The Newsbreakers (Shams, Woj, Stein)
The Non-News-breaking National Reporters (Sam Amick, David Aldridge, Brian Windhorst)
The Beat Writers (Tim Bontemps, Anthony Slater, Will Guillory)
The “VORPs and SCHNORPs” guys (Zach Lowe, Seth Partnow, Ben Taylor)
The Capologists (Bobby Marks, Eric Pincus)
The Draft Experts (Jay Bilas, Jonathan Givony, Sam Vecenie)
The Sports Business Analysts (Nate Duncan, Danny Leroux, Baxter Holmes)
The Retired NBA [Player/Coach/GM] Turned Analyst (Perkins, The Van Gundys, Bob Meyers)
Its hard to lump Retired NBA Players together. There are ex-players who really understand the game and others who are Kenrick Perkins. There are players who respect the current generation and players who view their era as better and want modern players to play like they did.
I like the retired players who know the game and enjoy the modern era for what it is.