Building The Ultimate NBA 1v1 Tournament

We build a 32-player NBA 1v1 tournament from scratch, weigh scoring leaders against social reach, and land on a balanced field that values isolation skill, versatility, and defense. We dig into how rules tilt outcomes, where bigs can dominate, and which guards can steal games.

• why 1v1 is the purest test of skill
• pros and cons of seeding by top scorers
• the draw of social media stars for viewership
• the case for a blended, balanced field
• guards who win on counters and pace control
• wings who defend and create in tight space
• bigs who tilt games with touch and strength
• how rules like make‑it‑take‑it change favorites
• sleeper picks and tough omissions
• invite for listeners to submit their 32 and champion

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why 1v1s Captivate Fans
• 1:50 Top Scorers As Tournament Seeds
• 2:47 Social Media Stars As Draw
• 4:06 Crafting A Balanced 1v1 Field
• 8:40 Bigs, Rules, And Matchup Nuance
• 11:12 Wings, Stoppers, And Sleepers
• 13:50 Refining The List And Caveats

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Now, if you all if y'all been listening, I talked about the unrivaled league recently. And they have an unrivaled element to their game, which is the 1v1 tournament, the one-on-one tournament where we get to see one athlete go up against another. And we get to see that all the way up until the championship matchup. And in the championship matchup, the the players get to go and play three games of one-on-one. And it started making me think, well, who in the NBA should we want to see in a one-on-one matchup? Like I think that that would be interesting. And to be clear, in the Unrivaled League, there were 32 women that participated. So it got me thinking, well, who would be the best list, right? It made me think of scoring at first, okay? Like maybe maybe the top scorers we should have. So that made me pull up the list of the top scores in the NBA currently. Which we had in order: Luca, Shay, Ant Edwards, Jalen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Tyrese Maxie, Nicola Jokic, Kawhi Leonard, Steph Curry, Jalen Brunson, Lori Markinen, Kevin Durant, Jamal Murray, Kay Cunningham, Devin Booker, Denny Abdia, James Harden, Michael Porter Jr., Victor Wimbenyama, Keontae George, Pascal Siakam, Jalen Johnson, Norman Powell, Julius Randle, Trey Murphy the third, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Shaden Sharp, Paolo Bancaro, Dylan Brooks, Al Prince Sengoon, and Cooper Flag. So that's an interesting lineup right there. I'm not gonna lie to y'all. Because we got some good notable players, and everybody has a case for wanting for being able to be on this list. Even take someone like Norm Powell, right? Remember, he's a he's an all-star this year. You know what I'm saying? Like he played well. He's been he's a he's been known as a bucket getter, but he might not have the name cachet like a Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or Shay or Luca or Ant-Man. Like it it's a little bit different once we start getting to those names. But it in terms of just a bucket getter, I can understand why why we might put Norman Powell or even a Julius Randle. Hell, Trey Murphy ain't bad. Because you gotta think 1v1, right? It's about offense and defense. There's no helps, there's no helping at all. There's no schemes, it's just straight moving them puppies. So I do like that listing. But I also thought, well, what happens if we should put the top the top social media followers? Right? We got LeBron, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Lonzo Ball, Klay Thompson, Giannis, KD, Harden, Chris Paul, man just retired. So that would been that would that that would actually be a little interesting to see. Luca Doncic, Lamello Ball, Jimmy Butler coming off injury. Damian Lillard coming off injury. Again, these are these are obviously if healthy conversations right now. Paul George, John Morant, Markel Foltz, Bronny James. That's an interesting one. Jason Tatum. Bronny has more followers than Jason Tatum. Is that real? I gotta double check that one. Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons is up here, which is disgusting work. Anthony Davis, although if healthy and able to, I would like to see him in a 1v1 scenario. Devin Booker, Trey Young, Zion Williamson, Victor Wimbenyama, SGA, Nicola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Kate Cunningham, and De'Aaron Fox. That would be a very interesting lineup as well. Now, the Brownie one kind of throws me off. So does Mark L. Foltz and Ben Simmons. Not gonna lie to you. And Chris Paul a little bit as well, too. But those names, they would draw some attention to the 1v1. Because again, they have the most followers amongst the NBA. So why not? That would be interesting. But I had to look at, you know, I had to kind of come up with my own. And I did use Chat GPT for this a little bit, and I did kind of tweak it. So some players I would be interested in seeing. SGA, I think, is one. Luca is also one. KD, Ant-Man, Steph Curry, Kyrie. Now, James Harden, you can have a case for because, you know, he's been called one of the best offensive players that at least this era of basketball has seen. Defensively, though, eh, and you do have to move them puppies. So, but you know, like I said, it is a it is 1v1. So maybe he gets hot and wins and can win a matchup. But if we're talking make it