Blake had some goated highlights. pretty sure in the top 100 decade plays blake came 2nd in appearances to lebron, but obv he isnt the second best player that decade

personally

1. calibre of player
2. past success
3. calibre of team
4. popularity

honestly AD. Most versatile defender, we already know he works extremely well with other superstars (Dwight was mediocre in Houston and LA, tbf he was injured), an amazing lob finisher and doesn’t really need the ball that much. and he can shoot significantly better than dwight.

just based on record:

Thunder Wolves Grizzlies Mavericks

Knicks Celtics Bucks Sixers

man team USA shoulda just got someone like paolo do ride the bench instead of tatum, this criticism is absolutely ridiculous. there are literally 3 celtics players lol, most of any team. is tatum the calibre of player to play? absolutely but literally every player in the roster is. if we all just went by best player no matter what on the team, then jrue and white are on the bench, which are another 2 celtics

3 point shooting does not only have to do with FT%, 3point percentage is way more important for me assuming decent volume. some people are just abnormally good at free throws and plummet below the line. kobe mj and yao all basically have the same FT% (83.3,5,7) percent. they are not in comparable tiers of shooters. harden shoots better ft% than klay over his career, and although harden is an elite shooter on his own right, nobody would say he’s a better shooter than klay

KD is a noticeably better shooter from all ranges and is probably a better fit on most high level teams (like warriors are better w kd than kobe). Also a more versatile defender, although early kobe is a defensively menace and clearly superior. Kobe was better in his era than KD was in his though imo, so i’m taking kobe pretty comfortably as a #1 option.

Maybe generally he’s underrated but you are massively overrating him sorry. there is not a single chance that he is even near a top 30 player. harden clears drexler in basically every single metric of basketball. i think why many blazer fans probably have dame higher than drexler is that drexler himself thinks of himself as a rocket, and dame has a LOT more memorable moments compared to drexler even if drexler went to some finals. and obv more people watched dame than drexler