RealGM top 50 if all positions were treated equally

[Dr Positivity]

All positions must be accounted for in every five players. For example Magic, Jordan, Lebron, Duncan, Kareem are the highest ranked player at each position in top 100 in 2020, so they are the automatic top 5, and then ordered by which ones were ranked higher. Russell, Bird, KG, Kobe, West are all 2nd highest at their positions, etc.

1. Lebron James (SF)
2. Michael Jordan (SG)
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (C)
4. Tim Duncan (PF)
5. Magic Johnson (PG)


6. Bill Russell (C)
7. Larry Bird (SF)
8. Kevin Garnett (PF)
9. Kobe Bryant (SG)
10. Jerry West (PG)



11. Wilt Chamberlain (C)

12. Oscar Robertson (PG)

13. Dirk Nowitzki (PF)

14. Julius Erving (SF)

15. Dwyane Wade (SG)



16. Shaquille O’Neal (C)

17. Karl Malone (PF)

18. Chris Paul (PG)

19. Kevin Durant (SF)

20. James Harden (SG)



21. Hakeem Olajuwon (C)

22. Charles Barkley (PF)

23. Stephen Curry (PG)

24. Scottie Pippen (SF)

25. George Gervin (SG)



26. David Robinson (C)

27. Bob Pettit (PF)

28. John Stockton (PG)

29. Elgin Baylor (SF)

30. Clyde Drexler (SG)



31. George Mikan (C)

32. Steve Nash (PG)

33. John Havlicek (SF)

34. Reggie Miller (SG)

35. Dolph Schayes (PF)



36. Moses Malone (C)

37. Walt Frazier (PG)

38. Rick Barry (SF)

39. Pau Gasol (PF)

40. Ray Allen (SG)



41. Patrick Ewing (C)

42. Jason Kidd (PG)

43. Kawhi Leonard (SF)

44. Kevin McHale (PF)

45. Manu Ginobili (SG)



46. Artis Gilmore (C)

47. Isiah Thomas (PG)

48. Paul Pierce (SF)

49. Sam Jones (SG)

50. Elvin Hayes (PF)

No surprise centers fall, and it illustrates how weak SG is. Wade and Ewing are only one spot apart on the real list, and are 26 spots apart on the adjusted one, and some players like Harden and Gervin get a nice jump. By the 40s however centers slip enough that Gilmore only loses 6 spots compared to the real list. PF goes from one of the strongest positions through the 26-30 range, to immediately trading off with SG as the worst, due to there being no players ranked in between Pettit (26) and Schayes (41), although there may be someone sliding into that exact range by the next list.

[HeartBreakKid]

A lot of people consider Duncan a center primarily as well, which would even push Artis Gilmore off the list.

[trex_8063]

A lot of people consider Duncan a center primarily as well, which would even push Artis Gilmore off the list.

I tend to still count Duncan among my PF's, though as a counter-balance, I count Pau Gasol, Dan Issel, and Bob McAdoo [the latter two some people want to push into the PF category] as centers.

To Dr Positivity: I'm glad you specified exactly what you were doing in the OP. In response to the title, my initial thought was, "All positions are treated equally......that's why the top 50 is heavy with big men: because it's a big man's game, historically [and even at present]. It requires giving smaller positions a leg up for no other reason than being small to equalize the numbers of each position within the top 50."

[trex_8063]

My personal top 50, if I were to construct it as you've assigned (my own player-position designations) would probably look something like as follows; the center becomes the #1 of each block of five except the first one.....

1. Lebron James (SF)
2. Michael Jordan (SG)
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (C)
4. Tim Duncan (PF)
5. Magic Johnson (PG)

6. Bill Russell (C)
7. Kevin Garnett (PF)
8. Kobe Bryant (SG)
9. Larry Bird (SF)
10. Oscar Robertson (PG)* (*if CP3 plays excellent in playoffs and Suns win title.....I'm not sure Paul doesn't move into this spot for me)

11. Wilt Chamberlain (C)
12. Karl Malone (PF)
13. *Chris Paul (PG) (*see above; I haven't fully updated my list to account for 2021, much less this season; I suspect that he moves up to at least here)
14. *Julius Erving (SF) (*I think?? Could be Durant by this point, too; as I said, I haven't actually fully updated, but it's getting close for me by now)
15. *James Harden (SG)??? (*again, not sure, but maybe)

16. Shaquille O'Neal (C)
17. Dirk Nowitzki (PF)
18. Jerry West (PG)
19. Kevin Durant (SF)
20. Dwyane Wade (SG)

21. Hakeem Olajuwon (C)
22. *John Stockton (PG) (*see below)
23. Charles Barkley (PF)
24. Scottie Pippen (SF)
25. Clyde Drexler (SG)

