The results are in from #HornetsRank and we’ll unveil the them as well as some of our thoughts and your comments throughout the next week. Today’s results come from our staff here at Hornets247.
Today: Hornets247 Writers 9/25: Hornets247 and Hornets Report Readers 9/26: Full ESPN Results 9/27: Comparing and contrasting the rankings 9/28: Hornets Beat on #HornetsRank
Hornets247 Writers
1. Eric Gordon (average rank: 1.29)— Gordon received 5 of the 7 first place votes, placing second on the remainder of ballots. Even after a less than stellar opening act in New Orleans, we’re still largely convinced that he’ll be the best player on the team this year.
2.Ryan Anderson (2) — Have we mentioned how psyched we are about landing this dude? Ryno wound up taking home a first place vote as well as a third. He was comfortably ahead of Davis, averaging a ranking of 2.0 to the 2.7 of Davis.
3. Anthony Davis (2.71)– First in the draft, third on the Hornets. Davis does have one True Believer, as he took home a numero uno ranking from our senior writer (because he’s old) here at Hornets247.
4. Jason Smith– (4.43) He wasn’t ranked higher than four or lower than five by any of our staff, showing just how wide the gap is between numbers 1-3 and numbers 4-14. I’m a huge Smith fan, but if he’s your fourth best player it’s probably reasonable to expect another lottery appearance.
5. Robin Lopez (5.29)– Lopez was ranked 4-6 by everyone, averaging a 5.2 overall. If he can come back strong and show that he’s regained his athleticism following knee surgery, he could make a strong that he should be ahead of Jason Smith.
6. Greivis Vasquez (5.43)– He was placed as high as number four, but also fell as low as seven. From the looks of this we expect him to see most the of minutes at point guard early on.
7. Al-Farouq Aminu (7.14)– Farouq is coming off some pretty strong international play which led to Nigeria making the Olympics, but that didn’t equate to much love from the writers. He capped out at number six and fell as low as nine. This is sort of a make-or-break year for the man who will likely be the starting SF.
8. Roger Mason Jr. (8.86) — Mason was less than impressive most of last year as he struggled to see the floor, but played fairly well once he got minutes. Six of seven writers ranked him as the 8th or 9th best player.
9. Austin Rivers (9.29)– The rookie was ranked as high as seven by his number one fan, but also finished as low as 13th on my list.
10. Hakim Warrick (9.71)– Warrick polled anywhere from 8th best to elite benchmark (last place). The range in which he was ranked was the largest on the team.
11. Lance Thomas (10.83)– Thomas is a guy who could take a Jason Smith-like jump this year. He took big steps last year and worked ever harder this summer. He’s developed a jumper, added strength, and appears to be in good position to take the next step in his NBA development.
12. Xavier Henry (11.66)– Henry is running out of time to make his mark in New Orleans. If all goes well he’ll come out hot and compete for the started SF job with Aminu. If not, I exppect we’ll see Miller overtake him on the depth chart.
13. Darius Miller (12.43)– The rookie doesn’t get much love from our writers, but mid second round picks rarely do. I tend to think he’ll be better this year than Rivers will be.
14. Brian Roberts (13.57)– Only one way to go from here!
Check back tomorrow to see the fan results.
8 responses to “Hornets247 Writers #HornetsRank Eric Gordon Number One”
What were everyones individual rankings?
Just want to comment on the 4-14 being lumped together. I see 4-14 as really composed of several distinct groups. Where I draw the lines within 4-14 is:
4-7 or possibly 4-8: This is the high quality 2nd teamers. Unfortunately, two of them (Vaquez and Aminu) will start. This is because we have so many bigs (PFs and Cs) in our top players.
9-10: These are huge question marks. I am not sure we even let Harrick play this year and the polarizing Rivers is a young rookie with no established position.
11-14: These are generally players who will struggle to get minutes and contribute. I agree Thomas could be a Jason Smith like story. I see him as benefitting from injuries to more highly ranked forwards. I think Henry will actually leap frog Warrick, make the top 10, and be a solid 2nd teamer. Thomas could leap into the top 10, too, but his natural position, PF, has a logjam of quality players in front of him. (If Henry makes it to a solid 2nd teamer, it will be very interesting to see what minutes Rivers gets, when, and with whom.)
I have a question for the writers:
In our 2007-2008 campaign, would you rather have Ryan Anderson (right now) on that team or David West?
I didn’t spend time pointing to the three good players, but I’ll tell you: I’d rather West. First, he was my favorite player. Second, we had Ryan Anderson, just all broken up between other players, West included. Peja could hit still, though not at his prime clip, so we had some outside threats. Take Peja away, and it’s a different story, but then we have cap space, etc. and it gets nutty really quickly.
West.
if it’s purely a subtract this, add this type (subtract West 07/08 add Ryan Anderson 10/11) then give me Anderson. He’d make that TC/CP3 PnR more unstoppable than it already was (remember, we also had Peja back then).
Nice but I don’t see D.Mill doing better A.Rivers this year. I See Gordon only being great as long as he can stay healthy. I also see Skynet & Mr. Confident (cocky)(Austin Rivers) stepping up this season and making the Hornets Relevant again.But overall I give this Ranking system an “A”.
I’m going to preface this by saying Austin Rivers was the one guy I really didn’t want at 11. I think he’s good at, and interested in, all of the things that don’t help you win basketball games. With that said, 13th is absurd. I’d put him 8th because of lack of alternatives. Not a believer in Mason at this point of his career. Would also take everyone, including Roberts, ahead of Hakim Warrick.
He’s just really young. In a year I’d expect him to be substantially higher.