With NBA training camps starting next week, the annual attempts at ranking players is upon us. But rather than attempting to rank the entire league — a task that is both impossible and unnecessary — the folks over at CBS Sports have set out to rank the Top 100 players, a little less than a quarter of the league. But they’ve broken out their Top 100 players by position before releasing their overall ranking, with five Trail Blazers making the list in their respective categories.
Considering the most recent season the Trail Blazers endured, having a version of their starting lineup (at least if you squint a little) making the Top 100 seems rather even-handed. Observe…
Last season was a wash for Lillard, so let’s all remember how magical he was in 2020-21 when he led the league with 162 clutch points on 51-percent shooting, resulting in a plus-100 clutch point differential for the Blazers. Over Lillard’s last two full seasons he has averaged 28 and 30 points, respectively, and now the Blazers have equipped him with a much better defensive support system.
Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Ja Morant are the only point guards ranked ahead of Lillard, respectively, with Trae Young, Chris Paul, James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Kyrie Irving and Jamal Murray all coming in behind Lillard. There’s no position in the NBA more talented than point guard, and it’s not particularly close.
• Next up, shooting guard, the one position in which the Trail Blazers have multiple players on CBS Sports’ rankings. First, Gary Payton II, signed as a free agent this offseason after winning a championship last year with the Warriors, starts off the shooting guard rankings at No. 22…
Payton went from a partially guaranteed contract to a key piece of the Warriors’ 2022 championship. It netted him a financial-future-securing three-year, $26 million deal with the Blazers this summer. Portland is getting a defensive ace who’s an elite positional rebounder, floor runner and half-court cutter. Payton isn’t a self-creating scorer by any means (83 percent of his buckets were assisted last season), but he will make the absolute most of every touch he gets, registering a 99th percentile 134.9 points per 100 shot attempts last season, per Cleaning the Glass.
If you are who you defend, you could probably rank GP2 at forward just as easily as guard, but most of these positional distinctions have gotten pretty loose in today’s NBA. Either way, good to see Payton II make the list, where he comes in behind Derrick White at No. 19, Buddy Hield at no. 20 and Jalen Green at No. 21.
Ten spots down the list, one of Payton’s new teammates, Anfernee Simons, who also signed a lucrative free agent contract this offseason, comes in at No. 12…
Simons can score in bunches, and he can do it at all three levels. Like CJ McCollum before him, he’ll start and close games at the 2 next to Damian Lillard and run point when Lillard rests. He was one of the most improved players in the NBA last season, and the next step is continuing to round out his game: maintain the lights-out efficiency from the perimeter, get to the line more often, and improve as an on-ball defender. All the guys who handled the sort of defensive attention that Simons saw last season are stars.
Not a bad ranking for Simons, although I suspect he’ll at least be in the top 10 come this time next year. Ant comes in ahead of Bogdan Bogdanovic at No. 15, Norman Powell at no. 14 and Seth Curry at No. 13 while coming in right behind Jordan Poole at No. 9, Gary Trent Jr. at No. 10 and Tyler Herro at no. 11. And Devin Booker takes the top spot among shooting guards.
Grant has played small forward for a lot of his career, but in the modern NBA he profiles as an incredibly versatile four who can stretch to the 3-point line, defend multiple positions and create his own offense when necessary. He’ll be tasked with less bucket-getting now that he’s flanking Damian Lillard in Portland, and should be able to slide back into a more involved version of the role in which he excelled in Denver. His prowess as a spot-up shooter and isolation defender should serve the Blazers well.
Grant is easily the best power forward on Portland’s roster since LaMarcus Aldridge, so yes, that should serve the Blazers well.
Grant comes in ahead of Aaron Gordon at No. 15, Julius Randle at no. 14, Dorian Finney-Smith at no. 13, John Collins at no. 12 and Tobias Harris at no. 11. He’s immediately behind Evan Mobley at No. 9, Jaren Jackson Jr. at No. 8 and Draymond Green at No. 7, with Giannis Antetokounmpo taking the top spot.
• Finally, we arrive at the centers, where Jusuf Nurkic, fresh off playing at EuroBasket 2022 with Bosnia & Herzegovina, comes in at No. 19…
Nurkic’s ranking as the 19th-best center on our list is a bit deceiving; he can be a lot more effective than that suggests. He’s a limited drop defender and can be pretty sloppy with the ball from time to time, but he’s a huge body who averaged 15 and 11 last season while posting 1.19 points per possession as a roll man, per Synergy. When the Blazers aren’t going small this season, Nurkic — who signed a four-year, $70 million extension this summer — has to play big for them to have a shot at a decent playoff seed.
Nurkic is ahead of Bobby Portis at No. 22, Wendell Carter Jr. at No. 21 and Jakob Poeltl and behind Jonas Valanciunas at No. 18, Kevon Looney at no. 17 and Christian Wood at No. 16 with Nikola Jokic taking the top spot.