ESPN rankings

[huskies2raps]

Thanks for posting this as a summary; tough to go through all of the rankings just to hand pick the Raps; I think that Lowry ranking is very promising and although I'm entering this season with cautious optimism (sound familiar?) there is reason to be excited to watch this team play.

If Bargani can step up and everybody can play their respective roles while showing improvement in their areas of weakness last year, it is very possible that a few of the players live up to the rankings and exceed them (looking at you, Derozan and Bargs)

[Sig]

None of these rankings mean jack squat, I'm a little surprised people take them so seriously. If any single one of our guys lands on his preseason ranking number at the end of the year, I'll give you $100. No lie.

I'll take the cash upfront

[tucas]

None of these rankings mean jack squat, I'm a little surprised people take them so seriously. If any single one of our guys lands on his preseason ranking number at the end of the year, I'll give you $100. No lie.

There is usually close to 1 guy per team who stays the same. In which case I'll gladly accept $100 if it happens

[tucas]

I wonder what teams still have players in the top 50...

Lol bobcats don't have a player in the top 100 their best is MKG at like 128 or something and he hasn't played a game.

[Mack North]

Not you two, the OP!

[Sheptor]

Rankings shmankings. If any I our players played for a playoff team in an American city but had the same numbers they would be higher.

Here's to looking towards the future an forgetting the past. This time last year an NBA season wa still I'm doubt. Let's jut be excited for that.

[Sheptor]

Rankings shmankings. If any I our players played for a playoff team in an American city but had the same numbers they would be higher.

Here's to looking towards the future an forgetting the past. This time last year an NBA season wa still I'm doubt. Let's jut be excited for that.

I suck at typing on my phone. Ignore the mistakes

[isaacthompson]

Thought Jose was gonna be in the DeMar range...didn't know he was that well known down in the states!

[Hugmenot]

I wonder what teams still have players in the top 50...

All but Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix, Toronto, and Washington.

[Miekenstien]

it's nothing to base anything on but bargs injury season killed lopez the max contarct man' production per game.

does 6%shooting favour that much into per? compared to lopez' horrid free throw shooting? any ideas why lopez has a 5 point per mark higher?

[AlienOverlord]

Anyone want to check how our bench rankings match up with other benches? I realize these rankings aren't fact but it seems that if we don't even have one player to crack the top 50 I at least hope our average is respectable. If not our future looks bleak since we're not likely to get much more in the draft until the next rebuild (except possibly with luck or amazing scouting) and it's hard to get lots of talent while giving up nothing (though we did it already to get Lowry).

[EasyE]

ESPN does these rankings to bring traffic to their site and keep people talking during a boring part of the NBA year. They're not accurate but all within a reasonable ballpark of where these players actually sit. I don't agree with ranking rookies, it's just silly.

Just for fun, suppose that for each of the 30 teams in the NBA each would get one player from 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and so on, To create "the average team". 1-30 would be your best starter (1S), 121-150 would be your fifth best starter (5S), and 151-180 would be first off the bench (1B), and so on. Rookies will be excluded and assigned an (R). With that in mind, the Raps line up would consist of:

(1S) 1-30: Non
(2S) 31-60: Lowry / Bargnani
(3S) 61-90: Non
(4S) 91-120: Calderon / Derozan
(5S) 121-150: Non

(1B) 151-180: Fields
(2B) 180-210: Johnson
(3B) 211-240: Klieza / Davis
(4B) 241-270: Non
(5B) 271-300: Lucas / Gray

>300: McGuire / Acy / Anderson

In reality
Starters:

PG - 2S (Lowry)
SG - 4S (Derozan)
SF - 1B (Fields)
PF - 2S (Bargnani)
C - R (Valanciunas)

Bench:

PG - 4S (Calderon)
SG - R (Ross)
SF - 3B (Klieza)
PF - 3B (Davis)
C - 2B/5B (Johnson/Gray)

Compared to "the average team" we would have below average starting line up going into this season. Although we're "below average" now, I suspect that all of our starters will improve this year. The question is will we have a top30 player (aka potential Allstar)?
The good news, based on these rankings we would already have an above average bench going into this season. This is exciting considering that both Klieza and Davis should be even better this year.

[Nilanka]

None of these rankings mean jack squat, I'm a little surprised people take them so seriously.

+1

These rankings are meaningless.

[AlienOverlord]

+1

These rankings are meaningless.

They're are meaningless in terms of what our team needs to do this year, but they are somewhat meaningful as a tool to measure the value of our players. At the least it tells us how others view our players talent level and therefore what they are worth in a trade. Of course, this list compiled by all the GMs would be much more meaningful.

[pillowmint]

+1

These rankings are meaningless.

I enjoy the rankings, stupid but fun. I don't have any clue how Galinari ranked higher than Bargnani...thoughts?