Top 100 NBA Players — Nos. 71-80

These rankings are designed to spotlight the 100 best NBA players, regardless of salary or current team context, based on where they stand at this very moment, approaching the (still theoretical) 2011-12 season. There are no objective criteria for these rankings. The list represents my opinion after watching far too many basketball games, scouring every statistic available, recalling conversations I’ve had while reporting on the league and poring over hours and hours of clips on Synergy Sports. And even with all that information, separating some of these guys amounts to making an impossible subjective call.

The overarching goal here is to find two-way players. If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know how much attention is paid to defense and efficiency with the ball. Those 18 points per game look nice in the box score, but if a player gets them by chucking up contested 20-foot jumpers and lazily watching opposing ball-handlers stroll into the lane, he’s going to have a hard time making this list (hi, Andray Blatche). A one-dimensional player seeking to make the top 65 or so better be darn good at that one dimension. Finding truly accomplished two-way players for the bottom 10 spots was basically impossible, making those places more a matter of taste than I’d like.

On Monday I revealed the bottom 10, plus those who barely missed the cut, and on Tuesday I unveiled Nos. 81-90. But this next set, Nos. 71-80, might have the most variability of any 10-man stretch in these rankings. The bottom 20 were a combination of youngsters who will clearly get better with more minutes, veterans who will fall out of the top 100 in the next couple of years and marginal choices you have to make to fill out the list — choices with which some people could easily disagree.

But when you get beyond No. 70 you start dealing with some very solid players, guys who could make an All-Star team in the next year or two and not look entirely out of place. If you looked at two top 100 lists — and CBSSports.com is doing one now – you’re probably going to find the same 65-70 guys, with one or two exceptions and some variance in the order.

This set of 10 is a weird netherworld where there is still room for plenty of disagreement, and yet you’re not selecting players whom you’d consider borderline choices. There will be some shouting and criticism here — more than usual, anyway. So here we go …

Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari turned into a foul-drawing machine last season. (Paul Buck/EPA)

80. DANILO GALLINARI
SF, Denver Nuggets
Age: 22
2010-11 Stats: 15.6 PPG, 41.4 FG%, 35.2 3PT%, 4.9 RPG, 1.7 APG

It would be very hard for Gallinari to surprise anyone next season. He could play so well as to crack the top 50 on this list next year, or he could fall off it altogether, and neither scenario would be a shocker. He struggled with some injuries last season, and his three-point percentage fell for the second straight year. He’s an average defender at best, though he works his tail off and should get better — as most players do with experience. He can credibly guard multiple positions, which is a bonus.

But one thing stands out from his 2010-11 season: Gallinari suddenly became a free-throw-drawing machine. He averaged nearly seven attempts per 36 minutes, just about one fewer than Kevin Durant, and that number jumped to nearly 8.5 once the Knicks dealt him to Denver. Gallinari entered the league as a one-dimensional three-point shooter — quite a good one, actually — and if he can combine that skill with an efficient drive-and-draw game, the Nuggets have the makings of a dangerous offensive player.

79. CHRIS KAMAN
C, Los Angeles Clippers
Age: 29
2010-11 Stats: 12.4 PPG, 47.1 FG%,  75.4 FT%, 7.0 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.5 BLK

This might be low for a legit 7-footer just one season removed from putting up a 19-9 line and making the All-Star team. But Kaman is starting the age down slope of his career, and he has played more than 56 games just once in the last four seasons. We may have seen his ceiling and, barring a trade, he’s going to lose minutes this year to the rising DeAndre Jordan (No. 84 on this list).

Kaman loves long two-point jumpers, and he has hit more than 40 percent of them — the league average — for four years running. That kind of shooting from a big man has a positive ripple effect because it creates space in the lane and makes the pick-and-pop a good option late in the shot clock.

It also comes with a trade-off: Kaman has never gotten to the line much (averaging 2.9 attempts over his career) and has shot just 48.7 percent from the floor — not an ideal mark for a center.

But he’s a very good rebounder and a solid defender (if not a great one), and he’s a tad more versatile than his teammate Jordan at this very second. Expect Jordan to rank higher than Kaman a year from now, though — perhaps much higher. That said, it will be interesting to see if the Clippers can find Kaman and his expiring contract a new home, where he might be able to own the center position for 36 minutes a night.

