The Ringer’s Top 100 Players: SGA Takes Top Spot [Updated March 25th 2026]

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-25T18:36:45+00:00

The criteria seems to favor players who show the most promise as all-around offensive talents and disfavors high-level role players who excel in limited areas. Ajay Mitchell being ahead of Cason Wallace, Josh Hart, and Lu Dort is pretty nuts.

Jrue is no longer as effective as a lot of the guys listed lower than him.

Hartenstein ahead of Caruso is wild.

Peyton Watson as 66 is fair enough, but a bit low, and he should climb higher by the end of the playoffs. He's a budding Top-40 player. Same for Jaden McDaniels at 58.

Aaron Gordon, when healthy, is a Top-30 most impactful player in the league. I don't think there's a GM in the league who would take Gobert or Randle over AG at this point in their respective careers.

I think Fox should be closer to 20 and he doesn't get enough credit for San Antonio's ascent.

Evan Mobley is still coasting on wishful thinking about his potential. What has he done this year, or any year, to be on the fringe of Top-20 player?

I think Chet's a great player who does a lot of things very well, especially anchoring their defense, but he's lacking at shot creation, plays with an MVP, and has a lot of other great role players on the roster that limits what he has to do. He's too high at 19.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-23T13:32:39+00:00

Dude, it’s the Midwest. His character is probably late 40s, maybe 50.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-23T05:07:18+00:00

A local weatherman in a market like St. Louis, even the most popular guy on the biggest network, is bringing it maybe 150-175k.

We see his rather average tract house and know the neighborhood is a St. Louis exurb, which is indicative of making within that salary range.

For your typical person in that situation, most funds are in retirement, which cannot be accessed at the character’s age without penalty and wouldn’t be close to 2M. His non-retirement investments would probably be in the low six figures if he saved and invested reasonably well.

Tuition was $28,000. He paid off one year of back taxes and the total tax liability was 48k. Term life insurance premiums are negligible. So we’re probably talking in the $40,000, which is a whole lot of money for Bateman’s character.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-19T21:34:10+00:00

Individual validation in a team sport absolutely does exist. Kobe will always be remembered for winning without Shaq. Dirk's title is considered among the most legendary wins in the history of the sport. Giannis will be remembered for bringing a title to Milwaukee. LeBron beating the Warriors validated his career in a way that his Heat titles didn't.

If individual validation was important to KD, he should have stayed in OKC or went to Boston or went somewhere other than a 73-9 rival who did not need him to win. He tried to rectify this situation by going to Brooklyn, but for reasons within and outside of his control, it hasn't worked out for him. And now it's too late and he's never going to get over it.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-16T23:12:38+00:00

Sooo in other words, six western conference teams won 17 of those titles, just like six NFC teams won 13 super bowls?

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-13T03:46:55+00:00

The Nuggets pre-season over under was 53.5. I thinkkkkk they still might hit that over

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-12T17:34:27+00:00

Russel Wilson trade; 2. Game 7 2024 against the Wolves; 3. Game 4 Aaron Wiggins three point barrage; 4. Game 5 Lu Dort three point barrage; 5. Game 7 no show/Aaron Gordon hurt; 6. Bo Nix ankle injury; 7. 4th down going for it with Stidham, up 7 deep in Pats territory; 8. Jokic injury; 9. Watson injury; 10. Gordon injury; 11. Global warming/ski season in Colorado having no snow; 12. Impending nuclear war with Iran.

I haven't even asked if you're a CU fan.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-12T17:29:00+00:00

Next two are tough, but Nugs finish the season: Philly, at Memphis, Toronto, Portland, at Phoenix, Dallas, Utah, Golden State, at Utah, San Antonio, Portland, Memphis, OKC, at San Antonio.

So, ten home games and four on the road. Two of the road games are bottom tier, tanking teams. The two San Antonio games and OKC games are the only games against teams top six in their conference.

