Top 100 NBA Players of 2021: Biggest Snubs
Piecing together SI’s annual list of the NBA’s Top 100 players is naturally a subjective task, and deciding who to omit can feel just as arbitrary as the ranking process itself. So much of players’ performance within basketball’s fluid construct is contextual—particularly in the case of those who work in complementary roles. As always, many of the players who missed the cut have legitimate cases, and others warrant mention regardless.
It’s better not to view this list as players 101–125, and that’s certainly not how I put it together. But here are 25 players (in alphabetical order) who, at one point or another in the process, received legitimate consideration for a place in the Top 100, and who might find themselves ranked in the future.
Jarrett Allen, Nets
Allen just cracked last year’s list at No. 97 (fashioned expertly by our esteemed former colleague Rob Mahoney). He put together another inarguably solid year for the Nets, working in tandem with DeAndre Jordan to protect the paint in simplified roles. He was the more effective end of the platoon, ultimately making 64 starts to Jordan’s six. At age 22, he’s an undeniably effective role player and double-double threat. But Allen’s lack of shooting, inability to create offense, and ultimately, the difficulties of deploying a limited, rim-to-rim big come playoff time were all factors in leaving him off.
Lonzo Ball, Pelicans
Prior to the COVID shutdown in March, Ball was playing some of the best basketball of his career on a healthy Pelicans team. In the bubble, his performance completely tanked. And while we can more or less throw those games out as representative, they do point to his ongoing search for consistency. Ball shot a career-best 37.5% from three last season. He’s always made teammates better, and helped transition offense sing with delightful passing skills. But in the halfcourt, where he still struggles to put pressure on the rim and rarely ever finds his way to the foul line, Ball is still searching for an identity. There may be enough talent around him in New Orleans to mask those flaws, but until he can create his own points efficiently, it’s hard to view him as a true offensive centerpiece.
Marvin Bagley, Kings
After a productive rookie year, Bagley was derailed by a foot injury and limited to just 13 games last season. The No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, he remains a promising, skilled big with more to give. But he’s yet to master the art of winning basketball at the highest level, has yet to show much regard for defense, and the Kings have yet to figure out exactly how to deploy him. A full, healthy season should provide a better developmental checkpoint.
Malik Beasley, Timberwolves
Following a midseason trade to the Timberwolves, Beasley averaged north of 20 points per game and shot 42% from three on volume, looking like a player on the cusp of a breakout. But he toiled off the bench in Denver for 41 games prior, raising questions over his capacity and willingness to thrive in a complementary sense. In a crowded Minnesota rotation, he may have to fit in again, and it’s unclear whether off-season legal trouble will have any impact on his availability this season. Beasley is clearly a gifted scorer, but still needs to answer questions in basically every other department to raise his standing around the league.
Mikal Bridges, Suns
It didn’t take long for the 24-year-old Bridges to find his niche, showing significant improvement as a scorer and emerging as a defensive difference-maker in his sophomore season. He appears to be on the verge of becoming more than a role player, working out a hitch in his jump shot, racking up deflections and picking up difficult assignments on the wing, and playing a big part in the Suns’ surprising bubble run. Bridges will never be a star, but he’s the type of player every team can use. The winning fiber of his game should nab him a starting role, and a spot in the Top 100 may follow.
Kentavious Caldwell Pope, Lakers
Give Caldwell-Pope full credit for emerging as the Lakers’ third-best player in midst of a championship run. But it’s not like he’s a young, emerging prospect, and to be totally fair, when your two best players are LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the bar for everyone else is simply much lower. It’ll take a larger sample of high-level performance for Caldwell-Pope to crack the Top 100, and the Lakers’ recent moves to beef up their rotation may limit his opportunity to do that. He deserves mention all the same.
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Brandon Clarke, Grizzlies
Clarke hit the ground running last season, with his unique skill set translating immediately off the bench for the Grizzlies in a highly efficient, high-energy rebounding role. His athleticism and finishing touch outweighed his lack of size, and Memphis deployed him smartly. As is the case with most 23-year-old rookies, the question now becomes where else his game might expand. But Clarke is a highly effective role player already, and with more progress as a shooter and some minutes expansion, his case will get stronger.
