As we head into the beginning of the 2018-19 NBA season, we're rolling out our Top 100 players, based not only on last year's performance, but on this year's expected production, too.
To help choose and rank the players, we enlisted the help of two assistant coaches, one from the East and one from the West, and got thoughts from those coaches on each player. Those thoughts, from the coach representing that player's conference, are included.
(Note: Rookies were not eligible for this list.)
NBA TOP 100 RANKINGS: 1-19 | 20-39 | 40-59 | 60-79 | 80-100
19. Klay Thompson, Warriors
Thompson averaged 20.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists last year, and shot a career-best 44.0 percent from the 3-point line, which isn’t that dazzling a spike considering he has made 42.2 percent from the arc overall in his seven seasons. He actually had to work a little harder for his points last year — in the previous two seasons, 17-18 percent of his possessions came on catch-and-shoot looks, but last year that was down to 11.9 percent. He was still among the best in the league when getting those shots, averaging 1.33 points per possession, in the 89th percentile.
He has a reputation for never having to dribble that is not quite fair, because Thompson has come a long way with his ball handling over the years, and even stepped in to run more pick-and-roll last year than he has done in his career. Maybe that should be considered an audition for a more featured role elsewhere when he hits free agency this summer, or maybe he was just bored and thought he’d try it. As a long-armed defensive ace who enjoys checking the opponent’s top perimeter guy, Thompson has established himself as the best two-way guard in the league, and he’s not likely to give up that spot this year.
Coach’s view: "He does not foul a whole lot on the defensive end. That is one thing that has improved about his approach. He has gotten better at moving his feet and knowing where to be. Even on the pick-and-roll, you don’t catch him reaching very often. He does not gamble for steals as much as he did early in his career, and for a guy his size (6-7), that makes it extra tough on a point guard when he draws that assignment. If you’re a point guard going against a bigger guy, you’re thinking he’s likely to foul you. Klay doesn’t do that."
18. Kyrie Irving, Celtics
Perhaps having grown weary of being LeBron James’ sidekick, or perhaps because he could read the tea leaves and had determined that James would not be in a Cavaliers uniform much longer, Irving forced his way out of Cleveland two summers ago and took over as the head honcho in Boston, which had been eager to attract an offensive foundation piece like Irving for years, and he responded with 24.4 points and 5.1 assists, making 49.1 percent of his shots from the field and 40.8 percent from the 3-point line. Irving actually took fewer shots in Boston than in his final year in Cleveland (18.1, down from 19.7), but there was no doubt who the alpha in the Celtics' attack was, and Irving set a career high (31.0) in usage rate.
He is a top-notch pick-and-roll guard who can score in a variety of ways, often involving bodily contortions, when he attacks the basket. He is an excellent midrange shooter, but he has limited that part of his game in Boston’s ball-moving offense, which offers him 3-point looks, and he has done well to increase his attempts from the arc. Alas, that fluttering red flag is Irving’s balky knee, which required surgery again last year and ended his season in March. The good news is the fluky nature of the surgery — he first had surgery to remove a bothersome wire on his kneecap that had been placed to stabilize the knee after his 2015 knee surgery. After that surgery, it was discovered that there was an infection on the screws that had also been placed at that time, so doctors had to go back into the knee and remove those. There’s less hardware in Irving’s knee now, which is a good thing, but the injury will bear monitoring.
Coach’s view: "I’m curious to see how much they play Kyrie off the ball this season. I think the plan was always to have him off the ball about half the time, and they did that last year — they had Al Horford almost as the point guard at times. But Terry Rozier was really good in the playoffs. They can try pairing him with Kyrie in the backcourt. I did not see that from them a lot last year. I thought we’d see it more. They can have Gordon Hayward play point-forward, too. Kyrie was about 70-30 as a point guard vs. shooting guard last year, and I wonder if that goes to 60-40 this year, if everyone is healthy. I think he would like that."
17. Rudy Gobert, Jazz
Despite playing a mere 56 games, Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year, in part because his absence showed just how much of an impact he has on Utah’s style of play. Gobert played six injury-marred games during the stretch from Nov. 11, 2017 through Jan. 19, 2018, and in that time — 32 games altogether — the Jazz had a defensive rating of 108.0 points per 100 possessions, 17th in the league. They were also 13-19. After Gobert returned on Jan. 19, the Jazz went 30-8 and had a defensive rating of 99.4 points per 100 possessions. Gobert made an 8.6-point impact per 100 possessions, and it was hard to argue against that when it came to DPOY voting.
