For the sixth season in a row, ESPN.com is ranking the top players in the NBA. Who will be the best player this season?
To get the final ranking, we asked our expert panel to vote on pairs of players.
LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Durant. Damian Lillard vs. Chris Paul.
We asked, "Which player will be better in 2016-17?" To decide, voters had to consider both the quality and the quantity of each player's contributions to his team's ability to win games.
We'll roll out the rest of our top 200 players over the next two days. 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.
On to the list ...
17. John Wall
Insider profile: After the bitter disappointment of a playoff elimination while Wall was hampered by a broken wrist, expectations were high for him to build on a stellar 2014-15 and vault into the top-10 players in the league. It didn't happen that way. Rather than becoming a monster in the Wizards' new space-and-pace system, Wall was hampered by knee issues and regressed on defense as part of a larger Wizards collapse on that end. Wall was shut down when the Wizards' scant playoff hopes were dashed at the end of the season. He eventually had two surgeries, one to remove calcium deposits from his left patellar tendon and a less serious arthroscopic lavage on his right knee. Wall has declared himself 100 percent to start the season and looked good in preseason. Read more »
#NBArank 11-20