RealGM

Its that time again (edited to include today's top 10-1):
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46304114/nba-rank-2025-2026-flagg-beal-reaves-best-players-100-51
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46306594/nba-rank-2025-2026-williams-harden-morant-best-players-50-11
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46306892/nba-rank-2025-rankings-top-10-players-jokic-durant-lebron

Raptors:
100: RJ Barrett (questionable players above him: 96 Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 95 PJ Washington, 89 Andrew Wiggins, 83 Kuminga). This is crazy - granted RJ will take a step back this season but this guy is still a starter-level player who can drop 18+ ppgs and can get buckets. I rather have RJ than Wiggins or Kuminga.

93: Jakob Poeltl (questionable players above him: 92 Mitchell Robinson, 88 Zach Edey, 87 Jonas Valanciunas). Jakob is just a very steady player; have no idea how anyone thinks Jonas is better than Jakob in this stage of their career.

77: Brandon Ingram (questionable players above him: 76 Brandon Miller (LMAO), 75 Jaden McDaniels, 74 Jabari Smith (LMAO), 73 Derek Lively, 72 Zach LaVine... you know what, my arms are going to be tired typing all the names before him). Ingram is easily top 40-50. This is nuts.

30: Scottie Barnes (questionable players above him: 29 Trae Young, 28 Maxey, 21 Bam Adebayo, 12 Cade Cunningham, 11 Jalen Williams). This is very debatable, but yes, I rather have Scottie than all the guys I listed as questionable.

Craziest thing here? No Immanuel Quickely; guy is going to make ESPN eat crow this season (if healthy).

Jonas over Jak is crazy town lol.

I think the Barnes ranking is fine.

RJ but no IQ shows how useless this list is.

Also - I can understand a guy like Ingram being downgraded due to injuries. But then you see a Lavine higher than him and it is like... what?

Jalen Williams is also the most overrated player in the league lol. 22/5/5 on 57TS% is fine - but not top 10.

IQ has shown NOTHING in this league as a starter yet. He doesnt deserve to be there until he does.

Barnes is too high considering the crappy season he's coming off.

Yak is too low and Ingram will jump the list if he can stay on the court.

Tor_Raps wrote:IQ has shown NOTHING in this league as a starter yet. He doesnt deserve to be there until he does.

What has Stephon Castle shown to be #99? or NAW at #96? or Pritchard at 97?

We can keep going lower... Ivey at 85, Nembhard at 82, etc.

None of them are exactly proven players here.

Duffman100 wrote:Jonas over Jak is crazy town lol.

I think the Barnes ranking is fine.

It's actually pretty favourable considering they put Wagner, Sabonis, JJJ and Morant behind him.

Barnes too high.

Poeltl a little low. Val ahead of him is ridiculous.

ATLTimekeeper wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:Jonas over Jak is crazy town lol.

I think the Barnes ranking is fine.

It's actually pretty favourable considering they put Wagner, Sabonis, JJJ and Morant behind him.

They also put Derrick White ahead of him, and as good as he is as a role guy, he is not a top 30 NBA player

YogurtProducer wrote:

ATLTimekeeper wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:Jonas over Jak is crazy town lol.

I think the Barnes ranking is fine.

It's actually pretty favourable considering they put Wagner, Sabonis, JJJ and Morant behind him.

They also put Derrick White ahead of him, and as good as he is as a role guy, he is not a top 30 NBA player

That's just to help them trade him for a pantload. Guaranteed he drops out of the top 50 on his next team.

IQ is a top 40 player in the league. I see him as a better Fox. Same measurements, speed, better shooting, and less aggressive defense.

I would have RJ anywhere from 90-100.

Poeltl anywhere from 60-80.

IQ anywhere from 80-100

BI anywhere from 35-45

Scottie anywhere from 40-50.

Just adds fuel to the fire to drive these guys this season. They will be out there to prove everyone wrong.

