When combing through ESPN's latest countdown of the top 100 NBA players, try to remember one phrase, which is just as applicable to ranking players as it is to building a winning roster.
People see the game better than numbers, but numbers see all the games.
As it relates to NBA Rank 2026, those numbers are a collective of advanced player ratings commonly in use, from ESPN's Net Points to DARKO, LEBRON, EPM and RAPM. Those systems can provide a useful counter perspective to the humans, with their good eyes but occasional biases.
With the full top 100 unveiled for the 2026-27 season, let's examine what the metrics revealed about which player rankings our panelists got right -- and which they got wrong.
Four things NBA Rank got wrong
1. Jalen Brunson (No. 6)
Our last view of Brunson is him carrying the Knicks to a fourth-quarter comeback in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He was tremendous in New York's run to the championship -- but that leads to the bias that he will maintain it.
2026 NBA Rank: The league's top 100 players
• Top 10: Mitchell, Tatum, Cade, Ant... • Nos. 50-11: Ranking LeBron, Curry, Durant, Kawhi • Nos. 100-51: Four rookies make the countdown • NBA Rank debate: Snubs, surprises, top 10 picks • 10 players to watch in NBA Rank... 2027 • NBA team rankings: Three-year outlooks for all 30
He was Finals MVP, but will he really finish the season as the league's sixth-best player? Brunson has always been limited a bit by his size (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) and his defense, something the metrics perhaps see and remember more than the seven panelists remember the late buckets he poured in to win the Finals. Those problems are likely to persist.
I love Brunson's game, but his lofty ranking benefitted not only from recent bias but also from the New York media bias. (That bias might also help you forget that Brunson missed the shot in the most iconic image from the Finals, when OG Anunoby swooped in for the putback game-winner to clinch Game 4.)
The metrics place Brunson around the No. 25 range heading into the season. That's not a huge gap. He's elite, just not No. 6 -- at least not during the regular season.
2. Rookies
Another bias comes from wanting to believe the hype. AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson all make the top 100, but rookies are generally bad NBA players -- predraft highlights don't show the turnovers, or the missed boxouts, or the poor defense.