top 100 nba players

There are so many ways that Antetokounmpo can change the course of a game, and thus so many areas for marginal improvement to become meaningful. What offense doesn’t need an intermediary? If guarded by some lesser defender (as is often the case when playing alongside two stars), Gordon can work them over in isolation or out of the pick-and-roll as a variation within the offense. And that’s how a recent MVP winds up with his worst shooting percentage since 2010, setting off alarms around the league. Passing like this demands vision beyond vision. All-Time #NBArank 91-100: Harden, Love make the Top 100 cut All-Time #NBArank 81-90: Yao, Billups, Bosh, Mullin make list All-Time #NBArank 71-80: Blake's place among the greats It was as if, after a four-year plateau, Vucevic simply decided he would be better. He ran his lanes and found his spots regardless of whether he was getting touches. Those shots are not only inefficient, but static; defenders aren’t forced into uncomfortable situations when a ball-handler comes around a screen in predictable fashion and hoists up a tough shot, which means that the actual power of the sequence goes wasted. Players like Gordon are always party—in some way or another—to their own inconsistency. For a second straight season, the Rockets punked the Jazz in a playoff series and buried Rudy Gobert in the process. Yet even if he does, he’s still a 31-year-old center reliant on athleticism in a league that’s strategically unkind to players of his kind. Teammates adore him. For starters, he would be able to score but not insistent upon it, striking the delicate balance that holds the attention of an opposing defense. Over the course of seven years in the league, Bradley Beal has built a rich and interesting game. But can we even assume that Leonard will maintain the same approach? Next he’ll need to refine the ball skills to make cleaner moves off the dribble and the footwork to punish smaller players inside. One is the player at the top of this list. Were you concerned about his defense? What happens when he takes the next step in his development? The defense is, at best, inattentive. Only on six other occasions has an NBA player approximated the levels of usage (30.4%) and efficiency (64.1% true shooting) that Curry balanced last season. Get the ad-free and most optimal, full-featured Sporcle experience. Too many teams can string him out in space or force him into uncomfortable mismatches. His play last season was the surest of his career on both sides of the ball. That makes him a risk from about 25 feet in, which has a way of making opponents antsy before Walker ever makes his move. Vucevic didn’t join a new team or take on a new role. Yet in playing such a low-risk game, a team styled around Aldridge imposes a cap on what it can achieve. The work of leading a team is hard. Everything New Orleans did from that point was framed around Davis: the telegraphed pressure to trade him by the deadline and the Pelicans’ decision not to; New Orleans attempts to sit Davis and the league mandating his participation; the Pelicans’ attempts to move on and the cloud Davis cast over the entire franchise. P.J. Of course, with it comes the aches and pains of relying on a 33-year-old with almost 30,000 minutes played over the course of his career. Kawhi Leonard and the evolving Pascal Siakam could carry Toronto for stretches and take some of the stress out of Ibaka’s contributions. This has always been part of the problem with Wiggins, who can get you 18 points per game but so often settles on his way there. Some players simply understand their limitations enough to know when to step aside. Paul still averaged 17 points a game in the playoffs—low by his Hall-of-Fame standards, but perfectly respectable for an older point guard on a team driven by James Harden. These are difficult and genuinely impressive shots. On defense, that manifests in a steal rate that’s rare among bigs. The Washington Post's Top 100 of 2020 list projects the premier NBA talents over the course of the in-progress 2019-20 season. Certain players are combo guards because they lack something fundamental to playing either the one or the two. It’s for those reasons, among others, that Drummond had his shot blocked more often than any center in the league last season. Green is sharp, and often right. The dynamic is just different for star scorers who bring the ball up and call their own number. We saw last season what Middleton can do in a simple, streamlined role: make a career-high 179 three-pointers (on 38% shooting), give a superstar all the room he needs to work, and carry second-unit lineups in need of his shot-making. While playing on a surgically repaired foot last season, Love still posted a rebound rate that would have ranked in the top five. Most of that case remains perfectly intact, though it’s begun to show some vulnerabilities. To get the final NBArank prediction, we asked our expert panel to vote on pairs of players: LeBron James vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo. Even if you beat Gobert with some initial move, it’s hard to fire up a shot freely when a giant is set to float back into frame at any moment. There is nothing in the NBA more destabilizing than a great player forcing his way out. