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 #18: Paul George (OKC)-27% (As of creation of poll #19)

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%
14) Rudy Gobert (UTA)-62%-TIEBREAKER w Kyrie Irving (BOS)
15) Damian Lillard (POR)-32%
16) Kyrie Irving (BOS)-37%
17) Draymond Green (GSW)-31%
18) Paul George (OKC)-27%

Added to Poll: Donovan Mitchell (UTA)

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)
-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)
-Clint Capela (HOU)
-Steven Adams (OKC)
-Marc Gasol (MEM)
-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=1745345

Time to add in Gordon Hayward. The dude was just hurt last year he didn't forget how to play basketball

Shout out the Kyrie Truthers who clogged the thread with conspiracy theories from polls 12-16 then disappeared right after.

Luv yall.

Voted Lowry.

There’s a reason the Raps keep winning 50+.

Lowry leads the league in charges taken. Had more charges drawn then a lot of team totals over the season. Fiesty bulldog with a solid 3 point shot.

Towns or Lowry. Slightly lean Towns but wouldn't argue against Lowry. Both should be ahead of a couple of people already in the list imo.

Towns or Lowry - exactly.

If it would be about 17/18 there is no doubt - Lowry.
But Towns still has ton upside (especially in D) and Lowry could slightly decline.
So in 18/19 - i vote Towns.

Add Ingram, he'll shine

This is right around where I'd thought I'd vote for Simmons.

I wouldve went with Towns, Lowry and Horford in front of PG. I'll go with Towns here then

Filthadelphia wrote:Shout out the Kyrie Truthers who clogged the thread with conspiracy theories from polls 12-16 then disappeared right after.

Luv yall.

Can't help it if we're all woke while the rest of the sheep keep their blinders on.


Why'd you get banned tho?

I'm still not sure if we're projecting for the 18-19 season. I think Lowry was a more valuable player this past year but I expect KAT to pass him up.

Add Kemba Walker.

Lowry probably had best RS/PS combo of his career last year. I wouldn’t expect him to decline too much. He’s always been more of a smart player than some super-athletic guy anyway, he should age gracefully. I could even see Towns for the regular season, but I just don’t trust him in the playoffs yet. He’s still learning to compete on that level. Lowry for all the criticism he’s received in the past had a fantastic playoffs last year. Any kind of mental block he might have possibly had is gone.

Nominating Walker

I think you guys forgot about Cousins while ago

Nominate Walker.

Lowry or Simmons for me here. Dude was a beast in RS and finally came through in the POs. super under value and underrated by the masses. check his stats and advanced stats. one of the top PGs and players in the game last year.

Just for fun, I averaged players RPM the last 3 years to build a list. Didn’t include last year for Kawhi, but other than that just did straight averages on the years not accounting for games played. Here’s the list:

1. Chris Paul 7.83
2. LeBron James 7.72
3. Kawhi Leonard 7.58
4. Stephen Curry 7.52
5. Draymond Green 6.72
6. Russell Westbrook 6.43
7. Nikola Jokic 6.24
8. Kyle Lowry 5.96
9. Jimmy Butler 5.67
10. James Harden 5.30
11. Kevin Durant 5.28

Interesting how the top guys are almost without exception all great playmakers. Kawhi Leonard’s the only top guy that doesn’t fit that mold and all he does is combine some of the best scoring ability in the entire league with some of he best defense.

iggymcfrack wrote:Just for fun, I averaged players RPM the last 3 years to build a list. Didn’t include last year for Kawhi, but other than that just did straight averages on the years not accounting for games played. Here’s the list:

1. Chris Paul 7.83
2. LeBron James 7.72
3. Kawhi Leonard 7.58
4. Stephen Curry 7.52
5. Draymond Green 6.72
6. Russell Westbrook 6.43
7. Nikola Jokic 6.24
8. Kyle Lowry 5.96
9. Jimmy Butler 5.67
10. James Harden 5.30
11. Kevin Durant 5.28

Interesting how the top guys are almost without exception all great playmakers. Kawhi Leonard’s the only top guy that doesn’t fit that mold and all he does is combine some of the best scoring ability in the entire league with some of he best defense.

