2014 ESPN NBA Rank

[BimboColesHair]

Pretty damn good for an undrafted guy to be ahead of 1st round picks in the same draft, even if this list means nothing.

 

[Nathan S]

Hmmm...Ridnour over Wolters? Guess we can excuse these voters for not having watched the Bucks last year

 

[David.]

All of these people ranked below Alonzo Gee. All of them. And their parents will see that. Not cool, ESPN.

331 Alonzo Gee | Sacramento Kings SF | Age: 27 | 2013 rank: #241 | 3.04
336 Brendan Haywood | Cleveland Cavaliers C | Age: 34 | 2013 rank: #315 | 3.00
342 James Jones | Cleveland Cavaliers SF | Age: 33 | 2013 rank: #398 | 2.92
348 Drew Gooden | Washington Wizards PF | Age: 32 | 2013 rank: #331 | 2.88

376 Earl Clark | Free agent SF | Age: 26 | 2013 rank 214 | 2.62
379 John Lucas III | Cleveland Cavaliers PG | Age: 31 | 2013 rank 298 |2.60
389 Sergey Karasev | Brooklyn Nets SG | Age: 20 | 2013 rank 314 | 2.48
391 Ryan Hollins | Los Angeles Clippers C | Age: 29 | 2013 rank 426 | 2.46
394 Wayne Ellington | Free agent SG | Age: 26 | 2013 rank 277 | 2.44
399 Sebastian Telfair | Oklahoma City Thunder PG | Age: 29 | 2013 rank 349 | 2.42
402 Antawn Jamison | Free agent PF |2013 rank: 266 | 2.40
406 Shannon Brown | Miami Heat SG | 2013 rank: 285 | 2.37
407 Henry Sims | 76ers C | 2013 rank: NR | 2.36
429 Erik Murphy | Cleveland Cavaliers PF | 2013 rank 446 | 2.14
443 Carrick Felix | Utah Jazz SG | 2013 rank: NR | 2.04
454 Joe Harris | Cavaliers SG | 2013 rank: NR | 1.90
460 Andrew Bynum | Free agent C | 2013 rank 100 | 1.87
464 Donald Sloan | Indiana Pacers PG | 2013 rank 486 | 1.82
484 Will Cherry | Toronto Raptors PG | 2013 rank: NR | 1.58
486 Alex Kirk | Cleveland Cavaliers C | 2013 rank: NR | 1.56
487 Dwight Powell | Cleveland Cavaliers PF | 2013 rank: NR | 1.56
489 Scotty Hopson | Houston Rockets SG | 2013 rank: NR | 1.54
498 Jack Cooley | Utah Jazz PF | 2013 rank: NR | 1.37

havent laughed at a basketball joke ever. thanks

 

[Douglar]

In the last three seasons, the high 200's was a spot to find 1/2 the starting rotation. This year? Not so much.

There's the only player from today's unveil--

277 Marreese Speights | Golden State Warriors PF | Age: 27 | 2013 rank: #233 | 3.48

When the 76ers drafted Speights in 2008, I was relieved. I had the feeling that if he fell to the Cavs, Ferry would have to to draft him based on potential, and I'd have to watch for the next 4 years as Speights predictably turned into a low BBIQ player that never reached his ceiling. Instead the Cavs drafted JJ Hickson. And then 4 years later, in the spring of 2012, we got to see about three of the best weeks of basketball Marreese every played before falling back into old habits. Those three weeks were great Mr Speights. I thank you.

 

[Douglar]

Yesterday Pelton did a write-up on what player attributes are over & under rated by #NbaRank. He found that the voters underrated Steals, Free throws, & Philadelphia players while voters over valued midrange shooting & volume scoring. Curiously, some people don't like the PER stat because it tends to over rate volume scoring. My take was that Hollinger did that on purpose to make PER match up more closely with the average fans expectations.

Today Doolittle followed up with another article that provided some specific examples of underrated players. Interestingly, ex-cavalier Henry Sims showed up on the list. Hollis suggests that while #NBArank has Sims rated as a min salary NBA journey man, his analysis predicts Sims to be a legit NBA rotation player this season. I'm not a big fan of the way Doolittle goes about things all the time, but it is nice to see Sims get some love in print.

Hawes was clearly the better talent in the trade that sent Sims to Philly, but we were not likely to keep Hawes long term. It would have been nice to see Sims continue to develop in the wine and gold for another year so I was a bit sad when Sims was sent packing. Sims was playing like I had hoped Zeller might some day. I wasn't crying tears or anything, because that train wreck of a team had beaten most of the emotion out of me weeks before that, and Sims looked like a replaceable player, but he was essentially a rookie who seemed to have earned his 8 minutes a game by playing well, unlike all of last year's squadron of under performing draft picks & acquisitions, all of whom have been thankfully traded away. It's always fun to watch an undrafted rookie get some traction in the NBA.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/stor...thompson-most-underrated-players-#nbarank-nba

Kevin Pelton covered some of the categories that generate these differences of opinion between the polling and the metrics, and his comment on the undervaluing of the Sixers is telling. Yeah, Philadelphia is awful right now. Historically so. That doesn't mean every player on the roster is awful. Some of those players, removed to a better situation, would suddenly be perceived as valuable. Sims (#NBARank No. 407) and Thompson (No. 420) both showed up in the debut of this year's Forecast results, which is the group you don't want to be in. It overstates matters.

