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Bucket List: 10 Current NBA Duels Worth Canceling Plans For

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I break down my top ten favorite NBA player matchups that showcase the league's most compelling rivalries, from established superstars to rising young talent.

• Stephen Curry vs Kevin Durant vs LeBron James takes the top spot as three of the greatest players in NBA history still delivering elite performances
• Nikola Jokić vs Luka Dončić ranks second, featuring two international superstars who could be considered the top two players in the league
• Jayson Tatum vs Nikola Jokić creates an intriguing battle between Eastern and Western Conference stars
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs Anthony Edwards represents a clash between current and future MVP candidates
• Amen Thompson vs Anthony Edwards emerges as a potentially elite future rivalry with Thompson showing defensive skills against Edwards
• Giannis vs Jokić vs a healthy Embiid showcases three different styles of dominant big men
• Celtics vs Lakers matchups featuring Brown vs Luka and Tatum vs LeBron continue the historic rivalry
• Anthony Edwards vs Jokić and Murray displays the battle between killer instinct and playmaking excellence
• Anthony Edwards vs Stephen Curry highlights the passing of the torch from established to rising star
• Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown vs Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler would create an epic superstar showdown

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. It's your favorite show's favorite show. Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trayn, as usual. I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day.

Speaker 1:

Today we're going to talk about here, my, my top current NBA matchups. But before we do that, please make sure you hit that like and subscribe button. Please make sure to comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show, trying to get the ratings up a little bit. You know, just a little bit. And y'all might be wondering why do I have on a robe? Well, because I'm chilling right now. I'm still, you know, I'm still diligent, but you know, I got, I got all my, I got on my mug that says I intend, I don't intend on doing anything today. Well, that might be a lie, because I intend on watching my favorite matchups, that's right, my highlights and whatnot. I'm gonna peep them. I'm gonna talk watching my favorite matchups, that's right, my highlights and whatnot. I'm going to talk about my favorite matchups real quick Because, again, they're my favorite matchups. So, again, that's what we're talking about, ladies and gentlemen. So let's go ahead and get it popping off, shall we? With my favorite matchups, top ten. That's what we got to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Number ten, ladies and gentlemen, this is a new one. It's Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown versus Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. Now, we've seen Steph go up against JT and JB. We've seen Jimmy go up against JT and JB. We've never seen Steph and Jimmy go up against JT and JB, and keep in mind, those two separate battles were spectacular. So I'm imagining this would be grandiose if we could see it happen. Right, it has to be in the finals, of course, for the playoffs to happen During the regular season. Definitely going to be entertaining, but playoffs finals got to watch that. So, again to be entertaining, but playoffs finals gotta watch that. So, again, that's my number 10, personally, personally, but I'm curious what y'all think about that. So, definitely comment, let me know what y'all think about jb and jt versus steph and jimmy.

Speaker 1:

But let's go ahead and move on up to uh, number nine, because it's a similar topic anthony edwards versus steph curry. Ladies and gentlemen, we still got Steph on the on the itinerary right now, but keep in mind, he's going up against the young gun and Anthony Edwards, and when I look at these two, I see two great players, or potentially great players, and we're talking about Anthony Edwards, steph Curry, the greatest shooter we've ever seen. But then you see someone like Anthony Edwards making more threes than Steph Curry, and when you look at his archetype, anthony Edwards meaning he seemed more like an athletic slasher coming out the gates, right, the scorer type, not the three-point shooter that he's displayed. So again, when I see this, I see and we always put Anthony Edwards in the Jordan category, right, oh, he's a young MJ, all right, cool, we'll see him versus Steph. It's the new, current, up-and-coming guard versus the not necessarily older guard, but yeah, kind of older guard too Steph 36, 37. We're not going to see Steph after like five seasons of play, let's be honest. So, again, I love to see these matchups because it's kind of like the past versus the present going up against one another. So, ant versus Steph, I'm always looking to watch.

Speaker 1:

But enough of that one. Let's go on and move up to the next one, shall we? Which again encompasses Ant battling Jokic and Murray. Because I actually talked about which player would I rather have, at least archetype-wise Would it be the killer in Anthony Edwards or the playmaker in Nikola Jokic? And I went Anthony Edwards. That's the player I think everybody wants to have on their team. Right, you want both, but if you had to choose, you might lean the killer, not specifically Anthony Edwards or Nikola Jokic. Talking about the killer, right, look how we look at MJ versus Braun, for example. So again, that's what I'm talking about. And then also how Anthony Edwards locked up Jamal Murray. How Anthony Edwards locked up Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray's a good player too, let's not forget like, let's not act like. Jamal Murray is trash, but Anthony Edwards did pretty well against Jamal Murray. Like it wasn't that good of a series for Jamal. So that matchup, personally, it's showcasing again a kind of current uphill for Anthony Edwards and then still a test for Nikola Jokic, because I think those two players are capable of winning a championship and leading a team to a championship. So that's the reason why I put those at the top matchup for me.

