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The NBA today is at its most inclusive juncture ever. Of the 240 players with guaranteed contracts in the league during the 2017-18 season who made the playoffs, an all-time high 62 of them were from countries other than the USA, representing 33 different countries.
Much of that has to do with other countries moving further along their basketball trajectories, but a lot of this can also be attributed to the number of foreign-born basketball players currently enrolled in the US education system and playing high school and college basketball from their teenage years.
The following is a list of the top 10 international players in the NBA today:
#10 Goran Dragic
Prior to February this year, Dragic was part of a list of players who've been named to an All-NBA team in their careers, but not to the All Star Game. That changed with John Wall and Kristaps Porzingis' injury withdrawals, which paved the way for the Slovenian to mark his first bow at All Star weekend festivities last season.
Dragic was the best player on a Miami Heat team which has plenty of good defenders but relies almost entirely upon its star point guard for offensive shot creation. With Dion Waiters absent for nearly all of last season with injury, Dragic was the only player who was able to create his own shot on the entire Heat roster on a consistent basis.
The Heat will go as far as Dragic can take them in the Eastern Conference playoffs as they are currently constructed. As a franchise player for a playoff team, Dragic is completely deserving of his spot among the top 10 international players in the NBA today.
#9 Marc Gasol
Gasol was the only impact player on the Grizzlies not to miss major time last season, but with the team imploding around him, he played his fewest MPG since 2010-11 and turned in a career-low 42.0 field goal percentage as Memphis fell out of the playoffs for the first time in 8 years.
With running mate Mike Conley healthy again and an infusion of young talent, Gasol should be re-energized to return to form as one of the best defensive, passing and shooting big men in the NBA. His addition of a legitimate 3-point shot will serve him well in the twilight years of his NBA career, as the league moves more and more towards a perimeter-oriented offense.
Hopefully, the Grizzlies will be able to bring some of the old Grit n Grind magic back in an era that values 3-point shots more than effective post-up play.
#8 Ben Simmons
Young LeBron, as The King himself has heralded the #1 pick from the 2016 NBA draft, was already a top-25 player in the league last season. As a rookie (even though a lot of fans may disagree with the definition), he was displaying Magic-like court vision and his ability to get to the rim is really quite reminiscent of LeBron.
One could argue that his ball-handling skills are better than either of those two all-timers even as of now. His defensive abilities at NBA level are seriously already better than Magic Johnson, and the All-Defensive First Team selection that he's set as a target for himself for the upcoming season does not look the least bit out of his reach.
Whether or not he develops a jumpshot, Simmons will be, at a bare minimum, a supersized Rondo who can guard all 5 positions on court if he reaches his peak. Which is why it is a good sign that he has developed some semblance of a jumpshot this summer according to all the open run footage that we've taken a look at.
Expect him to vault himself into the league's truly elite by the end of this season.
#7 Karl-Anthony Towns
Towns played the best basketball of his life last season, helping the Minnesota Timberwolves stay afloat in a playoff berth following injury to Jimmy Butler in late February. Towns ranked 14th among all players in field goal percentage for the 2017-18 season, converting 54.5% of his attempts.
The truly mind-boggling stat, however, is his 3-point percentage: Towns ranked 6th among all players with a conversion rate of 43.8% from downtown at one point, and finished at a percentage of 42%. He is also a really good free throw shooter, ranking 2nd among all centers with a conversion rate of 85.3% from the charity stripe.
Towns was the first center to average over 40% from 3-point territory. In addition, he is also the only player to post totals of over 100 3-pointers and 1000 rebounds in the regular season in the history of the league.
A bad playoff campaign, however, has relegated him to the #7 position on a list that he is on track to rise higher on by the end of the season.
#6 Al Horford
Al Horford is the best two-way player on the Celtics roster, despite Kyrie Irving's significantly improved defense last season under Brad Stevens. Last season, he owned the highest net rating among all starters on the Celtics at 7.2, primarily because of his defensive attributes.
