

None of them were safe commercial bets in fact, their cumulative box office figures might paint a dreary picture of this art form’s commercial viability, but that picture’s only one small piece of a much bigger puzzle. This year, every single finalist for my list of the year’s best surfaced at a major festival and, in most cases, found its way to theaters later on. The film festival circuit provides an ideal alternative to conventional channels for discovering movies worth talking about all year long - and, if they’re lucky enough to land distribution, they quality for year-end celebration on lists like this one. Sure, it was a weak year for movies that stand out mainly due to star power and sizable marketing budgets, but those options represent only a small fraction of the marketplace. To really assess the state of modern movies, one look beyond the obvious. In an age of binge-viewing, a preponderance of must-see premium cable shows and, hell, even smartphone apps that command far more attention most feature-length achievements, the true range of quality cinema is often obscured by the noise of an ever-cluttered media landscape. RedickĬlippers | Guard | Last year: 93 92.Every December it bears repeating: Anyone who thinks this was a bad year for movies simply hasn’t seen enough. Josh SmithĬlippers | Forward | Last year: 53 95. Nerlens Noelħ6ers | Forward | Last year: - 96. Giannis Antetokounmpoīucks | Forward | Last year: - 99. Please feel free to take a look back to SI.com’s Top 100 Players of 2015 and our Top 100 Players of 2014. This year’s list includes each player’s ranking from last year for comparison purposes.

For those interested in understanding more about the ranking process and the limitations of this exercise in general, make a quick detour here. The list of notable omissions is dotted with players both well regarded and largely deserving, though lines ultimately had to be drawn somewhere-in many cases based on extremely minor differences. Naturally, rounding out the top 100 included some tough calls.