26. David Robinson (C)
27. Stephen Curry (PG) (*slim chance he actually surpasses Stockton for me this year)
28. Bob Pettit (PF)
29. Elgin Baylor (SF)
30. Reggie Miller (SG)

31. Moses Malone (C)
32. Steve Nash (PG)
33. John Havlicek (SF)
34. **Giannis Antetokounmpo?? (PF) (**again, haven't updated for this year, etc; might still be Dolph Schayes, but I'm tentatively anticipating it'll be Giannis)
35. Ray Allen (SG)

36. Patrick Ewing (C)
37. Jason Kidd (PG)
38. Rick Barry (SF)
39. **Dolph Schayes (PF) (**see above)
40. George Gervin (SG)

41. George Mikan (C)
42. Kawhi Leonard (SF)
43. Walt Frazier (PG)
44. Kevin McHale (PF)
45. Manu Ginobili (SG)

46. Artis Gilmore (C)
47. Paul Pierce (SF)
48. Russell Westbrook (PG)
49. *Anthony Davis (PF) (*maybe; might still be Elvin Hayes, too)
50. Allen Iverson (SG) (I know there's some controversy to counting him as a SG, due to size, but that's how I categorize him)

[Dr Positivity]

Compounding SG being weak already, is it's not even like there's someone on the come up to rank top 30, if you count Doncic as PG, the best SG talents drafted 2010-2019 are like Klay, Mitchell and Booker. SF hasn't been producing the best recently either once you get past the Kawhi/Butler/PG drafts. This is looking like PGs + Bigs time period. With that said maybe by late 2020s there will be 3 SG MVP candidates at once. And I guess it's not quite decided yet whether Doncic will feel more like a SG or PG in the long run.

[falcolombardi]

Compounding SG being weak already, is it's not even like there's someone on the come up to rank top 30, if you count Doncic as PG, the best SG talents drafted 2010-2019 are like Klay, Mitchell and Booker. SF hasn't been producing the best recently either once you get past the Kawhi/Butler/PG drafts. This is looking like PGs + Bigs time period. With that said maybe by late 2020s there will be 3 SG MVP candidates at once. And I guess it's not quite decided yet whether Doncic will feel more like a SG or PG in the long run.

shooting guard is a bit of an awkward position to define in the first place

is essentially either: a off ball guard sized player or a big point guard people feel more confortable calling a shooting guard

[penbeast0]

Compounding SG being weak already, is it's not even like there's someone on the come up to rank top 30, if you count Doncic as PG, the best SG talents drafted 2010-2019 are like Klay, Mitchell and Booker. SF hasn't been producing the best recently either once you get past the Kawhi/Butler/PG drafts. This is looking like PGs + Bigs time period. With that said maybe by late 2020s there will be 3 SG MVP candidates at once. And I guess it's not quite decided yet whether Doncic will feel more like a SG or PG in the long run.

PG dominates 2 guard because when you have an ATG talent like Oscar or Magic, you want the ball in their hands as much as possible.

An even more radical way to do this would be to use the defensive positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with 1 being players who spent most of their career as the smallest player (some kind of factor that takes into account height AND weight) in their team's lineup and 5 as the biggest in their lineups. If that data is available, then Duncan (and possibly other) go from 4 to 5 and Magic, Oscar, West, and possibly Frazier become 2's leaving the 1's as the lowest ranking spot. Oh, and Durant probably slides to 4.

[SickMother]

I'll give it a shot (hopefully not an airball).

Used three year peak as the primary criteria (splits listed after each player), then threw in a little bit of career accomplishments, postseason success & personal biases to decide between guys that were close like Dwyane/Kobe or Robertson/West or Robinson/Shaq/Olajuwon or all the SGs four through ten or all the PGs from eight to twelve (sorry Glove & Kidd), etc...

