#9: Pascal Siakam
Toronto Raptors 4 man Pascal Siakam had a breakout season in 2018-19, and proved to be a potential franchise player for the reigning NBA champions.
Of course having Kawhi Leonard‘s on-ball creation helped so many Raptors last year, but Siakam was outstanding, and truly earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player honors. He had 16.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 31.9 minutes per game, and truly cemented himself as the team’s bookend starting 4 moving forward.
Siakam established himself as one of the Raptors’ best slashers, and though his shooting was somewhat streaky, he should be able to get mid-range shots at will in the coming years with the threat of his straight-line quickness.
Siakam shot 72.2% 0-3 feet from the rim last season, and with him proving to be a great cutter, if he can continue on an upward trajetory as a catch-and-shoot player (he shot 38.1% on catch-and-shoot triples last year, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data), he could be an All-Star with more usage.
On the defensive end, Siakam has good, sound technique and can mirror opposing wings and 4’s well, and his 7-foot-3 wingspan, he contests shots well both inside and outside the arc.
His measurables and functional athleticism seem to put him in the right spots on the defensive end, and though he could use some more functional strength to defend more post-up bigs, he’s still pretty effective there, too.
Siakam placed ninth in ESPN’s Real Defensive Plus-Minus ranking of power forwards last season, and in coming years, I’d expect him to get even better as a two-way 4.
#8: Paul Millsap
Paul Millsap is as steady as it gets as a contributor for the Denver Nuggets on both ends when he’s healthy.
Though Millsap’ scoring output dipped to 12.6 points per game, his lowest since the 2009-10 season when he was with the Utah Jazz (per Basketball Reference), that’s due to him having his lowest usage rate since that time.
Millsap is still an efficient player, as evidenced by his 57.0% true shooting clip in 2018-19, and he’s a good secondary ball-mover and always viable post-up threat, which makes the Nuggets, led by superstar center playmaker Nikola Jokic, even more difficult to account for.
With the way Millsap can also space the floor for the Nuggets and finish along the baseline with pull-ups and in the lane with push shots and runners and at the rim, it makes him a safety valve for the likes of Jamal Murray and Monte Morris, and additionally, Millsap is a good screener, which often opens up space for the Nuggets’ primary playmakers to penetrate as well.
On the defensive end, Millsap consistently seems to make sure that Denver wings and bigs are in the right position, and he himself is a highly capable defender matched up against 3’s and 4’s, along with small-ball 5’s. Millsap does a good job of walling up in the post, dictating in pick-and-rolls as a helper, contesting spot-ups and getting through off-ball screens, and as a defensive rebounder.
He was fifth in ESPN’s Real Defensive Plus-Minus for 4’s, for the record.
Along with that, among regular rotation players for Denver, he was third in defensive rebounding percentage.
Needless to say, Millsap is a player who contributes in a variety of ways, and the four-time All-Star is never a player who is ever going to be played off the floor, as is the case for some bigs in today’s league. It’s no coincidence that he led Denver players in net rating last season (per NBA.com).
For the Nuggets’ sake, the key is for the 34-year-old Millsap to remain healthy; he missed more than half of the 2017-18 season with a reported wrist injury (h/t Nuggets.com’s Eric Spyropoulos).
#7: Al Horford
Philadelphia 76ers veteran Al Horford is one of the best all-around bigs in the NBA.
He had 13.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.3 blocks in 29.0 minutes per game for Boston last season, and now he’ll form likely the best 4/5 tandem in the league playing on the floor likely often with Joel Embiid.
Horford is a player that can score in the low post, in the mid-range and three-point shooting areas, especially in the pick-and-pop game, and has always been efficient. His true shooting rate was a career-high 60.5% last season (per Basketball Reference), and on the Sixers, I’d expect that to continue.
He can also pass out of the low and mid-post really well, routinely hit cutters and spot-up threats with skip feeds, and is very good in his timing of dribble handoffs which should work wonders for Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson, and Horford, much like Embiid, is one of the best screeners in the NBA.
His 3.4 screen assists per game were just behind Steven Adams (with 3.5 per game), arguably the league’s strongest player, for reference.
Although that sort of thing doesn’t make highlight tapes, it’s what makes Horford such a valuable player to any team he’s on.
In addition, Horford is a great defender that is highly capable against 4’s and 5’s with his strong frame, good position to deter drives and short hooks, and he’s an active communicator that always makes the right rotation to shooters and will take his share of charges. The five-time All-Star also adds another shot blocker to Philly, of course, which doesn’t hurt.
With defenders such as Ben Simmons, Richardson, feasibly Zhaire Smith and occasionally Matisse Thybulle on the perimeter capable of locking up ball-handlers, the Sixers’ addition of Horford defensively should make them gel more as a unit.
Horford, who was right behind Kawhi Leonard among qualified players last season in box plus-minus (per Basketball Reference) is quite frankly another coach on the floor for the Sixers.