He blocked 2.3 shots per game, though he struggles when he gets pulled out of the lane against teams that play small and force Gobert to the 3-point line. He has such a long wingspan, he can recover better than most bigs, but he is not quick enough to get himself back into the paint. Offensively, Gobert stays in his lane, attempting three 3-pointers in five NBA seasons. He tried to work on a midrange game over the course of last year, and maybe he can add that to his repertoire, but he’s still a long way from being a useful shooter.
Coach’s view: "He was exposed a little against Houston in the playoffs because of the way they play, the way they got him out of position. The Rockets did not have a lot of trouble scoring on them in that series. I am not sure it is a big deal because there are not many teams capable of doing what Houston does, the way they shoot 3s, but it is a blueprint of how to handle them in the playoffs. If you let him get into his comfort zone under the basket, he is going to dominate defensively. You have to find a way to bring him out, but you need the shooters to do that, and most of us don’t have that many shooters."
16. Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
Jokic has a similarity to Karl-Anthony Towns in that he has become a dominant offensive center at a very tender age (he’s 23), and has, at the same time, established himself as a terrible defender of his position. The difference is that Towns has the natural athleticism and fluidity to improve his situation. Jokic, who has the athleticism of a mailbox, is doomed to be a standstill defender who can rebound but do little else. He doesn’t challenge shots, and he can’t protect the rim.
Having gotten the negative out of the way, Jokic has a chance to be one of the all-time great passing big men in the league, a guy who sees the floor and makes the right play time and again. He is a nifty scorer himself and, last season, added a consistent 3-point shot (he made 39.6 percent) on his way to a career-best 18.5 points per game (he also had career highs in rebounds, 10.7, and assists, 6.1). While he was a much more willing and consistent midrange shooter last year, he did not give up his excellent post game, which still accounted for 24.4 percent of his possessions. That ranked in the top 10 in the league, and was up from 20.8 percent the previous season.
Jokic’s offensive heroics were not enough to get the Nuggets into the postseason, but the team has exciting young shooters Gary Harris and Jamal Murray flanking Jokic now, and if forward Paul Millsap, now healthy, can help with the interior defense, Jokic should lead this team back to the playoffs.
Coach’s view: "I don’t think they have really taken full advantage of his passing yet. When you watch film, they have a lot of cutters, and Jokic is great at finding them, but their guys aren’t always great at finishing. They don’t work off of screens very much, and I wonder if that is going to be something they emphasize, because with a passer like him, getting looks off screens is going to lead to easy points. He showed a lot last year, and I don’t know that his own scoring is going to get much better, but he’s going to get better as a passer as his teammates make more adjustments to him."
15. Draymond Green, Warriors
It could be argued that no player has had a bigger impact on the changes in the game in the last five years than Green, whose abilities to guard all five positions at 6-7 and handle the primary rim-protecting duties as a small-ball center allow the Warriors to play the switch-heavy, lane-denying defense that has been as much the backbone of their success as the shooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Green is tough and smart as a defender, with the strength and mass to handle himself in the middle, quick enough hands to generate steals and poke-aways in the post and long arms that allow him a blocked shot or two every game. And he gets better when he’s needed most — Green’s defensive rating was 104.4 during the regular season, but that improved dramatically, to 99.5, during the playoffs when Green did his best work.
It helps that Green is not a useless offensive piece, too. His shooting can be spotty (30.1 percent from the 3-point line last year), but he will take open looks when presented and force defenses to stay honest. He also has excellent court vision and does well setting up his sharpshooting teammates. Green averaged 7.3 assists last year, his third straight season with seven or more assists.
Coach’s view: "The deflections he gets are probably the most frustrating thing about playing against them as an offense. He is such a great passer, but he takes that ability to see the floor and reads things the other way, too, so that he knows where the ball is going to go before the pass comes. He can set you up that way. That is something we warn our guys about. He will decoy himself like he is out of position, but he is baiting you into making the pass he wants you to throw, then he steps in and knocks it away. He is like a good linebacker reading a quarterback."