Speaker 1:

But again, let's move on up to number seven, because I've talked about number eight long enough, right? Uh, we got here Jalen Brown versus Luka and JT versus Braun. We're talking about Celtics versus the Lakers right now, which, again, I'm a Laker fan, ladies and gentlemen. So for me it's an entertaining one, but I'm also a Duke fan too, so I do support Jason Tatum as well, keep in mind. So I'm not torn because of that. But I would favor my Lakers. But again, I do support both teams a little bit.

Speaker 1:

So again me watching Jalen Brown go up against Luka, which we saw in the finals just last year, and then JT versus Braun. Let's not forget JT's rookie year dunked on Braun. We've been trying to put JT versus Braun for years now. If we could see that in the finals, that would be wonderful to watch and that's when it would happen. But the matchup overall, no matter when we're watching a regular season or finals, I would like to see that occur and I think it would provide a lot of entertainment and the masses would definitely rock with this. But again, it's number seven for me. That's what we got.

Speaker 1:

Let's move on up to number six, shall we? Which is Giannis versus Jokic, or a healthy Embiid and I put healthy as the mean caveat, because if he's not healthy I don't care about it as much Joel Embiid has to be healthy for him to even be on this list. So that's again the main disclaimer. I don't feel like hearing anybody complain about that. But Giannis and Jokic anytime I see them go up against one another, gotta watch that. They're two of the elite players the game has had over the last five years.

Speaker 1:

You have to watch those two battle, not to mention their styles of play, are talked about. Which one would you rather prefer? Jokic is viewed as a skilled player. Giannis is viewed as that brute force, right? Which style of big would you rather have on your team to build around? That's a quality conversation to talk about. And again, international bigs too. We got to love this matchup.

Speaker 1:

So Jokic versus Giannis. And when we mentioned a healthy Embiid, there's arguably no more dominant player in the game than a healthy Embiid. But again, health is the main thing. So that's my number six. Ladies and gentlemen, let's go ahead and move on up to my number five, and keep in mind, too, my number six. Ladies and gentlemen, let's go ahead and move on up to my number five and keep in mind too, for number six, all of those were MVPs, by the way. You got to love that. But and worthy of it too, don't slight people. But number five, and this one's going to be tricky, because I know some of y'all are going to say how in the world is this up here?

Speaker 1:

Amin Thompson versus Anthony Edwards. This might be a hot take. I truly do view Amin Thompson as one of the players who could possibly be a face of the NBA. I said a face of the NBA. And the reason why I love this matchup is because when I see Anthony Edwards, there's very few players that we see that can kind of contain Anthony Edwards. When I think of players, I think maybe a Scottie Barnes could do well, right, amin Thompson is in the right situation because on the Rockets their team is pretty good right, like they could be successful, and he's good enough to be the leader on the championship team. So for me, when I look at these two, I love the matchup. But also, amin actually does a good job of defending Anthony Edwards. So for me, when I'm looking at Anthony Edwards or Amin Thompson, I'm thinking of a future rivalry that we could be watching, whether Anthony Edwards remains on the Wolves or whether Amin Thompson remains on the Rockets. Those two players could be battling it out and, honestly, if we had Anthony Edwards paired with someone like Armin Thompson or Scottie Barnes, the league may want to watch out because that would be a quality duo to build around.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to lie to you. But again, that's my number five. Let's move on up to my number four, which again encompasses Ant. Y'all might think Ant's my favorite player. I'm just realizing this, but it's Shea versus Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 1:

Ladies and gentlemen, when I'm watching these two dynamic guards go up against one another, shea's the MVP candidate. Anthony Edwards has MVP expectations at some point in time in the near future, right? So when they're going up against one another, you got to watch these matchups. Anthony Edwards has the potential to be better than Shea Gildress Alexander, but Shea Gildress Alexander, like I said, is the MVP candidate. He's viewed as one of the best players in the league. And when we're talking about dominance, both players are dominant offensively and defensively, at minimum perception-wise. So, again, when I'm watching these two, we're talking about future stars. Shea Gildress Alexander is a person that Anthony Edwards has to usurp in order to become one of the faces, of the true faces, or at least the face of the NBA, because Shade is a solid player. So, again, when I watch these two play they've had a quality back and forth already in their history. I think it's going to be a rivalry that the NBA is trying to pair up again. So I'd love to watch that matchup. I think y'all should too.

