NBA Levels: Yahoo Sports’ definitive placement of top players continues with Level 2, Robin Cosplaying as Batman

As the kids say, there are levels to this. Ranking players happens everywhere — barbershops, bars, family dinners — and especially on NBA media platforms. Arguments start and finish, be it historically or contemporarily, due to rankings.

Almost the big spade, so to speak.

So here at Yahoo Sports, we thought it would be fun to have rankings of our own. But we’re putting a bit of a twist on it. Numerical rankings are a bit weird, very arbitrary and kinda boring (comparing the 15th-best player to the eighth-best, blah).

But framing the conversations under the guise of championships, or potential champions seems more fun.

And that’s what this exercise is supposed to be, and that’s what it was. Everyone on the Yahoo Sports NBA staff had a vote — not just the writers. It’s important to note that nugget because it is a collaborative process here, editors included, who often have a different view than the writers on the ground.

Different, but still valuable.

There weren’t hard and fast rules but parameters we all wanted to stay within, for clarity for the voters and consistency for the readers.

Thirty-nine names.

Four categories.

Now, this isn’t some definitive ranking of the top 40 players in the NBA, although some could interpret it that way. From our standpoint, though, it is a definitive placement of players fitting into categories we all discuss:

• Can he be the best player on a title team, no questions asked?

• If not, who needs a little more help from his organization or coaching staff to get there?

• Who are the perfect side pieces, right behind those guys, the ones who can seemingly fit anywhere and contribute to winning, or those who are right on the doorstep of being a “bus driver”?

• Or, who needs a change of scenery before he can fit into the top three categories?

This isn’t a reflection of a player’s career accomplishments, or their individual trajectory. It’s simply about the next six-to-nine months. How healthy can you be? That factors in. How great are you when things start to break down, how close are you to getting over that hump or sliding down that hill?

So, every week between now and the season opener in late October, we’ll reveal who fits in what category — no, they won’t be numbered and clearly some players have a little more to give than others, even if they’re placed in the same box.

But there are only so many bus drivers in today’s game, which is where we will finish the exercise. By then, it should be fairly obvious who’s placed at the upper echelon.

Again, it is a fun, yet serious, exercise and we hope you enjoy Yahoo Sports’ levels. Let the arguing begin.

— Vincent Goodwill, senior NBA reporter

The Yahoo Sports NBA staff placed five players in Level 2 based on the following criteria: The player is the best player on a contender or an overqualified No. 2 player on a championship team.

Here is the alphabetical list of Level 2 players, followed by Yahoo Sports NBA writers’ commentary on why there aren’t more players at this level, whether that means there are fewer contending teams and/or fewer overqualified No. 2 players on championship teams, or whether having a superstar negates the need for a player at this level.

There’s a bit in Al Pacino’s big Oscar-bait monologue from “Any Given Sunday” that I found myself thinking about when we got these results. No, not the part about how coach Tony D’Amato chased off anyone who’s ever loved him and can’t even stand the face he sees in the mirror. (Good guess, though!)

It’s this: “The margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early, and you don’t quite make it. One half-second too slow, too fast, you don’t quite catch it.”

Such is life in the championship chase. Even the greatest to ever do it don’t win every year. It all has to line up just right: the opportunity, the competition, the supporting cast, the health, the dumb blind luck, everything … and just because it’s happened before, that doesn’t mean it’ll happen again.

LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard have both been the best players on championship teams — the definition of a Level 1 star. It’d be reasonable to give them the benefit of the doubt in thinking they could do it again; James, after all, just averaged nearly 25-10-7 in the playoffs through a torn foot tendon for a conference finalist, and Leonard just dueled Kevin Durant and Devin Booker to a standstill in a playoff series before suffering a torn meniscus. It’d also be reasonable, though, to consider the facts of the case: LeBron in Year 21, nearing age 39, with significant injuries in four of the last five seasons; Kawhi now 13 years removed from his draft, the poster board man of load management, the spurts of superhumanity increasingly overwritten by injuries and absences — and place them on the “half-step too late/half-second too slow” side of the line that separates the best of the best.

