RealGM

We have debates all the time in various threads over who is better so I thought what better time than summer to see where the General Board lies in its view of the top 25 best players.

I'll update each new poll with the rankings of the last and the percentages of who won.
There's only 10 options per poll so new options will be added as we get lower and lower.

Lets come to a consensus. Feel free to comment who you voted for and why.

If you think someone else should be in the poll who is not there please comment and i'll adjust accordingly.

alessandrux wrote:
I would appreciate it if you can state clearly the procedure.

We vote daily(?) the best player among those who are remaining (and in the poll)?
And after each day, you remove said best voted player, list him as the next best player on our bestlist and start a new poll with the remaining players?

From your players I would replace Irving with Embiid

These are the procedures, yes. Every winner will be removed and then a new entrant will be included on the next poll.

Winner of Poll #12: Nikola Jokic (DEN)-32%

RealGM Top 25 Players 2018-19:
1) LeBron James (LAL)-72%
2) Kevin Durant (GSW)-39%
3) Stephen Curry (GSW)-53%
4) Anthony Davis (NOP)-39%
5) James Harden (HOU)-45%
6) Kawhi Leonard (TOR)-50%
7) Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL)-56%
8) Russell Westbrook (OKC)-47%
9) Chris Paul (HOU)-43%
10) Jimmy Butler (MIN)-33%
11) Joel Embiid (PHI)-37%
12) Nikola Jokic (DEN)-32%

Added to Poll:Ben Simmons (PHI)

New System Alert: Vote for who you want in the poll but in order to add new people COMMENT IN THE THREAD.
For example, if you want Marc Gasol added next just comment "Marc Gasol" or "Gasol" and i'll tally up the votes and add whoever is the most popular.
ONLY VOTE ONE NAME PER THREAD

Feel free to leave other comments as usual.
Thanks for your participation so far everyone!

This is the yet-to-be-added field: (If someone is not here that you want here comment THAT and I will add them)
-Al Horford (BOS)
-Gordon Hayward (BOS)
-Jayson Tatum (BOS)
-Kristaps Porzingis (NYK)
-Kevin Love (CLE)
-Blake Griffin (DET)
-Andre Drummond (DET)
-Khris Middleton (MIL)
-Kemba Walker (CHA)
-Bradley Beal (WAS)
-John Wall (WAS)
-CJ McCollum (POR)
-Donovan Mitchell (UTA)
-Klay Thompson (GSW)
-DeMarcus Cousins (GSW)
-Clint Capela (HOU)
-Steven Adams (OKC)
-Marc Gasol (MEM)
-LaMarcus Aldridge (SAS)
-Jrue Holiday (NOP)
-Devin Booker (PHX)
-Brandon Ingram (LAL)
-Isaiah Thomas (DEN)

Link to last poll: https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1742999

Dipo. If were going by last season he should have been even higher. I think he'll have at least as good as season so I'll vote him.

Statistically, Lillard is definitely the best player left

Rudy Gobert. As I've mentioned before, I think Draymond is better when pushed to be better but he's not pushed with Durant on the team. He kind of coasted through last year and I don't see why he wouldn't do the same this year.
1A) Gobert
1B) Draymond
3) Lillard
4) Irving
5) Oladipo
6) George

I would've rolled my vote over against the Irving bloc for the right person, but I don't think Oladipo is quite on that level yet.

Add Klay Thompson.

Nominating Aldridge.

Woah, Jokic as the 12th best player? Yeah, I don’t know about that one.

Should be Oladipo

About time LaMarcus Aldridge gets on this list

Voting Lillard and nominating Wall, Horford and Aldridge in that order.

I had oladipo last time. I got him here too

Gotta be Dipo. I think he was the RealGM consensus #5 last year in the end of season awards as a 25 year old who was really in amazing shape for the first time of his life and leading a team for the first time. I feel like all that success and especially that battle with LeBron is gonna leave him hungry for more. He obviously won’t be able to improve anything remotely in the neighborhood of what he did last year, but I really think he’s gonna get better again.

Gobert. Game changer and if he'd been healthy last year Utah would have been in the WCF.

Add Hayward.

dorkestra wrote:Statistically, Lillard is definitely the best player left

His playoff performance was rough.

If I can pick any player here, I'm taking Kyrie (not including injuries).

I'm going Draymond and Oladipo is next for me. I've already rehashed my arguments for Green enough. Dipo had an absurd season last year and was probably top 7 on the year, and I expect him to be just as good next season, if not better. His work ethic is better than 99% of guys in the league and I know that's said about a lot of guys but I really believe it with Oladipo. He transformed his body and took his game to another level last year and as soon as he got knocked out by the Cavs he went right back to work.

He shot 69% at the rim, hit threes at a 37% clip on roughly 6 attempts per game, pulled down rebounds at an 84th percentile rate for guards, and provided elite perimeter defense. He made ballhandlers' lives miserable, which I witnessed first hand against my Cavs as he made it so difficult for Hill, Calderon, and even LeBron to initiate the offense while also holding JR to abysmal shooting percentages. And he was excellent in the passing lanes leading the league in spg at 2.4 in both the regular season and postseason. His +2.22 DRAPM and -9.2 defensive on/off in the RS along with a -16.1 defensive on/off in the postseason support the idea that he was giving crazy defensive value at the guard position, and it's no anomaly as he was a great defender per the impact stats in OKC, as well. On the other side of the ball, Dipo put up 23/8/6 in the playoffs while shooting on 55% TS despite being the focus of an aggressive trapping scheme by the Cavs from Game 2 on after he torched us for 32 points on 19 shots in Game 1. He was the engine behind a team that was able to take the Cavs to 7 games and nearly topple us in Game 7 on our homecourt, ultimately providing a stiffer challenge with the Pacers than both the more talented +7.29 SRS Raptors and +3.23 SRS Celtics (with Kyrie out, though I still believe they had more firepower than Indy) did. Boston also took the Cavs to 7, but the net differential of the series was +0.9 in favor of the Cavs with Boston having HCA. In the Pacers-Cavs series the net differential was actually +5.7 in favor of Indiana and they did it without homecourt, as well.

