Where the Sixers' Joel Embiid ranked in ESPN's top 100

ESPN's complete 14th annual Top 100 Player Rankings for the 2024-25 season have been released. The Worldwide Leader's panel of experts was asked “Which player will be better in 2024-25?” for player-versus-player matches with more than 15,000 possible pairings to determine a ranking.

The first half of the top 100 ranking can be found Here (although no electricity Sixers were presented). Most of the remaining half released Wednesday, the remaining top 10 debut on Thursday. As expected, Joel Embiid is featured in the latest issue.

The top of the rankings is rounded off by the following players:

10. Anthony Edwards

9. Kevin Durant

8. Joel Embiid

7. LeBron James

6. Stephen Curry

5. Jayson Tatum

4. Shai Gilgeous Alexander

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo

2. Luka Doncic

1. Nikola Jokic

Embiid is having a career season, averaging a monstrous 34.7 points, 11 rebounds and 5.6 assists in 33.6 minutes of play. However, his 2023-24 season was limited to just 39 games – he missed a good portion of the season due to a torn meniscus in his left knee.

The stats alone show that eighth place is a pretty low ranking considering the production. Tim Bontempts, who wrote the blurb explaining Embiid's ranking, stated that injuries were a big reason why he fell five spots from last year's ranking:

“Biggest question for 2024-25: A common theme here: Can Embiid stay on the court while returning to last season's dominant form? Throughout his career, he has said time and time again that he just hopes to make a full playoff run with a clean bill of health. And while there have been a lot of bad breaks along the way, the simple fact is that they haven't happened yet. If Embiid makes it through this season healthy, he could easily climb back into the top five of this list next season. But what if he can't? At stake for the 2023 MVP is falling out of the top 10.”

The Sixers and Embiid have made a point of keeping him fresh and rested throughout the season. It has been noted that Embiid will rarely, if ever, play back-to-back games and it is expected that Embiid will be under control throughout the year in hopes that his health peaks at the right time for the NBA postseason.

A healthy Embiid campaign and successful playoff run could make these rankings look silly a year from now. Time will tell.