... And Now, the NBA Top 25 -- NBA FanHouse

Sorry, J.J. Maybe next year?

We're halfway through our ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA. After the jump, you'll find the full list to date, numbers 26-50. And in just a few hours, No. 25 will drop. (Remember, you can also follow along with the NBA Top 50 tag.)

Though we've already heard from a lot of you in the comments to specific players, let's open this up for wider discussion. Have problems with any of the selections so far? Have an opinion about snubs or players ranked too high? Questions about what I'm ~~smoking~~ thinking? Pop them into the comments of this post, and at some point this week I'll collect the ones that ~~aren't logical/grammatical nightmares~~ raise good points and address them in a new, mailbag-ish style post.

Also, here's a poll! Vote!

26. Caron Butler, Washington
27. David West, New Orleans
28. Allen Iverson, Denver
29. Tracy McGrady, Houston
30. Baron Davis, L.A. Clippers

31. Brandon Roy, Portland
32. Josh Smith, Atlanta
33. Jose Calderon, Toronto
34. Rasheed Wallace, Detroit
35. Shawn Marion, Miami

36. Antawn Jamison, Washington
37. Monta Ellis, Golden State
38. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City
39. Rudy Gay, Memphis
40. Tyson Chandler, New Orleans

41. Corey Maggette, Golden State
42. Shane Battier, Houston
43. Ron Artest, Houston
44. Danny Granger, Indiana
45. T.J. Ford, Indiana

46. Michael Redd, Milwaukee
47. Gerald Wallace, Charlotte
48. Josh Howard, Dallas
49. Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia
50. Andris Biedrins, Golden State

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-15-2008 @ 9:59AM

M $ Bling said...

Jose Calderon has had ONE good season, in which he either split time or came off the bench. While for that ONE season his production was admirable, thus far in his career he has not been consistent enough to rank him above the likes of Marion, Jamison, and Redd

9-15-2008 @ 7:51PM

CoolWhip11 said...

M$ has hit it spot on. According to your ranking, Jose Calderon is the next best PG after Baron??? Are you serious. So basically they're on the same level?

Trust me, I live in TO and have seen lots of Raps games. Calderon is serviceable and that is it.
He's just a guard on a crappy team that has the ball in his hands all the time. If Jannero Pargo was there, then HE would've averaged those numbers.
For proof just check out Mike James's numbers his last year as a Raptor.

9-15-2008 @ 1:34PM

Arcanis said...

It is interesting how angry people are getting over this ranking - particularly those of BDavis, TMac and AI. Count me in as someone who thinks TMac is ranked too low, but it isn't as if Ziller is pulling these things out of his arse. He's backing them up with articulated reasoning and statistics.

9-15-2008 @ 2:45PM

Eric said...

First time I've seen this list. If you're looking at who will be the better player in 2008-09, and who will have the better year, you've got to be kidding me about Biedrins. How about LaMarcus Aldridge? Wanna bet that at the end of this upcoming season that more than half of the league's GM would prefer to have Biedrins over Aldridge, without regard to contract status? Didn't think so. I'd be surprised if you could find even one GM who would straight up prefer Biedrins over Aldrdige.

9-15-2008 @ 9:46PM

mwkb said...

Not only have you ranked BD 30th, you haven't even included him in the poll for the top 25. You're telling me Josh Howard should feel more aggrieved over being dropped from the top 25 than BD? Please.

9-16-2008 @ 3:56AM

henryclemente said...

I get the sense that by the second half of the '08-'09 season, this list will make a lot more sense. In other words, I think this list works more as a "who are about to be" rather than a "who have been" the 50 best players in the league.

9-16-2008 @ 9:39AM

Mr.G said...

I am not buying this Calderon ranking either.The one that bothers me even more though is Shane Battier.What is this even based on? A one time 2nd team All Defensive Team honor?Look at his career stats.The guy is a tweener and a role player,has never been out of the 1st round in the playoffs and it's not like he has a ton of upside potential going forward.How could anybody rank him above Ron Artest? Thats completely ridiculous.

9-17-2008 @ 8:28AM

Aleks said...

Before TZ started publishing his list, I compiled my own, mostly intuitively, without looking up any statistics. Comparing both lists, there is a lot of agreement. From the 25 players published so far, 17 are on my list as well, and most of the disagreement is in the range 40-50. The biggest discrepancies so far: I am surprised to see Brandon Roy so low (he is 10 in my list), Andrew Bynum so high (he is 47 on my list), and I don't see how Biedrins or Ford are on the list, but Ray Allen, Luol Deng, Richard Jefferson, Marcus Camby are not (I'm guessing here). The biggest mystery to me is the Detroit core - you could probably put four players on the list: I had Billups, Hamilton and Prince, all in the lower half of my list. TZ has Wallace at 34, and I guess that two from the other three will not make it at all. That's hard to swallow - in a full draft of all available players for next season only (and that's how I understand the list), I would certainly take Prince and Hamilton higher than, say, Andre Biedrins. One criterium that seems to be undervalued here is playoff experience, instead, the list seems to be mostly based on regular season stats. With that in mind, I can understand most of the picks.