I liked the way that Hot Rod came up with nicknames, or I guess you could say the way they used to come up with nicknames in the good ol' days. They observed what the player did well, then made a play off that. The Mailman always delivered. Ricky Green was the fastest of them all, and to this day there have been few players as fast on the dribble as Green. Stockton was very unassuming and all about business, so Stock was about as flashy a nickname as the player. Others were just an affectionate shortening of their name. Big T, Horny, et al. Griffith is the only one I can think of with multiple nicknames: Dr. Dunkenstein, Golden Griff, then just Griff at times. Even King James fits as a decent nickname because he was hailed as the greatest player to be drafted in a generation.
I think too much goes into this whole thing now, with players dictating their nicknames: Chris Paul pushed CP3 early in his career, Deron killed attempts at giving him a nickname, including Hot Rod's attempt at slick willy, or just slick, which I thought fit his game play well, as he was a deceptively smooth and quick player. I think the whole thing has lost something and really is a marketing tool rather than a sign of affection and recognition.