To me that shows more of a systemic bias in RPM rather than the opposite.

Augusto61 wrote:I think you guys forgot about Cousins while ago

There’s a reason he only got $5.3 million this offseason. That’s a very difficult injury to recover from and NBA level scouts of talent didn’t think he was worth that much for 2018/19. Even if he could have gotten a better deal somewhere if he’d been looking in the right price range, he still sure as hell wasn’t getting max or near max offers from anyone. I think it’s pretty clear that no one was expecting him to be a Top 40 player this season.

XxIronChainzxX wrote:

iggymcfrack wrote:Just for fun, I averaged players RPM the last 3 years to build a list. Didn’t include last year for Kawhi, but other than that just did straight averages on the years not accounting for games played. Here’s the list:

1. Chris Paul 7.83
2. LeBron James 7.72
3. Kawhi Leonard 7.58
4. Stephen Curry 7.52
5. Draymond Green 6.72
6. Russell Westbrook 6.43
7. Nikola Jokic 6.24
8. Kyle Lowry 5.96
9. Jimmy Butler 5.67
10. James Harden 5.30
11. Kevin Durant 5.28

Interesting how the top guys are almost without exception all great playmakers. Kawhi Leonard’s the only top guy that doesn’t fit that mold and all he does is combine some of the best scoring ability in the entire league with some of he best defense.

To me that shows more of a systemic bias in RPM rather than the opposite.

I don’t know about that. I don’t think it’s that they had some big prior value for assists or something. I think impact stats in general just generally show that passing’s a more valuable skill than the average fan or early box score composites realized. Steve Nash was Top 10 in RAPM 6 seasons in a row even while playing atrocious defense and that had no box score priors whatsoever. It was just measuring how much better he made the team. I mean there’s basically 3 ways you can have a major impact on the game, scoring, playmaking, and defense, and without a lot of dominant defensive big men in the league right now, I think it’s natural the the guys who score and get other guys open are gonna be the guys with the biggest impacts.

iggymcfrack wrote:

XxIronChainzxX wrote:

iggymcfrack wrote:Just for fun, I averaged players RPM the last 3 years to build a list. Didn’t include last year for Kawhi, but other than that just did straight averages on the years not accounting for games played. Here’s the list:

1. Chris Paul 7.83
2. LeBron James 7.72
3. Kawhi Leonard 7.58
4. Stephen Curry 7.52
5. Draymond Green 6.72
6. Russell Westbrook 6.43
7. Nikola Jokic 6.24
8. Kyle Lowry 5.96
9. Jimmy Butler 5.67
10. James Harden 5.30
11. Kevin Durant 5.28

Interesting how the top guys are almost without exception all great playmakers. Kawhi Leonard’s the only top guy that doesn’t fit that mold and all he does is combine some of the best scoring ability in the entire league with some of he best defense.

To me that shows more of a systemic bias in RPM rather than the opposite.

I don’t know about that. I don’t think it’s that they had some big prior value for assists or something. I think impact stats in general just generally show that passing’s a more valuable skill than the average fan or early box score composites realized. Steve Nash was Top 10 in RAPM 6 seasons in a row even while playing atrocious defense and that had no box score priors whatsoever. It was just measuring how much better he made the team. I mean there’s basically 3 ways you can have a major impact on the game, scoring, playmaking, and defense, and without a lot of dominant defensive big men in the league right now, I think it’s natural the the guys who score and get other guys open are gonna be the guys with the biggest impacts.

I'm not a stats guy, in the sense that I am not actually a statistician and so I have a limited ability to understand the underlying principles behind metrics like RPM and RAPM. I can understand the metric the metric to the extent I can read articles that set down the high-level principles governing it, but that's it.

As I understand it, high level, statistics like RPM and RAPM ultimately measure the degree to which a team outscores its competition with a player on the court. That is, bottom line, the impact as this stat measures it. I understand that the metrics try to separate out the effects of line-ups, compare across teams, etc. But that to mean doesn't necessarily mean it actually captures the most impactful NBA players.