[ESPN] NBA Player Rank 2026: Mitchell #10 Tatum #9 Cade #8 Edwards #7 Brunson #6 Giannis #5 Doncic #4 Shai #3 Wemby #2 Jokic #1
Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50015167/nba-rank-2026-players-10-1-featuring-wembanyama-sga-jokic-brunson-luka-more
Jokic plot armor is insane
Yeah he only lead the league in rebounding and assists last year while finishing top 2 in MVP voting the last 6 years.
Then got bounced in the first round by a team missing its entire starting backcourt
During a series in which Jokic was exposed for not playing an ounce of defense.
Yeah, Jaden McDaniels was #56 on this list and Jokic was #1, but McDaniels was the best player on the floor in an elimination game against Jokic in the last game Jokic played, arguably with a worse supporting cast.
I just don’t think you can have those guys in those slots after that game. Either McDaniels needs a hefty bump or Jokic needs to drop, probably a combination of both.
Brunson is #1 by this logic right?
No you’re just an idiot by this logic
Nuggets were missing their starting 4 and their 6th man, and Braun was MIA.
Jokic’s defense was also MIA
braun was injured as well, a lot of people just leave that out
It’s all run by narratives and the big one right now is that braun is shit, but really he was really injured last season and played through an injury the whole playoffs
and Gordon, Braun, Watson (3 best defenders) were all injured in the playoffs
idk why yall say this, the wolves won 3 out of 4 games they won in the series with their backcourt you make it sound like they won all 4 without ant
Regular season is fake. Half the teams are tanking. Playoff performance is what matters
So why isn’t Brunson #1?
Wemby is the youngest and first unanimous DPOY, and I believe he’s the first since Jordan to do that while leading his team in scoring.
Seems pretty notable
You’re actually mad that your player is ranked the 2nd best player in the sport?
If it was any other player they would’ve started dropping way down in these lists by now. I know he puts up crazy stats in the regular season, but he’s 31 and has only made it past the second round twice. The one championship run feels like it absolves him from any criticism
Honestly swap Jokic and Shai or Wemby and he still contends.
Dunno the other way around.
I don’t understand how people still doubt Jokic when he should arguably have the last 6 MVPs.
We’ve gotten to the point when I can’t tell if the Jokic jerk is a joke Jokic jerk or genuine.
We’ve gotten to the point where due to personal biases one of the most outstanding player we have seen in this league, especially in modern history cannot even get credit.
The majority of the people in this sub doesn’t even offer substance to their takes and reduces everything to what abouts. The people who actually understand what they are watching haven’t stopped ranking Jokic as the best player in the world because it’s obvious.
Are you his horse breeder or something? You seem very emotionally invested in this.
Zach Lowe is that you?
I make my own conclusions, I don’t parrot talking points or popular takes.
Playoffs matter? How many of these guys choked 20 point leads in game 7s
Yeah because it is so easy to win with Denver. Let’s put SGA there who barely beat Indiana and then lost at home the next year to a team that had missed the playoff the previous year.
That’s certainly one way to describe a 62 win team.
He had 21 in the second half of that game and finished with 34/19/7 😭😭
You’re just blindly hating
Defense matters? Chokic is so generational he gave ayo a 9 figure contract
Numbers? Thats all Jokic stans like to point at. How about winning the game?
Serious people don’t argue that.
The people that have voted for Jokic for first place MVP who are paid to watch and talk about NBA basketball are not serious people?
Is there an MVP voter arguing Joker should have won the last 6? News to me.
If Jokic had the last 6 MVPs with his playoff resume (one trip past the second round in that time), it would be the biggest farce in sports history. Shai, Luka and Ant have all had multiple trips past the second round during that same period.
He shouldn’t have won either of his back to back mvps but he did deserve 2023
That’s a stretch but 4 is definitely arguable
There’s the Embiid pitty season, last year which was one of the best seasons we have ever seen and his best season. And this year where he led the league in both assist and rebounding.
I’d move him to 5 but when you’re guessing how players are going to do in the upcoming season, there’s a fair amount of guessing and projection, as opposed to just grading their previous season.
Wemby got exposed in the finals. He’s up next but Jokic is still on top
At least he got there? Jokic got exposed by G league T-Wolves.
Wemby was the mvp for every playoff series except the finals. Jokic struggled in the first round. You would expect him to drop 1 ranking at least, maybe 2.
jokic got exposed against minnesota 😭
Let’s see jokic get to the finals again lol
Let’s see Wemby not get dominated by Jokic literally every time they play 😭
Wow, generational offensive players goes hard against hyped young player! Crazy!!!
Wemby averages 26/15/4/4 so it’s not like jokic is locking him up or keeping him off the boards lol
Jokic got exposed in the first round broski
Yall deadass want Cade in a big game over Tatum?
This the first time Steph, KD and Bron weren’t in a top 10 list? End of an era
I think Curry still belongs at 10 over Mitchell.
Yeah I’ll take a curry final 3 minute stretch to win me a game over Mitchell any day still
But who would you stake for an entire season + playoffs ?
This list would look very different if we instead framed it as “best players if everyone’s healthy going into a single playoff series.” Bc if you frame it that way, I’m taking Steph over most of these guys. I’m biased but I’d definitely take him top 5, and maybe even top 3 lol.
However, this ranking is instead about contributions over the full season. And Steph has durability concerns due to his age and recent history, so I get why they’ve knocked him down a peg.
I’d take Iguodala
Sir uh, it’s “I’m taking Iguodalaaaaa!!!!!!!11”
If that’s the criteria LeBron would easily still make top 10 as well. Would put Steph top 5 and LBJ top 7-5 probably
If we are strictly talking 1 year. I am taking Curry over half those guys.
really? taking half of these 10 guys makes an insane starting 5
It would be close either way
Depends on the night. Steph is in that once maybe twice a week he’s got it.
I agree in principle, but since he’s been on the cavs, they avg 53.75 wins a regular season and average a 2nd round exit. While being like 26.5/5/5 with over 1.5 steals a game.
I think he’s a tough one to put top 10, as in actuality he’s probably closer to 15th than 10th in the league, but stats and team success are defo good enough to be better than his older peers
Nah. He misses too many games at this point.
Mitchell has played a whole 9 game more than Steph over the last 3 seasons.
If you include the seasons before that the difference gets bigger.
Idk about that one…. But I understand where you comin from
Wemby over Luka?
Get this trash outta here.
Sure he’s good but bruh, it’s his 3rd season and yeah luka is a goat. Wemby still got a ways to go.
You must have responded to the wrong comment…
LeBron and KD are way more productive at this stage. KD is literally improving still
kd isn’t improving by any means, and steph on the court still impacts his teammates as good as lebron does. bad take
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Idk. To me, I’m not sure if it feels like the “end of an era” bc all 3 of Steph/KD/Lebron are still (in my view, at least) clear Top 10 players if they’re healthy+locked in going into a playoff series. I’d even add Kawhi to that list.
I’m awaiting the day when even assuming health and no coasting, those guys are clearly out of the top 10. Right now they’re mostly being knocked down a peg due to durability/etc. concerns.
? Da fuck lebron top ten LMAO
In the context that he’s saying, easily. No question in my mind on who’d I’d rather have between Jayson Tatum and Lebron James if I need to win a playoff series (hint: it’s the guy that actually won a playoff series last year).
Rockets weren’t even trying they sucked at that point
I’ll take ANT over LeBron thank you very much
Personally I think Curry is better than Mitchell but his availability is a legit concern
Curry should be there, in the top 3 easy but I get team performance is a factor in these rankings.
Yes, I was surprised at that. Heck, I’d take booker over Mitchell
Not much to choose from offensively and booker is a better defender. His team will be worse though
Gucci Mane was on the list and Em wasn’t? Shout out to my ninja Gucci
Surprised KD not on it still actually
espn trying to create content to talk about for a week, noooooo….
I think Steph missed around 60% of games last season. If true, I’m certain that factored in.
My first thought is, is this the first generation ever there is no American player in the top 5?
imo, i’d any of those 3 over any of the bottom 4 players for a game or a series. It was only 2 years ago that those 3 were the drivers of the american team over the others.
They fall off cause, being older it a question if they can do it for 82 games. But Curry still hasn’t fallen off
That’s because this is a terrible list
Kawhi too.
But lowkey, Kawhi and Steph should be right below the top 10 and Bron is still top 20
fucking brutal man. curry at 12. warriors don’t have another person until 92 with butler (who was 18th in 2025)
lol we’re so cooked
Finally
Places are interchangeable but honestly a good top 10 list.
I think the top 5 is very clear but the ranking amongst them is highly interchangeable
“He means top 6” I whisper to the life-sized Jalen Brunson statue in my living room
“He’s definitely fucking that doll right?”
“Stunt on them hoes.”
If you factor in durability, I wouldn’t mind having Brunson on my squad over Giannis or Luka at this stage
I really do think Giannis should be dropped here, I also don’t understand Jokic over Shai at this point, he’s off 2 MVPs and actual playoff runs.
Giannis is such an enigma. If he is healthy and feeling great 5 makes sense, but when is the last time he played like a true top 10 guy in the league?
I think top 5 and top 9 is very clear (places are interchangeable). Only thing is Tatum’s health but Brunson, Ant, Cade, healthy Tatum as the next 4 is just as clear as the top 5 imo.
SGA and Jokic are in their own tier. They are not interchangable with the guys below them.
Giannis used to be in that tier but no longer is. Luka is what he is, and looks like he’ll never be in that tier. Wemby will likely be in that tier someday, possibly even this year, but until a guy shows it you can’t put them THAT high.
Im sorry and Im biased but its just insane to me to put SGA and Jokic a tier above Luka. You could swap Luka and SGA for example and its not super clear that the Thunder would be worse. Hell even if they were worse because of fit, the Thinder would still be tier 1 contendors with Luka swapped for SGA.
If you wanna say SGA is better then sure, thats a reasonable opinion but saying he is a tier above is just insane to me.
Luka is a great player that is going to cruise to the Hall of Fame. It is not a slight against him that he’s a tier below guys that have multiple MVPs and are going to go down as upper-tier HOFers.
When you’re taking about guys at that level, you either need to be historic offensively (like Jokic) or play defense. And even then, it’s still a valid knock on Jokic. And with Luka, it gets held against him that his defensive flaws aren’t genetic but are the result of bad conditioning and poor effort. The perception is that Luka could be on that level but just doesn’t want it. And that’s fine, he doesn’t need to put in the work necessary to be good on defense, but we don’t have to be nice and ignore that. If he doesn’t want it, why should we give it to him?
