Top 100 NBA players next year: Who could crack the list for 2026-27?

Every year, CBS Sports ranks better Top 100 players in the NBAAnd every year, we inevitably miss some of the most important players for the following season. takes Last year’s list For the 2024-25 season. Most improved player Dyson Daniels? Unclassified. Rockets star Amen Thompson? Unclassified. Ivica Zubac made a late-round All-NBA selection. However, he did not make our list of the top 100 players in the sport.

Inevitably, we end up with a little egg on our faces. We correct this after a year, of course, but the nature of the exercise practically necessitates the presence of errors. We cannot see the future even if the list purports to look forward to it. Players often make the roster based on projected future performance, but if we knew for sure which players were destined to improve, well, maybe teams would try to hire us because they don’t know for sure either. One of the fun things about the beginning of the season is seeing players who break out unexpectedly.

So, today we are going to try to find out. The following 10 players did not make our top 100 list. But for one reason or another, they are players who can make us look foolish if we leave them out, then end up making next year’s list as an apology. Of course, there are some pretty obvious candidates for a list like this, so to make it more interesting, we’re going to exclude a few people. For starters, there are no 2025 starters eligible here. We didn’t even watch them play. We also hold back No. 1 picks in the first five years of their careers (sorry Zaccharie Risacher) and Rookie of the Year winners (long Stefon Castle). There’s no fun in predicting when players like this will make the leap.

No, we’re looking for a little deeper cuts here. This list includes only one top-five pick on his rookie contract, and he has played less than 1,000 games. NBA minutes. Meanwhile, we have two undrafted free agents, two veterans at No. 4 NBA teams Another third-round pick, a late first-round pick with less than 400 minutes to his name. So, here are 10 players, some with clear paths, others coming out of nowhere, who could break into the top 100 next year.

Grimes could easily have made this year’s list. He averaged nearly 22 points per game as a 76er…but he did it as a 76er, which means he did so with the more aggressive carriers last season. Were those empty calories? Or signs of real growth? We’ll find out this season as Grimes tries to integrate into a healthier and hopefully more competitive Philadelphia team than the one he played on last season. Given his experience as a 3-and-D wing in New York, he should be perfectly capable of sliding into the backfield for the Sixers. Combine the role-player skills from his years with the Knicks with high-level scoring in March and April, and you have a top-100 player who is a no-brainer.

Are we cheating a little by leaving out the No. 1 pick in 2024 while accepting the No. 3 pick? Maybe, but Zachary Reichacher played real minutes last season. Sheppard didn’t do that. Now, with Fred VanVleet out, he’s going to have to. Fortunately, he is in the perfect position for his skill set. The Rockets can cover for his size on defense and likely won’t ask him to handle the ball much. But they are desperate for a shot at him, and he should be able to get good looks in an offense led by Kevin Durant and Alberin Sinjon. Elite shooting can get a player into the top 100. Payton Pritchard is the obvious counterpart. We don’t know if Shepard is ready for it or not, but the Rockets wouldn’t have taken him third if they didn’t think he could get there.

Everything lines up for Sharpe this season. It was an outstanding training camp by all accounts. He has Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard in the building as mentors. Portland appears to have solved their defensive problem. What he needs is a primary scorer up front, and with Scott Henderson out early in the season, Sharpe won’t have competition from another high-level lottery pick. This is his moment to prove he can be a starter. He has athletic talent. If he can consistently hit 3s and improve his decision making, he is clearly a top 100 candidate for next season and will likely be the most improved player this year.

At his peak in 2021, Deandre Ayton ranked 51st on our list of the 100 greatest celebrities. We weren’t abnormally high on him either. The Pacers gave him a max offer sheet, and then the Suns matched it. He has the tools to be a high-level starting center. Lately, he hasn’t had the motivation. But how many times have we seen a down-on-his-luck veteran join LeBron James’ team and suddenly rediscover his old magic? Is Ayton really that different from 2020’s Dwight Howard? He is in perfect condition now. Between James, Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic, he’s never had more playmaking around him. If it doesn’t motivate him to play harder and do the dirty work, he won’t do anything. But if we get the 2021 version of it in the year of the contract? It’s not hard to imagine him returning to the roster next year.

