NBA - Main

No he doesn’t . Austin reaves , given ryss minutes n ryss usage n ball dominance produced at a much higher lvl for us. Russ was like slight negative epm or just 0, after Rudd trade reaves averaged +3 epm or so for rest of year and peaked in WCF as a legit all star tier impsct ( not saying he is but his impact vs Denver is viewed similar to some of the less advanced stats popular all stars ) . Impsvt metrucs like Ingram , demar, lavine , etc I was worried even tho I love the kid he might come down to Earth but watching him in the WC go from ‘ non deserving ‘ to a top 3 player for us and arguably top 1-3 offensively impsct wise anyway was crazy to see.

I live reaves but I think 50-75 is his range not top 50 yet , so how can Russ a guy who played wirse by all metruvs be better? Russ signed fir basically the minimum too n got bought ought. If reaves was on 40m I’m pretty sure jazz don’t buy him out : it’d be a bad contract but like a Tobias Harris type bad , not a zero value player.

The 3rd best player on most teams is not in the top 50, just based on math. You cannot seriously believe Russ is a Top 50 player.

There are 30 teams in the NBA. Being top 50 means you're either the 2nd best man in playoff-tier team or a tank commander on a bad team. Russ won't even be the best player on Spurs(who just got no. 1 pick), I guess you can argue of being in competition in Portland, but even Blazers would rather treat Scoot as true no. 1 over Russ. That's 2 of the worst team last season, and Russ can't even be no. 1 in there. So something like top 100 is where Russ currently resides, which seems fair.