play1:58Tyler Herro’s top plays from the 2024-25 seasonCheck out Tyler Herro’s top plays from the 2024-25 season as he’s set to undergo foot surgery, missing the start of Heat’s season.
LeBron, Curry and Durant remain in the top 10. Who from this Hall of Fame trio makes it again next season?
Tyler Herro’s top plays from the 2024-25 seasonCheck out Tyler Herro’s top plays from the 2024-25 season as he’s set to undergo foot surgery, missing the start of Heat’s season.
Check out Tyler Herro’s top plays from the 2024-25 season as he’s set to undergo foot surgery, missing the start of Heat’s season.
Make a case for one player who deserved to be in the top 100
Which player outside the top 10 will get there next season?
If they were healthy, where would you have slotted Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton?
Make one bold prediction for any player in ESPN’s top 100
ESPN’s countdown of the NBA’s best 100 players for the 2025-26 season has yet to reach its top 10, but there have been plenty of surprises already. And before we reveal our final elite group, our expert panel is breaking down this year’s list.
Are future Hall of Famers LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant still deserving of top 10 honors? Which players got snubbed and which did we underrate?
Ahead of Thursday’s finale, we’re hitting on the top questions so far from our NBA Rank 100, including where injured superstars Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton would have landed.
Jamal Collier: Victor Wembanyama is awesome, but top 10 is too high for him at this moment. I’m not saying he won’t get there — even by the end of this upcoming season. But he simply doesn’t have the credentials or pressure performances of the other top-10 players in the league.
Bobby Marks: The disrespect to Tyler Herro (No. 68). Yes, Herro will be out for the early part of the regular season with a foot injury, but this is a player who was selected as an All-Star last season. For a fourth straight campaign, Herro averaged at least 20 points, and he finished 2024-25 with five games of at least 35 points, a career-best 47.2% mark from the field and 5.5 assists per game. He played a career-high 77 games last season.
Sedano: Keegan Murray not making the top 100 is mind-boggling. He is a legit and versatile two-way player at 6-foot-8 and has to regularly take the toughest assignment on defense for the Kings. On top of being a good defender, he is a career 38% shooter from 3 and doesn’t need the ball in his hands to make an impact. He moves well without the ball, cuts to the basket and runs the floor. If he were on any other team, he would be ranked in the range of top 55 to 70.
Collier: Jalen Duren. His fellow Pistons teammate from the same 2022 draft class, Jaden Ivey (No. 85), made the back end of the top 100, but that spot easily could have gone to the Detroit big man. Duren isn’t perfect and has some areas of his game he needs to round out. But he’s a rebounding force who created plenty of problems on the glass and second-chance opportunities during the postseason while averaging a double-double in the first-round series against the Knicks.
Marks: I am going to cheat and say two: Herbert Jones and Jordan Poole. Did the voters forget that Jones was named NBA All-Defensive First Team in 2024? I do understand the top 100 is “what you have done for me lately” and that Jones does not fit the criteria, considering he played a career-low 20 games due to multiple injuries. Poole’s career highs in points, assists, steals and 3-point percentage for 2024-25 will go overlooked because the Wizards won just 18 games last season.
Williams: Duren and Jones jumped to mind, but I will mention Detroit’s Ausar Thompson. The Pistons made a huge leap last season and finished 10th in defensive efficiency, thanks in part to Thompson’s play on that end. According to GeniusIQ tracking, he ranked in the top five in field goal percentage allowed as the contesting defender in 2024-25 among players to contest at least 400 shots. One area for growth is his outside shot: Thompson went just 15-for-60 on jump shots last season.
Sedano: I’m not betting against any of these three. Curry’s ability to shoot will allow him to age the best of the trio. However, have we seen how James still looks heading into Year 23? Durant also was very efficient last season, and his skills are exactly what the Rockets needed. He’s the biggest reason they will have a shot to win the West.
Slater: I’ll rank it Curry, James then Durant. Curry enters the season in the most predictable role of the three. He will be the center of the Warriors’ ecosystem, as he has been for more than a decade. If healthy, it’s simple to expect his season will look a whole lot like last season, optically and statistically, which has him in the top 10. Durant will be adapting to a new situation in Houston. James is adjusting to life next to Doncic (top 10). Those are more unpredictable environments.
