This is the fifth annual NBA Player Tiers project, in which Seth Partnow names the top 125 players in the league after each season and then separates them into five distinct categories of value, each with their sub-categories to further delineate them. These are not meant to be read as firm 1-125 player rankings. Rather, they’re meant to separate solid starters from the very best superstars, and every level in between. This is how NBA front offices assess player value across the league when building their teams.

NBA Player Tiers: ’20 | ’21 | ’22 | ‘23 | ’24 pre-playoffs | ’24: T5 | T4| T3 | T2

The NBA is undergoing a changing of the guard. While Tier 1 has been relatively stable during the five seasons I’ve done this exercise — only nine players have been in Tier 1 at least once, with the six below plus LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden — many of the stalwarts are facing the ticking of the clock, while the next wave, such as Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards and, of course, Victor Wembanyama, are knocking on the door.

I could have gone several ways with this group, from having only a super select top three or four making up the entirety of the tier to rewarding some of those up-and-comers at the expense of the old warhorses, and I wouldn’t much argue with those who saw it that way.

But for now, here are the cream of the crop.

Tier 1B (4-6)

Remarkably, a 62.6 true shooting percentage on 29.0 usage represents a down year for Kevin Durant, even compared to just the post-Achilles tear section of his career. The poorly constructed and extremely top-heavy Phoenix Suns roster did him few favors, which raises a question that has only factored tangentially into the tiers over the years: How much should player influence on roster decisions and coaching hires be factored in?

It’s a challenge to do so systematically. At least from the outside, who advocated for what move or how much weight an organization gives to a star’s wishes are difficult to determine. But the balance of reporting indicates that Brooklyn/Phoenix era Durant has demanded many things and received most of them, including the hiring and firing of coaches.

It is often said that coaches shouldn’t be GMs because there isn’t enough time in the day to do both jobs well. This holds even more true for players. But how much is it on the players when it happens? It’s a hard one to judge, but it’s something that likely needs to enter the calculus when considering later career superstars such as Durant, LeBron James or one or two others.

All of this is to note that Durant barely maintained his spot in Tier 1 this year and will need a strong performance — including the playoffs — in 2024-25 to be worthy of staying here.

Another former MVP somewhere on the back nine of his career is Stephen Curry. With the Golden State Warriors missing the playoffs, has Curry’s ability to drag indifferent teammates to success waned, or did Golden State find the bottom edge of overall roster ability at which he could do so? Or was it perhaps some combination of both?

Make no mistake, Curry is still a great, great player. But there are subtle signs of decline. His rim-attempt rate was the lowest of his career by a decent margin. His ability to impact the game as a team defender has dropped off considerably — over the last two seasons, he has averaged 1.2 steals per 100 possessions, precisely half of the 2.4/100 he maintained over the first 13 years of his career.

For the first time other than 2019-20, when he appeared in only five games, 2023-24 was the first time the Warriors were superior in terms of net rating with Curry off the floor than on, with Golden State 0.6 points per 100 possessions better when Curry was on the bench, compared to 14.5 per 100 better with Curry on the floor from his first MVP season in 2014-15 through 2022-23. At 35, there is no shame in acknowledging that Curry is not quite the automatic driver of elite offense that he has been for most of his career, but that dip does move him down from 1A to 1B.

For Joel Embiid, it is seemingly always something: Bad health, be it either his health or his teammates’; a ball bouncing four times on the rim and then dropping to eliminate the Sixers from the playoffs; star players falling out with the organization, requiring trades or other reshuffling of the lineup. All of these and more have conspired to keep Embiid from ever reaching the conference finals, which is unfortunate because by several impact metrics, Embiid has been the second-most-effective regular-season player in the league across the last four seasons, behind only Nikola Jokić’s all-time great run.

This past season, you couldn’t have asked for more from Embiid himself, either in the regular season or in the Sixers’ short playoff run. But he still hasn’t truly stamped his authority on a postseason and has never consistently hit the same level of dominance. His playoff shortcomings have probably been overblown, with a career 58.0 percent true shooting on 31.6 percent usage. But ignoring his abbreviated rookie year, he has 61.6 percent true shooting on 35.5 percent usage. The latter is otherworldly, while the former is merely damn good.

There have been myriad reasons for the lack of extended playoff success, many of them completely outside Embiid’s control. But it has always been something, and that’s enough to keep him in Tier 1B for now.

Tier 1A (1-3)

For all the complexity the NBA game offers, basketball can be pretty simple. Pair an offensive force with the size, vision and ability to draw extra defenders with a dynamic rim threat (or two!) and surround them with shooters, and that’s a hard formula to stop. While Luka Dončić was good all year, the midseason trades that brought in Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington helped both Dončić and the Mavericks reach exit velocity and launch into orbit.

