Despite the amount of firepower at the top of this list, the bottom is probably the weakest out of all 5 positions. That doesn’t mean that it was an easy list to make.
Today, I will rank my top 10 players at the position, with a few honourable mentions thrown in there. It wasn’t an easy list to create, and there are certainly still a few things about the rankings that I’m not 100% sure about, but this is the list.
#10: De’Andre Hunter
2021–2022 Playoff Stats: 21.2 PPG 3.8 RPG 5.2 3PA 46.2 3P%
De’Andre Hunter is a special case, while his playoff numbers look extremely impressive, his regular season numbers alone probably wouldn’t have landed him on this list on their own.
2021–2022 Season Stats: 13.4 PPG 3.3 RPG 3.7 3PA 37.9 3P%
It’s safe to say that Hunter isn’t going to be able to replicate his playoff numbers consistently, but I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. The 2019 4th overall pick has not progressed into the player that everyone expected him to be when he was drafted, but he has proven himself to be an extremely versatile defending wing who can knock down catch and shoot threes consistently.
That’s a valuable player in today’s NBA, and I think he may hit a new peak in the 2023 season. Playing alongside Trae Young and newcomer Dejounte Murray will help shift some attention away from De’Andre, and I suspect that he’ll benefit a lot from it. He has some struggles creating his own shot, but having those two elite playmakers in your backcourt helps make that a lot easier.
#9: OG Anunoby
2021–2022 Season Stats: 17.1 PPG 5.5 RPG 2.6 APG 1.5 SPG
OG Anunoby, also known as preseason MIP player for the past three seasons, is an underrated two-way wing who can defend 1–5 while providing the ability to create his own shot from any place in the offensive zone. His three-point shooting efficiency went down significantly from 39.8% in 2021 to 36.3% in the 2022 season. This is mainly due to Anunoby’s newfound confidence in creating for himself, which meant more off-the-dribble shots than catch-and-shoot plays.
I expect his efficiency to rise to the mean next season, but overall his numbers may dip. While he is a great role player, Anunoby is either going to be the 4th or 5th option offensively this season, depending on how they deploy Gary Trent Jr. With rumours of a trade out of Toronto being a possibility for OG, I think that would be the best situation for his career. He has proven himself to be a 20+ PPG scorer when he gets the opportunity too, and I don't think that that’s too much of a stretch to expect.
#8: RJ Barrett
2021–2022 Season Stats: 20.0 PPG 5.8 RPG 3.0 APG 0.6 SPG
It was a difficult choice to pick between RJ and my #7, but this is what I ended up landing on. In the absence of the Julius Randle that we saw in the 2021 season, RJ stepped up to a new height that we’ve never seen from him in his short NBA career. He wasn’t the shooter from beyond the perimeter that he showed that he could be in the 2021 season (40.1%) but he showed that he can create his own shot as the #1 player on the team.
The 2019 3rd overall pick is set to take another jump with the Knicks next season, but I’m not sure what his ceiling is. He could progress to a 25+ PPG scorer in the next few years, but he also could peak around the 22 PPG range. Like plenty of young wings in the league, RJ has the potential to be a great defensive player as well as the offensive force he has shown that he can be due to his length.
#7: Mikal Bridges
2021–2022 Season Stats: 14.2 PPG 4.2 RPG 2.3 APG 1.2 SPG
Following an appearance in the 2021 NBA Finals, Mikal had the best season of his career in 2022. Finishing as a member of the 1st Team All-Defensive, as well as second in voting for the DPOY, Mikal had an all-around impressive year. While things didn’t go as well in Phoenix as it was expected to this past season, that doesn't mean that Bridges also underperformed in the playoffs.
He, like many others before him on this list, didn't have nearly as good of a season when it came to his shooting from beyond the arc, as he shot just 36.9% compared to an elite 42.5% last season on even more attempts per game. Now that he’s publicly seen as one of the best defensive players in basketball, don’t be surprised if his offensive game takes a jump next season. He should be motivated to do so.
#6: Andrew Wiggins
2021–2022 Season Stats: 17.2 PPG 4.5 RPG 5.5 3PA 39.3 3P%
Andrew Wiggins quickly went from making his first All-Star team to being clowned by the fans of the NBA for slowing down towards the end of the season. He quickly shut everyone up by winning the 2022 Championship while arguably being the second-best player on the Warriors in the finals. His defensive game was at its peak while shutting down superstar Jayson Tatum in the finals, and he was quietly been one of the best defensive wings in the league during the season.
He was a fantastic 3rd/4th option for the Warriors and has proven the majority of his doubters wrong. Next season the Warrior's core will remain the same, and I’ll be extremely surprised if Wiggins didn’t have a season just as good as this one, if not better, in 2023.
#5 Khris Middleton
2021–2022 Season Stats: 20.1 PPG 5.4 RPG 5.4 APG 1.2 SPG
Picking between Khris Middleton and Wiggins was yet another tough choice to make on this list, but the versatility that Middleton has is what puts him here. He’s a tremendous finisher in all three offensive zones while being good enough defensively to hold his own against many Small Forwards in the league. His shot creation ability is impressive, but again, like many SFs on this list, his efficiency dropped in every possible way this year. Beginning next season at 31 years old, Middleton may have started his gradual age regression.