And looking at Shai, he isn’t simply efficient (like Luka). He’s historically efficient. Also I’m his favor is the fact that you could put him on any team and he’d fit, whereas with Luka we always hear that his team is at fault for not putting the right kind of guys around him. And it’s never Luka’s fault when guys like Brunson or Porzingis immediately get better after getting away from him.
the Thinder would still be tier 1 contendors with Luka swapped for SGA.
They’d be tier 1 contenders with Ant too. That doesn’t make Ant as good as SGA.
Gimme brunson over current giannis unless we are just acting like durability and injuries dont matter. Honestly f it, gimme jb over luka too, playoffs matter
Luka is one of the best playoff performers of all time lol
That’s the issue with getting talking points from the memewar, I reckon
Guys relax im a clearly biased brunstan, just let me live its not that serious
No he isn’t. He’s limping or missing games. It doesn’t matter how you start the playoffs. It’s how you finish.
That’s just bias
All of these guys (top 6) are playoff performers.
Let me leave my clearly biased comment in peace 🤣
I think Jokics reign has ended. Flame me.
Your team already does that for you
Well that’s just not very nice
you think they generate enough passion for flame?
That roster looks like a 2k project someone gave up on. Jordan Poole, dejounte Murray and Zion making $110 million. Only asset is Trey Murphy and his deal. Just to fuck with the fans this summer they said oh no let’s run it back
I think this season will be the decider of that.
Both Jokic and Wemby going out losing winnable series and then Luka and Giannis not even playing leaves things pretty wide open.
Jokic got burned the entire time by backup wolves and im supposed to hear him being #1 out?
I think Jamal Murray falling off HARD has really hurt Jokic.
Last season Murray had career highs in points per game, APG and fg%.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/murraja01.html#all_per_game_stats
Murray just had the best season of his career
Jokic being injured really hurt jokic imo. Last year before his injury he was having actually one of the most absurd seasons of all time. I’m looking forward to whatever he does next. Jamal’s been a playoff dropper every year since the championship, but he’s only improved his regular season play which can help jokic keep his legs fresh. Once the playoffs roll around idk what Jamal’s gonna do but I agree he needs to step up big time.
Dawg, he literally JUST had the best season of his career. It’s really obvious how many of you don’t watch the games and only tune in during the playoffs
It’s Wemby. He was overwhelmingly the most impactful player in the playoffs
Can’t lie, it’s still Shai in my opinion. Elite two way play, great playmaker, recent MVP. Also I know wemby beat the spurs but Shai didn’t go out sad.
Shai has not been nearly as dominant in the playoffs, and it’s become a recurring pattern. Wemby broke the playoff BPM record in his first try
Shai had 5 AWFUL games in that series
Shai was awful the entire WCF outside of 2 games
Replace Wemby with Jokic and the Spurs beat the Knicks
KAT has proven he can keep Jokić in check
Wemby not being 1 feels like an age thing. They’re not even in the same universe defensively.
Nah it’s a play time thing. He’s amazing but compared to his competition, he has to be load managed but he still missed quite a lot of games. Just under 30mpg and only playing 64 games (only starting 55 too) is just a lot less than SGA/Jokic/Doncic. At some point your competitors are doing more because they’re just playing more than you, like Wemby played the same amount of minutes as Zion last year lol.
FWIW it absolutely should be SGA top. Back to back MVP and not the best player in the league is silly
There’s been lots of players who won MVP that were not best player in the league. There was minimum 10 years where LeBron was the best player and only won a few MVP awards.
I think both players are players that we’ll never see again in this league when they’re gone. They deserve to be 1 and 2. I’m not really bothered by which is which.
Sorry but wemby absolutely loves the media, as much as he pretends to be a zen buddhist monk. He’s nothing like Jokic from that point of view
It’s a solid debate between him and Jokic. They are factoring in more improvement from Wemby and expecting Jokic to still be at peak.
I think it’s fair to keep Jokic at the top until he actually shows he’s slowing down.
Also, availability is a skill. Jokic played 21% more minutes than Wemby last year. 2,265 minutes against 1,866 minutes. That matters for these rankings.
Tbf to Wemby I don’t doubt he could play more minutes but I’m not mad at the spurs keeping him from playing a full 38 MPG. I’m excited to see how jokic does this year, before he was hurt last year he was playing better than he ever has up to this point.
Jokic was out too for like 17-18 games.
Wemby isn’t even close to Jokic or Shai on offense. Fine to weight the defense higher but Wemby is most certainly not the best player in the world yet
Idk man i think getting bounced in the 1st round with a bad performance is reason enough to get knocked down 1 or 2 spots given it was SGA who won the last 2 MVPs (and went to the WCF) and Wemby led his team to the Finals
I don’t think it is if half of the game is such a large gap. Jokic at his best is an average defender at his position, when he’s checked out it’s not a good look.
To be fair, Jokic is god tier offensively
He lost to an ant less Wolves because of his defense. We can’t continue ignoring one side of the ball
The same can be said for Luka over Giannis.
Spurs would have beat Knicks if you swapped Wemby for Jokic
Or offensively
Nor offensively
They’re not in the same universe offensively either, as a huge Wemby fan.
Wemby still lacks the maturity and experience to lead a team under high stakes, pressure situations. He struggled a little bit down the stretch in the finals and made some poor decisions.
I think Shai should be number one. I don’t get him at 3. MVP and didn’t have a worse series than Wemby or Jokic imo
was definitely worse than wemby in the wcf though. first 6 games in particular
Shai’s series against the Spurs wasn’t as bad as Wemby’s series vs the knicks
Jokic was still carrying a huge load and without his top two defenders in Gordon and Watson. Shai still able to easily load manage with the best depth in the league.
I’m solidly of the opinion that Jokic was number 1 until he got hurt last year. When he came back he just wasn’t the same guy. I think SGA took the number 1 spot at that point. If you want to say Wemby has already taken it from him at this point, that’s fine. But I’d still have SGA at one, but assume Wemby will take that spot this season. And probably by the end of 2027.
Yea he looked really rough post injury tbh I don’t think its effect got talked about enough. He was still getting to his floaters in the post season and he couldn’t make his go to shot
Did you watch WCF?!
Shai’s stats were worse vs the Spurs than Jokic’s were vs Minnesota
Going against Wemby and Castle with Jdub and Mitchell injured vs getting locked by Rudy Gobert and friends
It’s been over tbh
Absolute pylon on defense.
It’s a fair opinion. But it’s also debatable that he is #1. The only bad opinion is the extreme “he’s not #1… and it’s not even close”
Of course it’s close. You can make an argument for any of the top 3, and they are all valid.
Points (PPG): 27.7 (8th in NBA)
Rebounds (RPG): 12.9 (1st in NBA)
Assists (APG): 10.7 (1st in NBA)
Field Goal Percentage (FG%): 56.9%
3-Point Percentage (3P%): 39.6%
Led the league in 2026 multiple stats while being efficient and only 31 and doesn’t depend on athleticism.
Feels like we’ve become accumstomed to Joker being insane. But i guess it comes with team success. With wins, his hype will return.
Personally im putting him N1, because as much as we talk about Nuggets ‘supporting cast’, the team still will be the n1 offense in the NBA.
This will likely be the last really great year from Jokic. Every great player has that 6-7 year window and Jokic is at the end of his. Obviously he’ll still be great for a while but not quite at this level.
Need to see if that calf injury was a one-off
Jokic above Wemby and SGA is such a weird take that it doesn’t even merit discussion. It’s a deeply unserious opinion.
He’s been riding that championship too long. Without it he’s just a stat gobbler on a mid team that solely revolves around him.
“Flame me” took me back to the Internet of 2005
i think you deserve all the flame cause i think hes at his prime
You gotta be a two way player to be truly elite. He is still an elite offensive engine, but the greats are effective on both ends.
After this season we will know. Regardless he deserved more MVP’s. Not a Denver fan
Except Mitchell
Disagree. Cavs underperformed but he got them to the ECF and beat the 1 seed along the way.
You saw a guy who lost to a hospital squad in the first round as #1 and thought “honestly a good top 10 list”?
Only Jokic can lose to a heavily injured 6 seed in round 1 and still be called best in the world
If Jokic shot his usual percentage on open and wide open 3s in that series instead of 20%, they likely win the series. Sometimes you get good looks and they just don’t fall
There’s a knock on everyone for some reason or another. Sometimes good players lose when they shouldn’t. Sometimes lesser players win.
There is a knock on everyone except Jokic* if any other player lost to a hospital squad in the first round they’d be out of the top 5, let alone #1
Just imagine if a prime Lebron/Curry/KD/literally any past MVP lost an elimination game to a team who had no active players in the top-40…
not it’s not Jokic 1 is ridiculous
Is Giannis still top 5?
I think it’s debatable, but when he’s healthy he’s as dangerous as anyone in the league. How quickly we forget when someone is injured.
Tatum should not be on this list. He was nowhere near a top 10 player in the regular season and post-season games he played.
Tatum needs to show he can be healthy to be top 10 for me.
No, the West is always the best and Eastern conference basketball is stinky poo poo.
Which is especially weird because ESPN thrives on lists that garner reaction.
Are we stupid or has ESPN turned a corner?
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The list is satisfactory. If Tatum is back to his previous form, then he’ll jump a few guys
Yep, needs to prove it though.
Yeah, I agree with that. He was good last year, but not top 4-6 where he was in previous years. He’s got some work to do to get back, but I’m happy to see him out of the teens where some lists had him a few months ago
Yeah, working your way back from that injury is tough. Normally players wouldn’t have played at all last year after that.
I’m hopeful with all the brown stuff over with we can lean on Tatum to kind of take that transition to being the guy instead of one of two guys. He talks about Kobe a lot, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some mamba mentality from him.
I agree but Giannis is above him and he also needs to prove he can be the guy who won a ring a while ago not the guy who is off and on injured all year like the last 2 years.
He already proved it.
Ya, but post-injury, and without JB. I respect Tatum, he’s top notch - but that is the vibe outside of Celtics land.
He already proved it post-injury. And no one can seriously argue he was a product of JB. That’s ridiculous.
that is the vibe outside of Celtics land.
The vibe is wrong, as usual.
More like half of them
there are 8 guys ahead of him
half of them IS “a few” guys
You’re asking Celtics to do math??
…what? We can count to 18, what can you count to?
Mitchell isn’t 10, Harden was better than him last year.
