Updated Ringer Rankings after the Playoffs
https://nbarankings.theringer.com/
Wemby up to 2
Brunson up to 5
Harper one spot ahead of Fox at 45 (spicy)
among lots of other changes
People might say Brunson too high since he is probably somewhere between 8-12 in the regular season, but when you play like a top 3 player consistently in the playoffs I think 5 or 6 is fair.
After the ECF, I don’t care where he’s ranked but it has to be in front of Donovan Mitchell
There wasn’t an argument for Mitchell over him before that either. Mitchell is real lucky James Harden exists
Mitchell’s entire playoff resume is propped up by stuff he did 5+ years ago lol
Mitchell is a scoring demon, not a great game controller or distributor. That’s all he really ever has been, and if the team were ever built around that properly instead of realizing that finally after years and years and trying to shore it up with playoff dropper Harden, perhaps he would have a ring by now
Scoring demon until crunch time when he sits in the corner and lets harden iso
Brunson ended this debate when a far worse version of himself beat Mitchell and Gobert while Luka was sidelined
The Mitchell over JB takes have been disgusting me for years
Honestly insane that it takes Brunson to win a championship for people to think “hmmm maybe this guy actually IS better than Mitchell”
And ironically, they now have Mitchell one spot over KAT lol
5-6 is completely fair.
Giannis is probably too low here, but right where Ant and slightly above due to the title is right where he should be.
Other than Giannis no one ranked below him can really complain that much, and Giannis I think is getting dinged for injuries which the Ringer takes into account
Yeah I think Brunson is top 10, probably in the 7-10 range
Would put Giannis and Tatum in front of him for sure, and I personally would put Ant in front of him as well
Agreed, absolutely has to be behind Giannis. I’d probably slot him at 7.
There’s regular season rankings and playoff rankings. Plenty of guys show up for one or the other, some show up for both and it depends on what you weigh more.
Hard to argue anything outside of the top 10 right now and the argument to get up to 5 or down at 10 are both valid when you look at the other names he’s around
Certified playoff riser
The list is also forward looking. Like who is the best right now going into next season. Not “who has been the best over the last couple of seasons”, so I think that 5-8 is a pretty fair range.
You can make an argument for Ant and Cade as younger guys on a trajectory and for Giannis still being most of what he is still. But Kawhi and Curry are past their prime and were still around as good as Brunson in the regular season, so projecting those guys ahead doesn’t make sense.
Brunson is #1 in the 4th Quarter I wouldn’t want the ball in ANYBODY ELSE’S HANDS.
As a spurs fan I can’t even deny that
I haven’t even looked but KAT and OG are too low.
How about just the fact that he was obviously better than Wemby in every game of that series?
Coldest line all playoffs, “everyone’s better than Brunson, until it’s time to be better than Brunson”
Tatum behind KAT i’ve seen it all
I’m not a Tatum hater, but KAT just posted the best +/- in the playoffs ever, while we’re still waiting to see a fully recovered Tatum (who entirely missed the last game in their loss to Philly). I don’t think him being one spot behind KAT is that egregious in the moment.
I like KAT, but he scored like 5 total 4th quarter points for the entire finals series. They would murder Tatum if he did that
Without KAT the Knicks are playing their garbage time squad in the 4th. He was a huge part of their 2nd half comebacks and was key in keeping the game close to begin with.
Absolutely, yet Tatum is still better
The idea of Tatum is better, but if we’re basing this list of what we most recently saw from a player, as OP is suggesting, we just saw Tatum rush back from injury and ultimately have to miss the final game in a playoff series as his #2 seeded team lost to a #7 seed.
If All-NBA Tatum is back next season, then sure, put him ahead of KAT, but I think it’s fair to not assume ‘26-27 Tatum will be as good as ‘24-25 Tatum post-injury.
I don’t want to get into future projections about how Tatum might return but yeah if we’re talking here and now KAT deserves to be higher for recency I think.
