{"id":191694,"date":"2025-09-30T06:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/191694\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T06:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:47:10","slug":"jack-of-all-takes-espns-nba-top-100-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/191694\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack of All Takes: ESPN’s NBA top 100 strikes again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA\u2019s 2025-26 season is right around the corner, and rankings of the league\u2019s top players and teams are being released by media outlets everywhere. ESPN\u2019s top 100 NBA players list never fails to stir up controversy, and this<\/a> year\u2019s<\/a> rankings<\/a> prove ESPN has either mastered rage-bait or needs new NBA analysts immediately.<\/p>\n

Rankings always pose the question, \u201cWhat have you done recently to deserve your spot?\u201d Players should be ranked according to recent production, but ESPN seems to think otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last<\/a> year, before the 2024-25 season, ESPN ranked Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving 25 out of 100 in the NBA. Miami Heat\u2019s Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 Damian Lillard were among several players ranked superior, strangely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023-24, Irving averaged<\/a> 25.6 points and 5.2 assists per game on incredible efficiency. He played Robin to Luka Doncic\u2019s Batman as the 1-2 punch led Dallas to an NBA finals appearance. The All-Stars Adebayo<\/a>, Maxey<\/a> and Lillard<\/a> all shone and Maxey even took home the most improved player award, but Irving\u2019s combination of counting stats and contribution to team success that season was unrivaled and deserved a higher spot.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s latest list is flat-out awful and feels like a joke. I can\u2019t touch on every corrupt ranking, but young stars are disrespected throughout the entire list and declining players who don\u2019t deserve to make the list anymore are ranked far too high up.<\/p>\n

Speaking of players undeserving of their spot, Denver Nuggets\u2019 Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas has no business being ranked<\/a> No. 87. After pairing lackluster defense with declining averages of 10.4 points and 7.7 rebounds last season, he will now back up the NBA\u2019s best player, Nikola Jokic, making even less production inevitable. Two blossoming young centers, Naz Reid<\/a> and Walker Kessler<\/a> are both ranked lower despite clearly outperforming Valan\u010di\u016bnas as they continue to improve each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, \u201cNAW,\u201c is a very valuable role player, but simply is not better than Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle<\/a>. The 19-year-old averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the San Antonio Spurs. NAW<\/a> put up 9.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists in a backup role last season. Castle, poised to improve after wowing early, sits at No. 99 while Alexander-Walker is ranked 96th despite probably peaking already. Do better, ESPN.<\/p>\n

The hype surrounding Dallas\u2019 first overall draft pick Cooper Flagg is immense, and rightfully so. Despite the hype, his 52nd ranking is far from justified, as he is yet to even play an NBA game, but is somehow still ranked ahead of several established stars.<\/p>\n

Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, a premier defender, led the NBA with 229 total steals and three steals per game last season. New Orleans Pelicans forwards Trey Murphy III and Zion Williamson have both broken out. Murphy<\/a> cracked a career-high 21.1 points and his All-Star teammate Williamson<\/a> contributed 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists despite injuries. Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard played a key role in Indiana\u2019s NBA Finals run last season, etching his name as a playoff riser. These four are all somehow ranked below Flagg, a disrespectful order that truly makes no sense.<\/p>\n

Thunder forward Jalen Williams<\/a> played a key role in Oklahoma City\u2019s NBA Finals win last season and earned an All-Star selection, but No. 11 is an extremely lofty ranking for him. His teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP of both the regular season and NBA Finals, clearly blazed the Thunder\u2019s championship trail as their go-to guy.<\/p>\n

Williams deserves his flowers, but a second option being ranked so high is ridiculous. 2023\u2019s MVP Joel Embiid<\/a>, reigning Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley<\/a>, and superstars Cade Cunningham<\/a>, Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and Paolo Banchero<\/a> unreasonably fall below Williams. Each of these players, aside from Mobley, is their team\u2019s number-one option, clearing Williams statistically while still leading their teams to quality playoff success.<\/p>\n

This list\u2019s unjust rankings go much deeper, but those that I\u2019ve mentioned are all completely asinine and embody the list\u2019s flaws. Whether it\u2019s players being laughably over ranked, criminally under ranked or names undeserving of even cracking the list, ESPN never fails to completely botch these rankings year after year.<\/p>\n

Jack Muldowney is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University.\u00a0 Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Jack Muldowney about their column? Email them at jm760224@ohio.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s 2025-26 season is right around the corner, and rankings of the league\u2019s top players and teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-191694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}