Draft Rankings: Top 100
PLAYER POS TEAM AGE HEIGHT WINGSPAN
1. Luka Doncic SG Real Madrid 18.7 6-8 N/A
2. Michael Porter Jr. SF/PF Missouri 19.3 6-10 7-0
3. Marvin Bagley III PF/C Duke 18.6 6-11 7-0½
4. Deandre Ayton C Arizona 19.3 7-0 7-5
5. Mohamed Bamba C Texas 19.5 7-0 7-9
6. Miles Bridges SF/PF Michigan St 19.6 6-6 6-9
7. Robert Williams PF/C Texas A&M 20.0 6-9 7-5½
8. Collin Sexton PG Alabama 18.8 6-2 6-7
9. Jaren Jackson Jr. PF/C Michigan St 18.1 6-10 7-4
10. Wendell Carter Jr. C Duke 18.5 6-10 7-3
11. Trevon Duval PG Duke 19.2 6-3 6-3½
12. Bruce Brown SG Miami FL 21.2 6-3 6-8½
13. Lonnie Walker SG Miami FL 18.8 6-4 6-10½
14. Kevin Knox SF/PF Kentucky 18.2 6-9 7-0
15. Justin Jackson SF/PF Maryland 20.7 6-7 7-3
16. Dzanan Musa SF Cedevita 18.4 6-9 6-8½
17. Troy Brown SG Oregon 18.2 6-7 6-8
18. Hamidou Diallo SG Kentucky 19.2 6-5 7-0
19. Mikal Bridges SF Villanova 21.1 6-7 7-1½
20. Chimezie Metu PF/C USC 20.6 6-10 6-10½
21. Mitchell Robinson C N/A 19.6 6-11 7-4
22. Nick Richards C Kentucky 19.9 6-11 7-5
23. Nickeil Alexander-Walker PG Virginia Tech 19.1 6-5 6-9
24. Emmanuel Akot SF/PF Arizona 18.6 6-8 6-9
25. Shake Milton PG SMU 21.1 6-6 7-0
26. De'Anthony Melton PG/SG USC 19.4 6-3 6-8
27. Rodions Kurucs SF Barcelona 2 19.7 6-10 N/A
28. Grayson Allen SG Duke 22.0 6-4 6-6½
29. Austin Wiley C Auburn 18.8 6-11 7-5
30. Goga Bitadze C Mega Bemax 18.2 6-11 7-2
31. Tyus Battle SG/SF Syracuse 20.1 6-7 6-8
32. PJ Washington PF Kentucky 19.2 6-8 7-3
33. Brandon McCoy C UNLV 19.4 6-11 7-1½
34. Marko Simonovic PF/C Siena 18.0 7-0 N/A
35. Jarred Vanderbilt SF Kentucky 18.5 6-8 7-1
36. Brandon Randolph SG Arizona 20.1 6-6 6-8
37. Chris Smith PF UCLA 17.8 6-9 N/A
38. Brian Bowen SF Louisville* 19.0 6-7 6-9
39. Aaron Holiday PG UCLA 21.0 6-1 6-6
40. Arnoldas Kulboka SF Capo D'Orlando 19.8 6-10 6-11
41. Bonzie Colson PF Notre Dame 21.8 6-5 6-11½
42. Devonte' Graham PG Kansas 22.7 6-2 N/A
43. Lamar Peters PG Mississippi St. 19.3 6-0 N/A
44. Isaac Bonga SF Frankfurt 17.9 6-9 7-0
45. Andrew Jones PG/SG Texas 19.9 6-4 6-6½
46. Landry Shamet PG Wichita St 20.6 6-4 N/A
47. Oscar da Silva PF Stanford 19.1 6-10 N/A
48. Rui Hachimura PF Gonzaga 19.7 6-8 N/A
49. Alize Johnson PF Missouri St 21.5 6-9 N/A
50. V.J. King SF Louisville 20.8 6-7 6-9½