We don’t win game 1 or 2 without KAT. Than foul calls took him out
Tatum got murdered for not winning a finals MVP and led the team on points, rebounds, and assists in the playoffs
Fair but thats also partly because Brunson is a 4th quarter god so he takes over most of the shots in that quarter
at least he could score in the first three quarters? tatum averages 49% true shooting in the finals for his career
Tatum also played like 20 games this year. The Ringer rankings are a living document more about a snapshot in time than it is a wholistic assessment
KAT literally scored 2 points in their close out game. What the hell are they smoking lmao
Tatum doesn’t get whistled for breathing on someone
You isolate one bad game from him while ignoring the rest of the playoffs to make ur point but sure
Tatum literally didn’t play in their elimination 1st round game.
Yeah, game 5 was indicative of KATs entire playoff run right
And Tatum scored 0 when the Celtics were closed out in the first round by the roadkill 76ers.
Simmons gonna fire someone for that blunder.
Knicks directly beat the Cs last year and just won the finals. I would personally put Tatum ahead of KAT, but it ain’t crazy.
It is crazy lol what?
Is Brunson better than Wemby because he beat him and won the finals?
At current skill level Brunson has an edge over Wemby, sure.
Brunson 5 is prisoner of the moment. But that’s Bill Simmons’ essence which he has imbued in the Ringer staff.
He put Brunson in his top 40 all time ahead of Harden, Luka, and Nash.
Well all-time rankings tend to favor guys who win championships, particularly as Finals MVP
That’s absolute insanity when James Harden is going to go down as a top 5 all time shooting guard. And Doncic could retire now and Brunson would never match Doncic’s individual accolades he’s already received. I’m not even trying to put Brunson down but if Luka and Harden spent their best years in the East I bet they’d have a championship by now. Is Chauncey Billups also ahead of these guys?
But you didn’t ask the most important question: rings or nah?
Considering the entire point of the sport is to win titles, how you perform in the playoffs in the highest leverage situations is absolutely relevant to your place in the list of all time great players.
Time and time again Harden has failed to rise to the occasion in those exact circumstances. All time great regular season player who, unfortunately for his legacy, came up short every time.
Luka hasn’t actually received that many individual accolades though. 6x all star 2x scoring champ, and ROTY.
6x all nba first team
I’m not saying I necessarily agree with it, but that take is aging well.
It’s been 24 hours?
Yeah I was listening and laughing my ass off.
Why wouldn’t you put Brunson ahead of Harden? You can absolutely make an argument for Luka and Nash but what has Harden done in his career to put him ahead of Brunson?
Harden has choked in the playoffs every year of his career. Brunson just won a ring.
At least the reasoning is sound, I do think 41 is still too high but this kinda shit is what BS lives for after all.
He at least acknowledges that Luka has a chance to climb back up.
Brunson above Harden is a great take
It’s a horrible take lmao Brunson will never get close to winning an MVP
Harden will never get close to a championship.
So is 1 championship more important than an MVP, 8 more all star appearances, 5 more All-NBA selections, and 3 scoring titles? Brunson is great, what he did in game 5 was legendary, but that does not mean he was a better player.
Seems fair
Knicks made the ECF last year and won the finals this year. Brunson is legit Top 5 at this point.
I don’t think that Brunson at 5 is a prisoner of the moment thing given the fact that The Ringer is secretly The Boston Media Mafia. Bill Simmons would try as much as possible to not give the Knicks any credit.
He said in his latest podcast he has Brunson as the 41st best player in NBA history
That’s outrageous lmao
I think the Knicks winning flipped the basketball fan switch in Simmons brain on and the Boston fan off. He’s in awe of what this Knicks team did.
Why is it prisoner of the moment? The dude just dragged his team to a close out win in the Finals.
Short guys aren’t allowed in the top 10. - 5’7 230 pound Reddit poster
It’s slightly high for him but like I think his ideal ranking is 6-8, so it’s not the most ridiculous thing ever. Factoring in health as a negative, I can see how you get to 5 for Brunson.
Finals MVP is “prisoner of the moment?” Also, the Ringer rankings are very much about snapshots in time
prisoner of the moment
It’s meant to reflect the moment though, so that’s exactly what it should be. If you want to win an NBA Finals right now there aren’t many guys you’d rather have than Jalen Brunson. I’d probably have Ant over him, but it’s pretty reasonable to have Brunson when we actually saw him do it. And it’s pretty reasonable to have him over Giannis and Kawhi when they can’t healthy.
