Recently, Bleacher Report released their top 100 NBA players from 2019-20, and two Cleveland Cavaliers players made that list.
On July 11, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey and Dan Favale released a piece regarding what they believed to be the top 100 players of the 2019-20 NBA season. This list does not include Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton, a player who averaged over 20 points per game on great efficiencies.
But, if Sexton were to continue the success he found this season, especially later into the season, he should be primed to make that list next year.
The Cavs were not shut out of the list, though. So who made it for them, then?
That relates to Cleveland’s starting frontcourt.
Cleveland Cavaliers bigs Kevin Love and Andre Drummond made that Bleacher Report top 100 list of 2019-20.
Kevin Love and Andre Drummond again, represented the Cavaliers on this B/R top 100. As a quick side note, for context in regards to player positional rankings leading up to the overall list, those were compiled from Cleaning the Glass and Basketball Reference, in terms of lineup data.
Starting with Love, this season, it has been a drama-filled one with the Cleveland Cavaliers. On multiple occasions, Love could be seen visibly frustrated on the court/on the bench and showing that in an uncontrolled manner in games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Toronto Raptors.
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While he did apologize for his actions and seemed to be a much better teammate from early January on, it’s clear that Love was more engaged and in a better place when J.B. Bickerstaff took over the head coaching reigns for John Beilein. Beilein stepped down before post-All-Star break play.
He again seems to be much better off with the Cavs at this point, though, and still for his now essentially-past season, Love posted 17.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He shot 45.0 percent from the field, 37.4 percent from three-point range, and 85.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Anyway, this stat line has been the norm for Love since he has arrived in Cleveland, going from a first option with the Minnesota Timberwolves to the third one in Cleveland as well as dropping a lot of the weight to improve longevity and further solidify himself as a perimeter player.
On the B/R rankings, Love comes in as the 51st-best player from 2019-20, ranking just above the Denver Nuggets’ Paul Millsap and just below the San Antonio Spurs’ LaMarcus Aldridge. On the power forward B/R rankings, Love comes in as the ninth-best power forward, ranking just ahead of Millsap and just below the Atlanta Hawks’ John Collins.
The initial reaction to these rankings is that Love is ranked just right. Having Millsap behind Love makes sense. Though Millsap is vastly above ahead of Love defensively, Love has him beat offensively. This ranking could honestly go either way. Looking at ranking Love behind Collins, Collins is faster, stronger and was better statistically so this ranking is also reasonable.
Looking at his overall ranking, it seems reasonable as well. The argument could be made that Love has been better than Aldridge has this year but, the difference between the two isn’t drastic enough to dive deep into said argument.
The second player that made the list from the Cavaliers is Andre Drummond. Drummond was a mid-season acquisition from the Detroit Pistons. Drummond was traded for pennies on the dollar as the Cavs only had to give up John Henson, Brandon Knight and a future second-round round pick. Recently, Drummond emphasized on a podcast appearance that he fully intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option for 2020-21, so we’ll see him back.
It was also hinted at that the Cavaliers may be looking to extend Drummond sooner rather than later and Drummond reportedly indicated mutually interest, so it looks as if Drummond may be repping the Wine and Gold for the foreseeable future. The potential for that is still a ways away, so we’ll have to see on that, though.
Looking at Drummond’s season for the Cavaliers, in eight games played, he averaged 17.5 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, shooting 55.2 percent. Looking at the games played, it is certain that B/R used Drummond’s play on the Pistons when ranking him amongst other players.
In Bailey and Favale’s ranking, Drummond ranks 88th this season, ahead of the New York Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson, the Toronto Raptors’ Marc Gasol, and Atlanta Hawks’ Clint Capela. He ranks behind the Portland Trail Blazers’ Hassan Whiteside.
Looking at the 100 player ranking, Love being over 30 spots higher than Drummond is a bit of a stretch. Defensively, Drummond is better than Love, though that isn’t saying much. Offensively, Love looks to be better as he has the advantage in the shooting and facilitating departments but, the gap offensively does not warrant the 30-spot gap we see according to Bailey and Favale.
Reacting to his center ranking, having the Pistons’ Christian Wood and the New Orleans Pelicans’ Derrick Favors over Drummond isn’t egregious but, there are multiple arguments that can be made for Drummond over both. Drummond did not crack the top 15 centers from Bailey and Favale from 2019-20.
Looking at Wood first, seeing as this ranking involves the entirety of a player’s season, Wood’s half of a season explosion may not be enough to warrant ranking him over Drummond.
Looking at Favors, his stats do not show his full impact on the Pelicans. Though this is the case, one can make a valid argument that Favors’ season isn’t better than Drummond’s. A big reason as to why Favors’ season isn’t better is that Favors played alongside an All-Star in Brandon Ingram as well as All-Star level talent in Jrue Holiday and several games with Zion Williamson.
Drummond doesn’t have that luxury and in turn, he has to take on huge responsibilities offensively and defensively. All in all, both of these rankings are reasonable.
Seeing as that the Cleveland Cavaliers had a horrid season, having two players make this list is a blessing and it isn’t too much for Cavs fans to complain about.