The Challenges Of Player Comparisons In Today's NBA

Last night, Luka Dončić collected a 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. That got me thinking of player comparisons.

Comparisons, or comps, are usually meant to be an indicator of what kind of level a prospect can reach by the end of their development. It's a sort of cheat sheet that's meant to give readers a quick idea of who a prospect is, and what they can be.

There isn't anything scientific about a comp, and often is it relied upon to far greater extents than it should be. Nevertheless, it's a useful tool to just give people on the fly a quick rundown of how a prospect plays, by the use of association.

But in today's NBA, comps are becoming increasingly more difficult to nail down for one reason:

Positionless basketball has taken over the game, and that makes players incredibly unpredictable.

Let's go back to Dončić. He's labeled as a guard, but he primarily defends wings. He's the primary playmaker, but he's 6-foot-8. How many point guards can grab 21 rebounds, and can also play in the post against bigger players?

Essentially, are we sure we can really peg down his true position, regardless of what Basketball-Reference tells us? No. We can't. Dončić doesn't have a position. He's fluid, and weaves through positions on a possession-by-possession basis.

The same goes for Nikola Jokić, who is routinely called a center, yet handles the ball and initiates the offense like a point guard.

Heck, Giannis Antetokounmpo only needs to play a full season of center before our friends at Basketball-Reference has him playing all five positions in different seasons.

How on Earth can you ever use those three, or players who generally don't have a set role, as comps?

Even if you have a prospect who plays multiple positions, and initiates the offense, there's literally a ton of different paths that player can follow that would potentially deviate drastically from their initial comp.

All three of Dončić, Jokić, and Antetokounmpo are positionless, but all three play vastly different games based off size, athleticism (or lack thereof), and overall mental approach. Being positionless is so far from being a catch-all, it'd frankly be irresponsible putting any of those names onto a young prospect, who might not find out fully who they are until they're half a decade into their NBA career.

For players who doesn't fit the do-it-all mold, it's far easier to find comps, simply because a restricted game is easier to evaluate.

(Restricted game sounds like an insult, but it's not. Plenty of players play within a certain frame, and become superstars within that. Chris Paul and Devin Booker are both perfect examples.)

Comps can also be dangerous when they involve players who literally break the game, like Stephen Curry. We all remember how Trae Young received that comp when he was coming up, and reality is painting a very different picture now that he's five years deep.

That's not to say we won't have another player who can break the game again, but that's impossible to predict. No one thought Curry would ever be *gestures wildly* THIS.

So, how should we go about player comps? How do we best bridge quick info with substance, so readers won't necessarily have to sit through articles that take an hour to read, just to understand a second-round draft selection, who won't even get an hour of court time in the NBA?

One solution could be turning "Incomparable" into an honest answer, even if some will predictably call that lazy. It's not.

Right now, with Victor Wembanyama, we're all falling in love with the "Kevin Durant on offense and Rudy Gobert on defense" comp.

Okay, sure. That's something. But if we come down to it, we've never seen anything like him. John Hollinger of The Athletic recently went on my radio show and compared Wembanyama to Ralph Sampson, which will only raise further questions to anyone under the age of 35, but at least that was outside the box.

When I asked for the comp, Hollinger was silent for a long time. You could see he did the same thing the rest of us did. Go through names. Trying to find some level of similarity of a known player. Because that's how we associate.

But truth of the matter is this: We've never seen a player like Wembanyama. He's taller than all of Sampson, Durant and Gobert. He's a better shooter than Sampson and Gobert could ever dream of being. He's got defensive upside that would make Durant blush, which is saying something.

He is, in fact, incomparable.

That's not a cop-out. That's not laziness. That's the honest truth, and readers who are looking for quick info will have to accept that some players simply do not fit the mold of anyone who came before them.

And that, in and of itself, is a truly great thing.

The NBA is in its 76th season, and we're still seeing talents that offer us a fresh perspective on a game that's over a 100 years old. The game is changing, and players are getting better, every single decade.

Freeing ourselves of having to shoehorn unique players into ill-fitting comps just to uphold tradition will open the door to more honest, and unpredictable, evaluations.

Let's normalize incomparable.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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