now, but the early returns for the A'ja Wilson-Liz Cambage combo have been positive (plus-6.4 net rating). A'ja took a three on Saturday and made it. Let's just say I'll be keeping tabs on that all season long.</li>
<li>I am just especially fascinated by how the Atlanta Dream plan to find minutes for Chennedy Carter, Courtney WIlliams, Aari McDonald, Odyssey Sims and&nbsp;Tiffany Hayes. They've shown some early willingness to go with three guards, but I am terrified of what the defense will look like.</li>
<li>Breanna Stewart (averaging 27 &amp; 12 through two) is the obvious draw for the Storm, but I'm intrigued by Ezi Magbegor. She got the start on Tuesday night against the Aces; her blend of size and skill provides a nice complement to Stewart's, well, everything.</li>
<li>A quick glance at the blocks per game leaderboard will highlight two members of the Phoenix Mercury: Brittney Griner (2.7, 2nd) and Brianna Turner (2.3). Unsurprisingly, among the teams that have played multiple games, none have allowed a lower field goal percentage than the Mercury.</li>
<li>The Sky outscored the Mystics by 19 points in the 25 minutes that Candace Parker was on the court. This might be as scary as we <a href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1356406720260677639" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thought it would be</a>.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
PLAYS I LIKED
Pick Your Poison
The Indiana Pacers absolutely molly whopped the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night. Among the many, many, many&nbsp;plays in which the Hornets looked unequipped to defend this team, this play caught my eye.
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I appreciate the misdirection to kick things off, with Justin Holiday kinda faking a connection with Doug McDermott before lifting above the break. McDermott does a great job of setting Terry Rozier up, and Domantas Sabonis finishes the job by sliding over a step to prevent Rozier from shooting the gap.
Watch Your Back(cut)
MOAR TATUM.
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It's all about playing against tendency here. Boston loves to run pindowns for Tatum to get him attacking on the move. Bradley Beal has positioned himself -- back to Marcus Smart, practically hugging Tatum -- to prepare for this screening action.
Tatum uses that so-called knowledge (and that positioning) against Beal, juking before darting to the basket for an easy lob.&nbsp;
Slotting Up
I talked about Ionescu's pick-and-roll proficiency a little bit earlier, but I like this set-up from the Liberty.
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We get a Pistol/21 look as Ionescu trots up the left side of the floor. Laney "ghosts" the screen before running off a flare from Shook. That action between Laney and Shook not only occupies their defenders; it also puts strain on the weak side since Ionescu is able to gain inside leverage on the drive.
The drive forces a rotation, which leaves Crystal Dangerfield (#2) splitting the difference. Whitcomb recognizes that dilemma and cuts inside, receiving a pass and getting an uncontested lay-up as a result.
Good stuff all around.
THE READING LIST
There is plenty of high-level basketball content out here if you know where to look. I wouldn&rsquo;t be where I am as a writer without reading a ton of Zach Lowe or Chris Herring or Caitlin Cooper or Mirin Fader or... well, you get the point.&nbsp;
Anyway, here are some -- not all, but some! -- of the stories I&rsquo;ve read this week that I think you should check out. Their Twitter handles will be linked under their names, so click and follow if you don&rsquo;t already.
<a href="https://twitter.com/MirinFader" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mirin Fader</a> knocks this <a href="https://twitter.com/MirinFader/status/1395020533872222223?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andre Drummond feature</a> out of the park.
<a href="https://twitter.com/Herring_NBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Herring</a> brought the goods on <a href="https://twitter.com/Herring_NBA/status/1395032294059085826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Atlanta Hawks</a>, and what Trae Young means to them.
This was technically for last week, but I can't recommend <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelVPina" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Pina</a>'s <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelVPina/status/1392115303698534404?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feature on Dejounte Murray</a> enough.
ESPN's <a href="https://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1394299631736172544?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">massive playoff guide</a> is well worth your time.
<a href="https://twitter.com/alexaphilippou" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexa Philippou</a> gave us the deets on <a href="https://twitter.com/alexaphilippou/status/1394408732725964800?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tiffany Hayes' return</a>.

In Nekias Duncan's weekly notebook, he shares things that have caught his eye. He breaks down players, teams, plays and stats.