It’s not a bad top 10 tho.
No he wasn’t, not even close
He absolutely was.
Harden chokes every year, by default he can’t be better than Tatum
I’ve never said anything about Tatum.
I’m talking about Mitchell.
He’ll jump above Luka.
He wasn’t above Luka before the injury
I was gonna say Tatum was too high given that this is his first real season post-achilles. I’d bet on KD and Kawhi being better next season. Maybe KAT, too.
Yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised to see him in the top 10 though. Lot of rankings are inconsistent with how they rank injured guys
You think Tatum is better than Cade, Edwards, Brunson?
Brunson gets a bump for his championship carry, but even setting him aside, what have Edwards and Cade done that Tatum hasn’t? With full health assumption, I’d feel very comfortable putting Tatum above them
Tatum is a great fit for any team but I’d take those guys as #1 options over him. He has has historically great teams since entering the league and the two years the Celtics made it to the finals he ended up differing to Brown. I just watched the 22 finals actually and I was surprised to see that.
I think after this year we will have a much better idea where to rank Tatum.
He had a historically great team for like two of the nine seasons he’s been in the league for. There are also seasons where he’s helped the team overperform in the postseason. In 2021 when Jaylen was injured the team was starting Romeo Langford and giving significant minutes to Jabari Parker against the Nets super team. Tatum scored a 50 piece to steal a game from them
Lol since when is Cade better than pre-injury Tatum? What metrics are you going by to show that?
Is the list trying to catagorize who was better pre injury or who’s the better player in 2026?
The comment you replied to was clearly referencing “if Tatum is back to his previous [pre-injury] form”
Tatum is a decent Robin on a team. Top 10 is laughable
Yeah it’s not like he could ever win a championship as a #1.
He was the #2 that’s why he didn’t get a FMVP or ECFMVP. So yeah he’s a decent Robin
He’s back. He joined Giannis, Jokic, LeBron, Barkley & Bird as the only players to average 20/10/5 on 60 TS% in a single playoff run.
Not sure we can call losing in the first round a “playoff run.” That’s just one series. Good numbers, especially coming off injury. But that’s not a meaningful sample. The list is probably much larger if you just do 1 playoff series.
The point is he’s back.
You did a pretty bad job at making that point
It was a solid 6 games, but even Tatum said he was only going at like 80%. The playmaking and rebounding look as good as ever, though
It was more than solid. Playing at that level in that context was absurd. There is no reason to doubt he’s fully back after a full, healthy offseason other than people hate the Celtics.
Mitchell overrated otherwise pretty accurate
My first thought was honestly who’s the other good Mitchell aside from Donovan.
As others have pointed out he has the credentials but for me he feels 10-15 but this is a personal nitpick
It’s actually Davion. Mr Off Night himself 🔥🔥
I had the same thought. “It’s not Donavan Mitchell, right? Who am I forgetting?”
“Really, Mitchell Robinson top 10? I guess”
Mitchell is still riding the hype from a few seasons ago. He stays just good enough for people to say “but remember that season”.
Not hating. He’s a great player, but nothing about last season indicates to me that he’s a top 10 player.
Top 7 scorer in the league.
All NBA 2nd team. All Star.
Shot a higher pct from the field and 3 than the scoring champ
Led his team to 52 wins
Thirty-Three 30 point games
No clue why so many people in this thread think he had a bad year.
Facts. Accurate
Gah damn the Haliburton disrespect is real.
It is not that crazy to have Donovan over Hali lol
Especially after Hali missed all of last year
It’s weird. I have the same feeling but then when I think of the guys behind him there’s no one I’m confidently saying is better than him.
I have similar feelings with Ant. My gut reaction is he’s not quite a top 10 guy but when I try to place guys ahead of him he can’t be moved from the top 10.
Ant is very comfortably top 10
What would Ant have to do to show you he belongs in the top 5 that he hasn’t done yet?
5 straight playoff appearances, 5 playoff series wins, 4 of the times the Wolves lost in the playoffs the team that beat them went to the finals. 4 all-star games, 2 all-NBA selections and would have been 3 if he didn’t miss due to games last year.
Shot selection, overall efficiency, consistency on defense, his overall play-making ability (rough AST to TO ration), and just his overall maturity (which I’ll fully admit causes more off court issues than on court concerns).
However, the results are there and I think he made some improvements last season which cemented his spot. Going into last year he was more on that fence for me.
I don’t know if these rankings are more focused on regular or post season. They’d be more meaningful if it was the latter- which guys are the best when defenses are consistently trying?
Ant to me is 100% deserving of his rank and could even be a touch higher. He struggled with the 3 ball this post season but in the last 3 years, he shot the ball well and generated assists while being a two way player on top 4 teams in the NBA.
But I agree re: Mitchell. He puts up points but his efficiency and recently his assists have gone down. He’s a clear step down imo from other #1 options that have actually shown out in the post season.
He is ranked 10-15…
good Mitchell aside from Donovan.
& Ness
yeah that’s fair
Honestly its his numbers that make him hard to deny.
I’m not even sure i agree with him being top 10.
Doesn’t really matter either way.
Feels like Mitchell has been the default #~9-12 guy that you fill out the back of these lists with once all the superstars have been slotted in, but tbh I’ve never really seen why he gets so consistently ranked ahead of guys like Booker, Maxey, Brown, etc. Until this playoffs he was always ahead of Brunson too
I’d listen to Maxey, but Booker hasn’t been that guy for 4 years and where exactly has Maxey gotten the Sixers?
I’m still surprised how many ads, promos, and sponsorships he’s in, he’s a very good player but it feels like he’s in that next tier with a dozen guys who don’t get anywhere near as much exposure. Must be the effect of playing in the behemoth SLC/ Cleveland markets.
Overrated is an interesting take. I think it’s more accurate to say the ten spot is extremely contested—you can make convincing arguments for several players, including Mitchell.
He’s just flopped in too many big moments even though I think he still has potential to be a fmvp
Yeah and flopping in big moments is reserved for the #2 spot
Thunder struggled for ball handling when he went down in the playoffs
Gimme maxey over Mitchell
ima cavs fan that doesn’t even like mitchell all like that but fuck no
I’m with you. D Mitch is great too but his tunnel vision is a killer at times.
A lot of guys I’d take over Mitchell for a playoff series. Gimme Maxey. KAT. Scottie Barnes. Kawhi. Shoot I’d rather have OG
I would have placed Jalen brown instead of mit he’ll
No way is Brunson better than Tatum. Tatum is #6 at worst unless they are just assuming he will never be back to what he was but healthy Tatum is #6 at worst
Brunson outplayed him when they met in the playoffs last year, and is the only one of the two with a Finals FG% that isn’t in the 30s.
This is my initial thought, but looking at 11-20, it’s just curry or Durant that would be above him. Those 2 are availability limited though
Gimme Kawhi, Haliburton, and Maxey above Mitchell for sure. Maxey easily.
Booker over Mitchell for the defense. Mitchell’s team will be better
Would take him over Brunson 10⁄10 times
Brunson and Mitchell have faced off in 3 different playoff series
Brunson was the best player in all 3 of those series lmao
At this point I’m starting to think they do these lists just to get people to argue.
Always assume that’s the primary point of any online post.
What the fuck did you just say to me?
He called you a jive turkey
You better leave my office right now and come back with the goddamn injunction or you’re done!
Tell him about your time in the SEALs!
you hit the nail on the head, tbh.
No they didn’t
I mean that was true before the internet and engagement bait was a thing. The list is entirely subjective.
People have been arguing in bars about lists long before the internet. This is about as regular sports talk as anything.
That’s exactly what they do. ESPN is just engagement rage bait for clicks. The death of national sports journalism is wild
What’s so arguable about this list? It’s pretty fair
Mitchell really is the only one. The other 9 you might argue where but not if
Not really Mitchell played 70 games in the last 2 seasons, made all nba both times including a 1st team finish and Cavs are a playoff team
That’s more than guys like Tatum and Curry did
At this point? Have you been living under a rock?
At this point I’m starting to think you made this comment just to get people to argue.
It’s an easy way to get engagement. They’re good discussion starters but I never take them too seriously and get upset since they’re just some other nerd’s list. I’m sure people would have an issue with my list if I made one too and that’s fine. Opinions aren’t universal.
There’s really no top 10 list you could make to have everyone universally agree on.
Yeah because they know as soon as they publish anything Reddit bots will rush to post this same comment for karma lol
I know this is a very popular thing to say, but cmon… this top 10 is really not that bad. There’s nothing I see here that’s “ragebait” (at least obvious ragebait).
Top 10 lists are subjective. That’s just the nature of the beast. Even among reddit users, there’s fairly substantial diversity in how each fan here would build their own top 10.
So there is no top 10 that will satisfy everyone. That doesn’t mean it’s baiting engagement/arguments; it’s just the reality of a subjective stratification.
I think you’re missing my point. No list will be universal every person has things they value differently, different criterias, different preferences in style of play etc… not only that but what’s the end game of these lists? Does everything have to be top 10 this or top 10 that? List culture is a big reason why modern NBA fans tend to overlook or under appreciate certain guys vs others. It’s just tired at this point
That’s literally the whole point of any rankings list
Fair🤷🏻♂️
Fuck you I hate arguing
Well they failed. This list is solid AF.
That’s kind of the point of all NBA discourse. None of this shit can be proved factually but people always want to talk about it. It’s a unique trait of basketball too. Baseball is pretty much solved numerically and the NFL is too complex for most people to have a real opinion about it. But the NBA is the perfect storm of opinions ranging from advanced stats to “that boy nice”
They do these lists to get clicks, and arguments create buzz, which creates clicks.
Took you that long??
Is there another reason to make lists like this? If there is please do tell
I mean, look how many comments this thread has already…
Human nature. Not gonna stop most people from wasting time on this shit. Just accept a lot of people are idiots and blindly eat up this type of garbage content to make up and defend their shitty basketball takes.
a bit surprised Tatum is at 9 but cool yeah
Probably just has to prove it after coming back from injury, I think he’ll move up a few spots
Yeah if he plays like 23⁄24 Tatum again he will minimum move up to 6, potentially up to 3 or 4 depending on how Giannis, Jokic, and Luka do this year, but I think 3 is his ceiling. I don’t think he’ll ever be better than SGA or Wemby unless they somehow get seriously injured (or the league actually enforces flopping technicals and SGA falls off)
Tatum being 9th and Brown outside of the top 10 after last season is crazy
It’s not like Tatum up and died, or that we have no clue where he’s at. We saw him play last year a good amount, and it was already pretty clear what he offers instead of JB. I think it’s fair to assume he’ll have shaken rust off even more after the summer and will be near his old self.