Jae Crowder, Suns
The perennially underrated Crowder finally got the platform he deserved, helping the Heat to a Finals run while starting all 21 playoff games and providing serviceable play in all aspects. He’s only ever as good as the team around him, but his willingness to do the small stuff and defensive malleability at his size will always have a place somewhere. Crowder’s individual offensive skills have shown signs of decline, and it’s hard to take him over a better-shooting or more creative role-playing wing in a vacuum. But in the right situation, he can be as useful as any of them.
Evan Fournier, Magic
Having spent the past six seasons in Orlando, Fournier has never quite gotten the credit he deserves as one of the NBA’s better shooters, although he’s inarguably over-stretched as the Magic’s second option. He enters a contract year needing to answer questions about his defense and shot selection, and winning games, unfortunately, has often appeared subsidiary to his counting stats. But Fournier has also proven capable of carrying the Magic at various junctures when teammates have missed time, and he certainly competes. If you dropped him onto a contending team, his Top 100 case might be much clearer.
Devonte’ Graham, Hornets
Graham’s sophomore breakthrough in wake of Kemba Walker’s departure was a coup for the Hornets. To be fair, a wide range of NBA guards could average 18 points on 38% from the field if afforded a diet of 15 shots and 35 minutes nightly. He made less than 40% of his twos, which is almost a disqualifier for this list unto itself. But Graham also managed to post a respectable assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.6, proved to be a solid three-point shooter, and was a steadying force on an otherwise iffy team. What we still don’t know is whether there’s a leap in efficiency coming, or if Graham will be best served running someone’s second unit. The answer might be both: the arrival of Gordon Hayward and LaMelo Ball will reduce his workload, but should also help mask his weaknesses.
Danny Green, Sixers
Say what you want about his numbers, but Danny Green just keeps winning. And while his regular-season numbers dipped sharply after moving from Toronto to in L.A., Green has now been a full-time starting wing on three different championship teams. Given that he’s almost exclusively a three-point shooter, his percentages will always waver situationally. He remains a heady plug-and-play defender and it’s hard to quantify his wealth of experience. The 76ers will need him in good form, and he’ll have yet another chance to start. But it’s hard to expect another elite shooting season like the one he had in Toronto, and at age 33, Green is inching closer to the final stage of his career.
Kyle Kuzma, Lakers
Kuzma remains a tricky player to put in a box, and the nature of his approach to scoring requires the freedom to maneuver unfettered, allowing his array of unorthodox shots to cover for the iffiness of his three-point range. But he craves the type of role he’ll never fully have on a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and his game took a step back as the Lakers got serious. He’s not going to carry a winning offense anytime soon, and at some point, Kuzma will have to adjust his habits. Understanding how to fit in is a talent unto itself.
Lauri Markkanen, Bulls
While Markkanen’s development has stalled, don’t write him off yet—did average 18.7 points and nine rebounds in his second season as a 21-year-old. He regressed a bit last season, but the Bulls’ Jim Boylen era wasn’t wholly conducive for player growth. He’s tall, he can shoot it, and a return to form could easily be in the cards. His defensive improvement, on the other hand, is less difficult to assume. Markkanen was 75th on this list a year ago, but we’ve shifted to wait-and-see mode.
Marcus Morris, Clippers
We’ve now seen Morris as an effective solo act on a bad team (the Knicks), and as a useful but somewhat limited rotation piece on better ones (he struggled on arrival in Los Angeles). Yes, he’s versatile, but when not scoring at a high clip, his value can be reduced to scrappiness or nothing. His playoff antics against the Mavericks left a bad taste. Morris is certainly a viable option—the Clippers did just hand him a four-year contract—but whether or not his game ages gracefully is worth wondering.
Julius Randle, Knicks
Randle manages starry counting stats every year and took advantage of his first opportunity as a full-time alpha dog in New York. Unfortunately, the Knicks won 21 games, his efficiency dipped as his life got tougher, and he may have hit a production ceiling in slightly unhelpful fashion. He remains a spotty defender, relies a tad much on blunt-force scoring, and is a limited outside shooter to boot. You certainly can’t place all the blame on Randle for never having made the playoffs, but at this middle stage of his career, he’s become an acquired taste.
Josh Richardson, Mavericks
After a down year with the 76ers, Richardson should find friendlier confines in Dallas, where his high-level perimeter defense will be a key addition. It’s his offensive fit that can be somewhat unwieldy: he was overstretched playing on-ball in Miami, and was a below-average jump shooter in Philly, where his struggles to attack the rim were exacerbated by iffy spacing. Playing in an offense orchestrated by Luka Doncic and Rick Carlisle should help, and if his best self emerges, a return to the Top 100 list should be in order.
