11 former Wildcats crack ESPN's Top 100 current NBA players list

shai-nba-champ — Jun 22, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) after winning game seven of the 2025 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Over 10 percent of the 100 best players in the NBA played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.

That’s what the folks over at ESPN believe, at least. The worldwide leader spent the week unveiling its annual Top 100 players list. A panel of over 150 experts was asked to vote on player vs. player matchups from over 20,000 possible pairings by answering the question: “Which player will be better in 2025-26?”

That question saw 11 former ‘Cats crack the top 100 (or the top 95, technically), with nine of them included among the top 50. The latter figure is even more impressive — 18 percent of the 50 best players in the league this season once suited up for the blue and white. Dive in below to see where ESPN ranked them all, along with how much they rose or fell in the rankings compared to last season’s results.

2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) | +2
14. Anthony Davis (DAL) | +1
16. Devin Booker (PHX) | +1
21. Bam Adebayo (MIA) | -3
27. Karl-Anthony Towns (NYK) | +3
28. Tyrese Maxey (PHI) | -9
35. De’Aaron Fox (SAS) | -9
42. Julius Randle (MIN) | +6
46. Jamal Murray (DEN) | -15
68. Tyler Herro (MIA) | +8
95. PJ Washington (DAL) | NR

The only player ahead of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the Thunder to a championship while winning MVP and Finals MVP along the way, is Denver’s Nikola Jokic — an understandable order. While most agree SGA had the better season in 2024-25, you won’t find nearly as many who will say that Jokic isn’t still the better overall player. The Serbian big man is a three-time MVP who will contend for a fourth this season next to Jamal Murray, who (somewhat surprisingly) saw the biggest drop in his ranking among UK players.

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We have to give a shoutout to PJ Washington, who had his best season yet for the Mavericks in 2024-25 and will team up next to Anthony Davis, still a top 15 player, in the frontcourt this season. Heat guard Tyler Herro probably could have been bumped up a few spots after being named an All-Star for the first time last season, but I won’t argue it too hard. The only ranking I take real issue with is Tyrese Maxey falling nine spots.

Maxey’s efficiency suffered a bit last season, but that can mostly be attributed to the 76ers’ team-wide, season-long injury issues. Maxey was forced to do the vast majority of the scoring, and he did just that with a career-high 26.3 points per game. But he did nothing last season, at least in my eyes, to warrant such a drop in his ranking. Perhaps he was ranked too highly going into last season, but even with a healthy team around him, expectations will be high for Maxey in his sixth year as a pro.

NBA training camp officially begins on September 29.