Ben GolliverSep 25, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseBen Golliver is a senior NBA writer who joined ESPN in May 2026. Prior to joining ESPN, Golliver covered the NBA on a national level since 2010 for The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports. He is the author of Bubbleball, an account of his 93-day stay at the NBA’s “Bubble” in Disney World during the coronavirus pandemic. He is based in Los Angeles.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsNothing in the NBA world inspires heated debate like ESPN’s annual ranking of the 100 players for the upcoming season.After NBA Rank 2026 came out earlier this week, New York Knicks guard Josh Hart unleashed a little sarcasm in response to landing at No. 89.”They [are] always wrong,” Hart wrote on social media.
“I should be at least No. 88.”The newly minted champion was hardly the only person in the league to raise objections with the results during a year that lacked consensus.With help from an informal survey of a dozen NBA executives and league personnel, let’s run through some of the biggest ranking arguments and critiques that emerged this week to set the table for the 2026-27 season and clear up misconceptions.NBA Rank 2026: Top 10 players | Nos. 11-50 | Nos. 51-100 Roundtable: Was LeBron ranked too low? Top 100 audit: What NBA Rank got wrong 10 players already on the radar for 2027The battle for No. 1ESPN’s seven-person voting panel was split between three players for the No. 1 spot: Nikola Jokic prevailed with 694 points in the vote, narrowly topping Victor Wembanyama (693) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (691).Similarly, the survey of front office executives returned passionate arguments for all three players to be considered the best in the world.Jokic’s supporters highlighted his statistical production and offensive orchestration, while Wembanyama’s fans pointed to his two-way impact and San Antonio’s 62-win season in 2025-26, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s backers focused on his back-to-back MVP awards and leadership.”Jokic makes his whole team better than anyone else,” one general manager said. “If you gave him and Wemby the same teammates, Denver would be better. Wemby being young doesn’t bother me.
What bothers me is that he made young mistakes in the playoffs.”Still, plenty of league executives agreed with ESPN’s insiders that the 22-year-old Wembanyama’s time is now.”Look at how fast he is improving,” one general manager said. “If you’re looking ahead to where we’ll be [after the 2027 playoffs], he’s got to be No. 1. He could be No. 1 for the next five years.”With Jokic posting triple-doubles and Wembanyama leading the NBA in several defensive metrics, a Gilgeous-Alexander backer argued that the conversation should be about more individual numbers.”He’s the most complete player in the world,” the executive said. “Production, leadership, emotional intelligence.
List all the boxes that a star should check, and he checks the most.”Two more No. 1 candidatesAfter Jokic, Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander, ESPN’s voting panel had a noticeable gap before the second tier, which included Luka Doncic at No. 4 and Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 5.Though most of the informal survey respondents agreed with the main three candidates, one league executive argued that Doncic should be included in the top tier and will end the season at No. 1.”With LeBron [James] gone, the weight and expectations of the [Los Angeles] Lakers will push Luka to reach his full potential,” he said. “He will take the MVP trophy home to Slovenia next summer.”Another respondent expected Antetokounmpo to regain his MVP status after an offseason trade sent him from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Miami Heat.”Revenge mission,” he said. “People took him for granted in Milwaukee. You can’t ignore him in Miami.”Lottery reform impactMultiple team executives predicted that the NBA’s lottery reform will prompt a wave of reevaluations across the ESPN list.With teams no longer incentivized to lose games in volume to improve their draft positioning, executives expect player participation to increase across the board.
In turn, they expect more competitive games and more parity in the standings.The Jazz, Pacers and Wizards were mentioned as teams with players whose perceived value could improve substantially in a post-tanking reality.”No one talks about you if you don’t play or if you play and lose by 20 every night,” one executive said. “But that can change overnight.”Addressing NBA Rank’s criticsLet’s shift gears to run through some hot-button topics that emerged on social media following NBA Rank’s release. (Note: The posts have been lightly edited for clarity.)OG Anunoby and the Knicks”Worst of all is OG Anunoby at No. 34. Behind Jalen Johnson and James Harden of all people who were overwhelmed no-shows in the [Knicks] series.”Without a doubt, Anunoby’s stock is at an all-time high after he helped the Knicks clinch the NBA championship with one of the most iconic shots in league history. The veteran forward had a phenomenal run through the playoffs, emerging as New York’s second-highest scorer while shooting 48.9% on 3-pointers and providing excellent defense across multiple positions.ESPN’s voters base their rankings on a variety of factors such as overall production, team success, health, age, role and consistency rather than head-to-head performance in a single playoff series.Anunoby’s ranking appeared to reflect skepticism among some voters over how well his team would perform if he had to handle a larger role on offense as a playmaker or distributor.
With Jalen Brunson in place as an elite high-usage engine and Karl-Anthony Towns spacing the court as a dependable secondary scorer, Anunoby is free to live his best life.If Anunoby switched spots with Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson, would he be able to scale his production to match Johnson’s impressive numbers? Anunoby’s prior stint with the Toronto Raptors suggests there’s a hard ceiling to what you can expect from him on offense.Walker Kessler and the Lakers”Walker Kessler at No. 73 is a textbook example of the ‘Prestige Zone’ effect: Literally hasn’t played basketball in a year, but he still jumped 25 spots in the rankings because he was traded to the Lakers.”This was a very popular complaint: How did Kessler improve so much from last year’s rankings after playing only five games during the 2025-26 season due to shoulder surgery? Surely, this must be evidence of ESPN’s pro-Lakers agenda.First, remember that this is a forward-looking list for the 2026-27 season rather than a recap of last year. Second, it must be noted that Kessler was traded from a Jazz team that ranked below average in offensive efficiency in each of the past three years to a Lakers team led by Doncic, one of the NBA’s best playmakers.Kessler’s offensive game is derivative: 67% of his baskets during his first four seasons were assisted by his teammates.
It’s reasonable to expect him to perform substantially better as an offensive player with Doncic in Los Angeles than he did before his shoulder injury when Collin Sexton and an unproven Keyonte George were Utah’s lead guards.Back in his Dallas Mavericks days, Doncic brought the best out of derivative centers such as Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II. Assuming Kessler stays healthy, there’s a decent chance he’ll outperform his No. 73 ranking.Jayson Tatum and the Celtics”Jayson Tatum is fresh off an Achilles tear, stunk when he returned to the court, and choked a 3-1 lead against the 76ers but doesn’t get moved down at all. Joel Embiid single-handedly led the 3-1 comeback against Tatum, but he gets ranked 30 spots lower because injuries only matter when it’s convenient.”Tatum was indeed one of the trickiest players to rank: The Celtics forward landed at No. 9, a noticeable drop from his No. 5 ranking in his last healthy season two years ago. To be clear, the version of Tatum that returned to the court in March wasn’t close to a top-10 player.ESPN’s voters appeared willing to look past his bumpy retu
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