Every year for me it's the list that really starts to get me excited because it makes me realize just how close NBA trai..."/> Every year for me it's the list that really starts to get me excited because it makes me realize just how close NBA trai..."/>
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Breaking Down the NBA Top 100 List with SI’s Ben Golliver

By Tommy Dee

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Every year for me it’s the list that really starts to get me excited because it makes me realize just how close NBA training camps are to actually starting. Ian Levy and I had the good fortune to speak to Ben Golliver, one of Sports Illustrated’s NBA guru’s and co-author of SI’s Top 100 NBA players list on the latest episode of The Mid Range Theory.

There’s some real good stuff in this conversation, especially the granular look into the ranking and overall game of Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins. We also discuss the perceived media bias surrounding Kristaps Porzingis’ “fall off” after the All-Star break and the ceiling of Karl Towns. We compared the likes of John Wall and Kyrie Irving. Why was Chris Paul ranked ahead of Russell Westbrook and the big debate surrounding the top 3.

Give it a listen.

Intro 

Background into the process of building out the list (0:00)

Dealing with instances where conflicts arise with rankings in the case of Karl Towns (4:25)

Giannis is the new Lamar Odom and quantifying two-way impact (7:30)

Kyrie Irving vs. John Wall and why Wall is holding back Washington because he can’t shoot 3s (10:15)

Measuring player value in a vacuum vs. team setting and age-related comps and a major focus on Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins (10:42)

Which direction is Ricky Rubio headed? (18:00)

The reason Reggie Jackson made a tremendous leap (20:30)

Separating factors betweenTowns, Porzingis, Jokic and the new wave of NBA centers (23:32)

Porzinigis and inaccurate post All-Star “fall off” perception and will Noah/Rose benefit him short term (26:00)

Marquee names who didn’t make it. Tyson Chandler, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, Ty Lawson (27:55)

Derrick Rose- the superstar mentality without the super star-level game aka the Brandon Roy effect (33:30)

The Durant/Curry dynamics and talking Top 5 order (38:35)

What does Wesbrook have to do to pass Durant? (42:35)

Looking back on the top 5 with accuracy and Anthony Davis’ move backwards(46:27)

Paul vs Westbrook (49:00)