Lonzo Ball is already better than Carmelo Anthony?
Well, according to ESPN's latest #NBArank, apparently he is. They can lean on semantics to cover themselves -- "We asked our expert panel, 'which player will be better in 2017-18?'" -- but when you're predicting the future, it's awfully hard to be held accountable. That's my job. It's time to hold ESPN's "experts" accountable for these head-scratching rankings.
They roll out their rankings in segments, so this edition will be dedicated to players 100 down to 76.
I had the same problem with Favors prior to last season, when Sports Illustrated ranked him 28th in the world, ahead of DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Thomas and Kemba Walker, among other legitimate offensive studs.
So what is it about Favors that attracts these major outlets like ESPN and Sports Illustrated?
Well, last season he only managed to make it onto the court for 50 games. The year before he only played 62. So obviously, it's not his durability. On the stat sheet, he averaged a whopping 9.5 points per game in 2016-17.
I mean, don't get me wrong, Favors is a decent two-way role player, but Schroder is the alpha dog of his team. The latter is the Hawks' go-to guy, with PPG improving from 10.0 to 11.0 to 17.9 over the last three seasons. Schroder's FG% also improved from 42.1 to 45.1.
Then we have Nowitzki, who is undoubtedly a first-ballot Hall of Famer. There's no question that his incredible career is nearing its end, but he still averaged 14.2 PPG to Favors' 9.5, while connecting on roughly 38 percent of his three-point attempts. As we know, Favors doesn't offer that kind of range offensively.
Waiters has always been one of the most gifted one-on-one scorers in the NBA. He's a bit of a wild man, and past organizations have found that off-putting, but Pat Riley embraced him from the get go. When you allow a talented player to settle into his comfort zone, that's when you get a return like this: 15.8 PPG (2nd best of Waiters' career), 4.3 APG (best), 3.3 RPG (best), 39.5% on threes (best) and 42.4% from the floor (2nd best).
Waiters is set for another highly-productive year, while Favors is nothing but a glorified role player.
Johnny Fro's Rankings: Schroder (51), Waiters (68), Nowitzki (77) and Favors (unranked).
2. Gorgui Dieng (#77) is better than Markieff Morris (#79), Lou Williams (#81) and Greg Monroe (#82)?
Then we have Nowitzki, who is undoubtedly a first-ballot Hall of Famer. There's no question that his incredible career is nearing its end, but he still averaged 14.2 PPG to Favors' 9.5, while connecting on roughly 38 percent of his three-point attempts. As we know, Favors doesn't offer that kind of range offensively.
Waiters has always been one of the most gifted one-on-one scorers in the NBA. He's a bit of a wild man, and past organizations have found that off-putting, but Pat Riley embraced him from the get go. When you allow a talented player to settle into his comfort zone, that's when you get a return like this: 15.8 PPG (2nd best of Waiters' career), 4.3 APG (best), 3.3 RPG (best), 39.5% on threes (best) and 42.4% from the floor (2nd best).
Waiters is set for another highly-productive year, while Favors is nothing but a glorified role player.
Johnny Fro's Rankings: Schroder (51), Waiters (68), Nowitzki (77) and Favors (unranked).
I felt Gorgui Dieng was an underrated prospect heading into the 2013 NBA Draft -- he found a nice role within Rick Pitino's pro-caliber offense at Louisville, knocking down clutch mid-range jumpers, playing smart, conservative offensive basketball and making an impact as a rebounder and rim protector. I thought he showed nice polish for a player who was often referred to as "raw."
He ended up going 21st to the Jazz -- before being dealt to the Wolves -- after limited players like Anthony Bennett, Shane Larkin and Tony Snell. It's funny...I thought Dieng was a far superior player to Bennett, and the latter somehow ended up going 1st overall. Still a shocking head-scratcher to this day.
But now, in the NBA, Dieng is pretty much what he was then -- a nice role player. Last season he averaged 10 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. If you look closely at the numbers, you will see the following players in the same category as Gorgui: Trevor Booker, Cody Zeller, Mason Plumlee, Robin Lopez, Kenneth Faried, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Nene Hilario.
And that's pretty much his company, you know? The stats/roles don't lie there. Gorgui is a nice role player, but there are a bunch of guys just like him. He isn't a rare commodity in high demand.
Markieff Morris, on the other hand, averaged more PPG than Gorgui (14), while shooting 83.7% from the free throw line and drilling 71 three-pointers. Gorgui only hit 16 threes, and we know the league is all about stretch fours these days. Markieff has always been a more naturally gifted player than Gorgui. If not for his disciplinary issues, he was well on his way to becoming an 18-20 point scorer and offensive focal point for the Suns. You don't even have that option with Dieng. He's limited by nature.
"Sweet Lou" Williams is a gifted offensive performer like the aforementioned Waiters. Lou Will finished 3rd in the Sixth Man of the Year Award voting last season, after winning that very same award in 2014-15. He's just one of those guys you can give the ball to, and ask him to generate offense from scratch. Last year he had games where he scored 40, 38, 35 and 31 (twice). A talent like that is much harder to find than Dieng.
Monroe is a fellow big who falls somewhere near Dieng's category, but the former has averaged over 15 PPG in this league 5 times. He's a far more polished scorer than Gorgui, while averaging 8.7 RPG for his career. Dieng is the better defender, but as you can see, I think high-quality offense is far more difficult to find.
Johnny Fro's Rankings: Williams (64), Morris (70), Monroe (72) and Dieng (unranked).
I mean, I don't have to list Schroder, Waiters, Williams, etc. again. You get the idea. Patrick Patterson has no business being ahead of any of those guys.
Patrick Patterson has been in the NBA for 9 seasons. His CAREER HIGH is 10.4 points per game. The guy averages 7.9 PPG for his career! Come on, man!
He's 6'9", 230 pounds and averages 4.7 rebounds per game for his career! Come on. Forget the stats. Just watch the guy play. He's a role player who stands in the corner shooting and occasionally making threes. That's essentially the extent of his "game." I mean, this ranking really pisses me off. It shows an utter lack of awareness on the part of ESPN's "experts."
I think preseason lists like these tend to overemphasize players who have changed teams. This is a very clear case of that phenomenon.
Johnny Fro's Ranking: Patterson (unranked, obviously)
All right, please tune in next time for players 75 down to 51. Should be coming in the next couple weeks.
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