Brown is so underrated. He’s a bucket. He defends. The off ball stuff is overstated.
I think Tatum is better than Brunson. Tatum also won a championship recently and is a better all-around player. I guess the only question mark is any residual effects from his injury.
As soon as I saw Kon Knueppel immediately over Lauri and Dylan Harper I came to the conclusion that was enough ESPN content for me
It is very funny that two seasons ago Lauri had a super down year, averaging 19⁄6 on below league avg efficiency. Last year he had a bounce back season averaging 27⁄7 on great efficiency and he dropped 6 spots.
The Jazz are gonna try this season and Lauri is gonna go way up on these lists. Mark my words.
There might be too many cooks, a lot of talent might bring his numbers down
I mean Lauri’s one of the best off ball scorers in the league he’ll be fine with the playmaking of Keyonte and DP
Literally. Lauri has no problems just standing in thr corner, he can do anything
Kon over Harper seems pretty reasonable?
Kon is good. Surprisingly really good
But have you watched Dylan Harper play? No GM in the league is taking Kon over Dylan Harper except for maybe the hornets I guess
Harper was picked 2nd, Kon 4th, so we don’t know if that’s even true lol.
Ironically enough, I think the Spurs would be the only team where picking Kon over Harper would have made sense given that they already have both Castle and Fox, and Wemby being swarmed near the paint means you get lots of wide open threes. Doesn’t mean they should have, but it would have made some sense still.
By the way even Harper was #2 pick so not even the Hornet took Kon before him.
I can see the argument. Shooting for guards is a critical trait and Harper isn’t currently a good shooter.
Kon is an elite shooter. He worked really well with Lamelo and Miller.
But give me Dylan Harper in literally every other category. The way he drives to the bucket is equally if not more valuable than Kon’s shooting because he’s also really good at making the right play when the defense collapses on him
Kon had a better regular season then harper, but he played more so… harpers PO run is why people have him above, but in general its to soon to tell, i would still take harper but its closer then people think
Kon also was just completely out of gas at the end of the season. Because he led our team in minutes and most rookies fall off at the end of the year if they play that kind of load.
Legit argument
Harper was key to going to the finals, Kon rode the bench in the playin
Is basketball not a team sport anymore?
Well Kon had a chance to help get his team in the playoffs but he went 1-6 from 3 for 11 points in a playoff loss to the orlando Tragic. I believe he got benched in the 4th quarter but I could be misremembering
Did you not understand what “…was key going to the finals” meant?
It is but anyone with eyes can tell Harper is special. If he started this year I would put him around top 25
So was Shamet but that’s not how this works so both our points seems moot
If you were comparing him to another player who didn’t do that I don’t see how it wouldn’t be relevant.
Kon hit a wall at the end of the year after landing hard on his back and leading the team in minutes. Harper barely played for the first half of the year compared to Kon and was significantly fresher at the end of the year.
Kon also led the NBA in 3 pointers made as a rookie which has never been done before. He was 23-4-7 on 60% TS when Lamelo was injured at the beginning of the year.
Harper is a much better finisher, passer, and defender and plays a more valuable position
“How about the eye test and how much podcasters love talking about Harper, you don’t watch ball”
People that don’t understand what the eye test means genuinely don’t understand basketball. They just go on bball-reference and focus on ts% numbers.
The eye test matters regardless of how many unathletic people on the internet tell you it doesn’t.
I think Kon could have a great season. They need scoring with LAMELO gone, so if he can stay efficient he could have huge numbers.
Edit: Lonzo’s brother ;)
Lonzo Ball. Hornets Legend.
*lamelo
I think Kon is good and will have a great year. But like…Dylan Harper just averaged 18 off the bench in the finals…
Bro. The Harper hype has gone way too far. He averaged 18 over a 5 game stretch! He averaged 12 in the regular season!
Kon averaged 18.5 on 42.5% from three over 81 games!
Harper might have more potential, but Kon is a much better player right now.
Idk why you’re comparing ppg from a starter to a bench player. Harper played over 30 minutes in 1 game last year.
And yes believe it or not performing on the biggest stage possible adds to how great you are lol. Crazy concept I know.
He played 31 minutes per game in the regular season, vs Harper’s 22. Per 36 Harper scored 18.8 to Kneuppel’s 21.1. That 18 per game you saw in the Finals could truly be what you get when you give Harper the same minutes Kneuppel was getting all season and put him against the best team in the league.
At least I hope! I can’t imagine Harper NOT getting 30 per game this season even as 6th man so we’ll have a much more apples to apples comparison this year. To be clear both are studs and I’m a huge fan of Kon.
I think he’s gonna have a sophomore slump. So much of the hornets offense being elite was because of Lamelo. Kon’s splits with Lamelo on/off are pretty polarizing, too.
Happy to be wrong because the hornets have some pretty exciting talent, but I think the Lamelo trade was really bad for a lot of their players. The downgrade in play-making is gonna be very apparent this season.
its quite the same with coby leading the PG, its just that lamelo has some kind of gravity
They’re not comparable I think you know that. Coby White is more of a combo guard. Lamelo is one of the best playmakers in the league.
Kons splits with Lamelo off were still an excellent player though. Yea his TS% dropped from 67% to 60%. But 60% TS is incredibly good for a rookie guard.
Oh that’s a lot better than I thought it was. Maybe I’m thinking of someone else on your team like Miller or bridges who you guys dumped. I just remember when Lamelo was traded there were some posts about the drop in offensive production/efficiency and some of them were very notable
Why does Jokic deserve to be number 1 with that embarressing postseason he just had?
Jokic is my favourite player and even I don’t think he deserves to be #1 on this list right now. He GAVE UP on defense in the playoffs. Didn’t even try.
That being said, I think it’s very possible he ends up being the best player again this year, barring injuries. He was the best player last year prior to injury.
He doesn’t but they wont admit it.
I also feel like Luka is slipping into that score a bunch and lose bucket. But that’s a separate topic.
These comments are crazy. The “score a bunch and lose” players don’t get to the finals and dominate the playoffs every year when they can play.
Terrible take. Luka had 1 full season with the lakers and got hurt when they were looking hot going into the playoffs. His prior full season he took the Mavs to the finals.
Wemby over Shai? He hasn’t won anything yet 😂
At some point he’s gotta show more postseason success though. He’s only made it past the second round twice and I don’t really expect that to change this year
15 players btw, you should know as a celtics fan just how much postseason success is dependant on the entire team.
tatum isnt even the finals mvp of the one championship he won.
Luka has never not been in that bucket. Shocking, I know. But true.
Luka lost more games than he won in 2023
There’s a case to be made that Luka Doncic has never been a true NBA caliber player, he just benefited from going pro early. Once the North American athletes caught up in experience, it was wraps. Imagine if they also had the benefit of early pro games, that gap would be even wider.
I’ve been saying Tatum > Luka since 23, flashy numbers don’t always equate to actual production.
24 didnt happen? where tatum notoriously shrunk, but the celtics were so good that it just didnt matter?
Something tells me you only look at PPG and shooting splits
Tatum shot poorly in the 2024 finals but it still didn’t sink his team in part because he has such a well-rounded game and can impact it positively even when he’s not scoring well.
Luka isn’t like that and it showed. His defense was abysmal and his offensive game wasn’t elite like it needs to be to make up for it.
24 he was generally very good for the first 3 rounds and while he started the finals slow scoring wise, his defense shut down the Luka PnR and still functioned as the primary offensive engine by leveraging his gravity to create excellent shots for everyone else. Or to think about it another way, despite the amount of talent on that team and his early shooting woes their game plan was double him whenever possible and live with the results in recovery.
There isn’t an all-in-one metric available that doesn’t have Luka as one of the most impactful players alive
I think Luka is great, not denying that. I also think Tatum is better and has been for a while.
Do you all even read the article? It explicitly states the criteria: “The panel was asked to rank players based on predicted contributions – quality and quantity – for the 2026-27 regular season only.” I am firmly on the side of Jokic having one of his worst series in his career and needing to show up this coming year to continue being regarded as an all time great, but that isn’t what this post is about.
Analysts and fans alike absolve him of all the blame when it comes to his team’s failures after like every post season
Jokic should be ranked 15 so that it pisses of Melo
26-13-10 on series average efficiency when he never recovered from his injury isn’t really embarrassing?
Wemby and Shai are coming off less efficient series than jokic had
Dude was so legendary he got ayo a 9 figure contract
Jokic never guarded Ayo unfortunately that was Murray
That was the problem, Jokic wasnt challenging anyone at the rim.
He was a big negative on the defensive end though. In fact it looked like minny’s entire strategy was to just take it to the hole when Jokic was on the court.
Denver still had an average DRTG
I mean he averaged 15% less TS percentage than his regular season and was the worst hes ever looked defensively,
Which leads me to ask again, why does he deserve the top spot?
Because he was still hurt.
You should go look up his numbers pre and post injury
So with that in mind, why does he deserve top spot…
Like lol, even when healthy he was neck and neck with SGA for MVP.
because he stat pads in the regular season
How does he stat pad? He just plays the game and is super efficient at it.
He even statpadded his way to averaging a 30 pt triple-double in the playoffs en route to a championship trophy.
Oh yeah there was no doubt that Jokic was the best player in the league for 2026 when he did that 3 years ago
No player gets as much plot armor than Jokic because of one great postseason run. He’s 31 and has only made it past the second round twice, with one of those ending with losing in 5 in the WCF
I wish he statpadded. He literally comes out of games early being 1 rebound away from a triple double all the time
He didn’t even play that bad and it was one series. Calm down. It’s a team sport. Everyone has bad games. They would’ve been swept if he weren’t a great player. Genuinely insane how much people’s opinions on a player change based on a few games where THEIR TEAM lost
Wow he always escapes serious criticism here. Any other player of his stature would get flamed for losing to the hospital Wolves
Jokic gets less criticism for losing than Shai does for winning but not doing it the “right way”
Nuggets were also hospital?
The Wolves literally were missing their 3 best offensive players and won that series as the lower seed, no excuses.