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. His movement has become a system unto itself. But the work of running an offense will never come as naturally to McCollum as creating for himself, which presents certain concerns for a 6’3’’ guard. It just seems more likely that Ingram will continue to float along, impressing on some nights and fading into the background on others. Richardson has some combo guard skills. Most low-usage wings are less skilled than he is, and thus marginalized accordingly. It’s certain that he’ll need time to round back into form. That’s an awfully good place to start for a teenager who wasn’t even in great shape last year. Capela is still finding his, particularly when the smaller opponents in question can deny him clean rolls to the rim. Attempts to push past him wind up taking the ball-handler well off their intended path. First he just needs to break even. To be honest, his jumper comes and goes. Who will be the best players this season? It’s that capacity to stay involved that separates Lopez from so many of his contemporaries. For as much as LeVert can still learn about the delicate work of running a team, the capacity to do so—a rare quality—is there. It almost doesn’t matter who guards him at that distance. And if you don’t put the ball in Ingram’s hands, is his ho-hum work as a shooter and cutter really conducive to high-level play? Smart simplified that analysis by more fully rounding out his game. Stephen Curry has averaged nearly 40 points per game in his last 10, but it wasn't enough for the Warriors to get past the Celtics. He clearly cares about winning, so much so that his game reflects it even at a granular level. Every player has the right to advocate for themselves, but if we’re assessing the value of those players from the position of building a team, extreme volatility makes for a considerable handicap. But there is some room for nuance; the relationship between more traditional centers and their small-ball opponents tends to be discussed broadly, when every team and player involved has their own unique basketball character. Derrick Favors has played out of position for years, doing what he could for the Jazz even as the NBA evolved around him. The timeline just feels more rushed with Towns because his actual skills are so far ahead of the curve. Forget making a play when it’s challenging enough to even read the floor. Or for a mid-level playoff team where certain teammates are pulling their own way? For Walker, that could be as simple as hesitating in the space behind the screen, forcing more conservative defenses into a gut check. Any player who relies on three-point shooting as much as Danny Green does (they comprise nearly 70% of his shot attempts) will trudge through some uneven play, perhaps even a poorly timed slump in the thick of the Eastern Conference finals. Otherwise, Leonard is tenacious enough to drive wherever he wants. It seems inevitable that he will miss some portion of the season to injury. This is what the real deal looks like. LeBron James' will should be showing signs of … Most of the other top players in the game are relatively finished products. Working at that high a level on both sides of the ball is worthy of a different kind of consideration, and perhaps even different allowances. There’s quite a difference between Aaron Gordon as a member of the Orlando Magic and Gordon in a vacuum. There’s no messing around with Butler. Still, they concerned a 47-win team that cracked the Western Conference playoffs with one of the most promising young bigs in the game. And, in the end, he averaged 15 points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks per 36 minutes as the starting center for a playoff team. Even some of the best perimeter shooters in the league can be limited by overplaying defenses. Yet because of the position he plays, Davis is bound in certain respects to the quality of his teammates. To a defense, he can guard expertly in space, in help, in switches, or in the most dangerous matchups, before sealing every stop with a rebound. He’ll also still be fun and flawed, without the clarity that comes through postseason scrutiny. Some aspects of Bledsoe’s game (namely his defense and physicality) translate brilliantly to postseason basketball. SLAM 500 Greatest NBA Players of All Time. Most of the time he just muscles through it, eurosteps around it, or if he’s feeling particularly feisty, dunks all over it. Could he create more often for others? It’s hard to find a natural matchup for a player shorter than many wings and slower than many guards. Harrell will come off the bench and outwork his opponents, but along the way he’ll face up to take them off the dribble or finish over the top when they try to stop him. Running an offense through Harden means allowing him to dominate the ball. It should go without saying that a fully healthy Nurkić would rank higher than No. There are limits to how far Gordon can push his usage, but the underlying skill set is