CLEVELAND — Debating the top NBA players is basically a holiday season for basketball fans.
Aside from the forever on-going Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debates that never seem to be wanting for more opinions, the dawn of the 2025-26 season has brought with it a new snow flurry of rankings.
USA TODAY compiled composite rankings from 12 expects across the USA TODAY Network to generate a top-25 ranking for the upcoming season. For The Win compiled another ranking using their own criteria, the USA TODAY list and HoopsHype's rankings . Then there's The Ringer's top 100 NBA player rankings .
Here's how we ranked the top-25 NBA player for the upcoming season (which was part of the USA TODAY composite list), with notes on three key Cavaliers included. To note, USA TODAY did not

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