NBA 2017-18: Top 10 Post-up players

The changes in the illegal defense rules in the early 2000s and the subsequent emphasis on the three-pointer has decreased the value of post plays drastically.

The hustle to fight for position in the low post is undoubtedly on the verge of extinction. It has certainly been overtaken by the plays that happen in the open space.

Also, many organizations bet big money on the multi-faceted talents of the big men that are rising these days, and so to keep the ball out of the post would be to deprive these franchise cornerstones of one of their biggest advantages.

“There are not many guys left who can post up anymore,” chimed in the great Jason Kidd once. “We are losing an integral part of our sport.”

The post-up, while minimized, is still an efficacious weapon to have. The value of high-percentage shots at the rim can't be ignored even though the math supporting long-range threes makes sense. One of the advantages being that using the post player as the entry passer opens up numerous potential attacking options as the passer is close to the basket.

Despite the way the game has changed, the following players still manage to make these old-school moves work in the modern game. Let's take a look at the top ten post players (in terms of post points per game) from the 2017-18 season.

#10 DeMarcus Cousins - 3.9 Points per game

Within the 48 games he played with the Pelicans last season before going down with a torn left Achilles injury, Boogie had averaged 25.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per game.

Primarily, DeMarcus Cousins is an isolation post player who can stretch the floor with 3-point shooting.

Although he used the post for just 16.6% of his offense last season, he still got 4.4 post possessions per game and scored 3.9 points per game using his low-post moves. Sporting an impressive 0.88 point per possession(in the post), Cousins was a dominant force with his back to the basket.

Statistically, his presence in the paint fades away when he is on the defensive end of the scheme, as Cousins is in the 77th percentile when guarding isolation plays, and in the 83rd percentile when defending post-ups.

It will be interesting to see how his maneuvers in the block will gel in with the Warriors' rapid-transition style of playmaking.

#9 Nikola Jokic - 4.1 Points per game

When Nikola Jokic is aggressive, the Nuggets can compete with nearly any team in the league. But his style of aggressive play is far removed from the conventional definitions of aggression. Not necessarily shots, but dribble hand-offs, making the proper reads, that is him being more aggressive.

Certainly, the Serbian has taken the basketball universe by storm, sporting a seven feet frame and averaging a rather entertaining 6.1 assists per game.

The post is where he makes all his intuitive decisions. Whether to go for the fadeaway jumper, look to pass for the backdoor cut or go for the rim on a one-on-one pivot move.

He doesn't need to score 30 points every night to make his presence felt on the court. His no-look passes and sleek post moves regulate the Nuggets offense fairly well.

Although the post accounted for only 25% of his offense, he still got 4.4 post possessions and scored 4.1 points (from the post) per game. Just another magnified strand of the multi-faceted skill set he possesses.

#8 Marc Gasol - 4.1 Points per game

There's not much Gasol can't do on the low block.

Marc Gasol just finished one of his best seasons, averaging 17.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Although his turnover average (2.7) was the worst of his career, his post-up plays were good enough to find him a place in the best 10 across the league last season.

Despite the Grizzlies' flop-show year after year, Marc hasn't put a cap on improving his game. According to Coach Bickerstaff, he has been "working on different parts of his game", including "his face-up game and a different array of shots, in the paint".

Safe to say, he has spent more time focusing on growth than he has on the situation that the Memphis Grizzlies franchise finds itself in.

Another downside of things being, that it's been tough for Gasol to consistently get good looks in the post, which sounds an alarm for an offense heavily dependent on post moves.

#7 Zach Randolph - 4.2 Points per game

Randolph has always been a low-post prodigy. He is one of the most under-appreciated professional big-men in the NBA who gets buckets for his team on a consistent basis.

Last season, he drew a decent 31.8% of his offense from the post, getting around five post-possessions per game and scoring frequency of 43%.

"You can't teach footwork," Randolph said. "I mean you can, but you've gotta have that feel, you've gotta have that knack. It's a lot, reading a guy when his body is on you. It all has to do with feel and instincts."

Randolph knows the patience levels required to score efficiently and consistently in the paint. Rather than backing down immediately on the catch, Zach loves to open up into a series of jab steps and lowers his shoulder just enough to push without charging. His game is guided - and empowered - by the maximum physicality allowed.

"At the end of the day," Randolph said once, "the paint is where you win."

#6 Karl-Anthony Towns - 4.2 Points per game

Karl-Anthony Towns is a singular talent capable of turning around the fortunes of his long-downtrodden franchise.

During February of the last season, Taj Gibson was the most efficient player (1.12 PPP) among those with at least 100 post-up opportunities and coupled with Wiggins and Towns' post abilities, it was no surprise Minnesota were maintaining the highest field goal percentage (52.2 percent) in the NBA when posting up.