Ayo Dosunmu’s great great great great grandkids just got their college tuition paid for thanks to Jokic rim protection
He had a hot shooting night from 3 and went 5⁄5, you guys really overstate how much of a role jokic had in it
shai couldn’t get this grace if he tore his MCL, PCL, ACL, BBL, calf, meniscus, and wrist during the spurs series and yet i’m supposed to act like “top offensive engine” losing to the walking dead wolves isn’t his fault
He was awful. Lost to a hospital 6 seed
yeah he doesn’t, wemby should be #1 he was by far the best player in the playoffs
I would give it to the MVP, Wemby had a fantastic series against the Thunder, but was completepy shutout vs the Knicks
Completely shutout?
He was still the best player on the court in the finals…
He just wasn’t lol
No he wasn’t what series were you watching? Brunson was clearly better. Wemby had some off games.
you are right, it’s funny how people wanna bring up defense to diminish jokic but the same people do a complete 180 when using it to evaluate wemby.
Wemby anchored the spurs to hold the knicks to an offensive rating of 102, 9 points below their regular season average and 22(!) points below their postseason average the first 3 rounds. People saying he wasn’t the best player when every metric points towards it really reads as anti intellectualism.
Wemby definitely doesn’t deserve 1 yet.
Lmaaaaao
great point, I concede.
Jalen Brunson is universally recognized as the best performer in the 2026 playoffs.
In the finals he had on great game and a bunch of ok games where his teammates made the difference, without Kat or og they don’t win. It was a team effort not Brunson carrying them.
Brunson had the most 4th quarter points for any guard in finals history, he just kept hitting shots especially in games 1 and 5, felt inevitable and unstoppable
Jalen Brunson is universally recognized as the best player in the 2026 playoffs.
And best player in the Playoffs? Did you forget Brunson and Shai exist? Sorry but Wemby has become overrated with the fans and media.
Why does Cade deserve to be in the Top 10?
because he’s white I’m sure
Probably because without Jokic we would be the Brooklyn Nets
Why don’t you make a list and put somebody else at number 1
If ANY other player shit the bed in round 1, they would drop in the rankings. Jokic might have the best PR in NBA history.
Facts continued post season failure hasn’t hurt his ranking at all lol
Somehow Jokic is the one player where people only care about the regular season and that one championship run 4 years ago. Usually players get flamed for overperforming in the regular season and underperforming in the playoffs
In the NBA once you get 1 ring you’re in a new club. Wemby doesn’t have it so the criticism will be harsher until he does, same with Luka.
KD, Giannis, Lebron, and so many others have routinely received criticism for their teams’ failures despite already having rings. This is exclusively a Jokic thing
Cant believe the dude who has 1 final appearance (and doesnt look like he’ll get anymore deep run) in his absolute peak is regarded as high as dudes who actually dominated their era like magic/bird, Jordan, Shaq/kobe/Tim and Lebron.
This consistent number 1 status, with some benefit of the doubt, should only be for players previously mentioned.
Different eras. This NBA is designed so the teams those guys had don’t exist. Who’s the second best teammate Jokic has ever had? Whoever you pick, they’re behind what those guys had.
For the record I don’t think he’s at those guys level but neither is anyone else currently.
Team issue. Tim Duncan wouldn’t get the Nuggets past the 2nd round. Especially with Aaron Gordon injured. Jokic’s game changing ability is obvious because the Nuggets are complete ass when he’s on the bench.
Tim Duncan wouldn’t have gotten punked by Jaden McDaniels and the hospital Wolves
Tim Duncan would beat a Timberwolves team in the 1st round that’s without 3 starters including their best player.
There’s no excuses for losing to that wolves team. It was embarrassing and bringing up Duncan is disrespectful. Team issue meanwhile all the wolves did was attack the rim because they know Jokic can’t stop shit lol
Denver literally had an average playoff defense in that series
Hell Shai dropped because he lost in the conference finals without J Dub or Mitchell
The truth hurts
If 26-10-12 for a series is considered shitting the bed for player, they probably deserve to be #1
I watched that series. He was awful in the first half of the series and got locked up by Gobert. Better in the second half but it doesn’t matter, should not have lost to the Ant-less hospital Wolves
Nuggets were also hospital???
I’m pointing out that if any other player had had that stat line in any series, it would be considered a great series and people would be arguing to vault them up the list. And it’s been the floor for Jokic in the 2020s. That why he gets leeway
Not with the defense Jokic played and the standards Jokic is fairly held to as a top 5 player. Especially with the context that the Wolves were decimated by injuries. As a center you’re supposed to act as the anchor to your teams defense not a turnstile
The stat line isn’t impressive when the team is designed to give him the ball every play. You need to be elite to justify that usage and he wasn’t.
P/R/A watcher. Look at his splits. His turnovers. His defense.
When fans of the efficiency and advanced stats god start using plain P/R/A numbers to defend him, you can be sure without looking that the other numbers got worse.
He was more efficient than shai and wemby were in their most recent series
Oh we’re just going to look at counting stats? James Harden must have been the GOAT postseason player back in the day
All that to get sent home by Jaden McDaniels
You’re right, Russ is better than Steph because he had more points, rebounds, and assists
You act as if Jokic hasn’t set the benchmarks for efficiency the last 5-6 years. 6 mediocre games by his own ludicrous standards doesn’t immediately override that imo
And Shai just had the most efficient scoring season by a guard of all time
For the regular season his efficiency has been elite for 5-6 years. It hasn’t been in the playoffs for 2 seasons now, with a TS <60% both times. It’s gone down every year since he won the chip.
So Shai shoots 41% from the field in the WCF fully healthy and averages 26/3/9 and gets a third of his points from the line and got zero slander, but Jokic shoots 45% from the field and averages 26/13/10 while injured and he’s suddenly “bad in the playoffs” or whatever? Come on y’all, his team is so much worse than Shai or Wemby’s and yet we judge him based on wins and losses give me a break
Zero slander?
This sub jerked off in unison when the Thunder were eliminated.
His whole season was full of slander.
The “Thunder have been eliminated” post is literally one of the most upvoted posts of all time on this sub
Yeah but that’s because people hate the Thunder. Not because people were slandering Shai specifically. Jokic gets nonstop slander but his team receives zero despite being ass
Let’s not forget Nick Wright and Colin Cowherd legitimately manipulating statistics to make Shai seem worse.
They compared total free throws in the last two seasons and said he made more than the last 2 highest free throw shooters in that time completely out of the context that he played more games than those players combined and had less free throw attempts per game than them.
Very important context to ignore. They were legit pushing an agenda to farm popularity.
Shai has definitely received more slander than Jokic.
We forgetting the fall % posts?
and the majority opinion of this sub is still apparently that shai 100% deserves to be over jokic, so yes it would appear jokic is still getting more hate from it when you can see their numbers right there. Not even that he can’t be, but some of the comments act like it’s indefensible to have jokic at 1
has 1 rough (not even that bad, so many worse superstar meltdowns btw, but people would convince you it’s the worst all time) playoff series post injury (was extremely dominant pre injury) and finished the season averaging triple double while leading rebounds and assists, but the comments in here are convinced it is literally blasphemy or insane to have him #1
Pure cope to say Jokic gets more hate. It’s just the more reasonable opinion to have Shai at 1 than it is to have Jokic.
He is genuinely one of the worst defenders in the entire league and he plays the center position. He is arguably a worse defender at the rim than shai.
Shai was injured too and played the second best defense in the league with one of the most impactful defenders of all time and literally lost the only two other ball handlers on his team lol
What a stupid comment considering Jokic is like the most anti-PR player in the league. The dude has
3 MVPs lol
The NBA media loves him
Media loves him yet he got robbed of 2 mvps
They gave him an MVP as a 6th seed lol
One playoff series shouldn’t define a player. One (really) bad series doesn’t invalidate how good he’s been the past few.
While that is the correct and sensible take, it seems like only Jokic gets that shield by the media and general public. Any other star or top player gets ripped to shreds, whether it be LeBron or Steph or your Tatum and formerly Brown.
If prime LeBron lost to that Wolves team, you’re not seeing “one playoff series shouldn’t define a player” in the comments.
Shitting the bed = leading the series in points, rebounds, and assists
you mfs need to get off of Basketball Reference and WATCH THE GAMES. if you think Jokic played to his usual standard in the postseason last year against the Wolves you are a moron period.
He was prime smoked brisket on defense and they lost to an injured Wolves team.
Jokic was also injured but aight
Yeah led in those stats because the opposing team’s best player didn’t play 3 games, and he still lost
Yeah like who was expected to lead the series in points? Jaden McDaniels?
His defense was so bad that Wemby set the playoff block record in the first game of the next round because Minnesota forgot that people could actually contest their drives lol.
He literally had a better statistical series than Shai did vs the spurs and wemby did vs the knicks
“Jokic might have the best PR in NBA history” someone had to be #1 😭😭
He could easily be a 6x straight MVP winner right now if there wasn’t media fatigue, he’s obviously been the best player.
How? Shai has been beating him in EPM and WAR back to back then you combine the OKC record and SGA always outplaying him in head to head matchups then Jokic had no chance. You could argue 2023 but that would make him 4x not 6x.
I’m not saying Jokic deserved to be it over SGA either year, I’m saying he was the 2nd in voting every time he hasn’t won in the last 6 years. He’s playing at an MVP level 6 years straight
The ranking is a prediction for the regular season performers of the next year. It is not a ranking for all time/career performance. His under performance in this playoffs doesn’t matter. Do you genuinely believe that Jokic is not going to average a near 30 point triple double and be in MVP consideration? He is also coming off (up until his injury) one of his best regular season of his career.
I guess Jokic isn’t getting blamed at all for losing in the first round to a 6 seed without their best player.
Yep, after the chip: 2nd round exit, 2nd round exit and now 1st round exit with one of the worst rim protection. But hey, it is all Jamal Murray fault.
Lost to good teams, bar the last season
If that were LeBron he would be relentlessly shit on for years to come.
Or Luka, Durant, any of them. Jokic gets treated very softly by the media.
Imagine you send Bucky, Black Widow from Temu, Captain America from Ali-express, Captain America from Russia, Girl that barely controls her powers of zig-zag and has no super strength
To fight against a God, that most likely has more physical power than Hulk, Thor, or Thanos … Not to mention his bulshit shadow powers
And you proceed to blame Bucky for the loss … ?
Oh Wait ..
Mitchell at 10??? Lmao. Everything else is decent
27.9⁄4.5⁄5.7⁄1.5 on 48.3%/36.4%/86.5%
Went to the ECF.
It’s not as crazy as you’re making it, but I can definitely agree he isn’t top 10.
Literally 1st or 2nd team all-NBA for three of the past four seasons
Because he’s been healthy and because he’s led a good team in PPG.