I’m surprised at the restraint not to put him at 4
I’m a homer, but for me he’s 6th in the league behind: Luka, Jokic, Giannis, Wemby, Shai.
I have him over Cade, post-Achilles Tatum and some others.
Yeah Giannis is the one guy I’d say probably deserves to be over him, but there’s just enough injury questions there at this point favoring Brunson is justifiable.
So is castle at 26…above cooper flag lol
If you were tanking based on regular season, I could see your point.
But would you rather have in the playoffs than Brunson at this point? The list is short, he is a top 5 playoff player (where it matters)
Who would you have over him then?
If you’re looking at this season/postseason I think it’s pretty tough to argue any of the guys below him are better than him tbh. I’d say refusing to have him there is prisoner of the past ig (?).
He’s kind of a tough player to rate. He’s definitely 6-10 in the regular season, but his playoff performances over the last several seasons has been epic. People were pretty quick to put Hali in the 6-8 range last year after an unbelievable run, why is it strange for Brunson who’s been clutch for longer?
Curry 10 spots higher than LeBron, just lol
It’s not crazy if you’re not heavily indexing towards playoffs LeBron only averaged like 21 PPG during the season
During the RS LeBron had a top 5 teammate next to him that could enable him to save his best for April Curry didn’t have anything like that
A bit weird when they clearly heavily index towards playoffs on a lot of the rest of this list, ie Brunson 4th.
I think indexing towards the playoffs makes a lot of sense to be clear. It just makes this particular decision stand out.
Yeah silly. Did the warriors even make the playoffs ? I forget
he was much better in the regular season come on, one good series against a terrible rockets team doesn’t change that
That “terrible” rockets team was supposed to win the series in, at worst, 5 games lol. Also, even if you think Steph was better, he’s not 10 spots better.
Lakers were suppose to get swept missing AR and Luka
That’s cause he is
Steph Castle over Jalen Williams and Paolo is a take
bill personal taste is such a huge factor.
I mean the rankings are a composite of a bunch of different voters in The Ringer’s network. I’m sure a lot of it does sway to Bill’s taste but it’s not just his ranking.
J brown and castle are just suspiciously high. Ringer staff are such a friendly agreeable bunch, they’d naturally follow Bill’s lead
chet over j will is a take
Chet is better than him against 28 of 29 opposing teams
Nah he’s earned it, 18/5/6 on 60 TS% while looking like one of the best perimeter defenders in the league is genuinely extremely impressive. He made a ton of extremely clutch plays too.
Jalen Williams was better last season, but with all his injuries he hasn’t been on that level. Paolo has more volume, but worse efficiency, defense, and playmaking.
This sub spent the entire year shitting on Paolo and now wants to say “actually he’s good.” These lists usually involve a bit of projection forward which is likely why it’s castle in front of Paolo
26th is way too high but I got called a hater lmfao by a biased spurs fan
Kinda funny how they have Wemby second and Jokic third, with Jokic’s description saying he’s the most skilled big in the league lol
Well, to be fair, he is more skilled, just not as big
He’s a lot more skilled lol a player with Wemby’s physicals and Jokic’s skill never loses a game
Depends if Wemby also inherits Jokic defensive skills.
Most skilled doesn’t equal best?
But Joker doesn’t play much Defense so Wemby jumps him. Jokics offensive skills are far superior which makes the most skilled big accurate…
Joker averages a 40 point triple double on Wemby yet somehow Wemby is better because he stands in the paint… menacingly.
You have to give wimby #2! He was defensive player of the year, runner up for MVP and made it to the finals.
he was 3rd for mvp
It says most skilled big in the solar system.
Is kawhi really worth a top 10 and over Cade?
Kawhi still gets the playoff boost when he hasn’t won a playoff series in 5 years
Kawhi is such a weird case. Like when he’s healthy, when he’s on, he’s a monster. There’s a level of player that just decides to take the game over by himself and that’s Kawhi, unstoppable. If that level of Kawhi was available for 75 games and a full playoff run he’d be in the BITW convo (that might be stretching it at this point because I think his defense has to have fallen off a bit from prime Klaw). But that only happens every third lunar eclipse or something, so it’s tough to evaluate properly I think.
