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Written by @STEVEYGIII, NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, UFC Strike and Candy MLB collector--
We’re back with another week of 5 players to check out on Top Shot, who are emerging, heating up or showing out in the NBA and what collectibles on Top Shot I like for them. Eventually, I guess we may end up with some repeat players depending on how the season progresses, but at least for this week, we have 5 fresh new faces for the list. This week certainly shows promise for the quad badge collectors out there, as we see quite a few players with quad badge rookies from the last few seasons heating up the floor. Enough with the intro, he is what you came for!
5. Jalen Suggs – Orlando Magic: Suggs probably most remembered for his iconic NCCA Tournament Final Four buzzer beater at Gonzaga has quietly developed into a solid NBA player over the last few years. Suggs is averaging a very serviceable 15 ppg, 5rpg and 4 apg, but also averaging 1 block and 1.5 steals per game, chipping in on both ends of the floor night in and night out for a growing Magic team. With Paolo Banchero out at least the next month, likely more, Suggs has an opportunity to really step up and emerge even more. I like the Suggs quad badge TSD as a collectible (don’t ask how much I paid for one during an OG MSFE flash challenge pump years ago). I am also a big For the Win fan, of which Suggs has a great moment there also if you want to plunge into the rare.
4. Tyler Herro – Miami Heat: Disclaimer, Tyler Herro is one of my favorite players in the league. His bubble snarl legendary moment is one of my grails that I want to put in the collection one day. We ran a Buddy Hield TSD giveaway last week on the CnC Twitter page asking who should appear in the column this week and Herro was the lead voter getter. It seems like Herro is a guy who is a victim of his own early success. His bubble run with that Heat team was incredible, but it feels like he never grew past the expectations set early on for him. He is a solid scoring threat and fills up a lot of the boxes on Fast Break nights. Miami may be Jimmy Butler’s team, but Herro is not far behind. He is a solid guy to hold to fill out the Fast Break lineups on a given night and also has a deep catalog on Top Shot, dating back to a lot of really nice S1 moments, including a few bubble commons. I like his MGLE moments across all seasons and his TSD is absolutely fire. You can never have too many Herro moments in my opinion.
3. Evan Mobley – Cleveland Cavaliers: Another player from the growing S3 rookie class, Mobley is finally getting out of the shadow of Jarrett Allen and is exceeding him in performance most nights right now on the combined scoring and rebounding total. He has incredible athleticism for a big man and at 18/8.8 he is just shy of averaging a double-double nightly. His 1 steal and 1.7 blocks per game also fill up some of the challenging Fast Break nights. Mobley falls into that category where his performance in Fast Break and on an 11-0 Cavs team is drawing in the eyes of the Top Shot community realizing how good he actually is. Another guy with a nice quad badge TSD pick up, but also think there is value in a rare for Fast Break. For nostalgia, he has an MSFE as well, which was a big rage when it first came out. I like Mobley for both FB and as a rookie collector.
2. Zaccharie Risacher – Atlanta Hawks: The second highest vote getter in last weeks poll, Risacher is finally emerging after a slow start. As I mentioned in the previous weeks’ columns with the Wizards’ rookies, the Rookie of the Year race is wide open and rookie leaderboards are wide open. Risacher certainly has the talent to do it and on an Atlanta team without a clear start behind Trae Young, the opportunity is there for the taking. You can still stack him relatively cheap. He put up 33 points the other night and added a 17 point game in his last outing. He is getting plenty of minutes starting each night and could emerge as the top scoring threat from this draft class as we enter the winter months. Grab at least 1 TSD and no objection here if you’re stacking.
1. LaMelo Ball – Charlotte Hornets: LaMelo has felt like an enigma at times, but this year we are seeing him finally put it all together. Another guy who had a quad badge TSD that was doing silly numbers at one point back around the prime era of Top Shot pricing, LaMelo is finally living up to the hype in Charlotte. He has always been a great player, but so far this season, LaMelo is flashing that superstar potential. He is averaging 29ppg and is the clear focal point of the Hornets franchise. He’s playable in about every stat category night on Fast Break and hitting the numbers you need on average. If the Hornets can somehow stick around into being competitive this year, LaMelo is going to be on the rise. I like the checklist as the quad badge TSD, find a good rare of a moment you like watching and the double rookie badge common. At a minimum everyone should have at least a LaMelo common the collection. Oh and he has some famous challenge reward moment in a little set called “Cool Cats.” He’s a fun one to watch play the game.
There we have it! Three weeks in the books. It’s been enjoyable watching basketball nightly, seeing new players emerging and linking back to their Top Shot collectibles. After all, isn’t “just have fun” the mantra this year? Until next time, watch more moments, tell more stories and we ride at dawn…
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