78. RODNEY STUCKEY
G, restricted free agent (Detroit Pistons)
Age: 25
2010-11 Stats: 15.5 PPG, 43.9 FG%, 28.9 3PT%, 5.2 APG, 3.1 RPG, 1.1 STL

Four years in and there is still so much we don’t know about Stuckey. We don’t know what team he’s going to be on next season, though it seems likely he’ll be in Detroit. We don’t know what position he plays, though it might be more accurate to say we don’t know what sort of personnel Stuckey needs around him for him and his team to function best. And the nuttiness of the Pistons’ 2010-11 season only added to the confusion, as Stuckey feuded with then-coach John Kuester, split point guard duties with Tracy McGrady and found himself part of a lot of goofy lineups.

But we know this: He improved his finishing at the rim, shot a career-best 44 percent from the floor, got to the line more than five times per game and increased his assist numbers. He can score in a variety of ways, and he has the potential to be a solid backcourt defender. His ceiling won’t get much higher if he doesn’t develop into a semi-reliable three-point shooter and/or reach a new level in some other key part of his game. Given all that uncertainty, you could be rightly skeptical that he even deserves this low spot in the bottom quarter of the rankings, even though he cracked the league’s overall top 50 in Player Efficiency Rating. He certainly hasn’t directed the Pistons to much success over the last few seasons.

But Stuckey’s numbers are trending in the right direction — no matter if he is a point guard, shooting guard or hybrid — and I have a feeling he could outplay this ranking if the context changes for the better in Detroit.

77. ARRON AFFLALO
SG, restricted free agent (Denver Nuggets)
Age: 25
2010-11 Stats: 12.6 PPG, 49.8 FG%, 42.3 3PT%, 2.4 APG, 3.6 RPG

I’ve already dubbed Afflalo the best wing free agent on the market, so I won’t belabor things here. Given that previous ranking, it may seem strange for Afflalo to be sitting here, at No. 77, behind a couple of the guys ranked below him on that free-agent list.

The reasoning: That previous list considered the long term, with an eye three or four years down the road. This ranking considers only the now, and Afflalo remains a guy who has never put up a league-average PER and still has to prove he is ready to be more of a focal point on offense.

The bet here is that he’ll do that, even if Afflalo is never going to be a first, second or even third option on a great team. But he is already much more than the spot-up shooter who entered the league four-plus years ago. He has worked on his off-the-dribble game and his ability to come off screens, and either shoot or attack the rim. Toss in some feisty defense, and you’ve got yourself a player who would help just about any team.

76. GRANT HILL
SF, unrestricted free agent (Phoenix Suns)
Age: 38
2010-11 Stats: 13.2 PPG, 48.4 FG%, 39.5 3PT%, 4.2 RPG, 2.5 APG

Why Hill over Afflalo, even though Hill is almost 39 and faces the possibility of playing some place other than Phoenix, where Steve Nash and the Suns’ training staff seem able to resurrect anyone? Primarily because Hill is a bit more versatile with the ball than Afflalo. He can still create his own shot in a pinch, he can post up smaller guys, he remains a strong passer and he is a more adept slasher off the dribble, especially when he finds his defender rushing to find him on the perimeter, momentum going the wrong way.

The world may have overhyped Hill’s defense last season a bit, but it was still pretty darn good. He should have one more solid year in him.

Stephen Jackson is a gunner, but he put up impressive numbers on a bad team. (US PRESSWIRE)

75. STEPHEN JACKSON
G-F, Milwaukee Bucks
Age: 33
2010-11 Stats: 18.5 PPG, 41.1 FG%, 33.7 3PT%, 4.5 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.2 STL

Here’s my issue with Jackson: He attempted 15.8 shots per 36 minutes season. That’s more than LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Zach Randolph, Stephen Curry, David West, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker (minimum of 2,000 minutes) last year.

Many factors made this almost defensible, including that the Bobcats’ offense had no one else capable of consistently creating a decent shot. But Jackson is a gunner, the kind of player who thinks he’s more efficient as a scorer than he really is. Twenty-five percent of his shots and turnovers came via isolations, and that’s too many at this point.

But anyone putting up a 19-5-4 stat line on a bad team is doing something right, and those rebounds and assists show Jackson can contribute in lots of ways. He also gets to the line at a decent rate (4.6 free-throw attempts per game), and though he might not be the defender he used to be (the Bobcats were much stingier with him on the bench), he can guard both wing positions and he enjoys defending in big moments. If he focuses less on gunning, he’ll be an asset in Milwaukee.

