It's Year 5 for #NBArank!
ESPN is ranking (almost) every NBA player and counting them down on Twitter (@ESPNNBA), from No. 400 to No. 1.
Who will be the best player this season?
To get the final ranking, we asked the panel to vote on pairs of players.
LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. James Harden vs. Kevin Durant. Kobe Bryant vs. Pau Gasol.
We asked, "Which player will be better in 2015-16?" To decide, voters had to consider both the quality and quantity of each player's contributions to his team's ability to win games. More than 100 voters weighed in on nearly 30,000 pairs of players.
We'll roll out the results during the next five weeks. 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.
Today, we're unveiling Nos. 41-45 on our list -- one at a time every hour -- starting at noon ET.
#NBArank: 41-45
41. Derrick Rose
Chicago Bulls | PG
@drose | Score: 54.7
Last year's rank: 28
2015-16 RPM: -0.58
Insider profile: There may be no harder player to evaluate in the NBA right now than Derrick Rose. Because of the on-again, off-again nature of his post-MVP career, it's hard to separate what Rose was from what he is and what he might have been. If those questions are so hard to answer, how sure can we be predicting what he's going to be? Read more »
42. Rudy Gobert
Utah Jazz | C
@rudygobert27 | Score: 54.6
Last year's rank: 311
2015-16 RPM: 2.56
Insider profile: The key to Gobert's success is his wingspan, measured at a record 7-foot-8½ at the NBA draft combine. Gobert's freakishly long arms allow him to contest and block shots without leaving his feet. If anything, his league-leading block rate undersells Gobert's defensive presence. Read more »
43. Dirk Nowitzki
Dallas Mavericks | PF
@swish41 | Score: 54.3
Last year's rank: 17
2015-16 RPM: 2.86
Insider profile: His 47.5 percent accuracy on 2-point jumpers from beyond 15 feet ranked sixth among players with at least 250 such attempts, per Basketball-Reference.com. The respect opponents have for Nowitzki's ability to make that shot has made the Mavericks one of the NBA's best pick-and-roll teams because the ball handler has a free lane to the basket. Read more »
44. Andrew Wiggins
@22wiggins | Score: 54.2
Last year's rank: 114
2015-16 RPM: -1.93
Insider profile: Wiggins must improve his outside shooting to make defenders pay for not respecting his jab step. When he settled for pull-up jumpers off the dribble, opposing coaches cheered. Per Basketball-Reference.com, 22.5 percent of Wiggins' shot attempts were 2-pointers from beyond 16 feet, twice as many attempts as he had from 3-point range, and he made just 30.5 percent of them. Read more »
45. Khris Middleton
Milwaukee Bucks | SF
@Khris22m | Score: 54.0
Last year's rank: 310
2015-16 RPM: 4.30
Insider profile: Middleton is a prototypical off guard on the offensive end. He moves well without the ball and became a deadly accurate catch-and-shoot player with a quick release and a knack for taking big shots. He shot 51.4 percent on corner 3s last season and also has a nice pull-up game that rated in the top 15 percent of midrange shooters the past two seasons. Read more »