MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - MARCH 26: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks is defended by ... [+]

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Who are the 100 best players in the NBA right now?

That's the question (with some wiggle room on the number) that countless writers, fans and sports media outlets try to answer on the eve of every NBA season.

For years, I've tried to answer that question through a "wisdom of the crowd" approach. Instead of taking one list as gospel (which few, if any, writers suggest), why not combine everyone's thoughts on the matter?

The approach is simple. Take as many preseason player rankings (or projection systems) as you can find, then average every player's ranks from those outlets. Then, sort all those players by their average rank.

The results, as you might expect, yield a list that makes sense.

This year, the inputs came from FiveThirtyEight's CARMELO, FiveThirtyEight's RAPTOR, NBA Math's #CrystalBasketball, a conglomeration of 2018-19 catch-all metrics, Basketball Reference's projections for win shares per 48 minutes, Dime, Complex, NBA Global, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, The Big Lead, Sporting News, The Score, CBS, ESPN and a poll taken of #NBATwitter.

To eliminate outliers, the formula used to find the average rank from those outlets disregarded high and low outputs.

The following top 100 is the result of the exercise:

    t
  1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (1.86)
  2. t
  3. James Harden (3.79)
  4. t
  5. Kawhi Leonard (3.93)
  6. t
  7. Stephen Curry (4.29)
  8. t
  9. LeBron James (4.64)
  10. t
  11. Anthony Davis (5.57)
  12. t
  13. Nikola Jokic (7.07)
  14. t
  15. Joel Embiid(8.21)
  16. t
  17. Paul George (9.07)
  18. t
  19. Damian Lillard (9.21)
  20. t
  21. Kevin Durant (11.00)
  22. t
  23. Karl-Anthony Towns (13.08)
  24. t
  25. Kyrie Irving (13.64)
  26. t
  27. Jimmy Butler (14.00)
  28. t
  29. Rudy Gobert (14.29)
  30. t
  31. Russell Westbrook (16.00)
  32. t
  33. Kemba Walker (19.15)
  34. t
  35. Bradley Beal (19.36)
  36. t
  37. Blake Griffin (19.92)
  38. t
  39. Ben Simmons (21.00)
  40. t
  41. Luka Doncic (24.31)
  42. t
  43. Jrue Holiday (24.31)
  44. t
  45. Draymond Green (26.38)
  46. t
  47. Chris Paul (26.62)
  48. t
  49. Mike Conley (27.67)
  50. t
  51. Pascal Siakam (28.83)
  52. t
  53. Kyle Lowry (29.69)
  54. t
  55. Al Horford (30.33)
  56. t
  57. Donovan Mitchell (30.38)
  58. t
  59. Victor Oladipo (34.23)
  60. t
  61. LaMarcus Aldridge (35.58)
  62. t
  63. Khris Middleton (36.64)
  64. t
  65. Nikola Vucevic (36.67)
  66. t
  67. De'Aaron Fox (36.75)
  68. t
  69. CJ McCollum (36.82)
  70. t
  71. Devin Booker (39.75)
  72. t
  73. Kristaps Porzingis (40.11)
  74. t
  75. Andre Drummond (41.00)
  76. t
  77. Jayson Tatum (41.64)
  78. t
  79. Jamal Murray (42.64)
  80. t
  81. D'Angelo Russell (44.00)
  82. t
  83. Tobias Harris (46.36)
  84. t
  85. Clint Capela (46.89)
  86. t
  87. Klay Thompson (47.91)
  88. t
  89. Eric Bledsoe (48.30)
  90. t
  91. Myles Turner (48.60)
  92. t
  93. Danilo Gallinari (49.60)
  94. t
  95. Steven Adams (50.82)
  96. t
  97. DeMar DeRozan (51.82)
  98. t
  99. John Collins (52.33)
  100. t
  101. Kevin Love (55.73)
  102. t
  103. Paul Millsap (56.00)
  104. t
  105. Malcolm Brogdon (56.44)
  106. t
  107. Jusuf Nurkic (57.88)
  108. t
  109. Zion Williamson (58.00)
  110. t
  111. Marc Gasol (60.78)
  112. t
  113. Buddy Hield (61.11)
  114. t
  115. Aaron Gordon (61.89)
  116. t
  117. Joe Ingles (62.89)
  118. t
  119. Otto Porter (64.00)
  120. t
  121. Derrick Favors (66.22)
  122. t
  123. Kevon Looney (66.50)
  124. t
  125. Josh Richardson (67.11)
  126. t
  127. Marcus Smart (67.33)
  128. t
  129. Trae Young (68.73)
  130. t
  131. Domantas Sabonis (68.89)
  132. t
  133. Brook Lopez (69.44)
  134. t
  135. Jaren Jackson (71.33)
  136. t
  137. Robert Covington (71.78)
  138. t
  139. Montrezl Harrell (72.67)
  140. t
  141. Lou Williams (73.20)
  142. t
  143. Gary Harris (73.89)
  144. t
  145. Julius Randle (74.78)
  146. t
  147. Larry Nance (76.00)
  148. t
  149. Lauri Markkanen (77.10)
  150. t
  151. Danny Green (77.13)
  152. t
  153. Gordon Hayward (79.33)
  154. t
  155. Deandre Ayton (79.75)
  156. t
  157. DeMarcus Cousins (80.25)
  158. t
  159. Bojan Bogdanovic (81.10)
  160. t
  161. Patrick Beverley (81.25)
  162. t
  163. Mitchell Robinson (82.50)
  164. t
  165. Jaylen Brown (83.56)
  166. t
  167. Thaddeus Young (84.00)
  168. t
  169. Dwight Powell(85.00)
  170. t
  171. Bam Adebayo (85.67)
  172. t
  173. P.J. Tucker (86.11)
  174. t
  175. Spencer Dinwiddie (86.78)
  176. t
  177. JJ Redick (87.33)
  178. t
  179. Hassan Whiteside (87.75)
  180. t
  181. Ricky Rubio (88.14)
  182. t
  183. Derrick White (88.78)
  184. t
  185. Zach LaVine (89.00)
  186. t
  187. Justise Winslow (90.50)
  188. t
  189. Dejounte Murray (90.67)
  190. t
  191. Jarrett Allen (90.67)
  192. t
  193. Jerami Grant (91.33)
  194. t
  195. Lonzo Ball (91.57)
  196. t
  197. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (92.86)
  198. t
  199. Jonas Valanciunas (93.25)

Now, for some obvious drawbacks. The list may feel a little biased in favor of big men. That's simply because a lot of advanced numbers are that way too, and many of the bigs in this top 100 weren't included in subjective lists that might've balanced with the projection models. That's how you have Looney at No. 62.

That paragraph touches on another drawback. Not every player had a rank from every outlet. And for years, I've wrestled with what to do with that. Should there be some kind of placeholder for blanks? In the end, the lists have felt accurate enough to avoid the potential for artificially moving values one way or another.

In the end, the top 30-40 feels pretty accurate, and it has every year I've done this. I certainly have my personal qualms with a placement here or there, but pretty much everything is justifiable.

All the writers and models that produce these rankings year after year bring their own biases into the exercise. Putting them all together helps to level those off.

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