Jimmy Butler has been the best player on a team that’s made two Finals in four years and was the best performer on the floor in Finals games against James and Anthony Davis — the reason why Erik Spoelstra described that instant-meme screenshot of an utterly exhausted Butler slumped over in the bubble as “an image of a champion before you’re a champion.” Joel Embiid has been, at worst, one of the four best players on the planet for the last three regular seasons and just got a big ol’ trophy for being the very best. Could either of them be the leading man on a champion? Probably. Would you bet on it this season, though, with Miami striking out on its No. 1 target and Philadelphia dealing with another point guard who doesn’t want to be around anymore? Probably not. Again: small margins.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lives in the small margins — the sliver of space he needs to get to his stepback, the infinitesimal crevices he routinely squeezes through as he pitter-pats to the cup. After celebrating his All-NBA First Team selection by looking like the best player at the FIBA World Cup, he leads a Thunder team tipped by many as the pick to skyrocket up the standings, perhaps a contender in the making. But the making often requires patience; rotations as precocious as Oklahoma City’s, so heavily reliant on early-20s talent sans big-game scar tissue, don’t tend to linger long in the postseason.

Maybe Gilgeous-Alexander, for all his brilliance, is still a half-step too early for his moment. The optimist, though, looks at this list and imagines a world where those breaks do line up just right, where the road does rise to meet them, and where one of them — once again, or at long last — manages to be right on time.

Each of the players in this category are Level 2 for different reasons. LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard were certainly the best players on multiple championship teams and each was almost certainly the best player in the world for significant stretches. Joel Embiid, to me, is mired in Level 2 as opposed to being listed among the top tier of championship-caliber players simply because he has not carried the 76ers out of the second round of the playoffs. In contrast, I’m sure Jimmy Butler was knocked for his inability to lead Miami to the promised land, but I believe a perennial All-Star lifting his franchise to the conference finals every season and two Finals appearances in four seasons should qualify Butler for the top level of this project.

The last player in this group, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, simply hasn’t had the opportunity to stamp himself in the postseason as a bona fide title linchpin, but he seems like a sure, sure bet to do so eventually. Coming off a first-team All-NBA selection, SGA powered Team Canada to its first FIBA medal since 1936 this past summer at the World Cup. During that run, he outdueled Luka Dončić in a critical quarterfinals elimination game. I’d frankly be surprised after this season, when there’s expectation outside of Oklahoma City that the Thunder could leapfrog up the Western Conference standings, if Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t considered a lock for Level 1 entering the 2024-25 campaign.

Let’s start with the obvious. This is not a shot at LeBron James’ historical greatness or his Lakers tenure or even the 2020 championship. Playing 55 and 56 games the last two years makes it hard to put him in Level 1, but in moments he can be as impactful as anyone in his level or the level above. Being able to summon that greatness, particularly on both ends, for long stretches, is asking a lot at his age and mileage. And it’s hard to see him being healthier as he gets closer to 40. That’s probably the only reason he’s looking up as opposed to looking down from a throne.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will certainly turn some heads by his admission on the list, but he’s compiling a body of work that appears to support him making it. He won’t make another huge scoring leap, but if Oklahoma City is to elevate itself to true relevancy in the West, he’ll be spearheading it while the rest of the bunch matures on the fly.

Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard each feel like Level 1 guys but for different reasons. Butler’s playoff performances have elevated him to the doorstep of the Hall of Fame (seriously), but he could only elevate the undermanned Heat so far once they made it to the NBA Finals. Having enough in the tank, being a supreme shot creator and reliable 3-point shooter are all slight concerns.

With Leonard, his game is remarkable, but his reliability is not. He was a one-man wrecking crew against the Suns for a game and a half … and then he got hurt. And if LeBron’s health is a concern, Leonard has to be viewed similarly.

Unfortunately, Joel Embiid is an MVP, but it’s hard to ignore the dossier of playoff failures when considering him as a true leader on a title team. He’s not trending toward Karl Malone territory, but he’s certainly on the freeway. Better avoid that off-ramp.

I don’t know what’s more fascinating: LeBron James has finally been voted off the “best player on a title team” island, or in Year 21 he’s still capable of being “the best player on a contender.” The Lakers still need Anthony Davis to join James on this level in order to compete with the best. I had Davis there on my ballot, since we have seen him do it. He peaked on his own on the All-NBA First Team, carrying the Pelicans to no more than 48 wins and a spot in the second round of the playoffs, but as soon as he joined James, he fit seamlessly as an overqualified No. 2 on a championship team — and he is still somehow only 30 years old.

