RealGM

Which NBA teams do not have a single Top 50 talent? Include top 50 talent even if they are currently not ranked as top 50 player, because of injuries or having a down season.

I think there are 2 such teams:

Nets
Raptors

* Nets best player is Cam Johnson who can't be included in Top 50 IMO.
* Raptors best player is Ingram who is just out of Top 50 IMO.

4 teams have a worse record than Nets & Raptors. But Wizards have Middleton, Jazz have Markkanen, Hornets have LaMelo and Pelicans have Zion so they are ok.

THE BULLS

ChumboChappati wrote:Which NBA teams do not have a single Top 50 talent? Include top 50 talent even if they are currently not ranked as top 50 player, because of injuries or having a down season.

I think there are 2 such teams:

Nets
Raptors

* Nets best player is Cam Johnson IMO who can't be included in Top 50.
* Raptors best player is Ingram who is just out of Top 50 IMO.

4 teams have a worse record than Nets & Raptors. But Wizards have Middleton, Jazz have Markkanen, Hornets have LaMelo and Pelicans have Zion so they are ok.

Ingram & Khris better than Scottie??

bledredwine wrote:THE BULLS

Forgot that LaVine is traded but still has Vucevic and Giddey is pretty good.

Middleton is not a top 50 player and neither is Jordan Poole.

The Wizards do not have one.

Scottie Barnes is better than Ingram and is in the top 50.

Middleton is not in the top 50.

The answer is Nets and Wizards.

Middleton was top 50 a couple years ago. I think Scottie Barnes is top 50, definitely if you just consider talent.

So Nets and Wizards for sure. I think I'd add the Bulls too, I'm not that high on Giddey or Vuc.

Middleton isn't a top-50 anymore and probably doesn't get back. Barnes might be a top-50 going forward (though I'm not nearly as high on him as most Raptor fans).

I don't have Barnes as top 50. You can actually make the case he's a negative contact.

Scottie is definitely a top 50 talent. Dont let him being deliberatly surrounded by scrubs so his team tanks fool you. He was an all star just a year ago

Here's my stab at it. The guys without question marks I'd say are pretty consensus picks, and the guys with question marks are arguable.

CLE: Mitchell, Mobley, Garland?, Allen?
BOS: Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, White?
NYK: KAT, Brunson, Hart?
MIL: Giannis, Lillard
IND: Siakam, Haliburton
DET: Cunningham
ATL: Young, Johnson
ORL: Paulo, Wagner
MIA: Adebayo, Herro?
CHI:
PHI: Maxey, Embiid?
BRK:
TOR: Barnes
CHA: Ball
WAS:

OKC: SGA, Williams, Chet, Hartenstein?
DEN: Jokic, Murray
LAL: Doncic, Lebron
MEM: JJJ, Morant, Bane
HOU: Thompson, Sengun?
GSW: Curry, Butler, Draymond?
MIN: Edwards, Gobert
LAC: Harden, Powell?, Zubac?
SAC: Sabonis, Lavine?
DAL: Davis, Irving
PHO: Durant, Booker
POR:
SAS: Wemby, Fox
NOP: Zion, Murphy?, Ingram?
UTA: Markkanen?

That's 44 guys that I have as fairly uncontroversial, plus another 15 who are arguable. Even with that expansive list of 59 guys, I still have Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington and Portland without a top 50 guy. Plus maybe Utah.

ChumboChappati wrote:But Wizards have Middleton

I think you were in that coma for longer than you might realize.

It was mentioned in OP to include Top 50 talent even if they are not playing like ones because of different reasons. Middleton falls into that category. Injuries have really taken a toll on his numbers, but he is still a Top 50 talent IMO, capable of 20/5/5 with good shooting percentages.

Barnes is not projected to be Top 50 talent. Rookie of the year season looks like an aberration. He is matching his scouting report; the shooting is very bad, cannot create his own shot, average rebounder for his position, assists are good, but he turns the ball over a lot.

Selling broken down Khris Middleton as a top 50 player, and then arguing for it as “talent”, defeats the whole purpose of the thread.

Might as well include MJ for the Bulls, then. Chances are equal (zero) that either is a top 50 player ever again.

The Bulls definitely don’t have a top 50 talent.

Giddey & Buzelis do have the ability to move into that category at some stage.

ChumboChappati wrote:It was mentioned in OP to include Top 50 talent even if they are not playing like ones because of different reasons. Middleton falls into that category. Injuries have really taken a toll on his numbers, but he is still a Top 50 talent IMO, capable of 20/5/5 with good shooting percentages.

If a 27-year-old misses half a year due to injury, and then has a rough start in his first few months back, you can chalk it up to "injuries taking a toll on his numbers". When the same thing happens to a 31-year-old. And then he spends the next 2.5 seasons being half the player he once was, you no longer consider it a temporary setback. This is the new normal. Middleton is not the 20/5/5 guy from 3 years ago. He is now a 14/5/4 guy and has been for the past 2.5 seasons.

Barnes shouldn't be your teams best player but he is DEFINITELY a top 50 player in the NBA. OP doesn't watch basketball if he's naming Middleton over him in 2025 lol.

Who is top 50 on Portland? Absolutely nobody.

Wizards. That team maybe has one player that would start on a legit playoff team and even then it's borderline.