take it, he might be able to make something work. But if we're talking just regular hoops where you got to play offense, then defense, that could be a little tough. Jason Tatum, but he's smooth, you know, 6'10, can defend, can scroll. That's straight. I wouldn't mind seeing him out there. Donovan Mitchell. Alright, I get it. Trey Young. That's an interesting one. It is. Offensively, I'd be curious what his bag looking like. And defensively, yeah, it's it might be a little SOL champ. It might be. And you know, no slight to the to the short guards, because I also have Tyrese Maxi up here as well, too. But it would be a little interesting to see that quickness go up against the athleticism of everybody else. Plus, they got good shot making ability. Devin Booker, I would love to see D Book in a 1v1 matchup. I really would. Because he's actually been playing some defense. He's shown he has shown the effort to want to play more defense. I'm telling you right now, somebody needs to get D Book out of Phoenix and pair with him someone nice. Because I'm telling you right now, D Book is a good player. He is, he really is. LeBron, while old, all right, we gotta give we gotta give credit where credit due. Because I think him being an elite physical freak of nature, we gotta say that. Because he's still doing things at this age. I think that does play well for 1v1. Now his bag might not be the same as everybody else's, and you can talk about his defense dipping. You can say that his defense hasn't really been there. Cool. I hear that argument too. But Braun in 1v1s, that would be a little interesting. Although, yeah, no, I'm not gonna slander. It'd be interesting. Giannis, I think, is another one that you gotta have in there. Nicola Jokic, arguably the best player in basketball, you gotta have in there. Joel Embiid, listen, if healthy, he could be my he could be one of my candidates to win it all. Because who's stopping, buddy? Especially in a 1v1. He can just back everybody down. Three dribbles, maybe that's different. Maybe that's interesting. But Joel Embiid would be a nice little candidate. Jalen Brunson, Scotty Barnes, I like those two. I do. Kawhi Leonard, all right, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Williams. I got Paul George on the listing, but that was from Chat GPT, and I had to think about it for a second, right? Would I rather see someone like Paolo Banquero? That's a conversation. That is a conversation. So I could end up switching out PG, even though he is offensively and defensively sound. I think Paolo would make some noise in that, in that, in that 1v1 too. I think he very well could, especially given the age difference right now. I said Kawhi, I said K, Jalen Williams, right? Mikhail Bridges. Now, here's the thing. I like McHale being a 1v1 player. I do. He got enough offense and he's good on defense, right? What about, though, some players like Carl Anthony Towns or Jalen Johnson? I would like to see those two players potentially over Mikhail Bridges, who I said at one point in time could have been all NBA based on the game's play threshold. But still, you got to play the game that he's usually playing. So durable, best ability is availability. I can see Mikhail Bridges up there. I'm not gonna lie to y'all, ladies and gentlemen. Al Prince Sengun, that's a nice one. Jalen Brown, we gotta have JB up there. JB is one of the best two-way players in the game of basketball. Arguably the best two-way wing player in the game of basketball. I said arguably, because we got Ant-Ban, I hear Shay out there, I hear you. We gotta talk about it, we gotta have them conversations. Now, Chat GBT throw this one, threw this one in there, and I was kind of curious about it. Because I understand it just because who he is, but Terry Rogier, Scary Terry, I can understand it, but I might want to throw someone like Amin Thompson into the mix. I know people talk about his shooting ability is lackluster. Let me explain something to you. Yeah, he's one of them ones in terms of versatility. He can guard one through four, and I would even say five, as long as you're not a seven-footer. Not gonna lie to you. Like he is. I know I just said Jalen Brown is arguably one of the best wing defenders or wing, like Elite 2A wings, right? You gotta have Amin Thompson in that mix as well, too. Like there are very few people I think can guard anybody. JB is one, Ant-Man's one, Amin Thompson's another one. I might say Scotty as well, too, but like Scotty, Kawhi, they're like forwards. So it's a little bit different. Amin's at least a point guard, although he is 6'7. But still, I I'm not mad at Ammin in the game over Terry Rosier. Especially when you think about Terry being accused of never mind, we're not gonna talk about it. Uh we got here Pascal Siakum. I'm very curious about Pascal. I understand why you put him there. I understand. They also have Fred Van Fliet up here, which I understand. I get it. But what about someone like Anthony Davis? I think AD in a 1v1 could be a little interesting, ladies and gentlemen. That would be interesting to watch. They also added Jalen Green, which I do get. But I think I might want to put Zion in that mix. Seeing Zion and 1v1s, like realistically, who got the strength to stop Zion? The strength and mobility to stop Zion. Very few people. Like Scotty can contain him a little bit, a little bit. I said a little bit. Chill out. You know what I'm saying? Braun