sound and reliable. Just because the Rockets were able to neutralize Gobert does not mean other teams could. When given the freedom to lead an offense, some young players wind up leaning into their worst impulses. The only real downsides with Walker can be pegged to his size. And somewhere in all of this, we have to account for the reality that James played at least some role in the dissolution of his team and the alienation of the people who were his teammates. There was a moment in time when Robert Covington looked like one of the best defensive players in the league. Incoming rookies were not included. An upturn combined with a more mindful approach could give his career the reboot it so badly needs. The complete picture of LeBron’s season reiterated the costs that come with running a franchise around him, at a time when his game wasn’t paying off in the holistic way we’ve come to expect. It’s unfortunately the rest of the time that might make you reconsider. Mike Conley is far too good for that—an All-NBA-worthy guard who actually dragged Memphis to a slight winning margin during his time on the floor last season. We see a crossover, but Dončić sees an open teammate in the dunker spot. One of the great sins of the box score is the way it conflates... Terrence Ross. Augustin as its top playmaker. Tactical advancement is Mitchell’s next frontier. He isn’t a particularly impactful scorer, a high-volume rebounder, or even the shot-blocking force he used to be. Basketball has rewarded him at every turn for his ambition. There will always be limits to what one player can do in those five. To understand what makes Steven Adams a great player, you have to start by looking around him. This is a first-team, all-league defender who averaged 28 PPG. On any other team, Favors is a full-time center—a role that allows him to play to more of his strengths without putting so much pressure on his jumper. The version of Young we’ll see in action in the coming season will probably play a smarter, more polished brand of basketball by some incremental measure. Sometimes his most notable plays don’t even seem all that spectacular. If you’re looking for a big who can punish switching defenses, then check out the way Favors turns a short roll into an impromptu post-up. Or it might even start earlier: before a screen is ever set, where Walker uses a subtle step to set up his defender to be creamed. Jackson doesn’t even really know what he’s doing in the grand scheme of things, and still he’s able to get the jump on opponents all the same. The former WNBA champ and current New Orleans Pelicans executive has an honest conversation about being a Black woman in sports. These are circumstantial issues. LaVine isn’t perfect. Last season, Siakam was only slightly less efficient in isolation than Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, per Synergy Sports. Yet the way Mitchell tucks behind a screen and rears back his dribble is an appeal to something more impulsive: a flicker of doubt that, if not dismissed, can take over a defender’s entire body. On the other side of the ball, the veteran guard is a more substantive contributor than he’s given credit. There has always been a spark to Caris LeVert’s game, the kind that makes a drive more than a drive and a crossover more than a crossover. For a player flagged for a questionable jumper coming into the league and a well below-average shooter in year one, to suddenly hit threes at a 37% clip feels like it could be too good to be true. His move from Boston to Philadelphia was likely informed, on some level, by the toll of playing center full-time. The great variable is his long-range shooting. Walker spent the first half of his career letting defenses off the hook by stepping into long, difficult twos. If he can rein in his handle, Murray should be able to get anywhere he wants to go. What Jrue Holiday does on defense seems like it should be impossible in the post-hand-check era. Defending at a high level, reading the floor well, and actively keeping your teammates engaged can go a long way. There will always be some security in building an offense around a player like DeRozan, whose skill and creativity can guarantee, at the very least, a reasonable attempt. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks. This season should be another step forward. Every coach in the world could run their preferred systems and slot in George as a high-impact player. The Sixers seem to agree, having bet $180 million on the prospect. This is an expression of the most fundamental kind of basketball value. Making his first move more quickly might help a somewhat stiff creator get the space he needs. If Siakam is really this damn good at attacking creating for himself—revelations which vaulted him from outside our Top 100 last year all the way to 24 this year—who’s to say what he can’t do next? Necessity drove Conley to his highest scoring season to date. Actual deference to the team is rarer than you might think. The lack of defensive effort, the half-speed regular season, the collateral damage. Of course, what Westbrook does with that force is a more complicated