Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report recently put out an excellently researched article ranking every single duo in the NBA from 30 to 1. In the article, the Los Angeles Lakers duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis was ranked first, much to the appeal of Laker fans.
Bailey compiled several different stats and objectively ranked the duos by their average ranking in each stat. This received some backlash, as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were ranked fifth, mostly because they have not played any games together.
There was a misunderstanding that the article was not merely ranking the five most talented duos this season, simply the five most productive.
We wanted to take a crack at it and instead of ranking all 30 teams, we decided to rank the top-five duos in the NBA based on the talent, without ranking them with several different qualifying stats, to see where the Los Angeles Lakers would stand.
NBA Best Duos: 5. Boston Celtics — Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker
- Bleacher Report ranking: 10th
Easily the biggest movers on this list, we have the 10th-rated duo on Bailey’s article checking in as the fifth-rated duo in this list. What killed Tatum and Walker on the Bleacher Report rankings was their playing time together, but when they were on the court, they were very impressive.
They have the fifth-best winning percentage and third-best Net Rating of any duo in the NBA this season and were really starting to fire on all cylinders before the league got postponed. Kemba Walker was already an all-star starting point and Jayson Tatum was starting to take those next steps into being a top-10 player in the league.
He might not be quite there yet but he was playing like a top-10 player prior to the league halting. In his last 15, Tatum was averaging 29.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. He was shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 46.6 percent from beyond the arc.
With a top-five point guard in Kemba Walker, it is hard to argue against the Boston Celtics’ duo from a talent standpoint, even if they are the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest rivals.