Mitchell is a bad defender and bad passer who doesn’t impact the game when his shot isn’t falling, which happens a decent amount during the Cavs’ underwhelming postseasons year in and year out.
Who should be above him?
Honestly? Durant, Jaylen Brown, Steph, Haliburton, I could even argue Scottie Barnes, Maxey, and Kawhi
Maxey
He also makes terrible decisions in the clutch and has choked repeatedly.
I too come repeatedly
EDIT: Ah wtf don’t edit your comment to make me look insane hahaha
For anyone seeing this, the original comment said “…and has come repeatedly.”
He has what repeatedly?
I’m a suns fan and it’s a homer take but if you put Booker on this team it’s the same or better is an example of how where you are in the nba plays a huge factor in your accolades and perception for many players to a certain talent tier due to team success, even if they aren’t fully driving that success like Jokic, Giannis etc.
Since Mitchell as been on the cavs, the games he doesn’t play they are 28-22 since 2022. That same time frame the suns are 26-42 without Booker.
Booker was 20th on this list. Do we really think there’s a 10 spot gap between the two? Or is just Mitchell is on a way better team like your saying.
He’s not a bad passer at all, he’s just not elite, he’s averaged 5.5 assists in the past 3 years playing with multiple point guards who were handling the ball from Garland, LeVert and now Harden, Schroder last year too
Almost any perimeter player that has the ball in their hands enough to shoot 20 times per game is going to fall into 5 assists per game out of nothing but sheer usage.
Yeah but he averages 5-6 assists a game and 3 turnovers a game. Like I don’t think it’s fair to shit on him for being a bad passer because that’s not really the purpose he has in a game but it’s not like he’s a good passer either.
He’s literally overrated especially in playoffs
I remember when literally used to mean something.
His team got swept dawg they didn’t even get one game
Literally 4th highest average ppg in playoffs of active players.
Dosent matter if your team got swept
And it’s gotten him exactly nowhere in playoffs over his career except getting buzzsawed by the Knicks. I get they’re the better team but not even taking a game off them when the Hawks got 2 is severely disappointing.
These the same Playoffs where his team made it further than 6 of the other players in the top 10?
Got over the hump and made the final four too. I think it’s fair. I think people are reacting to just “top 10” as a concept he should be above the group they have at 11-15.
He lost to the best team in the league with #6 Brunson who also beat the second best team in the league with the #2 Wemby in the finals. People punishing the cavs/donovan like they got beat by a worse team?
They got buzzsawed by the Knicks who they should have been more competitive against after taking two teams they should have handled to seven games. Not exactly impressive.
Lmao.
He did not “get over the hump” by beating two teams in 7 games that the Cavs had massive talent and experience advantages over. Then they lost 4-0 in the ECF.
They beat a 60 win team and then lost to the eventual champs. No shame in that.
Literally top 7 in MVP voting three of the past four years
Not being snarky but fyi you can edit a comment
C’mon now, you know that once you leave the top 4-5 in voting you’re talking about guys who just made a few ballots. 2026 he got 7th place (tied) by getting literally one 5th place vote.
Plus MVP voting is often giving it to the best player on the best teams. I imagine a lot of his votes in 2025 involved some default logic of “make sure the best player on the team with the best record in each conference is on the ballot.”
Nah, wtf is Tatum doing up there? Dude averaged 20 ppg and was mediocre in the regular season and post-season games. He had a chance to prove himself and he didn’t, but people want to pretend he didn’t. I think people continue to give him excuses and will continue, even if he continues to be mediocre.
Idk how you argue he isn’t. If he’s all nba first or second team multiple years straight that makes him top 10 plus the mvp votes put him in the top 10 comfortably. Who would even be behind him that you think should be top 10
I’m with you. I’ve never understood why Mitchell is always trust into these top 10 lists after all this time and literally zero post season success.
Who would you replace him with?
Who would you have over him this year that isn’t already over him
Steph, KD, KAT, book (I’m biased), Brown
In a series I would agree that Steph and KD should be over him but I think a ranking for 26⁄27 that takes into account age and injuries, it’s fair to bump those guys down. Not like KD’s track record for being a number 1 option is much better.
J Brown… personally side with analytics on this at least a little. He looks awesome playing in teams full of guys that are good connectors and shooters.
Booker is similar to Mitchell but his 3’point shooting numbers have tanked.
KAT is a good shout tbh.
Scottie and Kawhi
Maybe they meant Ajay Mitchell
Who would you put there? Who is your team? ANY contribution beyond LOLoverrated?
Jaylen Brown.
Jokic is this generations goat regular season player
“This generation’s greatest of all time” doesn’t make sense
Unless it’s the generation that discovered time travel
This is me being an old man, but the way people use GOAT non-specifically really bothers me.
if “this generation” is modifying the consumers of the product (fans) it could
maybe gen z considers Jokic the goat regular season player while older gen z considers Harden the goat regular season player while (etc etc)
You see, shitting the bed on offense and being the worst defensive player on the floor in a first round loss to the hospital wolves actually makes you the best player in the NBA
Cue flood of nuggets fans about why it doesn’t count (he was injured months before, there were nuggets hurt, gobert is really good and Jokic shouldn’t be expected to play well against him, an inefficient 26 a game is actually good and shooting 18% from 3 is totally fine)
Funny how Jokic hasn’t gotten near the fatigue Giannis did for flaming out in the playoffs
Neither of their front offices have done them any favors
And only one of them gets actual heat for it
funny how Embiid made it further than both while injured and he’s ranked 41
Embiid is impossible to rank. Fully healthy he’s in the conversation for best player in the league, but he’s essentially never fully healthy. Playing through injury he’s still a top 30 player, but that’s still only like 30% of the time. And 70% of the time he isn’t on the court at all.
Jokic was single handedly trying to carry his bum ass squad bro not the same
It’s his first flame out, if he does it again and then straight up misses the playoffs then yes, he’ll deservedly get massive fatigue (and probably need to leave Denver).
I remember him getting swept then crashing out against the Suns not that long ago
It’s his 3rd flame out in a row
Jokic best teammate missed his two first playoff runs after his MVP years. His team wasn’t expected to win the title those years, and he was also compared a lot to Embiid (whose team had far worse meltdowns than the Nuggets).
Giannis also didn’t get as much shit as Harden did when they were competing for MVPs, then started to get some shit when he started being a bit passive aggressive in his trade demands for better teammates and then to get out of Milwaukee…people tend to give you shit a lot more when you give them a reason not to like you
Those Embiid teams were genuinely lottery teams if not G-league teams without him most of the time.
Seriously those teams produced the craziest on/off stats for NBA teams ever.
I mean it cost him the 2025 MVP (and 2023 one) so yeah it’s actually killed him
Maybe because he won a chip first?
Just wait until this guy finds out about all of the other basketball Jokic has played.
Yup like the previous two playoffs where he disappeared in a game 7 against the Thunder and blew a 20 point lead against the wolves. Legendary.
there were nuggets hurt
Can’t be anyone bringing up the injury card I hope, lmao
Hospital Wolves is too good bruh, wtf 😭😭
He definitely deserves criticism for his attitude and defence that series but a lot of his offensive struggles were because of his injured wrist, he couldn’t even shoot open 3s
Ding ding ding!!! First on the list, well done. Jokic is the first superstar ever to carry an injury into the playoffs and he shouldn’t be criticized for shitting the bed in the first round.
Apply some nuance, you don’t to be deludedly supportive or critical of him. There’s a mid-point. Jokic deserves serious criticism and raised expectations going into this season.
Tatum had a broken wrist in the 2022 finals but he still gets killed for his performance there.
Man you are frustrated as fuck. Is everything good at home my guy?
Dude clearly stated he deserves criticism, you’re just being a troll.
he shouldn’t be criticized for shitting the bed in the first round.
are you blind? He literally said he deserves criticism lmao
I mean he’s had the wrist injury since 2019, I don’t think it was that
He came back early from the knee injury and shot like shit ever since
Nuggets were on like a 10 game win streak going into the playoffs. No one said he was hurt then. He was just bad against an actual defense.
Please go look at his numbers pre and post injury.
They are night and day. Literally two completely different players. He never recovered
I just don’t see why we absolutely hound guys for having bad playoff series. Like most great players have had a series where they just couldn’t put it together. 4-7 games played should not completely tank the reputation of a player, especially when we’ve seen them be amazing in the playoffs numerous other seasons.
Jokic’s series was statistically better than Shai vs the Spurs or Wemby vs the Knicks?
If you think “shitting the bed on offense” is leading the series in points, rebounds, assists on series average efficiency, then you just have GOAT level standards for him.
“he was injured months before” — Yes, and he never recovered fully (Adelman said this and his numbers pre and post injury are night and day)
“there were nuggets hurt” — Yeah his two best defenders were out for the series”
“Gobert is really good” — Yes a 4x DPOY is a difficult matchup
“an inefficient 26 a game is actually good” — Jokic was more efficient than Wemby and Shai in their final series LOL
Holy mental gymnastics haha
Jokic was fucking terrible vs the Wolves. The wolves had way worse injuries but Jokic’s abysmal defense and struggles vs Gobert helped keep the Wolves afloat.
If he was terrible, what was Shai vs the spurs and wemby vs the knicks?
Because he had a better statistical series than both of them?
Also, how is DDV missing 3 games, Ant missing 2 games, and Ayo missing 1 game “way worse” than Watson missing 6 games and Gordon missing 3 games?
He carried flawed rosters to the most playoff wins in the stacked Western Conference over the past 5 years as well.
No team has repeated as champion during his prime.
That’s because he WAS the best player in the league. He’s #3 behind Shai and Wemby now. They were simply better last year.
simply better when? Post injury (and 1 playoff series, also post injury?)
Because Jokic was extremely dominant pre injury regular season, and even over the total season finished 2 in mvp averaging a 28/13/11 triple double on 67% TS, being the first player ever to lead both rpg and apg over their career (let alone 1 season doing both), and completed a 6 year streak of top 2 in mvp (only bird and russell have done)
and yall are convinced it is blasphemy to have him #1, like utterly indefensible
Literally lost in the 1st round against the Hospital Wolves. Come on bro. I think he deserves to get knocked down to at least #3 for that given he didn’t exactly perform that great (i know the numbers look good but if you watched the series you’d know he was bad)
The Thunder not repeating this year has nothing to do with Jokic tho
What?
The point is that the Nuggets are one of the few teams that have consistently been in the mix the entirety of Jokic’s prime. The only other teams that have been consistently in the playoffs as long are the Celtics (and the Bucks until last season).
