This article is part of our Rankings & Tiers series, an evaluation across sport about the key players, front offices, teams, franchises and much more.

Player Tiers 2025: Tier 5 | Tier 4 | Tier 3 | Tier 2

This is the tier that we’ve all been building toward, but we also gave everyone the ground floor to the top of the pyramid. As Kevin Durant said, you know who these players are.

Tier 1 in this project has always been a short list of the most impactful players — basically, the All-NBA First Team. I have maintained that spirit, but I also wanted to expand this list to get to 10 players. Instead of this being an exclusive tier, it’s more inclusive in that these players are all first-team-caliber players, even if they’re not necessarily on the first team for All-NBA.

While everyone knows who these Tier 1 players are, there are levels to where those players stand, and even these players have weaknesses or shortcomings that leave them short of perfection. Many things can befall a Tier 1 player; it’s not like their status is guaranteed to stay in this spot forever. What are you capable of now, and how can you reasonably impact winning over the next year? That is what we are determining.

I certainly valued establishing a round number for this tier as to what kind of players you’d want to build a potential championship team around. I can understand how others would cut that off. But in general, this is the group I think of when it comes to the best combinations of size, skill, production, consistency and impact.

For a little suspense, in this tier, we’ll work our way from bottom to top.

If you were to say that Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama are Tier 2 players, I wouldn’t necessarily debate that. There may be a little bit of putting the cart before the horse here, especially when it comes to playoff performance. Edwards has played in only one conference semifinal in his career, while Wembanyama has yet to play in an NBA game with any stakes. Their status as Tier 1 players is a projection more than a reality. But we also have seen some real indications in NBA settings that they could take this league over in the short-term future.

Edwards has the kind of positional size (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) and athleticism that gives him advantages simply getting off the bus. He combines those physical gifts with elite availability, as he played in every game as a rookie, missed 10 games in his second season, then nine combined over the last three. Only Mikal Bridges, Buddy Hield and Georges Niang have played in more games than Edwards since the 2020 NBA Draft, when Edwards was selected first. Only Bridges has played more total minutes in that span. And only Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić have scored more points than Edwards since the Georgia native entered the league.

This season saw Edwards be one of the best pick-and-roll ballhandler scorers in the league, and even though he’s not as dangerous in isolation, he still is effective at scoring without ball screens as well. Per Synergy, the only other player in the NBA this season who ranked in the top five in total points scored as a pick-and-roll ballhandler and as an isolation scorer was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Even though Edwards is a shooting guard, the Timberwolves play through him the way the Houston Rockets played through James Harden when the Beard first got traded from Oklahoma City.

Also like Harden, Edwards has decided that he’s going to unapologetically shoot 3s, leading the league in makes and attempts while shooting just under 40 percent. He averaged a 3-pointer made per quarter this season. Harden didn’t approach 4.0 3s made per game until his 10th NBA season. Stephen Curry didn’t until his seventh, when he turned 28.

Sticking with the Harden comparison, the playmaking is where Edwards continues to develop. He’s a decent passer, but his overall decision-making has room for improvement. A 1.43 assist-turnover ratio isn’t terrible, but especially in the postseason, Edwards will be challenged to beat teams while making plays for others more often.

It’s the same thing with Edwards’ defense: He’s acceptable on that end, and often good. But his offensive workload is always going to keep him from being at a physical peak on defense, so it will be interesting to see how his engagement to be consistently locked in mentally progresses.

At least Edwards has been to the postseason to understand where he needs to continue growing. Wembanyama’s quest to at least get the Spurs to Play-In Tournament territory was cut short by his deep vein thrombosis, ending his season after he made his All-Star debut.

San Antonio had only a 21-25 record with Wembanyama on the court this season. We aren’t even at the point where a team with Wembanyama can win in the regular season, to say nothing of the playoffs.