Roaming the Baseline: Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Teaira McCowan

If your game warrants the spotlight early in your career, chances are the lights will gleam brighter, and with that comes expectations. Some college players lived up to the hype that surrounded them at the next level, but there are quite a few whose success didn't translate to the NBA.
In our latest Roundtable, we asked our BasketballNews.com writers the following question:
Who is the best college player that never became a star in the NBA?
Alex Kennedy: Jimmer Fredette became a household name while at BYU, averaging 28.9 points and 4.3 assists. In 2011, he was the Consensus National College Player of the Year and led the nation in scoring. His games were must-watch TV due to his seemingly unlimited three-point range. He even transcended the sports world and briefly became part of the pop culture lexicon; for example, at the height of Jimmer Mania, Lil Wayne name-dropped him in a song (&ldquo;I got a chopper and a trimmer shootin&rsquo; like Jimmer&rdquo;). He was the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft (ahead of Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Nikola Vucevic, Jimmy Butler, etc.), but he never averaged more than 7.6 points in the NBA. Fortunately for Jimmer, he&rsquo;s thriving in China, where he&rsquo;s dropped 75 points, averaged 37.6 points and made three All-Star appearances.
Spencer Davies: In my lifetime, I&rsquo;m picking two: Michael Beasley and Emeka Okafor. People have to understand just how dominant Beasley was in his lone season at Kansas State, collecting accolade after accolade as a freshman for the Wildcats, as he averaged over 26 points and 12 rebounds per game on 53% from the field! He showed flashes of greatness in the NBA early in his career, but not the kind of superstardom that followed him in the NCAA. As for my other pick, it&rsquo;s crazy remembering how the big question in 2004 was who would be the No. 1 pick: Okafor or Dwight Howard? While the latter was a high-school phenom, the former outworked every big man on the national stage for Jim Calhoun&rsquo;s UConn Huskies en route to an NCAA championship in his junior year prior to entering the draft. Okafor had imposing size and was a walking double-double who blocked every freaking shot in sight. In the NBA, he had his moments; none like Howard, though, who now has an NBA championship on his laundry list of achievements and just passed Walt Bellamy to move up to No. 11 on the league's all-time rebounding list.
Chris Sheridan: The best college player who never became a star in the league was Hank Gathers, who died while playing for Loyola Marymount. He was the No. 1 draft prospect and one of just three players in NCAA history to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season (the others were Xavier McDaniel and Kurt Thomas). He averaged 32.7 points and 13.7 rebounds. He once had 48 points and 13 rebounds against LSU&rsquo;s Shaquille O'Neal and Stanley Roberts. He collapsed after dunking in a game and passed away due to a heart issue.&nbsp;
Jannelle Moore: The best college player who never became a star in the NBA is, tragically, Len Bias. He had the athleticism and skill. He gave Michael Jordan fits in college and would have been his biggest rival in the pros.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_2079728_lg.jpg" alt="" />
Imman Adan: Compared to Larry Bird entering the league and described as a &ldquo;very good scorer with [a] complete offensive repertoire,&rdquo; Adam Morrison was none of that in the NBA. In college, the 6-foot-8 forward out of Gonzaga was a star, averaging 28 points on 43% from three in his final year, making him a finalist for the Naismith Trophy. The NBA did not come as easily to the slow-footed Morrison, who struggled to adapt to the speed of the league. The effortless shooting stroke he had in college seemed to dissipate as well, as he never averaged more than 11 points or shot better than 34% from deep. After tearing his ACL in his left knee and missing his entire sophomore year, what little burst of athleticism he did have vanished, making his NBA career a short (but eventful) one, winning two rings while riding the Lakers&rsquo; bench before retiring at 28.
Ethan Fuller: I'm going to play with a looser definition of "star" for this one and rule out guys like Christian Laettner and Marcus Camby, who did win NBA league awards. Instead, let's go with Joe Smith, who won Naismith Player of the Year at Maryland in 1995. The 6-foot-10 Smith obliterated teams, averaging 20.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game as a sophomore. He then went first overall to the Golden State Warriors in the 1995 NBA Draft. But Smith never found his footing and ended up playing for 11 NBA teams.
Jonathan Concool: Adam Morrison. Morrison averaged over 28 points per game as a junior at Gonzaga University, and led the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 before suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Bruins in the final seconds. Morrison took home five awards that season with Gonzaga, including WCC Player of the Year, but that&rsquo;s just about where the positives stop for Morrison&rsquo;s basketball career. He went on to get drafted third overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006 and was out of the league by 2010, with career averages of 7.5 points per game on 37.3% shooting from the field.
Nekias Duncan: I&rsquo;d go with Jimmer Fredette. He absolutely lit it up for BYU &mdash; Mormon Steph, if you will &mdash; and almost none of it translated to the NBA across multiple stints.
Kelsea O&rsquo;Brien: People forget just how small the NBA is, and how good the end-of-bench players were in college and high school. These guys were monsters. They still are! Their only downfall is that they are playing against and alongside even bigger monsters. I&rsquo;m going to go in a different direction here, though, and choose Cheryl Miller. One of the greatest women&rsquo;s basketball players of all-time, and because of ACL injuries, she never got the chance to go pro. Her professional career will always be one of the biggest &ldquo;what ifs&rdquo; in sports history.

