SLN Top 100 player tiers, v2 (2012-13 off-season)

[jwoo]

Getting this up before TC! I went back in and re-ranked and re-blurbed the Top 100 players in SLN — very unscientific but just a fun exercise to update every few seasons. We can now embed Google Sheets which saves a ton of time lol.

My process is basically going through my old list, updating, looking through stats and box scores a little bit, and trying to come up with some level of mental organization for value. For a little bit of context (you may remember the last time I did this), I envisioned it like this.

TIER 1: You probably need one of these guys to win a title

Self-explanatory and up for debate but these are the guys who are kind of the common thread amongst contenders. These are the best players in the league, and the best teams for the most part have at least one of them. Eddy Curry makes his debut here!

TIER 2: Superstars

These guys all more or less constitute the rest of the league's true stars. Star power is subjective but you know it when you see it. For the most part, these guys are capable of being leading men on teams that go deep into the playoffs. It's a little tricky to know where to draw the cutoff here but I think we can all reasonably agree these players have uniquely dominant skillsets in one way or another.

TIER 3: Proven Stars

Things get a little fuzzier here but these guys are all elite performers who for one reason or another aren't quite superstar tier. These guys probably can't anchor a team alone, but they'd start on any team and make a significant impact. I included more of the truly elite bigs in this tier than last time because I think we're seeing depth at that position dwindle a bit.

TIER 4: Top Starters and Rising Stars

This ended up having sort of a sub-tier (4A) where I stuck a bunch of the young stars on the cusp of full breakouts. Generally this tier encompasses guys who could and would play major, valuable roles on pretty much any winning team. I kind of baked in some of the upside into this tier for the younger stars who are on good trajectories. But obviously this list is posted before TC (on purpose) so there's a lot of fluidity.

TIER 5: Solid Starters and Elite Role Players

This is the hardest tier to assemble - and also the largest - and there are probably two dozen other guys you could make arguments for - but basically, this group is full of guys who could contribute to winning in most contexts. There's a bit more situational context required for some of them (only the elite one-way scorers make the cut here, more or less) but I generally prioritize players who are versatile and do multiple things well, unless you're a truly elite specialist.



Enjoy perusing and reading and I will do this again in like three or four months after the IRL NBA draft is over lol. Would love some healthy discussion and debate - obviously this is super unscientific. Anyone I snubbed? Did you notice that there are zero Raptors ranked? How can it be propaganda??? And again, if you ever use this list against me in a trade negotiation, I will hold it against you for life!!!

[GrundleSauce]

We got a 2A, 3A, 3B and a 3C. Not bad! even Big Ray Ray snuck in as a 5A!

[mantypas/CavsCzar]

I control F-ed my way into the google doc to see if there were any cavs on the list, and I was very surprised to see Kyrie, did he demand to get traded to the Cavs? If so, that'd be cool lol

[jwoo]

I control F-ed my way into the google doc to see if there were any cavs on the list, and I was very surprised to see Kyrie, did he demand to get traded to the Cavs? If so, that'd be cool lol

Freudian

[Merv]

Someone come get Kwame. I can’t have more than one tanker Magician in these tiers and I’ve resigned myself to being stuck with Marion

[Merv]

Also, shouldn’t tier 2 be smaller and more like a bell curve?

[Kipke]

750 RP (2x frenzy multiplier)

[jwoo]

750 RP (2x frenzy multiplier)

This should just be a 1.5x bonus not 2x (I did 100 posts during the frenzy, and this isn’t my first frenzy article)

This project also takes me a really long time to do and takes a lot of thought…I have to rank 100 guys and write them all up while comparing their stats. I hate to complain but I think it’s worth more than 375 RP on its face. Hope the graders will consider the amount of effort put in, thanks

[Kipke]

750 RP (2x frenzy multiplier)

This should just be a 1.5x bonus not 2x (I did 100 posts during the frenzy, and this isn’t my first frenzy article)

This project also takes me a really long time to do and takes a lot of thought…I have to rank 100 guys and write them all up while comparing their stats. I hate to complain but I think it’s worth more than 375 RP on its face. Hope the graders will consider the amount of effort put in, thanks

You are correct again on the multiplier. Our RP grading sheet got complicated with frenzy bonuses and I was trying to play catchup after being offline for a few days. My bad on that, and appreciate the honesty catching it even tho it cost you RP. That’s the true stuff of champions and is worth more than any amount of RP.

To give context for the grade—this article rated very highly (as high or higher than any other article graded in past season) in complexity/length. It’s the highest rated length/complexity article since Matt’s data series. It also rated well for applicability/insight. As it was a repeated article concept without any jokes/humor it received lower scores for creativity and funniness (lower weighted categories than the others, but still part of equation). But the comment on the work put in is fair to highlight and we will keep trying our best to keep that stuff in mind.

375 x 1.5 (multiplier) +100 (posts) = 575

+ 100 RP for being a decent fella and not taking advantage of dumb graders

675 RP