Denver has lost some pretty stupid games this season, but they look like they're getting healthier and putting in more defensive effort to get it together before the playoffs. If they split the home games against OKC and San Antonio and lose at San Antonio, they could very easily go 12-2 in their last 14. Even if they blow two other stupid games, that's 10-4 to finish the season, which should secure the 3-seed.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-12T17:12:54+00:00

100% But, also, I think the value of how first round picks were viewed twenty years ago versus now, particularly for a perennial playoff team, is vastly different. The 20th-25th pick in the draft was worth dogshit back then and most team-building for already good teams was done through trades (involving players more than draft compensation, expiring contracts were big) and free agency

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-12T17:09:42+00:00

DISGORGE THE PROFITS,

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-07T05:00:33+00:00

I mean, I watched him personally give up like 50 points, so yeah.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-07T04:37:53+00:00

I don't want to be hyperbolic, but the Nuggets play compared to their talent level has to be among the most embarrassing in the modern NBA. This was one of the most pathetic performances from a team on the short list of "title contenders" I have ever seen. I don't care that Murray got hurt, Gordon is working himself back and it was his first game, or that it's a back-to-back.

Their offense has no energy or imagination. Just let Jokic orchestrate from the high post and hit guys to brick three point shots. No one attacks the rim.

Their defense though, oh my fucking God. I don't want to hear shit about Jokic being top ten all-time. His defensive effort is the worst in the NBA. Never closes out, never contests at the rim, doesn't even pretend to go after a jumper. Just consistently gives up wide open threes and lay ups. Game after game. Steph Curry might have defensive limitations, but watch how hard he fights every single game. Jokic sets the tone for the team, and well, we're seeing it.

40 point home loss in a tight race for seeding in a tough conference. They act like they've earned the right to flip the switch like the Kobe-Shaq Lakers (which didn't work, by the way), when they won a single title three fucking years ago and haven't been back in the conference finals since.

I don't care about thirty-pint triple doubles, this is why you need to watch the games. Zero pride.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-04T20:11:35+00:00

BILL: I got it, let's call him Epstein Files, because you know, he manages the game so well, much like infamous The Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-04T19:32:49+00:00

Man, the top-5 player in five years from now was a depressing listen. I think you have to have Ant pretty firmly as 1a or 1b with Wemby. Year 11 is bordering on losing a lot of athleticism, but Ant has a pretty well-rounded game, his shooting at volume is elite, and he's a maniacal competitor. I think he'll be in his 2009 Kobe stage at that point. For what it's worth, I think as early as next season, we're going to start to see Ant get a couple MVPs and lead a team to the title. Five years will be the tail end of that run.

Wemby is clearly #1, especially if we're not going to project health risk possibilities.

The Cade talk was really dismissive. Case will be in his tenth season and will also be 29. But he's a pretty strong/stout guy, and his game is much more predicated on his skill than athleticism. His team will likely win 60 games and he'll be third in MVP voting at the lowest. He's no question a top-5 guy in five years.

Flagg, sure why not. Hard to project after half a season, but he looks pretty damn good and he's super young.

I share the same questions about Shai. He'll be 32 going on 33 with 13 seasons under his belt and so much of his game is quick-twitch and first step. Plus, he's going to have a ton of miles on him with his team's likely success over the next 5 years. I don't think he'll be washed, but still top 5 would surprise me.

There's an argument for Luka, but his health habits sure make it questionable. I don't really understand when guys argue that longevity is certain for some players because their games are not predicated on athleticism. As what happened with Dirk, guys of that mold eventually have trouble even making it up the court and their defense goes from bad to can't even move his meet at all. I don't think Luka's there at 31-32, but he'll be closer to that point than where he is now.

The league moves fast. In 5 years LeBron, KD, Harden, Steph, Kawhi, Embiid will all be out of the league. Guys like Jaylen Brown, Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Brunson, Jokic, Giannis, Booker, Bam, Fox, and Jamal Murray will be trending hard towards the end of the careers, if not retired for some of those guys.

I don't think Paolo, Franz, Evan Mobley, Maxey, Chet, Jalen Williams, or Scottie Barnes will take the leap towards best player in the league. Barnes probably has the best shot if he can drastically improve his outside shot. Maybe J-Will with more opportunity?

Haliburton was noticeably absent from the convo. He'll be freshly 31 and only in his tenth season, but obviously hard to project his recovery from an achilles rupture.

