最速の私が見つけた方法は、これまでとのデータフレームを拡張され.iloc、バック割り当てる平坦化されたターゲット列を。
通常の入力が与えられた場合(少し複製されます):
df = (pd.DataFrame({'name': ['A.J. Price'] * 3, 
                    'opponent': ['76ers', 'blazers', 'bobcats'], 
                    'nearest_neighbors': [['Zach LaVine', 'Jeremy Lin', 'Nate Robinson', 'Isaia']] * 3})
      .set_index(['name', 'opponent']))
df = pd.concat([df]*10)
df
Out[3]: 
                                                   nearest_neighbors
name       opponent                                                 
A.J. Price 76ers     [Zach LaVine, Jeremy Lin, Nate Robinson, Isaia]
           blazers   [Zach LaVine, Jeremy Lin, Nate Robinson, Isaia]
           bobcats   [Zach LaVine, Jeremy Lin, Nate Robinson, Isaia]
           76ers     [Zach LaVine, Jeremy Lin, Nate Robinson, Isaia]
           blazers   [Zach LaVine, Jeremy Lin, Nate Robinson, Isaia]
...
以下の代替案が与えられた場合:
col_target = 'nearest_neighbors'
def extend_iloc():
    # Flatten columns of lists
    col_flat = [item for sublist in df[col_target] for item in sublist] 
    # Row numbers to repeat 
    lens = df[col_target].apply(len)
    vals = range(df.shape[0])
    ilocations = np.repeat(vals, lens)
    # Replicate rows and add flattened column of lists
    cols = [i for i,c in enumerate(df.columns) if c != col_target]
    new_df = df.iloc[ilocations, cols].copy()
    new_df[col_target] = col_flat
    return new_df
def melt():
    return (pd.melt(df[col_target].apply(pd.Series).reset_index(), 
             id_vars=['name', 'opponent'],
             value_name=col_target)
            .set_index(['name', 'opponent'])
            .drop('variable', axis=1)
            .dropna()
            .sort_index())
def stack_unstack():
    return (df[col_target].apply(pd.Series)
            .stack()
            .reset_index(level=2, drop=True)
            .to_frame(col_target))
私はそれextend_iloc()が最速であると思います:
%timeit extend_iloc()
3.11 ms ± 544 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100 loops each)
%timeit melt()
22.5 ms ± 1.25 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100 loops each)
%timeit stack_unstack()
11.5 ms ± 410 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100 loops each)