The Triple Team: 10-day contract signee Kris Dunn leads the Jazz to a win over San Antonio

(Normally, I’d just include 20 names there... but love that Andrei Kirilenko ranks 21st, so I left him in.)

So Kessler has a really good shot at ranking 16th, which is pretty good on its own — but it’s also worth noting that it would be the best blocking performance by a rookie in the last 20 years.

But wait — Walker has only started 25 games so far. Among half-time starters, only Mark Eaton, Benoit Benjamin, and Michael Stewart would have more blocks. And in starts, Walker averages 2.5 blocks per game, compared to his normal 2.0 average. So really, you might reasonably expect him to get 180 blocks in total, moving him another spot higher on the list.

Anyway, it’s pretty rarified air for Kessler, who continues to massively exceed expectations in his rookie year.

3. Will Hardy’s imposter syndrome

Will Hardy said something incredibly relatable today pregame. He was asked about the impending Hall of Fame nods for several people he has worked with in his career — Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker, Becky Hammon — and what that means to him to have crossed paths with them.

“I do think of myself as same guy that I was when I was 18. Like, I’m from Richmond, Virginia and played Division III basketball. If you had told me then that I would be able to call Gregg Popovich or Becky Hammon or Manu Ginobili or Tim Duncan or Tony Parker on the phone, and that they would pick up and like know who I am is... it’s really kind of mind bending. Those those people deserve those honors, like they’re going in the Hall of Fame for a reason. And it’s just fun to have been like a blip on the radar in their journey, like to have been in the room with them, on the court with them for some of those moments is really cool.

“I really can’t quite put into words like how that feels. Because I, you know, like anybody, I suffer from impostor syndrome at times. Like, I still sit up here in front of you guys (media) and have my moments where I’m like, I’ve no clue why any of you want to know what I think about anything. But that’s just the world we’re in now. So you know, it’s another pinch me moment, in what continues to be for me kind of a pinch me basketball life.”

About 10 minutes later, we asked Gregg Popovich about what he thinks about Hardy.

“He’s ridiculously intelligent. And he’s a hard worker. He started out at the bottom in the film room, and it was pretty apparent very quickly that he understood everything that we coaches wanted. It was almost like, in some ways, we were wasting his time, because he already was doing what we needed. So he was a pretty impressive individual from the get go. So I put him out on the court, quickly with the guys and found that he commanded respect very quickly, just by being himself and teaching. He’s got a good wry sense of humor that he uses.

Then I, you know, slowly fell in love with the guy and he matriculated to the bench, and showed that, you know, he understood the game and made suggestions that were meaningful. He’s got a great temperament. Much better than mine. And actually learn from him in a lot of those situations, as much or more than he learned from me.

So he was kind of a no brainer from the beginning, to be honest with you.”

This is kind of Hardy’s superpower: an ability to impress everyone he comes in contact with, including potentially the best coach of all time in Popovich, but not change despite it. He’s just kind of a normal guy — despite getting plaudits like the above from Pop, he has imposter syndrome like the rest of us.

I’ve interviewed probably a hundred basketball coaches from around the league in my 10 years of doing this. Most coaches, frankly, are not normal people. They’re too fanatical about success, too competitive, too driven, too controlling to ever be really relatable.

Hardy’s different. He’s extremely easy to get along with, right away, because he just kind of acts like a normal person. Imposter syndrome is incredibly relatable because we all feel it (there was a great article in the New Yorker about this subject about three weeks ago) — but it’s not a roadblock to success. See, for example, these Utah Jazz.

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