51. Allonzo Trier SG Arizona 21.8 6-5 6-7
52. Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk SG Kansas 20.4 6-8 6-5
53. Ray Spalding PF Louisville 20.6 6-10 7-1
54. Ethan Happ PF/C Wisconsin 21.4 6-10 N/A
55. Tryggvi Hlinason C Valencia 20.0 7-1 N/A
56. Vince Edwards SF Purdue 21.6 6-8 7-0
57. Jacob Evans SF Cincinnati 20.4 6-6 N/A
58. Moritz Wagner C Michigan 20.5 6-11 7-0
59. Sacha Killeya-Jones PF Kentucky 19.2 6-11 7-2
60. Terence Davis SG Mississippi 20.4 6-4 N/A
61. Abdoulaye N'doye PG Cholet 19.6 6-7 7-2
62. Tadas Sedekerskis SF Burgos 19.8 6-10 6-9½
63. Kostja Mushidi SG Mega Bemax 19.4 6-5 7-1
64. Rawle Alkins SG Arizona 20.0 6-5 6-9
65. Chandler Hutchison SG Boise St 21.5 6-7 N/A
66. Anas Mahmoud C Louisville 22.4 7-0 N/A
67. Malik Pope SF San Diego St 21.3 6-10 7-2
68. Isaac Haas C Purdue 22.1 7-2 7-4
69. Keita Bates-Diop SF Ohio St 21.8 6-7 N/A
70. Vasilis Charalampopoulos PF PAOK 20.8 6-9 N/A
71. Johnathan Williams PF Gonzaga 22.4 6-9 7-0½
72. Jevon Carter PG West Virginia 22.1 6-2 6-3
73. Karim Jallow SF Bayern Muenchen 20.5 6-7 6-8
74. Donta Hall PF/C Alabama 20.2 6-9 7-4
75. John Konchar SG IPFW 21.6 6-6 N/A
76. Tyler Hall SG Montana St 20.6 6-4 N/A
77. Bryant Crawford PG Wake Forest 20.6 6-3 6-7
78. Justin James SG Wyoming 20.7 6-7 N/A
79. D'Marcus Simonds PG/SG Georgia St 20.0 6-3 N/A
80. Matisse Thybulle SG Washington 20.6 6-5 N/A
81. Aric Holman PF/C Mississippi St. 20.3 6-10 N/A
82. Josh Okogie SG Georgia Tech 19.1 6-4 7-0
83. Maximo Fjellerup SF/PF Bahia Blanca 19.9 6-7 N/A
84. Aleksa Radanov SG FMP 19.7 6-8 N/A
85. Elie Okobo PG Pau-Orthez 20.0 6-3 N/A
86. Jeffrey Carroll SF Oklahoma St 23.0 6-6 6-6½
87. MiKyle McIntosh SF/PF Oregon 23.3 6-7 6-10
88. Malik Newman PG/SG Kansas 20.7 6-4 6-6
89. Kamar Baldwin PG Butler 20.1 6-0 N/A
90. Omer Yurtseven C N.C. State 19.3 7-0 7-1
91. Marques Bolden C Duke 19.5 6-11 7-4½
92. Felipe Dos Anjos C Burgos 19.5 7-3 7-5
93. Leo Cizmic SF/PF Araberri 18.9 6-9 N/A
94. Elijah Stewart SG USC 21.9 6-5 N/A
95. Donte Grantham SF Clemson 22.6 6-8 N/A
96. Vanja Marinkovic SG Partizan 20.8 6-7 6-7
97. Viny Okouo C Malaga 20.5 7-2 N/A
98. Drew Eubanks C Oregon St 20.7 6-10 N/A
99. Nik Slavica SF Cedevita 20.7 6-8 N/A
100. Theo Pinson SF North Carolina 22.0 6-6 6-11
*Suspended indefinitely

