Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 3:32 pm  |  16 responses

NBA Schoolyard Rankings

When in doubt, rank players and add your findings together.

by Brad Graham

There are literally dozens of ways to predetermine who should (and will) win the 2011 NBA title. When this particular hoop junkie started loving this game (like the NBA’s theme song of ‘94 told me that I should), my eighth grade math skills were put to good use (for arguably the very first time eveCelticsr) by creating a simple and easy to follow formula.

Eager to win every basketball argument, this blogger decided to rank each starting C, PF, SF, SG, PG (as well as each team’s sixth man, head coach and bench), from 1-30. Once ranked, it was a simple matter of addition and, BAM!, instant NBA pecking order. Simple enough, right?

What’s interesting is that the respective positional rankings not only highlight roster weaknesses but they showcase how overall rankings are not all that adversely affected by one or two positional re-orders – should one disagree with how they’ve been presented below. Overall franchise strength (and not muscle at a singular position) is on display below – which explains why so many teams, (we’re looking at you Miami and Oklahoma City) don’t appear where the collective may believe they should. Point being, it’s better to score average in all eight categories than it is to standout in a few. But, as we all know, the NBA isn’t played on paper so no point fretting. With the ’10-11 season still in its infancy, it’s time to put this 15-year-old formula to the test.

So where will each team finish at season’s end, given the rosters which have been assembled? Find out below.

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  • pee. Posted: Oct.28 at 4:22 pm
    YE FIRST!

  • JTaylor21 Posted: Oct.28 at 4:29 pm
    This is a joke right? Miami is LAST in the SE, CHILD PLEASE!!

  • Cheech Posted: Oct.28 at 5:00 pm
    Interesting way of doing it.
    Some teams fall where we suspect them to, others not so much.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Oct.28 at 6:42 pm
    Trevor Ariza, AK-47, Josh Howard, Nicholas Batum, Linas Kleiza and Travis Outlaw over Loul Deng?!? Have you even seen him play? And the Detroit Pistons better than my Chicago Bulls? Yeah, ok, that’ll be something to see…

  • flipnoyce Posted: Oct.28 at 7:23 pm
    This is a pretty interesting concept.Its a really clever format but hey it works for me!Now I’d like to see how accurate it can be.

  • Ang Posted: Oct.28 at 9:31 pm
    this is 8th grade math?

  • andreanglais Posted: Oct.28 at 10:47 pm
    fun stuff. Makes raptors & wolves fans sit up and say “what the f* has my GM been doing?” I mean, if they were obtuse enough not to already know this…

  • andreanglais Posted: Oct.28 at 10:47 pm
    of course, the whole is not necessarily equal to the sum of its parts, right, Miami?

  • Bimmer Posted: Oct.29 at 1:36 am
    Wow this is kinda retarded.

  • LeoneL Posted: Oct.29 at 2:29 am
    JTaylor “But, as we all know, the NBA isn’t played on paper so no point fretting. With the ’10-11 season still in its infancy, it’s time to put this 15-year-old formula to the test.” Chill.

  • Thegfunk Posted: Oct.29 at 7:36 am
    To enigmatic: Yes for sure trevor ariza, ak, travis and josh over luol deng. Deng is overated and hasnt had a very productive season for a few years now considering the money hes paid.

  • KB8toSG8 Posted: Oct.29 at 8:09 am
    LA bench is better than that. Atleast the new version. And Bynum is atleast top 10 right now.

  • tavoris Posted: Oct.29 at 8:43 am
    KB8toSG8-not when he’s hurt half of EVERY season.

  • henry Posted: Oct.29 at 9:27 am
    im taking bjennings and steph curry over john wall, as of now

  • Enigmatic Posted: Oct.29 at 1:05 pm
    Thegfunk – OK, yes Deng is overpaid. We all know this. But he hasn’t had a productive season in a few years?? He’s overrated? OK let’s compare these cats’ averages from a season ago – Loul Deng – 17.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.0 apg
    Trevor Ariza – 14.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.8 apg
    Andrei Kirilenko – 11.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.7 apg
    Travis Outlaw – 8.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.1 apg
    Josh Howard – 12.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.4 apg You STILL gonna tell me these other cats are better than Loul Deng? Guarantee, just like the dude who wrote this, you haven’t been watching much Bulls games either.

  • albie1kenobi Posted: Oct.29 at 2:35 pm
    interesting way of doing this. hollinger-lite? surprising to see Heat to be ranked this low though. i suppose other than the miami thrice, everything is terrible, which sorta make sense. worse than memphis and new orleans though? hmmm… chris paul better just stay put then.

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