ESPN Top 100 players

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

The biggest joke to me is keeping Jimmy Butler outside the top 10 after last season getting that young team to the finals. I don't get why people won't give him the credit. The dude is a star who let's others shine and tries to fill in all the gaps around them. Look how far we dropped off. Look how far Philly dropped off. They had injuries but they still got swept out of the first round. Putting Tatum above him and I'm sure we'll see some others is laughable to me. Boston had a better overall team and Jimmy beat them.

Siakam also made second team All-NBA and he's down in the 20's lol

I agree with this 100%. Jimmy is just a hair under the top tier and should be top 10.

Who do you remove for Jimmy Butler?

The Caldwell Pope one is pretty bad

9.3 ppg
2.1 reb
1.6 apg

But the worst/most amusing might be John Collins.

21.6 ppg
10.5 reb
.659% TS

Better numbers across the board from the previous season -- but he dropped 37 spots, landing 7 spots behind KCP at #84.

We'll see who's in the top 10. Guessing it's something like this:

Lebron
Giannis
AD
Kawhi
Harden
Steph
Doncic
Lillard
Jokic
Klay

I would take Jimmy over Jokic and Lillard for sure so that puts him at 9. It would be a wash with Klay for me because I really don't know if Klay can be the best player on a good team like Jimmy. As great as he's been on defense and shooting the ball he's never been a playmaker which I think you need as the primary ball handler. I don't think scoring 30 a night and playing good defense without setting up your teammates much would get it done for a high level team. Personally I'd rather have the 20/6/6 guy Jimmy was this year helping other guys cook and get theirs so I'd say they are tied for 8th for me.

Klay won't be ranked. You are forgetting KD.

I'd take Jimmy over KD coming off that injury. KD is not gonna be KD this year. When you severely mess with an NBA player's foundation (feet, legs, knees, etc.) they just don't come back the same for a while. And at his height KD may just become the next Dirk at his age and be a go to scorer who can't really move or defend well.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The biggest joke to me is keeping Jimmy Butler outside the top 10 after last season getting that young team to the finals. I don't get why people won't give him the credit. The dude is a star who let's others shine and tries to fill in all the gaps around them. Look how far we dropped off. Look how far Philly dropped off. They had injuries but they still got swept out of the first round. Putting Tatum above him and I'm sure we'll see some others is laughable to me. Boston had a better overall team and Jimmy beat them.

Siakam also made second team All-NBA and he's down in the 20's lol

I agree with this 100%. Jimmy is just a hair under the top tier and should be top 10.

Who do you remove for Jimmy Butler?

The Caldwell Pope one is pretty bad

9.3 ppg
2.1 reb
1.6 apg

But the worst/most amusing might be John Collins.

21.6 ppg
10.5 reb
.659% TS

Better numbers across the board from the previous season -- but he dropped 37 spots, landing 7 spots behind KCP at #84.

We'll see who's in the top 10. Guessing it's something like this:

Lebron
Giannis
AD
Kawhi
Harden
Steph
Doncic
Lillard
Jokic
Klay

I would take Jimmy over Jokic and Lillard for sure so that puts him at 9. It would be a wash with Klay for me because I really don't know if Klay can be the best player on a good team like Jimmy. As great as he's been on defense and shooting the ball he's never been a playmaker which I think you need as the primary ball handler. I don't think scoring 30 a night and playing good defense without setting up your teammates much would get it done for a high level team. Personally I'd rather have the 20/6/6 guy Jimmy was this year helping other guys cook and get theirs so I'd say they are tied for 8th for me.

Durant is in there. Klay isn't because of injury... and wouldn't be in the top 10 even if healthy.

I wouldn't sleep on Jokic. He simply played the Lakers one round before Butler did. I think he's a better player than Jimmy Butler over the course of an entire season. And if it wasn't for a highly publicized 5-game run for Butler, I don't think it's all that close. Butler had a GREAT Finals... but he was much more of a 20/6/5 guy for the previous 5 playoff series the past couple of years... and that's slightly better than his regular season numbers.

And I'm also taking Lillard's 30/4/8 every night over Butler's 20/7/6. I think Lillard is very close to Curry at this point. But I think that Butler > Lillard is arguable with the defense angle.

Then, there's Jayson Tatum. He's a decade younger and skyrocketing up the superstar list. It can be argued Butler was only the 3rd best Heat player in the ECF. Heck, he and Dragic at #4 were even close.