Who is the best college player that never became a star in the NBA? We asked our BasketballNews.com staff to weigh in.

Roundtable: Who's the best college player that never became a star in the NBA?

The following is an excerpt from "1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever" by Jon Finkel. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The book is available now on Amazon.</a>
To borrow a song title from Green Day (the perfect mid-90s band), picks seven through 12 of the 1996 NBA Draft were a boulevard of broken dreams for NBA executives. They contain a collection of men that run the gamut from &ldquo;solid pro&rdquo; to &ldquo;absolute bust&rdquo; and no matter how defensible the selection was at the time, within 24 months it was clear that, to be blunt, these six franchises missed. This isn&rsquo;t 2021 revisionist history. This is 1997-1998 near-immediate regret.
It&rsquo;s one thing as a general manager to look in the mirror and know that taking Allen Iverson or Marcus Camby or Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Stephon Marbury or Ray Allen or Antoine Walker with one of the first six picks of the &rsquo;96 draft was the right basketball call at the time. They all made the &rsquo;96-&rsquo;97 All-Rookie Team (1st or 2nd) and there were two bona fide Hall of Famers (Iverson and Allen) several all-stars (Abdur-Rahim, Marbury and Walker) and Camby was a 4x All-Defensive Team player.
It&rsquo;s quite another thing to know that from the seventh through 12th picks, you took one of these half-dozen guys:
<ul>
<li> Lorenzen Wright &ndash; L.A. Clippers</li>
<li> Kerry Kittles &ndash; New Jersey Nets</li>
<li> Samaki Walker &ndash; Dallas Mavericks</li>
<li> Erick Dampier &ndash; Indiana Pacers</li>
<li> Todd Fuller &ndash; Golden State Warriors</li>
<li> Vitaly Potapenko &ndash; Cleveland Cavaliers</li>
</ul>
Over Kobe Bryant. Or Steve Nash. Or Jermaine O&rsquo;Neal. Or even Peja Stojakovic. That&rsquo;s a clean 35 All-Star selections from picks 13 to 17 versus none from picks seven to 12.&nbsp;
Ooooof.
Even in the moment, there was a lack of, let&rsquo;s say, sexiness, to picks seven through 12. In person, Kittles was the fastest coast-to-coast player in basketball (my opinion but I&rsquo;m right) and showed flashes of excellence, but few projected him as an All-Star-caliber talent. Wright, Walker, Dampier and Potapenko became serviceable, and in some cases, solid NBA players. But as they came off the draft board, Hubie Brown and other 1996 NBA draft analysts used phrases like &ldquo;will help shore up the defense&rdquo; and &ldquo;this helps them get bigger&rdquo; and other vague, roster-rounding-out terms, rather than things like &ldquo;game changer&rdquo; and &ldquo;potential superstar&rdquo; and &ldquo;special talent&rdquo; which he, and other draft gurus, reserved for the man picked after all of these guys: Kobe Bryant.
It&rsquo;s worth noting here that just because Bryant wasn&rsquo;t discussed as a #1 overall pick, it&rsquo;s not as if nobody knew how good Bryant could be. In fact, a lot of people suspected he could be the prize of the draft: they just didn&rsquo;t have the guts to put their jobs on the line for a high school kid, or they got talked out of it, or bullied out of it, or both.
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John Calipari really, really, really wanted him. He worked him out three times, each time becoming more and more convinced that Bryant was going to be special. So why didn&rsquo;t he take him with the eighth pick? There are three versions: one of them involves Calipari, a first-time NBA head coach, pleading with ownership to take him, but getting turned down. He described the scenario like this:
&ldquo;I had the eighth pick in the draft, and everyone thought I was nuts,&rdquo; Calipari said. &ldquo;A 17-year-old kid, a high school kid who&rsquo;s just now getting to the NBA? It shows you don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;
Version two was described in Jeff Pearlman&rsquo;s excellent book, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-shaquille-oneal-shaq-los-angeles-lakers-best-teammate-jeff-pearlman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Three-Ring Circus</a>, and it involves Kerry Kittles&rsquo; agent strong-arming Calipari and telling him that if he didn&rsquo;t take Kittles&rsquo; (instead of Bryant), he&rsquo;d never let any other clients sign with the Nets.
Version three involves Kobe Bryant&rsquo;s agent, Arn Tellem, talking to Calipari and telling him that if he drafted Bryant, the teenager would never suit up for the Nets.
&ldquo;It was a calculated gamble," Tellem <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The</a><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article239760573.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;Charlotte Observer</a>.&nbsp;"I remember meeting with John Calipari and John Nash, pressing them not to take him if he fell. I left not knowing if they would pass. I thought they would pass, but didn't know.&rdquo;
