I understand that it’s tough to project forward for a player who’s coming off a major injury, but we already saw Jayson Tatum return last season at 80% health, and he quickly returned to being an elite NBA player. He won an Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award, put up very respectable stats, and impacted winning at a high level while still acclimating back to NBA basketball.
Now, he has had a whole offseason to get back to 100% physically and mentally, and he looked as good as ever in the preseason. So why does it seem like people are still hesitant to put him back in the tier where he belongs?
It has been consistently happening all offseason, and it occurred again earlier in the week as The Ringer released its final preseason top 100 player rankings, slotting JT in as just the 10th-best player in the league.
Tatum held to unfair and inconsistent standard
I could take the high road here and be happy just to see him in the top 10, but I’m sorry, this is still way too low and a borderline disrespectful ranking. Let’s just take a look at who’s ranked ahead of Tatum and break it down.
- Victor Wembanyama
- Nikola Jokic
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- Luka Doncic
- Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Jalen Brunson
- Anthony Edwards
- Kawhi Leonard
- Cade Cunningham
- Jayson Tatum
I have no beef with the top three; however you want to order those guys, I think it’s pretty clear that Wemby, Jokic, and SGA should be in a tier of their own. But after that, things get dicey. Luka is certainly a great offensive player, but he’s a defensive liability and hardly a bastion of health in his own right. If we’re knocking JT for injury concerns, I’m not sure why Luka gets a pass, with the same being true if we’re talking about body of work.
Next up is Giannis, another guy who has missed a ton of time and hasn’t been better than Tatum in years. We are just assuming that with a change of scenery, the soon-to-be 32-year-old big man is magically going to be healthy and return to form? Seems like a stretch.
Okay, then we’ve got Brunson. Sure, he proved in the playoffs that he’s likely the most clutch player in the league, but late-game heroics don’t erase the fact that he’s a poor defender and just isn’t elite outside of his scoring. He had a hell of a run, but he doesn’t belong in this conversation at all.
Voters are dreaming with some of these rankings
The Edwards ranking is just bizarre. He’s a great player, but he still has a lot to improve upon. He has simply never been better or had more success than Tatum in any facet of the game, as much as people keep trying to project it into existence. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Kawhi Leonard at 8th in 2026? Please be serious. Tatum is getting docked for health, but Kawhi has one semi-healthy year in LA, and we’re assuming he’s just back to his Finals MVP self? Possibly the most ridiculous ranking in this whole thing.
Cade at nine is actually probably a pretty fair ranking, but again, this is a young player who had one great year. He has one playoff series win on his resume, and while he piled up stats and regular-season wins last season, it could have been a lot more efficient. Again, I’ve got no issues with Cunningham in the top 10; he just doesn’t belong over Tatum.
So, here we are. I know I shouldn’t be getting worked up about preseason player rankings, but alas. I think more than anything, this is a sign that we badly need actual basketball games back in our lives. That’s the only way these projections will change, and I, for one, cannot wait for the games to begin and for Tatum to reclaim his proper standing as a clear top-5 player in the NBA.
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