He has a ton of room left for improvement offensively. He attempted only 4.1 free throws per game while making only 47.6 percent of his shots from the field. That relatively low field goal percentage is more of an indication of just how much he selects shots outside of the paint despite his 7-foot-3 frame. He is very good inside! He makes 75.4 percent of his shots in the restricted area and 50.5 percent of his shots in the paint outside of the restricted area. But only about 36 percent of his field goal attempts came in the paint.

Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with Wembanyama’s ability to shoot. He has made over 80 percent of his free throws for his career. He improved to 35.2 percent from 3, and that’s with some audacious range and the ability to shoot off the dribble; he made 37.7 percent of his 3s off the catch. Wembanyama shows a third level as a scorer, making 57 midrange field goal attempts in 46 games while hitting 40 percent of those non-paint 2s. In all 12 of his 30-point games this season, he made at least four 3-pointers.

Shooting jump shots isn’t a bad thing. It’s the same thing with Edwards; being able to get hot from 3 at that size gives Wembanyama an infinite ceiling. He just has to play with more force to explore that ceiling more often. Also like Edwards, Wembanyama is a decent passer who can still stand to improve in his playmaking and decision-making. Unlike Edwards, the Spurs have point guards who they primarily play through, bringing on Chris Paul to start all season before acquiring De’Aaron Fox in February. Wembanyama doesn’t have a pathway toward leading the Spurs in touches just yet.

The reason I am so bullish on Wembanyama now, though, is because his defensive impact is out of this world. He nearly won Defensive Player of the Year as a rookie, and was in contention again before his season-ending condition. He’s a feared rim protector while blocking nearly a shot per quarter. He has active hands, averaging 1.1 steals per game, and he has a Tim Duncan-like ability to avoid fouls while being a shot blocker. In 117 games, Wembanyama has 430 blocks and only 258 personal fouls. He also has two 10-block games.

When Wembanyama was on the floor, the Spurs held offenses to 110.0 points per 100 possessions. That’s a top-five rating for a team. With Wembanyama off the floor, San Antonio has allowed 118.3 points per 100 possessions. That’s a bottom-five defense this season.

Wembanyama hasn’t done all that he needs to do to be a true lock in this tier. But he already has shown that he makes a team competitive, and he has a size/skill intersection that can unlock unforeseen possibilities as he continues to gain experience and have better teammates around him. I’m much more comfortable being early on Wembanyama than I am putting players who don’t have anywhere close to his potential in this spot.

What are we calling this? OGs? Friends & Rivals? Banana Split?

Ten years ago, Steph Curry won his first MVP award and led the Golden State Warriors to the first of era-defining championships. At the time, Kevin Durant was a year removed from his MVP award. Perhaps some knew that LeBron James was done winning MVP awards already, but he still had NBA Finals MVP awards to obtain.

That was then, and I’ve said often that this is not a lifetime achievement award, so let’s be brutally honest about where Curry, Durant and James are in 2025: They each need help, and they absolutely have felt the pain of not having enough of it in recent years.

Curry’s Warriors were 46-36 in 2023-24, but in the Western Conference, that was only good enough to be the 10th seed. The year before, the Warriors had a worse record (44-38) but were the sixth seed as a defending champion. The 2022 Warriors championship netted Curry an elusive NBA Finals MVP, but that year has been the outlier since Durant left the franchise in 2019. Even with Curry getting a much-needed star on his timeline in Jimmy Butler III, his team was back in the Play-In Tournament in 2025.

Curry is 37 and, most critically, only 6-2 and 185 pounds. He needs to be protected defensively, though he did his part to participate in Golden State’s defensive strength by collecting 1.1 steals per game this season, a three-year high. Even offensively, there are areas where Curry is relatively mortal. He averages only 4.3 free-throw attempts per game, which ranked 32nd in the NBA this season, even though his 18.0 field goal attempts ranked 15th. Curry’s assists bounced back to 6.0 per game after they dropped to a career-low 5.1 per game a year ago while being Chris Paul’s teammate. But Curry always has split playmaking duties to a significant extent with Draymond Green.