They aren’t in the mix. Haven’t gotten out of the second round in 3 years.
This is one of the dumbest comments you’ll read on reddit, you have 0 reading comprehension or critical thinking skills
What’s crazy is that person made one of the dumbest comments you’ll read on Reddit, and as of right now it still has a positive score with 13 upvotes. His comment doesn’t even kinda make sense. He’s got 200,000 comment karma btw. Lmao.
Feels like we’re really sleepwalking into the dumbest generation in modern history.
to rank him at #1, you have to claim he’s better than everyone else
you can do that by describing his strengths or describing other players’ weaknesses
by highlighting that there have been no repeat champions means, in this line of argumentation, that we can look past recent struggles of the Nuggets because no other team has risen to the level of repeat champions so all teams have periods of struggle
I agree with pieces of this, but I think the conclusion should therefore be “Jokic isn’t the #1 player coming into 2026, because teams led by other players are at the top coming into the season we’re ranking for”
He’s a big reason why the roster is flawed, his offense is all time great he’s had very good help there but building a defense around a center who’s a worse athlete and rim protector than a grandpa is extremely hard
There’s a reason the only ring you ever won you didn’t face a single top 15 offense, that’s not going to happen ever again lol
You’re getting downvoted but there’s a reason the Nuggets completely collapse without Aaron Gordon, and it’s Jokic’s defense (or lack thereof).
No they collapse with Gordon now too, he’s not that good of a defender but yes he’s was of the better ones
They’ve collapsed most times they’ve faced good offenses, their defense is awful and Jokic is a big part of that, he allows 70% at the rim, he can’t switch, he can’t do anything other than get a couple of steals
To truly surround Jokic with elite defenders you would need an insane team, it’s hard to do, especially since it requires a rim protecting 4 who is good of ball, those are literally super rare
You guys talk bizarre about someone with a ring, another conference finals appearance, and multiple other series wins
Can’t say that if you lead your team to a championship even once.
You can make the case for other guys in this list tho.
He had literally the easiest championship path of all-time lol. People put way too much emphasis on 1 ring versus 0 when it’s mainly luck for that tier of player who can only win once. Plenty of 0 ring guys would flip with Jokic if you flipped their opponents too.
Give 2018 Harden four 45-win opponents instead of the KD Warriors, Luka against the 2023 Heat instead of the 2024 Celtics, Iverson against literally any of 2023 Jokic’s opponents instead of the 2001 Lakers, etc etc etc…
Maybe some day people will reconcile the fact that being like 1-7 against 50+ win teams in the playoffs as the supposedly most impactful player of all-time simply doesn’t add up…
playoffs by year
| Year | PPG | RPG | APG |
| 2019 | 25.1 | 13.0 | 8.4 |
| 2020 | 24.4 | 9.8 | 5.7 |
| 2021 | 29.8 | 11.6 | 5.0 |
| 2022 | 31.0 | 13.2 | 5.8 |
| 2023 🏆 | 30.0 | 13.5 | 9.5 |
| 2024 | 28.7 | 13.4 | 8.7 |
| 2025 | 26.2 | 12.7 | 8.0 |
| 2026 | 25.8 | 13.2 | 9.5 |
lol just wait to see the season Shai is going to have after losing to spurs. Shai best offensive season coming in since his team got worse
i’m gonna have to hear about him being better than bron after the drops 36/12/13 on my team in november aren’t i smh
Strange take
For a regular season specialist, LeBron James surely seems to struggle with Jokic in the postseason
****40 year old Lebron
Western Conference Finals MVP Nikola Jokić?
Finals MVP Nikola Jokić?
NBA Champion Nikola Jokić?
that one?
He’s its best player period 🤷♂️
It’s hilarious how long the haters had to wait to have something to attack him over, and all it ended up being was Jokic going cold from three for a week.
he won a chip tho so this doesn’t apply, harden still the goats
I could see that but only if he didn’t have a Finals championship under his belt.
Edwards is #1 and my flair has everything to do with it.
Bro isn’t even the best basketball player in Minnesota. Miles clears him
I know what I’m about, son.
Jokic #1 is insane.
Still the best player in the league
Well he got embarrassed by the Twovles without Ant or Divincenzo
The nuggets lost to their worst matchup in the league. The thunder lost to their worst matchup in the league. The spurs lost to their worst matchup in the league. The same is true for all of the top three. The fact it happened in the first round just looks worse, it’s not a real point against him
The Thunder lost in 7 to a Spurs team at close to full health without their second and third best creators/scorers, and the Spurs lost to a Knicks team that hadn’t lost a game since the first round. Both very different to losing in 6 to a Wolves team without their best player
The nuggets worst matchup were g league back court players?
The Spurs and the Knicks were actually not missing 8 trillion dollars of their cap space in street clothes, their best players were playing in the game against the teams they beat.
And Wemby struggled at times during the finals.
Jokic has been the best player for a few years now - the only guy who has a comparable track record is SGA. You could have made the case for Giannis until pretty recently, but his injuries probably knock him down a couple of spots.
Dude plays no defense and has been an early playoff exit 3 years in a row now. Doesn’t sound like the best to me
In those 6 games he averaged:
- 26 points
- 13 rebounds
- 10 assists
Yeah dude… averaging a triple double over 6 games is really bad… He had to have been terrible the whole series to not be averaging 40 points, 20 rebounds, 20 assists. How is he even in the league?
You didn’t watch the series if you thought he played well. His defense was genuinely atrocious and his attitude was worse.
Damn you must think Westbrook is the goat by this logic.
I’d say he’s more like the player who puts up the best offensive stats during the regular season. I personally wouldn’t put him about SGA and arguably Wemby in terms of the actual best player in the league.
I mean, Jokic actually has a championship, unlike Wemby (who struggled at times during the finals and also in the final of the NBA Cup, and has only made the playoffs once). Wemby also has some limitations on offense that he needs to continue to work on.
SGA has a pretty good case, but Jokic is just a bit more transcendent offensively. So it’s a valid debate between SGA’s recent success and all-around consistency, vs. Jokic’s top offensive game and defensive limitations.
Jokic at #1 really doesn’t make sense to me.
I’d put him at 2-3. SGA should be first as much as he annoys me
He averaged a triple double last season, no. 1 is completely valid.
PRA is not the only measure of how good a player is. Don’t know why people haven’t moved past this line of thinking yet
Jokic is also more efficient than Shai?
Congrats? His defense is absolutely abysmal and his offense was terrible this playoffs
Not really. EPM’s TS% has Shai as more efficient.
Fuck yeah! Russ was the best player in the league for like three seasons!
His ball hog style didn’t work in the playoffs
Calling the first center to lead the league in assists per game(while barely cracking top-10 in USG%) a “ballhog”, you can’t make this shit up.
Usage rate does not mean what you think it is. In terms of touches per game, Jokic has the most in NBA history. Having a lot of touches means there are more opportunities for you to get assists.
He’s a great playmaker for his teammates.
He also has a championship, unlike Wemby.
My king 💙🧡
This is probably the highest he’ll ever be ranked, but quite a peak it is
He’ll be top five after we repeat.
Top 2 and it ain’t 2
Finally the respect is there and well earned
I feel like No. 1 now should be between either Shai or Wemby, as good as Jokic is, I am starting to think that his time as the no. 1 best player in the league is going to start passing us by.
Wemby had some underwhelming moments in key situations (the finals, the NBA Cup, etc.). He is also not as offensively consistent as some of these other guys. He probably needs to take another step forward on offense and perhaps show he can seal the deal on the biggest stage in order to secure that number one spot.
I agree SGA has a valid case over Jokic - really could go either way between them. I’d put SGA over Wemby (2 MVPs and a championship vs. 0 MVPs or championships).
It’s not like SGA never underwhelms
He was puttied in game 6 vs the Spurs in a chance to close the series and go to the finals
Wemby hasn’t won anything though
Personally since winning is a team effort I don’t heavily factor that into best individual player.
I watch games and think “who’s the best player on the court?”
That top 5 is correct. The top 2 is correct. And Jokic is still the best player on the court when playing against Wemby.
BUT I expect that’ll change this year.
Shai was the best player on the court against jokic for the past 2 years playoffs series and reg season and didnt get that grace
Jokić looked like the clear best player until that calf strain
Jokic was the favorite to win the mvp for like 1 week total when he had the calf strain. I dont know where youre getting “clear best player” from
because mvp isn’t best player
The thunder weren’t losing at that point, so coming out and winning every game will give their best player (shai) a gigantic mvp boost when it’s believed they had a chance at the wins record
Jokic became the favorite when that narrative was dying because it didnt look like they’d break it anymore and he was undeniable except under those circumstances, he was doing 30/12/11 on 73% TS. That’s clear best player. The stats based mvp calculation had him so far and away the favorite it was ridiculous, the narrative didn’t because of how well the thunder were doing as a team and team wins are a huge mvp factor
Nah. SGA had like a +12 epm when Jokic got injured and on mvp odds they were like +100 ans -120 basically dead even.
I think if you just swapped him onto OKC or SA, and it just magically means he gets further in the playoffs, which is probably true, then it’s all good.
Both OKC and SAs defensive schemes are built around having a top 3 defender in the league.
By the time 2025 came SGA has been the best player in the world. This postseason, Wemby might have taken the crown. Jokic at #1 is comical
I don’t think it has yet though. If I’m putting together a team to win this year, future years be damned, I don’t have a problem taking Jokic over Shai or Wemby. I’d trust in his production this year over other players.
Now if you’re talking about who this year do you build a franchise around, that’s a different question with a different number 1.
im taking Shai or Wemby over Jokic for both situations lol
I’ll check back in June 2027
Seems about right
That’s definitely the quality of content that we’ve come to expect from ESPN.
No, they need to spend a few weeks arguing about it on every hot take show they’ve got.
Commas would’ve helped the title be more readable.
they don’t know ball at all 😭
Mitchell is not a top 10 player to me. Why is he so high
Not defending Spida, but just curious who is your pick to replace him in the top 10?
Mitchell has better stats than Brown by a hair across the board, so no.
Book just made me laugh.
Like I said, Booker is a homer pick I understand but it’s far closer than you think. Mitchell has accomplished fuck all in the post season despite numerous 1 and 2 seeds.
He gets you a bucket in the regular season but he hasn’t won shit, certainly not enough to think he’s laughably better than Book who at least was 2 wins from a ring. Took a legendary performance from prime Giannis to stop it.
