Now? Probably. By 2017 Aldridge might not even be a Blazer. I think it's reasonable to assume that Dame could be our best player in 2017, so our best player won't even be in the top 30?
In theory, the Heat have 3 guys top 30. So 2 teams can't have their best player be in the top 30, as the math works out.
Some other teams will. I think that's the reasoning. All this will change if Lillard steps up his game and clearly becomes a top 15 player in the West. Just sayin.
Why does this one rookie have to be ranked that high today? 4 year vets are significantly more effective players than rookies.
Wouldn't the rookie of the year have a good chance of being one of those players? This isn't a ranking of today's players its four years from now. A ranking of #42 for Damian is a joke.
Andre Drummond the 3rd best player in the world in 4 years, behind only Durant and LeBron? Really? Yes, he's big and has potential, but he's played a total of 60 games at 20 MPG. And, forget Shaq and Wilt, Chris Dudley was a better FT shooter. BNM
If you say so. What's his ranking now? Top 100? If so, to move to #42 is a big jump, eh? Peoples' rankings may well change after another season if Lillard shows a nice upward progression as a player. If he sticks at a ~16 PER, #42 might be too high. If he puts up a PER over 20, I think #42 or better.
So you think there were nearly 100 players better than Lillard last year? Well obviously #42 is a great improvement by that metric I guess you’re a Lillard lover. Lillard clearly was the Blazers second best player and arguably had a better 2013 season than all-star LaMarcus. With the worst bench in NBA history Portland should feel lucky to have a better record than any team. They had a record of 20-15 at one point; and 33-36 in late March, quite amazing indeed. There were only 29 players who put up a 20+ PER. It includes players such as Andray Blatche, Anderson Varejao, Brandan Wright, Al Jefferson, and JaVale McGee. Hopefully with a lot of hard work in four years Lillard can improve so he’s as good as those guys.
Where do you rank him this year? I think top 100, like I said. Some guys are great at putting up gaudy (16 PER isn't gaudy tho) stats on losing teams. I still say he will change peoples' minds if he shows improvement toward the upper tier of players (over 20 PER).
Heres my ranks for last season if players were healthy. A lot of guys were injured which would probably move Lillard into the 30's as obviously he was better than fellow rookie Anthony Davis or non-playing Derrick Rose. 1 LEBRON 2 DURANT 3 PARKER 4 PAUL 5 HOWARD 6 IRVING 7 DIRK 8 CURRY 9 KOBE 10 ROSE 11 CHANDLER 12 WESTBROOK 13 MELO 14 WADE 15 DUNCAN 16 HARDEN 17 DERON 18 HORFORD 19 ALDRIDGE 20 PIERCE 21 NOAH 22 MARC 23 RONDO 24 HIBBERT 25 WALL 26 SANDERS 27 IGGY 28 DAVIS 29 JOSH 30 LOVE 31 HOLIDAY 32 BOSH 33 KAWHI 34 GARNETT 35 DENG 36 GEORGE 37 ZBO 38 GRIFFIN 39 LAWSON 40 GALINARI 41 MILLSAP 42 IBAKA 43 AK47 44 LILLARD
Lillard did lead the entire league in minutes played. I don't believe that's been done by a rookie in a very, very long time. You have to take the big minutes into account when you evaluate his utility this last year. Every extra minute he played kept an inferior bench guy on the bench. Going forward you have to figure that as he plays 32-35 mpg like most NBA point guards, he'll have higher per-minute productivity. There's a reason why even with all the great PG's we have in the league now only 6 of them play more than 35mpg. There's severely diminishing returns at that point in efficiency, and Lillard likely suffered from that last season.
I didn't know where to post this and since he's on this list, I'll just do it here. HIBBERT IS HUGE NOW
This list is worse than the shit espn posts.... Edit: just realized the date on this. Im Sure they would all be higher after this season.
Bwahaha... Yeah, a guy who needs the ball in his hands, but isn't a threat to score is going to be All-NBA. Right. I've been saying this about Rubio since he first came into the league, a PG who can't shoot AND can't finish at the rim, is a major road block to success in today's NBA. All the Minnesota fans that "adore" Ricky claim he's a great passer who makes his team better. The fact is, he's a flashy passer with a good, but not elite AST% who turns the ball over way too much and can't score to save his life. In the past, they've used the injury excuse for why their team consistently underachieves. Well this year that excuse was no longer valid and they still missed the playoffs and finished with a losing record. They were HORRIBLE at finishing close games, and that was largely Rubio's fault. With the game close, in the 4th quarter, other teams backed off Rubio, clogged the passing lanes and dared him to shoot. He had so little confidence in his ability to shoot the basketball (justifiably so) that he became totally useless and ended up getting benched in the 4th quarter of close games in favor of JJ Barea. If you look at the Clutch Statistics (4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points) at 82games.com you will see that the Timberwolves were outscored by 71 points with Rubio in the game and the game on the line. That's an appallingly bad -25.0 net points/48 in clutch situations. Now, compare that to Damian Lillard, a guy these idiots ranked 12 spots LOWER than Rubio. The Blazers outscored their opponents by 95 points with Lillard in the game and the game on the line. That's +23.1 net points/48 in clutch situations. This is why Lillard is an all-star on a team that won 54 games and made it to the second round of the playoffs, and Rubio is a liability on a team with a losing record. This is also why you shouldn't turn to sbnation for your basketball coverage. Relying on these guys for projections of NBA players is like asking the guy who mows your lawn for stock tips. BNM