Thompson was ranked No. 156 by NBAPET, while Sims came in at No. 179. Thompson ranked No. 431 in Wins Above Replacement (WARP) as a rookie, so #NBARank voters have a reason to distrust him even though he logged over 1,700 minutes for the woeful Sixers. Rookies who play that much tend to get better, which is why SCHOENE gives him a 64 percent chance at doing just that. Remember, both sets of rankings are meant to be forward-looking. As it was, Thompson posted a plus-0.4 mark in offensive RPM, mostly because of his solid 3-point shooting.​

 

[6.19.2016]

Am I inferring right that they consider Bennett a top-240 player?!

 

[Douglar]

Am I inferring right that they consider Bennett a top-240 player?!

Looks that way since we just saw :

260 | Otto Porter | Washington Wizards SF | Age: 21 | 2013 rank: 207 | 3.60​

Even though Bennett had a crappy season, ( and a crappy summer league IMHO) , Bennett did show a higher ceiling than Porter did last season because he's got better physical gifts. I don't think it is a huge stretch of the imagination that Bennett could be a decent rotation player on a winning team some day if he has the right support system. If he plays for the Wolves like he did for the Cavs in February, he might even deserve a spot in the top 200 this season.

The whole Bennett situation was such a mess that I'm glad he's gone. It was a no-win year to get the number 1 pick, but if Bennett was drafted at #15 in any year, he would have probably been considered a good solid pick. As it is, Bennett is always going to be a disappointment because of the fact that he was a #1 pick. Well, that and his weaker than weak decision making, but I think JJ Hickson has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can carve out a decent career in the NBA based on physical gifts alone, regardless of BBIQ.

 

[Douglar]

And here we are, 9 spots ahead of the #3 pick from last season, and 8 spots below Martell Webster, comes the player who had the worst relationship with Byron Scott ...

251 | Omri Casspi | Sacramento Kings SF | Age: 26 | 2013 rank: #288 | 3.73

 

[Nathan S]

Looks that way since we just saw :

260 | Otto Porter | Washington Wizards SF | Age: 21 | 2013 rank: 207 | 3.60​

Even though Bennett had a crappy season, ( and a crappy summer league IMHO) , Bennett did show a higher ceiling than Porter did last season because he's got better physical gifts. I don't think it is a huge stretch of the imagination that Bennett could be a decent rotation player on a winning team some day if he has the right support system. If he plays for the Wolves like he did for the Cavs in February, he might even deserve a spot in the top 200 this season.

The whole Bennett situation was such a mess that I'm glad he's gone. It was a no-win year to get the number 1 pick, but if Bennett was drafted at #15 in any year, he would have probably been considered a good solid pick. As it is, Bennett is always going to be a disappointment because of the fact that he was a #1 pick. Well, that and his weaker than weak decision making, but I think JJ Hickson has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can carve out a decent career in the NBA based on physical gifts alone, regardless of BBIQ.

Love handles don't count as physical gifts Doug

 

[Douglar]

Bennett didn't crack the top 200 like he did last year. He was the only one in this group that dropped compared to 2013.

209 | Anthony Bennett | Minnesota Timberwolves PF | Age: 21 | 2013 rank: 133 | 4.17
211 | C.J. Miles | Indiana Pacers SG | Age: 27 | Stats | 2013 rank: #270 | 4.16
223 | Ramon Sessions | Sacramento Kings PG | Age: 28 | 2013 rank: #229 | 4.00
234 | Tyler Zeller | oston Celtics C | Age: 24 | 2013 rank: #250 | 3.96

 

[shoes22]

I disagree with Bennett being ranked ahead of CJ Miles.

 

[kevin02]

I disagree with Bennett being ranked ahead of CJ Miles.

And Ramon Sessions and Tyler Zeller

 

[Pioneer10]

Miles is a good player. He may be dinged because of injuries but no way deserves to be behind Bennett

 

[Douglar]

Miles is a good player. He may be dinged because of injuries but no way deserves to be behind Bennett

Maybe it's because Miles is a known commodity, while Bennett has to be better than we saw last year.

Miles should be getting a lot of minutes this season after the GP leg break. He'll probably look really good in the Indiana system where they desperately need someone to start Chucking Jumpers. It's a better spot for him than Cleveland would have been.

Bennett should also be doing better now that he's in Wiggins' shadow on a team that needs a mobile big man who can stretch the floor.

 

[Douglar]

Today's former Cavs players:

181 | J.J. Hickson | Denver Nuggets C | Age: 26 | 2013 rank: #127 | 4.48
193 | Andre Miller | Washington Wizards PG | Age: 38 | 2013 rank: #151 | 4.38
197 | Jarrett Jack | Brooklyn Nets PG | Age: 30 | 2013 rank: 115 | 4.35
198 | Mo Williams | Minnesota Timberwolves PG | Age: 31 | 2013 rank: #169 | 4.32