Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 20. Devin Booker
The Suns’ Finals run led to an onslaught of Chris Paul appreciation, but Devin Booker was almost equally important to Phoenix’s success. He has developed into not only an elite perimeter shot-maker, but a dynamic all-around player who can elevate teammates and score prodigiously at all three levels.
Booker was the 1B for arguably the second-best NBA team, averaging 25.6 points and 4.3 assists while slashing .484/.340/.867 — what some were actively calling a “down” season as he adjusted to a new role next to CP3. He’s crazy good and a clear championship-level player. The Suns are sitting comfortably long term.
Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 19. Bradley Beal
Bradley Beal is a bonkers scorer — arguably the best pure bucket-getter in the NBA, save for Kevin Durant and the absolute crème de la crème. He’s a yearly candidate to lead the NBA in scoring, and should have an even more elevated status in Washington’s offense next season following the departure of Russell Westbrook. Expect a lot of 40-point evenings.
In addition to his raw scoring output — 31.3 points per game last season — Beal has also developed real point guard chops. He can run the offense and get teammates involved at a high level, taking advantage of the extreme attention he demands from opposing defenses. In 2019-20, the year before Westbrook arrived, Beal averaged 6.1 assists per game.
Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 18. Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving got buried beneath his own enigma last season, not to mention the wave of injuries and sheer level of talent in Brooklyn. Even so, Irving proved his mettle as one of the best offensive players in basketball. In fact, my opinion of Irving as a player increased considerably last season. He not only displayed his trademark dynamism off the dribble, but was absurdly efficient for a Nets team that rarely had all three of its stars healthy.
For the year, Irving averaged 26.9 points and 6.0 rebounds. He slashed .506/.402/.922, becoming a member of the exclusive 50/40/90 club. He also adopted to different roles all season, with a different combination of players available on a virtually week-to-week basis for Brooklyn. He’s much better than he gets credit for, frankly.
Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 17. Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert was the best player on the NBA’s best regular season team, and he has been the anchor of a perennial top-5 seed for a while. The Jazz have one of the NBA’s best defenses every year, and that’s without great personnel on the perimeter. Gobert single-handedly alters offensive schemes more than any individual player in the NBA. The “he gets played off the floor” in the postseason takes are overblown, but frankly, even if they were true, he’s so good in the regular season that you can’t drop him much further than this.
On top of his defense, Gobert is an exceptional complementary piece on offense. Listed over the 7-foot mark, Gobert is an absurdly efficient finisher at the rim. He sets good screens, takes up a lot of space in the paint, and is an easy dump-off target for Utah’s playmakers. He averaged 14.3 points and 13.5 rebounds on top of his Defensive Player of the Year candidacy last season. He shot 67.5 percent from the field.
Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 16. Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum has taken the leap to superstardom, and he probably has another leap or two left in him. He was impacted significantly by COVID last season, and still turned in a remarkable all-around campaign. He was not only the centerpiece of Boston’s offense, but a borderline All-Defense candidate on the wing.
Having made immense strides as a playmaker, Tatum is to the point of guaranteeing Boston some kind of relevancy in the East, so long as he’s healthy and on the roster. He averaged 26.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in his fourth NBA season, slashing .459/.386/.868 in his most explosive season to date.