The great thing about any “all-time great” list is that it can always get amended. It’s forever changing, and it’s in the playoffs when players can either move up on the list or go further down. That’s why we’re always talking about this stuff. In fact, some people even dedicate years of their lives and thousands of dollars to write/market a book about that very same topic. *Takes shot of tequila straight to the head*. My personal top 100 players are based on what they accomplished prior to the end of the 2021-22 season. As it stands now, there are 7 players from my top 100 that are going to be playing in the playoffs. None of them are in my top 10, and only two of them are in my top 20. This is their chance to make a big jump in the rankings and to cement their legacy even more so. And then there are players who are in the bubble. Players who are lurking in, and could have an intriguing case to make an appearance in the top 100. We’re going to talk about three players who have the most to lose/gain for this postseason, and then we’re going to talk about the top 7 players who have the most to prove.
10) Jimmy Butler
The Miami Heat is the number one seed in the Eastern conference and they would have the easiest road to at least reaching the conference finals. They would most likely have to play the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, but I think there’s no question that the Miami Heat are the deeper team than the Sixers. The biggest question mark is if they can contain James Harden and force Joel Embiid to carry the scoring load. We’ll have to see if James Harden and Joel Embiid have formed enough chemistry to make a deep playoff run. But if they don’t, then the Miami Heat will have a good chance to make a second Finals trip in three years. If they are capable of pulling that off, then we would have to seriously reevaluate the legacy of Jimmy Butler.
Here’s what he has accomplished so far. He has six all-star appearances and four All-NBA selections. That either matches or surpasses all the players from 100 to 89 in my greatest players of all-time list, with the exclusion of Chris Bosh. He has 11 all-star appearances, but only one All-NBA selection. From an analytical standpoint, he currently ranks all-time 7th in career offensive rating, 27th in win shares per 48 minutes, 29th in box plus/minus, 48th in offensive box plus/minus, 55th in PER, and 64th in VORP rating. The numbers clearly indicate that he has been a valuable piece to all the teams that he has been a part of for the past 8 years. If he can be the leading scorer for the Miami Heat during this playoff run, while also beating James Harden/Joel Embiid, and either beat Giannis in the playoffs a second time or possibly knock out Kevin Durant/Kyrie Irving to reach the Finals, then his place among the greats has to at least be talked about seriously.
I don’t expect the Miami Heat to end the season with a championship, but I can’t just dismiss the possibility of the best team in the East going all the way. So there is a scenario where Jimmy Butler can be the Finals MVP on a championship-winning team. If he finds a way to do that, then Robert Horry would have no choice but to lift the red velvet ropes and let him in this exclusive club of NBA legends.
9) Nikola Jokic
If Nikola Jokic wins a second straight MVP award, then his entrance into the top 100 is guaranteed. He could get swept from the first round for all I care, and it still wouldn’t matter. He would knock Shawn Marion off the list and we would have to evaluate where he should be ranked from his relatively short career. But there is a possibility that either Giannis or Joel Embiid wins the award this season. If that’s the case, then this postseason run can help cap off what is already a legendary year by the Joker. The bad news is that the Nuggets will have to play Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Defeating an all-time great player like that in a 7-game series will do wonders for his legacy. It will help give substance to a player who is starting his trajectory as one of the greatest centers of all time.
But if Jokic underperforms and loses easily to the Warriors, then it would leave room to question his overall greatness and talent. I believe he would get the same treatment that David Robinson was getting in the 90s. Someone who was putting up monster numbers in the regular season, but could never carry his team far in the playoffs. His toughness and mental fortitude will be in question, just as it was for The Admiral. David Robinson couldn’t help that his teams were lacking any respectable scoring options, and Jokic can’t help that his star teammates can’t stay healthy. The NBA world was not forgiving for Robinson, and they won’t be for Jokic as well. The vultures are already circling.
8) Draymond Green
He is a three-time champion, he has six All-NBA defensive selections, he has four all-star appearances, he’s won a DPOY award, he was a valuable piece of the greatest regular season of all-time (2016 GSW), and for the greatest team in NBA history (2017 GSW). He’s already knocking on the door to reaching the top 100. The problem with his career resume is that his career average for points per game is 8.7. He often gets ridiculed as being just a role player for the Warriors due to the fact that he is not a strong scoring option. However, any student of the game realizes how important he is to the success of the Warriors and his defensive greatness is something that no one can deny. With that being said, I believe his career numbers are too underwhelming for me to place him in the top 100. Even Dennis Rodman excelled at something, and that was rebounding. Draymond isn’t giving us much to work with, other than his career defensive rating, which currently ranks third all-time.
That all can change this season. The Warriors are without Kevin Durant, so this postseason isn’t going to be a cakewalk for the Warriors. If they find a way to reach the Finals this year, that would be six Finals appearances under his belt. If the Warriors win the title, then that’s four titles to his name. If that were to happen, he would officially be deemed as the Dennis Rodman of our generation. He would then be a serious candidate to be a first-ballot hall of fame player, and he would then enter top 75 territory. That’s what he’s looking at if the Warriors raise another banner.
