For the sixth season in a row, ESPN.com is ranking the top players in the NBA. Who will be the best player this season?
To get the final ranking, we asked our expert panel to vote on pairs of players.
LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Durant. Damian Lillard vs. Chris Paul.
We asked, "Which player will be better in 2016-17?" To decide, voters had to consider both the quality and the quantity of each player's contributions to his team's ability to win games.
We'll roll out the rest of our top 200 players over the next week. If you want to get involved in the discussion or just follow along, #NBArank is the Twitter hashtag to use. You also can follow along @ESPNNBA and on Facebook.
On to the list ...
23. LaMarcus Aldridge
Spurs | PF | @aldridge_12
Last year's rank: 13
2016-17 projected RPM: 3.03
Insider profile: It took some time, but Aldridge found a way to marry his All-Star game with San Antonio's championship-winning system after signing with the Spurs as a free agent in the summer of 2015. Aldridge cut his average touch time from 1.94 seconds per touch in Portland to 1.63 in San Antonio, per SportVU tracking on NBA.com/Stats, making quicker decisions with the ball and moving it when he didn't have a shot. The result was the most efficient offensive season of his career. Read more »
#NBArank 21-30
