Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 4. Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry will probably win MVP, and he will deserve. He’s one of the 10 best players to ever set foot on a basketball court, in the humble opinion of this writer. So… why is he not No. 1? It’s the same issue. The top of the NBA is loaded, and you are frankly just splitting hairs to arrive at this final order.
The most dominant offense in basketball up to this point starts and ends with Curry, who elevates teammates before even touching the ball. He’s still the greatest shooter we’ve ever seen, and now he has the all-time record to prove it. He’s somewhat exploitable defensively, sure, but he’s not a bad defender by any stretch. Yeah, he’s Stephen Curry. That’s that.
Ranking the top 100 NBA players — 3. Nikola Jokic
If anyone should challenge Curry’s spot atop the MVP ladder, it’s probably Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets are even more injury and COVID-riddled than the average NBA team. It’s Jokic against the world right now, and the Nuggets are winning a fair amount of those games still. No center can dominate every facet of the game quite like Jokic, who is right there with Chris Paul and LeBron James in the conversation for smartest NBA player.
Jokic is probably the best pure passer in the game of basketball, and he’s also a singularly dominant scorer who is essentially unguardable at this point. He can hit jumpers from all sorts of wacky angles, he is way too smart for most defenders in the post, and he’s strong. Also, he has played genuinely fantastic defense all season. He’s every bit as good as all the nerds say he is.