Collier: Donovan Mitchell (No. 15). The Cavaliers were a huge disappointment in the playoffs last season, but none of that was Mitchell’s fault. He has been consistently excellent since his arrival in Cleveland. Let’s say the Cavs once again dominate the regular season and are finally ready to make a run in the playoffs — perhaps to the Finals — Mitchell is almost certain to be a major player in it. He would then ride the same momentum Tyrese Haliburton did after a strong postseason.
Marks: Paolo Banchero (No. 17). If the first five games of the 2024-25 regular season were any indication, Banchero is poised to have an All-NBA-caliber campaign. Before he suffered a torn right oblique, Banchero was averaging 33.2 points. He then finished the season averaging a career-high 25.9 points. And after adding Desmond Bane (No. 39) and Tyus Jones this offseason, the Magic are projected to finish in the top three of the Eastern Conference.
Williams: Coming off his first All-Star appearance last season and an exceptional run at EuroBasket, Alperen Sengun (No. 25) has the skill to get into the top 10. Although it came in a series loss, Sengun shined for the Rockets in the first round against the Warriors, becoming the fifth player in league history to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in his first career playoff series. Plus, an added attention from defenses toward Durant should only continue to unlock Sengun’s game.
Marks: Tatum is easily top 10 if healthy. It is hard not to recognize a player who consistently averages at least 25 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Haliburton’s ranking is more complicated because of the quality of players in the 10 to 20 range. But let’s put Haliburton at No. 17 and shift everyone starting with Banchero back one slot.
Sedano: Both guys would be in my top 10. Tatum consistently has shown he’s a premier player in the NBA, and while Haliburton doesn’t necessarily put up the gaudiest numbers, his passing ability and clutch performances put him in that top-10 category for me.
Williams: Tatum would have been in the top 10 if healthy after a season in which he averaged a career high in assists and joined Larry Bird and John Havlicek as the only Celtics to average 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Haliburton would be in the 11 to 15 range after a trip to the Finals and an All-NBA selection. Even before the playoffs, Haliburton went on a run after the All-Star break, averaging 20.6 points and 11.0 assists while committing just 26 turnovers over a 21-game span.
Collier: Wherever he lands in the top 10, Giannis Antetokounmpo will move up this list next season. He has only gotten more efficient and more dominant in recent years and is going to carry even more responsibility for Milwaukee this season. It will set Antetokounmpo up for a monster year and perhaps a case for the top spot.
Sedano: Wembanyama will be the fourth player in NBA history to win both MVP and DPOY (Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Antetokounmpo). He’s a lock to win DPOY provided he logs the requisite amount of games. I think for him to win the MVP in a loaded Western Conference, the Spurs will have to be a top-six seed. I’m willing to bet there will be some things that bounce their way and that the Spurs will be improved enough to reach that benchmark.
Anthony Slater: Ivica Zubac (No. 36). Not because he isn’t worthy of the leap, but I’m surprised the basketball world is finally catching on to his game to this degree. Zubac wasn’t ranked in our top 100 last year, failing to make the cut over players such as Jonas Valanciunas (No. 87 this year) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (now unranked). This year, Zubac is ranked above Jamal Murray (No. 46), Joel Embiid (No. 47) and Rudy Gobert (No. 49). Zubac is three slots away from Ja Morant (No. 33). Zubac’s ninth NBA season was his best — averaging 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds with elite interior defense — but the Clippers big man, now 28, has been a sturdy starting center for a long time.
Matt Williams: While playing just 58 games over the past two seasons is a significant factor, Joel Embiid’s ranking (No. 47) was surprisingly low based on his talent level. When healthy, Embiid is one of the best players in the league, winning MVP in 2023 and averaging at least 30 points across three consecutive campaigns. In 2023-24, he became the first player to record more points than minutes played since Wilt Chamberlain in 1961-62. Embiid will greatly outplay his rank — provided he can stay healthy. His ranking reflects the panel’s confidence that he can.
Slater: Poole is a great answer. It feels like his reputation is unfairly tainted by his blooper reel and the dramatic final 12 months of his Warriors chapter. Back in 2022, during a third-season mega leap, he averaged 18.5 points per game as a major part of an NBA title team. Circumstances became dicey the following preseason, but we’ve seen him be a key cog on a winner at the highest level. We’ve seen him lead the league in free throw percentage. We’ve seen how much the Warriors miss his secondary scoring since they traded him. Then we saw him shake off a bad first season with the Wizards for a productive, efficient second season in D.C.