In the end, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter which version is right, or even if it&rsquo;s a combination of all three. Calipari and the Nets didn&rsquo;t select Kobe Bryant and neither did the next four teams in line or any of the top-12 teams in the draft. It was only at Jerry West&rsquo;s urging, after a trade involving Lakers center Vlade Divac, that Kobe went off the board and found his way to the Lakers.
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West coveted Bryant like card collectors covet the Honus Wagner T206 and he planned to do whatever it took to land him. He worked with Tellem to limit Bryant&rsquo;s&rsquo; workouts. He massaged Vlade Divac&rsquo;s hesitation about going to Charlotte (Vlade once threatened to retire if traded).&nbsp;
As Bryant fell in the draft, West realized that his plan was coming to fruition when the Hornets selected him. And then the whole thing almost fell through because, well, someone on the Hornets said, &ldquo;Holy sh*t, we just got Kobe Bryant.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There was such excitement about the pick that Charlotte didn&rsquo;t want to go through with the deal,&rdquo; Mitch Kupchak, Los Angeles&rsquo; assistant general manager in 1996, said. &ldquo;There was a time there, whether it was Vlade (Divac threatening to retire) or just pressure on the franchise, where the deal was actually in jeopardy.&rdquo;
But it got done.
And instead of Bryant joining Anthony Mason, Glen Rice, Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues in Charlotte, he teamed up with Shaq in Los Angeles and you know the rest.
***
With 25 years having passed since that epic day in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the legacy of the draft has been solidified.
Looking back on his class, Ray Allen says, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to remember where our mindset was. We&rsquo;re walking into a league with Jordan, Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen. There were some horses in this league that we were stepping into that we had been watching forever. We didn&rsquo;t think we were the next coming or next generation, but we were excited to be there.&rdquo;
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Allen explains that the toughest part about being drafted is balancing your excitement with any inclination to sit back and say, &ldquo;I made it." Guys who do that don&rsquo;t go far. He goes on to say that one thing that &rsquo;96 draft class shared was the mentality to keep pushing yourself and to self-motivate like you&rsquo;re on a mission.
&ldquo;When you look at myself, Nash, Kobe, Iverson, Marbury, Camby, Shareef, Jermaine, Peja, [Derek] Fisher, Walker, all these guys, they were all good to great in college [or high school] and scored a lot of points,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;But they weren&rsquo;t in it to be famous or liked by everybody. It was evident in someone like Steve Nash, a white kid from Canada out of Santa Clara, he was on a mission. Kobe came in from high school and he was on a mission. Marbury wanted to prove what the legacy of New York City ballers could do, and he was on a mission. I came from meager beginnings and I was on a mission.&rdquo;
That was the big differentiator between past &ldquo;great draft classes." Rather than two or three or even five guys with the mindset to chase greatness, the &rsquo;96 class had a dozen.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the reason the &rsquo;96 draft class is thought of as one of the best,&rdquo; Allen says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the mentality we had. We were all on a mission to be better than we were. For all of us, there was a constant search to win. Every year, the championship was a carrot we were chasing. I didn&rsquo;t win until my 12th season. It comes down to watching basketball in June or playing basketball in June. This class had a lot of guys play in June. We knew what it took.&rdquo;
<a href="https://twitter.com/jon_finkel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Follow Jon on Twitter: @Jon_Finkel</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/1996-Reliving-Undefeated-Undisputed-Greatest/dp/1635767504/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buy this book on Amazon: 1996: A Biography &ndash; Reliving the Legend-Packed, Dynasty-Stacked Most Iconic Sports Year Ever.</a> 
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Jon Finkel looks back at the 1996 NBA Draft, which included Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal, etc.