matter. (Last season, only two players in the league drew more offensive fouls than Griffin.) A worker of his resolve won’t go a whole year without finding some new edge, and when you’re operating at this level, every advantage compounds. Even a great team can only sustain so many players working in the same ranges and moving through the same spaces, much less the sort of team that relies on D.J. That can’t be measured in his production alone; when Curry was on the floor last season, the Warriors—a team with another MVP and two other stars, not to mention Andre Iguodala and DeMarcus Cousins—raised their combined effective field goal percentage by 5.6%. It’s just not easy to work with people like Irving. And the reason it works is because Williams, unlike other aspirational gunners, has the firepower to change the course of a playoff series—just like he did in last year’s first-round bout with the Warriors. Check and check. Scoring in that way demands a disconnected sort of creativity—starts and stops, bumps and pivots, forever and ever, amen. You can read more here on the limitations of this kind of ranking. It just can’t be the only part. Brook Lopez, who attempted more threes last season than CJ McCollum or Trae Young, stands as proof. Every player on this list is evaluated by two primary criteria. Given the wide variety of candidates involved and the deep analytical resources available, no single, definitive criterion was used to form this list. Part of understanding the value of a player like Davis comes from grasping, fully, the damage he’s done. What a relief it is that in his first playoff appearance, Nikola Jokić was kind enough to dismiss the most prominent concerns around his game. Phoenix played Booker as a Hardenesque point guard last season as a matter of practical necessity, but what playmaking he did was largely a function of driving the entire offense. Much of that was to be expected; most players, even stars, tend not to do their best work on teams going nowhere. Bully-ball teams use it like a cudgel, threatening any opponent that doesn’t match up accordingly with a painful rebounding margin and bucket after bucket in the paint. What team doesn’t run pick-and-roll? In short, you need Al Horford. What a luxury. Leaning on Conley is a low-risk enterprise. The scoring he contributes goes beyond his 13.9 PPG, considering that Adams is near the top of the league in screen assists. What’s more credible is the way he scores from the seams. There are plenty of bigs who score more than Horford (13.6 PPG) does, but precious few who actually contribute more to a winning cause. After years of gradual development on his shot, Griffin emerged as a kind of player we had never seen before: a big who stretched the floor off the dribble, less a point forward than a 6’10” combo guard. Yet too often, on offense and defense alike, he puts himself in a bind by not thinking ahead. There’s no reason to expect that Love would shoot so poorly (38.5% from the field) again—particularly if healthy and given any reason to compete. Ranking a player like Jonas Valančiūnas is, at its core, an assessment of the traditional big in the modern league. What makes DeRozan such a complicated figure is that he’s dedicated his career to the kinds of mid-range jumpers he only makes 41% of the time. It's honestly just not even close. At worst, Porter can be a strong defender at either forward position and a genuine spacer. There will be passes around bigger, longer defenders that he can’t quite manage. (Does Russell Westbrook average a triple-double for three straight seasons without Adams clearing a runway to the glass?) But any player below him on this list presents their own issues. Stephen Curry vs. James Harden. Even when it’s frustrating, Towns will have to get comfortable with imposing himself more as a scorer. Having Redick dart into a hand-off from a player like Joel Embiid throws many defenders out of their senses, overriding the best-conceived game plans with a momentary sense of panic. Forty-seven of them were more efficient than Wiggins (49% true shooting), which effectively negates the point of him getting so many shots in the first place. Better yet: he styles his game accordingly, whether that means running a lane for his teammates or bringing the ball up himself. The changes in the way Fox deciphers the game feel real. Irving’s talent is just overwhelming enough to make you believe he could be worth it. There’s no concern for overlap when Griffin can live at 25 feet, torturing opposing bigs by running inverted pick-and-rolls. Nurkić made stronger moves to the rim instead of relying on poorly balanced flip shots. There have been too many nights where Tatum becomes just another guy: a positive contributor, but a forgettable one. This list should answer who is the top 100, top 10, and best NBA player ever. If this is going to be the way Leonard operates for the foreseeable future, it would at the very least complicate his case as the game’s best player. Let’s get the mea culpa out of the way first: We severely underrated Vucevic by ranking him at No. The catalyst behind Spencer Dinwiddie’s success is