ESPN revealed it’s top 10 NBA players for the 2024-25, including Joel Embiid.
ESPN’s full 14th annual top 100 player rankings have come out for the 2024-25 season. The Worldwide Leader’s expert panel were asked “which player will be better in 2024-25?” for player vs. player matchups with more than 15,000 possible pairings to determine an order.
The first half of the top 100 ranking can be found here (although no current Sixers were featured). The majority of the remaining half released Wednesday, with the remaining top 10 debuting on Thursday. As expected, Joel Embiid is featured in the latest edition.
Rounding out the top of the ranking are the following players:
10. Anthony Edwards
9. Kevin Durant
8. Joel Embiid
7. LeBron James
6. Stephen Curry
5. Jayson Tatum
4. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo
2. Luka Doncic
1. Nikola Jokic
Embiid is coming off a career season, averaging a monstrous 34.7 points, 11 rebounds and 5.6 assists in 33.6 minutes of play. However, his 2023-24 campaign was limited to just 39 games — missing a good chunk of the season with a torn meniscus in his left knee.
The stats alone show that eighth is a pretty low ranking given the production. Tim Bontempts, who wrote the blurb explaining Embiid’s ranking, stated that injuries were a large reason he fell five spots compared to last year’s ranking:
“Biggest question for 2024-25: A common theme here: Can Embiid stay on the court and return to last season’s dominant form while doing so? Throughout his career, he has repeatedly said that he just hopes to have one full playoff run with a clean bill of health. And while there have been a host of bad breaks along the way, the simple fact is that has yet to take place. If Embiid can make it through this season healthy, he could easily rocket back up into the top five of this list next season. But if he can’t? Falling out of the top 10 is on the table for the 2023 MVP.”
The Sixers and Embiid have put an emphasis on keeping him fresh and rested throughout the season. It’s been stated that Embiid will rarely play back-to-backs, if at all, and it’s expected that Embiid will load manage throughout the year in hopes of his health peaking at the right time for the NBA postseason.
A healthy Embiid campaign and successful playoff run could make this ranking look silly in a year from now. Time will tell.