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ESPN-2012 NBA Player Rankings

Marvelous finally makes an appearance at 163. An increase of 2, from 165
 
https://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8246986/2012-nba-player-rankings-401-500

Every year the idiots at ESPN decide to quantify how much better Lebron is than everyone else in the NBA in a list of 500 players in the NBA. So here it is again, folks.
So far, they've gone from 500 to 450 and there are a total of 3 Jazz players on there.

163- Marvin Williams
201- Randy Foye
205- Enes Kanter
242- Alec Burks
310- Roger Bell
323- Earl Watson
342- Jeremy Evans
347- Jamaal Tinsley
380- DeMarre Carroll
483- Kevin Murphy
495- Blake Ahearn
498- Shan Foster (Who? What the hell?!?!? Don't ask me, he's listed as a Jazz player.)

So, if I am understanding this correctly starting tomorrow they will start talking about the top 150 in the league. Please correct me if I am missing someone but the Jazz still have

Hayward
Favors
Millsap
Jefferson
Mo Williams

to be listed. So that means that most of our starters are all in the top third of the league. That is good but not great. I am happy to see that the national media is taking notice and seeing that the Jazz are starting to put something together. I expect to see Hayward tomorrow sometime and possibly even Mo Williams or even Favors.
 
So, if I am understanding this correctly starting tomorrow they will start talking about the top 150 in the league. Please correct me if I am missing someone but the Jazz still have

Hayward
Favors
Millsap
Jefferson
Mo Williams

to be listed. So that means that most of our starters are all in the top third of the league. That is good but not great. I am happy to see that the national media is taking notice and seeing that the Jazz are starting to put something together.
Well, based on simple maths, I would expect almost every teams' starters to be ranked in the top 150. What is interesting is that the consensus is that our starting line-up should be made up of these five guys - making Millsap the SF. Of course, they might just have looked up our boxscore of our very last game of last season (Game 4 against the Spurs), replaced Harris with Mo, and said, "Well, these guys are the starters, better rank 'em in the top 150 somewhere."

Also, based on these ranks, Marv is our 6th man, and Foye and Kanter are our primary back-ups. Burks is ranked high for a 9th man, if you take #240 as the '8th man' cutoff, so should still get decent minutes. Watson, Evans and Tinsley should never take off their warm-ups. Carroll should watch the games in street clothes (as should everyone ranked under 360). Murphy and Ahearn, being ranked below 450, shouldn't even make an NBA roster.

I wouldn't mind a line-up where Marv and Kanter split back-up minutes in the front court, and Foye and Burks split the back-court minutes, depending on whether Foye can handle the backup PG duties - it ticks a lot of boxes for me. Not likely to happen, as either Watson or Tinsley will get the backup PG minutes, and to be fair they may be the better option, Foye's PG ability has a big question mark. And Carroll will keep getting minutes for his hustle.
 
Well, based on simple maths, I would expect almost every teams' starters to be ranked in the top 150. What is interesting is that the consensus is that our starting line-up should be made up of these five guys - making Millsap the SF. Of course, they might just have looked up our boxscore of our very last game of last season (Game 4 against the Spurs), replaced Harris with Mo, and said, "Well, these guys are the starters, better rank 'em in the top 150 somewhere."

Also, based on these ranks, Marv is our 6th man, and Foye and Kanter are our primary back-ups. Burks is ranked high for a 9th man, if you take #240 as the '8th man' cutoff, so should still get decent minutes. Watson, Evans and Tinsley should never take off their warm-ups. Carroll should watch the games in street clothes (as should everyone ranked under 360). Murphy and Ahearn, being ranked below 450, shouldn't even make an NBA roster.

I wouldn't mind a line-up where Marv and Kanter split back-up minutes in the front court, and Foye and Burks split the back-court minutes, depending on whether Foye can handle the backup PG duties - it ticks a lot of boxes for me. Not likely to happen, as either Watson or Tinsley will get the backup PG minutes, and to be fair they may be the better option, Foye's PG ability has a big question mark. And Carroll will keep getting minutes for his hustle.
I think you're giving these rankings way too much credit for accuracy. I have zero confidence that the rankings are anything but a rough approximation of the perceived value of Jazz players by people who only see the team sporadically.
 
not quite true.....

Well, based on simple maths, I would expect almost every teams' starters to be ranked in the top 150.

I think you are assuming a balance among team's talent that does not exist, as many bench players on some teams would clearly be starters on others. If you look back on 2011 rankings, there were 11 teams with fewer than five players in the top 150. Bobcats, Twolves, Warriors, Nets, Cavs, Rockets, Heat, Bucks, Knicks, Sixers, Raptors.

The number of players in the top 150 is a reasonable indicator of team depth, with the Nuggets, Grizzlies and Mavericks near the top. Unfortunately for the Jazz, it seems that what is necessary (but not sufficient) to compete for championships is the number of elite players on the roster. For example, in 2011 (preseason, when rankings were completed) the following teams have 3 or more players in the top 60: Heat, Thunder, Bulls, Lakers, Spurs, Grizzlies, Celtics & Mavs. That stat tells you something important.
 
I think you're giving these rankings way too much credit for accuracy. I have zero confidence that the rankings are anything but a rough approximation of the perceived value of Jazz players by people who only see the team sporadically.
I don't regard them as accurate, particularly the further down the list they are ranked, but outside of Roger Belle, they do seem to be ranking our players roughly in order of ability.

I think you are assuming a balance among team's talent that does not exist, as many bench players on some teams would clearly be starters on others.
Hence why I said 'almost'. My point was having 5 starters in the top 150 isn't an achievement, but an expectation. Having more or less would be noteworthy - such as last year, when we started players like Roger, Howard (#216), Miles (#250) and Carroll.
 
Hence why I said 'almost'. My point was having 5 starters in the top 150 isn't an achievement, but an expectation. Having more or less would be noteworthy - such as last year, when we started players like Roger, Howard (#216), Miles (#250) and Carroll.

not to mince words, but you'd probably agree that "almost every" would not mean that 2/3 of the teams. If someone said that 33 of the states voted for president X, you probably would not say "almost every state voted for him.... you'd probably say "most"
 
I'm thinking Mo Williams will be the next Jazzman, followed by Hayward and Favors. I'm thinking Jefferson will be slightly ahead of Millsap.
 
i am still waiting to start seeing some utah players.... i am getting rather stoked to see what 100 random people think about our players..
 
I'm thinking Mo Williams will be the next Jazzman, followed by Hayward and Favors. I'm thinking Jefferson will be slightly ahead of Millsap.

veterans tend to get a lot of reputation votes, though, so it wouldn't surprise me if mo was #3. not that i would agree... but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
My predicted order for the remaing Jazz players is Hayward, Favors, Millsap, and Jefferson. I'm not even going to guess what ranks they'll have.
 
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