This post was edited by fuzzy159 on Nov 11 2017 11:56am

Good looking out man thanks!

Ben Simmons has proven worth the wait. After missing the entire 2016-17 season with a Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot suffered in training camp, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 draft has made a difference in a variety of manners during his delayed rookie season.

In helping the Philadelphia 76ers to a 7-6 start, Simmons leads all rookies in points (17.8), rebounds (9.2) and assists (7.5) per game. It took Simmons just four games to record his first career triple-double, and per Basketball-Reference.com, his two triple-doubles are already as many as any rookie has posted since Lamar Odom had three in 1999-2000.

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Based on those stats, it's worth asking whether there has ever been a rookie -- including LeBron James -- as versatile as Simmons.


Point guard on offense, big man on defense

Versatility was certainly key to Simmons' appeal as a prospect. At 6-foot-10, he's comfortable operating as a primary ball handler, and Sixers coach Brett Brown was adamant from Day 1 that Simmons would be his point guard. That has proven true.

According to Second Spectrum data on NBA.com/Stats, Simmons' 7.0 minutes per game with the ball in his hands ranks 10th in the NBA. The other players who handle the ball more than five minutes per game average between 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 in height, and James is the only other player taller than 6-foot-7 in this group.

That size enables Simmons to make passes other point guards are incapable of delivering. That's most notable with Simmons' crosscourt passing, a skill exceeded only by James. However, it also seems to have worked to Simmons' benefit passing out of crowds in the paint. According to Second Spectrum analysis, Simmons has made a league-high 31 passes from the paint to set up 3-pointers, which 76ers teammates have converted at an impressive 48.5 percent clip. Overall, Simmons' 14.5 potential assists per game rank fifth in the NBA, heady stuff for a rookie point guard.

While Simmons serves as a point guard on offense, at the other end he has defended all types of players, giving Brown incredible defensive flexibility. Simmons has defended 95 pick-and-rolls as the screener defender and 127 as the ball-handler defender, per Second Spectrum data, making him one of just three players in the NBA (combo forwards Jeff Green and P.J. Tucker are the others) to defend at least 90 of each.

If Simmons has a natural position defensively, it's power forward, and his defensive stats reflect this. He's an above-average rebounder for a 4 and blocks shots at nearly a typical rate for a power forward.

The breadth of Simmons' contributions has helped overcome the fact that -- like most rookies asked to do so much -- he hasn't been particularly efficient offensively. Simmons has yet to make a 3-pointer and has shot just 37.1 percent on shots from beyond the restricted area, so his .524 true shooting percentage is worse than league average (.553). Yet Simmons leads all rookies with 1.5 wins above replacement player (WARP) by my metric; Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics (1.0) is the only other rookie rated as worth even one WARP.

Simmons and the versatility index

So how can we compare Simmons' versatility to that of other rookies? Back when he was writing for SI.com, my ESPN Insider predecessor John Hollinger introduced the versatility index to rate players' production in the three key box-score statistics (points, rebounds and assists per game). The versatility index multiplies the three, then takes the cube root (the geometric mean) so as to emphasize performing well in all three categories rather than dominating a single one.

Subsequently, Kyle Wagner of sister site FiveThirtyEight has modified versatility index to utilize points, rebounds and assists per 100 possessions instead of per game, useful with pace increasing rapidly. Because his scoring has been unexceptional, Simmons ranks eighth in this measure. (Note that I'm actually using per 100 team plays, as contrasted to Basketball-Reference.com's measure per 100 possessions, where an offensive rebound starts a new play but not a new possession.)

Highest Versatility Index, 2017-18
PLAYER TEAM P100 R100 A100 VI
Russell Westbrook OKC 25.9 10.8 12.5 15.2
DeMarcus Cousins NOP 32.4 16.1 6.6 15.1
Giannis Antetokounmpo MIL 38.0 12.5 5.9 14.1
LeBron James CLE 32.0 8.6 10.0 14.0
James Harden HOU 36.6 5.9 12.4 13.9
Joel Embiid PHI 30.5 15.8 4.6 13.1
Nikola Jokic DEN 22.3 15.8 6.3 13.1
Ben Simmons PHI 21.6 11.2 9.2 13.0
Kevin Durant GSW 31.1 9.3 6.5 12.3
Stephen Curry GSW 33.5 6.2 8.9 12.3
Intriguingly, no player this season has been better at all three categories than Simmons. That serves him well in comparison to other rookies since the ABA-NBA merger:

Highest Versatility Index, Rookies Since 1976-77
PLAYER TEAM SEASON P100 R100 A100 VI
Ben Simmons PHI 2017-18 21.6 11.2 9.2 13.0
Blake Griffin LAC 2010-11 26.5 14.5 4.5 12.0
Joel Embiid PHI 2016-17 34.6 13.5 3.6 11.9
Chris Paul NOH 2005-06 20.9 6.8 10.2 11.3
Michael Jordan CHI 1984-85 30.7 7.1 6.4 11.2
Nikola Jokic DEN 2015-16 20.1 14.4 4.8 11.1
Magic Johnson LAL 1979-80 19.9 8.5 8.1 11.1
Larry Bird BOS 1979-80 23.5 11.6 5.0 11.1
Arvydas Sabonis POR 1995-96 26.7 15.3 3.3 11.0
Simmons comes ahead of all the big names to enter the NBA in the past four decades, many of whom achieved versatility index scores of 11.0 or better as rookies. Notable in his absence is James, who averaged 6.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists per 100 plays as a rookie. James improved rapidly in both categories, and by the time he reached Simmons' age (2005-06, James' third NBA season), his versatility index had improved to 12.4, slightly better than Simmons is doing now.