Meanwhile, Tatum went for 27/10/7. And he improved most of his stats in the playoffs from the regular season. Unless you think we see NBA Finals Butler more often in his 10th year than we've ever seen before, I don't know how he's ahead of Tatum either.

It's close... but I have him just outside the top 10. And I agree with ESPN on this one for once.

[thedoper]

The biggest joke to me is keeping Jimmy Butler outside the top 10 after last season getting that young team to the finals. I don't get why people won't give him the credit. The dude is a star who let's others shine and tries to fill in all the gaps around them. Look how far we dropped off. Look how far Philly dropped off. They had injuries but they still got swept out of the first round. Putting Tatum above him and I'm sure we'll see some others is laughable to me. Boston had a better overall team and Jimmy beat them.

Siakam also made second team All-NBA and he's down in the 20's lol

I agree with this 100%. Jimmy is just a hair under the top tier and should be top 10.

Who do you remove for Jimmy Butler?

The Caldwell Pope one is pretty bad

9.3 ppg
2.1 reb
1.6 apg

But the worst/most amusing might be John Collins.

21.6 ppg
10.5 reb
.659% TS

Better numbers across the board from the previous season -- but he dropped 37 spots, landing 7 spots behind KCP at #84.

Yeah I said that without remembering Steph and Durant. The top 10 seems pretty solid. Jokic might be the only player you could construct an argument that Jimmy is better than. But it's not absolute at all.

[KiwiMatt]

Should be renamed ESPNs Top 100 most popular NBA players.

[TheFuture]

These ESPN lists are routinely laughable. Zion Williamson at 19. Marcus Smart at 37. P.J. Tucker at 72. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at 77. Those are just a few that I found absurd besides the obvious jabs at Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell. Both are better than where this ESPN list ranked them.

How about MPJ at 51? Ahead of Russell and countless others.

Tatum is also not the 11th best player in the league.

[AbeVigodaLive]

These ESPN lists are routinely laughable. Zion Williamson at 19. Marcus Smart at 37. P.J. Tucker at 72. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at 77. Those are just a few that I found absurd besides the obvious jabs at Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell. Both are better than where this ESPN list ranked them.

How about MPJ at 51? Ahead of Russell and countless others.

Tatum is also not the 11th best player in the league.

If Tatum keeps improving, he has a chance to be this season.

[Lipoli390]

I can't give much credibility to a list that ranks Zion Williamson as the 19th best player in the NBA. I get the potential and the hype, but he hasn't done anything of note in the NBA, except demonstrate an inability to stay healthy and keep his weight down.

[TheFuture]

I can't give much credibility to a list that ranks Zion Williamson as the 19th best player in the NBA. I get the potential and the hype, but he hasn't done anything of note in the NBA, except demonstrate an inability to stay healthy and keep his weight down.

The Zion ranking has to force anyone to throw the rankings in the garbage.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I can't give much credibility to a list that ranks Zion Williamson as the 19th best player in the NBA. I get the potential and the hype, but he hasn't done anything of note in the NBA, except demonstrate an inability to stay healthy and keep his weight down.

The Zion ranking has to force anyone to throw the rankings in the garbage.

As for this stupid ESPN list. There's a methodology to it. Consider...

- Almost without exception, any player the consensus would view ranked LOWER than expected is on one of those 12 teams almost never on TV.
- Almost without exception, every player the consensus would view ranked HIGHER than expected is on a team that's televised much more.

Each of the top 6 names get 10+ national televised games this season. Of the 12 "bottom feeders" who combine for only 5 national televised games... the highest rated players are Bradley Beal (#22), Karl Anthony Towns (#23) and Trae Young (#29).

[TheFuture]

I can't give much credibility to a list that ranks Zion Williamson as the 19th best player in the NBA. I get the potential and the hype, but he hasn't done anything of note in the NBA, except demonstrate an inability to stay healthy and keep his weight down.

The Zion ranking has to force anyone to throw the rankings in the garbage.

As for this stupid ESPN list. There's a methodology to it. Consider...

- Almost without exception, any player the consensus would view ranked LOWER than expected is on one of those 12 teams almost never on TV.
- Almost without exception, every player the consensus would view ranked HIGHER than expected is on a team that's televised much more.

Each of the top 6 names get 10+ national televised games this season. Of the 12 "bottom feeders" who combine for only 5 national televised games... the highest rated players are Bradley Beal (#22), Karl Anthony Towns (#23) and Trae Young (#29).

That is an excellent observation.