30-over-30: The NBA’s best veteran players – 14-11
One of the skills that a player tends to keep with them even while they age is their shooting; all across this list of veterans are players whose shot has improved over time or has kept them relevant even as their athleticism has waned. Draymond Green is a strong exception to that rule, as he never was much of a shooter and has basically abandoned scoring altogether. Yet he has stepped up in other ways, averaging a career-high 8.4 assists and driving a top-10 defense. Aging figures to hit Green harder than most, but his savvy and basketball IQ won’t go anywhere.
Back to the shooters, we have a big man who is the polar opposite of Draymond Green. Vucevic is a high-usage offensive savant, scoring from all three levels while struggling under the expectations of being a rim protector as a center. The Chicago Bulls traded for “Vooch” looking for an immediate offensive jolt, and he has provided that, averaging 22.3 points on 60.1 percent true shooting since the trade. An All-Star just this year, Vucevic has shown no signs of slowing down as he hits his 30s.
There was a time when Mike Conley was all over the “25 under 25” lists, but he is making a statement in his 13th season as a key piece of the league’s best team. The Utah Jazz at the time of writing are 40-13, first in the league, and Conley is a key part of that success. He is shooting a career-best 41.4 percent from 3, while shooting a career-high 6.7 attempts per game — quite the combination. FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR model ranks him sixth among all players in the league this season, while ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus (RPM) places him eighth. He’s a high-impact player on a contender, part of the reason he finally earned a well-deserved All-Star selection, the first of his career.
The headliner of a Trade Deadline blockbuster that never happened, Kyle Lowry is still a dominant player, and topic, in the NBA despite turning 35 a few weeks ago. While many of the players on this list have seen their minutes reduced to manage their aging, Lowry is still rolling, playing 34.6 minutes per game with 17.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game — all at 35! He’s a sharpshooting, offense-creating, charge-taking, ball-swiping, no-nonsense leader of a point guard, and none of that has changed as he has gotten older.