My Top Five Players in the NBA

The NBA is currently filled with some of the most talented players to ever pick up a basketball. In this article, I’ll be ranking the five that I think stand above the rest of the pack.

1. Nikola Jokic

2023 stats: 24.5 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 9.8 APg, 70.1% TS

After ending the season as an NBA champion and Finals MVP, Jokic stands head and shoulders above the rest of the NBA.

Jokic has proven to be a historical offensive engine, capable of constantly generating quality looks for his teammates while being one of the most efficient volume scorers the game has ever seen. His ability to create for himself and others at the center position is rivaled by no player in the history of this game, and he will undoubtedly go down as one of the best offensive players in the history of the NBA. There wasn’t a single answer for him this year; Jokic made Anthony Davis, who was in the midst of one of the best defensive postseasons ever, look like a helpless backup when he tried to guard him. He’s an absolute wizard on offense, and just watching him play basketball for one minute will attest to that.

The one facet of his game that has limited him from being unanimously crowned as the best player in the association has been his defense. Narratives about him being a turnstile in the paint and exploitable in the pick-and-roll ruined his reputation on that end, but Jokic rose to the challenge in the playoffs and was a positive on defense, anchoring the Denver Nuggets on their way to becoming the eighth-best defense in the playoffs.

With offensive talent that has never been seen before as well as defense that is good enough on the highest stage, it’s hard to make an argument for Nikola Jokic to be ranked anywhere but first.

2. Stephen Curry

2023 stats: 29.4 ppg, 6.3 apg, 6.1 rpg, 65.6% Ts

Keeping with the theme of historically good offensive players, Stephen Curry is my second best player in the NBA.

Only one year removed from a championship and Finals MVP, Curry remains one of the most dangerous offensive players in the NBA. With the ball in his hands, he’s one of the best perimeter shot creators in the game, as well as a good floor general that can find the open man. Without the ball in his hands, Curry somehow becomes even more dominant due to his ability to constantly be moving off-ball and pulling defenders towards him. There’s a reason why he’s commonly associated with the term “gravity,” because the amount of defensive attention that he commands gives him a gravitational pull on the court. While not the same baby-faced assassin that terrorized defenses back in 2016, Curry’s game is well-adapted to fit his declining athleticism, and his numbers back that up. Even at age 35, Curry is still a blistering headache for opposing defenses.

As a side note, he’s also improved his defense, mainly by bulking up and adding muscle. While defense has never been a big factor in his game, he’s certainly at the peak of his defensive ability, and has become a slight positive on that end. This newfound defensive competence isn’t thrusting him to the top of the list, but it’s a nice development in his game.

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo

2023 stats: 31.1 PPG, 11.8 RPG, 5.7 APG, 60.5% TS

Giannis again stuffed the stat sheet as he proved to be the league’s best two-way player this year, a title he has held for a considerable amount of time.

There’s a lot to love about his offensive game, specifically his physical presence that allows him to dominate in the paint, combined with his great passing ability. Giannis has become one of the league’s best playmakers through this mixture of paint gravity and passing ability. Despite this, he remains a flawed offensive player. His flaws mostly stem from his lacking jumpshot. Giannis shoots below 36% on two-pointers outside the paint and just 28% from three. He’s also extremely reluctant to shoot beyond ten feet, and has issues converting free throws that lead to him having to avoid the ball in clutch situations this postseason. All this makes him a predictable player when it comes to scoring the ball, which usually does not affect him due to his ability to be in the paint, but can still occasionally severely limit his offensive impact. Even with these limitations, Giannis is an elite offensive player.

What brings Giannis ahead of so many players that are better offensively is his two-way impact. He’s a perennial All-Defensive recipient for a reason; his ability to roam off the ball, break up plays, and protect the rim have made him one of the best help defenders of all time. While he’s not some demigod that can guard all five positions like some believe him to be, Giannis is still one of the most impactful defenders in the game due to his presence as a help defender, which is honestly a more valuable type of defense than being a lockdown isolation player. Combining his elite offense and top-five level defense, Giannis cements his spot in the top three.