It wasn’t just a more favorable context. Dončić made some subtle but telling improvements, becoming a more active off-ball participant — a higher percentage of his made 3s were assisted than any season since his rookie year — while also upping his defensive contributions.

The defense was an unsung part of the Mavs’ run to the NBA Finals. While Dončić was rarely if ever tasked with the primary matchup against the opposition’s top weapons, he made more effective use of his size and game-reading ability, particularly against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves.

While our lasting memory might be the disappointment of Dallas losing the finals, that is as much an illustration of how even top superstars need a bit of good fortune to reach the pinnacle. Not only did the Celtics significantly out-talent Dallas top to bottom, but Boston was as well-equipped to deal with Dončić on its own defensive end while having the range and volume of on-ball creators to attack him in ways other teams couldn’t on defense.

There is still some room for improvement, as Dončić’s conditioning could probably use an upgrade, while his penchant for engaging with officials — occasionally picking up some silly fouls such as in Game 3 of the finals series — could stand to be scaled back significantly. But using those quibbles to keep him out of Tier 1A would be setting a near impossible standard that few players in NBA history, let alone current day, could match.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only player who has resided in Tier 1A in every year-end edition of the Tiers. For the first time, I had some slight doubts putting him here. He has missed time in four of the last five postseasons, including the entirety of the Bucks’ stay this year. During that stretch, Milwaukee has lost its first-round series as a higher seed twice, something definitely held against other players, though, of course, his dominance through the 2021 playoffs has and will continue to buy Antetokounmpo good will on that front.

There is also worry about how robust his impact will be as he approaches 30, which he will reach in early December. Some of it was surely because of Milwaukee’s rather disheveled start to the season from a schematic and coaching standpoint, but Antetokounmpo’s struggle to find synergy with Damian Lillard could reflect a degree of inflexibility or stubbornness that could prove challenging as he begins to age and lose some of his athleticism.

There have been suggestions that the Bucks have been somewhat limited in their ability to be tactically versatile; considering how important adjusting and iterating has become in the postseason, limiting those options is a drawback. Antetokounmpo enters next season on the bubble for dropping out of Tier 1A for the first time.

Having gone through 124 players, we are left with the reigning (and should be four-time consecutive, but why relitigate that particularly noxious debate?) MVP Nikola Jokić at the top of the heap. Even though the Nuggets ultimately fell to Minnesota in seven games in what was the best series of this past postseason, Jokić left some indelible memories. His third quarter in Game 5 against the Wolves defies description, for example.

During his three-in-four MVP run, Jokić has averaged a combined 26.1 points, 12.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. Even lowering those thresholds to 25/10/7.5/1/0.5, no other player has hit those heights even once.

And he has done it while scoring efficiently enough to lead the league twice and finish second twice in “TS Add” — a metric created by Basketball-Reference indicating the number of points above (or below) a player scores than he would have had he scored at league average on the same number of attempts.

To repeat one last time, these tiers are not rankings.

But if they were, the Joker would be No. 1.

NBA Player Tiers: ’20 | ’21 | ’22 | ‘23 | ’24 pre-playoffs | ’24: T5 | T4| T3 | T2

Team 76ERS BLAZERS BUCKS BULLS CAVALIERS CELTICS CLIPPERS GRIZZLIES HAWKS HEAT HORNETS JAZZ KINGS KNICKS LAKERS MAGIC MAVERICKS NETS NUGGETS PACERS PELICANS PISTONS RAPTORS ROCKETS SPURS SUNS THUNDER WARRIORS WIZARDS WOLVES

Postion C PF PG SF SG

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(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic: Photos: Sean Gardner, Noah Graham / NBAE, Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)

The Edmonton Oilers may have a fan to thank for coming back from their 3-0 deficit.

The Oilers forced a Game 7 on Friday night, becoming just the 10th team in NHL history to do so after trailing three games to none in a series.

That came mere hours after Playboy made an announcement regarding an Edmonton fan who had gone viral for an X-rated reason.

During a playoff game against the Dallas Stars, a fan, who’s only known for now as “Kait,” lifted up her Oilers jersey and flashed her breasts to the raucous crowd.

It has since become a rallying cry for the fans, and she’s pretty unapologetic.

“I got drunk and whipped my t–s out at an Oilers game, and they went viral? F— you if you don’t like it. Woo! Go Oilers!” she told Barstool Sports earlier this week.

Well, she has since parlayed her internet fame to a deal with Playboy.

“Meet Kait, the Oilers good luck charm,” the magazine wrote in a post on Instagram, featuring their new model. “The [Oilers] might not have the Stanley Cup just yet, but with [Kait] cheering them on, they’re unstoppable.”

A general view of fans celebrating a first period goal from Mattias Janmark, #13 of the Edmonton Oilers, against the Florida Panthers in Game Four of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on June 15, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  (Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

OILERS JOIN RARE COMPANY BY FORCING GAME 7 IN STANLEY CUP FINAL AFTER TRAILING 3-0

The post features photos of Kait in ice skates, throwing up a double-bird, and other typical Playboy poses.

