Not even the resurgence of Hoodie Melo can keep Carmelo Anthony from falling down the NBA totem pole and, at least at one outlet, find himself behind Lonzo Ball.
ESPN is counting down its annual list of the best NBA players this week, and the first big news out of the 2017-18 rankings is that Lonzo Ball is picked as a better player than Carmelo Anthony for the upcoming season. The Worldwide Leader posted its rankings for players 51 through 74 on Tuesday, with Anthony clocking in as the 64th best player in the league.
It’s big fall from the 31st spot he had last year, and it’s enough to put him behind a number of players, one of which is Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball.
65. Marcus Smart
64. Carmelo Anthony
63. Lonzo BallCustom trigger here from ESPN
— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) September 12, 2017
Ball picked up the next spot at 63rd, the highest-rated rookie on the list. ESPN noted his big Las Vegas Summer League performance, where he won MVP, and the hype surrounding the Lakers rookie for his spot on the list. The next highest ranked rookie is Dallas’ Dennis Smith Jr. at 75th on the list.
Still, this list projecting the best players often doesn’t mean a whole lot other than sparking debate and making people mad. Sports Illustrated is doing the same with their player rankings and have already drawn the ire of Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan for putting him at 36th overall. As for the difficulty in projecting how rookies will fare, the Bucks’ budding star Malcolm Brogdon picked up the 56th spot on the list this year, but he didn’t make the list at all a year ago and ended up winning Rookie of the Year.
We’ll have to see who’s better this fall, I guess, but it’s a bold step to take, putting the rookie point guard ahead of the veteran star.