Revisiting the star-studded 1996 NBA Draft: 'We were all on a mission'

Over the last 10 years, the game of basketball has definitely changed, and anyone who&rsquo;s been watching has noticed.
Today, the majority of teams have gone away from specific defensive schemes and are switching everything. During the latter stage of my NBA career, I began to see teams make that transition and, in the years since I stopped playing, have seen the trend continue pretty much across the entire league.
Most teams blindly switch everything today. It&rsquo;s the easy way out when it comes to playing defense, and it&rsquo;s a mistake.
Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, during my 15 years in the league, I played for a bunch of coaches -- some liked to switch and some didn&rsquo;t -- but whether we switched or not was usually based on if it made sense in a specific situation. We never went into a game saying that we were going to switch 100% of the time or fight over screens 100% of the time. We had different strategies for different players and would change the game plan to fit the opponent or scenario.
Take Chris Paul, for example.
Back when CP was on New Orleans, he and David West were one of the most prolific pick-and-roll threats in the league. I was playing in Denver by the time CP became one of the top points in the pick-and-roll and being in Denver, we&rsquo;d see New Orleans three or four times per season. We had to game plan for CP and West.
Because I had the lateral quickness to actually defend him on the perimeter and not just sag back, we would switch. Most of the time, it was Dahntay Jones and me who would end up defending, and we would usually switch. Tay was smaller than D-West, but he could hold his own down on the block, so if D-West walked Tay down to the block, Tay would fight him enough to make him pass the ball. But we would never switch and put Nene or Marcus Camby on Chris Paul, you know? We would have different schemes to protect those guys if they found themselves in the same situation.
Against other teams, depending on the situation, me and Tay might not switch, and that&rsquo;s what the game of basketball is supposed to be about: reading the situation, reacting and adjusting based on your personnel and circumstances.
When I watch the game today, overall, it seems like there&rsquo;s less game-planning and defensive effort on the part of coaches, who teach bad habits to their players. I understand why the switching is happening, but it&rsquo;s gotten somewhat ridiculous. There are a few teams that actually defend, though, and one I would put in that category is the Toronto Raptors.
What I love most about the Raptors is that even after they lost Kawhi Leonard (who's arguably the most versatile defender in the league), they were still a top defense last season. With them, it was not even about one individual player &ndash; Nick Nurse and his coaching staff had principles and they guarded teams differently depending on the circumstances or situation. They switch it up -- they&rsquo;ll give you some zone, some man-to-man, some 1-2-2 zones, some 2-3 zones. That&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re supposed to do.
Yeah, Toronto has had a bad season; that&rsquo;s just a part of the game, though. Over the past few years, they&rsquo;ve consistently been near the top, and it&rsquo;s no accident.
Think back to the 2019 NBA Finals when the Raptors put Steph Curry in a box-and-1 zone. Nobody saw that coming, and that&rsquo;s exactly why it worked.
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Teams like the Raptors and versatile defenders like Kawhi, Paul George and Klay Thompson are my favorites to watch because if you watch five different games, you&rsquo;ll see them mix up their coverages. Against some opponents, Kawhi fights over screens. Against others, he and PG might switch. That&rsquo;s how I was taught to play. That&rsquo;s the way the game should be approached.
On the other end of the spectrum, take Mike D&rsquo;Antoni when he coached the Houston Rockets. They were one of the teams most recall seeing run a &ldquo;switch-everything&rdquo; defense. Over the years, it just seems to have caught on with most of the league. One day, though, these guys are gonna figure out that blindly switching against every opponent is the wrong move.
On defense, everyone is connected. If one guy gets beat, it can compromise the entire unit, and that&rsquo;s why constantly switching bigs out onto smaller, quicker guards isn&rsquo;t necessarily a recipe for a good defense. Teams get away with it today because teams are so fixated on the three ball. Teams are attacking the basket and shooting midrange shots less, but eventually, some coach is gonna realize that his team doesn&rsquo;t have the shooters to win games from behind the arc. If he has a quick guard that can take advantage of a big who switches onto him, maybe everyone else will see the light.
We&rsquo;re still waiting for that, though.
For a team that&rsquo;s had the best record in basketball for most of the season, the Utah Jazz have been flying under the radar. What&rsquo;s funny about them is that, as great as they are, you can pretty much get any shot you want against them, and again, it&rsquo;s related to scheming.
Rudy Gobert is their defensive anchor, but when he&rsquo;s in a pick-and-roll, he sags more often than not. Oftentimes, he&rsquo;s forced to switch because he&rsquo;s sagging, and it can sometimes result in unfavorable defensive matchups for Utah. Even though they&rsquo;ve been successful this season, Rudy ends up being left out on the perimeter, one-on-one, being asked to guard smaller, quicker players.
It&rsquo;s worked for them so far, I get it. But it doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean it&rsquo;s the best way to defend, and it also may not translate to beating teams like Phoenix (if they see them in the playoffs).
No matter which way you look at it, from a strategic standpoint, it doesn&rsquo;t make sense to have a big like Gobert on an island trying to chase CP or Steph Curry or Dame Lillard. It might not work consistently in a seven-game playoff series.
I played in the league for 15 years, man. And if it&rsquo;s one thing I&rsquo;ve learned, it's that the game is all about matchups. That&rsquo;s why I just shake my head when I see team after team letting their opponents get away with switching everything. It&rsquo;s just not something every player is equipped to do, and when it happens, teams need to be taught to take advantage.
Like Toronto, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers mix it up and throw some different defenses at their opponents. The Lakers are obviously depleted right now without Bron and AD, but even with them in the lineup, their defensive schemes weren&rsquo;t easy to predict. I&rsquo;d even put Miami in that category, too, and it&rsquo;s no surprise that the Lakers and Heat happened to meet in the Finals last year.
At the end of the day, no matter how much we compare this guy to that guy, every player is unique. We always talk about players' individual talent and gifts on the offensive end of the court, but these things should be considered on defense, too. The individual talents and gifts a player has should be considered not only on the offensive side of the court, but on defense, too.
The rest of the league will eventually catch up and get back to actually defending instead of just blindly switching.
The game will change again, and at that point, I&rsquo;ll finally see a switch I like.

