With a month left before the start of the NBA season, it’s officially season preview time and that means player rankings. It’s an annual tradition for sites to rank the Top 100 or Top 50 players in the league that ends with lots of people upset and yelling (DIME will have a Top 25 list coming out soon, so we’re not immune to this).
Rankings of all kinds are things people love to read because it gets them riled up. Its why everyone does it, because it sparks conversation and sharing of posts. However, the thing about ranking players is that the players themselves can see it too. When you rank 100 players, as Sports Illustrated does, that means there are probably 50 players, at minimum, that won’t be thrilled with where they’re placed, and another 100-plus upset they weren’t featured at all.
The first player we’ve seen react to these lists that debuted this week is DeMar DeRozan, who posted a very simple message to being ranked as the league’s 36th best player by Sports Illustrated.
F SI…#ProveEm
— DeMar DeRozan (@DeMar_DeRozan) September 12, 2017
DeRozan, as an All-Star, clearly feels disrespected by landing 36th overall, behind the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, Hassan Whiteside, and Khris Middleton. For comparison’s sake, the NBA 2K18 player ratings have DeRozan in a tie for being the league’s 15th best player, ahead of all five of those players that top him in the 31-50 list on SI.
The Raptors’ star shooting guard is a divisive figure in the modern NBA due to his tendency to shoot tons of mid-range jumpers, deemed an inefficient shot. He is very good at that skill, but in today’s NBA, being a volume shooter who takes a lot of 18-footers is not always well received. If DeRozan was in need of any added motivation right before training camp, he can simply remember the number 36 thanks to SI’s rankings to get fired up.
