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Looking Down The Road (Players Edition)

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  • Looking Down The Road (Players Edition)

    Preface: Writers at SB Nation did a piece this morning on who they thought would be the top 100 players in the league would be when 2017 rolled around. Here are the three current Raptors that made the list:

    93. Terrence Ross

    Age in 2017: 26
    Current Team: Toronto Raptors
    2012-13 PER: 10.4

    I was a big fan of Ross coming out of Washington, enough so that I'm not overly concerned about his underwhelming rookie numbers. He's got great size (6'7 and 200 pounds), he's a good outside shooter and he's a spectacular athlete. That's a solid foundation to build his game over the next few years. In 2017, he'll be 26, just coming into his prime. Getting minutes in Toronto may be tricky over the next few years, but I like him more than DeMar DeRozan, a shooting guard who can't shoot 3's. -TJARKS
    90. Rudy Gay

    Age in 2017: 31
    Current Team: Toronto Raptors
    2012-13 PER: 15.6

    Gay will be 31 in 2017, so right at the edge of his peak. And this is thing I've always said about Rudy Gay: he's not awful. He's not even bad. He's bad for an $18 million contract. The argument has always been about his value to a team at that price point; folks who mark for him tend to make it about the fact that he obviously looks like an elite basketball player. He just doesn't perform like one, and that's where the issues arise.

    That said, the 90th best player in the NBA would be on the 18th team All-NBA, and I'm comfortable with projecting Gay there in 2017. If this eyesight thing was actually a big deal, he'll be way higher. He's primarily discounted now because he's a scorer who can't shoot. -ZILLER
    18. Jonas Valanciunas

    Age in 2017: 25
    Current Team: Toronto Raptors
    2012-13 PER: 15.6

    I'm a little concerned about Valanciunas's rebounding, but he projects as an awesome defender and scorer. That's a rare combination for big men, and he'll be 25 in 2017, hitting his stride ... if all goes according to plan. -ZILLER

    PRADA: This may seem like a reach, but I'd rather have Jonas than the next guy on this list in four years.

    FLANNERY: Thought a lot about taking Jonas higher and I'll probably regret it in 2017 when we're all writing via telepathy.

    O'DONNELL: Underrated factor in this pick: With Masai Ujiri on-board (and maybe even the recent influx of talent out of Canada), Valanciunas should have some awesome teammates around him.
    We always talk about how this team, in general, will progress/regress in the coming years. I wanted to have the forum do something different: predict where the actual players will be in comparison to the rest of the league TALENT-WISE. Doesn't matter if you think they will be part of this organization or not.

    Looking down the roster, what do you see from each player in 4 years?
    Twitter - @thekid_it

  • #2
    The only guy I confidently think will be higher than they list is Jonas. I don't know if he'll be top 10 in reality, but I can see him in the top 10 ahead of some of these guys.

    In 4 years, I'm not confident Dwight or Lopez will be better Cs than him.
    -Dwight is so hard to gauge given his dependence on athleticism and strength, so we'll see how his body holds up.
    -I also don't think Griffin's shown enough improvement to warrant a top 10 spot (even in the article they talk about "waiting for him to blow up" after 3 seasons....How many seasons should it take for a guy who was obviously the most impressive specimen at PF even in his rookie year?).
    -I also can't confidently put Drummond ahead of JV, because while he has obvious impact on D and the boards, man does he have A LOT of growth to do in other areas. I do think it's basically a race between him and JV out of young Cs, to show who can be more dominant on both ends first. And I think it's reasonable to think JV, Drummond and Davis could be the only bigs in the top 10, though I struggle to predict where. The homer in me hopes JV ends up the best, but if Davis can hold his own against Cs, he should have the inside track.
    -Love is a guy I have a hard time gauging. I need to see him play a full healthy year on a decent team. He should also be in the top 10 or so (maybe exactly where he is) if he does. But I'd still probably prefer JV as an anchor at C is just so hard to find, and that's why I like Drummond, JV and Davis a lot.

    It's also jsut way too hard to compare JV to other players at other positions, so I'll leave it at that.

