Let's start there. ESPN's list featured Carmelo Anthony at number 64. Everybody is going crazy, even Carmelo Anthony responded to it writing "@ESPN Don't be so Blatant with the disrespect" which is an interesting thought. I'm not sure what amount of respect that Carmelo Anthony is owed considering that his team has won 117 games the past four years. New York is 106-157 with him in the lineup the last 4 years according to Basketball Reference. Not to mention that he has shown a willingness to deviate from the offense in pursuit of his own opportunities, which although he continues to shoot 18-19 times per game his scoring average is in the low 20's and his field goal percentage is 43%. He is making a lot of money and he shows no willingness to try and make his game fit into what his team needs. I think the "disrespect" that he feels he is getting is deserved in that regard.
There is something bigger at stake in these rankings in my opinion and that is the truth that despite all of the analytics and advancements in how people watch the game, the majority of people still seem to look at points, rebounds, and assists. The Celtics last year finished with the number one record in the East on the back of an amazing season by Isaiah Thomas in addition to the contributions of Al Horford and others. Horford is not going to light up those three stats, but he is so valuable to a team. He was killed in the playoffs because his stats were not 20 and 10. We have to understand that all of the information that is out there regarding basketball is not consumed. It is frustrating though when you study this game and love this game and spend a lot of your time invested in this game just to have someone on twitter tell you that you do not know anything about basketball because you say Carmelo Anthony is not a top 50 player in the league. The inevitable reply of "name them" is too perfect. I can name them and I honestly think I could get to so many more players I would rather have than Carmelo Anthony.
All of this to say that rankings are important because they get people talking about the NBA and that is a reason to celebrate because it is fun to talk about this league. There will always be rankings and it looks like it worked for ESPN because people are talking about Carmelo's ranking. They will continue to make these rankings and every single year, players and fans will respond to them. I would like to see rankings that are more categorized to avoid this. As I said on twitter, if you are saying the rankings are the best one on one scorers in the league, then Carmelo is up there, but if they are rankings for just playing basketball including defense, shooting, passing, rebounding, running an offense, efficient shooting, etc. then no Melo is not top 50 and he is not even close. Maybe ESPN should work on that. Maybe I should work on that. I can see it now, players pissed because my blog said they are not in the top 17. That would be awesome.
Thanks for reading, follow me on twitter, @dennisdownba.