Mystery Player #18
Thursday, July 23, 2026 · already played
The answer
Spoiler for the puzzle of Thursday, July 23, 2026. Today's puzzle is not revealed anywhere on this page.
Ryan Anderson
F · 2008–2020
Ryan Anderson's career
Ryan Anderson played 12 seasons between 2008 and 2020, across 6 franchises — Nets, Magic, Pelicans, Rockets, Heat and Suns. Over 649 regular-season games he averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists, finishing with 8,001 career points.
He entered the league in the 2008 draft, taken 21th overall in the first round. That makes him a product of the 2000s, and his career totals should be read against the pace and rules of that period.
Across a long career of 12 seasons he was a rotation piece at 12.3 points per game.
- Games
- 649
- PPG
- 12.3
- RPG
- 5.3
- APG
- 0.9
- Points
- 8,001
- Rebounds
- 3,413
- Assists
- 586
- 3PM
- 1,325
Teams
- Nets · 2009
- Magic · 2010–2012
- Pelicans · 2013–2016
- Rockets · 2017–2018
- Heat · 2019
- Suns · 2019
- Rockets · 2020
How the clues read
Every guess that day was scored against Ryan Anderson across nine categories. These were the values behind the grid.
- Position:
- F
- Debut season:
- 2008
- Status:
- Retired
- Nationality:
- USA
- Teams:
- Nets, Magic, Pelicans, Rockets, Heat, Suns, Rockets
- Points per game:
- 12.3
- Championships:
- 0
- All-Star selections:
- 0
Why this was a fair answer
Ryan Anderson was never an All-Star, so he reaches the answer pool by the second route: current players with a genuine offensive role, at least 12 points per game and 150 career games. At 12.3 points across 649 games he clears that bar comfortably, which is why a player without the honours of the pool's headline names can still turn up as an answer.
With 6 franchises on his record, the shared-team clue was unusually generous here — a wide range of guesses would have lit it up green and pointed the wrong way as often as the right one. He never won a title, which quietly rules out a large share of the most-guessed names.
Play it yourself
This puzzle is still replayable — open Mystery Player #18 in the archive to play the round exactly as it was, or start today's puzzle. Archive rounds never affect your daily streak.