7) Klay Thompson
He’s getting the same opportunity that I mentioned for Draymond, but there is an added element for the case of Klay Thompson. For one, he has an opportunity to be a part of arguable the greatest comeback story in NBA history. Someone who missed two straight seasons due to injuries, but then helped his team reach playoff success in his first season back. Keep in mind that the Warriors missed the playoffs the last two seasons without him. So this would further prove how valuable Klay Thompson is to the success of his team.
He also has an opportunity to prove his value by helping his team win the title as its second scoring option. For two-thirds of the titles he’s won, he’s been the third banana behind Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. For the title he won without KD, he averaged 15.8 points per game on 40.9% shooting. Keep in mind the Cavaliers were without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. In the following Finals series, where they blew a 3-1 series lead, he averaged 19.6 points per game on 42.7% shooting. If we’re going to be fair here, there were some question marks if this team was better served with Klay as your third scoring option. He almost erased all doubt in 2019 before he tore his ACL. Now he has an opportunity to play a big contribution to a team that absolutely needs him to rack up the points if the Warriors want a chance at the title. If that’s something he can provide, then he would make all the people who snubbed him out of the top 75 (including me) look very foolish.
6) Kyrie Irving
What a roller coaster ride it’s been for Kyrie this year. You have the whole vaccination fiasco and the fact that he couldn’t play for his team at their homecourt. Then you have the whole James Harden drama, where it was reported that Kyrie wanted the Nets to get rid of him. So for a team that had the best chance to win the title according to the preseason odds is now starting the postseason as the 7th seed. Even with the struggles that the Nets have had all year long, there are still experts who are predicting that they will represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals. It sure won’t be an easy road for the Nets, since they would most likely have to go through the top 3 teams in the East.
It’s not going to be an easy road for them, not to mention that history is not on their side. There’s never been a team that was the 7th seed of their conference to reach the Finals, and only the New York Knicks in 1999 reached the Finals as the 8th seed. What many NBA experts are predicting is the Nets making one of the most legendary playoff runs of all time. If the Nets want to be a part of history, Kyrie Irving is going to have to play at a level he’s never reached before in the playoffs. The most he’s averaged for a single postseason run is 25.9 points per game in 2017. Kyrie Irving is going to have to average closer to 30 points per game if the Nets are going to get past the Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks, and possibly the Miami Heat.
It was proven last year in the semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks that Kevin Durant can’t do it by himself. He nearly beat the eventual champions by being the only player on the Nets to average over 12 points per game and also playing the full 7 games of the series. He came just short, but the outcome might have been different if his star teammates were healthy. Kyrie looks to be in full strength, and that might be enough for the Nets to make a run at the title. There is no team that is the clear-cut favorite to represent the East. It’s honestly a toss-up between 5 teams. So the Nets have that going for them. If Kyrie can do his part and continue his hot shooting that results in a historic playoff run, then it will solidify his status as one of the greatest playoff performers ever.
5) Giannis Antetokounmpo
In my All-Time Greatest NBA Book, I have Giannis ranked at 30. His talent and resume are that good. There is one thing that I wrote though that Giannis has to do if he wants any chance in reaching the pantheon of NBA greats. This is what I wrote:
“He has checked marked nearly all the boxes in the short amount of time he has played in the league. He has the individual accolades, he has won a championship, he passes the eye test as one of the greatest athletic talents ever, he had one of the greatest playoff runs in history in the 2021 postseason, he passes the Robert Horry test by giving us one of the greatest Finals performances against the Suns in 2021, and he was able to lead his team to a historic dominant season. There’s only one last question that he needs to answer, can he do it again? All the players in the top 25 either have the longevity that Giannis currently doesn’t have, or they were able to have multiple legendary title seasons. That’s the only thing Giannis needs to prove. At the tender age of 27 that he currently is by the time this book has been released, he’s got plenty of time to do just that.”
Can he lead his team to the Finals for a second straight year? Better yet, can he win a second straight Finals MVP? Here are the players that won back-to-back Finals MVPs in history: Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant. Those are players that are in my top 15 players of all time. Giannis has a chance to leapfrog a whole bunch of players and I would have to think long and hard if he will enter top 20 territory. But this is his chance to fast-track his progression on the rankings. If he doesn’t reach the Finals, I don’t think he would get that much scrutiny. He’s already got the resume of a first-ballot hall of fame player. He also just wrapped up yet another MVP caliber season. There’s nothing that he can do that can impact his rankings negatively. Out of all the players on the list, he has the least to lose but the most to gain.