In today's NBA, coaches call for defensive switches on most pick-and-roll plays. Kenyon Martin sees this as taking the easy way out.

The NBA’s obsession with switching on defense is foolish

No matter what, &lsquo;Melo's always gonna be my youngin&rsquo;.
I told him that when we became teammates after his rookie year, and I told him that the last time we spoke.
On the real, not many people know how hard it is to make it in the league and to play for 18 years. And what&rsquo;s even tougher is making it to 18 years while still playing at a high level.
So when I saw &lsquo;Melo become the 11th player in NBA history to score 27,000 points earlier this season, man, it was crazy. It was one of those moments that made me think about just how long I&rsquo;ve been around, because I remember watching him in that Orange jersey winning the NCAA title for Syracuse.
So to &lsquo;Melo, my youngin&rsquo;, I salute you, fam. You&rsquo;re one of the most gifted scorers this game has ever seen, and nobody can ever take that away from you.
Anyone who watched &lsquo;Melo play in college knew that he was gonna make it in the league, but I specifically remember thinking he was gonna be a problem. That&rsquo;s probably why I took it upon myself to give him a tough time when I played against him during his rookie year. But honestly, by the time we met at All-Star Weekend in 2004, he&rsquo;d already gained my respect. I didn&rsquo;t expect that to end up being my last season in New Jersey, but when it was time to move on, I chose to go to Denver because I thought, with &lsquo;Melo, Marcus Camby, Nene, &lsquo;Dre Miller and Voshon Leonard, we had a chance to be special.
Say what you want about &lsquo;Melo, but he always got the ultimate respect from his teammates. When you&rsquo;re in a locker room or a huddle, there are only a few players whose presence lights a fire under everyone. Not all players that are called "superstars" today are capable of getting their teammates to believe in them. For those who can, it&rsquo;s the ultimate sign of respect. With &lsquo;Melo, for me, it happened fast.
During the seven years we spent as teammates, he won me over by dedicating himself to his craft, and I respected him for it. It&rsquo;s no surprise that he&rsquo;s still balling and taking kids damn near half his age to school&hellip; But it&rsquo;s still a beautiful thing to see.
Today, he&rsquo;s still doing his thing, even going on 37 years old. It just makes you wonder what could&rsquo;ve been if he landed in Portland a few years sooner.
As athletes, we don&rsquo;t focus on the &ldquo;what if?&rdquo; We just deal with the present situation and do our best to make good decisions based on what we know or feel in the moment. If we harp on the past or think about what could&rsquo;ve been, it&rsquo;s meaningless, because we can&rsquo;t change the past, you know what I mean?
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By the time I signed with the Knicks in 2012, &lsquo;Melo had already proven himself, but things just didn&rsquo;t work out for him in New York. When it became obvious that he was gonna be moving on in 2017, of all teams, Portland was the one that made the most sense, at least in my opinion.
Funny thing is, over the summer, right before he was traded from New York to OKC, I remember seeing C.J. McCollum in Las Vegas. I pulled him aside and told him that they needed to go get &lsquo;Melo, and he actually agreed that it would be a good look. I don&rsquo;t know if Portland tried to get him then or what, but next thing I know, I see that 'Melo was traded to the Thunder.
