5 Players Anthony Edwards should be ahead of in recent Top 100 List
By Will Eudy
In the NBA, one of the most frequent topics of discussion is about who the best players are and how they stack up with one another. Players are constantly growing and evolving, and tracking their development alongside their peers frequently leads to interesting conclusions.
The culmination of this is comprehensive rankings and accounts of the most impactful players in our league. This week, one noteworthy list was released with The Ringer publishing their all-encompassing NBA Top 100 list; a full breakdown of the best 100 players in the association.
Players are listed one by one, with a brief bit of reasoning behind each selection. While a lot of thought was put into creating this list and mistakes were sure to be made, there may not have been a more egregious error by The Ringer than their ranking of Anthony Edwards.
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ star was ranked as the 46th best player in the NBA. While disrespect to Edwards is something that has become almost commonplace in NBA media, this seems like an even more flagrant offense than normal. There were several far inferior players that Edwards was placed behind.
Here are five of the most notable players from The Ringer’s list that Anthony Edwards should absolutely have been ranked ahead of.
1. Jerami Grant
Moving from Detroit to Portland in the 2022 offseason, Jerami Grant is putting together a very solid campaign for the Trail Blazers. The ninth-year wing is putting up averages of 21.9 points and four rebounds per game while seeing high usage, attempting the second-most shot attempts per game of his career.
While Grant is certainly a solid starter and his contributions are valuable for a team with playoff aspirations, he has all but reached his ceiling in his NBA career. At 28 years old, he does not project to make any kind of leap or reach some type of new level anytime soon. Grant is a good player, but we know who he is by now.
Compare this with Anthony Edwards, who is still just 21 years old and has sky-high potential as a two-way star in this league. In just his third season, Edwards is already putting up more points per contest than Grant ever has in his career. His abilities as a scorer have already exceeded those of Grant.
And while Jerami Grant is frequently lauded for his defensive ability, Edwards has blossomed as an on-ball defender this season as well. Ant has proven with his play this season that he deserves to be held in higher regard than Grant.