This is the fourth annual NBA Player Tiers project, in which Seth Partnow names the top 125 players in the league after each season and then separates them into five distinct categories of value, each with their own sub-categories to further delineate them. These are not meant to be read as firm 1-125 player rankings. Rather, they’re meant to separate solid starters from the very best superstars, and every level in between. This is how NBA front offices assess player value across the league when building their teams.
Previous NBA Player Tiers: ’20 | ’21 | ’22 | ‘23: Tier 5| Tier 4
Now into the NBA’s Top 40, this is the group where I start to think of players as “stars.” Using the rubric used by many teams — as with many aspects of NBA life, this has been exported around the league by former members of the San Antonio Spurs front office — these are “Core”…