Kate said on the Barstool Sports podcast that she had about eight Truly hard seltzers and a handful of Cheezies before deciding to flash the crowd.

“It wasn’t planned or anything … and yeah, it just kind of happened,” she said.

This is just the third time that the Stanley Cup will see a seventh game after a team owned a 3-0 lead, and the first since 1945. The Toronto Maple Leafs won both of those instances, completing the comeback in 1942, and then saving themselves from embarrassment three years later.

It’s the first 3-0 comeback in the league since the Los Angeles Kings did so in the first round of the 2014 playoffs. They won that Game 7, and eventually won the Cup, winning two more Game 7’s in the process.

This series’ Game 7 will be back in Sunrise, Florida, where just about everyone will be in full-blown panic on Monday night. 

With a win, it’ll be the Oilers’ first Cup since 1990, and Canada’s first since 1993. 

Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93), Zach Hyman (18), Connor McDavid (97) and Evan Bouchard (2) celebrate after a goal against the Dallas Stars during first-period action in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in Edmonton, Alberta, Sunday, June 2, 2024.  (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

That would also mark the second year in a row that the Panthers would lose in the Final, having fallen to the Vegas Golden Knights last year.

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

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Shohei Ohtani homered on Friday night.

He reached base four times.

His team lost.

These were like the good old days again, a Herculean effort by Ohtani wasted in loss.

The phenomenon was so common in the six years Ohtani played for the Angels that the Japanese media coined a term for it: Nao-Eh — Nao meaning something like furthermore, and Eh the first letter of the Japanese word for Angels, Enzerusu.

The Japanese equivalent of the Tungsten Arm O’Doyle meme was inspired by television news reports on Ohtani’s heroics, which often concluded with broadcasters obligated to point out, “Furthermore, the Angels lost.”

Once commonly used in sports newspaper headlines, Nao-Eh is now retired from the lexicon of Ohtani’s home country, and there hasn’t been a reason to update the made-up word to account for the two-way player’s move to the Dodgers.

Even after a 10-inning, 3-2 loss to the Angels in the opening game of the Freeway Series, the Dodgers lead their division by eight games.

Their 47-31 record is the second best in the National League.

“I have the impression that as a team, everyone is mindful of the long term,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “Even while understanding [the long-term goals], the players know they have to win the game in front of them. There’s some difference in that balance.”

When Ohtani played for the Angels, they were just thinking about now, now, now. They were always in survival mode, and that was only if they weren’t already dead. They never came close to reaching the postseason with Ohtani on their team, just as they won’t again this year without him. They’re just 30-45, already 12½ games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners in the American League West.

How fortunate for the sport that Angels owner Arte Moreno refused to match the heavily deferred, 10-year, $700-million deal offered to him by the Dodgers.

Angels second baseman Michael Stefanic forces out Shohei Ohtani while turning a double play at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

How fortunate for the Dodgers.

How fortunate for Ohtani.

Who knows what Ohtani would have done if Moreno agreed to the same bargain deal he ultimately signed with the Dodgers, but the choice was made for him and he’s now playing games that matter.

By extension, his NL-leading 22 home runs entering Saturday matter in ways his previous home runs didn’t. His 55 runs batted in matter. His major-league-best .322 average matters.

“I think where there will be big differences is in the second half of the season,” Ohtani said. “If we can play our baseball until then, beyond that is a place I haven’t experienced yet, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Ohtani has embraced the responsibility.

He’s historically the most productive in June, and he’s once again making his trademark midseason surge in the MVP race.

He’s homered seven times in his last 11 games, including five times in his last six ahead of Saturday’s series finale with the Angels. He’s batted .500 since replacing sidelined outfielder Mookie Betts as the team’s leadoff hitter.

“My stance is stabilized and I have a good grasp of the strike zone,” Ohtani said. “I think that leads to me hitting hittable pitches.”

Such as the fifth-inning fastball by Angels reliever Matt Moore that he launched for a 455-foot homer on Friday.

The at-bat against Moore started like every other one over the last week, with Ohtani stepping into the batter’s box and touching the bottom point of the plate with the end of his bat. He laid his bat on the ground in line with the third base line, the knob indicating to him where he should place the front of his left foot.

“Having the same stance and standing in the same position is what’s most important,” he explained after a recent game in Colorado. “Depending on the stadium, the thickness of the lines [of the batter’s box] can change. So I don’t want to be off because of that.”

Everything’s lining up for Ohtani.

Finally, he’s on a team that can turn his homers into wins. Finally, he’s on a team that isn’t entirely dependent on him. Finally, he’s on a team that will take him to baseball’s most important stage.

Nao-Eh is no more.