14. Karl-Anthony Towns, Timberwolves
Towns was an outstanding 3-point shooter last season at 42.1 percent, and if he was able to get open in the corner, he was deadly, making 56.5 percent of those attempts. That’s the kind of number that reminds you just how unique a talent Towns is at 22 years old and 7-feet. He already has a nifty inside-out game, the prototype for the modern center, with averages of 21.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
Yet, there was a whiff of disappointment in Year 3 for Towns, starting with his inability to make meaningful strides on the defensive end. Towns too easily got lost in his rotations, sliding himself out of position and bringing very little concentration or intensity to his defense. He is a master at defending with his hands rather than with footwork, which makes him easy to beat. Indeed, he led the league in personal fouls last year. That’s, obviously, a problem for a team fighting to be relevant in the Western Conference. If Towns can’t provide the kind of rim protection that his length and athleticism suggest he should, he’ll continue to be an offensive wonder on a mediocre-to-decent team. It’s not that Towns needs to learn to be Dikembe Mutombo, he just needs to get himself somewhere close to above average.
Coach’s view: "He has great offensive footwork, he has great positioning, he understands and can read angles, and you see that in his rebounding numbers. So that tells me the ability to be a good defender is there. I am just not sure how you get through to him that he needs to care about it. We would run a lot of baseline stuff because we knew that would confuse him, and that would get the whole team frustrated. You could also expose him a lot in transition. He was not going to get back and, really, the whole team was not great about getting back."
13. Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers
Lillard is a lethal scorer and the best pick-and-roll point guard in the league. The Blazers ran the play 11.9 times per game for him this year, most in the NBA, and he produced 12.4 of his 26.9 points per game on the PNR. That’s 1.05 points per possession, in the 94th percentile. Lillard’s shooting (43.9 percent from the field, 36.1 percent from the 3-point line, 91.6 percent from the free-throw line) remained much the same as it’s been for his career, making this another typically brilliant offensive season for him.
What was slightly different, though, was Lillard’s engagement level on the defensive end. Two years ago, Lillard was passive, as had been typical of his career, defensively and recorded a defensive rating of 109.4 points per 100 possessions. Last year, that dropped to 104.0. Portland in general was a better defensive team last year, thanks in large part to the presence of Jusuf Nurkic in the middle, but Lillard was much better with ball pressure than he’d ever been in the NBA. Despite all that, Lillard struggled badly in the postseason, and there’s still some question as to how far this group can go as constructed.
Coach’s view: "The problem with a guy who is so heavy on the pick-and-roll in the regular season is that it becomes easy to work out a plan for him in the playoffs, when you see him run that play over and over. They need to add some different offensive wrinkles to get him going toward the basket besides the pick-and-roll. If you have a stronger perimeter defender, you can shade Damian right into the teeth of your defense and just collapse him. If he passes to the perimeter, you’re going to live with a lot of those shots because (CJ) McCollum is the only shooter you’re really worried about. They need some diversity."
12. Jimmy Butler, Timberwolves
Everything looked rosy in Minnesota last year, where Butler came in from Chicago and immediately delivered what the Wolves brass thought he would bring — an edge, a toughness and a winning approach. It was not until spring that word began to leak out that Butler, a free agent next summer who was eligible for an extension, was not quite happy with the attitude and approach of the young Wolves. That crystallized into a trade demand in late summer and now, with Minnesota on the brink of starting the season and Butler finally appearing in practice for a wild, profanity-laced scrimmage, just what will happen with Butler remains anyone’s guess.
Wherever he goes, his team is getting an elite two-way guard, a guy who averaged 22.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists. He can be inconsistent from the 3-point line (he made a mediocre 35.0 percent last year) and relied more on the foul-line jumper last year, a shot that is good for him but not the most efficient of looks. Oh, and wherever he does land, teammates and coaches are going to have to be able to withstand his ego. Jimmy holds grudges.
Coach’s view: "He had every right to be frustrated with the way the defense went last year. They did not make the improvement I think a lot of us figured they would. The system Thibs runs has some gambling elements to it, where they blitz those high pick-and-rolls and force you into bad positions. But that required the other guys to step in and help out, because someone’s going to be open when you gamble like that. You could get a lot of wide-open looks against that defense if you can just get the outlet pass out into space, because they were not helping. For a guy like Butler who takes a lot of pride in defense, that had to be frustrating."