Curry is here because he is still the most feared shooter in basketball. Edwards took the 3-point totals crown, but Curry led the NBA in 3-point volume on a per-game basis. Despite the advancing age, Curry put together back-to-back 70-game seasons for the first time since 2017. And Curry’s scoring and efficiency took a leap after the All-Star break with Butler in tow. The last time Curry was in the playoffs, he averaged a postseason career-high 30.5 points. He’s still a major problem when he has the support around him.

Durant is not a point guard like Curry. That’s always been the weakest part of his offensive impact, and under Mike Budenholzer this season, Durant averaged a 10-year low 4.2 assists per game. Listed at 6-11, 240 pounds, Durant has the size of many centers. He even averages 1.2 blocks. But Durant defends forwards, not centers, and he just averaged his fewest defensive rebounds in 16 years. Phoenix was a bottom-five defense in 2025.

Rumors are swirling about Durant’s future, and wherever he plays next, his best fit is at power forward, so that it minimizes the physicality that comes with playing center while not having to chase perimeter players. Durant has not led his team in touches per game since Second Spectrum started tracking in 2013. He’s a first-option bucket getter — and still one of the most lethal players when it comes to four-level scoring: paint, midrange, 3s and getting to the free-throw line. Thirteen players averaged at least 25 points per game this season; the only other player besides Durant to make more than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3 was Jokić.

Phoenix went 33-29 in Durant’s games. That win percentage still would have been good for only ninth in the West over 82 games. But the Suns lost 17 of the 20 games Durant missed. Make no mistake, they wasted Durant this year.

James can relate somewhat to Durant’s challenges in Phoenix. Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause put Durant’s Suns in jail at the February trade deadline, but you may recall another member of the 2021 Wizards having a contract that made team-building difficult around one of the faces of the game.

Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double for that Wizards team and had a player option for 2022 worth $47.1 million. The Lakers acquired him from the Wizards shortly after the 2021 NBA Draft, the first part of silly roster building from the Lakers as they surrounded James, Westbrook and Anthony Davis with unplayable big men and a severe lack of shooting. Making matters worse, Davis missed 42 games and James missed 26. The Lakers finished 33-49 and, like the 2025 Suns, missed the Play-In Tournament while finishing in 11th place.

Curry helps a good (not great) team when he’s on the floor due to his offense. Durant made the Suns better when he was on the floor this season, but Phoenix was an uninspiring team. James’ impact numbers were not good this season.

Like 2022, the Lakers were outscored when James was on the floor. Unlike 2022, the Lakers outscored their opponents with James off the floor in 2025. That was the case both before and after the All-Star break.

James, however, still does just about everything on the floor. Even though this is the first time he dipped below 25 points per game since his rookie season, and he averaged a career-low 4.7 free-throw attempts per game, James still scores at a good rate on and off the ball. He made 51.3 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from 3 (including 42 percent off the catch); he’s still a four-level scorer who averaged 8.2 assists per game.

Defensively, James still rebounds at a high level and averaged a steal a game. He never gets called for fouls, and you can’t just go right at him with repeated success. But he’s not a rim protector, and he isn’t asked to guard top options. When James is off the floor, the Lakers have been strong defensively.

But what really makes James and the Lakers dangerous for as long as James can be at his current level, even at 40, is how he got help. Curry’s help came in the form of an old star in Butler. Durant’s help never came, in part because of Beal’s no-trade clause keeping a player like Butler out of Phoenix. James went from “Maybe It’s Me” in February 2023 when Kyrie Irving went to Dallas, to getting the one player in Dallas better than him as a teammate in February 2025.

Has Dončić shown some floor? Certainly, in bad times (like the Mavericks needing to tank in 2023 to avoid a Play-In Tournament) and good times (like the NBA Finals).