Matas Bozlis showed almost every significant skill at some point last season. His handle needs work, but was impressive for a rookie of his size. He was an average player in the league last year with reasonable size, which few would have expected, and a defensive playmaker with truly impressive ability. But you’re not here for those things. You’re here for 6-10 guys with crazy jumps throwing monster jams. The other things are what he needs to be a good NBA player. The hope is that he continues to grow as a ball player, and that his shooting continues to grow. If that happens, he has star potential. But those things take time. What we will definitely see this season is this athletic giant who runs and possesses elite shots for one of the fastest teams in the league. He’s already a nerd favorite. He’ll be a social media darling soon too.

Our top 100, especially the bottom half, is full of 3D RPG players. Nickeil Alexander-Walker has never been a full-time starter and has snuck into last place. Ellis didn’t get the widespread exposure Alexander-Walker did on a contending Timberwolves team because he was stuck with the Kings, but he’s an extremely aggressive defender at the point of attack and has made just under 43% of his 3s in his three NBA seasons. If he played for a regular team, he would have made the roster by now. If he continues like this, not even the Kings will be able to keep him out of future editions.

The past year has given fans a new appreciation for a very specific type of player: those who can’t play significant minutes for reasons of style and durability but absolutely own the minutes they do play. Think Steven Adams in Houston last year, or Ty Jerome in Cleveland. TJ McConnell nearly won the Indiana championship in 18-minute increments. You can make credible arguments for any of them on the list under the logic that they are definitely among the top 100 players in the NBA on a per-minute basis. The player I’ll be paying attention to this season is Lonzo Ball, a match made in heaven for a Cleveland team that was in desperate need of more transition creativity and on-ball defense. If Paul can give the Cavaliers 20 quality minutes every night, the specific things he brings will be so valuable that there will be a strong case for putting him back in the top 100.

A lot of the components we’ve touched on apply here to other players. New opportunity? Checks. Without Tyrese Haliburton, someone needs to handle the ball more for Indiana. Contract year? Checks. A good year could bring Mathurin a lot of money. Lineage project? Checks. Mathurin was the No. 6 pick, and even if he runs hot and cold, the playoffs showed how valuable he is when hot. If you can score in the mid-20s against Oklahoma City’s historic defense multiple times in the Finals, there’s a valuable player hiding in there somewhere. Now, with the Pacers having a gap year, we’ll see if Mathurin can figure that form out on a more sustainable basis.

I promised you deep cuts, didn’t I? Shannon barely played last year…but Minnesota trusted him enough to give him real minutes in the Western Conference Finals. Alexander Walker is gone and someone has to take over his role off the bench, but with Mike Conley aging quickly, there will also be a great playmaking opportunity available to Minnesota’s young players if they can seize it. Rob Dillingham, as the top pick, would be the obvious suspect. He is younger and has more of a theoretical side. But Shannon is immediately playable on offense and was surprisingly gritty defensively for a rookie in low minutes. If you can score consistently without taking away other important skills, you can become a very valuable player very quickly. That’s the argument here. Shannon will have a bigger role this season to showcase the rest of his game, and there were signs last year that were very promising.

Our longest long shot, and I mean that literally, Huff has a 7-5 wingspan. There is a huge void at the position in Indiana, and their system relies on having a big man who can shoot. Huff was over 40% last season with 12.4 attempts per 100 possessions. He’s also a solid shot blocker and a showman as a dunker. Is he likely to be a top 100 player? Absolutely not. C’mon, he was barely a rotation player. But you know someone is coming out of nowhere in Indiana this season. Rick Carlisle has a blank 82-game slate to work with, and Huff offers the cheapest possible version of Myles Turner’s skill set. The Pacers will give him every chance to succeed. He’s essentially under contract through 2028, so if he’s a diamond in the rough, the Pacers will have him for the price of a ring for the foreseeable future.