Because we don't have team pace before 1973-74, when turnovers were first tracked, we'll have to switch to the original per-game version of versatility index to compare Simmons to the greats of the 1950s and 1960s.

Highest Versatility Index, Rookies (Per-Game Stats)
PLAYER TEAM SEASON PPG RPG APG VI
Oscar Robertson CIN 1960-61 30.5 10.1 9.7 14.4
Wilt Chamberlain PHI 1959-60 37.6 27.0 2.3 13.3
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar MIL 1969-70 28.8 14.5 4.1 12.0
Walt Bellamy CHI 1961-62 31.6 19.0 2.7 11.7
Elgin Baylor MIN 1958-59 24.9 15.0 4.1 11.5
Maurice Stokes ROC 1955-56 16.8 16.3 4.9 11.0
Ben Simmons PHI 2017-18 17.8 9.2 7.5 10.7
Sidney Wicks POR 1971-72 24.5 11.5 4.3 10.6
Michael Jordan CHI 1984-85 28.2 6.5 5.9 10.3
Magic Johnson LAL 1979-80 18.0 7.7 7.3 10.1

Simmons drops to seventh on this list. However, it's worth remembering what we do know about the NBA in the 1960s: the pace of play was far faster than it is today. Players also played far more minutes per game -- Robertson averaged 42.5 as a rookie, compared to 34.3 for Simmons.

Basketball-Reference.com does estimate pace for pre-1973-74 teams, and applying this to Robertson's stat line as a rookie suggests he averaged 25.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.0 assists per 100 possessions -- far fewer rebounds and assists than Simmons on a per-possession basis, despite the fact he nearly averaged a triple-double. That gives Robertson a per-100 versatility index of 11.8, worse than Simmons' 13.0 mark.

At some point, comparing players more than five decades apart becomes challenging. Scorers awarded assists less frequently in the 1960s than they do today, and the faster pace made it more difficult for a single player to dominate as much of the offense as in the modern game. So you're well within your rights to stick with Robertson's rookie season as the most versatile ever. But there's reason to believe Simmons may be the most versatile rookie we've ever seen

nvm

This post was edited by vHero on Dec 13 2017 12:00pm

Alright.

http://www.espn.com/fantasy/football/insider/story/_/id/21761707/fantasy-football-best-worst-matchups-qb-rb-wr-more-week-15

Ty

No. 8 or No. 24?

As the Los Angeles Lakers prepare to retire Kobe Bryant's jersey on Monday night, it's worth revisiting the question of the two numbers Bryant wore during his career.

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The Lakers cut off any debate about which of the two numbers should hang in the rafters by retiring both, but if it were only one, which one should it be?

The question of No. 8 versus No. 24 is a fascinating one because of the way it splits Bryant's 20 NBA seasons in half.

So, with the help of advanced statistics, let's consider the tale of the tape on Kobe No. 8 and Kobe No. 24.


Note: This piece originally ran on Aug. 24, 2016.

The jersey change
Bryant entered the league wearing the No. 8. While this has occasionally been credited as a tribute to Mike D'Antoni, who wore No. 8 as a legendary import in the Italian League while Bryant was growing up in Italy, Bryant himself has never used this explanation. Instead, he apparently came up with No. 8 because it represented the sum of the numbers on his jersey (143) at the Adidas ABCD camp for prep stars.

As No. 8, Bryant won his first three championships alongside Shaquille O'Neal. Some of Bryant's greatest individual exploits also came while wearing his original jersey number, including his 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006. Still, by that season -- which ended in a loss in the first round of the playoffs to the D'Antoni-coached Phoenix Suns -- Bryant wanted a new start.

In April 2006, ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that Bryant would wear No. 24 -- which he wore early in his prep career before shifting to 33, his father's number -- the following season. And it was as No. 24 that Bryant led the Lakers back to three consecutive NBA Finals, winning a pair of championships.

Ultimately, despite the injuries that limited him the past three seasons, Bryant finished with remarkably similar stats wearing both jerseys.

No. 8 Vs. No. 24
G MINUTES POINTS REBOUNDS ASSISTS STEALS BLOCKS
No. 8 707 25,239 16,866 3,634 3,148 1,059 431
No. 24 639 23,398 16,777 3,413 3,158 885 209
Splitting Bryant's career leaves two 10-season spans that both merit jersey retirement in their own right. He'd rank 88th in NBA history in scoring as No. 8, behind Bob Cousy, and 93rd as No. 24, ahead of Joe Dumars and James Worthy. But if you could have only one of the careers, which would it be?