4)Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant has the opportunity of a lifetime. He can give us a playoff performance that only Hakeem Olajuwon could rival. Let’s go back to 1995 to remind ourselves what The Dream accomplished. The Houston Rockets went into the playoffs as the 6th seed, and they only won 47 games. The Rockets were struggling all season long until they acquired Clyde Drexler through a midseason trade. Clyde Drexler gave the Rockets something they never had since drafting Hakeem, a legitimate second-scoring option. Hakeem no longer needed to carry the load for the Rockets, but they still needed him to play big if they wanted to get through one of the toughest roads to the title that we’ve ever seen. He delivered, and he ended up averaging 33 points per game for the 1995 postseason.
I believe if the Nets are going to make this improbable run to the title, Kevin Durant is going to have to have that type of a legendary performance as Hakeem did 27 years ago. He’s going to have to have multiple games where he scores over 40 points, and he’s going to have to average around 33 points per game if they are to pull this off. We talked about what Kyrie is going to have to do, but Kevin Durant is going to have to shoulder most of the scoring load. A lot of NBA experts are always saying that Kevin Durant is the best player in the world. This is his chance to prove that to the world just as Hakeem did. If he wants to enter the top 10 of the greatest players of all time, then he needs that type of performance for the average NBA fan to give him such a prestigious title. And imagine if he plays the Golden State Warriors in the Finals, and beats his former team. Draymond Green infamously told him that they didn’t need him. This could be the ultimate “screw you” that would put this postseason in legendary status.
3) Stephen Curry
Here’s the question that every NBA fan that cares about this stuff needs to answer, can you put any player in the top 10 greatest players of all time that have never won a Finals MVP? We understand he’s changed the league. We understand he’s the greatest shooter in the history of the game. We understand he’s been a part of multiple all-time great seasons and he’s got two MVPs to his name. All that is true, but he has never been widely considered as the most valuable player for a team that’s won on the biggest stage that exists in the NBA. That’s the only thing that’s left for him to prove.
He’s in a similar situation that Kobe Bryant found himself in after Shaq left for Miami, and before the NBA gift-wrapped Pau Gasol to the Lakers. No one could deny his individual greatness and what he meant for the Lakers during the years they won three straight titles. He was already in the eyes of many, one of the greatest players of all time. But there was still some hardware that he needed to acquire before he could enter the top tiers of NBA legends. He got the regular-season MVP in 2008, and then he got two straight Finals MVPs in the following two seasons.
It was fair to expect that from Kobe, and it’s fair to expect the same from Curry. His road to the Finals won’t be easy though. He will have to get through Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the first round, then (most likely) Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies, and I’m predicting they would reach the conference finals to face the dominant team of the Phoenix Suns. I believe the winner of that series will end up winning the title. The good news for the Warriors is that they have the championship experience that no other team in the Western conference has. They’re the team that every team is fearing to face in the playoffs. If Curry can pull it off, then he might just enter the top 10 just as Kobe did when he also won his fourth title and his first Finals MVP.
2) Chris Paul
Think about how we viewed the career of Chris Paul 5 years ago. He was the butt of all jokes for never leading his team passed the second round. He then helped the Rockets have one of the most dominating seasons of all time and they were one game away from reaching the Finals. Then last year, he helped the Phoenix Suns, which had no one from their starting rotation with any playoff experience, reach the Finals. Now he has an opportunity to win the title for a team that just capped off one of the most dominating regular seasons of all time, and they will have home-court advantage for the entirety of the 2022 playoffs. If he can win a title, and possibly win Finals MVP, then he would have an intriguing case to be as high as one of the 20 greatest players of all time. But his rankings won’t see any major jump unless he reaches the Finals. Anything less than that would be considered a disappointing season.
1) James Harden
Harden has mentioned before the start of the playoffs that he feels no pressure going into this postseason. Well…. let’s just say that no one took that comment very well. If anyone needs to reach the Finals this season, it’s James Harden. Out of all the people that are in my top 50, only three players have never reached the Finals in their career while being in the starting rotation. It’s Dominique Wilkins, George Gervin, and James Harden. I personally refuse to put any player in my top 30 if you never helped your team reach the Finals. I could care less how staggering your numbers are in the regular season.
James Harden also needs to prove that he can play competently in a do-or-die scenario in the playoffs. He’s fallen extremely short way too many times in past years. There’s no question that no one expects the Sixers to run the table and dominate this postseason. I fully expect the Sixers to have long hard-fought battles with some strong teams in the Eastern conference if they are going to reach the Finals. Joel Embiid will absolutely need James Harden to play like the MVP that we know him to be. The unfortunate thing is that we’ve never seen it from him when it truly counted in the playoffs. I’m starting to think that he just doesn’t have it in him, but I would love to be proven wrong. His resume is top 25 worthy, but it’s his playoff resume that is holding him back in a major way. He’s playing alongside a legitimate MVP candidate, and that might be just enough to not only reach the Finals but to validate his career to his biggest detractors.
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