He also got put in jail by draymond and missed out on the playoffs
Kawhi has MJ’s peaks and KD’s crashouts
Kawhi is one of the toughest on this list to rank imo. Prior to this season, it was clear he lost a step and had availability problems and wasn’t a top 10 guy, but then this last season he played like a top 5 player in the regular season and played 65 games.
27.9ppg on 62.9% TS is still elite but it’s hard to project. If he’s able to load manage and do that next year, he’s still top 10 but if not then he’s much lower.
I’d have Cade higher, but I’m not sure I’d rank someone like Tatum higher now.
Curry at 10 missed the playoffs, Durant at 16 lost to LeBron at 20 without Luka… Make it make sense.
Day2Day Davis doesn’t Crack the top 100
I’m not saying the rankings are perfect, but they probably shouldn’t just be a measure of which player’s team won the most games. And Lebron/Durant specifically, Durant played 1 game in the playoffs.
But LeBron did play the entire series, and he was very clearly the best player even when KD did play in that one game.
And for Curry his team is far worse than LeBron’s or Durant’s
As flawed as the Lakers are Luka alone is worth way more than the entire Warriors’ supporting cast
Not sure that Durant one playoff game should be held against him lol
Somehow people are talking about that series like he was there the whole time when he barely even played lmao
Almost like it’s a team game and not 1v1s?
Durant was injured and didn’t play
Bill Simmons dumbass influence
My biggest question after looking through the rankings: Does Ant Edwards have vitiligo?
Also, these rankings are ass.
That’s such an unflattering picture of him hahaha
He looks like he’s in blackface lol.
JJJ not even on the list. Crazy take
Castle at 26 LOL
Dudes a young stud. I can see it
I’d have Harper over Castle, but depends on the Fox situation.
I love that Castle is this high.
Spurs fans wanted him benched for his TO….
Just like how people wanted Hart benched because the Knicks would never win with him as a starter.
I am all in on Castle. He’s still in the learning phase of the play making game and he does too much on defense to ignore. If he can get his mind right, he’s definitely a winning player
I don’t get the Castle slander man. This dude is a fucking menace
Lot of new bandwagon fans joining, very reactionary and shortsighted thinking honestly.
Castle is going to have a great career and I was getting Jrue Holiday vibes from him these playoffs, but Harper looked like an All Star right now. Kid is incredible.
Castle reminds me a lot of young OG. His offensive game is inconsistent but just that tough defense paired with really good offensive potential.
OG goes from 44 to 21 insane coming out party for him
They really hate the Wizards. Trae, AD and Sarr weren’t in the top 50 in their list, what a joke
I don’t think sarr has warranted that or am I tripping?
He was pretty damn good last year but got shut down fast. It’s really not a big deal, they’ll end up on the board when they start playing and winning games.
Trae and AD are over hated on stuff like this too, but for similar reasons haven’t played all that much in two years.
Wiz are going to surprise everyone this year I think. People have forgotten who Trae Young really is.
To be honest, hard to justify as the Hawks look so much better without him
lol Trae got replaced by CJ McCollum and the Hawks got better
a defensive liability?
People have always thought Trae was way better than he is, and now the hype is gone.
they get a knock for tanking this year ig
List does mention guys who are injured not being eligible until they return so I’m guessing that explains the first two.
U want deaaron fox? He’s 45 on this list lol
Trae could probably be lower tbh, I think Sarr should be higher, and since AD hasn’t played much this past season (just like Trae) him being off the list isn’t crazy, but he should at least be on it
Terrible list
Wemby at #2 already is aggressive, but it’s hard to argue with his trajectory
Brunson moving into the top 5 after this playoff run makes complete sense though. He’s been one of the biggest postseason risers
Harper over Fox is definitely the ranking that’s going to start the most arguments 😅
Ranking across all positions is weird and will never really make sense.
We should make a list of the top 20 players at each position.
> Karl Anthony Town: Years of being miscast, misapplied, and mistake prone — after all that, he’s still one of the most talented big men of his generation.
