RealGM

Following is a list of NBA All-Stars from 2020 to 2025. This is an idea for a short project, which I will continue if there is enough engagement. The idea is to rank these guys according to their peak season in the timespan (only considering seasons in which they were actually selected to the All-Star Game) Since we’re dealing with 63 players, the ranking will be done in tiers.

In the first post, I will ask you to choose the five weakest players on the list. The players who receive the most votes as “worst five” will be removed for the next round. In case of a tie, I might expand or shrink the cut slightly.

As the project moves forward, the number of eliminations per round will change. When we get to the very top players, eliminations will probably happen one by one.

Any ideas for improvements in the format for the next posts are kindly welcome.

The list below includes all selected All-Stars, shown alphabetically with their years of inclusion in parentheses.

Have fun!

So who are the worst five guys on the list considering peak All-Star season in the timespan?

Available pool
Alperen Şengün (2025)
Andrew Wiggins (2022)
Anthony Davis (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025)
Anthony Edwards (2023, 2024, 2025)
Bam Adebayo (2020, 2023, 2024)
Ben Simmons (2020, 2021)
Bradley Beal (2021)
Brandon Ingram (2020)
Cade Cunningham (2025)
Chris Paul (2020, 2021, 2022)
Damian Lillard (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Darius Garland (2022, 2025)
De'Aaron Fox (2023)
DeMar DeRozan (2022, 2023)
Dejounte Murray (2022)
Devin Booker (2020, 2021, 2022, 2024)
Domantas Sabonis (2020, 2021, 2023)
Donovan Mitchell (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Draymond Green (2022)
Evan Mobley (2025)
Fred VanVleet (2022)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Ja Morant (2022, 2023)
Jalen Brunson (2024, 2025)
Jalen Williams (2025)
James Harden (2020, 2021, 2022, 2025)
Jaren Jackson Jr. (2023, 2025)
Jarrett Allen (2022)
Jaylen Brown (2021, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Jayson Tatum (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Jimmy Butler (2020, 2022)
Joel Embiid (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Jrue Holiday (2023)
Julius Randle (2021, 2023, 2024)
Karl-Anthony Towns (2022, 2024, 2025)
Kawhi Leonard (2020, 2021, 2024)
Kemba Walker (2020)
Kevin Durant (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Khris Middleton (2020, 2022)
Kyle Lowry (2020)
Kyrie Irving (2021, 2023, 2025)
LaMelo Ball (2022)
Lauri Markkanen (2023)
LeBron James (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Luka Dončić (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Mike Conley (2021)
Nikola Jokić (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Nikola Vučević (2021)
Paolo Banchero (2024)
Pascal Siakam (2020, 2023, 2025)
Paul George (2021, 2023, 2024)
Rudy Gobert (2020, 2021, 2022)
Russell Westbrook (2020)
Scottie Barnes (2024)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2023, 2024, 2025)
Stephen Curry (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Trae Young (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025)
Tyler Herro (2025)
Tyrese Haliburton (2023, 2024)
Tyrese Maxey (2024)
Victor Wembanyama (2025)
Zach LaVine (2021, 2022)
Zion Williamson (2021, 2023)

Am I grading their whole season or their season up to the Allstar game? Playoffs included?

eminence wrote:Am I grading their whole season or their season up to the Allstar game? Playoffs included?

Whole season including playoffs

First pass thoughts:
-Injured guys will be tricky. Dray/Wemby the two most missed games among tops seasons imo. Probably a pretty wide range of takes on those two
-I've never really thought about a lot of these comps that'll be in the first few threads - eg Ingram vs LaVine, so that's fun
-The one guy I really would like to see in these bottom 5 after the first pass is '21 Vucevic, his team is getting blasted while he's on-court in a way nobody else is
-For some guys it's tough to choose a top season

Anybody else jump out at anyone who they feel pretty clearly should be in these bottom 5?

eminence wrote:First pass thoughts:
-Injured guys will be tricky. Dray/Wemby the two most missed games among tops seasons imo. Probably a pretty wide range of takes on those two
-I've never really thought about a lot of these comps that'll be in the first few threads - eg Ingram vs LaVine, so that's fun
-The one guy I really would like to see in these bottom 5 after the first pass is '21 Vucevic, his team is getting blasted while he's on-court in a way nobody else is
-For some guys it's tough to choose a top season

Anybody else jump out at anyone who they feel pretty clearly should be in these bottom 5?

Gun to my head

Wiggins, vucevic, randle (x3!), sengun, dejounte

So, first glance I'll say:

Paolo Banchero
Scottie Barnes
Brandon Ingram
Zach LaVine
Nikola Vucevic

It's in alphabetical order, but to be clear, Paolo is by far the worst player on the list.

All 5 of these guys are players who were given high primacy on teams not going anywhere with that player playing like he did so there's definitely a recurring theme there.

falcolombardi wrote:

eminence wrote:First pass thoughts:
-Injured guys will be tricky. Dray/Wemby the two most missed games among tops seasons imo. Probably a pretty wide range of takes on those two
-I've never really thought about a lot of these comps that'll be in the first few threads - eg Ingram vs LaVine, so that's fun
-The one guy I really would like to see in these bottom 5 after the first pass is '21 Vucevic, his team is getting blasted while he's on-court in a way nobody else is
-For some guys it's tough to choose a top season

Anybody else jump out at anyone who they feel pretty clearly should be in these bottom 5?

Gun to my head

Wiggins, vucevic, randle (x3!), sengun, dejounte

The others seem reasonable to me, Sengun feels too low though. Guy was probably the best player on a 52 win, +5, 2 seed squad.

eminence wrote:

falcolombardi wrote:

eminence wrote:First pass thoughts:
-Injured guys will be tricky. Dray/Wemby the two most missed games among tops seasons imo. Probably a pretty wide range of takes on those two
-I've never really thought about a lot of these comps that'll be in the first few threads - eg Ingram vs LaVine, so that's fun
-The one guy I really would like to see in these bottom 5 after the first pass is '21 Vucevic, his team is getting blasted while he's on-court in a way nobody else is
-For some guys it's tough to choose a top season

Anybody else jump out at anyone who they feel pretty clearly should be in these bottom 5?

Gun to my head

Wiggins, vucevic, randle (x3!), sengun, dejounte

The others seem reasonable to me, Sengun feels too low though. Guy was probably the best player on a 52 win, +5, 2 seed squad.

Horford (who i consider better than sengun*) was the best player in a 60 win hawks squad so is like ehh, some teams win a lot of games in regular season without real stars by strenght in numbers

Sengun is fine but he also is a non elite defensive center (good but not great there) with awful efficiency volume scoring

Houston real star was their defense and rebounding and i dont think he led either of the two (adams and amen did)