Speaker 1:

But let's go ahead and move on down to the number three top matchup for me, which is Jason Tatum versus Nikola Jokic. And I understand you might have some gripes about having JT versus Nikola Jokic, but we got to remember too, jt's been in the MVP discussion for quite some time. He's been viewed as the best player on the Celtics, even though the Celtics have had a top team. Now keep in mind Jalen Brown did win finals MVP. Jason Tatum versus Jokic, in a lot of folks' eyes is the premier matchup. No shade to either Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown. The perceived matchup would be Jason Tatum versus Nicola Jokic. And we're talking about ability. Wise JT does have more ability than JB. So again, if we want to look at Celtics versus Nuggets cool, just understand, at least for this season, jt versus Jokic would be the faces of that matchup.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of matchups and a lot of talk, of talking points within the Celtics versus N of that matchup. There's a lot of matchups and a lot of talking points within the Celtics versus Nuggets matchup JT versus Jokic because they at least are viewed as the stars of their team. But again, that's the main reason why. So we don't have to talk about number three as much. I think that would be a decent battle. A lot of folks might lean Jokic's way. That's why I'm not trying to talk about it as much, but it'd be a good battle.

Speaker 1:

So let's move on down to number two, which again encompasses Jokic. I know somebody was going to say, oh, he's going to talk about Anthony Edwards again. No, no, no, no, it's Jokic versus Luka. I guess Luka versus Jokic. Based on how it's written Right, those two easily can be perceived as number one and number two in the league point in time. Like if someone said that I'm not going to say they're stupid, you might not agree. You can't say they stupid like at at all whatsoever.

Speaker 1:

So for me, when I'm watching this, I'm watching two international players who play at an mvp level get a bucket. I just cocked. I had to back, cock my feet up and relax. When I'm watching them play, I'm going to get a lot of playmaking. I'm going to get a lot of dazzling plays on the court Offensively. We're not talking about defensive, we were talking about offensively, like we're going to get some solid rebounds, some deep threes. You're going to see some good basketball, again focusing offensively. It's an entertaining matchup between those two. So Luka versus Jokic. I got to watch that matchup personally. That's just me Not just because two Lukas on the Lakers, my Lakers, it was even when he was on the Mavs. It was more interesting when he was on the Mavs. Honestly, right now I don't know they're talking about Luka and Jokic possibly trying to pair up. I think Jokic I mean Luka, and Giannis might pair up just because Giannis can leave earlier. But that's just me. That's just me.

Speaker 1:

Let's go ahead and move on down to my number one, though. My number one. I always kick back and relax when I'm watching these guys play, and that's Steph versus KD versus Braun. Reason why Steph and KD are my favorite players for starters off top, but Braun also is one of the greatest players that we've seen play as well, too Really, all three of them are three of the greatest players that we've seen play as well, too Really, all three of them are one of the greatest, or three of the greatest players that we've seen play in the history of the game. Steph and Braun we can talk about in the NBA's top 10. And then we talk about Kevin Durant. I personally think Kevin Durant is the better NBA player out of all of them About career, though, not so much.

Speaker 1:

So, again, when we're watching all of these people play, it's always entertaining because you get the history, the nostalgia vibes of it Right, and then you get the oh my play is better than your player conversations still, and they're giving us elite level play. There's pressure on all three every season, arguably the most pressure on all three every season. So again, when I watch these guys play whether it's regular season or playoffs I got to be locked in and tuned in and keep in mind regular season, I can enjoy and appreciate it a little bit more than I can playoffs, because playoffs that's when the pressure builds. So again, ladies and gentlemen, these are all of my top matchups and I understand some of y'all might have some different opinions like hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where is this person and that person I could have thrown, who I the Grizzlies versus the Warriors maybe Could have, but does that really appease me? See, that's my top matchup. So I'm curious what y'all top matchups, matchups, I'm sorry. So definitely comment your answers.

Speaker 1:

But, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that is the end of the episode. So I definitely appreciate you all for listening. Thank you, and well, you know like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket. Hope you all are having a.