It’s healthy to get a good night of sleep every night, but some people sleep too much. Apparently, Sports Illustrated is among them--because they must’ve slept through the entire NBA season last year.
The magazine that used to be popular (but now isn’t really all that relevant) is in the process of putting out its top-100 player rankings. While the whole list has not been released to the public so far, what we do know is that the absence of Kyrie Irving from the top-10 of the list is concerning and shows some serious incompetence on SI’s part.
Al Horford is ranked No. 16 by them which is nice, but Irving clocked in at No. 17. That alone should tell you how dumb these rankings are. Does any Celtics fan really think Horford is the best player on the team? Didn’t think so…
Do you think Irving is better than Draymond Green? How about Paul George? Well, those guys were ranked No. 13 and No. 11 respectively.
Let’s just look back at Irving’s stats from last season. He played in 60 games and averaged 24.4 points per game, 3.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists. His .491 field goal percentage was sharp for a point guard and he was defensively, a better player than Isaiah Thomas was the year before. So yeah, he should’ve been in the top-10 for sure.
The list, overall, is pretty friendly to the Celtics though, I’m not going to lie. Terry Rozier, who isn’t even in the starting five, clocked in at No. 82. Jaylen Brown made the list at No. 47 while Jayson Tatum is No. 39 on the list. Gordon Hayward, apparently, was not ranked because he didn’t play enough last season. But you know if he did, he would certainly be on there as well. So basically, the Celtics have six of the top-100 players in the league which is good, right?