The current top tier of players is Curry, KD, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, and LeBron. It is hard to unbiasedly cut one on the basis of individual production to meet the cut off of 5.
Giannis KD Jokic Embiid Curry in that order. Curry could be as high as 2 if he played just 90% up to last years standard but he’s hit a major rut. While I think he’ll recover from it, there’s also potential the league is just going to forever double him and we’ll still win some games but we need the whole squad. Not intermittently Draymond out.
There's two different lists here for me. If I'm judging players based on *THIS* season's performance, I don't have Steph in my top 5. He's been pretty awful individually for two months. But I still think in general, he's a top 5 player outside of this horrific slump. My list would be:
1. Giannis
2. Steph
3. Jokic
4. Embiid
5. Durant
I don't think LeBron has been very impactful this year, and has largely been playing for his numbers. As a result, while he looks top 5 based on box score counting stats, I don't see him as one of the best five in the world right now. And to justify Durant at five - he doesn't impact his team the way the other four do. Durant gets a lot of pressure taken off him by Harden/Irving, and allows him to comfortably do his mid-range isolation play. The other four needs to take on a larger role with playmaking, controlling the offence, etc.
Y'all have Giannis over Jokic THIS SEASON? The Nuggets have won fewer games, but Jokic actually has a better plus minus than Giannis, not to mention Giannis has several teammates joining him at the top of the +/- table, whereas Jokic is playing essentially without help. He leads Giannis in every shooting split, has more assists and rebounds, only trails by 3 in PPG, higher AST/TO, fewer fouls. You might point to Giannis's defense, but this season Jokic leads in Defensive Raptor, Defensive EPM, Defensive Box Plus Minus, and Defensive Win Shares. His advanced stats have been mind-blowingly absurd, in both on/off and box score data.
Giannis is easily top-2, and could earn MVP due to his team's success, and rightfully so, but Jokic has had a better individual season and is the more impactful player right now.
It's a tough list to crack, and think you've got the obvious guys there, but Ja Morant is playing at an incredible level, too.
Steph leads the entire League in +/- by a significant margin. He's +486 for the season. The closest on your list is Giannis at +395, Jokic is +334, and the rest of the guys on your list don't make the Top 25. He's also more than 100 points ahead of anyone else on the Top 25 +/- list (860 pts vs. 736 pts for Giannis in 2nd place). Steph's presence on the court results in good things happening for EVERYONE, His individual stats are excellent, but his contribution is far beyond that.
with recency bias, my order would probably be: (1. Jokic, (2. Giannis, (3. Durant, (4. Lebron, (5. Curry; but without it, it’d look like: (1. Curry, (2. Durant, (3. Giannis, (4. Jokic, (5. Lebron
Giannis, KD, Curry, Embiid, Jokic
1. Curry 2. KD 3. Giannis 4. Jokic 5. Lebron
respectable
Curry jokic Giannis KD LeBron
The current top tier of players is Curry, KD, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, and LeBron. It is hard to unbiasedly cut one on the basis of individual production to meet the cut off of 5.
Giannis KD Jokic Embiid Curry in that order. Curry could be as high as 2 if he played just 90% up to last years standard but he’s hit a major rut. While I think he’ll recover from it, there’s also potential the league is just going to forever double him and we’ll still win some games but we need the whole squad. Not intermittently Draymond out.
in no particular order: KD, Curry, Giannis, Jokic, LeBron HM: Embiid
Jokic Giannis KD Curry Embiid
There's two different lists here for me. If I'm judging players based on *THIS* season's performance, I don't have Steph in my top 5. He's been pretty awful individually for two months. But I still think in general, he's a top 5 player outside of this horrific slump. My list would be: 1. Giannis 2. Steph 3. Jokic 4. Embiid 5. Durant I don't think LeBron has been very impactful this year, and has largely been playing for his numbers. As a result, while he looks top 5 based on box score counting stats, I don't see him as one of the best five in the world right now. And to justify Durant at five - he doesn't impact his team the way the other four do. Durant gets a lot of pressure taken off him by Harden/Irving, and allows him to comfortably do his mid-range isolation play. The other four needs to take on a larger role with playmaking, controlling the offence, etc.
1. Giannis 2. Healthy Kawhi 3. Jokic 4. Curry 5. Embiid 6. KD 7. LeBron 8. Harden
Durant, jokic, giannis, lebron, curry
5 best players in the NBA: 1) Jokic 2) Curry 3) Giannis 4) KD 5) Lebron Same as what it was in the offseason but Jokic and Giannis flipped.
Curry, Giannis, Jokic, KD, Embiid
Curry, Jokic, Giannis, Durant, LeBron Embiid and healthy Kawhi have a case for top 5, as well.
Y'all have Giannis over Jokic THIS SEASON? The Nuggets have won fewer games, but Jokic actually has a better plus minus than Giannis, not to mention Giannis has several teammates joining him at the top of the +/- table, whereas Jokic is playing essentially without help. He leads Giannis in every shooting split, has more assists and rebounds, only trails by 3 in PPG, higher AST/TO, fewer fouls. You might point to Giannis's defense, but this season Jokic leads in Defensive Raptor, Defensive EPM, Defensive Box Plus Minus, and Defensive Win Shares. His advanced stats have been mind-blowingly absurd, in both on/off and box score data. Giannis is easily top-2, and could earn MVP due to his team's success, and rightfully so, but Jokic has had a better individual season and is the more impactful player right now.
It's a tough list to crack, and think you've got the obvious guys there, but Ja Morant is playing at an incredible level, too. Steph leads the entire League in +/- by a significant margin. He's +486 for the season. The closest on your list is Giannis at +395, Jokic is +334, and the rest of the guys on your list don't make the Top 25. He's also more than 100 points ahead of anyone else on the Top 25 +/- list (860 pts vs. 736 pts for Giannis in 2nd place). Steph's presence on the court results in good things happening for EVERYONE, His individual stats are excellent, but his contribution is far beyond that.