So I'm really impressed by how good Oladipo has gotten and I actually have him higher than 13, just like I do with Dray, and I would have him ahead of Green if Draymond didn't raise his play several notches in the postseason last year after coasting a bit in the RS and then give insane best defender in the league value, along with 11/11/8 averages.

Also I would add Horford to the poll. Thinking Klay is next.

John Wall

How has Klay Thompson not been added?

yoyoboy wrote:I'm going Draymond and Oladipo is next for me. I've already rehashed my arguments for Green enough. Dipo had an absurd season last year and was probably top 7 on the year, and I expect him to be just as good next season, if not better. His work ethic is better than 99% of guys in the league and I know that's said about a lot of guys but I really believe it with Oladipo. He transformed his body and took his game to another level last year and as soon as he got knocked out by the Cavs he went right back to work.

He shot 69% at the rim, hit threes at a 37% clip on roughly 6 attempts per game, pulled down rebounds at an 84th percentile rate for guards, and provided elite perimeter defense. He made ballhandlers' lives miserable, which I witnessed first hand against my Cavs as he made it so difficult for Hill, Calderon, and even LeBron to initiate the offense while also holding JR to abysmal shooting percentages. And he was excellent in the passing lanes leading the league in spg at 2.4 in both the regular season and postseason. His +2.22 DRAPM and -9.2 defensive on/off in the RS along with a -16.1 defensive on/off in the postseason support the idea that he was giving crazy defensive value at the guard position, and it's no anomaly as he was a great defender per the impact stats in OKC, as well. On the other side of the ball, Dipo put up 23/8/6 in the playoffs while shooting on 55% TS despite being the focus of an aggressive trapping scheme by the Cavs from Game 2 on after he torched us for 32 points on 19 shots in Game 1. He was the engine behind a team that was able to take the Cavs to 7 games and nearly topple us in Game 7 on our homecourt, ultimately providing a stiffer challenge with the Pacers than both the more talented +7.29 SRS Raptors and +3.23 SRS Celtics (with Kyrie out, though I still believe they had more firepower than Indy) did. Boston also took the Cavs to 7, but the net differential of the series was +0.9 in favor of the Cavs with Boston having HCA. In the Pacers-Cavs series the net differential was actually +5.7 in favor of Indiana and they did it without homecourt, as well.

So I'm really impressed by how good Oladipo has gotten and I actually have him higher than 13, just like I do with Dray, and I would have him ahead of Green if Draymond didn't raise his play several notches in the postseason last year after coasting a bit in the RS and then give insane best defender in the league value, along with 11/11/8 averages.

Also I would add Horford to the poll. Thinking Klay is next.

This is a really great post. Draymond’s my #2 right now of the players left. The only reason I’m hesitant to put him over Oladipo is that when hustle players start to decline, things can go south in a hurry. It’s all perfectly understandable that he wouldn’t care about the regular season any more than he did last year, but I feel like his best case is another season like last year, and that there’s a chance he undergoes significant decline this year while I think Oladipo probably improves a little bit. Also, just facing down LeBron and arguably outplaying him? That’s something only Durant, Oladipo and Dirk can even make an argument for in the last decade.

Draymond really is a fantastic player though. It’s kinda funny because I’ve gotten accused of trying to knock Kyrie down because I don’t like him, and Draymond is my least favorite player in the world to actually watch play. I hate all the faces he makes, I hate how much he complains to the refs, and I really hate how he takes all these cheap shots on people and then still acts like the offended party. That doesn’t stop me from recognizing that he’s one of the 10-15 best players in the league though. I actually feel like most years, he’d be significantly higher, but it’s just so crowded in that 6-15 range right now. Oladipo, Durant, Curry, Paul, Embiid, Jokic, Westbrook, Draymond, Butler, Simmons, and Lowry are virtually impossible to separate. I can honestly see a legit argument for each one as the #6 player in the league.

Voted Oladipo. Nominate Klay Thompson

John Wall should be up there

Missed the last 3 picks, but Jokic at 12? Man RealGM really has something for him

Don’t feel strongly about nominating anyone right now. I’m gonna go with Lillard. Not because I necessarily think he’s the best player not on the list, but within the group that hasn’t been nominated, he has the best argument for actually being selected soon. Like if you care about offense, box score stats, raw scoring talent, he definitely has a legitimate argument to go right now. Actually he might even be the best player left that’s not on the list. Only people I can think of that are really close are the Celtics guys or maybe Donovan Mitchell.

LeMasta wrote:John Wall should be up there

Missed the last 3 picks, but Jokic at 12? Man RealGM really has something for him

9th in RPM as a rookie, 6th and 5th the last 2 years. Averaged 22/11/8 the last 3 months of the season. And you can’t even say it’s because of tanking teams as he had much better numbers against playoff teams. He could take a leap into the Harden/Giannis/AD tier this year and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.