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 #13: Victor Oladipo (IND)-31%

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%
13) Victor Oladipo (IND)-31%

Added to Poll: John Wall (WAS)

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)
-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=1743383&start=100

Add Klay next.

Kind of tough between Gobert, Towns, Lillard and Green. I guess I'd have to go with Lillard or Gobert since they are both the backbone of their team, but still have to decide on which one.

I'd probably add Hayward next.

Damn Kyrie is way more underrated than I thought

It’s Dame time

At this point I'm going to have to go with the best defensive player in the world...Rudy Gobert.

I got Rudy here. Add Kemba

PG13, was DPOY and sharing offense with Melo and Westbrook in an awkward year. Should bounce back and be top 10 this year but putting him at 14 seems right.

Towns or Gobert for me here.

I think we are prisoners of the moment having seen Oladipo put up a strong fight against Lebron. I'd take Wall, Simmons, Green, Gobert, and Lillard over him if I was starting a franchise today.

But anyways, my vote is Lillard here by a narrow margin over Gobert & Green.

lakerz12 wrote:I think we are prisoners of the moment having seen Oladipo put up a strong fight against Lebron. I'd take Wall, Simmons, Green, Gobert, and Lillard over him if I was starting a franchise today.

But anyways, my vote is Lillard here by a narrow margin over Gobert & Green.

I mean he was a monster in the regular season too, all his playoffs did was back it up.

Prez wrote:

lakerz12 wrote:I think we are prisoners of the moment having seen Oladipo put up a strong fight against Lebron. I'd take Wall, Simmons, Green, Gobert, and Lillard over him if I was starting a franchise today.

But anyways, my vote is Lillard here by a narrow margin over Gobert & Green.

I mean he was a monster in the regular season too, all his playoffs did was back it up.

Was he more of a monster than Lillard? Lillard was the best player on the team with the 3rd best record in the WEST.

Lillard averaged more Pts, more Ast, higher PER, higher TS%, higher WS, higher BPM.

The only thing Oladipo has on him is his defense, and I don't think it's enough to offset everything else.

This was a tough one, as it came down to Gobert and Lilliard for me. Went with Lilliard just because he's been doing what he's doing for a long time and the backbone of the Franchise.

Nominate Klay Thompson next

Time to go with the proven playoff performer who's gotten it done on the biggest stage of all, the NBA Finals!



I know a lot of people have mentioned Draymond having the best playoff RAPM in the league over the last 5 years, but you may be wondering what does that really mean? Well, let's just take a look at raw postseason on/off stats over that period:



As you can see, on average the Warriors have been 13.5 points better with Draymond on the court and actually never even had a positive playoffs with him on the bench until this last season. I think he's pretty obviously having a massive impact. Now let's compare that to the #2 guy in the last poll, Kyrie Irving:



Kyrie's teams were 3 points worse than Draymond's with both in the game despite being 14 points better with him on the bench. That's a pretty massive difference. If it was just a year or two maybe, but it's the same story year in and year out. Even in Dryamond's worse year +/- wise, he was still better than Kyrie's best.

Yeah think Dame's getting slept on a bit due to the playoffs. He was absolutely elite in the regular season and had a solid argument over Dipo. He's next for me, then some combo of Gobert/Green

lakerz12 wrote:

Prez wrote:

lakerz12 wrote:I think we are prisoners of the moment having seen Oladipo put up a strong fight against Lebron. I'd take Wall, Simmons, Green, Gobert, and Lillard over him if I was starting a franchise today.

But anyways, my vote is Lillard here by a narrow margin over Gobert & Green.

I mean he was a monster in the regular season too, all his playoffs did was back it up.

Was he more of a monster than Lillard? Lillard was the best player on the team with the 3rd best record in the WEST.

Lillard averaged more Pts, more Ast, higher PER, higher TS%, higher WS, higher BPM.

The only thing Oladipo has on him is his defense, and I don't think it's enough to offset everything else.

I'm a big Lillard fan, but yes Oladipo does have a good argument against him even in the regular season. Lillard has him beat in most offensive metrics, particularly scoring, efficiency, and overall production metrics. Where Oladipo shines is the impact stuff..RPM, RAPM, on/off, net rating, etc, and he has the edge over Lillard in most of these. And this is largely because yes, the defensive difference is massive and does actually offset everything else.

Also, playoffs matter and Oladipo was stellar and took LeBron to 7 while Lillard got swept in the 1st round.

lakerz12 wrote:

Prez wrote:

lakerz12 wrote:I think we are prisoners of the moment having seen Oladipo put up a strong fight against Lebron. I'd take Wall, Simmons, Green, Gobert, and Lillard over him if I was starting a franchise today.

But anyways, my vote is Lillard here by a narrow margin over Gobert & Green.

I mean he was a monster in the regular season too, all his playoffs did was back it up.

Was he more of a monster than Lillard? Lillard was the best player on the team with the 3rd best record in the WEST.

Lillard averaged more Pts, more Ast, higher PER, higher TS%, higher WS, higher BPM.

The only thing Oladipo has on him is his defense, and I don't think it's enough to offset everything else.

The Blazers really weren't significantly than the Pacers in the RS. One game difference in record and yeah Portland played in the West, but the 2.60 SRS to 1.18 SRS (which takes into account strength of opponent) isn't that big of a disparity. And that difference becomes even less pronounced when you consider that Oladipo missed 7 games and Indiana went 0-7 in them while Damian missed 9 games and Portland went 5-4 in them. So really when both were playing, Indiana actually outperformed Portland.

Not to mention essentially the entirety of Lillard's value came from his offense and Portland finished 15th on offense while Indiana finished 11th on that end. And if you look at their on-court plus/minus Oladipo was a +6.6 while Lillard was a +5.8, so when each was on the court Indiana was faring better than Portland.

Also, I give extra credit to Oladipo for being able to come into a completely new situation, immediately take up the reigns on that team as the "man," be the team's best player on both ends, and lead a team of solid all-around but unspectacular role players that many before the season expected to be the worst team in the league to the playoffs and 7 games against the eventual EC champs. On the other hand, Lillard was on a team with continuity as the vast majority of the team was intact from the previous season. And while Lillard was horrible in the postseason, Oladipo was phenomenal, and so while I already had him ahead of Lillard after the regular season, the postseason gap really seals it for me.

Last time I changed my vote from Gobert to Oladipo just because I wanted it to be over.

Sticking with Gobert this time.

Add Hayward.

Add LaMarcus Aldridge, he is being slept on after having a career year last year and leading those Kawhi-less Spurs

Someone needs to link this thread to Kyrie, who believes he's the best player in the world. Voted Gobert.