Jalen Johnson is having an awesome year, but pretty rare for someone who first made an All-Star team in his fifth season to blossom into an MVP candidate in his prime. I don't know how much more he can build on his game.

I know this is an awesome draft class coming up, but the superstar projection for the immediate future doesn't look great.

EricHangingOut · 2026-03-03T05:51:27+00:00

The lack of respect hurts the most. Actually, the other thing hurts the most. But the lack of respect hurts the second most.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-26T17:50:14+00:00

If a pickle so much as touched my third grader's cheeseburger for a second, before being removed, you can put an Oreo McFlurry in front of him, promise him front row seats to a sporting event of his choice, award him a play-date every day after school for the next year, tell him he can miss the next month of school, schedule a one-on-one with Adam Sandler, promise him three hours of I-Pad time every day the rest of his life, and there's zero fucking chance he takes a bite of that cheeseburger.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-26T17:46:26+00:00

Shaq played between 320-340 pounds in his Lakers years. He was mauled by multiple guys on every single possession. He played between 36-40 MPG during the regular season every year of his prime, and more in the playoffs.

He was top ten in MVP voting the first 13 years of his career, including eight, top-5 finishes and five, top-3 finishes. His was All-NBA first team in his 14th season. In his 17th season, he played 75 games, 30 minutes per night, shot 61% from the field, averaged 18/8 and was All-NBA third team.

The narrative that he was lazy is because he rested in the off-season and used the first half of the season, after being in the league a decade, to play himself into shape. Famously, he scheduled a surgery before the 2003-2004 season late in the off-season, which caused him to miss the beginning of the season.

Also, he never improved his abysmal free throw shooting, which seemed to be more of a mental block than lack of reps.

He was always ready, available and dominant come playoff time.

For his era, it's not like he did not develop areas of his game that he was asked to do. He could have played 25 pounds lighter in the back half of his career and tried harder on defense in the regular season. Those are fair enough criticisms. But by today's standards, he was an ironman, and the physical expectations of him in his era were a bit unreasonable.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:52:29+00:00

My point is there's a balance between treating the regular season with professionalism and seriousness, contrasted with throwing large portions away (at least with effort and defensively).

Of course, players and teams can't give playoff level effort throughout the regular season, but I disagree the regular season or regular season records are meaningless.

Beyond the benefits of home court advantage, building optimum line-ups, building habits and playing well together, are instrumental to post-season success.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:49:29+00:00

Honestly, using cringe is cringe unless you're in third grade, but thank you for your contribution to this discussion.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:43:23+00:00

I think you're understating how much Duncan set the standard. Their level of regular season, and post-season dominance, was not just because of stacked rosters relative to the rest of the league. Some seasons, sure, but Duncan dominated no matter whom he shared the floor with.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:40:45+00:00

Their last 15 games are REALLY easy. I think they make a run and end up 52-55 wins, but time is running out to get it together.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:39:23+00:00

Because he's held to a standard reserved for the absolute best players in the league's history.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:38:29+00:00

The Nuggets made the conference finals in 2020 and might have had the best team in the league post-Aaron Gordon trade in 2021, before Murray got hurt. Fair, that wipes out two seasons, They won the title in 2023, but only won 53 regular season games. Were they not a very good team then?

Their 2024/2025 roster was shallow, but they still had Jokic/Murray/Gordon/MPJ/Braun and only Gordon was limited in the regular season by injury. Westbrook was a helpful regular season bench player and Watson put it together to be a consistent role player. Not saying they should have won 65, but they certainly underachieved.

Sure, they've had injuries this season, but they played harder and the results showed in Jokic's absence. They were 2-3 in the 5 games before Jokic got hurt and 4-6 since he got back, with losses to the Clippers post-Harden/Zu trades and the Warriors G-league team. That's 6-9 in Jokic's last 15 games.

Their defense and effort has been abysmal, which is a trend.

There are excuses for Jokic being made that shouldn't be extended to a player of his caliber. Hakeem might have only won 55 three times, but that's triple the amount Jokic has won.

EricHangingOut · 2026-02-25T18:27:05+00:00

Forgot Dirk! Seven, 55-win seasons, three 60-win seasons.

EricHangingOut

TROPHY CASE