Exactly!

In the pod Ben says that with a gun to his head, he would tentatively rank the big 3 MVP candidates (Wemby/Jokic/Shai) in that order. But he also said he doesn’t have a strong preference between the three of them, and they all have an argument for the #1 spot. They each can perform like the #1 player in a season or playoff run based on team context, the fit of players around them, matchups, etc.

Same as he said with Kawhi/Luka at #5 and #6.

I’ve always appreciated how they’ve done ranges, they did something in their peak rankings as well.

Ive always been a Luka doubter and always say he’s top 4 outside of the solid 3, but if we’re going ranges, him and Giannis should be 1-5 or something

The thing that jumps out to me is the mavs drafted the two best point guards in the league in one draft

If I have to guess, maybe Kawhi needs the ball less to exert influence over a team? Ben usually values that kind of play as, in his view, that lends itself to more to raising a teams ceiling than its floor. 

The tough part about kawhi is just his health tbh. I’ll take a fully healthy 82 game kawhi over Luka. But that shit happens like once a decade lol

Kawhi is not over Luka

these are ranges of players, not single entries

There’s just not much separation between the guys from 7-15. There’s a strong top 6, then Ben thinks that next group is super close. Says you could have him as high as 7th.

Wolves fan and ANT is being overrated cause he is just really a charismatic guy.

He still struggles with double team and he still does a lot of gambling in the defense too.

Edwards is a very good player but is someone that people seem to want to elevate higher ahead of schedule for some reason. He’s a solid second tier star that is neck and neck with several other top ¹⁰⁄₁₅ players

Ant is super overhyped and I don’t understand why. He has done nothing to prove himself as a top 10 player.

Ant only had 32/14/6 followed up by 36 on no knees in back to back games, complete bum.

Tbf it was only 6 because Wemby got himself ejected for a game

I agree w u on ant but kawhi just had one of the best seasons of his career

The list is biased towards recent play. Ant was dealing with injuries for all most of this calendar year. It’s like expecting Tatum to be top 10 just because he’s still recovering from the achilles.

Thinking basketball has been low on Ant his whole career

Kawhi being top 5 is crazy

It’s really not lol

Absolute psycho shit having him not top ten lmfao.

Continues to be one of the more overrated stars in the league

Ant is not a top 10 player 😭 bro is constantly getting exposed in the playoffs

How can you say that after these playoffs? He beat the Rockets practically singlehandedly and was at least as good as SGA in their head to head matchup. 

As a longtime bronsexual, even since before he joined the lakers, I was also surprised to see him there.

I thought of him as a top 20-25 player last season

Mostly due to him relying more this past season than prior on scoring in transition/more on drives to the paint/and being less efficient from deep.
He also relies more on having good shooters surrounding him in his later years imo because his positive impact on a team is shifting in importance more towards the playmaking/coaching impact he has than the outright scoring or defensive impact he used to have more of

Tbh though, if we’re doing a playoffs only ranking then I think top 15 is still debatable for him. A lot of other top 25 regular season guys fell off in the playoffs while LeBron got better, esp on defense

I love bron, and I agree. I wonder what his explanation was. I haven’t watched his player rankings since he stopped putting them on YouTube.

Hasn’t he always been pretty down on Luka compared to others?

But he wasn’t, soooo this where he was for the year

He’s the second best offensive engine in the league but he’s a much worse defender than everyone else in the top 5, except the one guy who’s the very best offensive engine in the league.

Tatum was not at his peak level this year coming off the Achilles. TB has had him on this list many years in a row before this.

Did you stop watching basketball when the 2025 playoffs started?

Indeed, ben Taylor doesn’t disappoint 

Can you name Giannis starting 4 alongside him? If you can how many teams would these players start for? 

The thing is Gianni’s isn’t even injured a lot. He just gets unlucky regarding the timing of his

Bruh, Giannis hasn’t been healthy for a while but to discredit the man as someone who can’t win a playoff series is just outrageous. Ever since his championship run, the mfer suffered MAJOR playoff injuries either it be him or his 2nd option (they’re a top heavy team). He has an unbelievable amount of bad luck.

Luka both wasn’t healthy this year and contributed 0 to his team winning a series

Predictive playoff performance. This is not a regular season list – look at the question he’s answering in the post. For maximizing probability of a championship, ability to perform in the playoffs, be schematically versatile, play different matchups, solve problems, etc. is the main thing. He thinks in a playoff series LeBron is right in the mix for the top 10 guys you’d want. Very portable skillset, would fit on any team basketball-wise.

LeBron performed better than everyone in these playoffs except Wemby, Shai and Brunson. Add in his injury riddled regular season and he gets “relegated” to the 7-15 range. Fair.

Bron has declined out of the top 15 imo.

If you understand what the rankings are actually evaluating, and you evaluate how LeBron performed last season based on that criteria, then you’ll see that he obviously deserves to be in the top 10.

