RealGM Top 25 Player Poll-#7 2019-20

[Saints14]

Vote Jokic
Nominate KAT

I’m treating Durant as how I’d project him if he came back from his Achilles *right now*. And given that uncertainty, I can’t put him over any of the guys already on the list or likely any of the upcoming players, but a post-Achilles KD would be in the 10-12 range for me

[illuminati666]

If we are keeping Durant on this list, I see no reason (including his injury) that he shouldn't be voted in the top 3. I don't think anyone doubts that this past season he was a top 3 (probably best) player in the league. He hasn't been ruled out for the season, and I think if you're the best player in the league, you remain so until proven otherwise or its obvious you are no longer.

It doesn’t matter what he was last season. He suffered a terrible Achilles rupture.

I’m voting based off what I project the player to be going forward. Post-Achilles Durant will in all likelihood not be a top 3 player.

I expect he will be more like 10-15 so that’s where I will vote for him.

Many agree with you, but I think that's absurd. Durant's game relies more on shooting over you and skilled fadeaways and pullups than on explosiveness. He'll still be an absolute killer. Of course there is a chance of his career going either way, but I think to say he falls way out the top 3 bc of this injury is too speculative. But what you're saying is fair, tough thing to vote on either way.

[JN61]

So we are only doing the top 25??? Can we go to 100? That would be more fun IMO.

I might be wrong but wasn't the original concept roughly 25 weeks before the season started so it was pretty neat way to keep people busy in fun way.

[iggymcfrack]

So we are only doing the top 25??? Can we go to 100? That would be more fun IMO.

I might be wrong but wasn't the original concept roughly 25 weeks before the season started so it was pretty neat way to keep people busy in fun way.

I feel like last year there was plenty of time left over when we finished. And we definitely don’t need a week for any individual vote. 100 might be a little much, but I really hope we can get to at least 40 or 50 this year.

[mdonnelly1989]

I'm curios to know how this would be different if Embiid was fully healthy most of the time.

[jirrit]

I'm curios to know how this would be different if Embiid was fully healthy most of the time.

Oden would crack top 25 too.

[kuclas]

I'm curios to know how this would be different if Embiid was fully healthy most of the time.

In my opinion he lost out on 1st team nba center simply cause he played only 65 games

Honestly my top 5 players (excluding KD cause he’s out)
Lebron
Curry
Leonard
Harden
Giannis

After that it’s a crap shoot who u want to slot in 5-10
Any combination of George, Davis, embiid , jokic, Lillard

[ProfessorJM]

That's fair if you feel like he should be completely excluded from the list. But he's in it, so that thinking is going to have him voted at like 12-13th best player in the league....which is ridiculous. If he's included in the list the votes should be for how good you think he is, and not be penalized for his injury. Otherwise he shouldn't be on the list at all.

I'd rather he be out of the list too, but if he is in the list, I am trying to project what I think he will be as a realistic player in the next year or two as beyond that it's really unfair, and it's kind of unfair to even project now but you try. For me, that's about #7 on this list. I personally think his days as a Top 3 player this and next year are too optimistic.

Disagree. I just feel like you can't assume that especially because of the season he just had. He honestly seemed like the best player in basketball this season, and his injury shouldn't do too much damage bc of how his game isn't really focused on elite explosiveness. He's still going to be a great shooter, he still got length to shoot over everyone, he still gonna be making those fadeaways that noone could block.

I would rather exclude him from the list than have him ranked at like 10 where he probably gonna end up. But as of now, I think we should vote based on what is and what we know instead of assuming. Its not guaranteed he'll come back worse, its not guaranteed he won't come back at all, and based of last season he should be top 3. I just don't want to see him ranked like 12th, you shouldn't be penalized like that bc of an injury.

It's not an assumption, it's a prediction based on a reasonable evaluation of the current known facts, which is all you can do given the parameters. I'd definitely rather him off the list but I am going to vote the most intelligent way I can if he is there. I am voting on "what is" and "what we know" and that is he has suffered a severe injury which puts into question his ability to ever be the same player again. There are many prior situations with this or similar injuries so you have to on a macro level put all that into account in how NBA players have recovered long-term while also realizing each player/situation is also unique so there is some variance in possibilities that will break your forecasting at times. I think #10 is too low too, but I think # 7 is correct at least in how I am voting.

I personally believe the most likely scenario is that he will come back at about 90% of the player he was during the next two years, so I put him at # 7, which is where I would view him as 90% of what he was before the injury. Of course this could be wrong, but we are dealing with incomplete information and it's far more logical to me anyway to have him at 7 versus 3 given his actual situation. I think the likelihood that he can never recover as a high level player again (0-65% of the same player he was before) and/or he is the exact same player again or better (100% or even higher level player from before) is lower than the likelihood he will still be a very good player but slightly more limited given the injury and aging (80-90% of the same player he was).

[His Airness 23]

Has this ever been done with a greatest of all time poll? I think it would be fun to do this same style thing, and find out real GM’s top 15 players of all time

[Domejandro]

I really do not see why Kevin Durant is in this poll, nor do I see why people are voting for him.

[Bhut Jolokia]

I really do not see why Kevin Durant is in this poll, nor do I see why people are voting for him.

He’s already affected all the previous player’s vote percentage so I think it would be a bad idea to remove him from the list at this point. Since he’s been included in the poll from the beginning, I think it’s best to just predict how you think he will perform after returning. This way, it also won’t look that bad when viewed next year or the year after that because it would just represent the general consensus of how we predicted, at the start of the 2019-2020 season, how Durant would play when he returns.