The Definitive List of the NBA’s Top 10 Players (1/5/21)
Typing 21 into the date feels great.
For a refresher on the format:
Outlet — Rather than a pass, Outlets will contain the main feature of the week. To distinguish it from Thursday Iso’s, Outlets will usually be lists of general NBA related content and not necessarily the news topic of the week
Heat Check — A check-in for the league. Contains my notes and comments on the nationally televised games I’ve watched the past week
Mailbag — Answering questions you, the people, want my opinions on. Might end up being bi-weekly or so depending on the volume I get, so DM away
Outlet
I made this quick list in the offseason as a fun exercise to spark debate with friends. The only qualification I had was to list the best players in the NBA at that date in time. This was me listing on instinct without giving further thought, for that was well before I knew I’d have a column where my opinions would be publically judged. That being said, I’m glad I now have this so I have a reason to be more accurate, and y’all can judge to your hearts’ content.
The updated (and objectively definitive) list of the top 10 NBA players in 2021:
1. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
We’re all on the same page right? By all accounts he shouldn’t be in this spot this late into his career. Primes aren’t supposed to last 18 years, but here we are. He’s been the best player in the league every season since at least 2007 but arguably as early as his sophomore campaign in 2004. We’ll save the GOAT discussion for another day, so for now just appreciate his continued mastery of his craft.
2. Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets
Yea my initally list had him grossly underrated at #5, but my excuse is you’re not supposed to come back from an achilles injury this seamlessly (great news for Klay though). Through 6 games he’s averaging 28 | 7 | 5 while shooting a ridiculous 51% | 45% | 88%. His game with the ball-dominant Kyrie is just as potent as it was with the ball-dominant Russ and the ball-sharing Warriors.
3. Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
He didn’t get worse by any means, he just gets slightly outclassed by a healthy Kevin Durant. His start to the season has been subpar, but there’s no reason to doubt a return to form sooner rather than later. He’s still the most dominant defender in the league and a cold-blooded assassin in crunch time (forgive the timing of the ONE bad game he had in his final game of last playoffs). The two above him happen to be generational talents but make no mistake, there isn’t a single player in the league more frightening than Kawhi.
4. Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
Another star off to a slow start, this placement takes into account an eventual bounce back. He’s playing enough minutes, but you can tell he’s strategically deferring more than he used to. Hard to say why besides lingering injuries, but we can postulate that it’s him being smart with his body after just playing the longest season of his career. When he’s finally right, he’s the best big in the game and unstoppable in every facet.
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
If free throws weren’t a part of the game he’d be higher, but his drop in my rankings is primarily due to that fatal flaw. As seen in the season opener, he can’t be counted on at the stripe, and that’s huge due to the nature of his offensive game. He can’t shoot well enough yet to warrant defenders’ respect, so if in crunchtime he gets hacked doing what he does best in slashing, the Bucks have to cross their fingers and pray. All that said, he’s still dominant enough in every other aspect to justify his status as a top-5 player. Btw, he’s also the reigning back to back MVP.
6. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
It’s hard to put into words how impressive the Joker has been this season. Look at his stats: 22 | 11 | 12.8 — not a typo, 12.8 assists per game while only being 40th in the league in usage rate. Unheard of. On top of that, he’s maintained his elite play from last year on defense, specifically on pick and rolls. He just had a massive level up and he’s only 25.
7. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
I know he just dropped 62, but you’re not making my top 5 if you can’t play defense. Luckily, he’s the most singularly talented player in the league due to his unparalleled shooting ability so he doesn’t drop far. I still don’t have his team making the playoffs, but I do love watching Steph back to his old ways.
8. Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers are undefeated this season while also having the best defense in the league when The Process laces up. He’s 1 of 3 Sixers players in the top 4 in defensive rating, and it could be argued he’s largely responsible for that with him being the anchor. He’s the best post player in the game who also happens to have a sweet jumper as a counter. AD is still the class of the league, but if Joel puts it together this season and figures out how to truly dominate, he could easily take the big man throne.
9. Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
This one is me being selfish. I love Jimmy Butler (who doesn’t after what he did last season), but his stats and play so far this season have been awful. My argument for his placing is that it particularly doesn’t matter for him. He’s proven enough to deserve the benefit of the doubt as a top 10 player; he just knows what it takes to win and flat out does it. More on him down in the Mailbag.
10. James Harden, for now Houston Rockets
This one is me being unselfish. His actions thus far have been flagrant, but it would be irrational to not have him in your top 10 list after seeing his performances up to this point. He’s averaging a 2K-esque 33 | 5 | 11. I’ve already gone over his game in detail in a past post, but he’s since continued to prove he’s not dropping off anytime soon. Despite his marked improvements in past years he is still a minus on defense, but he deserves this spot on the merit of being the best offensive player in the league by a significant margin.
Honorable Mention: Chris Paul
The Point God gets the Honorable Mention spot as opposed to a #11 spot due to how he now operates in this league. He no longer has to carry a team now that he has a running mate in Devin Booker and a (nearly) complete supporting cast, so he’s long past putting up crazy numbers. However, it has been shown time and again that everywhere CP3 goes, wins follow. He has the highest basketball IQ this side of LeBron, and he willingly shares his knowledge to make all of his teammates better. He has lost a step athletically, but you wouldn’t know it by virtue of all the tricks he’s learned to compensate. I was a baby when Magic Johnson retired so for all intents and purposes, Chris Paul is the greatest point guard of my lifetime.
Let’s see how this list evolves by season’s end. Also, send me your own top 10s and let’s compare + discuss!
