Hypothetical Power Rankings: The shortest-longest tenures
By Miles Wray
The goddamn saddest thing to happen in the NBA this season (real-life interruptions notwithstanding) came when the Philadelphia 76ers waived Hollis Thompson last week.
You are forgiven if the name Hollis Thompson doesn’t ring a bell for you. Since his debut at the start of the 2013-14 season, Thompson has been a rotation player and only-sometimes-starter for the Philadelphia 76ers. While Thompson may have escaped even the knowledgeable fan’s notice, there is perhaps no more heroic player for us devotees of Sam Hinkie’s Process.
Thompson’s career path is unprecedented — perhaps because it is so tragic. After going undrafted out of Georgetown in the 2012 Draft, Thompson spent an underwhelming season in the D-League before Hinkie invited him to training camp in the fall of 2013. Thompson spent the next 40 months grinding on an un-guaranteed contract — he had just three months of regular season ball to go before reaching free agency. No other player since the start of the Brett Brown-led experiment has played more games, sweated more sweat, bled more blood than Thompson did to help those misshapen Sixers teams along. Thompson’s 256 games under Brown is a full regular season ahead of second-place Robert Covington’s 170 games played over that same time span. In games that he played in, Thompson went 50-206. That is a harrowing number that I hope, dear reader, produced a wince of sympathy within you.
While Thompson’s PER is close to the lowest among regular players since his debut, the truth is that his 3-point shooting stats stack up pretty well against Ray Allen’s stats at the same point in his career. Thompson, so far: 7.2 deep attempts per 100 possessions, sinking 38.9% of them. Allen, through his first four seasons: 6.4 per 100, 38.8%. Let us remember this glorious, promising side of Thompson; and may it be enough for another team to pick him up.
Thompson’s sudden departure got me thinking about the player on each team who has been around the longest — who has seen the entire locker room change around him. While Thompson’s release is an example of NBA business at its coldest, I’ve always felt that Seinfeld’s sentiment that the modern sports fan is just “cheering for laundry” is willfully misleading. There are a lot of changes, but by closely following a team, we are still spending years at a time with role players who history may just remember as shuffling in and out.
There are five teams whose longest-tenured player was brought onto the team after the 2012 draft. As you might expect, four of them are below-.500 teams — but the other team is a championship contender. Counting down to the very shortest longest-tenured player:
5. Phoenix Suns: P.J. Tucker
Free agent signing on August 1, 2012
When he was signed, Tucker was five years away from his one previous NBA cup of coffee (Toronto Raptors, 2006-07) and had last played in the not-so-prestigious German league. Considering those circumstances, Tucker’s five years as the only solid part of Phoenix’s rotation — from Michael Beasley to present day — represents some exponential return on investment.
This winter, Tucker is a textbook trade candidate: veteran, impending free agent, on lottery-bound team. If Tucker is dealt away, the longest-tenured Sun would become four-year veteran Alex Len: as a 2013 draft pick, he was in Phoenix for a few weeks before the arrival of Eric Bledsoe via trade.
4. Orlando Magic: Nikola Vucevic
Traded from Philadelphia to Orlando (four-team Dwight Howard trade) on August 10, 2012
A week-plus after Tucker quietly signed, the Magic and apparent wunderkind Rob Hennigan dropped one of the largest trades in league history, getting the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Lakers involved in order to unload Dwight Howard. With Vucevic and a first-rounder from Los Angeles that is still incoming, the Magic easily won this trade — the other teams basically got a single year of Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bynum, and Howard, respectively. But it’s still not clear what, exactly, they won.
3. Houston Rockets: James Harden
Traded from Oklahoma City to Houston in October 2012
Daryl Morey will probably be remembered for stretching out the NBA floor wider than it’s ever gone before. Another just-as-relevant signature of Morey-ball, though, is the constant roster churn. When Harden arrived in Houston, he joined a nucleus that looked like it would push through the playoffs together for years: Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik, Donatas Motiejunas, and Terrence Jones.
About two months after this generational heist, the Rockets would pluck the unknown Patrick Beverley out of Russia.
2. Philadelphia 76ers: Nerlens Noel
2013 Draft Pick
Although Thompson has played the most games of any player in the grand Philadelphia experiment, Noel had already been with the team for over two offseason months when Thompson was actually signed. Of course, this year Noel has been the very most discussed subject of trade rumors around the league this year. If Noel is dealt away, the longest-tenured Sixer would then be Joel Embiid, from the 2014 Draft.
1. Los Angeles Lakers: Nick Young
Free agent signing in July 2013
One year after seeing Kobe Bryant retire — and end the longest single-team tenure in league history — the Lakers have now turned over their entire roster quicker than any other squad. In addition to Young’s busy off-court adventures with Iggy Azalea and D’Angelo Russell’s recording equipment, he has played for three head coaches (Mike D’Antoni, Byron Scott, Luke Walton) and seen three different leaders in total scoring (Jodie Meeks, Jordan Hill, Jordan Clarkson). From this perspective, perhaps Young’s ultra-quick trigger is something personally therapeutic — the one reliable constant amid all the changes around him.
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Here are the longest-tenured players for the other 25 teams, starting with the 2012 draft and going back in time all the way to the nineties:
Mike Scott, John Henson, Andre Drummond, Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard (tie – same draft class), Anthony Davis, Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson (tie – same draft class), Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari and Carmelo Anthony (tie – traded for each other), Nikola Pekovic, Avery Bradley, Paul George, Gordon Hayward, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Taj Gibson, DeMar DeRozan, Stephen Curry, DeAndre Jordan, Brook Lopez, Mike Conley, Udonis Haslem, Nick Collison, Tony Parker*, Dirk Nowitzki.
*Manu Ginobili was drafted in 1998 and was stashed abroad until he joined the Spurs in 2002, while Parker both was drafted and debuted in 2001.