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On paper, teaming up with Russ and P.G. was exciting, but I thought Paul&rsquo;s game was a bit too similar to &lsquo;Melo&rsquo;s. For the most part, they wanted the ball and did their work in the same spots, and as for Russ, he was more effective running and being out in transition. &lsquo;Melo was more of a halfcourt player that wanted to set up on offense and use up the shot clock. Russ&rsquo; style of play with how he pushed the ball and wanted to get into open space didn&rsquo;t fit &lsquo;Melo, and especially with Paul there, it was bound to lead to confusion as to who the second option was and where they would be effective on the court.
On the other hand, Dame and C.J. play much slower, in the halfcourt and they took more two-point shots and midrange jumpers. It was such a good fit.
In hindsight, it wasn&rsquo;t really a surprise that &lsquo;Melo lasted only one season in OKC, and it was less of a surprise that he lasted even less time in Houston.
Mike D&rsquo;Antoni and &lsquo;Melo didn&rsquo;t work well together in New York, and if the style didn&rsquo;t work for &lsquo;Melo there, there was no reason to think it would&rsquo;ve worked in Houston. That was confirmed when, within 10 games of being there, he did a pump fake from behind the three-point line, stepped in and hit a long two-point shot. Then, he turned to the bench and said, &ldquo;My bad.&rdquo;
I knew right then and there that it was over.
If you want to be successful in the league, you gotta understand that you can&rsquo;t dictate the game of basketball or manipulate the game of basketball. If the game tells you to take a pull-up jumper, you gotta take that pull-up jumper. And the teams that have won as of late play with that mentality.
That&rsquo;s definitely one of &lsquo;Melo&rsquo;s best qualities: he was always happy to take what the defense gave him and he was effective scoring in so many different ways. We&rsquo;ve now seen that carry over to Portland.
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For sure, &lsquo;Melo is fortunate that he eventually linked up with Dame and C.J., because when you&rsquo;re 34, 35 years old and two or three different teams pass on you &mdash; especially if one lets you go after just 10 games &mdash; it would scare most teams off. It&rsquo;s like you&rsquo;re damaged goods.
Despite that, the front office in Portland decided to give &lsquo;Melo a shot, and he&rsquo;s taken full advantage of it. I&rsquo;m happy to see it.
For a long time, people have been saying negative things about my youngin&rsquo; &mdash; that he&rsquo;s selfish, he&rsquo;s a bad teammate, he&rsquo;s not willing to sacrifice, stuff like that. But the negativity that he&rsquo;s gotten has mostly been from the media; he&rsquo;s always gotten nothing but love from the guys he was in the trenches with.
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Since &lsquo;Melo picked up a basketball, he was bred to be a professional scorer. He was taught to put the ball in the basket, and you know what? He became one of the best in history to ever do it.
'Melo is less than 300 points from becoming a top-10 scorer in NBA history. Amazing.
[UPDATE: Anthony passed Elvin Hayes to become 10th on the NBA&rsquo;s all-time scoring list on May 5.]
Truth be told, &lsquo;Melo never told me that he wishes he ended up with the Blazers earlier or anything like that, cause like I said, most of us don't like to think about the "what if?" But I&rsquo;d be lying if I didn&rsquo;t admit that I wish he ended up there three or four years earlier. If so, the Blazers might have been champions.
It&rsquo;s water under the bridge at this point, though. What&rsquo;s most important is that I&rsquo;ve gotten the opportunity to watch &lsquo;Melo grow up and become one of the greatest in history.
&lsquo;Melo will always be my youngin&rsquo;, but he damn sure came a long way since he was just a skinny teenager leading Syracuse to the national title. And as he's proven, he ain&rsquo;t done just yet.