11. Chris Paul, Rockets
There were valid questions about just how Paul would fit in with the Rockets’ incumbent star, James Harden, and whether the two would get along. Those questions did not last long, however. Paul fit in nicely alongside Harden, mostly deferring to him at the outset of games, but taking his turn as team leader when working with bench units or when Harden was called on to play off the ball. In the end, the individual sacrifice that Paul had to make to play with Harden was not really a sacrifice at all. Paul’s usage rate was 24.5, slightly more than it was in his final season with the Clippers and in line with his career rate of 24.1. He averaged 18.6 points and 5.4 rebounds — his only real drop-off coming with his 7.9 assists, which was to be expected with Harden averaging 8.8 himself.
Playing for Mike D’Antoni, Paul naturally bumped up his 3-pint attempt rate, to 6.5 per game, nearly double his career average. The increased volume hurt his success rate, as he made 38.0 percent, still a very good number. Again, thanks to D’Antoni, Paul’s use of the 16-footer declined sharply last year, with only 11.0 percent of his shots coming from 16 feet out to the 3-point line, according to Basketball-Reference.com. For his career, 24.1 percent of his shots have been from that range, and though the Rockets discourage long 2s, it’s worth noting that Paul made 55.7 percent of them. That’s incredibly good.
The warning flag, though, is that Paul is 33, and the Rockets gave him a four-year, $160 million contract last summer. That’s a big investment in a guy steaming into his mid-30s. Paul finally broke out of his rut of first-round playoff exits last year, but his quest for a championship was cut short when he suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out in Games 6 and 7 of the West finals, games the Rockets went on to lose without him. Houston likely won’t be the regular-season juggernaut they were last year, but the Rockets will still vie with the Warriors in the West.
Coach’s view: "They have two of the best pick-and-roll guards in the league, and I did not see Chris lose a step at all playing in Houston. He is still an excellent feeder. You always have to watch for him throwing the lob to the big guy, but he’s also a very efficient scorer. Harden runs more pick and rolls, and he gets you into foul trouble with it. But Chris is still better at being a pure pick-and-roll point guard."
10. Kawhi Leonard, Raptors
If you’re going to rank Leonard as a top-10 player, you’ve got to come to terms with what happened last year, when a fairly routine hamstring injury led to Leonard missing 73 games and paved the way to his rocky and surprising divorce from the Spurs. Leonard has been healthy so far, and he’s certainly said the right things about playing in Toronto, but there’s no telling what level of effort and intensity the Raptors will be getting. If he is fully engaged, Leonard is a top-five player, a dual threat who can be the focal point of the offense while also being the fulcrum of the defense. That could utterly transform a Toronto team that has done well in the regular season with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan as its star players, but was lacking a transcendent star to push it in the playoffs. Leonard is that level of star.
But he chafed with that role in San Antonio, even as he averaged 25.5 points two years ago and was coming off his second Defensive Player of the Year award. When Leonard was dealt from the Spurs, he wanted to land in LA, and still could do so, with the Lakers or Clippers, when he hits free agency next summer. There is pressure, then, on the Raptors to make him scrap all of that and want to stay north of the border. So while Leonard needs to show the rest of the league he is back and ready to compete for a championship, Toronto needs to show him he can do that without leaving town in 2019.
Coach’s view: "He has no weaknesses defensively. He can switch onto anyone, he can swallow up smaller players, he can be physical with bigger players. He doesn’t gamble. I don’t think anyone knew he would turn into such a great shooter, and it was that coaching staff in San Antonio that helped mold him into that. That’s why it was sad for a lot of people to see what happened there, because that staff did such a great job bringing him along."
9. Paul George, Thunder
George did not want to carry a team the way he had to in Indiana, and he certainly does not have to do so with Oklahoma City. It would be helpful to all involved, though, if he was asked to do more — or allowed to do more, with star guard Russell Westbrook dominating the ball as he does. George is adept at running the pick-and-roll and can usually create a mismatch because of his size and position. Coach Billy Donovan took advantage of that, running 5.0 pick-and-roll possessions per game for George, more than he’d had in Indiana. Donovan also got George to stop leaning on midrange jumpers and focus on being a better 3-point shooter, and George responded with 40.1 percent shooting from the arc on 7.7 attempts per game. George did as much as he could to fill the gaps around Westbrook’s game, and produced a good year, with 21.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He took 17.0 shots per game, which was only one fewer than in Indiana the previous year, but he did not have to carry the offensive load the way he’s done in the past. He seemed to thrive as the No. 2 option.