Dončić’s durability has never been great, as he has missed at least 10 games every season, and he played in only 50 games this season. The strategy against Dončić is usually to reap the benefits of him wearing down throughout a game or a series. When Dončić’s effort wanes, it rarely shows up in volume, but it does in decision-making mistakes, defensive effort and shooting efficiency. Dončić fouls more than he used to, and the less said about his relationship with the officials, the better.

Despite all that — imagine trading him in his mid-20s! Tier 1 is made up of players who should cost a small country to acquire. The only other player in this tier who has changed teams in the last five years is Durant, who was 34 and cost Phoenix two starters (Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson), another player who started in the NBA Finals two years prior (Jae Crowder) and control of five first-round picks. We’re not going to disrespect Anthony Davis, but we’re also not going to act like Davis, Max Christie and one first-round pick is an appropriate return for Dončić. Given LeBron’s and Davis’ own (and more pronounced) durability issues, Dončić saved the Lakers from Play-In territory.

Dončić is a force on the ball, and he imposes his will on games early. Only Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić average more first-quarter points per game than Dončić (9.0). Only Antetokounmpo averages more first-quarter free-throw attempts than Dončić (2.4). Nobody makes more first-quarter 3s (1.3) than Dončić.

Even with Dončić’s perceived shortcomings defensively, he’s listed at 6-6, 230 pounds. He rebounds like a big, and he averaged a career-best 1.8 steals per game. Los Angeles allowed 111.5 points per 100 possessions with Dončić on the floor this season, compared to 113.8 points per 100 possessions overall. You can execute your defensive game plan with Dončić on the floor, something Dallas was well aware of last year when it upgraded the personnel around Dončić at the 2024 trade deadline.

We learned last year that Dončić can get you to the NBA Finals. We also learned at the finals just how much Tatum has grown, even with his perceived shortcomings.

No, Tatum isn’t asked to guard the best player, and his shooting percentages plummeted in the postseason to 42.7 percent from the field and 28.3 percent from 3. But Tatum didn’t fight the game in the finals. He averaged 7.2 assists in the five-game series. And as a defending champion, Tatum took that playmaking to the next level, averaging 6.0 assists per game after never reaching 5.0 assists in his first seven NBA seasons. Tatum isn’t just merely Boston’s top option; a team that was criticized for years for not having a true point guard next to Tatum basically told Tatum to do it.

Per Second Spectrum, Tatum has led the Celtics in touches per game each of the last five seasons and has led the Celtics in passes per game in each of head coach Joe Mazzulla’s three seasons. Tatum just finished with twice as many assists as turnovers for the first time in his career. It’s Tatum in ball screens, where he’s one of the best scorers in the league. It’s Tatum in isolation, where he’s one of the best scorers in the league. And Boston posts Kristaps Porziņģis and Jaylen Brown more often, but Tatum is still effective there, too.

Tatum is on the ball so much that he attempts the fewest catch-and-shoot 3s of Boston’s rotation, outside of the backup centers. But Tatum is a 40 percent shooter on those attempts.

Defensively, Boston has plenty of players to take on heads of snakes, but Tatum contributes by guarding bigger bodies. Sometimes, he will guard centers to allow Boston’s rim protectors a chance to play off non-shooters.

Most importantly, Tatum is available. He missed 10 games this season for the first time in his career. Boston has a supreme roster, but the Celtics play through Tatum to make it work.

I mentioned earlier in this process how every player has flaws. I have three players in this tier who weren’t even top-10 picks in their draft, and even after establishing themselves as first-team players, they have certain shortcomings. But more importantly, they’re consistently dominant.

Gilgeous-Alexander said in November that he feels like he could have equipped his teammates better throughout the regular season for the 2024 postseason. Specifically: “Part of my job is to make sure that my teammates are confident and are ready for big moments.”

