How we ranked them: The process of SI.com's Top 100 NBA players of 2016
The impulse of comparison is encouraged by the very nature of sports. One team beats its opponent. One player dominates a matchup. One teammate overtakes another on the depth chart. Games and leagues are built on that engine of relativity, and the NBA is no exception.
It's in that spirit that we offer our list of the Top 100 NBA players of 2016—an endeavor to identify and order the best of the best for the 2015-16 season. The scope of our ranking is relatively simple (no weight is given to long-term development, and as little emphasis as possible is placed on team context), but there is nonetheless a daunting complication built into the exercise itself. Put simply: While we make a considered effort to somehow compare an incredible assortment of talent, there's little grounds to suggest that basketball players can be assigned any kind of absolute value.
That, in a word, is a doozy.
• MORE NBA: SI.com's Top 100 of 2016 | Biggest snubs | Process explained
On the one hand, the decision to divorce players from their real-life team settings is essential in a project of this nature. No player ought be penalized for landing on the wrong team, just as no lesser contributor should be promoted merely for filling an ideal role. Players need to be evaluated individually to whatever extent such a thing is possible, and to that end the disregard of team factors helps us inch closer to some measure of objective quality.
At the same time, basketball players are almost unavoidably subject to context. There are certain luminaries for which being a fit is a non-issue—an elite class of flexible superstars who would work in most every system and would mesh with most any roster. They are the extreme minority and run maybe three deep. The overwhelming majority, meanwhile, need specific factors in place to maximize their on-court value: a particular number of touches, a certain magnitude of role, a customized set of responsibilities. Some players are inevitably more pliable than others when it comes to compromising on those needs, but that in itself creates problems for defining player value across the board. How does one accurately measure player worth when every individual's value is so deeply conditional?
Making that determination inevitably becomes a matter of taste, as we don't otherwise have the means to make sense of such disparate items. It's hard enough comparing vastly different players at different positions—say, Andrew Bogut and Monta Ellis—but another matter entirely given that both players have unique prerequisites to their effectiveness. If Bogut is the defensive balance to offense-first lineups, his strengths can be accentuated while his weaknesses are disguised. If not, he's a lesser player, relatively, because his lack of offensive skill can so severely cramp his team's scoring operations.
Top 100 NBA Players of 2016: Snubs
A different set of concerns are in play with Ellis, who needs helpful defenders, spot shooters and supporting playmakers to get the most out of his own game. When all of that is in place, Ellis can be a legitimate weapon. Without it, he can grind even a quality team into mediocrity with his inefficient shot selection and unchecked domination of the ball.
Such factors define the range between a player's ceiling and floor, though without necessarily addressing the probability that either is actually met. How does one place Tyson Chandler without knowing if he'll have a solid point guard to make use of his game-changing offensive potential? Or rank Ricky Rubio without understanding how likely he is to have the supporting scorers he so desperately needs? And in contrast, where does this line of thinking leave players like Gordon Hayward, who are not only skilled and productive but also malleable to a wide variety of roles?
Certain players are indisputably more challenging to build around than others, and in some way that distinction should be taken into account in a ranking like this one. There's just no clean, satisfying way to do so, and thus no perfect fashion to consider each player on his own merits. That doesn't diminish the value of these results or the process behind them. It's simply important to note that a player's worth shifts dramatically with his surroundings, and with that comes distortion to any and every comparative ranking of this kind.
GALLERY: Best NBA players by jersey number
Best NBA Players by Jersey Number
00 — Robert Parish
0 — Russell Westbrook
1 — Oscar Robertson
2 — Moses Malone
3 — Dwyane Wade
4 — Adrian Dantley
5 — Kevin Garnett
6 — Bill Russell
7 — Pete Maravich
8 — Kobe Bryant
9 — Bob Pettit
10 — Walt Frazier
11 — Isiah Thomas
12 — John Stockton
13 — Wilt Chamberlain
14 — Bob Cousy
15 — Vince Carter
16 — Bob Lanier
17 — John Havlicek
18 — Dave Cowens
19 — Willis Reed
20 — Gary Payton
21 — Tim Duncan
22 — Elgin Baylor
23 — Michael Jordan
24 — Rick Barry
25 — Mark Price
26 — Kyle Korver
27 — Jack Twyman
28 — Arron Afflalo
29 — Paul Silas
30 — Bernard King
31 — Reggie Miller
32 — Magic Johnson
33 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
34 — Shaquille O’Neal
35 — Kevin Durant
36 — Rasheed Wallace
37 — Nick Van Exel
38 — Viktor Khryapa
39 — Jerami Grant
40 — Shawn Kemp
41 — Dirk Nowitzki
42 — James Worthy
43 — Jack Sikma
44 — Jerry West
45 — Rudy Tomjanovic
46 — Bo Outlaw
47 — Andrei Kirilenko
48 — Nazr Mohammed
49 — Shandon Anderson
50 — David Robinson
51 — Reggie King
52 — Jamaal Wilkes
53 — Artis Gilmore
54 — Horace Grant
55 — Dikembe Mutombo
56 — Francisco Elson
57 — Hilton Armstrong
61 — Bevo Nordmann
62 — Scot Pollard
70 — Frank Selvy
71 — Willie Naulls
72 — Jason Kapono
73 — Dennis Rodman
76 — Shawn Bradley
77 — Gheorghe Muresan
83 — Craig Smith
84 — Chris Webber
85 — Baron Davis
86 — Semih Erden
88 — Nicolas Batum
89 — Clyde Lovellette
90 — Drew Gooden
91 — Dennis Rodman
92 — DeShawn Stevenson
93 — Metta World Peace (Ron Artest)
94 — Evan Fournier
96 — Metta World Peace (Ron Artest)
98 — Jason Collins
99 — George Mikan