Ranking who the top 50 NBA players will be by the end of the season to pass the monotony of the final weeks of the offseason is as fun as it is hard. It\u2019s fun because it gets the juices flowing again, reminds us of how great the League is, and that a new season is upon us. Watching the comments section devolve from thoughtful, well-crafted opposing views to \u2018your (sic) a fucking moran,\u2019 can also be fun if you\u2019re into that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard because in today\u2019s NBA any 50 of the names (sans a few) you\u2019ve seen on this list, and many who were left off, could reasonably be swapped.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 Blake Griffin<\/a> is entering his eighth season in the League, and checks in at number 20\u2014down from 14 on last year’s SLAM Top 50. The fact that I would have had him ranked closer to 10 than 20 speaks to how difficult it is trying to rank the best of the best in the top hoops league in the world.<\/p>\n When Blake is right physically, which has been an issue that has hampered him throughout his career, he is capable of being the most impactful player on the court\u2014regardless of who else is playing.<\/p>\n The 6-10 power forward made a splash in the League immediately with his explosive athleticism, but the continual polishing of his overall skillset has helped him become a five-time NBA All-Star. Despite sustaining a season-ending plantar plate injury in his foot during Game 4 of the Clippers’ first round playoff exit againstthe Jazz, L.A. made sure they kept their franchise player in town by re-signing him to a 5-year, $173 million deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though Chris Paul\u00a0<\/a>departed for Houston in one of the offseason\u2019s trades, don\u2019t expect the Clippers to be anywhere close to a rebuild. Griffin is reportedly expected to be ready to roll by December following surgery in May<\/a>, and Danilo Gallinari has had injuries plague his career as well. Assuming they\u2019re both on the court and healthy for at least three quarters of the season, expect the Clippers to be safely in the playoffs.<\/p>\n For his career, Griffin boasts a scoring average of 21.5 points per game along with 9.4 boards and 4.1 assists while shooting 52 percent from the floor. While it could take time for him to mesh with new point guards Milos Teodosic and Pat Beverly, Griffin proved himself a monster when everything ran through him when Chris Paul missed games.<\/p>\n Griffin has become one of the toughest covers in the League because he can consistently knock in an 18-footer now. If his defender takes that away, his ability to drive and finish is as good as any big in the League. His passing ability is also tops among those categorized as a big, and he\u2019s developed a devastating chemistry with DeAndre Jordan<\/a> over the course of their seven seasons together in L.A. Griffin\u2019s mix of power and finesse is rare, and with seven seasons of experience under his belt to sprinkle on top, he has the tools to dominate any game he plays in.<\/p>\n The questions revolving around his health and ability to get into a groove with the new-look Clippers will linger until he gets back onto the court. Assuming he does return as the Blake we\u2019ve come to know, the only question that will remain is how far can he carry the Clippers now that it is his show?<\/p>\n Previous\u00a0<\/strong>Rankings: Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2017-18\u2014to players\u2019 team, the NBA and the game.<\/em><\/p>\n No. 50 \u2013 Dion Waiters<\/a> With CP3 gone and a new contract extension, Blake Griffin is the present and the future for the Clippers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":448017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36],"tags":[32614,173],"yst_prominent_words":[16548,34007,14435,18798,14557,15005,15710,34005,18137,14506,14511,14556,14575,14639,17031,21818,14437,15026,34006,32649],"class_list":["post-459531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-slam-top-50","tag-2017-slam-top-50","tag-blake-griffin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459531"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459549,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459531\/revisions\/459549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459531"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=459531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>2016: No. 14
\n<\/strong>2015: No. 8
\n<\/strong>2014: No. 8
\n<\/strong>2013: No. 17<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>No. 49 \u2013 Ben Simmons<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nNo. 48 \u2013 Brook Lopez<\/a>
\nNo. 47 \u2014 Harrison Barnes<\/a>
\nNo. 46 \u2014 Jrue Holiday<\/a>
\n<\/strong>No. 45 \u2014 Lonzo Ball
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 44 \u2014 Myles Turner
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 43 \u2014 Goran Dragic<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 42 \u2014 Andre Drummond
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 41 \u2014 Al Horford<\/a>
\nNo. 40 \u2014 LaMarcus Aldridge<\/a>
\nNo. 39 \u2014 Kevin Love<\/a>
\nNo. 38 \u2014 Paul Millsap<\/a>
\nNo. 37 \u2014 Hassan Whiteside<\/a>
\nNo. 36 \u2014 Andrew Wiggins<\/a>
\nNo. 35 \u2014 Marc Gasol<\/a>
\nNo. 34 \u2013 DeAndre Jordan<\/a>
\nNo. 33 \u2014 Bradley Beal<\/a>
\nNo. 32 \u2014 Kemba Walker<\/a>
\nNo. 31 \u2014 CJ McCollum<\/a>
\nNo. 30 \u2014 Devin Booker<\/a>
\nNo. 29 \u2014 Nikola Jokic<\/a>
\nNo. 28 \u2014 Joel Embiid<\/a>
\nNo. 27 \u2014 Mike Conley\u00a0<\/a>
\nNo. 26 \u2014 Kyle Lowry<\/a>
\nNo. 25 \u2014 Rudy Gobert<\/a><\/strong>
\nNo. 24 \u2014 Gordon Hayward<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 23 \u2014 Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>
\nNo. 22 \u2014 Carmelo Anthony<\/a>
\nNo. 21 \u2014 DeMar DeRozan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"