This March, we have been working diligently on adding to our futures section in the big four sports.  We have our first update to share, with the addition of the 2026 Basketball Futures.

All of the names feature retired players who will first be Hall of Fame eligible for the Class of 2026.  You can now vote and/or comment as to whether you believe these names are (or are not) Hall of Fame worthy.

The new names are:

Andre Iguodala:  Iguodala was a four-time NBA Champion with the Golden State Warriors and was a Finals MVP.  He was also an All-Star and was the Sixth Man of the Year once and twice.

Carmelo Anthony:  Anthony led Syracuse to an NCAA Championship and was on three Olympic Gold Medal Teams for the United States.  A ten-time All-Star, Melo had four Third Team All-NBA, two Second Team All-NBA selections, and won a Scoring Title.

Goran Dragic:  A multi-time champion in Slovenia, Dragic won a EuroBasket Gold for his country.  In the NBA, he was an All-Star, a Third Team All-NBA and Most Improved Player Award winner.

Hassan Whiteside:  For a brief time, Whiteside was one of Miami’s best players and is a former Second Team All-Defensive Selection.

Joe Johnson:  Johnson went to seven All-Star Games and was a Third Team All-NBA Selectee once.  His best years were with Atlanta.

LaMarcus Aldridge:  Aldridge went to seven All-Star Games and was at his best with the Portland Trail Blazers. He earned five All-NBA spots, two Second Team spots, and three Third Team spots.

Lou Williams:  Williams twice won the Sixth Man of the Year Award and holds the record for the most Points off of the bench.

Paul Millsap:  Millsap was a rebounding machine at Louisiana Tech and would become a four-time All-Star in the NBA.

Rajon Rondo: Rondo won an NBA Title with the Celtics early in his career and later with the Lakers, and he was also a four-time All-NBA Selection.

Trevor Ariza:  Ariza played over 1,000 Games and won an NBA Championship with the Lakers in 2009.

You know what we want you to do! 

Cast your votes, and offer your opinions!

As always, we here at Notinhalloffame.com thank you for your support!

Playoff Rondo.

Rajon Rondo loved it best when the lights were at their brightest.

The Boston Celtics acquired him in a 2006 draft-day trade from Phoenix, and he was a Second Team All-Rookie. Rondo won the starting job as a sophomore, and the Celtics loaded him with talent with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining him and Paul Pierce. Boston won the championship that year, but although many credited the "Big Three", Rondo was at times their best player in the playoffs.

Rondo improved his defense and earned a Second Team All-Defensive slot after his 2008 playoff success. Afterwards, he went to four straight All-Star Games and was in the conversation as one of the top point guards in the league. Rondo won the steals title in 2009-10, coinciding with a First Team All-Defensive nod, which was the first of two. He then became a better distributor, winning back-to-back assists titles (2011-12 & 2012-13), and was an All-NBA Third Team Selection in 2011-12. Notably, Rondo also finished 10th and 8th for the MVP in those seasons and was the face of the franchise. Everything was going well for Rondo until he tore his ACL in January of 2013, and nothing was the same again.

Rondo returned a year later, but his traditional and advanced statistics were a little lower. Boston was struggling, and in December of 2014, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks to help them in their playoff run. Bluntly, Rondo did not help Dallas, and he was benched in the playoffs. Dallas did not want him, and Rondo's journeyman phase began.

He signed with Sacramento and won his third and final assists title (2015-16). Coincidentally, this was also his last season averaging more than 10 points per game. He played for Chicago, then New Orleans, then signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he was now coming off the bench. Rondo could still light it up, but it was becoming less frequent. He helped them win the 2020 NBA Championship, and this was his last great moment in the sport. Rondo played two more years, playing for Atlanta, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Lakers again, and Cleveland.

As good as Rondo was at his peak, his off-court issues could push him on the wrong side of the fence.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com are always looking to add new sections to our website.  Last month, we uploaded our top 100 active NFL players and how their Hall of Fame resumes stack up.  

We are doing the exact same thing with the NBA.

As opposed to 100 like we did in Football, we are going with only 50 in Basketball.  

We liked the idea that we used in Football with a modern “Modern Positional Average”, so we are doing something similar here.  With advanced analytics, we decided that we don’t have to isolate based on position so they are all on one list.

Inspired by Jay Jaffe’s JAWS statistic that looks at the best seven-year stretch of a baseball player according to bWAR, we are doing the same with current basketball players.  Specifically, we compiled the average PER, Win Shares and VORP for each of the past Hall of Famers based on their best seven-year period.  The additional thinking behind this is that in Basketball, there is an additional focus on periods of greatness as opposed to sports like Baseball, where compiling statistics is more glorified.

To keep everything modern, the average we used is the last 14 inductees, but only the ones who were Modern Era Inductees.  This excludes Direct-Elect Candidates (contributors, Early African-American Pioneers, International and Veterans).  The only exception is Vlade Divac, who was chosen via the International Committee, but has a healthy NBA career to draw upon.

As of this writing, the 14 players from the last four induction classes who we are using for the composite averages are:

Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Vlade Divac, Bobby Jones, Grant Hill, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Sidney Moncrief, Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal, Jack Sikma and Paul Westphal. 

While we are not looking at traditional statistics, we are averaging out All-Star Games and All-NBA Selections.  With the latter, we are looking at this in weighted fashion.  In terms of Third Team All-NBA Selections, one point will be assigned, Second Team All-NBA Selections will have two points will be granted, and First Team All-NBA Selections will have three points.  

Here are the averages:

Based on their elite seven-year stretch the average PER of the last 14 Modern Era Hall of Famers is 21.5.

Based on their elite seven-year stretch, the average Win Shares of the last 14 Modern Era Hall of Famers is 65.1.

Based on their elite seven-year stretch, the average VORP of the last 14 Modern Era Hall of Famers is 27.8.

With All-Star and All-NBA Selections, we look at the entire career of the player.  

The average All-Star Selections of the last 14 Modern Era Hall of Famers is 7.4.

The average All-Pro Selections (based on the pointed average of one for a Third Team, two for a Second Team and three for a First Team Selection) is 9.8.

We are also adding NBA Championships. Often,  players in this team sport more than any other (except for NFL Quarterbacks) are judged by the number of rings they have.  Perhaps, that shouldn't be as regarded as it is, considering the average amount of titles of our last 14 Modern Era Hall of Famers is less than 1.  Specifically, it is 0.79.

Wrapping this up in a bow, the six variables we are looking at Elite Period PER, Elite Period Win Shares, Elite Period VORP, All-Star Games, Weighted All-Pro Selections, NBA Championships.

This will be a regular feature on Notinhalloffame.com, and we will be updating this at the end of the season.

You can find our new section HERE.

As always, we here at Notinhalloffame.com thank all of you for your support!