in his prime, in his heyday, maybe. If we're talking about just brute strength, I mean in B, you know, but we're not talking about we're talking about combination of strength and mobility. Like, I'm not gonna lie to y'all, Zion got a shot. He really truly do. He does. And then we got to think about Laurie Markinen, right? Seven-footer who can shoot the ball pretty decently. I ain't mad at him. And then, now here's the interesting piece. Because the last name that they gave was Darren Fox, right? But at no point in time did they list ChatGBT meaning, did they list off his teammate in Victor Wimbenyama? They had Christoph's Porzingas, which I hear. I genuinely do hear. Seven foot, about what, seven, two, seven, three, something like that. Like he he he tall. He can shoot the thing. You know what I'm saying? He got good defense. But I like Victor's mobility better. So I understand why Christoph was listed off as. I think Wimby might matter a little bit more. So when we're talking about 1v1s, ladies and gentlemen, we got a we got a couple things. We got a couple of markers that we could go off of, such as, well, the fans, right? The social media followers. We could talk about here their scoring, right? Like everyone I listed off based on the scoring was top 32 in scoring. Which is crazy when you think about it. Because Coop at 32 giving 20. Like, we got a lot of 20-point per game scores. That's kind of disgusting work. But we could go off the list that I made after ChatGPT started, and I just tweaked it a little bit. I like I like that one personally. I genuinely do. Because we got a good balance of old players, the the I don't want to call them new players, but sure the new players and then the newer players, right? Like I like to see that match up personally. But I think we could make this work because the listing that I gave, I think if anybody loses, let's say if Giannis loses early, I don't know if we can go at Giannis too much. Because again, let's say he loses to someone like De'Aaron Fox. What if D Fox just gets hot? We know Giannis ain't shooting threes. At least not, we're not banking on him making them. So respectfully, if De'Aaron Fox is the more skilled player in a game of ones, anybody can get got in the NBA, to be clear, especially on a given night. Anybody can get got. So I don't think that hurts your brand at all, NBA players, at all. Now we can talk about the injuries. The possible injuries. I do get that. I genuinely do. But everyone I listed is actually decent at scoring, got good isolation skills, has solid creativity, and at minimum, the majority of these boys can defend something. You know what I mean? Like Steph at least gives effort. Now hard, and you know, that's another discussion for another day. Donovan tries. We can talk about him not being the best defensive player, but at least he tries. Trey Young, you know, Tyrese Maxie. Tyrese Maxie is a solid defender. I ain't gonna slightly, I'm not gonna slight Tyrese Maxie. Jalen Brunson, I mean, he's there. You know what I'm saying? Like it's cool. It's funny enough, actually. We had a conversation. Who would you rather have guard you, Luca Doncic or Jalen Brunson? And I said JB. No, no, I said Luca. Because at least JB tries. But that's gonna be a thing. How are you gonna stop Luca on offense? Like, I'd like to see these matchups personally. And if I had to choose, I'd choose my listing over something like the social media or something like the scoring. Because again, there's more to the game of basketball than just scoring respectfully. I mean, Jamal Murray, cool. I understand why he why he could make the list. Don't get me wrong. Denny Abdia is cool. I understand why he can make the list. Michael Porter Jr., he's cool. I understand Keontae George, he's cool. I understand those. But when I'm just thinking about the listing that I had, I think it's a little bit more refined. I think it's a little bit better. But ladies and gentlemen, y'all heard y'all heard all the listings. So I'm curious when I was listing off those names, and I tell you and I I gave y'all my list. I gave y'all my list. I might even try to include Trey Murphy and Julius Randle a little bit more if I could. I might. I might. I cannot ooh, Dylan Brooks in the mix, too. That would be Dylan Brooks is top 32 in scoring. That is kind of funny to hear. Not gonna lie to y'all. He's scoring more than Carl Anthony Towns and De'Aaron Fox. Dearon Fox is under 20 points a game. Scotty under 20 points a game. Hey, yo, that is disgusting work. Yeah, maybe I missed somebody. Maybe I missed somebody. I need I need y'all to help me out, please. But I would like to see a 1v1 tournament between NBA players. I think that could be real smooth. And I don't think it hurts the brand. The injury possibility, you could talk about that. But guess what? You can get injured at any point in the game of a regular season game. I know that might not be the best answer, but I, you know, it's some it's some reasoning. So but I genuinely like to see this happen. So I'm curious who would y'all like to see in a 1v1 matchup out of 32 possible players in the NBA? Definitely let me know your thoughts. But, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the end of the show. So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get of Bucket. I hope you all are having a good one at NBA players. I hope we can get this one on one tournament popping. Take care.