Magic 29-31 | 26.2 PER | .623 TS% | 48.0 WS | .263 WS/48
Michael 24-26 | 31.3 PER | .608 TS% | 60.0 WS | .295 WS/48
LeBron 27-29 | 30.5 PER | .633 TS% | 49.7 WS | .294 WS/48
Duncan 25-27 | 27.0 PER | .560 TS% | 47.4 WS | .252 WS/48
Kareem 23-25 | 29.1 PER | .597 TS% | 69.5 WS | .330 WS/48

Steph 26-28 | 28.1 PER | .645 TS% | 46.1 WS | .279 WS/48
Wade 27-29 | 28.0 PER | .579 TS% | 40.6 WS | .225 WS/48
Larry 29-31 | 26.6 PER | .600 TS% | 46.1 WS | .253 WS/48
Dirk 26-28 | 27.2 PER | .590 TS% | 49.7 WS | .267 WS/48
Wilt 25-27 | 31.7 PER | .541 TS% | 69.0 WS | .291 WS/48

Oscar 25-27 | 26.5 PER | .567 TS% | 54.5 WS | .250 WS/48
Bryant 27-29 | 26.1 PER | .571 TS% | 42.2 WS | .211 WS/48
Durant 23-25 | 28.2 PER | .632 TS% | 50.3 WS | .275 WS/48
Garnett 27-29 | 28.2 PER | .566 TS% | 49.3 WS | .254 WS/48
Admiral 28-30 | 29.8 PER | .589 TS% | 55.7 WS | .286 WS/48

Jerry 25-27 | 24.6 PER | .569 TS% | 47.8 WS | .250 WS/48
Moncrief 24-26 | 20.8 PER | .598 TS% | 39.2 WS | .215 WS/48
Erving 23-25 | 26.8 PER | .565 TS% | 51.8 WS | .247 WS/48
Barkley 24-26 | 27.2 PER | .660 TS% | 50.1 WS | .257 WS/48
O'Neal 27-29 | 30.2 PER | .580 TS% | 46.8 WS | .264 WS/48

Paul 27-29 | 26.1 PER | .591 TS% | 42.2 WS | .275 WS/48
Drexler 27-29 | 22.6 PER | .558 TS% | 36.8 WS | .213 WS/48
Kawhi 23-25 | 25.4 PER | .601 TS% | 36.0 WS | .251 WS/48
Giannis 24-26 | 30.6 PER | .630 TS% | 35.7 WS | .273 WS/48
Hakeem 30-32 | 26.2 PER | .568 TS% | 40.9 WS | .209 WS/48

Frazier 24-26 | 20.7 PER | .569 TS% | 45.1 WS | .225 WS/48
Gervin 24-26 | 23.1 PER | .596 TS% | 33.9 WS | .193 WS/48
Pippen 29-31 | 21.6 PER | .555 TS% | 37.1 WS | .200 WS/48
Mailman 32-34 | 27.6 PER | .591 TS% | 48.2 WS | .253 WS/48
Russell 28-30 | 19.0 PER | .466 TS% | 47.7 WS | .219 WS/48

Stockton 25-27 | 23.3 PER | .624 TS% | 44.1 WS | .237 WS/48
Allen 24-26 | 21.7 PER | .592 TS% | 32.7 WS | .180 WS/48
Dantley 28-30 | 23.9 PER | .632 TS% | 35.3 WS | .220 WS/48
Petit 26-28 | 25.7 PER | .514 TS% | 41.2 WS | .225 WS/48
Artis 22-24 | 23.8 PER | .582 TS% | 51.0 WS | .229 WS/48

Billups 29-31 | 22.8 PER | .604 TS% | 40.4 WS | .243 WS/48
Reggie 24-26 | 19.9 PER | .641 TS% | 35.5 WS | .184 WS/48
Baylor 26-28 | 27.2 PER | .504 TS% | 37.1 WS | .206 WS/48
P Gasol 28-30 | 22.8 PER | .600 TS% | 39.6 WS | .225 WS/48
Moses 25-27 | 25.7 PER | .580 TS% | 44.2 WS | .222 WS/48

Nash 30-32 | 23.0 PER | .631 TS% | 35.8 WS | .214 WS/48
McGrady 21-23 | 26.7 PER | .540 TS% | 39.7 WS | .213 WS/48
Barry 22-25 | 25.5 PER | .561 TS% | 30.8 WS | .231 WS/48
McHale 28-30 | 22.6 PER | .646 TS% | 36.0 WS | .220 WS/48
Jokic 24-26 | 29.5 PER | .637 TS% | 38.7 WS | .267 WS/48 (so far)

Harden 27-29 | 29.2 PER | .616 TS% | 45.6 WS | .262 WS/48
Ginobli 28-30 | 23.7 PER | .606 TS% | 30.5 WS | .237 WS/48
Marques 22-24 | 22.7 PER | .585 TS% | 34.9 WS | .205 WS/48
Davis 24-26 | 28.8 PER | .607 TS% | 34.3 WS | .246 WS/48
Ewing 27-29 | 24.1 PER | .575 TS% | 36.5 WS | .186 WS/48