11 former Wildcats crack ESPN's Top 100 NBA player rankings for 2023-24

Surprise, surprise — former Kentucky players continue to dominate the NBA landscape.

Throughout the week, ESPN has slowly unveiled its Top 100 NBA player rankings for the upcoming 2023-24 season, which officially tips off on Tuesday, Oct. 24. The Top 100-51 was released on Tuesday with a pair of one-time Wildcats making the list, before seven more were included in Wednesday’s Top 50-11. On Thursday, ESPN listed the Top 10, which featured even more former Kentucky hoopers.

Coming in at No. 10 is Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis, who moved up 10 spots from his ranking ahead of the 2022-23 season. A couple of spots ahead of Davis is someone with massive expectations for the upcoming season — Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who landed at No. 8, an impressive 40-spot leap from last season.

The NBArank top 10 is here 📈

Full list ➡️ https://t.co/TiXODqNBfc pic.twitter.com/3hjwV8ROFg

— ESPN (@espn) October 12, 2023

In total, ESPN projects that former Kentucky players will make up over 10 percent of the league’s 100 most impactful players going into this season. Even more impressive, one-time ‘Cats account for 28 percent of the Top 25 ranked players. In total, 11 Wildcats cracked the Top 100. That’s a lot of blue and white.

• No. 92 | Immanuel Quickley (New York Knicks) Previously: NR
• No. 79 | Tyler Herro (Miami Heat) Previously: No. 61
• No. 45 | Julius Randle (New York Knicks) Previously: No. 71
• No. 42 | Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers) Previously: No. 44
• No. 23 | De’Aaron Fox (Sacramento Kings) Previously: No. 54
• No. 20 | Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves) Previously: No. 13
• No. 17 | Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets) Previously: No. 50
• No. 16 | Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat) Previously: No. 23
• No. 11 | Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns) Previously: No. 10
• No. 10 | Anthony Davis (Los Angeles Lakers) Previously: No. 20
• No. 8 | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder) Previously: No. 48

According to ESPN, these rankings aren’t based on pure talent. Instead, it’s more focused on how impactful a player projects to be for their respective team this coming season. “ESPN’s NBArank panel, composed of nearly 150 reporters, editors, producers and analysts, was asked to rank players based on their predicted contributions — quality and quantity — for the 2023-24 season only.“

With that in mind, Davis and Gilgeous-Alexander project to be two of the top 10 most impactful players this season. And it’s hard to argue against that.

After only appearing in 40 games during the 2021-22 season, Davis, now 30 years old, bounced back with a slightly healthier run in 2022-23 with 56 games played. During that time, he averaged 25.9 points and a career-best 12.5 rebounds per outing. Alongside LeBron James, expectations are going to be sky-high once again for the Lakers. After finishing last season on an impressive run down the stretch that included a Western Conference Finals appearance, Los Angeles expects to contend for another deep playoff run. With James inching closer to 39 years in age, the production load is going to be even heavier for Davis in 2023-24, but he should be up to the task if he can remain healthy — a big if considering his injury history.

As for Gilgeous-Alexander, his ranking will shock some, but it’s well-earned. He was an All-Star and First-Team All-NBA member last season after posting per-game figures of 31.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.6 steals on shooting splits of 51.0/34.5/90.5. The 6-foot-6, 25-year-old point guard is one of the craftiest players in the NBA and nearly impossible to speed up or down. He’s one of the few guards who can break down a team without shooting a single three-pointer. SGA finished 5th in MVP voting last season for OKC and then went on to be the best overall player at this past summer’s FIBA World Cup for Team Canada. He’s only just now entering the prime of his career.

Another stat that stands out about all of these former Wildcats is how Davis is the only one who is 30 or older. Quickley (24), Herro (23), Maxey (22), Fox (25), Adebayo (26), Booker (26), and Gilgeous-Alexander (25) are all 26 years of age or under. They’re only going to keep getting better.