4. Joel Embiid

2023 stats: 33.1 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 4.2 APg, 65.5% TS

Despite winning this year’s Most Valuable Player honors, Embiid being fourth is honestly a generous placement in the context of his embarrassing playoff run. Embiid has a history of dropping his play in the postseason, and this year was no outlier to the trend.

To me, ranking Embiid is an enigma. He has all the tools to be the best player in the league, yet he consistently fails to put it together in the postseason. Despite this, I still believe in Embiid as a player.

For starters, Embiid is one of the best scorers in the league, which should be evident from his stats and play. He displayed the ability to score at all three levels, and his offensive arsenal continues to amaze me. He dominates as the roller in pick-and-roll actions with James Harden, while also having a respectable catch-and-shoot game that allows him to space the floor. What’s most impressive is his ability to consistently create his own shots in the post and even away from the rim, occasionally looking like a heavier Kevin Durant with his mid-range step backs. He excels the best in the post, and his presence there attracts lots of defensive attention that he has gotten better at utilizing in order to create open looks for his teammates. Still, his playmaking is not where it needs to be, and is a part of the reason why his offense drops in the playoffs, where he sees significantly more complex defensive schemes. If Embiid was able to read the floor better and improve his passing, which he has been making progress in, many of his issues would be solved. Regardless, he is still one of the best scorers in the league and in my opinion, is one of the few players that could be the first option on a championship team.

Defensively, there should be no questions about Embiid. Behind Giannis, I believe he is easily the second best two-way player in the league. He’s one of the best defensive centers in the game, and even with his poor offensive play this postseason, he was still able to impact the game through his elite rim protection. The mere presence of Embiid under the rim deterred many attempts there, and this rim protection ability is why Embiid consistently anchors great defenses. If he could have combined this elite defensive ability with the offense that he displayed in the regular season, the Sixers would have likely been the recipients of the Larry O’Brien Championship trophy.

Embiid has all the tools to further climb this list, but it ultimately boils down to whether or not he can put them together. As it stands though, he is still one of the most talented centers of all time.

5. Luka Doncic

2023 stats: 32.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 8.0 apg, 60.9% ts

Luka once again cemented himself as an all-time offensive talent, but his play this year didn’t answer any questions people have had about his game.

A well-known fact about Luka is how good he is on offense. He can score in any way imaginable, whether that be using his 6’7″ frame to bully his defender and get to the rim (an area where he is one of the best finishers ever) or by hitting his defender with the slowest crossover imaginable and somehow getting a good look behind the arc. On top of all of this, Luka is one of the best passers to ever play the game, and in this department he stands above the rest of the league with Nikola Jokic. When his scoring and rim pressure consistently draws the attention of defenses, he will always hit the open man because of his elite vision and passing ability, making him arugably the best playmaker in the game. Simply put, Luka is a magician on offense, and he is one of the best on-ball offensive players of all time.

His main problem stems from the value, or lack thereof, he provides without the ball. Luka consistently leads the league in time spent holding the ball, which should logically make sense because of his ability to lead the offense, but history has not favored these sort of “heliocentric” styles of play. If Dallas decides to live by Luka, they will also die by Luka. The amount of offensive burden he has will lead to him quickly getting burnt out in deep playoff runs, and is also the leading contributor to him being too tired to give consistent effort on the defensive end, a facet of his game that also hurts his team. Unfortunately, this is a problem mostly created by Luka, as he is a below average off-ball player. Without the ball in his hands, Luka is prone to simply watching the ball and standing still instead of consistently relocating to free himself for an open look. If he can essentially be ignored without the ball, he creates a big issue for Dallas.

Hope is not lost for Luka, as he will get a full offseason to train with recent addition Kyrie Irving, who will hopefully give Luka reps off the ball. If he can become a proficient player without the ball and improve his defense, Luka will make a case to be higher on this list soon.

Conclusion

Thank you for your read.