Top 33 NBA Players 33 or Older
The future is bright, but the past is brighter.
Time and the Old Women, Francisco Goya, 1810
Last week, we gave a big dose of respect to the youngest generation in the NBA by ranking out the top 23 players age 23 or younger.
I believe strongly in respecting your elders, so as a counterweight to that, here is a preseason list of the top 33 players who are at least 33 years old. For this we’re using the birth year of 1989 as our cut-off: if you were born in the ‘80s, you’re eligible. (There are no players born in the ‘70s still in the league.) That means that if you’re 32 but turning 33 by the end of the calendar year, you’re good. If you were born in 1990 but will turn 33 in the second half of this season? No dice.
You need to be on an NBA roster, too. Carmelo Anthony is unsigned so he’s ineligible — we don’t know if he’s going to be in the NBA this season so he can’t be the top anything active right now. Other notable unsigned players include Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap and Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
Brief FIBA Women’s World Cupdate! The United States beat Serbia by 33, much closer than their average game in this tournament. China and Australia have advanced on the other side of the bracket. The Americans will face Canada in the semifinals TONIGHT (3 AM Eastern, damn time zones) on ESPN2 and ESPN+. China vs. Australia is at 5:30 AM Eastern Friday morning. The championship and bronze games are Friday night/Saturday morning.
Brief NBA preseason alert: The first game of the NBA preseason hits before you will receive Friday’s newsletter. It’s the Warriors vs. the Wizards in Tokyo at 6 AM Eastern on Friday on NBA TV!
Alright, here are the top 33 NBA players fighting Father Time, with brief blurbs. Note: this is a ranking looking at this season and going forward, not a ranking based on what they’ve done. To be clear, LeBron would be No. 1 with a bullet if this was a “legacy” ranking. This is more of a “sign one of these players for a multi-year contract right now” type ranking.
33. Garrett Temple
A rotation player and veteran locker room presence for the upstart Pelicans. If you see a video on the timeline that is labeled as Temple talking about something off-court, you should unmute it. Despite having played only nine games for Milwaukee a dozen years ago, possible one of the Most Bucks Players in the league?
32. James Johnson
A slam dancer in basketball sneakers. Now with the Pacers, if you’re curious.
31. Joe Ingles
Before his injury last season his three-point shot had slid, but I’m going to choose to blame the vibes in Utah for that slippage. Eager to see how Mike Budenholzer slots him into the Bucks rotation as we approach the playoffs.
30. Danny Green
Still Danny Green! Now a Grizzly. The oldest Grizzly, actually, by a margin of more than six years.
29. George Hill
George Hill plays a lot of minutes for a really good team.
28. Andre Iguodala
I assume Iguodala won’t play much in what he’s indicating will be his final season, but the vibes are immaculate and he actually did a thing or two in the playoffs last year. No offense to the players below him on this list; this is one where legacy and locker room presence gets enough extra credit to set on-court production to the side.
27. Goran Dragic
The lesson of Dragic’s NBA career is that he should only be trusted in warm weather cities (Phoenix, Miami). He’s playing in Chicago this season.
26. Jeff Green
Uncle Jeff! What a career. Eternally the seventh most important player on a title contender.
25. JaVale McGee
I just love the career renaissance of The JaValevator and I hope Luka Doncic knows what he has here. How many of the Lakers’ problems would have been solved had they just kept McGee after the bubble title? [touches earpiece] Oh, I’m hearing that the Lakers’ problems after the bubble title are so legendarily vast that not even JaVale could have fixed them. My mistake.
24. Wesley Matthews
Wes Matthews went undrafted and on the cusp of turning 36 is probably going to play 20 key minutes per game for what could be the best team in the NBA. And he’s really relied upon in Milwaukee. Helluva career.
23. Thad Young
I will forever rank Thad Young too high. Sorry not sorry.
