The Ringer’s Bill Simmons shared his NBA top 15 player pyramid for May recently, and it’s proven to be quite controversial. Simmons surprisingly left both LeBron James and Kevin Durant off the pyramid entirely and added some of the rising stars in the NBA instead.
This does seem like Simmons was being a prisoner of the moment. Sure, everyone on that pyramid has shone in this 2024-25 season, but there’s no way you keep James off it.
James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. The 40-year-old was fairly efficient, too, shooting 51.3% from the field and 37.6% from beyond the arc, and was rewarded for his play with a spot on the All-NBA Second Team.
Team success isn’t an argument against James, as it was at points in recent years, either. He led the Lakers to a 50-32 record, which got them the third seed in the Western Conference.
Sure, the Minnesota Timberwolves knocked out the Lakers in five games, but that’s not enough for James to be kicked out of the top 15. You could argue the 21-time All-Star was his team’s best all-around player against the Timberwolves, too, with averages of 25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game.
James’ teammate Luka Doncic is also in the third row of the pyramid, despite how the season ended for the Lakers. So, this doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
Would the Lakers have had a better season if they had Jalen Williams, Cade Cunningham, or Karl-Anthony Towns instead of James? Almost certainly not. James is no longer a top-five player in the NBA, but he still deserves a spot in the top 15.
As for Durant, you can use the team success argument against him. His Phoenix Suns finished 11th in the West this season with a woeful 36-46 record.
Durant averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game for the Suns. He was his usual super-efficient self, shooting 52.7% from the field and 43.0% from beyond the arc.
While Durant does have to take some of the blame for the Suns’ struggles, he was easily their best player. The two biggest reasons they didn’t even make it to the play-in tournament were their defense (27th in defensive rating) and their biggest star missing 20 games.
The Suns were 33-29 with Durant in the lineup this season and 3-17 without him. That shows how valuable he still is despite being 36 years old.
Staying with surprising omissions, you might be wondering why a Boston Celtics fan like Simmons doesn’t have Jayson Tatum on this pyramid. The reason is pretty simple. Tatum tore his Achilles in the playoffs against the New York Knicks and is set for a long spell on the sidelines. Simmons doesn’t put players with long-time injuries on the pyramid, so he’s not on it.
As for the upper portions of the pyramid, Nikola Jokic being on the top isn’t a surprise. The Denver Nuggets have been eliminated in the Conference Semifinals in back-to-back seasons, but you can’t be too hard on Jokic for those early exits.
The man primarily responsible for this latest elimination, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, finds himself on the second tier along with Giannis Antetokounmpo. You can make a case that these two and Jokic are the three best players in the NBA at the moment, so there can’t be too many complaints there.