He also helped lift the overall Thunder defense, teaming with Andre Roberson to form an imposing, long-armed, athletic duo on the perimeter and even nudging Westbrook into playing better defense. The Thunder did not do as much as they’d hoped, losing in the first round of the playoffs, but there were enough positives to inspire George to stay put in free agency this summer, giving his pairing with Westbrook another shot.
Coach’s view: "He is very good at playing off of other people, setting up the defense with Westbrook and then finding a way to score. He is cerebral. He is always thinking a little ahead of the curve. He works especially well with Steven Adams, who is a great pick-setter. They do things between them that are different every game. You’ll watch film of one game and expect to see George and Adams doing something that you saw on the film, but they’ll alter it to your defense. He does well in terms of thinking the game that way."
8. Joel Embiid, Sixers
All we needed from Embiid to determine just how good he could be was some good health, and he finally got it, playing 63 games and putting up averages of 22.9 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists, all while establishing himself as one of the best defensive centers in the NBA. He blocked 1.8 shots per game and scared away many a would-be driver with his size and strength, and it was because of Embiid that Philadelphia allowed 41.6 points in the paint per game, fewest in the league.
The most remarkable part of Embiid’s second season was that it was only his second season — he has so much room to improve. He will get more consistent on his 3-point shot, which was at 30.8 percent, and he will develop more counter moves to bolster his bread-and-butter post-up game, including his hook shot. He will become a smarter defensive player and a better passer. He’s shown he has plenty of size and skill, but as he begins to work on specific aspects of his game, he’s going to blossom further.
Coach’s view: "He gets a lot of his offense just from his size and strength. He is still learning to think the game, and for a big man, that takes time. It takes a lot of practice repetition. The way to defend him is still to entice him to take the midrange shot, which he likes doing but is not as effective as when he decides he wants to go to the rim. I think that will change, though, once he can read the game better. It started to change last year, and I’d expect more of that this year."
7. Russell Westbrook, Thunder
The Thunder superteam did not quite work out, but Westbrook again averaged a triple-double with 25.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and a league-best 10.3 assists. After a brief rise to respectability with his 3-point shot in 2016-17 (34.3 percent), Westbrook struggled from outside and made only 29.8 percent of his attempts, but he had the good sense to cut his 3-point tries from 7.2 per game to 4.1. If you were hoping that Westbrook’s game would catch up to the 3-point-happy modern NBA, last year was a disappointment.
Playing with Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, Westbrook did finally give up the ball more, though probably not as much as he should — his usage rate went from 41.7 percent to 34.1 percent, and he was still a notable offender when it came to poor shot selection. Having said all that, Westbrook is still a dazzling scorer, one of the strongest and fastest point guards in the league and a master at bullrushing the rim and finding a way to finish. Anthony was mostly dead weight for the Thunder and will be gone this year, but George is staying put, and if Westbrook shows more faith in him as the No. 2 option and lets George control the ball more frequently, the pairing could develop into a dangerous one in the West.
Coach’s view: "You have to pressure him, stay in his face and get under his skin. That throws him off is game — he is a real emotional player. Patrick Beverley does that so well against him, as we have seen, and that is something that you can do if you can take a guy and just assign him to ticking off Russ, you can do it. But if you give him any room, he is going to make you pay."
6. Giannis Antetokoumpo, Bucks
It’s easy to point out all the teams that missed on Antetokounmpo in the draft, and to deliver shame unto all of them. But Antetokounmpo has been an organization’s dream star, a guy who came in as a massive raw talent and worked as hard as possible to translate that talent into results. When Antetokounmpo was 18 and entering the draft, there was no way to see that he would work to develop a midrange shot, that he would work to become a very good ball handler for his size, that he would study film so that he could become a better passer and playmaker. He’s done all of that, and the results have been astounding: 26.9 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 52.9 percent shooting. He’s even begun to show some promise with his last major improvement, 3-point shooting. He made 30.7 percent of his attempts last year, and would have been better than 32 percent except for a late-season 1-for-9 slump.
