RealGM Top 25 Player Poll-#23 2019-20

[Forte IV]

I really want to come back to these results after this year. I love Siakam, but there is no way he's the 23rd best player in the NBA. I'm sorry. You can argue top 40, but top 23? He just isn't.

He was 13th in RPM wins last year and he’s improving at an incredibly fast rate as he’s just now learning to be a playmaker at the NBA level after only playing organized basketball for 6 years. He’s an extremely efficient scorer capable of scaling his usage up and a fantastic defender.

I’d take him over Westbrook, Gobert, Towns, Irving, Griffin, Beal, Walker, Doncic, Holiday, and Simmons for the upcoming season. He was a top 25 player last year and this season I expect him to move into the top 15.

Using rpm and win rpm as a reason why a player should be top 25 isnt a real answer. If we're only using rpm then Danny Green and Brook Lopez are top 15 NBA players.

[iggymcfrack]

I really want to come back to these results after this year. I love Siakam, but there is no way he's the 23rd best player in the NBA. I'm sorry. You can argue top 40, but top 23? He just isn't.

He was 13th in RPM wins last year and he’s improving at an incredibly fast rate as he’s just now learning to be a playmaker at the NBA level after only playing organized basketball for 6 years. He’s an extremely efficient scorer capable of scaling his usage up and a fantastic defender.

I’d take him over Westbrook, Gobert, Towns, Irving, Griffin, Beal, Walker, Doncic, Holiday, and Simmons for the upcoming season. He was a top 25 player last year and this season I expect him to move into the top 15.

Using rpm and win rpm as a reason why a player should be top 25 isnt a real answer. If we're only using rpm then Danny Green and Brook Lopez are top 15 NBA players.

With both of those players we have very large samples of prime years to have good reason to think those numbers are fluky, and both players also moved into perfect situations where they could thrive as role players on teams where their particular skills were in very high demand. Siakam is rocketing upward as he's learning how to play as a #2 and even #1 option offensively where he was barely seeing the floor 2 years ago. It's a completely different situation.

[The_Hater]

Lowry is severely being underrated...

Lowry is the smartest and most well rounded player on that board.

The booty always flys under the radar

Lowry, Mitchell

IMO DD still > Siakam for now. Siakam had minimal pressure with Raps lineup last year. There will still be good ball movement for him but lets see how he performs with no alpha on board for a full season

As much as I love Lowry, Chris Paul is the smartest and most well rounded player left on the board. He hasn’t dipped as much as people think, he was just forced to spend an entire season playing off-ball so it seemed worse statistically than it was.

Mike Conley has a good argument here as well.

[Forte IV]

He was 13th in RPM wins last year and he’s improving at an incredibly fast rate as he’s just now learning to be a playmaker at the NBA level after only playing organized basketball for 6 years. He’s an extremely efficient scorer capable of scaling his usage up and a fantastic defender.

I’d take him over Westbrook, Gobert, Towns, Irving, Griffin, Beal, Walker, Doncic, Holiday, and Simmons for the upcoming season. He was a top 25 player last year and this season I expect him to move into the top 15.

Using rpm and win rpm as a reason why a player should be top 25 isnt a real answer. If we're only using rpm then Danny Green and Brook Lopez are top 15 NBA players.

With both of those players we have very large samples of prime years to have good reason to think those numbers are fluky, and both players also moved into perfect situations where they could thrive as role players on teams where their particular skills were in very high demand. Siakam is rocketing upward as he's learning how to play as a #2 and even #1 option offensively where he was barely seeing the floor 2 years ago. It's a completely different situation.

I get it. I'm just pointing out that using rpm as your main argument as to why a player should be considered to be in a certain criteria is flawed. Especially when you see other guys with high rpms obviously arent top tier players.

With that being said, I still don't see Siakam as a top 25 guy. I just don't. I'll be glad to eat my words if I'm wrong and he's absolutely amazing this year. I just think that if Siakam is the 23rd best player in the league, then the league is in a bad place talent wise. He's top 40 to me, but definitely not 25.

[Badonkadonk]

It's absolutely criminal that people don't recognize what Lowry does on the court. He's the PG version of Draymond - the smartest guy on the court on both ends pretty much every game. I think he passed Paul with respect to basketball wisdom a while ago.

