ESPN is ranking (almost) every NBA player and counting them down on Twitter (@ESPNNBA), from No. 400 to No. 1.
Looks like it is going to be one update per week.
ESPN link
Firstly, if ESPN is ranking 400 players and there is 30 teams, this means 13.3 players per team. And any player in the top 150 is "starter quality."
So:
55. Никола Вучевић. This seems about correct to me. This places him at the middle #2 level. Given that he is a stat man that has not played winning ball, he will get ranked below the 5th best Center.
58. Victor Oladipo. Seems a little low to me in that the press usually considers him Orlando's best player. Still there are a lot of excellent SGs in the league and ranking at the low end of #2 seems fairly OK.
89. Tobias Harris. At the beginning of this poll, I suspect this is about where most Magic fans would have ranked Harris. Respectfully, his current contract is more about promise and expectation than the past. News media is more current oriented. I accept the #3 level of NBA starter. Notably, in the current NBA system, the SF slot is very, very deep. Harris is well placed to even be noticed by the press.
97. Elfrid Payton. Again this is for me spot on. Payton is marginal as a 3rd guy and easily would be a 4th for many teams.
129. Aaron Gordon. This places him around average 5th man. I agree that he is currently the lowest projected starter and thus this rating is spot on.
172. Channing Frye. About right. But the surroundings amaze me. Frye is just over: Jared Dudley, Josh McRoberts, Willie Cauley-Stein, Gerald Henderson, Alex Len, Anderson Varejão, and Evan Turner. But is behind: 171. Tyler Zeller. LOL.
183. Evan Fournier. Frankly I see this as spot on. A 183 ranking means a high 6th man over the league standard. For me this means Fournier is seen as a near elite 6th man.
229. C.J. Watson. Watson is the primary back-up for Orlando. As such one probably should consider him the 6th man. But to slot him as a 7th man is not widely off.
236. Mario Hezonja. I have little opinion here. I think Hezonja will rightly struggle to get minutes if the Magic is winning, and will get major minutes if the team sucks. Does that make hime a 7th man? And should we care either way?
281. Jason Smith. This seems exactly correct to me.
290. Shabazz Napier. As does this. Orlando might have the best 3rd string PG in the league!!!
306. Andrew Nicholson. He is slotted as a 10th man. That seems exactly correct. On any team in the NBA he is a deep bench player that is not in the typical rotation. If anything 306 is a touch high.
371. Dewayne Dedmon. He is slotted as a 12th man. Wow that is way, way to low. On many, but not all teams, he would be a rotational player. I would say he would average something like an 8th man on most teams. That ranks him somewhere in the 240 range.
