This season, Jeremy Lin wants to show and prove that he's a bona fide NBA player. According to ESPN.com's ranking of the top 500 NBA players, Jeremy Lin sits at number 467. On the bright side, Lin can tell everyone that ESPN.com, one of the largest sports media conglomerates, considers him an NBA player. Warrior fans: Is this a fair ranking?
There's not much science to how ESPN came up with these seemingly arbitrary rankings, but it is still fun to see how ESPN's wide network of sportswriters and commentators view the Warriors. ESPN.com explains their method:
We asked 91 experts to rate each player on a 0-to-10 scale, in terms of "the current quality of each player."
Not exactly groundbreaking sports maths by any means. Lin received an average score of 1.88, which isn't too far off from his average points per game.
There will, of course, be disagreements over this ranking and I can bet Warrior fans won't be happy with this as we always feel that our players are undervalued no matter how poorly the team's production is. But it is a bit strange to see John Lucas III, the all-NBA first teamer of 10 day contracts, ranking a good 20 spots ahead of Lin. Perhaps it was his 66 point explosion in a recent pro-am summer game that boosted his ranking.
On the bright side, recent second round pick Jeremy Tyler sits at 441 and former Warrior Jeff Adrien a few spots ahead at 436.
Does Lin deserve to crack the top 450?