Is Our Top 99 NBA Players Ranking Fair or Disrespectful To Stephen Curry and the Warriors?
Bleacher Report refreshed its preseason player rankings for the NBA this week, and the three biggest-named Golden State Warriors all found themselves lower than they were several months ago.
Stephen Curry went from No. 5 to No. 10, Jimmy Butler slid all the way from 17th to 75th, and Draymond Green went from No. 54 to No. 89.
Is this just the natural decline of an older team still chasing the glory of previous years? Was the panel fair to slot these three in where it did? Or was it unfair to move the trio down this far?
We examine the placement of all three, based on the individual circumstances of each and relative to the players around them, below.
Stephen Curry
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Current B/R 99 Rank: 10
Preseason Rank: 5
It's fair to wonder about Curry's age (he turns 38 in March) and the fact that he's missed the Warriors' last five games (and six of their last eight), but this slide down the rankings still feels like it went a bit too far.
If you put Curry in a group of four with the three guards immediately above him (Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell and Cade Cunningham), he leads it in points per possession, effective field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and threes per possession.
He's not piling up the other numbers quite like the younger guards, but Curry's game and impact have always transcended stats.
To this day, no one sends a defense scrambling out to the three-point line (either in the halfcourt or transition) quite like Curry does. And the attention he commands outside makes life dramatically different for teammates who share the floor with him.
Now, Cade is the best player on the team with the best record in the league. He's undoubtedly a better (or at least higher-volume) creator and distributor. And Donovan Mitchell has nearly erased the efficiency gap between himself and Curry, while also being less of a liability on defense.
It's probably fair to say either or both have passed the legend.
But Curry has been better and had a more positive impact on his team's point differential than Ant for the bulk of this season. And it's still more than reasonable to have Curry ahead.
Verdict: Curry's too low (but probably not by much).
Jimmy Butler
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Current B/R 99 Rank: 75
Preseason Rank: 17
This one's tougher to nitpick, based purely on the fact that Butler is going to miss the remainder of this season (and probably a decent chunk of the next one) recovering from a torn ACL.
His injury may prove the league's most consequential of this entire season. He was playing like a top-10 player before he went down. His impact on the Warriors' plus-minus dwarfed Curry's. At the risk of disrespecting his game in an article about whether or not he was disrespected, he was maybe the NBA's best gap-filler.
And if he was still active, 17th would actually be too low.
But again, Butler won't play for the next several months. And when he returns, he'll be 37 and coming off an ACL repair. There's simply no way to know what he'll look like or how he'll perform the next time he's on the floor.
If anything, keeping him in the top 100 might be a little generous.
Verdict: Given the injury, this move is fair.
Draymond Green: 54th to 89th
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Current B/R 99 Rank: 89
Preseason Rank: 54
This one might be a little generous, too.
Among players with at least 400 minutes this season, Draymond is outside the top 200 in Basketball Reference's box plus/minus and Dunks and Threes' estimated plus-minus, just inside the top 200 in Bball Index's LEBRON and outside the top 300 in ESPN's net points per 100 possessions.
In other words, if that many different catch-all metrics don't paint you as a top-100 player this season, you probably haven't been.
Green turns 36 in March. At that age, his lack of top-tier athleticism, inconsistent jump shot and general inability to threaten defenses as a scorer have finally caught up with him.
He probably still has some value as one of the smartest defenders in the league and as a plus distributor for his position. But Draymond being in the top 100 probably has more to do with his name than how he's performed in 2026.
Verdict: This is more than fair to Green.
Final Verdict: Fair
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The only ranking of these three that you can really have an issue with is Curry's. And even with him, there are decent arguments to keep all nine of the players ahead of him in their place.
Philadelphia 76ers fans might even have a legitimate gripe about Tyrese Maxey being behind Curry.
And given the fact that Butler isn't going to play the rest of this season, and that Golden State has actually been better with Green off the floor, you can't really get your hackles up over their spots either.
In general, the Warriors' new placements are fine. This is just what happens to players as they age into their late-30s. Even legends—all of them—eventually prove mortal.
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