With Carmelo Anthony poised to crack the top-10 of the NBA's all-time scoring list, former teammate Kenyon Martin reflects on his career.

It’s a shame Carmelo Anthony didn’t end up in Portland sooner

The Denver Nuggets overcame a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7, 104-89, on Tuesday night.
Denver advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they will face the Los Angeles Lakers. This is the Nuggets' first Conference Finals appearance since the 2008-09 season.
Jamal Murray led the way with 40 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds while shooting 15-26 from the field (including 6-13 from three-point range). Nikola Jokic was terrific as well, contributing 16 points, 22 rebounds, 13, 3 blocks and 2 steals while shooting 5-13 from the field and 6-6 from the free-throw line.&nbsp;
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George combined for 24 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks (while shooting 10-38 from the field and 4-18 from three-point range) in the losing effort.
Here are the top highlights from Game 7:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS GAME RECAP:&nbsp;
Denver's dynamic duo of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic led another stunning turnaround as the Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2009.
Murray scored 40 points, Jokic had a triple-double by the third quarter and Denver again overcame a double-digit deficit to shock the Los Angeles Clippers 104-89 in Game 7 on Tuesday night.
Denver became the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit twice in the same postseason.
Even more history: The Nuggets are the third team in the U.S. major pro sports to rally from a pair of 3-1 deficits in the same playoffs, joining the 1985 Kansas City Royals and 2003 Minnesota Wild.
Denver will face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals.
The 7-foot Jokic had a monster game with 16 points, 13 assists and 22 rebounds, which were the most by a Nuggets player in an NBA playoff game. He broke his record of 19 that he set last season and shared with Marcus Camby.
In a familiar trend, the Nuggets found themselves down by 12 in the first half. They also trailed 61-54 with 10:50 let in the third when they caught fire. The Nuggets went on a 35-13 run to build up a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter.
They led by as many as 20.
Murray helped the Nuggets pour it on down the stretch to give coach Michael Malone a 49th birthday present.
The team also rallied back from double-digit margins in their last two games as well to stun the Clippers.
Despite the additions of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Clippers fell short of the conference finals, where they've never been. They fell to 0-8 all-time in games where they could clinch a trip to the conference finals.
Leonard finished with 14 points on 6-of-22 shooting, while George had 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting.
It was Denver&rsquo;s talented twosome that stole the show.
Jokic insisted the third-seeded Nuggets weren't feeling any pressure. He said Game 7 was just another game. After all, this was Denver's fourth straight Game 7 dating to the playoffs last season.
After trailing by as many as 12 in the first half, the Nuggets worked their way back into the game behind the shooting of Murray. He scored 25 before intermission as the Clippers elected to double-team Jokic.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Jerami Grant and Gary Harris each had 14 points.
Clippers: G Landry Shamet turned his right ankle in the first quarter, limped down the floor, hit a 3-pointer and then hobbled to the locker room. He returned just before halftime. ... Montrezl Harrell led the Clippers with 20 points.
FASHION FORWARD
The Nuggets coaching staff went with their customary all-black outfits (a nod to singer Johnny Cash). The Clippers wore salmon-colored polo shirts that have been lucky for them inside the bubble.
Just coaches being a little superstitious.
&ldquo;I worked with coaches that knew the record of the ties they wore,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;Yes, we are a weird group. We&rsquo;ll look at any advantage necessary. As the jump ball goes up, it doesn&rsquo;t matter what we&rsquo;re wearing.&rdquo;

The Denver Nuggets overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7, 104-89, on Thursday night.