I’d accept Steph (although he is getting up there in age) and Book as better. KAT is kinda same tier as Mitchell imo. KD I think has declined too much to be top 10. Brown, I’m not sold on, but I sure wish it were true for my sake lmao.
Haliburton.
Depends on how he comes back from injury of course but I could see that
That’s a fair take, everyone is curious how he’ll look, but I’m biased and I don’t see how he doesn’t come back at 100%
Lmao
Who should take his place
His numbers are basically identical to Brunsons tbf. He’s really good at basketball, he just had a bad playoff series this year whereas Brunson turned it up a notch.
And I think Brunson is fairly rated here.
whereas Brunson turned it up a notch
Unironically I’m not sure that was even a top 5 Brunson playoff series.
Maybe not overall but dropping 45 to close out the Spurs on the road combined with how it looked when he was scoring on Wemby multiple times…makes the series stand out for me lol
I thought you meant the Cavs series
Not even close. Probably middle of the pack if we’re keeping it a buck.
76ers 2024
Celtics 2025
Spurs 2026
76ers 2026
Heat 2023
Pacers 2024
Cavs 2026
Pistons 2025
Cavs 2023
Pacers 2025
Hawks 2026
That series against us was the 2nd best of his career? That can’t be right, he was far from playing his best. Game 4 he was awesome but the rest was just okay by his standards. He had a gamescore of 34.8 in that game, 3rd best of his playoff career, but the other 5 games were all a gamescore of 20 or lower (35th to 73rd best of his playoff career, out of 86 total). It was a great series team-wide but on an individual level I think he’s definitely done a few better
Did you not see what he did to your team in 2025?
Make the case
Man, Giannis went to the dark side with gambling, but people seriously underrate him at this point. When he plays he’s best player in league quality.
Tbf, it’s an extremely common common take on here these days when discussing the best players in the league to say “the top 5 is interchangeable”
Shai below Wemby and Jokic… Jokic getting the benefit of the doubt that Giannis isn’t.
Giannis is literally getting the benefit of the doubt, he got injured last season and didn’t play much and is still ranked top 5? How much more grace do you want?
I guess it depends how much you factor in health. My assumption is that he should be good to play this year. Especially now that he’s been traded. There was a whole thing last year with the Bucks keeping him out of games to preserve him for a trade.
But my comment is less about Giannis (5th is fine) than Jokic, who was injured last year, played through it to get to 65 games and then collapsed in the playoffs.
Giannis and Jokic are both guys who can be the best player in the league at any given point but the competition at the top of the board is pretty tight and I think it’s a reputation placement to go above the back to back MVP.
Why you go Name Rank. Looks weird should’ve been the other way around
Just a reminder that Cade averaged 31/6/7 in the playoffs with a collapsed lung and his 2nd best player being Tobias Harris.
With an assist/turnover ratio barely above 1. He’s a great player truly and also stats need full context
Cade would have been my vote.
crazy. Josh Giddey should be up there
Nah he should be lower. I see him around the teens.
I love Jokic and think he’s great, but the last time he was on the court his deficiencies were clearly on display. Makes it tough for him to be above SGA (which I can’t believe I’m saying) and Wemby.
Luka and Giannis rating must be based on health/fitness not being taken into account.
The only player that is even in the same league as Luka and Giannis that is below them in this list is Tatum, and Luka and Giannis have both been clearly better than Tatum so far in their careers.
Yeah and it really shows in the success their teams have had the last few years.
Luka is only better than Tatum in raw scoring ability. He’s absolutely worse at every other aspect of basketball. But he makes flashy plays so +++ ranking!!
tatum couldn’t even beat out jaylen brown for FMVP lmao
passing/playmaking? Rebounding?
Tatum is incredibly strong in both categories. He literally ran our offense in the 2022 finals run and was our best rebounder against Dallas in 2024. If Luka is better, it’s by small margins. To me Luka having the numbers edge is about heliocentricity and not ability. I genuinely don’t think he’s better at those things, just has had more opportunity. Scoring is the only area he clearly wins. And defensively, Tatum runs laps around him.
Brown should be at that number 10 spot 🤷🏽♂️ coming from a lakers fan
EPM believers have been pretty quiet lately.
Wonder if EPM putting Jalen Duren at #8, Mitchell at #7, and Chet at #6 made them a little embarrassed about having put the metric on a pedestal
EPM is a rate stat. It doesn’t measure overall impact across key moments.
And the top five in EPM are the top five here IIRC
I have no issue with those rankings
Thats the thing. His defense is overrated
this is a fine list it just feels harsh to have shai at 3 even though wemby and joker are deserving of their placements
The top 3 are in a class of their own and you could tell me any order and I’d be fine with it. In a year where none of them are defending the title I’m pretty ok with selecting Jokic.
Yeah I’d put him #1 slightly but there’s no consensus best in player the league going into this season.
Wemby isn’t deserving of shit
Wemby over the finals MVP that cooked his ass is so disrespectful
Kat and og won them that series
Wemby was the best player in that series
Absolutely not holy shit lmao
For sure, if you count flopping as a stat. Guy’s unwatchable.
Luka fan. Yawn
Here’s 10 cents, you’re a Thunder fan, go and buy yourself non-slippery shoes.
With non-blind referees Wemby and Luka both eat SGA’s lunch anytime as does Joker.
Cryy 😭
Do you ever watch Luka play basketball? Because, if you did, you would realize that he regularly does the exact same shit that you claim SGA does.
If man
Idk why everyone is mad about this list, it’s perfectly reasonable. It’s a predictive list and people are arguing guys to move up or down 1-2 spots. I think Shai should be 1 but is it crazy he’s 3 behind Jokic and Wemby? Not really. For the people complaining Mitchell is 10, I think it’s way more egregious they put Maxey at 11.
Curry, Durant, Kawhi and LeBron are older, regression isn’t that absurd to predict. Outside of that, who in the top 20 did they put that you would put above Mitchell?
Maxey, Brown, Towns, Barnes, Haliburton and Booker. It’s really not that ridiculous to say Mitchell is better than all these guys or will have a better season than them. He’s certainly performed better than them in each of the past 2 seasons (you could maybe argue Brown last season but I’d still put Mitchell above him)
I don’t think many people are mad? I just see basketball discussion.
Also, with your Mitchell discussion, he certainly hasn’t ’certainly performed better’ than all those guys. He’s a volume scorer but his skill set is otherwise very limited.
When it comes to post season basketball, Mitchell has flat out failed year after year with numerous top seeded squads with championship expectations. It’s honestly a bit surprising to me how little flak he’s gotten considering how many times he’s flamed out.
Kind of expected but Giannis didn’t produce since more than half a season so why put him in front of guys like Brunson or Cade or Edwards?
After playoff performance, a bit disrespectful to put Jokic in front of Shai and Wemby imho.
When Giannis played last year that dogshit Bucks team was a top 3 offense and a top-10 defense. Agree the injuries are troubling but you can say the same thing about Luka and Wemby, who have both recently missed huge portions of a season.
Especially considering that Giannis’s injury wasn’t one that usually keeps people out and he wanted to play through it. Bucks just wanted (rightfully so) to protect an asset that they’d have to trade over the summer
Yea the disrespect to our king is insane. I hope he has a healthy season and reminds the league who he is.
I hope he has a healthy season and reminds the league who he is.
You and me both!
These lists are generally for expectations of the season upcoming.
I think it’s fair to assume that Jokic will have as good or better of a regular season than Shai or Wemby, given his track record. The playoff performance is of note, but not everyone can always have a good performance.
I’m a Knicks fan - Brunson is my dude. But I can’t sit here and say that Brunson will have a better season than Giannis, given the expectations of the two. I’d rather have Brunson, but Giannis will likely have a more noteworthy season in the way of stats.
Giannis is still number 1 in my heart 😭
Obviously it’s time and it’s true, but crazy to see one of these lists fully moved on from LeBron/Curry/KD
I could see any of them at #9 or #10, though.
I think it is a perfectly fair list and 1-6 is interchangeable depending on team and fit.
I really like un-ordered tiers or how Ben Taylor does his list (IE Jokic is #1 but potentially #1-4, etc)
Hoping this is the season Ant starts moving up to mvp territory
Why the fuck y’all engaging with the lowest of low quality content on ESPN?
Don’t we have to see tatum?
Did you not watch last year? Regular season and playoffs he played 22 games
Sorry I meant don’t we have to see tatum that shoots better that 41% from the field.
Like what are we basing this on.
In the playoffs he had higher efficiency than the 16 games of the regular season. Using a 16 game sample coming back from a major injury but not the 6 in a more physical setting when he had his legs under him a bit. Using FG% in the big 2026 is certainly a choice.
Idk what ESPN or others are basing it on, but for me, it was using my eyes and seeing that he was the same player, just out of shape. Once his shot normalizes from a larger sample, which I’d expect this season, he’ll go back to where he was as a top 5-6 player in the league. 9 is not crazy.
6 games of unsustainable basketball? nah, I’m going to have to see it over a stretch before I give him a ranking.
Vibes
Are you under the impression that achilles injuries have a long-term effect on shooting?
Tatum is a streaky shooter that was rusty after sitting for 10 months. There’s no good reason to think that an achilles injury will permanently tank his shooting.
Wembanyama OVERRRATED
Statistically one of the greatest impact playoff runs of all time at 22 years old. :-)
Statistically the Cavs beat the Knicks.
You know how dumb you sound? You think after all that was proven in regard to stats not being everything, people would stop bringing it up
It was definitely one of the biggest choke jobs of all time. What’s the stat on that? lol
It’s cool bro. Knicks fans don’t know ball. I know this by now.
I know you lost and have a bitch as the face of your team. Sacre blue! Spurs fans don’t know how to lose.
Wemby is an amazing player, but in the finals I don’t even think he was the best player on the floor for you guys. I thought Castle was literally unguardable. Wemby an all-world defender, but everytime he had the ball in the high-post or beyond the arc I was thrilled.
Castle averaged 15 points per game on 38% shooting…
JFC, I mean Harper.
Donovan has got to have one of the best PR teams ever.
Mfs claiming Mitchell doesn’t belong but everybody’s scared to name an alternative.
Steph, Maxey, Jaylen Brown.
Scottie outplayed him in the cavs raps series
Brunson gave the “#2” player BTA. And he’s still not top 5 lol
Cade’s way too low. There are two sides to the game — offense and defense. He’s going to start making all-defense teams soon.
giannis kind of high IMO