For all Antetokounmpo’s talent, though, the Bucks have been disappointing, and this is a critical year for the team. They’re moving into a new building, and they brought on a credible coach, Mike Budenholzer. Antetokounmpo is still a long way from his 2021 free agency, but the team needs to start showing him it can compete for titles.
Coach’s view: "Jason Kidd’s offense was not doing Giannis any favors. They were so focused on cutting and working out of almost stagnant positioning that it never felt like they were running a modern offense. They did not put an emphasis on getting good looks at 3s. They did not use Giannis off the ball or get him going north-south enough. I think you’re going to see a lot less pressure on him with Budenholzer, and he is going to be more efficient. He is going to have better efficiency numbers."
5. Anthony Davis, Pelicans
Davis had his usual production, averaging 28.1 points and 11.1 rebounds, with 53.4 percent shooting and 2.3 assists. He was a dominant defensive presence, leading the league in blocked shots, despite a promise coach Alvin Gentry once made that he wanted to use Davis as more than a shot-blocker and that Davis would not lead the league in blocks during his tenure. Ah well, forget promises, just let the player do what he does best.
While Davis’ numbers certainly looked like his usual production, there was still something different about his 2017-18 season, a force and willpower he had not shown before. When the Pelicans’ playoff bid was faltering in the wake of the Achilles injury suffered by DeMarcus Cousins, Davis asserted himself like never before. Over his final 27 games, Davis averaged 31.0 points and shot 52.9 percent from the field, including a nine-game stretch in which he topped 40 points five times. Davis has always been a star in the league, but during this stretch he showed a different level of drive and hunger, and sure enough, the Pelicans made the playoffs and even advanced to the conference semis. Cousins is gone now, and Davis can’t put out that level of energy and effort over 82 games. But that stretch might have changed him as a player and shown him that his game has another level.
Coach’s view: "He is so good in the high post, and they do a great job of setting him up to come off screens and work with an advantage when he gets the ball. He has a great face-up game. He can pass. He sees the floor. But the thing is, when you give him just a little daylight, he is so explosive at 6-10 that it is impossible to catch him. He got stronger last year physically, and he took a lot more contact around the rim but could still finish. He was as good a finisher at the rim as there was in the league."
4. James Harden, Rockets
For Harden, the 2017 playoffs had ended so bizarrely, with that lifeless 2-for-11 performance against the Spurs, that only a brilliant wire-to-wire showing in 2017-18 could erase it. He delivered. If Harden had been an accumulator of numbers on decent teams previously, last year he put forth a more complete winning effort, honing his focus on his scoring and even playing better all-around defense, which was something of a miracle development for Rockets fans. Harden led the lead in scoring, at 30.4 points, and added 8.8 assists and 5.4 rebounds. He was more content to let his teammates do their jobs, rather than piling up the Russ Westbrook-style stat lines.
He slide-stepped his way to the rim as much as he has in the past three years, and went to the free-throw line 727 times, most in the league for the fourth straight year. Harden is a relentless rim-attacker, forcing defenses to adjust to him even as the Rockets line up shooters on the arc around him. He is a unique offensive talent, and with his defensive effort helping to key a surge to the top of the standings for Houston, his MVP award was well-earned. The Rockets have made some personnel adjustments this year, and it’s not clear that they’ll be able to back up last year’s league-best 65 wins. But they’ve got Harden, so they’ll have a good start.
Coach’s view: "I know isolation is a dirty word in the NBA these days, but every team needs to have their best guy be able to iso and find points. That’s just basic basketball, and especially basic basketball with a shot clock. That’s what Harden does. He finds a way. You line him up against a defender, big or small, with the clock running down and he is going to get a good look at a shot. No one else comes close. Yeah, the Rockets move the ball a lot, and that is important. But they’d go nowhere without his skill in isolation."
3. Stephen Curry, Warriors
Curry averaged 26.4 points last year, shooting 49.5 percent from the field, 42.3 percent from the 3-point line and 92.1 (best in the league) from the foul line. He had 6.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game, too, yet he was always easy to overlook with the kind of seasons that LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden were having. Curry wound up 10th — TENTH! — in MVP voting, mostly because he was teammates with Durant, and Durant got more credit for the Warriors’ success.
