Though his best days may be behind him, Cleveland Cavaliers star big Kevin Love being ranked behind New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson in ESPN’s top 100 NBA Rank for the 2019-20 season is a stretch at this point.
I understand that Cleveland Cavaliers star big Kevin Love‘s absolute best days in the NBA may be behind him, considering the injury pile-up he’s had the last few seasons.
He only appeared in 22 games in the 2018-19 season (per Basketball Reference) mostly due to reported toe surgery, and he’s had injury problems, again, for the last few years on the Cavaliers.
That being said, he’s still one of the best big men in the NBA when mostly healthy, and Love being ranked behind New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson in ESPN’s Top 100 NBA Rank of players (you can view their 50-31 best players here, and you can see Brian Windhorst’s write-up on Love) heading into the 2019-20 season is a stretch.
I won’t deny that Williamson is a tremendous prospect that should make a huge impact on both ends of the floor for the New Orleans Pelicans throughout his first NBA season. He averaged 22.6 points on 70.8% effective field goal shooting, to go with 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game in his one year at Duke in 2018-19 (per Sports Reference).
Williamson is a player that projects to fit in very well alongside pieces such as Lonzo Ball, a player that’s a terrific passer in both the halfcourt and in transition, Josh Hart and J.J. Redick, among others, such as Brandon Ingram, as Williamson should be a constant rolling threat and particularly effective on and off-ball screener, to go with post-up and putback threat.
Zion’s finishing ability highlighted by ridiculous power and strength to finish through contact should enable him to get a bunch of baskets at the rim, and he gives 150% effort on all possessions, and has great passing feel for a young big and can handle the ball really well.
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Nonetheless, Williamson is a non-shooter at this point, and in today’s NBA, that frankly makes it silly to me to have him ranked in front of Love, who is one of the game’s best rebounders on both ends of the floor still, too.
The Cleveland Cavaliers star is as good as it gets when it comes to shooting among bigs in the league, and with the way Love spaces the floor, can post-up and get buckets often due to strength and skill, and also is a very capable secondary playmaker out of the mid and high-post due to good vision and timing (2.6 assists per-36 for his career, per Basketball Reference), Williamson should not be ahead of Love in ESPN’s NBA Rank at this point.
In his time with the Cavaliers (four-plus seasons), Love has averaged a rock solid 19.9 points on 57.2% true shooting, to go with 10.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game (per Basketball Reference).
That includes a 37.5% hit rate on 5.8 three-point shot attempts per contest, and though Williamson shot a fairly respectable 33.8% from deep at Duke (per Sports Reference), he is anything but a floor spacer at the NBA level, and him shooting 64.0% from the free throw line last year doesn’t really help in indicating that he’ll be able to become a viable jump shooting threat.
He does not seem at all comfortable at this point as a perimeter or mid-range shooter, and to me, with the threat Love poses constantly when he’s on the floor as a perimeter threat and with his all-around polish as an inside-out big that also shot 88.0% in 2017-18 from the foul line and 90.4% when in last year, Love is simply a better player at this point and that should be reflected in a ranking of the top 100 NBA players heading into the 2019-20 season.
I’m not knocking Zion here, and his off-ball defense as a rotator, potential as a rim protector and post-up defender, and overall IQ on both ends of the floor appear to be elite for a 19-year-old.
Even so, Williamson, coming in at number 42, especially with potential for injury problems with him weighing a listed 285 pounds (Williamson could not participate much in Summer League due to a knee injury suffered early on in a SL game, per the Pelicans/general manager David Griffin), shouldn’t be ranked ahead of Love, coming in at 43.
Love also placed 24 in last year’s ESPN NBA top 100 ranking going into the 2018-19 season, for reference.
In my opinion, Zion also should not be ranked higher than one of the game’s best shooters and perimeter defenders in the Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (coming in at number 49), who by the end of the 2019-20 season, can’t improve his case, because he could feasibly miss all of next year due to a reported torn ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
I’d also argue that Williamson should not have a better ranking than the Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner (coming in at number 44), who is a stellar interior defender and good roller/floor spacer, nor should Williamson be ranked than the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon (coming in at number 45), who is one of the most versatile and top-end defenders in the NBA that can also put up 20 points any given night thanks to his improving three-point range (a respectable 34.9% last season, per NBA.com).
Considering I believe Love, who was an All-Star in 2018 and has made five All-Star teams in his career, is better than those other players I compared to Williamson, who I believe are better than Williamson even likely by the end of next season, it’s all the more reason I find Williamson’s ranking by ESPN to be a stretch.
Love’s ranking of 43 is on par with Sports Illustrated‘s ranking of him (written by Rob Mahoney) at 41 in their top 100 (of which Williamson was not eligible) heading into this season, which I believe seems about right, but again, Williamson over Love already?
In the words often used by ESPN’s “NFL Live” crew, “come on, man.”