The Basketball Field Guide is an independent collection of NBA scouting reports inspired by the basketball almanacs and reference books that used to show up every year before the internet ate everything. The idea is pretty simple: give every player a detailed scouting report, some grades, and enough personality that reading about the 11th guy on a roster doesn't feel like homework.
The current Field Guide is based primarily on the 2025-26 NBA season. The goal is to evaluate what a player actually looked like during that season, not what he did three years ago or what we think he might become three years from now. For players who missed most or all of the season because of injury, a small number of supplemental reports use the most recent meaningful NBA sample available, and those reports make that clear.
The main Field Guide includes players who logged at least 250 NBA minutes during the 2025-26 season. There are also a few supplemental reports for notable players who didn't reach that threshold because of injury. Otherwise we'd have a basketball field guide where you couldn't look up Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard or Tyrese Haliburton, which would be a little weird.
Grades are relative to NBA players, not basketball players in general. Everyone on this site is already absurdly good at basketball. A D here does not mean someone should start updating his LinkedIn profile. The basic scale runs from AAA, reserved for the very best of the best, down through AA, A, B, C and D, with pluses and minuses providing some extra separation. An average NBA starter generally lives somewhere around the B range, while AAA is supposed to be rare.
No. The grades use the same NBA-wide standard. A center doesn't automatically get a great shooting grade because he shoots well for a center, and a point guard doesn't get bonus points for being able to dribble. The idea is to describe how good each skill actually is relative to the league. Context still matters, obviously. Basketball would be a pretty dumb sport to scout without context.
No. Basketball skills don't all matter equally, and their importance changes depending on the player and his role. Overall grades are evaluations of the player's total value and impact, not the result of feeding all the individual grades into a calculator.
No. The Field Guide gives players grades, but there isn't a secret 1-through-454 ranking hiding underneath them. Two players with the same Overall grade aren't necessarily interchangeable, either. They may get there in completely different ways.
The reports use publicly available basketball statistics and reporting. Stats are useful, but this isn't meant to be a spreadsheet wearing a fake mustache and pretending to be a scouting report. The numbers are evidence. The actual evaluation still requires some judgment.
Nope. The statistics are facts. The scouting evaluations are opinions based on those facts, available evidence, and basketball analysis. Reasonable people can look at the same player and disagree. Frankly, arguing about whether somebody deserves a B+ or an A- is part of the fun.
Because basketball is entertainment, and scouting reports don't have to read like appliance manuals. The Field Guide tries to be fair, but it isn't trying to be humorless. If somebody shoots 27 percent from three, there are only so many polite ways to describe the situation.
There's no rigid update schedule. This is an independent hobby project, not a newsroom with 14 people frantically updating the backup center rankings at 2:00 in the morning. Major errors and corrections can be fixed as they're found, and future editions or additions may come along when they make sense.
Please do. With hundreds of players, thousands of statistics, and an unreasonable number of words about basketball, something will eventually sneak through. Send corrections, questions, or other feedback to basketballfieldguide@gmail.com.
No. The Basketball Field Guide is independently produced and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NBA or any of its teams.