Top 100 NBA Players: #71 - Sam Cassell

Sam Cassell

Teams

Houston Rockets - 1993-96

Phoenix Suns - 1996

Dallas Mavericks - 1996-97

New Jersey Nets - 1997-99

Milwaukee Bucks - 1999-03

Minnesota Timberwolves - 2003-05

Los Angeles Clippers - 2005-08

Boston Celtics - 2008

Playoffs

Appearances - 11 (1994,1995,1996,1998,1999,2000,2001,2003,2004,2006,2008)

Conference Finals - 5 (1994,1995,2001,2004,2008)

NBA Finals - 3 (1994,1995,2008)

Championships - 3 (1994,1995,2008)

Awards and Honors

All-NBA First Team - 0 (2004)

All-NBA Second Team - 1 (1998,2000,2004)

*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)

All-Time Ranks

Total Assists - #39

Free Throw Percentage - #47

Assists Per Game - #65

League Leads

Total Assists (#2-2000, #4-2004)

Assists Per Game (#3-2000, #5-2004)

Sam Cassell was an 18-point-per-game scorer in his 2 seasons at Florida State after transferring from junior college, and he led the ACC in steals, which led to the Houston Rockets picking him late in the first round of the 1993 NBA Draft.

He spent the first few years of his career as a backup to Kenny Smith, and he played an important sixth man role on championship teams for the Rockets in each of his first two seasons. He scored 7 points in the final 32 seconds of Game 3 of the NBA Finals as a rookie, and scored 31 in Game 2 of the Finals during his second season.

In his third season, he averaged 14.5 points per game, the first of 13 straight seasons where he would score in double figures. Following the season, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in a deal for Charles Barkley, but would be traded again a few months later to Dallas in a deal for Jason Kidd, and then one more time late in the season to the New Jersey Nets.

In 1997-98, his first full year as a starter, he averaged 19.6 points and 8 assists per game for the Nets, leading them to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years, but they were swept by the Bulls in the first round. The Nets were expected to improve on that the next year, but Cassell was injured in the first game of the season, and played only 4 games for New Jersey before he was traded to Milwaukee, where he played the final 4 games of the season.

The team he joined in Milwaukee featured Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson, and he was one of the top point guards in the league in his first couple of seasons with the Bucks. In 2000, he finished with 18.6 points and 9 assists per game, which was #3 in the league, and in 2001, the threesome led the Bucks to the Conference Finals, where they fell in 7 games to the 76ers.

After averaging 19.7 points in each of the next 2 seasons with Milwaukee, he was traded yet again, this time to Minnesota. His first season there was his best individual season, with a career-high 19.8 points to go with 7.3 assists, and he and Kevin Garnett led the Wolves to the Conference Finals for the first time in their history, where they fell to the Lakers. That year he made his only All-Star and All-NBA teams, though he should have made the First Team that year instead of the Second Team.

When the team couldn't match their success the next year, Cassell was traded to the Clippers, who had not won a playoff series since moving to California. He scored 17.2 points per game in his first season with the Clippers, and led them to the second round of the playoffs for the first time ever, though that's as far as they would go.

After 2.5 years in LA, Cassell and the Clippers decided to part ways, and he signed for the rest of the season with the Boston Celtics, reuniting him with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, who had been his teammates in his two best seasons. He played just 17.6 minutes per game off the bench for Boston, the fewest since his rookie year, but was able to earn another championship at the tail end of his career. He was technically an active player the next season, but never played in a game, and retired after the season.

Cassell was one of the top point guards in the NBA for well over a decade, averaging over 17 points per game in 7 different seasons, and over 18 per game in 5 straight seasons during his prime. He helped lead two teams to the Conference Finals during his best seasons, and they were teams that did not usually experience playoff success, and won three championships in his bookend seasons, even though those were his worst individual seasons. All of this put together makes Cassell one of the most underrated players of all time, one who deserves mention among the best.

Top 100 NBA Players: #42

Ray Allen

(Simmons: #63, BBR: #56)

Right not you're probably thinking, "Are you seriously putting Ray Allen ahead of Isiah Thomas?" Yes, I am. It may not seem like a logical choice at first glance, but Allen spent a number of years as a superstar before moving into his current role as a shooter in Boston.

First let's look at the top season for each player. Isiah Thomas reached his peak in his 4th season (1985), while Allen took 5 years to reach the top. Thomas was a point guard and Allen a shooting guard, so Thomas obviously had the edge in assists, but look at all the other stats:

Thomas - 21.2 pts, 4.5 reb, 13.9 ast, 2.3 stl, .458 FG%, .257 3P%, .809 FT%
Allen - 22.0 pts, 5.2 reb, 4.6 ast, 1.5 stl, .480 FG%, .433 3P%, .888 FT%

Thomas had a big edge in assists and a slight edge in steals, but Allen had a huge edge in all of the shooting percentages and a slight lead in scoring and rebounding. I still think that Thomas' season was a little better, but it's hard to say that Allen doesn't belong in the same league as Thomas when you compare their peaks.

Ray Allen scored at least 20 points per game for 8 straight seasons in the prime of his career, peaking out at 26.4 in 2007, his final season with Seattle. Thomas scored over 20 for just 5 straight seasons, never reaching that mark after the age of 25. Allen is also known as one of the best free throw shooters of all time, and it's interesting to note that his worst season from the line (.823 when he was a rookie) was still better than Thomas' best (.818 in 1989).

Allen also holds a record that looked untouchable for a while, the all-time lead in three-pointers made. When Reggie Miller retired in 2005, he had 2560 career 3-pointers, while Allen had totaled only 1486 to that point, leaving him more than 1000 behind. What did Allen do the next season? He set a new NBA record for three-pointers made in a season and led the league for the 3rd time in his career, cutting into Miller's huge lead and making it seem like it would only be a matter of time until he broke the record, which he did in February of this year.

In 2001, Ray Allen had established himself as the star of the Milwaukee Bucks, despite having veteran stars Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson on the roster, and he led the Bucks to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell to Allen Iverson and the 76ers, but there's no way they would have made it that far without Allen, who improved in almost every category in the playoffs, averaging 25.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and shot nearly 48% from long range and 92% from the free throw line.

Allen finally saw the NBA Finals in 2008, when he helped the Celtics win their first championship in two decades. He was not the star of the team, but he was the third-best player while playing better than most teams' #2 guys. He also made a return trip to the Finals two years later, although his role had diminished a little bit more.

Isiah Thomas had more playoff success than Ray Allen, and a bigger role in that success, but his career ended much earlier than Allen's. Thomas was only relevant for 8 seasons, while Allen has kept himself playing at a star level for 13 full seasons, playing just as well at age 35 as he did at age 26. Taking the career lead in three-pointers and winning a title just cemented his legacy and moved him ahead of Thomas.