Apr 20, 2021At the risk of adding yet another take to The Great MVP Debate of 2020-21, it might be worth illustrating the size of the advantage combination of good fortune and overall durability has conferred upon him.If the purpose of an award is to drive discussion, the vagueness of the criteria for choosing the ’s MVP has to be considered a smashing success. Within the ‘most valuable player’ moniker, the last word is the only one for which there is essentially a universal agreement on the definition. What is meant by either ‘most’ or ‘valuable’ says more about what the voter deems...…Apr 20, 2021At the risk of adding yet another take to The Great MVP Debate of 2020-21, it might be worth illustrating the size of the advantage combination of good fortune and overall durability has conferred upon him.If the purpose of an award is to drive discussion, the vagueness of the criteria for choosing the ’s MVP has to be considered a smashing success. Within the ‘most valuable player’ moniker, the last word is the only one for which there is essentially a universal agreement on the definition. What is meant by either ‘most’ or ‘valuable’ says more about what the voter deems...WW…

Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsEastCentralNorthWestAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams NBA player rankings, midseason update: Risers, fallers and new faces in The Athletic’s Player TiersPlayer evaluation never stops.One of the worst mistakes a scout or personnel decision-maker can make is not updating their opinion as time goes on....…Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsEastCentralNorthWestAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams NBA player rankings, midseason update: Risers, fallers and new faces in The Athletic’s Player TiersPlayer evaluation never stops.One of the worst mistakes a scout or personnel decision-maker can make is not updating their opinion as time goes on....WW…

Nov 25, 2020With last Wednesday’s news that during a workout, an injury that is the most feared and often most career-altering of any common malady moved front and center yet again. Not only will Thompson miss the entire season, likely spelling the official end of the ’ dynasty, but Brooklyn’s hopes to vault into the league’s elite rests upon ’s return from his own Achilles tear, suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals, as he has not played since.It is well established that players are often substantially reduced after an Achilles tear, if they can even return at all. with respect to Durant when...…Nov 25, 2020With last Wednesday’s news that during a workout, an injury that is the most feared and often most career-altering of any common malady moved front and center yet again. Not only will Thompson miss the entire season, likely spelling the official end of the ’ dynasty, but Brooklyn’s hopes to vault into the league’s elite rests upon ’s return from his own Achilles tear, suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals, as he has not played since.It is well established that players are often substantially reduced after an Achilles tear, if they can even return at all. with respect to Durant when...WW…

Oct 23, 2020Editor’s Note: On Monday, that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the players in the Nos. 80-125 best player range. Rather than recap in full, we encourage you to peruse there for those details to allow us to get right into Tier 1.As the Tiers wrap up, let’s first take a quick look at how each roster stands up. Note that every team has at least one player who made this list, 27 have at least one player in Tier 4 or higher and no team has more than six players overall.Tiers by TeamTeam  Tier 1  Tier 2  Tier 3  Tier...…Oct 23, 2020Editor’s Note: On Monday, that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the players in the Nos. 80-125 best player range. Rather than recap in full, we encourage you to peruse there for those details to allow us to get right into Tier 1.As the Tiers wrap up, let’s first take a quick look at how each roster stands up. Note that every team has at least one player who made this list, 27 have at least one player in Tier 4 or higher and no team has more than six players overall.Tiers by TeamTeam  Tier 1  Tier 2  Tier 3  Tier...WW…

Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsAtlanticMetropolitanCentralPacificAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams The top 125 NBA players: The Athletic’s Player Tiers, Tier 2 — from Anthony Davis to Rudy GobertEditor’s Note: On Monday, we introduced the methodology and research that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the...…Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsAtlanticMetropolitanCentralPacificAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams The top 125 NBA players: The Athletic’s Player Tiers, Tier 2 — from Anthony Davis to Rudy GobertEditor’s Note: On Monday, we introduced the methodology and research that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the...WW…

Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsAtlanticMetropolitanCentralPacificAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams The top 125 NBA players: The Athletic’s Player Tiers, Tier 4 — from Brandon Ingram to Zach LaVineEditor’s Note: On Monday, we introduced the methodology and research that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the...…Press 'Enter' to see all resultsMost Recent StoriesAuthorsAtlanticMetropolitanCentralPacificAFC EastAFC NorthAFC SouthAFC WestNFC EastNFC NorthNFC SouthNFC WestAtlanticCentralSoutheastSouthwestNorthwestPacificAL EastAL CentralAL WestNL EastNL CentralNL WestFeatured Teams Featured TeamsLeaguesMLS Featured  CompetitionsFeatured Teams The top 125 NBA players: The Athletic’s Player Tiers, Tier 4 — from Brandon Ingram to Zach LaVineEditor’s Note: On Monday, we introduced the methodology and research that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the...WW…

Oct 21, 2020Editor’s Note: On Monday, that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the players in the Nos. 80-125 best player range. Rather than recap in full, we encourage you to peruse there for those details to allow us to get right into Tier 3.Having breezed through (players 80-125) and (players 38-79) on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, we now move on to Tier 3. We’re into what we might call the Top 40, even though as of right now only 37 players remain.Tier 3 consists of players who perform at a level worthy of getting “in the conversation” for an All-Star slot,...…Oct 21, 2020Editor’s Note: On Monday, that went into creating the tiers in general, as well as listing the players in the Nos. 80-125 best player range. Rather than recap in full, we encourage you to peruse there for those details to allow us to get right into Tier 3.Having breezed through (players 80-125) and (players 38-79) on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, we now move on to Tier 3. We’re into what we might call the Top 40, even though as of right now only 37 players remain.Tier 3 consists of players who perform at a level worthy of getting “in the conversation” for an All-Star slot,...WW…

Oct 23, 2020“What do we have? What do we need? What do we have to do to get there?”—Every Executive, today. Possibly apocryphal.Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Oct. 23 and updated throughout the week. The NBA playoffs can serve as a great separator. Every year, we relearn the lessons of just how big the difference can be between being effective during the grind of a long season and being able to perform against the higher level opposition in the intense, detail-oriented arena of a postseason series. Twenty-nine teams have been found wanting. Even the champion...…Oct 23, 2020“What do we have? What do we need? What do we have to do to get there?”—Every Executive, today. Possibly apocryphal.Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Oct. 23 and updated throughout the week. The NBA playoffs can serve as a great separator. Every year, we relearn the lessons of just how big the difference can be between being effective during the grind of a long season and being able to perform against the higher level opposition in the intense, detail-oriented arena of a postseason series. Twenty-nine teams have been found wanting. Even the champion...WW…

Nov 25, 2019In this week’s installment, I want to quickly touch on a few topics from the last week.First, I want to revisit the concept of marginal contributions on the team level. Using a framework of marginal gains or losses is extremely helpful across the gamut of topics for analysis, as when we are trying to determine the “value” of a given player, team or strategy, it’s always relative. There are 1,230 wins to go around in an NBA season — . I’m perhaps too much of a traditionalist to be supportive of the sort of omnibus approach to schedule changes that has been floated, but discussion...…Nov 25, 2019In this week’s installment, I want to quickly touch on a few topics from the last week.First, I want to revisit the concept of marginal contributions on the team level. Using a framework of marginal gains or losses is extremely helpful across the gamut of topics for analysis, as when we are trying to determine the “value” of a given player, team or strategy, it’s always relative. There are 1,230 wins to go around in an NBA season — . I’m perhaps too much of a traditionalist to be supportive of the sort of omnibus approach to schedule changes that has been floated, but discussion...WW…