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ESPN's preseason player rankings for the 2018-19 season were released, and as with most of their publications, they drew a lot of flak for making some poor selections. As with their rankings every year, there are obvious double standards which they failed to identify when their writers pose arguments for why specific players are at specific spots on their top players' lists.
One of the few consistent themes through their list is the fact that they've rated promising youngsters quite high. The likes of Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons all find themselves within the top 24 - signifying that they're expected to be All Star-caliber or All-NBA caliber players this season.
Apart from the aforementioned players, there are a couple of others who have been rated pretty highly, but their ceiling looks even dizzier at the moment given their outstanding performances from the 2017-18 season. Let's take a look at the 5 players who look likely to prove their value and rankings right, potentially even playing better than where they're currently ranked:
#1 Jayson Tatum
Tatum evolved from a role-playing starter into playoff closer pretty quickly, slicing and dicing opposition defenses on his way to an 18.5 PPG average in 19 playoff games. With Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back and both likely to occupy the premier scoring roles during the regular season, it will be difficult for Tatum to translate his playoff game into the regular season as, at best, the Celtics' tertiary scorer.
Brad Stevens has shown a willingness to field undersized lineups as long as the best talent he has is out there on the court. The competition for minutes within the Celtics' ranks will be immense, but given the fact that they brought back nearly every player from last season, Stevens wouldn't have to change his preseason rotations from last year this time around.
All of this implies that Tatum has the chance to star in a Klay Thompson-like capacity on the Celtics, who are essentially the Warriors' version of the Eastern Conference. And that should be good enough for the #24 spot that he's been pegged. If he succeeds in cracking 20 ppg as the 3rd option, that's when the bells will starting ringing for All-NBA candidacy.
#2 Ben Simmons
Young LeBron, as The King himself has heralded the #1 pick from the 2016 NBA draft, was already a top-25 player in the league last season. As a rookie (even though a lot of fans may disagree with the definition), he was displaying Magic-like court vision and his ability to get to the rim is really quite reminiscent of LeBron.
One could argue that his ballhandling skills are better than either of those two all-timers even as of now. His defensive abilities at NBA level are seriously already better than Magic Johnson, and the All-Defensive First Team selection that he's set as a target for himself for the upcoming season does not look the least bit out of his reach.
Whether or not he develops a jumpshot, Simmons will be, at a bare minimum, a supersized Rondo who can guard all 5 positions on court if he reaches his peak. Which is why it is a good sign that he has developed some semblance of a jumpshot this summer according to all the open run footage that we've taken a look at.
Expect him to vault himself into the league's truly elite by the end of this season.
#3 Joel Embiid
As long as we're considering Anthony Davis as a power forward (even though he's likely to be the Pelicans' default starting center this season), the notion of Embiid being the game's best two-way center should be counted as quite valid.
There's a lot to like about Embiid's game. He has the whole package on offense, thriving the most in the traditional sense from the low post region, but with the ability to stretch defenses out to the 3-point line. He's an adequate playmaker, devastating rim-runner, a willing screener and one of the best pick-and-pop roll men in the league.
Embiid belongs in the conversation of the league's elite. After a healthy offseason for the first time in 4 years since getting drafted, he has a chance to prove himself right. The biggest problem that has prevented him from reaching true superstar status is the fact that his conditioning is not elite enough to impact games from start to finish in the manner of a Westbrook or an Anthony Davis.
Assuming he's improved on that front and is able to play out a fully healthy season, he would be a legitimate MVP candidate if the Sixers win over 55 games this year.
#4 Nikola Jokic
Jokic is one of the hardest players to accurately rank, but ESPN has taken a pretty bold step in naming him among the top 3 centers in the league
No center in the history of the game has been the kind of true point guard that Jokic has routinely been for the Nuggets. He damn near averaged a triple-double for an entire month of the regular season, and he is about as skilled an offensive player as a big man at his size can get. Jokic is a true unicorn who a lot of people were sleeping up until the fag end of the 2017-18 season.
However, he's a putrid defender who is simply too slow to not be exploited during the playoffs, if the Nuggets manage to make it to that stage this year. Guarding the likes of Russell Westbrook and LeBron James on switches is not ideal for a center who, with all due respect, plays at a plodding pace at best.
For him to justify his ranking, he needs to lead the Nuggets to the playoffs as the default best offensive player on his squad. That might be difficult given the presence of high-usage guards like Jamal Murray and Isaiah Thomas, but the Nuggets have arguably gotten better over the offseason and have a real chance of doing so - especially given the contrast they present to the rather dysfunctional Blazers, Grizzlies and the Timberwolves.
#5 Donovan Mitchell
As a rookie, Donovan Mitchell did what few rookies in the history of the league have ever done - outplay two perennial All-NBA candidates en route knocking them out of the first round of the playoffs.
Not only was he a more decisive influence on his team than Westbrook and Paul George were for their the Thunder, Mitchell actually took on the burden of being the volume scorer for his team when being guarded by PG-13. And delivered on it in such big-time fashion that nearly everyone who watched fell in love with his demeanor, his controlled aggression and the scintillating moves he put on hapless defenders left, right and center.
As far as shooting guards in the league go, I'm not sure that other than James Harden and Jimmy Butler anyone could've done what he did, or represents the same upside as he does. Through the course of his rookie season, anyone who watched the Jazz closely could clearly see how much he improved steadily with experience.
With an offseason gone by and the Jazz having brought back nearly all of their crew who finished an eminently respectable 48-34 last season, expect Mitchell to keep trending up and reach All-NBA consideration in a couple of years. A buck gets ten that it might be this year itself (even if he doesn't actually get voted in).