The rest of Level 2 mirrors my list, save for Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, both of whom I ranked here. We can debate, as others have, whether Durant drove the Warriors to back-to-back titles, but we have not seen him elevate a team anywhere near a championship since the injury to his Achilles. The closest he came was in 2021, when he missed half the season. James Harden and Kyrie Irving helped the Nets maintain a 55-win pace in the regular season, and when those guys were not 100%, Durant lost (by a big toe) in seven games to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks. Even Durant conceded he was not enough to carry the Nets.

“I had to play every minute for three straight games,” Durant clarified two seasons ago at age 33. “If you think I was going to do that for the next two rounds and win the championship, I mean s***, thank you.”

Booker was the best player on a team that reached the Finals that same season, when he was 24. He also was not good enough to outduel Antetokounmpo, but like the Lakers, if Booker and Durant both perform to a Level 2 degree, the Suns can absolutely win a title, and then we will decide who was the driving force.

The Yahoo Sports NBA staff placed 12 players in Level 3 based on the following criteria: The player is integral to winning a championship, but he can’t win on his own. He is an All-Star and/or an All-NBA-caliber player.

Here is the alphabetical list of Level 3 players, followed by Yahoo Sports NBA writers’ commentary on why these players’ games are solid, but why they need additional support and what else is needed for them to win a title.

No player ever wins a title on his own, really. Even Michael Jordan, for decades our sainted template for championship dominance, needed Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman to stay atop the mountain; in the NBA, no man is an island, no matter how often he works in isolation.

(Well, maybe James Harden in Houston.)

Even given that, though, an exercise like this reminds you just how much of NBA stardom lies in the eye of the beholder — the degree to which context shapes how we perceive players.

We’ve seen residents of Level 3 serve as full-fledged No. 2 options on title winners: Kyrie Irving in 2016, Anthony Davis in 2020, Jamal Murray just four months ago. We’ve seen them co-anchor Finals teams: Devin Booker in 2021, Jaylen Brown in 2022. We’ve seen them lead, if not carry, conference finalists: Damian Lillard in 2019, Paul George in 2021. (Remember: After Kawhi Leonard tore his ACL midway through Round 2, PG averaged 30-11-5.5 in 41.6 minutes per game the rest of the way — dauntless work in dire circumstances.)

Context ever so slightly dims their shine, whether because newer stars seem to burn brighter or because they’ve partnered with higher-wattage Hall of Famers. (Though LeBron James keeps trying to make “AD is the face of the franchise” happen, and Booker’s probably closer to eye-level with a 35-year-old Kevin Durant than some might think.) Would it shock you, though, to see any of them outperform “best supporting” status and step into the spotlight at this season’s most critical juncture?

Kyrie, maybe, if only because it’s been seven years since his Finals heroics and six since he last played 70 games in a season. But he’s also just two seasons removed from making All-NBA and just averaged 27-5-6 on 51/39/95 shooting splits after he got to Dallas. It’s not like he’s forgotten how to be one of the best three-level scorers alive. If the ball swings his way when it matters most, you can bet Irving won’t hesitate to let it fly; after all, he’s already seen it go in.

The trick, though, is getting to that moment. That’s where smaller guards — like Ja Morant, Donovan Mitchell and De’Aaron Fox, all of whom have made All-NBA and led high-seeded teams, but none of whom has made it past Round 2 — have fallen short in an era dominated by big wings and skilled bigs. Team USA standout Anthony Edwards is the former, with the game to get Minnesota over the hump … if he can just depend on the latter (Karl-Anthony Towns) as he tries to get Minnesota over the hump. Zion Williamson is sort of a Brundlefly hybrid of both, an unguardable marvel who could vault the Pelicans to the top of the West … if he could just stay healthy.

That, really, is how narrow the separation is from one level of acclaim to the next, how thin the line can be between “best player on a champion” and “elite complementary piece” — just two letters. If. If injury luck, seeding and a couple of breaks go your way, you could find yourself elevating to the upper echelon. If they don’t … supporting actors make a lot of money and get trophies, too.

On the surface, Devin Booker fits the bill for this level perfectly. A younger All-Star, who’s welcomed a bona fide championship alpha dog to help lead his franchise to the promised land. Booker, though, is so much more than that.

