Yep I was going to say, muchhhh more unpredictability and randomness in baseball, and the tiniest mechanical imbalance can truly take you from all-star to bench level or vice versa over night. Happens every year.

Not to mention catchers start breaking down a lot quicker due to their knees, so most catchers that can hit are transitioned to another position to preserve their legs/prolong their career.

Raleigh led the league in games caught in 2023 & 2024, and played in 159 games last year while chasing 61 Homers. This is his body catching up to him this year.

Edit: I’d also say baseball is very much a game of adjustments, where when one side makes a change and it works, the other side is quick to make a countermove. It’s how guys who were tearing it up as 1st/2nd year guys wash out 3 seasons later…

Last year Raleigh started using the new “Torpedo Bat” which slightly changes the barrel location. This obviously did great things for his swing, but the league noticed and adjusted how they pitch to him.

Yeah, Cal Raleigh is just another name on a long list of guys who had bullshit homerun seasons to never even scratch that career high ever again 

Everyone knew Christian Wood was talented, he’d had several flashes before that year. He kept getting dropped or traded because he’s one of the dumbest humans alive

Also, the rockets were just fucking around that year. Wood started 41 games that season, good enough for second-most on the team (behind JaeSean Tate at 58)

Casual fans were enamored with him lmao, box score enthusiasts were comparing him to AD because he was putting up ²⁰⁄₁₀

as a former mavs fan i forgot he was existed

He had a few excellent seasons before the injuries really got bad

Isaiah Thomas had an injury and is undersized so him not being able to sustain forever is pretty normal.

Definitely not. He played and was productive for like 5 years before he truly exploded in Boston 

Still makes me sad. An athletic freak that never really got to hit his full stride

People say this but those who watched him know he fell off before the inj. He played over 30 games prior to his injury

2018 stats 23/5/4/2.4! On 48/37/80 splits

2019 stats 36 games prior to injury 18/5/5/1.6 on 42/33/73.

He was actually pretty ass in ²⁰¹⁸⁄₁₉. The 2018 season was an anomaly. Was disgustingly terrible for fantasy as well. The only reason I know so much is because I took him as one of my top picks that year and watched the pacers and he was a bust even before the tragic injury

Edit by bust i mean fantasy bust. Massive drops in steals and %s killed his value on that end

Go Hoosiers

Ha. I was playing a lot of PlayStation ball back when he was a beast and he would grow into a monster on some of those games.

and Isaiah Thomas

Kemp is a perfect example. He was completely unrecognizable in just a few years.

That’s what came to mind for me as well. Weight/substance abuse issues brought him down.

To be fair, he was averaging 15 on a dogshit hornets team

Cause he was inefficient. Ppg means nothing without efficiency.

Couldn’t finish at the rim

Graham played for 4 more seasons and 2 more teams after averaging 15 points. His last season was 23-24.

Edit: Also, he was 23 as a rookie so he was never really a “young” guard. He was 28 in his last season

DWill was at least All Star Caliber for his full run on the Jazz and most of his time on the Nets. I genuinely don’t know what happened with Khris.

I remember the time when there was a legitimate debate between D Will or Chris Paul for best PG

So what was up with Deron Williams’ hair? Weird plastic, spray painted on hair having ass.

Both those guys were good for a decade what are you talking about.

Did you just casually throw Khris Middleton out there as a superstar?

Bynum fue muy bueno. Pero era más vago que shaq y Ronaldinho juntos

Deron Williams in particular sticks out when looking at the 2012 USA basketball Olympic roster. With the exception of Tyson Chandler, everybody else was a true superstar for a decade+. 

His knee exploded along with half of the five brain cells he possessed.

Didn’t he have a few knee injuries?

I’ll defend Ben Simmons here. He had a very bad back injury that really took a while to fully heal, and that certainly messed up his overall flow. Sure the Hawks thing happened in 2021, but he was an All-Star that year too.

Ben Simmons has had multiple back surgeries. How is it not injury related?

Brandon Roy is still a massive heart break.

That game 4 comeback vs the eventual champ Mavs is something I still watch, what a great moment for a guy who deserved better from his knees.

For those that haven’t seen the game: https://youtu.be/2YneamUqN1w?si=u_Koc7PifXLb-c9N

For that generation, would add Demarcus cousins and obviously Derrick rose to that injury list, and Simmons was a max contract tier player and definitely not the same player after his back injury. For this one, Ja and Zion

Remember when Lawson got kicked out of China for saying the escorts were caked up there ?

ty lawson is a really good one, and a sad one. dude balled but the bottle balled harder. i loved that guy.

This one isn’t very fair because while he missed some games due to being banged up from years of insanely high usage on bad Hornets teams, he was still pretty good the season after his last AS appearance with y’all.

Also not very uncommon for small guards to fall off quickly once they turn 30 anyways, it happens all the time

We’ll always have his 50 point game on the Wolves. Remember drinking at my buddy’s apartment and checking Twitter and saying holy shit Derrick Rose has 13 in the first quarter.

calling hibbert a superstar is… a stretch

His best season was.. 13 and 9
He made an all star team.. while shooting 44% as a center.
He had one good playoffs but not calling anyone a superstar due to one ECF run.

Had my morning alarm on high school block period days titled “Block day like Hibbert 😤”

Never seen a 7 footer as allergic to rebounds before or since Roy Hibbert

Man I remember him, had a MyPlayer PG on the pacers and we spammed PnR lol

What do you mean by having the rules pulled out under him?

To me, he is an intriguing case of “what if”. Not to the same extent as Derek Rose, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, but probably a step below those guys. Darell Morey said that Lin’s lateral quickness and first step was off the charts.

History recap: He joined the Rockets with the expectation of being their starting point guard, then they get Harden, so there wasn’t room for him to really showcase his game. Harden not exactly renowned for sharing the ball!

He then goes to Brooklyn and started showing what he can do. Worked hard in the off season and in the first game of the season, he starts popping off…then goes down to injury.

I like the guy. He’s been nothing but positive and I’m glad he’s a TV Analyst now.

He suffered an injury with the Knicks and was never the same again

He was 33. Until very recently guards weren’t really expected to be productive into their 30s. 

It’s wild going back and looking at minutes played. Denver ran AI into the ground before he went to Detroit.

Michael Redd @ 24ppg

Michael Redd or Brandon Jennings?

Cal was 100% a superstar last year, which seems to be what original post was wanting to discuss.

Thats a fair opinion. I think its more like Ant is a super star wheras Jalen Johnson is a star. Then theres a bunch of in betweens….Yea its gotten very convoluted.

I do agree, but the questions dumb because how could you be a superstar with a short stint and burnout? I feel like the question really just means star

I would extend it to guys like prime Durant, Luka, Jokic, SGA, Wemby. I think ANT is borderline right now for example.

Lmao what, you don’t consider Emeka Okafor and Devonta Graham superstars?

Ok Steve Harwell

Man how would the narrative have changed if Matisse made that dunk

He was never a superstar, he plays garbage time. He was like a year away from being a year away

Monta Ellis had it all

Well that’s fucking fascinating. Rules aside he’s gotta be the worst All Star of all time.

Also crazy there was a guy born in 1920 on that team, Red Holzman. Who I have heard of for some reason before today.