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    • #3
      Jonas will be average center, top 30 at best, look at his stats in Macedonia game.
      Official Pope of the Raptors sponsored by MLSE.

      Comment


      • #4
        RandomGuy wrote: View Post
        Jonas will be average center, top 30 at best, look at his stats in Macedonia game.
        This may just be semantics on my part, but I don't know what you mean by average centre. There is no "average" centre in the top 30. If you're a top 30 NBA player, chances are you're in the top tier of your position, even if he ends up on the lower end.

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        • #5
          Success.
          Official Pope of the Raptors sponsored by MLSE.

          Comment


          • #6
            Did DeMar not even make the list?

            I did click the link but all the numbers are on the faces and it was too much for me. Stimulus overload.

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            • #7
              Matt52 wrote: View Post
              all the numbers are on the faces
              Yeah, they need to find better editors. That was simply stupid.

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              • #8
                BobLoblaw wrote: View Post
                Yeah, they need to find better editors. That was simply stupid.
                They really need to fire whoever redesigned/reformatted all the SBNation sites last year. I find their sites almost unusable at this point.

                As for the list, it seems pointless and arbitrary to me.

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                • #9
                  Like everyone else, SB Nation reaching the bottom of the barrel to get clicks. Their list includes a ton of guys who haven't even played a college game yet, never mind the ones who haven't faced NBA competition yet.

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                  • #10
                    Anyway, this is such a crap shoot list. Many of these guys will get injured or will fail to develop. And the current prime guys are ranked WAY too low. Melo at no.33, Chris Paul at no.16, Marc Gasol at 35, Noah at 62. If these guys were 35 years old in 4 years, I'd understand, but they'll be basically just a year or two past 30, they will still be around their prime. One or two of them might be derailed by injuries, but...

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                    • #11
                      p00ka wrote: View Post
                      Like everyone else, SB Nation reaching the bottom of the barrel to get clicks. Their list includes a ton of guys who haven't even played a college game yet, never mind the ones who haven't faced NBA competition yet.
                      To be fair, it is a list that predicts up to 2017, so you have to use something from that age region.
                      Twitter - @thekid_it

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                      • #12
                        isaacthompson wrote: View Post
                        To be fair, it is a list that predicts up to 2017, so you have to use something from that age region.
                        Just pointing out only one of the things that make this such a frivolous ranking, and an indication of how desperate bball sites are to publish something at this time of year.

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                        • #13
                          white men can't jump wrote: View Post
                          This may just be semantics on my part, but I don't know what you mean by average centre. There is no "average" centre in the top 30. If you're a top 30 NBA player, chances are you're in the top tier of your position, even if he ends up on the lower end.
                          Agreed. As of right now I'd say there's only one center in the top 30 and that's Dwight. And I think in 4-5 years Jonas will be ahead of Dwight because of his lack of skill and injury history.

                          Plus, I'd say Jonas is already an above average center. A lot of PF's are moving to C because 7-footers that can actually play at a decent level are somewhat of a myth right now.

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                          • #14
                            Guys you should know sarcasm better than me...
                            Official Pope of the Raptors sponsored by MLSE.

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                            • #15
                              Macc wrote: View Post
                              Agreed. As of right now I'd say there's only one center in the top 30 and that's Dwight. And I think in 4-5 years Jonas will be ahead of Dwight because of his lack of skill and injury history.

                              Plus, I'd say Jonas is already an above average center. A lot of PF's are moving to C because 7-footers that can actually play at a decent level are somewhat of a myth right now.
                              Indeed.

                              On a random note, I saw a blip on hoopshype about Sheed mentoring Drummond from a skills perspective. I mean, it makes sense since Sheed joined Detroit's staff but....Does anyone else think that's weird? Sheed was a great player, but he was very much a PF with a PF's game. He could finish down low, but even in the post, I feel like his preferred shot was a short jumper/fade away. And he loved to camp out at the 3 pt line. I feel like they should be trying to get him with a true C with high athleticism...David Robinson immediately comes to mind.

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