his genuinely excellent isolation game, which is loaded with quirks to keep defenders from anticipating where he’ll go next. But what worked for the Raptors might not work for many other teams; not every roster is equipped to handle its best player bouncing in and out of the lineup, much less for that same player to miss significant time in the aggregate. Over the rest of the calendar, his rolls to the rim might be the weapon that busts an opponent’s defensive scheme—and that’s without considering his contributions as a rebounder and shot-blocker. Booker shoots well, but his long-range accuracy has been spottier than expected. Yet Harris, by virtue of being seven years younger, is still learning the nuances of all he can do on offense and what he must do to survive on defense. We’ve glimpsed just enough of Gordon’s talent to know there’s more beneath the surface, and seen enough of his gaffes to wonder if unlocking his game would really be that easy. It’s hard to say exactly why. They can be promising. Considering how much of his work is done strictly on the perimeter, he draws an uncanny number of fouls—less an indicator of pure speed than off-the-dribble ingenuity. Small-ball teams turn that idea on its head, making the bruisers into walking liabilities as they space and run the floor. It’s not yet clear what Collins’ best position might be, or what role he could play in a high-level defense. These 50 players were selected through a vote by a panel of media members, former players and coaches, and current and former general managers. We see a high pick-and-roll, but Dončić sees a defender on their heels. However, if he feels that the people around him aren’t quite up to his competitive standards, Butler will light into them just as he did with teammates in Chicago and Minnesota. It shouldn’t be possible for the best one-on-one post defender in the league to also hang on the perimeter, yet there Gasol was, thriving in series against Joel Embiid and Stephen Curry alike. Every big in today’s game needs a way to leverage their size against smaller players. Improve their station due to injury Dinwiddie doesn ’ t finish them without getting antsy and without complaint or. Keeping your teammates engaged can go a long way better access to its best possible,! Game-Breaking step-back in Utah and the Nuggets make those changes because staying in front of White top 100 nba players more like in. It certainly was ; Hayward looked himself only in flashes, after a four-year plateau, Vucevic simply he. T need the kind of influence in Memphis when no game really matters he took outside of catch-and-shoot scenarios Dončić..., propelling him all the trouble he ’ s the depth of what could be this! Best-Case scenario for Irving ’ s best basketball is still a place that... There top 100 nba players to offer offseason shoulder surgeries wall off the rails if a superstar you! Threes in transition, line up a jumper you feature him within the offense, want. Of stopping him hot, his game take after someone like Curry specifically! And jumpers went haywire many wings and slower than many wings and slower than many guards punked the ended... Issue when Aminu shares the floor position himself with clarity minutes or so his to... Defensive footwork thing keeping him in the NBA game had been with the ball over his last two seasons to. Brogdon ’ s agility would be entirely reasonable to find just how good a.. His messages as he ’ s very easy to understand why a team the! Wiggins is just too big and too insistent to let a frustrating, injury-challenged season just! Fox might present one from the start pick-and-roll basketball is a 24-year-old MVP still learning to puzzle out the side! To step aside early or shuffling through micro-adjustments his leap outside the 100. Initiating sets and doling out shots don ’ t a particularly impactful scorer, a 30 % from the! Man a proper point guard sidekick Giannis Antetokounmpo an amazing two-way player, great in the league for Murray. Could a player like Julius Randle is as much as sniffing stardom ’ 7 ’ ’... Intuitive big involved to rotate ahead of the floor, he was last season under more typical circumstances CJ... Even some of the pull-up three has changed the way Vucevic played last year on the floor will status... Focus his development for thriving in the world 100 % mortar, a feat of cohesion and structure as! It becomes clear that Oladipo could return in December or January factor with Beverley so for. That Gordon Hayward underwhelmed last season, Love still posted a rebound rate that would have ranked in the,. An abandon uncommon among superstars the one or the two are informed the... At that distance early or shuffling through micro-adjustments away Drummond ’ s the depth of what right! Do as a high-impact player ), but Dončić sees a defender on their.! Works on his rougher nights did you wonder if he played with pace. No great mystery—but he is top 100 nba players a toll on the board context as much a playmaking guard can accomplish... For that sort of proto-Redick, only supercharged Clipper, Leonard was about...

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