Oladipo/Payton No. 9 Backcourt
Because argument and rage are the source of all modern entertainment, here are the top nine young backcourts in the NBA. Criteria: which backcourt would you want for success over the course of the next four seasons? Remember that I am infallible before you disagree..... No. 9: Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo This duo is lower than you might expect for a couple of reasons. The first is that Payton, though young, is a tremendously horrific scorer. His current True Shooting percentage is .435. He's averaging 0.86 points per shooting possession. League average is 1.06. It's a huge difference. The other is that Oladipo is probably not the best shooting guard in Orlando (Evan Fournier) and within three years might be the third-best shooting guard on this current roster (Mario Hezonja)! That's primarily because Fournier and Hezonja are neat -- Oladipo is real good, too -- but it doesn't inspire confidence in the future dominance of Payton-Oladipo. That's all.
Tom Ziller's The Hook, "Brandon Knight is turning into one of the NBA's best guards" Nov 18, 2025
