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1. Victor Wembanyama (3 year, 43 million rookie contract)




2. Nikola Jokic (3 years, 165.6 million + 67.2 million 4th year player option)





3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (3 years, 115 million)






4. Luka Doncic (2 years, 89 million + 49 million 3rd year player option)




5. Giannis Antetokounmpo (3 years, 161.4 million + 62.8 million 4th year player option)





6. Jayson Tatum (5 years, 277.3 million + 71.4 million 6th year player option)




7. Anthony Edwards (5 years, 244.7 million)





8. Paolo Banchero (2 years, 27.5 million rookie contract)





9. Ja Morant (4 years, 163.2 million)






10. Evan Mobley (1 year, 11.2 million rookie contract + 5 year, 222.4 million extension)





11. Donovan Mitchell (3 years, 121.9 million + 4th year 53.8 million player option)





12. Chet Holmgren (2 years, 24.6 million rookie contract)





13. Cade Cunningham (1 year, 13.9 million + 5 years, 224.2 million extension)





14. Jalen Brunson (4 years, 143.3 million + 43.3 million 5th year player option)





15. Jalen Williams (2 year, 11.4 million rookie contract)





16. Tyrese Haliburton (5 years, 244.7 million)



17. Anthony Davis (3 years, 155.7 million + 62.8 million 4th year player option)





18. Devin Booker (4 years, 220.4 million)



19. Jaren Jackson, Jr. (2 years, 48.7 million)



20. Franz Wagner (1 year, 7 million + 5 years, 224.2 million extension)





21. Darius Garland (4 years, 163.2 million)





22. Tyrese Maxey (5 years, 203.8 million)





23. Stephen Curry (3 years, 178 million)



24. Amen Thompson (3 years, 31.2 million rookie contract)





25. Jaylen Brown (5 years, 288.3 million)


Honorable mentions: Karl Anthony-Towns, Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, Jalen Johnson, Trae Young, Scottie Barnes, Domantis Sabonis, Kevin Durant

Well done, Dr. P, well done. Now let’s do the Beal and company list!

Thanks Dr. P
Looks like a pretty legit list at least for now. It’s always interesting to look back after a year and see how things changed. The only one I would quibble with is Curry being in here.
Feels like Booker is really high as well.
Thanks for doing this.

Good place to post Simmons's trade value rankings which came out in the middle of us doing it: https://nbarankings.theringer.com/trade-value

Notes on the differences:
- Same top 8, with only Tatum/Giannis flipping spots.
- Ja 16 spots higher on our rankings. I might agree we had him too high.
- We consistently ranked young guys higher than Simmons and old guys lower, but if you separate those groups you get more-or-less the same orders.
- The exception being young forwards: Amen Thompson, Jalen Johnson, Brandon Miller significantly lower here. Amen was classic overreacting to a hot streak by Bill. JJ and Miller have injury and bad-team concerns.
- And the exception to THAT is Franz and Jaylen Brown higher on our list. Just-got-paid-itis.

I’m not sure if mostly agreeing with Bill Simmons is good or bad.

I do think Ja is way too high and said so at the time.

I think this is a relatively good list, though I also disagree with Ja's placement. I think I'd have him around 15-17? We were probably wrong about AD, too, though not as wrong as Harrison was.

Wemby’s now out for the year, and I STILL wouldn’t slide him behind Jokic, and I LOVE Jokic.

That’s how far in front of the pack I think Wemby is.

shrink wrote:Wemby’s now out for the year, and I STILL wouldn’t slide him behind Jokic, and I LOVE Jokic.

That’s how far in front of the pack I think Wemby is.

there's a ~15-30% chance in next 5 years of him getting a 2nd and likely career ending clot though. He slide way down for me personally

Very surprising to see Banchero ranked so high. I feel like people are placing way too much weight on his archetype of player being highly coveted, regardless of whether he’s actually shown he can perform well in that role effectively yet.

In his career so far, less than 23% of his shots are coming at the rim, and that figure has actually slightly decreased each year. He’s shooting 68.3% within 3 feet for his career. Now, he does make up for it a bit by being super physical and being able to generate free throws, but beyond that, he lacks the explosiveness to consistently get himself easier looks inside. He’s been a poor 3P shooter for his career. And he takes a decent chunk of midrange jumpers despite not being good enough at them to warrant that kind of volume.

His passing is a nice trait at his size and position, but he’s a little turnover prone and he’s not good enough there in terms of penetration ability/vision to where his creation could be the primary driver behind an elite offense imo. If it were, then it wouldn’t be so evident that Orlando lacks a PG.

And his on-off has been a clear negative each of his three seasons thus far.

That all sounds really pessimistic. I do understand the intrigue. If the 3P shot can improve a little, if he can cut back on the midrange attempts, and if gets better driving lanes as a result of Orlando getting more shooting to space the floor for him, it’s easy to see him that scoring efficiency hovering closer to league average. And then you consider him being a solid defender, him putting pressure on the paint with his size and physicality, his playmaking…and maybe those things improve a bit too. But is it outlandish to draw parallels with Julius Randle? I just think I would rather have some of the other young guys like Mobley and Jalen Williams going forward.

Can’t really disagree about Paolo, but yeah, there’s a team construction problem at play. Baffles me that Orlando hasn’t done something about it.

Do Cades performance in the playoffs bump him up the rankings?

GreekAlex wrote:Do Cades performance in the playoffs bump him up the rankings?

I would personally have him right after Ant.
Haliburton should be bumped up next time now as well.

Good list except for the totally crazy valuation of Ja Morant. I'm not sure if I'd have Morant even in the top 25 with his injury history, off-the-court issues and overall inconsistency of availability.

Also, Deni Avdija now belongs in the honorable mentions list. He's arguably already as good as guys like Barnes, Ball or Miller, but when you factor Deni is being paid just $11M, it's a no-brainer.