RealGM

Once again, It is time for Filthadelphia's annual Top 25 Player poll this offseason.

(Filthadelphia, if you want to take over again, go for it. I just wanted to get it finished before preseason. In any case, this will probably be the last year I can do it for a while).

Your favorite offseason debate is back by popular demand!
Thanks to everyone who voted last go around I'm excited to see where the 6th annual edition ends up.

Here are the Rules:
-Vote ONE player per poll. You'll be able to change your vote just like in previous years so you can self-implement rank choice voting.
-The criteria of ranking the players is YOUR OWN. The whole point of bringing this to the GB is to attract the widest amount of votes/perspectives on the game as possible to form a true consensus. Some people value shooting over defense, team success over individual prowess etc. Filthadelphia wanted to bake all that into this poll set no matter how chaotic.
-Each poll a player will win and then be taken out of the field. There will be 25 polls in all.
-There are only 10 possible poll options so I will start with last year's Top 10.
-As each poll commences I ask you to COMMENT IN THE THREAD your vote for who should be added in the next poll. There will be a large list of players yet to be added to the field below that you can look over to make your vote. I will tally up the votes in the comments at the end of each poll and add the winner accordingly. For example, if you want Xavier Tillman added in the next poll just comment "Nominate: Xavier Tillman"
-If a poll is overwhelmingly skewed towards one guy I will try, time willing, to edit it early and move on to the next one.
-If there is a tie in the poll. There will be a run-off poll created with just the tying parties to determine a winner. The losers of the runoff will then be added back into the field of 10 for the next poll.
-Feel free to ask any questions via pm or comment
-Feel Free to comment on your reasoning for a pick and why
There may be days when I am not able to quickly add the next poll. Just be patient!

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE FOR PARTICIPATING!!!!

Added to Poll: Anthony Davis (LAL)

RealGM Top 25 Players 2023-24:
1) Nikola Jokic (DEN) - 72%
2) Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) - 61%

Yet To Be Added: (If someone is not here that you want here comment THAT and I will add them)
Dejounte Murray (ATL)
Trae Young (ATL)
Jaylen Brown (BOS)
Mikal Bridges (BKN)
LaMelo Ball (CHA)
DeMar DeRozan (CHI)
Zach LaVine (CHI)
Darius Garland (CLE)
Donovan Mitchell (CLE)
Evan Mobley (CLE)
Kyrie Irving (DAL)
Aaron Gordon (DEN)
Jamal Murray (DEN)
Cade Cunningham (DET)
Draymond Green (GSW)
Chris Paul (GSW)
Klay Thompson (GSW)
Andrew Wiggins (GSW)
Fred VanVleet (HOU)
Tyrese Haliburton (IND)
Paul George (LAC)
Austin Reaves (LAL)
Desmond Bane (MEM)
Jaren Jackson Jr. (MEM)
Ja Morant (MEM)
Bam Adebayo (MIA)
Jrue Holiday (MIL)
Brook Lopez (MIL)
Khris Middleton (MIL)
Anthony Edwards (MIN)
Rudy Gobert (MIN)
Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN)
Brandon Ingram (NOP)
Zion Williamson (NOP)
Jalen Brunson (NYK)
Julius Randle (NYK)
Paolo Banchero (ORL)
Jerami Grant (POR)
Damian Lillard (POR)
James Harden (PHI)
Tyrese Maxey (PHI)
Bradley Beal (PHX)
Devin Booker (PHX)
De'Aaron Fox (SAC)
Domantas Sabonis (SAC)
Victor Wembanyama (SAS)
Scottie Barnes (TOR)
Pascal Siakam (TOR)
Lauri Markkanen (UTA)
Kyle Kuzma (WAS)


Previous Results:

Vote Luka
Nominate Booker

#3 is where is starts to get hard. Joel Embiid was MVP last year. He got it because of voter fatigue, but he still played well enough to get the voter fatigue vote. The thing is, the Philly situation is a mess now with Harden's bad juju stinking up the joint. He's also got another coach's system to learn. Can he be at his best with all this going on?

Luka Doncic is another choice. He's another star in a really strange situation. He's on a team with very little help that traded away their defense for Kyrie Irving. The jury's still out on whether they'll lift each other up or do some awkward turn-taking thing that fails to maximize what Doncic brings to the table. And how is Jason Kidd still coaching?

