Bleacher Report just came out with their annual Predicting NBA’s Top 100 Players for the coming season post and the league’s international talent dominate the top of their list. Our Boston Celtics own Jayson Tatum comes in at #5 and ranks as the highest American born player.Here’s their Top 10:

• 1. Nikola Jokić
• 2. Giannis Antetokounmpo
• 3. Luka Dončić
• 4. Joel Embiid
• 5. Jayson Tatum
• 6. Stephen Curry
• 7. LeBron James
• 8. Kevin Durant
• 9. Devin Booker
• 10. Anthony Davis

On the Celtics front six of the team’s core seven players made the top 100, while Al Horford gets slighted not only not making the list, but not being included in the 10 honorable mentions.

Some other Celtics observations: Kristaps Porzingis at #43 is Bleacher report betting that he has a healthy yr, while Robert Williams at #89 is kind of a safe we don’t really know where to put him spot. If he’s healthy, he’s better than the 89th best player in the league, but if he doesn’t play the majority of the season (again), he doesn’t belong in the top 100.Derrick White gets recognition for a strong 2023 playoffs, while despite making All-NBA 2nd team, Jaylen doesn’t seem to end up in any national top 10 lists, further strengthening the case that financially speaking Brown is looked at as more of a max contract talent and not a top 10 MVP contender super max player. Of course these national lists are just predictions, and Brown could make a leap this season into that true top 10 MVP talent range.

I still contend that Al Horford’s return and play the past two seasons doesn’t get enough credit. Yes, after shooting lights out from 3 during the 2022-23 regular season, he struggled from beyond the arc in the playoffs, but that can happen to anyone. I saw on multiple occasions even Ray Allen go through multi week shooting slumps.