garbage time goat the garbage time goat usually makes other deep bench players look like youth league players this is usually a fan favorite the man that comes in the game when your team is either up or down 30 points and just absolutely dominates their Advanced stats are totally off the charts and you'll find a cult-like group of fans who are convinced this guy can be an absolute stud however some part of their game just doesn't translate well against mid to high NBA level competition but when we're talking about the bottom 10% of the league they
are on another level these players could be Superstars if they played in different leagues around the world but the NBA game is just not an ideal fit for their skill microwave scorer these guys are absolutely electric while they might disappear for long stretches or even entire games if they see a few shots go through the basket they turn into Prime Kobe Bryant there's no worse guy to face off against than the microwave scorer especially at the end of games these are the type of guys who can hit insane buzzer beaters every shot they take is
make or Miss regardless of the defense the Wild Card arguably the most exciting players these are viral clip machines they seem to think they're playing streetball and while it's usually exciting they tend to hurt a team more than they can help sometimes the wild card can work as a role player on a team with strong veterans but even then they can drive their teammates crazy the biggest difference between the wild card and the microwave scorer is effort the microwave scorer always brings their best effort even when the shots aren't falling the same can't be said
for the wild card they seem to only care about making the flashy play and if their shot isn't falling it's going to be a long game defense is usually an afterthought for this archetype the fan imagine getting paid millions of dollars per year just to clap and root for a basketball team that my friends is the definition of the fan this is someone who might not even get in the game if it's a 30-point blowout they're basically getting paid a few million dollars per year to sit on the bench and cheer for their team the
fan rarely if ever ends up moving up the NBA ladder their career is usually pretty short and they end up disappearing after their rookie contract but hey they made the NBA so that's pretty cool the project remember when Bruno kaboko was drafted Bill Simmons famously said he was two years away from being 2 years away from being ready to play that's the project in a nutshell once in a blue moon these guys will pan out just take a look at Giannis however more often than not we hear about how good they could be on draft
night and then never hear about them again they'll show some flashes sometimes it'll be enough for other teams to take chances on them but often times they never reach their potential and end up falling out of the league before their prime years the bust the bust is a player drafted in the top three picks who ends up falling out of the league before they even hit their Prime they usually have a ton of pipe but as soon as their rookie season begins cracks start to appear sometimes teams will hold on to a bust longer than
they should hoping that he'll turn things around this rarely happens but the teams don't really have a choice since they invested so much into the player the biggest difference between the bust in the project is that the bust doesn't really have any redeeming qualities while the project will occasionally show flashes that keep a team believing in their potential role player the role player is the type of guy who always puts the team first they don't care about stats accolades or any of that they just want to win you normally hear about these guys around the
trade deadline as they're the most commonly traded players the thing about role players is that they usually don't last long playing on bad teams since they care so much about winning they don't mind taking a pay cut to join a contender bad team stud this is one of the most misleading archetypes in the league the bad team stud is so good they usually earn some insane contract sometimes a budding Contender will even splurge on them only to be massively disappointed when they realize they overpaid for a high-end role player these guys usually end up going
where the money takes them which is why they end up on trash teams honestly it's hard to blame them you get to be the star of your team and make a boatload of money winning would obviously be cool but everyone has different priorities defensive specialist imagine a Defender that makes NBA superstars squirm when thinking about him the defensive specialist is one of my favorites they usually have some insane defensive instincts on top of a unique body type sometimes these guys are so horrible at offense that they barely see the court but other times they end
up developing enough offense to become a strong role player or even better the key for these guys is is just to develop a three-point shot without that they'll struggle to see the court still though it's a fun guy to have on your bench there are plenty of unique situations where they can be useful three-point specialist this one's pretty self-explanatory the three-point specialist is pretty much the complete opposite of the defensive specialist they can make it rain all day long but if their defense isn't good enough they'll struggle to see the court on the other hand
if their defensive abilities pass a certain threshold they'll graduate to becoming a strong role player still in today's offensive heavy game if you're good enough at shooting threes you'll probably find your way onto the court at least a little bit glue guy most championship teams have a guy like this sometimes they're the final piece that really takes the team to the next level they're willing to do the dirty work but they're also more capable than most think if they need to score they'll score if they need to pass they'll pass they can always defend and
they're usually not afraid to get into a scrum the glue guy is pretty much like an elite role player injury-prone Superstar your team is sort of a contender every year it just depends on whether or not this guy is in street clothes or not this has to be the most frustrating guy there's so much fun to watch and they can arguably be the best player in the league if and that's a big if healthy every era seems to have a guy like this and while some show us what their Peak can actually look like others
keep us dreaming if these guys put together a healthy season they can win championships and MVPs they're so hard to rank though because they're barely ever healthy aging Superstar father time is undefeated and the Aging Superstar is proof of that depending on the player these guys can be sad to see as they fall off but others are able to adapt their game and prove extremely useful until their retirement while it must be tough to see a guy who once dominated the league be relegated to a role player they have the potential to bring a strong
veteran presence to any any team some search for championships and will only join contenders While others join rebuilding teams and help them form a winning culture Allstar the allstars don't have what it takes to win a championship as the best player but they can be paired with other allars to put together a highly competitive team while you still need a player in one of the top tiers to win it all these guys can make a team fun to watch we're usually waiting to see if the allstars can graduate to the next level and some do
even the ones that don't are able to carve out long exciting careers in the league Superstar if you surround a superstar with another Allstar in strong role players you're a legitimate Contender even though the Superstar might not be the best player on the court at all times with a strong Supporting Cast they can do what it takes to win it all these aren't guys that will take any team in the league to the playoffs they need some help but that doesn't mean they aren't Elite they're your perennial all NBA team guys and they can be
in the MVP conversation although they usually don't end up winning generational this is the guy that you can put on any team in the league and they'll make the playoffs they're taking home the MVP trophy year after year and with a decent Supporting Cast they're always a threat to win it all they're usually only a few guys like this in the league at a time while the most common form of generational player is a top five draft pick who comes into the league with a ton of hype we've seen guys in recent years who became
generational after getting drafted later