22. Lou Williams
Lou’s illustrious career is coming to a close as a lightly used bench firebrand for the Hawks. Fun fact: Lou Will was born in 1986, the same year as Kyle Lowry, Al Horford and Rajon Rondo. Lou Will has played 100 more NBA games than any of those guys.
21. Markieff Morris
Kieff is a slight question mark after missing much of 2021-22. He’s on the Nets now, and that’s a good fit for him. We’ll see!
20. Marcus Morris
The other Morris twin started 54 games for the Clippers last season, and I’m assuming his role will decrease given Kawhi Leonard’s return and L.A.’s awesome depth. Marcus Morris does his job. That’s worth something in today’s NBA: knowing your role and fulfilling it.
19. Nicolas Batum
Batum slides over teammate Morris on account of the defensive responsibility he often takes, though again, we’ll see how that evolves in the rebooted Clippers ecosystem. Ty Lue knows how to leverage talent the right way.
18. Patrick Beverley
No. 18 on this list, but a first team all-talker easily. A walking 8-4-3 with five fouls. That is NOT an insult.
17. Kevin Love
We all loved the Kevinessance as a reserve scorer last season and I hope it continues. Is there a veteran bench duo more beloved in the NBA than Love and Ricky Rubio? I’m still mad at David Kahn and Kurt Rambis.
16. Derrick Rose
Rose is quite productive and could be higher up this list … if he could stay on the court. Just 26 games last year, now more than 51 in the prior three years, 25 the year before that. Just a lot of DNPs. Still an able scorer and playmaker when he is out there, though.
15. Mike Conley
Are the Jazz going to start Mike Conley at the beginning of the season? Because he can still play. Is Utah — clearly tanking hard for Victor Wembanyama — going to run out an opening night starting five of Conley-Collin Sexton-Jarred Vanderbilt-Lauri Markannen and either Kelly Olynyk, Walker Kessler or Udoka Azubuike? With Jordan Clarkson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Malik Beasley and Talen Horton-Tucker off the bench? Because … I kind of mess with that. Definitely not worse than the Spurs’ rotation.
14. Patty Mills
You know who got messed up the most by Apocalypse Nets last season? Patty Mills, who came in with a theoretical defined role perfectly suited for his abilities and instead ended up playing clean-up around the team’s Kyrie Irving shaped mess in the backcourt. More than 70% of his shots were threes, and he hit 40% of them. Good player, good role … if the Nets allow him to stick in it.
13. P.J. Tucker
P.J. Tucker! What a career. We know he’s close with James Harden already. I think Tucker is going to get along extremely well with Joel Embiid, too. P.J. Tucker!
12. Russell Westbrook
I just want the best for Russ at this point. And I think The People, for the most part, want the same. Excluding the trolls. A reputational rebound and widespread sympathy for his plight is brewing. I can feel it. The dude plays extremely hard all of the time. He’s idiosyncratic in a few ways that negatively impact his team, but unless you root for the team he’s on, it’s easy to forgive stubborn self-belief given how much of himself he puts out there. Westbrook forever, unabashedly.
11. Bojan Bogdanovic
Like I wrote earlier this week, the Pistons are putting together something interesting, and Bojan might have one of those wild scoring seasons as a result.
10. Brook Lopez
If it seems weird to have Bropez this high up, remember how pessimistic we all were about the Bucks’ chances last season when Lopez was out of the lineup. He’s super important to their overall defense and floor spacing. And that’s one area Milwaukee didn’t address at all this offseason. Hugely important for maybe the best team in the league.
9. Al Horford
Speaking of being hugely important for one of the best teams in the league! The last few years of Al Horford are incredibly illuminating, and show the massive importance of fit and role in team-building. On the Sixers, Horford was completely miscast. On the Celtics, he’s a perfect match. Weird!