He is a lap ahead of Ja Morant, Zion Williamson and Anthony Edwards in terms of young stars driving postseason success. Booker was the leading scorer on a team that came two wins shy of the title in 2021. He was Phoenix’s leading scorer during a tough series against eventual champion Denver, when Kevin Freaking Durant was launching right beside him. Now that Bradley Beal’s arrived in the desert, perhaps a three-headed monster can ironically indicate just how capable Booker truly is all on his own.

There are a couple players I ranked higher than this grouping, although I fully understand why in the aggregate they’re here: Anthony Davis’ longevity, which no one seems to trust, or Zion Williamson, another player with whom we all have earned trust issues. Williamson is intriguing because apparently, he’s finally taking the proper approach to his conditioning and preparation — funny how that was missed in the rookie handbook, but we digress. He was a one-man wrecking crew even before getting himself right, giving glimpses of an MVP player before his body or himself failed the Pelicans yet again.

In a year, one would be shocked to see Anthony Edwards still planted as a supporting actor, because he should make a huge jump this coming season. Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell fit perfectly into this space. Brown, because he’s reliable even with his flaws and made himself into a No. 2 behind Jayson Tatum, which makes the Celtics a bona fide title contender. Mitchell is an explosive scorer, but how he fits with the Cavs for the time being is interesting as their best player. Is there another leap in him or will someone else take the mantle to elevate the Cavs from competence to prominence? Also: If Detroit’s Cade Cunningham isn’t on this list this time next year, something went terribly wrong.

Jamal Murray is this level’s poster child, and it’s remarkable that someone who has never made an All-Star Game is so clearly a No. 2 on a title team. This remains unfathomable: Four players have averaged a 26-5-7 on the road to a championship, and they are LeBron James (2016 and 2020), Michael Jordan (1991) and now both Nikola Jokić and Murray. Scottie Pippen was a Hall of Fame wingman to Jordan. Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis have ridden this level to 15 combined All-Star bids, and that bodes well for Murray’s career trajectory.

We can legitimately argue whether Irving, who has undermined the championship odds of rosters boasting James, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant and Luka Dončić in seven seasons since being a best supporting actor on a title team, still belongs on this level, but it is more fun to debate who could climb from this category.

Anthony Edwards (only 22 years old), Zion Williamson (29 games played over the last two seasons) and Ja Morant (suspended 25 games to start the 2023-24 season) could all take the next step up and be on conference finals contenders by season’s end, but there’s a real chance Devin Booker (33.7 points per game on 59/51/87 shooting splits in last year’s playoffs) could be the No. 1 player on a championship team when all is said and done in 2024.

The Yahoo Sports NBA staff placed 16 players in Level 4 based on the following criteria: The player does something really well like a specialist or the player could be a trade away from being on a contending team.

Here is the alphabetical list of Level 4 players, followed by Yahoo Sports NBA writers’ commentary on the decisions, what surprised them and what players in this category are a trade away from contention.

Aaron Gordon and Andrew Wiggins were missing pieces for champions. Derrick White served a very similar purpose for consecutive final-four Celtics teams, and now starts for a favorite. Golden State and Memphis bet big on Chris Paul and Marcus Smart, respectively, to complete their pictures. Yet, none wound up on Level 4.

Two who did have played that role in the past: Draymond Green, whose insertion into the Warriors’ starting five ignited a dynasty, and Jrue Holiday, whose arrival solidified the Bucks’ floor enough for them to reach their ceiling. (Now that Milwaukee has changed over to Dame Time and Portland is building around a young guard core, the Celtics hope to make Holiday the missing piece of their puzzle.) The Suns wagered that Bradley Beal could make that kind of difference for them; after pocket-passing Joel Embiid to the MVP, James Harden wants to provide similar service in Los Angeles (ideally without another early-round flameout).

If things go south in Chicago, Zach LaVine (on a monster deal for the next four years, but arguably more productive and efficient than Beal for the past four) and DeMar DeRozan (still a premier isolation, inside-the-arc offensive engine) could be killer additions for teams in need of perimeter punch. Ditto for Brandon Ingram, though I’d be surprised if New Orleans moved him with two fully guaranteed years left on his deal — especially with injuries limiting him, Zion Williamson and C.J. McCollum to a measly 10 games and 172 minutes together. You’ve got to get to actually see it, you know?