Lmao
4 guys are better than Jalen Brunson until it’s time to be better than Jalen Brunson.
i want to know when was it that giannis and luka pretty much swapped places in peoples consensus rankings
It’s a health thing. Healthy Giannis was ranked higher last season but he missed so much time and is older so makes sense he’s lower
Not for nothing that Luka has been hurt himself, but he still has the age edge I guess
It’s mostly because Giannis has been hurt
Shamet better than KJ and Champagnie. Also Harper one spot above Fox is hilarious
I don’t understand this list how does Kawaii always get ranked so high.
Steph is too high if we’re coming this season which we are supposed to be
I personally think Edwards is overrated I don’t know how he’s over Giannis
Tough to argue where Brunson is. Already seemed like a life on the line guy you’d want to get a bucket for you. No reason he shouldn’t rocket into the top 5 after the last two months
KAT is too high at 12. Like the guy but he is sometimes awol. He’s also not ascending to the point you put him ahead of guys like Tatum.
Interesting that Ant just kind of stays at 6
Nice to see Scottie hang in the top 20.
Everyone is shitting on Chet and it’s recency but I’ve always like Williams a bit more.
Definitely an unintentional mistake but having Tobias listed as a Sixer is kind of hilarious.
Love Tobias but how did he even make this list
Think it’s mostly a prisoner of the moment thing with how great he was in the playoffs. I personally value him really highly because of his fit with our team but idk if I could get to the point of having him top 90 currently lol
Duren down to 44 seems appropriate. I’m not sure anyone lost more stock in the postseason.
THE PUT SOME RESPEK ON OUR BOY SCOTTIE!
we got scottie, BI, RJ, and even CMB… eating good
fuck them for the Embiid ranking
Tobias ain’t on the Sixers anymore, Bill. Please don’t give me nightmares.
Bro Wemby is not better than Jokic lol
If you take into account defence, yes he is. I would even argue he deserves 1. The list is all over the place though
yeah but if you take into account offense, he isn’t lol
Gap on defense is astronomically larger than the gap on offense
Wemby offense is like a 6-8⁄10 and joker is probably the best pure offensive player in the league
Jokic however is probably the worst rim protector I’ve ever seen and wemby is the best
The top 3 have an argument for #1
Nembhard at 72 and no Nesmith is insane
This list is just pure last 90 day vibes
Brunson is so hard to rank. When you look at these other guys that are guards like Cade or edwards or even Mitchell, how can you not be tempted to take them over him? But Brunsons intangibles are unteachable
I think Ant’s the only one you listed who has an argument to be above him and he had an injury riddled disappointing end to the season
People will pick Cade or Mitchell every time, and then Brunson will sweep or facilitate insane comebacks to win the series. I think he’s doomed to be underrated because his impact isn’t as obvious until it matters
Mitchell over Brunson is just a shit tier take. I’ll maybe listen to Cade when you factor in how much burden he shoulders.
Harper 1 spot higher than Fox, I see your moves Ringer lmao
Harper 45, Fox 46….
full of overreactions, or it was a bad list to start with. Take your pick
Damnit Ringer, sis you really have to go ALL OUT on the descriptions being AI??
KD literally just made 2nd team all nba and he can’t even crack top 15? Cmon man.
Also Castle at 26 is bonkers. Recency bias like crazy.
Giannis at nr. 7??
Mainly a health thing, I still think he’s top 4 but he did miss time this season. Putting him below ant is crazy though
Yeah, that makes no sense to me
It’s a Bill Simmons list so it’s already gonna be bad. Plus post playoffs it’s just here to get clicks
“Harden was right: He is a system. And that system is a ponzi scheme. —Justin Verrier”
This fuckin got me lol
Tatum will be top 5 after a full off-season back dude was already top 15 after an Achilles, his playmaking and rebounding has gotten even better somehow and he was starting to shoot really well too
People in this thread are underrating Curry, he was great this year when he played, but being injured combined with team injuries makes people not pay attention.
Decided to try filtering by team. Zero from Memphis, zero from Sacramento, all other teams represented.
these are once again an awful list
What is this, the drunk list?
Who in their right mind is taking Jamal Murray at 19?
Kawhi having “environmentalist” as a trait is hilarious.
Embiid and Pg disrespect is crazy
collin murray-boyles respect i love to see it