This list just shows, that most "Journalists" are just going with the flow instead of informing themselves.

They rank them by accomplishments/fame rather than actual skillevel they have right now. JV shouldnt even be on the list for an example.

Shocked you have Scottie over Cade… Cade has MVP potential and is an elite NBA scorer

Scottie’s rating seems a bit generous, though I’m sure there are players you can find ahead of him that might not be as good.

Ingram’s ranking is obviously affected by (perceived) availability. It’s hard to place him until he shows he can stay on the court. Embiid is at 47(ish?) for the same reason. There’s no chance that’s accurate, but we can’t even say if it’s too high or too low. Lavine played 74 games last year so he’s kind of given the benefit of the doubt (though in that case he should probably be higher). If Ingram gets a healthy season under his belt, he should see a huge bump next year.

Jak’s rating is actually insane, though it’s more that JV’s rating is throwing everything off. It’s not inconceivable to me that Edey would be better this year. Mitchell is a tough sell.

RJ at 100 seems high, actually (how the **** was he 53 last year though?). As a shorthand, there are 30 teams in the league, so that would put him around 3-4 on an average team. He might not even be 4th on our team and we’re aspiring to be average. With most of the guys ahead of him, there’s a case to be made that we’d be better with a swap and the other team would be worse. It’s very murky in that range though.

In fairness to ESPN, making a list like this is a lot harder than it looks. Ranking the best players is hard enough, but accounting for injuries and how much to value elite role players against empty stat stars is a nightmare. We should try a Raptors RealGM Top 100. I’m sure it would be… interesting.

YogurtProducer wrote:

Tor_Raps wrote:IQ has shown NOTHING in this league as a starter yet. He doesnt deserve to be there until he does.

What has Stephon Castle shown to be #99? or NAW at #96? or Pritchard at 97?

We can keep going lower... Ivey at 85, Nembhard at 82, etc.

None of them are exactly proven players here.

NAW being there is ridiculous but thats just a benefit of being on a good team. Same with Pritchard.

Castle/Ivey have age on their side so youre allowed to project them highly.

And nembhard has shown enough to be ahead of IQ right now.

This team has been a joke the past several years so youre not going to see me crying about them needing to be much higher. Win on the court and these things typically follow behind.

Tor_Raps wrote:

YogurtProducer wrote:

Tor_Raps wrote:IQ has shown NOTHING in this league as a starter yet. He doesnt deserve to be there until he does.

What has Stephon Castle shown to be #99? or NAW at #96? or Pritchard at 97?

We can keep going lower... Ivey at 85, Nembhard at 82, etc.

None of them are exactly proven players here.

NAW being there is ridiculous but thats just a benefit of being on a good team. Same with Pritchard.

Castle/Ivey have age on their side so youre allowed to project them highly.

And nembhard has shown enough to be ahead of IQ right now.

This team has been a joke the past several years so youre not going to see me crying about them needing to be much higher. Win on the court and these things typically follow behind.

Has IQ had a season as good as Pritchard’s recent season? Not even trying to be funny lol.

You guys have to remember that American media has to keep Scottie in the top 30 and the idea that he's a young stud because it all factors into them recruiting him off the Raptors and out of Canada.

You don't get engagement on Barnes FA and trade demands when you previously **** on him or had him ranked outside the top 70. Barnes himself wouldn't want to engage you (the American media) either.

Raptorfan2012 wrote:
30: Scottie Barnes (questionable players above him: 29 Trae Young, 28 Maxey, 21 Bam Adebayo, 12 Cade Cunningham, 11 Jalen Williams). This is very debatable, but yes, I rather have Scottie than all the guys I listed as questionable.

None of those players' GM's would trade their guy for Scottie except maybe Trae. And neither would any other NBA GM

Thaddy wrote:IQ is a top 40 player in the league. I see him as a better Fox. Same measurements, speed, better shooting, and less aggressive defense.

Talk it into existence Thaddy. ; )