NBA’s top 10 players 35 and older: LeBron James still near the top entering age-40 season, but he’s not No. 1

With the NBA season quickly approaching, we here at CBS Sports released our annual Top 100 NBA player rankings. Part of what makes the Top 100 so intriguing is looking at all the different ways the information can be broken down. Like assessing who the biggest risers and fallers are from the previous year, to compiling a list of the top 10 players aged 22 and younger.

In that same vein of ranking the Top 10 players by age, while so much focus is put on the young players, the veterans are still so important in the league. The NBA may be skewing younger, with guys getting aged out of opportunities, but there’s still a handful of guys aged 35 and older who are making an impact on the game. 

So it’s only right to look at the Top 10 players aged 35 and older. LeBron James and Kevin Durant are certainly among this cohort, but where do they rank? LeBron’s been the face of the league for more than a decade, but does he hold the No. 1 spot amongst the old guys? Let’s find out. 

10. Chris Paul, Spurs

Age: 39
Top 100 rank: NR. Paul’s decline has been a steady one over the last two years, but we’re not too far removed from him leading the league in assists on a 64-win Suns team. He came off the bench for the first time in career last year with the Warriors, and while he provided the necessary relief for Stephen Curry, it was obvious that other players have passed him. But now he embarks on another adventure, one that Paul is uniquely suited for as he serves as the veteran mentor to Victor Wembanyama and a Spurs team looking to build around a young superstar who projects to be the face of the league in the future.  — Jasmyn Wimbish

9. Al Horford, Celtics

Age: 38
Top 100 rank: NR. I’m actually quite surprised Horford didn’t make our Top 100, but it just shows how much talent is in the NBA. But he’s still amongst the most valuable veterans a team could have, as evidenced from the crucial role he played in Boston’s championship run, earning him his first ring. Despite coming off the bench for most of the season, he was pushed back into the starting lineup once Kristaps Porzingis went down, and had several games where he was one of the most important players on the floor for the Celtics. — Jasmyn Wimbish

8. Brook Lopez, Bucks

Age: 36
Top 100 rank: 88. How often do you hear a fanbase lament its lack of a rim-protecting center that can shoot 3-pointers? The Pelicans have been looking for one for five years. Everyone wants a Brook Lopez. They can’t have one because he’s one of a kind. Short of superstars on max contract, there simply aren’t other centers who take nothing off of the floor on either end while adding quite a bit on both. Lopez leads the league in contested shots every year. The 3-point efficiency waxes and wanes, but he pairs it with enough craft inside of the arc that defenses still have to account for him no matter where he is. He doesn’t pull in rebounds himself, but he’s so smart in his positioning and boxing out that he’s a very valuable team rebounder. He’s the center everyone wants but only the Bucks get to have. — Sam Quinn

7. Mike Conley, Timberwolves

Age: 36
Top 100 rank: 85. Conley will enter the upcoming season as one of the oldest players in the league, but he’s also still one of the most valuable veterans a young team — like the Timberwolves — could have. As he’s done throughout his entire career, Conley acts as the perfect bridge between setting up star players like Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, while also being someone you can’t just ignore when he’s standing beyond the 3-point line. He’s coming off a career year when it comes to his 3-point shooting, and should once again be a key piece on a Minnesota team primed to make another deep run in the postseason. — Jasmyn Wimbish

6. DeMar DeRozan, Kings

Age: 35
Top 100 rank: 53. Even as uncertainty swirled around a Bulls roster that was constantly influx last season, DeRozan was the steady hand guiding Chicago. He kept an otherwise mediocre roster competitive and had the Bulls one win away from earning the final spot in the East playoffs. DeRozan’s mid-range game is as lethal as anyone’s. Last season, he was always consistent, rarely missed games and finished second for Clutch Player of the Year. He’s joining a Kings team this year where his role could change significantly, but one thing that won’t change is him giving you an efficient 15-20 points a night. — Jasmyn Wimbish

5. James Harden, Clippers

Age: 35
Top 100 rank: No. 44. Harden’s basketball odyssey took him to Los Angeles last season, where he joined his fourth team in four years. Despite another change of scenery, that campaign ended as many before it had. In the final two games of the Clippers’ first-round series, both losses, Harden scored 23 points on 28 shots en route to a six-game elimination at the hands of the Mavericks. With Paul George off to Philadelphia this summer, Harden will need to take on a bigger scoring burden than he has in recent years in order for the Clippers to stay relevant in the Western Conference. — Jack Maloney

4. Jimmy Butler, Heat

Age: 35
Top 100 rank: No. 22. Butler is what he is: A great player who paces himself in the regular season in order to produce superstar postseason stretches. The stats fill every column and the impact always adds up. Last season the Heat outscored opponents by 1.7 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass; that number elevated to plus eight points per 100 when Butler was on the floor. The question is: Are the Heat still good enough to give Butler the opportunity to shift into his playoff gear? Or is this a regressing team that might actually look to trade Butler before his next and probably last significant payday? — Brad Botkin

3. Kevin Durant, Suns

Age: 35
Top 100 rank: 9. Durant remains pretty close to the height of his powers. Last season he averaged 27-6-5 on 41% 3-point shooting, and perhaps most importantly, he played in 75 games — by far his highest mark since leaving Golden State. The were rumors that he didn’t love the way he was being used by Frank Vogel. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference Mike Budenholzer makes in terms of Durant’s spots and shots and the way he receives the ball; i.e. in stationary positions or off more of his preferred pin-down screens. Either way, Durant was the best isolation scorer in basketball last season. — Brad Botkin

2. LeBron James, Lakers

Age: 39
Top 100 rank: 8. LeBron James recently became the oldest player ever to win an MVP award in any competition featuring active NBA players when he was named the most valuable player of the 2024 Olympics. This breaks a record that he himself set during the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. Sure, it’s unreasonable to expect the impending quadragenarian to be the NBA’s best player over the course of an 82-game season anymore, but make no mistake, in a smaller sample, there still might not be a single player in all of basketball that inspires more fear in his opponents than LeBron James. It’s not clear how many MVP awards of any variety are still left in his aging body, but when he needs to, he can still summon all of the skill and ferocity that won him his first. — Sam Quinn

1. Stephen Curry, Warriors

Age: 36
Top 100 rank: 6. Curry is still an offense unto himself with his inimitable movement and pure shot-making talent. At 36 years old, it’s hard to see where he’s declined at all offensively, but what we’ve seen is that even as great as an aging Curry remains, he needs better talent around him to make his way back into title contention. LeBron can relate. — Brad Botkin