Mitchell Robinson, Knicks
There are several things the 22-year-old Robinson is quite good at: he dunks, he rebounds, and he blocks shots. He shot a league-high 74% from the field—entirely on twos, most of them very, very close to the rim—and averaged a double-double with three blocks per-36. But there are reasons why Robinson made just seven starts, a lack of discipline (4.9 fouls per-36) and skill among them. That hasn’t stopped him from producing early in his career, and he might be the Knicks’ most valuable trade piece. But more than proof of concept is needed before ranking him alongside the NBA’s better bigs.
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Derrick Rose, Pistons
Credit Rose for reimagining his game in a meaningful way, embracing his roles in Minnesota and Detroit, picking his spots with veteran savvy, limiting his mistakes, and becoming one of the NBA’s best backup point guards. He’s posted the best true shooting percentages of his career the past two seasons, and looks like the type of second-unit leader who can help a playoff team, provided he can remain healthy. It wasn’t enough for a return to the Top 100, but Rose deserves mention all the same.
Dennis Schröder, Lakers
It’s not an understatement that Schröder resuscitated his career in Oklahoma City last season, proving he could play with the requisite discipline to aid a playoff team, shoot consistently from three-point range, and be a good soldier off the bench in the process. He was rewarded with a trade to the Lakers, where he’s already clamoring to be a full-time starter again. He should get the opportunity to prove he can handle it, but there’s also a chance he regresses to his old, wilder self. Let’s see how this goes first.
Gary Trent Jr., Trail Blazers
It was impossible to ignore Trent’s surprising breakout in the bubble, looking like one of the league’s top three-point marksmen in the first meaningful run of his young career. We’d like to see him do it for an entire season first, and the rest of his game is still questionable. But elite shooting always plays, and even with Rodney Hood returning to the Portland bench, Trent should be well on his way.
Derrick White, Spurs
White isn’t elite at anything, but he’s pretty good at everything, and his intelligent, effective game has made him relevant as one of the league’s better third guards. He’s still recovering from offseason toe surgery and the Spurs are replete with backcourt options, so a legit breakout likely isn’t in the cards. But he came on strong in the bubble, and as a stout defender and effective scorer, a move back into the Top 100 could be on the table. White has the all-around skill set to do it, but it’ll take another leap from him to become one of the league’s elite role players.
Hassan Whiteside, Kings
It always seems to be the same story with Whiteside, who just averaged a double-double for the sixth straight season and led the NBA in blocks, yet still somehow leaves you feeling a little empty. He took a back seat to Jusuf Nurkic in the playoffs, where his limitations always seem to come to the fore, and the market dictated he take a minimum deal in Sacramento. Whiteside lives at the strange intersection of consistency and unreliability.
Andrew Wiggins, Warriors
We’re all still waiting on Andrew Wiggins, who’s been a tad too content to rack up points over the years while his production and efficiency numbers plateaued, and his teams struggled. Every season seems to be his next best chance to make good, both an indicator of his latent potential, and the creeping reality that this may just be it. Golden State has turned him into the league’s most expensive reclamation project, and if there’s an all-around skill set still in there somewhere, this seems like the year we’ll find out.
Christian Wood, Rockets
The Rockets are betting that the late-blooming Wood is more than a small sample-size king, and that after five NBA stops and several more in the G League, that the 25-year-old has truly figured something out. To his credit, he was a stat-stuffing monster down the stretch after taking a starring role in Detroit, and then the pandemic hit. That version of Wood is certainly Top 100-worthy. But with just 14 NBA starts under his belt, it’s OK to wait and make sure.
Ivica Zubac, Clippers
Winning a title sure feels great, but the Lakers have to be unhappy about handing Zubac to their crosstown rivals for nothing at the 2019 deadline. Last season, the 23-year-old led the league in offensive rebound percentage and finished third on the Clippers in win shares—ahead of Paul George—while playing just 18 minutes per game in a platoon with Montrezl Harrell. Zubac doesn’t shoot threes or defend well in space, but he’s skilled and just mobile enough to be an occasional difference-maker as a roll man and rim protector. He’s not rife with added upside, but there’s real reason to wonder what he could do with more opportunity.