The Thunder ask a lot of Gilgeous-Alexander. He led the NBA in points, field goal attempts and free throws made per game. He averaged only 2.4 turnovers per game while shooting 51.9 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from 3. This was the first season in Gilgeous-Alexander’s career where he made more than 100 total 3s. He averaged a career-best 6.4 assists per game. He’s about as powerful and versatile as it gets on the ball, as he is one of the few players who averaged more than 1.0 points per possession while averaging at least 1.0 possession per game as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, in isolation and even in the post.

Defensively, Gilgeous-Alexander is rarely asked to guard top options — one look at his teammates shows why — but he doesn’t get beat often, and the only player in the league who collected more steals this season was Dyson Daniels. Of the 33 players who had at least 90 steals this season, the only players with more blocks (77 in 76 games) than Gilgeous-Alexander were Jaren Jackson Jr. and Amen Thompson.

Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player on a team that set a record for point differential and turnover differential. That last part is what makes Gilgeous-Alexander really special, as he averages only 2.4 turnovers per game. The only question now is whether he can do what he said he needed to do, and that’s lift his teammates in the playoffs; the only postseason series his team has won was against an eighth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans team missing Zion Williamson.

Antetokounmpo is trying to make it through a full postseason for the first time in three years. Injuries to himself, the departed Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard have ruined each postseason since Antetokounmpo was named the NBA Finals MVP in 2021.

But Antetokounmpo remains arguably the most forceful player in the game. That 3-pointer never came around, and he was woeful from 3 (22.2 percent) and the free-throw line (career-low 61.7 percent). But he still earned a league-high 10.6 attempts per game from the line while attempting his fewest 3s in a decade. Antetokounmpo traded in 3s he wasn’t making for midrange field goals he could; he made a career-best 44.2 percent of his non-paint 2s, and he still led the NBA in paint points.

This was the first year of Antetokounmpo’s career where he had twice as many assists as turnovers. Defensively, he is a 6-11, 243-pound power forward who can guard in isolation and protect the rim, and he averaged his fewest fouls per game since his rookie season.

And then there’s Jokić, the best center in basketball and arguably the best player in 2025. Like Antetokounmpo, he’s 30 now. He just averaged a career best in points (29.6) and assists (10.2) per game, adding 12.7 rebounds for the first triple-double average of his career. If it weren’t for Westbrook, entire websites would have created trackers to mark Jokic’s potential feat throughout the season. Instead, we’re numb to it.

Also numbing is how great Jokić has been for a relatively underwhelming team. His Nuggets are 0-4 when he scores at least 50 points in his career, including one of two losses to the Washington Wizards this season and a career-best 61-point performance against the Timberwolves. Denver has a bottom-10 defense this season, and Jokić is arguably the worst rim protector among starting centers in the NBA.

But he is the only player in the entire league averaging more than 100 touches per game. That was the case last season as well. He has led the NBA in touches per game each season since 2018, which also correlates with Denver’s postseason streak. What Jokić lacks at the rim defensively, he makes up for with active hands, coming up with a career-best 1.8 steals per game. Only Daniels, Gilgeous-Alexander and the LA Clippers’ Kris Dunn had more total steals than Jokić.

Jokić somehow made more 3s than ever, made them at a higher percentage (41.7 percent) than ever and averaged more free-throw attempts per game than ever. He had a career-low 2.3 personal fouls per game. He averaged more than three assists per turnover. Off the ball, Jokić was one of six players to attempt at least 200 3s off the catch and make at least 45 percent. Denver scored 125.6 points per 100 possessions with Jokić on the court and only 104.1 with Jokić off the floor. That’s the difference between the NBA’s best offense and the NBA’s worst.

We’ll see how long it takes for a player to join or surpass Antetokounmpo, Gilgeous-Alexander or Jokić here. The playoffs have a way of redefining value across a variety of roles, even in the most important ones on the ball. We’ll see which players are driving the bus and which players are going to need better seats.

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(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Patrick Smith, Dustin Bradford, Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)