No. 24 Kobe was a better scorer. Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images
The case for 24: Superior scoring
Bryant scored just 109 fewer points over his last 10 seasons, and that's remarkable given he missed so much time with injuries the past three years. Bryant played nearly 70 more games wearing No. 8 than he did as No. 24, but his per-minute scoring average was better during the second half of his career (25.8 per 36 minutes) than during the first half (24.1).

That Bryant was more prolific as No. 24 shouldn't be particularly surprising. Although his greatest scoring season came in 2005-06 -- his last season as No. 8 -- for most of the first half of his career, he shared the ball with O'Neal. And during his first two seasons out of high school, Bryant also was behind older players such as Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones in the Lakers' pecking order.

What is notable is Bryant's ability to maintain his efficiency as a go-to guy. Despite increasing his usage rate from 30.7 percent of the Lakers' plays as No. 8 to 33.0 percent as No. 24, Bryant had virtually identical true shooting percentages either way (.552 during the first half of his career and .548 during the second half).

As his athleticism waned, much like Michael Jordan's did, Bryant was able to compensate by honing his midrange game. He famously worked with Hakeem Olajuwon to develop his post-up skills and incorporated shots from other players, such as Dirk Nowitzki's one-legged fadeaway.

Thanks to the effort, Bryant hit 45.5 percent of shots taken between 3 feet and 16 feet while wearing No. 24, according to Basketball-Reference.com. While detailed play-by-play data isn't available for Bryant's whole career, we know he shot 42.2 percent on such shots between 2000-01 and 2005-06 while wearing No. 8. So even though Bryant got fewer high-percentage looks at the hoop during the second half of his career, his overall 2-point percentage actually improved from 47.7 percent to 48.1 percent.


No. 8 Kobe had an edge in defense and durability. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
The case for 8: Better defense, durability
While Kobe worked as hard as possible to overcome the effects of aging, he couldn't completely defy them. That was more evident at the defensive end than it was on offense. The younger, more athletic Bryant racked up blocks nearly twice as often (1.2 percent of opponents' 2-point attempts as compared to 0.7 percent) and created more steals (2.2 percent of opponents' plays as compared to 1.9 percent).

While Bryant remained a fixture on the NBA All-Defensive Team through 2011-12, when he was 33, such selections reflected his reputation more than his true accomplishments as a defender. The older Kobe was better freelancing as a help defender off a poor shooter like Rajon Rondo than locking up an elite wing scorer.

More than anything else, though, the difference between No. 8 and No. 24 was durability. Bryant missed 81 games during his first 10 regular seasons, only slightly more than he missed in 2013-14 alone (76) between coming back from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in April 2013 and a lateral tibial plateau fracture that occurred six games into his return. Bryant missed 165 games during the second half of his career.

The verdict: No. 8 outshines No. 24
Let's take a look at Kobe's value as measured by my wins above replacement player metric season by season over the course of his career.


Kevin Pelton
With a few exceptions, Bryant's career follows a relatively typical trajectory: improving performance early in his career, a peak from ages 24 through 29 and gradual decline after that (accelerated in his case by the Achilles injury, suffered late in a bounce-back season).

To answer the question of which Kobe was best, it makes more sense to rank each jersey number in WARP from best to worst and compare those ratings.


Kevin Pelton
Now the young Bryant's edge becomes clear. Not only did two of his three best seasons in terms of WARP come wearing the No. 8, but Bryant was also far better at the beginning of his career than post-Achilles injury.

It's understandable that Bryant might have fonder memories of his days wearing No. 24. The second half of his career yielded more individual honors, including his only regular-season MVP trophy and both of his Finals MVP awards.


With the benefit of hindsight, however, we can see that Bryant was probably more deserving of the MVP award while wearing No. 8 in 2005-06 than while wearing No. 24 in 2007-08, when he actually got the hardware.

Also, three of Kobe's five rings, which support his claim to basketball immortality, were won while wearing No. 8. Yes, Bryant got second billing behind O'Neal during the Lakers' three-peat, but those teams would not have won championships and joined the greatest teams in NBA history without Kobe's crucial contributions. Those years in No. 8 were the foundation of Bryant's reputation as a player who could win championships.

The Lakers chose to pay homage to Bryant by retiring both numbers. But if they could choose only one Bryant to play for them, they should choose No. 8.