Having Gilmore, Payton, Nash, Ewing and Kawhi Leonard left, I have to drop Kawhi. He has a good argument for Top 36 based primarily on his 2 FMVPs and his 20 playoff Win Shares and 10 playoff VORP. That said, however, he will enter April with under 85 Win Shares. He has never been MVP. His best MVP placements are 2-3-5-9-10. He is a 5x all-star and 2x first-team All-NBA.
He would be at or near the very bottom of the Top 36 in virtually every regular season category I look at. When I look at someone like Gary Payton - Kawhi is a better per-minute player, but he has 60 fewer Win Shares, 4 fewer all-star seasons, the same number of first team All-NBAs, and Gary has 9x first-team all-defense to Leonard's 3.
The most comparable player, if Leonard stopped playing today, would be Willis Reed (MVP, 2 FMVPs 75 Win Shares). And I just hate going backwards on a guy. When I put Curry "in" in 2018, he had 2 MVPs, two titles and 93 WS. He had a superior resume to Leonard's by a little, and he really almost did not make it in 2018.
So - Leonard is out.
We have 37 left. The 36 from 2018 and Artis Gilmore. So I need to take the next 3 days and see if Gilmore should be in and one of Payton/Nash/Ewing should be out.
We may end up with the exact same Top 36 as 2018, just re-ranked. I couldn't add Kawhi (think Reed) or Westbrook (think Iverson), or Giannis (think young McAdoo), or Anthony Davis (think Neil Johnston or Dolph Schayes).
This is not to say that these 4 guys cannot add 30 Win Shares and some All-NBAs and titles by April 2024, but they are just not there yet. There is no shame in being a top 40-50-60 player for now. Your goal ought to be to earn your spot, not be given it in the hopes that you can prove yourself later.
HM
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