Based on the criteria, it’s actually hard to name 10 players more fitting.

Yeah, he does not care about accolades or team/individual accomplishments at all. Says Brunson is roughly at the level he was last year on offense, but he does think he’s improved slightly defensively / held up better than expected in the playoffs.

Kawhi is laughably overrated, he has not spearheaded contention in a long time

Hmm, I should’ve been more clear. It assumes good health in the sense of the best health displayed that season. But he’s not assuming this past year’s version of Tatum is the pre-Achilles version.

With Embiid, the issue is his defense in the playoffs. Gets eaten alive in space, just can’t move well anymore. It’s why the Knicks swept them.

Luka has no argument over the top 3, he’s a worse offensive player than Jokic and SGA and doesn’t offer near the total impact Wemby does

He’s an injury omission! Ben only ranks the players who played during the previous season.

Yeah I think there is a lot of value in advanced stats but some of the hardcore analytics guys are incredibly obnoxious.

I’ll never forget how they tried gaslighting us into thinking ackshually Jokic is an above average defender.

You’re not biased. Even appendectomy booty legs Embiid was enough to sink the Celtics just this past offseason. Truly healthy Embiid would be a menace.

Tatum played 22 games (including playoffs) fresh off an Achilles injury. Probably fair not to attempt to rank him at all. (To be fair, Giannis played 36 games in lackadaisical manner, but I think the long-term injury thing for Tatum is more of a factor). Also, Ben Taylor is somebody who would certainly rank post-Achilles Tatum cameo above, like, Jaylen Brown.

If you understand what the rankings are actually evaluating, and you evaluate how LeBron performed last season based on that criteria, then you’ll see that he obviously deserves to be in the top 10.

It’s about the playoffs only. Name 14 players who had a better playoffs than him.

1. Both KAT and Anthony Edwards have a range from 7 to at least 15 (maybe a few spots lower, he didn’t specify).
2. For Ant, the key is that he’s just falling behind either offensively or defensively relative to the guys ahead of him. i.e., he is probably in Cade’s ballpark offensively, but Cade is a significantly better guard defender due to Ant’s sleepy off-ball issues and tendency to get lost in complicated actions. And he’s better than Brunson defensively, but Brunson is significantly better as an offensive player (in-between game, ability to touch the paint and decision-making from there, passing).

Also, the idea that Ant is a playoff riser is largely a narrative constructed from the Timberwolves’ playoff success over the last few years, including 2 straight WCF appearances. However, impact metrics don’t actually look favorably on Ant in the playoffs; his team is just really good, even when he’s on the bench. He doesn’t have a resume of leading strong playoff team offense – over the last 3 seasons, his team’s offense in the playoffs is only about average when he’s on the court (not a good sign), but the real kicker is that it’s been better when he’s on the bench over this 8-series sample.

He’s also not a great passer. Like Kevin Durant, these guys can be overwhelmed by random traps / aggressive doubling, because they aren’t very good at punishing it. To Ben, when it feels like a player’s impact can be noticeably dulled simply by throwing some aggressive trapping schemes at them, that’s not a great sign for the playoffs, when teams have all the time in the world to create specific gameplans.

Even in the regular season, most impact metrics are tepid on him. He’s outside the top 75 in Expected EPM, 29th in Actual EPM last season, 78th in LEBRON, 10th in Darko DPM, 83rd in 3-year RAPM, and has an uninspiring +1.2 3-year on/off with a +5.7 3-year on-court net rating (good, but not great). He’s probably better than most of these metrics show because they view his defense as a strong negative in the regular season, whereas it’s probably more of a positive in the playoffs.

None of this is to say that he’s not a great player; they still think he’s ultimately a positive defender because of what he can do on-ball and in specific playoff matchups, and he’s obviously a fantastic scorer and shooter who can really put pressure on the rim. That’s why he’s here, but the flaws are why he isn’t a slam dunk to be higher.

Funny you say that. He mentioned Scottie in the next group of honorable mentions along with Murray, Booker, Siakam, and Mobley.

He was second team all NBA. Why should he not be mentioned ?

Why?

He said Booker is not far behind them, but he had to draw the line somewhere and doesn’t see a great top 10 case for Booker on the high end. He’s one of the first guys off. Also mentioned Barnes, Murray, Siakam.

Dude who made this list is a well known Curry glazer who dislikes KD

Well, Tatum wasn’t at his pre-Achilles level in the short time we saw him this year. I think people saying he’s universally better are comparing that version of him to current JB (and/or expecting that version of him to return).

Like, Tatum has made Ben Taylor’s top 10 list for 4 or 5 straight years, and was 6th last year.

Answered below, but Tatum didn’t show his peak level this past year. I’d expect a comeback on this list in ‘27.

When did he make that? Looking now, was it made a while ago?