He also got a five-year, $200 million contract in the summer of 2017, his paycheck finally catching up to his ability after eight seasons as one of the most underpaid stars in all sports. Curry didn’t go to the rim as much as he has in the past, and he continues to wean out the midrange from his shot selection, but he made 61.3 percent of his shots from 16 feet out to the 3-point line, which is a good percentage on layups for most players. Shooting is Curry’s thing, and his ticket to the Hall of Fame. The only question now, as he turns 30, is when will age catch up to him? Shooters can slip from their star perches pretty quickly in their 30s, but it’s worth noting that Curry’s dad, Dell, shot 42.8 percent from the 3-point line when he was 36 years old.
Coach’s view: "He was stronger this year, he did a good job of drawing contact and getting himself to the line. That is something his coaches have impressed on him, that as he gets older, he has so many easy points he can be getting at the line. But he needed to add some strength to handle the contact. He seems like he took that advice."
2. Kevin Durant, Warriors
Durant might have spent more time in the top slot on lists like this if he had not chosen to sign with the Warriors in 2016, because his individual numbers have taken a hit while playing with so many other greats in Golden State. We’re betting that the two rings he has won will ease that pain, however. Even with the sacrifice of playing for a better team, Durant had dominating numbers (26.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists) while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from the 3-point line, keeping himself in the mix for league MVP even if he didn’t quite have a case for the award.
Still, Durant has been the target of critics for his decision to abandon OKC and choose the path of least resistance to the Larry O’Brien trophy, and that spilled onto his play this season. He took heat when the Warriors had struggles during the regular season, and that was intensified during the playoffs when, with Stephen Curry out, Durant seemed to revert too much to the kind of isolation-play mentality that the ball-moving Warriors had gotten credit for all but eradicating from the NBA. With Golden State on the verge of elimination against Houston, maybe he deserved that. But he scored 34 points in a road win against the Rockets in Game 7, then won his second straight Finals MVP as Golden State drubbed Cleveland. His season was rescued, and there is sure to be more of the same this year.
Coach’s view: "The stuff about him getting into isolation more, all of that was not just made up in the media. It was something we saw more when looking at them and breaking them down. He ran a lot more isolation in the regular season, and a lot more than that in the playoffs. Now, if you’re Steve Kerr, you’d rather have ball movement leading to an open 3, but if the other choice is a Kevin Durant iso, you have to be good with that. He is one of the best iso players in the game, one of the best 10 or 15 probably of all time. It’s nit-picking to get on him too much for that."
1. LeBron James, Lakers
James’ career is now set to be divided into four stages, beginning with his early turbulence in Cleveland, on to his talents in South Beach, back to the Cavaliers for redemption and, now, on to the West Coast to play out the back nine. It’s not a usual career path for a player of James’ caliber, but when he hangs up his high tops in seven or eight years, the Lakers will be as much a part of his identity as Cleveland and Miami. Weird, right? Of course, to make himself a true Laker, he will need to build the franchise back into a contender, and it’s still a few key elements from qualifying as such.
But the goal is probably closer than most realize, because the Lakers have a potential star already on the roster in Brandon Ingram, as well as plenty of flexibility on hand to sign another big-time player next summer or facilitate a trade to add a top-shelf star to support James, be it Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson or Anthony Davis. The more pressing question is whether James, after dragging a cast of underachievers into the Finals last year, can get this Lakers group deep into the playoffs in the short term. With a roster packed with misfits on hand, that won’t be easy. But there is enough talent to ensure the Lakers a playoff spot, beginning with James and Ingram, on down to free-agent signees Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Lance Stephenson, and incumbents Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. That’s a good first step for James, an All-Star for 14 straight years who averaged 27.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists while leading the league in minutes (36.9) for the second straight season.
James forces the players around him to match his style, including his running big-small pick-and-rolls, setting up shooters on drive-and-kicks and directing his teammates relentlessly on the defensive end. It doesn’t fit for everyone, but since the Lakers handed out a satchel of one-year contracts to some of the league’s bigger knuckleheads, it is incumbent on those knuckleheads to get with James’ program or see their NBA futures get suddenly cloudy. Having James will be enough to whip the Lakers into a playoff team.
Coach’s view: "If you’re defending him, you do the same things you always have. You go under screens, you take away his drive, you let him shoot midrange when it’s there. He can still make those shots, but you can live with 35-40 percent on long jumpers from a guy who is so capable of taking over the paint."