Steph Curry? He had his 3rd highest ppg with 3rd highest efg last year (and career high in rebounds - 6.1!). But he's going to turn 36 this season. 36! He has to slow down sometime, right? I guess the biggest issue is he can't do it for full seasons anymore. It's been 7 seasons since he's played 70+ games in a season.

Kawhi Leonard. How many times is he going to be injured? Still, when healthy, he was STILL one of the best two-way players in the league last year. It's hard to imagine he can continue to be so good even when he has so many injuries. It's also hard to trust he'll be in the game when you need him most.

Jayson Tatum has some brilliant games and can look like the MVP at times. There are other times where he seems like he's out of his depth.

Jimmy Butler had the third highest RAPTOR WAR last year behind Jokic and Embiid. I think he's rarely seen to be on the level he has been performing at year in and year out by critics. Then again, he's 34. I'm not sure how much longer he can play the rugged game he plays at the highest level.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the other option. He's definitely on the rise and likely a top 10 player now, but he needs to take another big step to be considered this high.

LeBron James. He's not the player he once was, but he can still be the best player on the court in any given moment.

This group is all smooshed together. I don't think my choice will be the most popular, but I'm going with Jimmy Butler and not just for last year's playoff run. He's the leader of the team's offense and the team's defense. The only things that can slow him down are injury and aging and he's the most likely to will his way through that. Lots of other great choices here too, though.

Nominate: Booker

V Luka Doncic. Coming in shape and Dallas added some depth that should fill some holes make them a much better team
N Zion .... is he finally healthy?

V Embiid
N Booker

Curry

Booker

Curry
Booker

Vote: Embiid

Disappointing playoffs, but I think he gets unfairly trashed at the expense of Jokic not receiving MVP.

Nominate: Booker

Vote: Luka
Nominate: Booker

Vote: Luka

Nom: Booker

V: Embiid
N: Lillard

V / Luka
N / Booker

I’m super torn between Tatum and Embiid. I feel like on paper, it has to be Embiid, but if I was trying to really win something, I’d trust Tatum more. So voting Tatum.

Nominate: Dame

V: Doncić
N: Booker

Voted Embiid

Nominate Booker

Curry/Booker

V: Luka (homer vote)
N: Ja Morant

Agree this is a tough choice. If we're choosing in a vacuum (aka starting a franchise) versus voting for players based who they currently play for and their contributions to their current team, then that kind of changes things. I am voting based on a mix of these two criteria, so:

Vote: Curry

Nominate: Booker

Vote: Joel Emiid
Nominate: Devin Brooker

Vote: Luka
Nom: Ant

Picking Luka to have a better season than Curry or Embiid.

- I'm not actually sure what to do with Embiid. Reasonable pick as high as #2, but as a guy who has gone all out for the MVP award and ran out of the gas for the important games...take your foot off the gas, big man! I'd really rather he scaled down his offensive load during the regular season and give us one healthy playoff run. Even if Embiid came out averaging 40 and 17... I think I might be like: okay big guy, we get it. So basically there's nothing Embiid can do to impress me in the regular season. He needs some better injury luck for a playoff run for me to keep putting him above guys who have had multiple monster playoff series (like the guy I voted ahead of him).

- Curry is still god tier, but he's 35 now. If he's in the MVP race early... that probably means we're getting another 50 game season. I just don't believe in guys over 34 playing big minutes and shouldering big loads in the regular season. Save it for the playoffs and have us wondering if you're still the best in the world at the end of the year.

I think Luka is set up for a pretty big offensive explosion. Dallas' defense is going to be trash, but less trash than it was last year after the trade (they picked up Grant Williams, OMax, Lively, Exum, Derrick Jones Jr, and hopefully they'll get better health from Maxi Kleber). I love the equation of Luka + aggressive secondary scorer + shooting + lob threat on offense. The Mavs have like a million lob threats (Holmes and LIvely)and wont be so reliant on Dwight Powell being out there. Luka is 24 now, is hopefully improving his ability to stay in shape, and it's time for him to have a serious MVP campaign.

My hot homer take this year is that Ant becomes a top 3 guard, leapfrogging Booker. I trust Booker's consistency and mentality more, but Ant has the talent/potential advantage. He'll never be the dynamic midrange shooter Book is, but he's in another world of athleticism and is much more forceful on both sides of the ball. Book already feels like he's figured out his best self. Ant has not but maybe this year he does a bit.