His defensive rating was a stingy 101.1 points per 100 possessions - 6th among all frontcourt players. He ranked 8th in defensive win shares per game among starters, and his defensive rebounding percentage of 20.1% led all Celtics at the end of the season.
These statistics are also borne out in live evidence. Despite fouling infrequently, Horford contests all shots and makes them that much tougher for the offensive player to score off. He is very good at covering perimeter players on switches, and he averages over a block per game.
In addition, Horford is second only to Jokic as a passing big man, and a more reliable scorer and shooter from long range. Horford is the do-it-all player who has raised the floor of the Celtics ever since signing in 2016, and at the age of 33, still looks in the best form of his career.
#5 Nikola Jokic
The only center in the last 50 years to average 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, as Jokic did through last season, is one Wilt Chamberlain. To call Nikola Jokic merely 'the biggest passing big man in the game', however, is a classic case of selling international players short.
Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest non-USA basketball player of all time in the NBA, but all signs from Jokic's first 3 NBA seasons point to him having all the talent to able to match the legacy of the sharpshooting 7-footer who changed the perception of international prospects in the draft forever.
Jokic is a better defender than his white 7-footer image will currently allow him to be given credit for, and is fully worth the supermax extension that he's signed with the Nuggets to tie him to Mile High City fans for the next 5 seasons.
#4 Rudy Gobert
The Stifle Tower is one of the biggest success stories from the 2013 NBA draft class. After spending much of his rookie and sophomore seasons in reduced roles, Gobert has emerged as a big factor in the Jazz's return to playoff contention in the last 2 seasons.
Nobody protects the paint quite like Gobert, who contested a league-high 10.2 shots at the rim per game in 2016-17. Though Draymond Green won NBA Defensive Player of the Year, it was Gobert who led the league in defensive real plus-minus, finishing with the best mark by any player over the past three seasons.
Gobert's impact was so pronounced on the Jazz's fortunes that the franchise emerged from 10th in the Conference at 19-28 to win 29 of their last 35 games in 2017-18. The reigning DPOY winner looks set to be the best defensive big man in the game for years to come.
#3 Kristaps Porzingis
In terms of breakout seasons, Porzingis was having a vintage one before going down to injury last season. Freed of Carmelo Anthony's shadow at the Garden, the Zinger excelled as the Knicks' first option on offense at the start of the year, earning his first All Star Game nod in the process.
A stretch 4 in the Dirk Nowitzki mould, Porzingis has all the tools to be a truly transcendental rim protector - which he was for most of last season in games that he appeared in, ranking among the league's top shotblockers.
While it is unclear how many games he'll appear in this season, the fact that he became a genuinely elite two-way force last season cannot be ignored while factoring in the best international players in the league today. If he manages to make a comeback with full fitness, he is fully capable of justifying his #3 spot on this list.
#2 Joel Embiid
As long as we're considering Anthony Davis as a power forward (even though he's likely to be the Pelicans' default starting center this season), the notion of Embiid being the game's best two-way center should be counted as quite valid.
There's a lot to like about Embiid's game. He has the whole package on offense, thriving the most in the traditional sense from the low post region, but with the ability to stretch defenses out to the 3-point line. He's an adequate playmaker, devastating rim-runner, a willing screener and one of the best pick-and-pop roll men in the league.
After a healthy offseason for the first time in 4 years, Embiid has the chance to climb up the echelons of the NBA's elite. The Sixers are well and truly back to days of success, and Embiid is the one providing the biggest impetus to this movement. TRUST. THE. PROCESS.
#1 Giannis Antetokounmpo
The 2016-17 NBA campaign was a coming-out party of sorts for The Alphabet. Antetokounmpo became the youngest player in NBA history to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks 2 seasons back, before almost repeating the feat by leading the team in 4 of those categories in the 2017-18 season.
We've literally never seen anyone quite like him - Antetokounmpo's combination of per-possession points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks is unprecedented among NBA players. Now just imagine what he'll be able to do once he adds an outside shot - an aspect of his game that he already seems to have put significant work on this offseason given what we've seen in preseason action.
The sky is the limit for Giannis, who looks set to take over from LeBron as the best player in the league before long.
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