This could also just be a down season after an impressive Championship season in 2021 as the second option. Middleton couldn’t help the Bucks repeat as he missed the second series versus the Boston Celtics due to an injury, but he did make the third All-Star Team of his career. He’s a huge part of the Bucks’ hopes to come back and win another championship in 2023, and they’ll need him at his best and healthiest next season to do so.
#4 Brandon Ingram
2021–2022 Season Stats: 22.7 PPG 5.8 RPG 5.6 APG 0.6 SPG
Brandon Ingram has been a fantastic player for the past three seasons, only getting enough credit to make the All-Star game in 2020. Ingram did not have a fantastic season as the #1 guy on the Pelicans as Zion was out all season with an injury. His efficiency drastically dropped and so did his PPG, which is surprising considering that I expected him to take another leap in his progression this season.
However, in the playoffs, Brandon Ingram averaged 27.0 PPG in the Pelican's shockingly close 6-game series versus the championship favourite Phoenix Suns. I don’t expect him to average 27 next season, but I do expect him to take another leap in his game with most of the attention being off him with Zion's return. Much like most wings in today's game, BI is an extremely long Small Forward who has all the capabilities to be a fantastic defender, but he hasn’t even begun to touch his potential on that side of the ball.
#3 Jimmy Butler
2021–2022 Season Stats: 21.4 PPG 5.9 RPG 5.5 APG 1.6 SPG
There is a humongous gap between Jimmy Butler and Brandon Ingram on this list. Jimmy Gets Buckets is probably the perfect prototype for a Small Forward in today's league. A two-way force that creates his own shot extremely well and is one of the best leaders in the entire NBA. The only hole in Jimmy’s game is his lack of a three-point shot, which in today’s league is a massive hole to fill. He also has struggled to stay healthy in the regular season, as he hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since arriving in South Beach.
Much like Ingram, Jimmy hit a new high in the playoffs this season. Leading the way during a conference finals run for the Heat.
2021–2022 Playoff Stats: 27.4 PPG 7.4 RPG 4.6 APG 2.1 SPG
His stats may have heavily improved, but it’s even more impressive when you consider the fact that he was pretty well injured for the entire playoff run and yet he played through it. His efficiency also jumped in the playoffs, and you could just tell that the effort level immediately went through the roof as soon as Game 1 against Atlanta started. He may have made the All-NBA team if he had remained healthy, but he’s going to continue to be a perennial All-Star and hopefully lead Miami to a championship.
#2: Jayson Tatum
2021–2022 Season Stats: 26.9 PPG 8.0 RPG 4.4 APG 1.0 SPG
Tatum, after just having a breakout season as an emerging superstar while leading the Celtics to the finals, absolutely contended for the first spot on this list. It is reasonable to have him at #1, but I want to see him do this for another season first. Tatum is a two-way, three-level scorer who just won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP as well as making his third straight All-Star Team while making his first All-NBA First team.
An MVP is in his future, as well as a plethora of playoff runs with the Celtics in hopes of bringing home a championship to Boston. He is extremely fun to watch, and with the Celtics only getting better next season I expect Tatum to hit yet another level.
Tatum didn’t have a great finals, especially compared to what was expected of him. Now that he’s gotten a taste of a Finals run, I expect Tatum to enter the 2022–2023 season hungrier than ever to get back to the NBA Finals and get his ring.
Honourable Mentions
Any of these three players could’ve easily made this list, but the position doesn’t go much deeper than that.
Harrison Barnes: 16.4 PPG 4.7 3PA 39.4 3P%
Barnes started the season on a completely different level than he’s shown before in Sacramento, and despite cooling down as the year went on Barnes showed himself as a perfect 3-and-D wing roleplayer that every team in the league would love to have.
Saddiq Bey: 16.1 PPG 5.4 RPG 7.4 3PA
Coming off of an improved sophomore season, Bey proved his shooting from beyond the perimeter is still consistent when shooting off the dribble. With an improvement in his defensive ability as well as casually dropping 51 against the Magic during the season, Saddiq Bey is going to keep improving and will be a key piece for the Pistons moving forward.
Franz Wagner: 15.2 PPG 4.5 RPG 2.9 APG
Almost leading the Magic in scoring as a rookie, Wagner proved to be a draft steal as he finished as a member of the First Team All-Rookie while being the best rookie Small Forward. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take a large enough jump to be in the top 10 next season.
#1: LeBron James
2021–2022 Season Stats: 30.3 PPG 8.2 RPG 6.2 APG 1.3 SPG
It was so unbelievably difficult for me to pick between LeBron and Tatum. As of right now, in my NBA rankings for every position that I made for these articles, LeBron is at 7 and Tatum is at 8. I flip-flopped a lot between switching those two, but purely due to the surprise in the level of scoring from LeBron this season, as well as Tatum’s underwhelming finals, lead to this decision.
Despite the embarrassing reality that the Lakers didn't make the play-in this past season, it’s hard to ignore that he led them by 7.1 PPG while being second in rebounds, assists, and blocks while being first in steals. He tried to drag LA to the playoffs kicking and screaming, which he certainly would’ve done if he didn’t miss 26 games due to injuries, as well as AD missing 42.
Will he be as good next season? Probably not. He is 37 years old after all, Father Time always comes around eventually. But he is LeBron James. A top 2 (or 1) basketball player of all time who to this point in his career has shown nothing but an increase in injuries. Hell, he could be better, who knows.