KAT had scored 1.02 point per possession from the post for the T-Wolves when the season ended, which is amongst the highest across the league.

Although, what keeps him this early in the countdown is the unnerving fact that while he and Joel Embiid have nearly the exact same field goal percentage on this play type, the Philadelphia big man gets triple his opportunities. Apparently, he is not fed enough in the post, especially for how efficient he is in the paint.

#5 Anthony Davis - 4.5 Points per game

Just to get it out of the way before we start: Anthony Davis was the regular season MVP finalist for the 2017-18 season, and averaged 28.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

Diving into individual plays, Davis continues to stand out. He ranks in the 79th percentile in post-ups and the 85th percentile in isolation (alongside the maestro Kyrie Irving), and all that while being asked to create more offense for himself.

He has become a full-fledged force on the offensive side of the basketball, and in the process, has come a long way from where he started. He's done it in a variety of ways and his arsenal only continues to grow.

The reality that he is able to clinch mammoth averages on the scoring and rebounding end, and still be 5th on the post-up list, is in itself a testament of how diverse this player is. Another mind-boggling stat figure is that he put up 4.5 points per game from the post having just 18.7% of his possessions in the post.

#4 Dwight Howard - 5.1 Points per game

He had the second most post-up possessions at 6.3 per game behind Aldridge and Embiid's 9.4 in the last season. This average is far too much than the 3.7 per game he got with the Atlanta Hawks the season before.

He pulled out 36.3% (5th most in the league during the 2017-18 season) of his offense from the post during his time with the Hornets.

Even though running the offense through D12 standing in the post might slow down the offense and limit pacing, Hornets coach Clifford made a concerted effort to get his new big man plenty of post-up opportunities every game.

One of the reasons of Dwight getting traded to the Nets in the recently passed summer was that Kupchak wanted to install a system requiring quicker ball movement and a faster pace, where Howard, 32 and a veteran of 14 NBA seasons, wouldn’t have fared well. In other words, asking him to come off the bench in limited minutes “would not have been good for the team and that would not have been good for Dwight.”

#3 Kristaps Porzingis - 5.4 Points per game

The summer of 2016 is when KP decided to work on his inside game to help the triangle offense of the Knicks.

"Everybody wants to see me play better in the post," Porzingis said. "That's one thing that's going to help us in the triangle. So I'm adding moves to my post game."

And here he is after two seasons, drawing around 25% of his offense from the post and scoring 0.96 points per possession. Forward Kristaps Porzingis has made his mark on the NBA scene this season as he was the first player drafted by the New York Knicks to become an All-Star since David Lee in 2009-10.

With time. Porzingis has matured into an amazing offensive machine that has carried the Knicks team at more than one occasion. In addition to that, his patience in the post has skyrocketed dramatically, as he is just starting to realize it doesn’t need to be rushed, he can just let the game flow and see what happens, rather than force and try to get those numbers.

#2 Joel Embiid - 9.1 Points per game

Joel Embiid is single-handedly helping to smash the foolishly-held notion that you can't win with a post-up center.

He extracts 39.7 percent of his offense from the post, scoring 0.97 points per post-up possession. Another notable stat which speaks volumes about Embiid's post-reliant offense is that he recorded 9.4 post possessions per game(tied with LaMarcus Aldridge for the highest in the league) last season.

He was 196-of-392 (50.0 percent) on post-up possessions, which ranked No. 7 overall among those with at least 150 opportunities. Moreover, the man from Cameroon averaged 1.10 PPP when facing up on the left block, which ranked fourth-best (minimum: 15 possessions).

Embiid, however, averaged just 0.71 points per possession on post-up opportunities during the playoffs and struggled against the Boston Celtics in the second round, including missing a crucial post-up shot during the dying seconds of overtime in Game 3.

#1 LaMarcus Aldridge - 9.3 Points per game

LaMarcus Aldridge posted up more than any other player in the league in the past season. Aldridge generates 43.5 percent of his offense with his back to the basket and he ranks in the 75.0 percentile with 0.98 points per post-up possession.

During the 2017-18 season, LaMarcus averaged 23.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game and even with Kawhi Leonard missing all but nine games, Spurs booked a playoff berth comfortably, which many thought would not be easy. Pop devised plays to make LaMarcus play to his strengths by clearing the space around him.

Also, Nobody in the league passes out of the post as much as Aldridge does and players shot nearly 50 percent after passes from Aldridge.

While many teams have moved away from posting up, this man has stuck to this weapon of his and has exploited it to a great cause for the Spurs.

Warriors Coach Kerr summed up Aldridge's command on his old-school moves: “He’s been dominant. He’s one of the best low-post players in the league. It’s a dying breed.”

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Edited by Raunak J