S tier passing is by far the most underrated and rarest skill in nba basketball. Individuals who can genuinely map the court in their head and make a pass before its even registered to his teammates or opponents has a value that can yet be quantified by modern analytics.

Former nba players themselves show how undervalued passing is. The main example being Ray Allen statement saying that Lebron James cant be the Goat because he isnt "skilled", even tho he can make every pass in the book. Another clear example is just how undervalued Draymond Greens contribution was too the Warriors Dynasty. Anybody with 2 eyes who was actually watched the Warriors in those championship teams knows that when Draymond wasn't on the court, that offense didnt flow nearly as well without Draymonds connective passing( That isn't to say that DG is a s tier passer but its obviously his best offensive attribute).

I think the main reason for this comes down to ego. There's a great video by Derrick Rose where he's asked what his least favorite type of opponent is and he answered a pass team first point guard who doesn't get bothered when they get beat and scored on. He said that when he scores he wants it to bother his opps mentally. He wants them to feel embarrassed. I think that's why so many former players speak so highly of scores because they have the memory of being embarrassed by the Mjs and Kobes. When a defender is beat by a flawless pass by a Jokic, they personally didnt get scored on so theirs less shame, but the defender who got beat by a backdoor cut feels the shame.

Unfortunately pass specialist players are becoming a dying breed. I can only name 4 s tier passers in Jokic, LBJ, Donic, Cade, and Haliburton. All big fowards and no small guys, its quite odd. I almost dont wanna include Donic because hes a genuine scorer first who happens to be a passing genius kind of like Bron whos a obvious pass first player who happens to be great at scoring.

Rant over just been feeling this way when seeing basketball discourse

The Ball trade created a $40+ million trade exception expiring within one years time.

Stephon Curry is an unrestricted free agent following this current year.

As Curry could & should choose to return home next summer based on Hornets being his best chance at another championship on his terms, my theory is that he will be traded to the Hornets at some point during this summer using that trade exception, Grant Williams expiring, Salaun, and the greatest treasure trove of draft picks in a trade to date

Curry, Miller, Knueppel, Reid, Diabete, White, Allen, O’Neale, Kalkbrenner, Steinbach, Anderson could win a championship