An update to Charcoal's post: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13723434/team-team PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS X. Damian Lillard X. Mason Plumlee X. Ed Davis X. C.J. McCollum X. Al-Farouq Aminu X. Meyers Leonard 176. Gerald Henderson 194. Noah Vonleh 269. Maurice Harkless 280. Chris Kaman 326. Allen Crabbe 365. Phil Pressey 393. Pat Connaughton
So, Henderson and Vonleh at 176 and 194. It will be interesting to see where Batum gets ranked. After his season long shooting slump last year, he should move way down, but is still, apparently the second best player n Charlotte's roster. Doesn't really matter, we didn't get Vonleh for the immediate impact he'll have this year. It will be interesting to see how far Vonleh moves up the list in 3 or 4 years when he's still only 22 - 23 years old. BNM
Interesting note: 30 teams, 8-man rotation per team makes 240 players. So, how many "tight" 8-man rotation players do we have? Eight. So, in terms of top talent, the hundreds of people polled by ESPN thinks we have a legit team. Of course, we likely to be shy at the very top, but it is interesting nevertheless. edit: 6 in the top 160 (or better), or 6 players in the top 5.3333 per team. Put another way, the conventional wisdom among a lot of people is that we have 6 starting quality players. Pretty damn good considering that all of the players haven't reached their potential.
These rankings a year ago had their own thread. Someone should align last year vs. this year, line by line. In other words, what was the league rank of our 7th-best player, then vs. now, etc. To say that, we'd need 6 in the top 150, not 160.
Ha! Look at some of the names that didn't even get into the top 400. JJ Hickson, Hedo Turkoglu, Kendrick Perkins...
It will be interesting to see how the remaining rankings shake out, but I wouldn't put too much stock in the fact that we will have 8 players ranked in the top 200. Boston will also have 8 players ranked in the top 200. They play in the weakest division of the weakest conference and will probably still lose more games than they win. This just illustrates how your top 2 or 3 players are WAY more important than your next 4 or 5. Depth is nice, but it's still a superstar driven league. GSW will only have 7 players in the top 200, but obviously be way better than POR or BOS. The key here is to see how many of our young players, currently ranked in the top 200 move into the top 100, or better, top 50 in the next 2 - 3 years. BNM
Up from 222 last year And, I didn't see anyone mention Meyers Leonard at 159 - up from 356 last year. That's a pretty healthy (perceived) improvement. It's funny to go back and read this thread from this time last year and see how people thought Meyers was ranked too HIGH at 356 and were absolutely indignant that Thomas Robinson was ranked WAY TOO LOW at 241. Well, now Meyers is up to 159 and T-Rob (three teams later) is down to 271. BNM
One has per 36 averages of 14/11/.6blks PER of 14.8 Other has per 36 averages of 14/14/1blk PER of 15.3 Both totals from last year. It's funny to me that people who so quickly discard one, think the other is a gold mine. Overall the gold mines simple numbers are worse
Didn't really need these rankings to tell me this, but putting our roster up in a list like that just reveals how awful we will be this season. CJ might be our second best player. Do we have any players outside of Dame who are even top 15 at their position?
There's something called the eye test. They have both been in the league for three years. One is a year younger than the other and has shown marked improvement in multiple areas of his game. The other, a year older, has shown absolutely zero improvement in any area of his game and has bounced around from team to team to team (now on his 6th NBA team). Since you like stats (when they serve your purpose), consider this: Meyers Leonard put up a PER = 19.6 in the playoff series against Memphis, who has one of the best front courts in the entire NBA. That's an improvement in PER of 27.4 over his previous year's playoff performance. Yes, this is a small sample size (106 minutes), but what, exactly, has Thomas Robinson accomplished in a similar sample size (122 minutes) of post season play? Anyone who can't see the improvement Meyers Leonard has made has his head firmly and stubbornly buried in the sand (or some other dark place). There's a reason 5 teams have given up on Thomas Robinson. He has shown no significant improvement in any aspect of his game. He still relies on his athleticism (admittedly, he's very impressive athletically) to make an occasional spectacular play block or dunk), but is still the same fundamentally flawed project he was when he was drafted. He blows defensive assignments, doesn't know the offensive plays, doesn't have a single low post move, makes stupid, unforced turnovers, commits stupid fouls and can't make a FT to ave his life. Does Meyers Leonard also blow defensive assignments and commit stupid fouls and turnovers? Hell yes (but at least he makes his FTs), but he has shown improvement in these areas. During his first and second seasons, looked like a deer in the headlights. During his third season, and especially the playoffs, Meyers Leonard actually looked like he belongs on an NBA court. Those people who so quickly discard one, include 5 NBA GMs who have traded, cut are let him walk. The person's opinion that matters, has decided the gold mine was worth hanging onto. So far, he looks to be right. Bottom line: Meyers Leonard is a year younger and has shown significant improvement. Thomas Robinson has not. That's why one's stock is trending up and the other's stock is trending down. BNM
Honestly, MM's point still stands. Neither has had a good season of basketball. In fact, Biebs hasn't been in anyone's rotation for an entire year. While I am optimistic that he will show that he's a good player given the chance to be in a rotation for all of this year, I am a blazer homer. The idea that he has a lot of trade value right now seems like a dubious proposition, regardless of his rep around here.
My original point has nothing to do with his "rep around here". His ranking of 159 (moving up from 356) has NOTHING to do with the opinions of posters in this forum. It's based on a poll of over 100 media members on the expected quality and quantity of each player's contributions in the upcoming season. Those same 100+ voters ranked Thomas Robinson 271, down from 241 last year. It's not just the perception of the posters on this forum that Meyers Leonard has improved significantly and Thomas Robinson has't. That's the consensus around the league. BNM
Again, I was comparing him to Thomas Robinson who also hasn't spent an entire in anyone's rotation. Yeah, Meyers is kind of the flavor of the month after his breakout playoff series against MEM. Sure that's a very small sample size (as was his regular season performance in APR (9.4 PPG, 7.9 RPG in 22.2 MPG). So, his performance is certainly trending upward. The good news is the more minutes he gets, the more his numbers go up. For most guys who have never been part of a rotation, the trend is usually in the other direction. Guys who pad their stats during garbage time see their numbers go down when playing meaningful minutes against quality competition. Meyers' best numbers came in his most meaningful minutes against top notch competition. So, that's encouraging, but no guarantee the trend will continue upward. Guess we'll see. BNM
Finally! Somebody else sees the light and isn't blinded by their fandom! The truth shall set you free FAMS!
Plumlee is a top 15 center. Unfortunately, center is the least important position in today's NBA. So, that might not mean much. BNM
