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 ...
28. Kevin Love
Cavaliers | PF | @kevinlove
Last year's rank: 21
2016-17 projected RPM: 5.33
Insider profile: Now two years removed from a monster 2013-14 season in Minnesota, Love has likely become underrated. He was 10th in the NBA in RPM despite the decline in the traditional box score stats because he does so many subtle things to help the team. Foremost among them: spacing the floor for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on offense. Love isn't quite a knockdown 3-point shooter at 36.3 percent for his career, but he shoots a ton of them and garners hard closeouts when opponents are brave enough to leave him. Calls to give him the ball on straight postups are misplaced; he is not an efficient option against guys his size. But Love's postup numbers look great because he kills mismatches on the block with deep duck-ins, soft hooks and pump fakes that get him to the foul line. He also remains an excellent passer from the high post. Read more »
#NBArank 21-30