Heat Check
New Year’s week for some reason had almost no nationally televised games, so here’s the bit that I was able to watch.
12/27/20
- LMAO
- If you didn’t watch this game, unlike the Clips, you didn’t miss much
- Devonte’ Graham has vision, he and LaMelo are a scary combination
- Gordon Hayward wins games by being the most solid dude in the league
- Kyrie finally has someone who can hit the last shot too huh?
12/29/20
- First leg of a back to back series. Having the away team settled in for a few days lessens the impact of home court advantage for a truer sense of who the better team is
- Record shooting by the Bucks, nights like these lend credence to the theory that the ball has energy
- LOVE the second half defensive adjustment by the Heat especially in a blowout loss. Switched to zone and punished what they were supposed to punish. Giannis hit a wall every time he drove, went baseline, etc. Make him see bodies
- BI with a sweet dime to Steven Adams in the first. His playmaking is going to be necessary for this uncreative offense
- Zion might already be the biggest mismatch in the league other than (ironically) AD. He has that young Bron freight train drive, and him at center is basically a cheat code
- I’ve noticed a lot of blowouts so far this year, unsure if this is more than the usual rate
1/2/21
- Did the Knicks just beat the Pacers and the Bucks
1/3/21
- Jeff Green at center as a closing lineup backfired with Thomas Bryant getting an easy game-winning dunk off a dump off pass
- Kyrie and KD both had great looks to win and clanked ’em. Kyrie tried to play hero with a decent look, but KD’s attempt had a weird hitch that hopefully isn’t a sign of clutch problems to come
Mailbag
Do you regret placing the Knicks as the worst team in the league?
This question refers to my Reverse Power Rankings last week (read here) and the fact that they’re currently 5th place in the East. The short answer is yes, I forgot Tom Thibodeau doesn’t know how to lose. I’ll have more on the Knicks in the future so stay tuned for the long answer.
D-Book + Kendall Jenner vs. Jimmy + Selena Gomez 2 on 2?
By far the best question I’ve been asked, and as always I will put more thought into it than what the nature of the question warrants. Also you’re correct, I spent more than an hour of my life researching and formulating this answer.
We’ll start with a few rules for the game:
- First to 21, 1s and 2s
- Loser’s take
- Check-up on defensive rebound
- Call your own fouls
- Each teammate from the winning team must have scored at least once
Let’s get the NBA players’ matchup out of the way.
Statistically we find nothing decisive. Book has the edge in scoring and efficiency — particularly from deep — while Jimmy has the better defensive stats. A wrinkle of note could be the advantage Jimmy has when it comes to taking care of the ball and avoiding fouls.
Usually in unorganized pick-up ball the better offensive players have the advantage; that would be Book in this case. However, Jimmy has proven to be an exceptional bulldog 1 on 1 defender who happens to have 2 inches and 25 pounds on his counterpart. It’s still a tall task to try to neutralize any NBA player let alone an All-Star, so I’d call any advantages each give up a wash. Also importantly, the game is loser’s ball which means a sharpshooting Book won’t have the possibility of skunking the match with a hot streak.
Given the stipulation each teammate must score to win, we look at the Kendall-Selena matchup. I’ll assume because of their respective professions they each maintain a similar level of fitness. As for their combine measurables, Kendall stands 5’10” tall which is a clear mismatch for mouse-in-the-house Selena at 5’5”. Kendall also has Olympic athlete DNA and was apparently a successful high jumper in high school. My research yielded no results for Selena’s vertical. Advantage Kendall.
The big question, can they ball? I could find nothing on Kendall, but Selena’s jump shot looks more than competent.
An interesting possible factor in this is a term I’ll make up right now: spectator osmosis. Watching enough quality basketball could conceivably make one a better player; any improvement is probably marginal but hey, it’s not nothing. Accepting this premise of spectator osmosis, Kendall wins the metric by a landslide given her dating history also includes the likes of NBA All-Stars Blake Griffin and Ben Simmons and I’m assuming she attended enough games to learn something. Selena comes a distant, distant second given any lessons she got from prior relationships were likely from Justin “Pointless Dribbles” Bieber.
Lastly onto team chemistry, widely considered a necessary part of successful teams. Although Gomez and Jimmy (whom from this point on I shall relationship portmanteau as “Gommy”) have a shorter tenure than Kendall and Devin (from this point on dubbed “Kevin”) and therefore should have less chemistry, we’ve empirically seen Jimmy establish quick bonds. Look no further than his Heat which made the 2020 Finals as one of the most cohesive units in recent memory in only their first season together. Even in prior seasons working as a mercenary for the Timberwolves and 76ers, he either made quick friends with teammates or founded an uncompromising winning culture to compensate for the lack of chemistry. I think Gommy can overcome any deficiencies of their relative newness.
All of this leads to how I see the game playing out. Book would shoot for ball and of course make it. Starting on offense, Book would be hounded by Jimmy at every range, and if Book wants space and asks for a pick, believe that Jimmy wouldn’t hesitate to run Kendall over. Gommy will also strategically double team Book every play because they know for a fact it will get in his head. When Gommy has the ball, the entire offense would be Jimmy using his size to bully Book on the block while Selena spots up to chuck shots until one goes in. I don’t believe Book has it in him to earnestly defend Selena so she would definitely score at least once over Kendall. Jimmy, on the contrary, would sprint and smack the ball out of Kendall’s hands before she even realized she had it. I don’t think this game would be close.
Gommy 21, Kevin 13.
TL;DR:
Jimmy is about the W above all. Under no circumstances would he lose this game.