8. Kyle Lowry
Miami had a disappointing playoff finish after a bizarre regular season that saw them win the No. 1 seed with Lowry missing 19 games, Jimmy Butler missing 25 games, Bam Adebayo missing 26 games and Victor Oladipo playing less than 200 minutes. Lowry is the same player he’s been since the middle of his Toronto tenure: tough, productive when he needs to be, smart, wiley, tough, a walking quote, a fit-in guy, tough. And yet … I have no idea what to do with Miami.
7. DeMar DeRozan
DeRozan’s throwback season for the Bulls went up in flames late through no fault of DeRozan. Just a truly remarkable season I hope he can replicate. The Bulls are in trouble given Lonzo Ball’s ailments but DeRozan and Zach LaVine can certainly keep the team in most games.
6. Chris Paul
On the one hand, CP3 looked like crisp toast by the end of the Mavericks series. On the other hand, he went 14/14 from the floor in a close-out game in the first round. I’m chalking up CP3’s second round sinkhole to the Mavericks’ smart defense and Luka Doncic’s torture chamber. Plus whatever else was going on with the Suns. Which is still sort of unclear. CP3 is still a maestro, most of the time.
5. Jimmy Butler
No one has more bravado and personality, and Butler totally backs it up with his play. A true joy to watch and, like DeRozan, a counterrevolutionary to the current three-point heavy paradigm. Butler had leaned into the three-pointer thing a few years back with Chicago and Minnesota. He’s decided mostly to abandon that. GOOD. Not everyone needs to take them. Butler is wildly efficient without them, and a great defender, and definitely a figure that, uh, exists in locker rooms and, uh, makes an impact on the vibe wherever he goes.
4. James Harden
James Harden Renaissance Season. Pass it on.
3. LeBron James
LeBron is in my top three all-time — I’ve long had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan battling for No. 1 with LeBron in the mix since 2016, I change my mind based on whose highlights I’ve most recently seen — and until very recently he would have been my answer to the “who is the best player in the world?” question. But he’s starting to get banged up here and there. He’s taking more threes than ever (not necessarily a good thing given his vastly superior shooting efficiency from closer in, though necessary due to the Lakers’ lack of spacing). His free throw rate has dipped noticeably in L.A. The guy is still unreal, still a top-10 player in the NBA even at age 37. He averaged 30-8-6 last season! But I have him third on this list.
2. Kevin Durant
I’m pretty much ignoring the Nets’ playoff series last year. Disaster season, the worst vibes imaginable, trucked by a rising superpower who took Kyrie Irving’s mere presence personally. Durant had a tough series, but I don’t blame it for it. Shrug and move on.
In his Brooklyn time he’s still consistently been one of the top scorers in the league on one of the top shooting efficiencies in the league. He’s played hardnosed excellent defense when the Nets need him to. He’s still hitting threes at a high rate and high volume, he’s still getting to the line a lot, he’s still racking up assists on low turnover rates. Still one of the best five players in the world. Maybe the second best, after Giannis Antetokounmpo. Maybe.
But … he’s No. 2 on this list because since the Achilles tear three years ago he’s played a total of 90 regular season games. He’s getting banged up more than you’d want for a player who turns 34 today. And there’s the whole “trade me” thing. And the “fire my friend the coach and also the GM” thing. All that stuff is bad for a franchise. So he’s No. 2.
Leaving …
1. Stephen Curry
Sure, his 2021-22 regular season performance was a step down from his near MVP 2020-21 year. But the playoffs sort of erased that note, didn’t it? Steph remains extraordinary in the regular season for a player of any age (let alone being 34 years old) and was simply incredible throughout the playoffs. He has a real argument for being the most impactful or second most impactful player in the world (alongside Giannis) given the recent body of work. Just an incredible talent who doesn’t appear to be slowing down much, if at all.
Honorable mentions: Danilo Gallinari (he’ll be higher next year), Rudy Gay, Ish Smith, Taj Gibson, Serge Ibaka, Udonis Haslem.
Be excellent to each other.
Poor Dragic is so low 😩 awesome read tho!