Lillard is somewhere in the top 30 with Conley at 31. Anyone know what Tony Allen and Wesley were ranked?
If you could randomly sprinkle him in with the other top 29 players throughout the league, the team who got Batum would think they got royally fucked. We're all homers here, but in our heart of hearts we know it's true.
I will say, though, that Batum may be the best role player in the league. That's both a compliment and an insult.
He's got the athleticism, length and intelligence to be a top 20 player. It's just kind of a shame he can't take advantage of his natural gifts to become that guy. It's a little like being 6th man of the year more than once. It means you are a good player, but not good enough for the coach to reshuffle everything to make you a starter.
Lillard ranks as the average best player on a team, but on the Blazers he's the 2nd best by rank. If Aldridge were injured and replaced with an average 5th man, we'd still have average starters. 1 Aldridge 2 Lillard 16 (0.5 + 1=1.5 vs. 2.5): average 1st man, but he's our 2nd man 3 Batum 52 (1.7+1=2.7 vs. 3.5): average 2nd man, but he's our 3rd man 4 Wes 83 (2.8+1=3.8 vs. 4.5): slight below average 3rd man, but he's our 4th man 5 Lopez 92 (3.1+1=4.1 vs. 5.5): top 4th man, but he's our 5th man =============== 6 Blake 221 (7.4+1=8.4 vs. 6.5) 7 CJ 222 (7.4+1=8.4 vs. 7.5) 8 Kaman 237 (7.9+1=8.9 vs. 8.5) 9 Robinson 241 (8.0+1 = 9.0 vs. 9.5) =============== 10 Wright 269 (9.0+1=10.0 vs. 10.5) 11 Barton 329 (11.0+1=12.0 vs. 11.5) 12 Leonard 356 (11.9+1=12.9 vs. 12.5) Portland Team Rankings also listed at ESPN Forecast Panel has 210 members