Pascal Siakam, to me, is the most compelling: someone who’s been a killer complementary piece on a title winner and an All-NBA primary option on a playoff team, who can play off high-usage ball-handlers and defend across the positional spectrum. There’s been plenty of smoke this summer connecting him to Atlanta, home of Trae Young — maybe the league’s leader in Your Mileage May Vary.

A bona fide pick-and-roll genius regarded as perhaps the sport’s worst individual defender, Young’s specificities require constructing the whole operation around him; it’s almost impossible to imagine just dropping him into someone else’s set of circumstances. But he’s also one of the scant few dudes we’ve actually seen be the best player on a conference finalist. Maybe the One Big Trade that Young is from contending doesn’t include trading him.

For the most part, though? Prime-age players on long-term nine-figure deals, plus a pair of jewel-of-the-superstar-trade pieces you’d have to pry from their GM’s cold, dead hands. A kōan: Are you still a missing piece if you’ve already been found?

My interpretation of this tier is that any team acquiring one of these players would surely have expectations of contending for a championship if they landed him. That’s certainly what the Kings hoped the upside was for swapping Tyrese Haliburton for Domantas Sabonis, and what Atlanta would think if it ever does bring Pascal Siakam to the Hawks — both guys I personally ranked higher in this exercise.

A lot of the Levels project was drawing the line of demarcation between absolute franchise superstars and everyone else, then functionally grouping everyone else. It does somewhat mirror how front offices of contending teams evaluate talent. Any club trading for a player in this tier is pushing its chips in like Phoenix plucking Bradley Beal. That’s how James Harden views himself as a potential missing piece for the Clippers. If the Bulls continue to linger well below the Eastern Conference hierarchy, it would be fascinating to see which teams might try and swipe DeMar DeRozan for additional postseason playmaking.

This level was so hard to peg. Even guys you weren’t really sure fit in the first three levels on the floor but talent-wise they did, could they belong here? That’s why the most controversial pick on my list, Karl-Anthony Towns, made it. If you squinted, if he were transitioned to another team with high-level talent and higher accountability, could he be a stretch four who got on the block and rebounded, too? Maybe, no?

But it’s also, and more importantly, a spot where a guy like Draymond Green thrives. It’s also a spot where Jrue Holiday turned the Bucks from perpetual underachievers to actual champions, and presumably, he’s still capable of doing that. Green is more high-maintenance but when he’s right, he’s everything you want: a hole filler on offense and an absolute hell raiser on defense — and other places, if you’re not careful. Holiday could be just as impactful for the Boston Celtics as Damian Lillard, the player he was moved for.

These guys generally make good teams better, while some other players need a change of scenery or a change in role, possibly taking up too much oxygen and usage to be truly effective. The hard task is figuring out who’s underqualified and who’s overqualified for the roles they currently occupy.

It surprised me to see Aaron Gordon left outside of Level 4, since he is the player who jumped to my mind when envisioning this category. Treading water in Orlando, Gordon’s ceiling soared in Denver, where his ability to defend any position and space the floor as both a lob and 3-point threat perfectly complemented Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. Gordon bullied Miami from the jump in the Finals, and he left no doubt as to whether he could be the third-best player on a title team.

I was just as surprised to see Trae Young and James Harden qualify for this category. In theory, Young is an upgrade from Austin Reaves for the Lakers or Harden eases the burden on Kawhi Leonard and Paul George for the Clippers. In practice, what evidence suggests either accepts the kind of tertiary table-setting role necessary to elevate those teams into serious contention? Situation in the NBA is everything, except when your brand of basketball dictates the situation.

How we did it

Nine Yahoo Sports writers, editors and producers submitted ballots with their individual player placements in four levels. Players were assigned points based on the level they were placed on each ballot to determine overall level placement. Players had to appear on the majority of ballots to be considered for this project.

Players were not ranked numerically in each level nor in the overall project. Instead, they were assigned a level based on the aggregate voting. Each level has a varied number of players for a total of 39 players making the project.

Each Monday in October, Yahoo Sports will unveil one level. We started with the bottom level and will make our way to the most elite players over the next four weeks. For more discussion on each level, listen to the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast every Monday.