He was the 2nd best player on a championship team and while Kawhi was mostly dominant, he needed the help. He does dozens of things a game that go underappreciated and it looks like it'll just stay that way.

[LloydFree]

Raptor fans should not get any votes ever. On anything.

They do tend to stuff the ballot box on these kind of things (especially on anything Lowry or Derozen) but they're right in this case. Siakam is a problem on both sides of the ball. Mitchell got a bigger name, but he doesn't scare anybody or cause the matchup problems that Siakam causes.

[mdonnelly1989]

Your favorite offseason debate is back by popular demand!
Thanks to everyone who voted last go around Im excited to see where the 2nd annual edition ends up.

Here's the Rules:
-Vote ONE player per poll. You'll be able to change your vote just like last year for those indecisive folks.
-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 indivdual prowess etc. I want to bake all that in to 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 the 10 guys who I personally believe will round out the top 10 in most people's eyes.
-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 Marc Gasol added in the next poll just comment "Marc Gasol" or "Gasol".
-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

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE FOR PARTICIPATING!!!!

Winner of Poll #22:Ben Simmons (PHI)-30%
Added to Poll:DeMar DeRozan (SAS)


RealGM Top 25 Players 2019-20:
1)Kawhi Leonard (LAC)-39%
2)Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL)-42%
3)LeBron James (LAL)-42%
4)Stephen Curry (GSW)-48%
5)James Harden (HOU)-40%
6)Anthony Davis (LAL)-39%
7)Nikola Jokic (DEN)-33%
8)Joel Embiid (PHI)-35%
9)Paul George (LAC)-46%
10)Damian Lillard (POR)-54%
11)Jimmy Butler (MIA)-30%
12)Russell Westbrook (HOU)-26%
13)Rudy Gobert (UTA)-23%
14)Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN)-28%
15)Draymond Green (GSW)-30%
16)Kyrie Irving (BKN)-37%
17)Blake Griffin (DET)-31%
18)Bradley Beal (WAS)-24%
19)Kemba Walker (BOS)-29%
20)Luka Doncic (DAL)-37%
21)Jrue Holiday (NOP)-22%
22)Ben Simmons (PHI)-30%



Yet To Be Added: (If someone is not here that you want here comment THAT and I will add them)
Trae Young (ATL)
John Collins (ATL)
Jayson Tatum (BOS)
Jaylen Brown (BOS)
Gordon Hayward (BOS)
DeAndre Jordan (BKN)
Zach LaVine (CHI)
Lauri Markannen (CHI)
Otto Porter (CHI)
Terry Rozier (CHA)
Kevin Love (CLE)
Kristaps Porzingis (DAL)
Jamal Murray (DEN)
Andre Drummond (DET)
Reggie Jackson (DET)
Klay Thompson (GSW)
D'Angelo Russell (GSW)
Clint Capela (HOU)
Eric Gordon (HOU)
Malcolm Brogdan (IND)
Myles Turner (IND)
Lou Williams (LAC)
DeMarcus Cousins (LAL)
Kyle Kuzma (LAL)
Jonas Valanciunas (MEM)
Jaren Jackson Jr. (MEM)
Ja Morant (MEM)
Khris Middleton (MIL)
Andrew Wiggins (MIN)
Robert Covington (MIN)
Brandon Ingram (NOP)
Zion Williamson (NOP)
Julius Randle (NYK)
Mitchell Robinson (NYK)
RJ Barrett (NYK)
Danilo Gallinari (OKC)
Steven Adams (OKC)
Nikola Vucevic (ORL)
Aaron Gordon (ORL)
Al Horford (PHI)
Tobias Harris (PHI)
Devin Booker (PHX)
Deandre Ayton (PHX)
Jusuf Nurkic (POR)
De'Aaron Fox (SAC)
Marvin Bagley III (SAC)
Marc Gasol (TOR)
Bojan Bogdanovic (UTA)
Joe Ingles (UTA)
John Wall (WAS)
Isaiah Thomas (WAS)

Here's the list from last year:
https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1746971

Can you please do top 30 !