74. JRUE HOLIDAY
PG, Philadelphia 76ers
Age: 21
2010-11 Stats: 14.0 PPG, 44.6 FG%, 36.5 3PT%, 6.5 APG, 4.0 RPG, 1.5 STL

Pacers fans (among others) might wonder why Holiday is so high while their own guy (Darren Collison) doesn’t make the cut at all. The answer boils down to defense, where Holiday has decent size and strength, and a very good understanding of what Philadelphia wants to do on every possession.

He defended his position well, both on and off the ball, and he grew as both a scorer and a playmaker last season. He shot 48 percent on isolation attacks, making him one of the 25-30 most efficient isolation scorers in the league, and his pick-and-roll numbers ranked nearly as high, according to Synergy. That’s a great sign. He has a ways to go as a creator for others in the half-court, but all signs are very encouraging.

He is weakest as a spot-up shooter, but his numbers there weren’t terrible, and his shooting will improve with experience. Expect a big third year from Holiday.

73. GEORGE HILL
G, Indiana Pacers
Age: 25
2010-11 Stats: 11.6 PPG, 45.3 FG%, 37.7 3PT%, 2.5 APG, 2.6 RPG

Now comes the test for Hill, entering his fourth season: Prove you can thrive, and even get better, outside of San Antonio, where the elite Tim Duncan/ Ginobili/Parker trio allowed Hill to play third- or fourth-fiddle during nearly all the important moments. Hill did well in that role. He developed a very good three-point shot, worked on his pick-and-roll game and learned how to move off the ball from some of the league’s best cutters. Synergy paints Hill as one of the most efficient two-way players in the league last season, and smart San Antonio observers considered him neck-and-neck with Ginobili – and  perhaps ahead of him — as the team’s best backcourt defender.

But the spacing is going to be a bit more cramped in Indiana. Hill is going to have to work a bit harder for his shots, and that could be problematic for a guy whose numbers mostly plateaued last season, even as the Spurs featured perhaps the most explosive offense of the Gregg Popovich era. Is Hill a good enough playmaker to run the point without those other Spurs around him? Is he a dangerous enough scorer to be a big-time two-guard?

Even if the answers to those questions don’t turn out as Indiana fans hope, Hill’s defense will remain strong. But if his game can go no further, he could easily drop off of this list, given likely improvement from guys behind him.

72. JOHN WALL
PG, Washington Wizards
Age: 20
2010-11 Stats: 16.4 PPG, 40.9 FG%, 29.6 3PT%, 8.3 APG, 4.6 RPG, 1.8 STL

Ranking Wall was not fun. He just finished his rookie season, and ranking any rising sophomore, save for Blake Griffin, feels like a slight to veterans who have proved themselves. Wall also suffers from some of the same efficiency-related problems that kept DeMarcus Cousins off this list. He turned the ball over on nearly 19 percent of possessions he finished (a scary number). He barely cracked 40 percent from the floor and didn’t reach even 30 percent from three-point range. The former No. 1 pick also struggled on defense, as we’d expect from a rookie playing a position that is already brutally tough to defend under the NBA’s current rules.

But Wall could be special, and it would not be a shock if he were 40 spots higher on this list next year. It was not easy to put up a 16-8-5 line on an awful team filled with dysfunctional gunners, but Wall did that while proving himself the heir to Tony Parker’s throne as perhaps the league’s top one-man point guard fast break. His combination of size (6-foot-4), quickness and creativity is going to make him nearly impossible to keep out of the lane. It should also make him a good defender, eventually.

Wall is going to be really, really good. And soon.

71. ANDRE MILLER
PG, Denver Nuggets
Age: 35
2010-11 Stats: 12.7 PPG, 46.0 FG%, 10.8 3PT%, 7.0 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.4 STL

There’s no mystery about Miller, or why teams continue to court him. He’s an ideal caretaker point guard who can run pick-and-rolls all over the floor, organize an offense and make the right play. His lack of range can hurt on the wrong team, and he’s not particularly explosive with the ball. But he finishes well at the rim, and only six players dished more assists on baskets at the rim last season, according to Hoopdata. All those lobs to Aldridge inflated that total a bit, but Miller has a good understanding of what sort of passes lead to the most efficient shot attempts.

His post-up game is still an asset on most nights. He’s not an elite defender, but he’s smart, he communicates well and he knows where to be. Add to that a steady hand on both ends and it’s clear why he’s a proven commodity and why he ranks 22 spots ahead of Ty Lawson — a guy with loads of potential and someone who could snag a spot in this range a year from now.

MORE TOP 100

• Nos. 91-100
• Nos. 81-90