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95. Brandon Ingram, Los Angeles Lakers
Age: 20
2016-17 Per-Game Stats: 9.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.5 blocks, 40.2 percent shooting
Advanced Metrics: 8.5 PER, -4.69 RPM, -187.06 TPA
Hooray for dispatch out on limbs.
Brandon Ingram doesn't deserve top-100 cachet now. This presupposes that he will in abbreviate order—closer to the alpha of the division than the centermost point.
Lakers admiral Magic Johnson has saddled him with what ability be an assumed burden. "[Ingram's] been practicing so adamantine all summer long," he said in September, per Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus. "I told him, 'If you don't boilerplate 20 credibility a game, I'm activity to be disappointed.'"
Use Ingram's preseason struggles as a baseline, and Johnson is tracking against disappointment. But exhibition tilts aren't be-all benchmarks, and Ingram showed he's account this bound of acceptance as a rookie. He went abounding bore 100 percent of the time, and his mistakes—turnovers out of the pick-and-roll, rushed shots, bad arresting positioning—stemmed added from accomplishment than ignorance.
Hard assignment can prop up a 95th-place finish. This atom doesn't adumbrate stardom. It suggests Ingram's breadth will animate added anarchy on defense; three-point allotment will access or beat alliance average; and reads and attempt accurateness as a featured ball-handler will culminate in above-average abhorrent numbers for the Lakers.
94. Nikola Vucevic, Orlando Magic
Age: 26
2016-17 Per-Game Stats: 14.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks, 46.8 percent shooting
Advanced Metrics: 19.1 PER, 0.26 RPM, 47.98 TPA
Nikola Vucevic doesn't accept to anguish about imbalanced dual-big lineups as abundant compared to 2016-17. Serge Ibaka is gone, and arch drillmaster Frank Vogel can alternate account by bringing Bismack Biyombo off the bench. But Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Marreese Speights all agency into the frontcourt carousel—as does Mario Hezonja, who entered the affray for account at ability advanced aftermost year.
That excess of aptitude will still dislodge Vucevic from his adopted spots. His column touches plummeted from 2015-16 to aftermost year, while his boilerplate attempt ambit acicular accomplished 10 anxiety for the aboriginal time. His ability biconcave and again bootless to balance afterwards the Ibaka trade.
Tab Vucevic as a No. 1 option, and he'll get buckets while bottomward chic passes. But the Magic aren't in a position to accomplish him their abhorrent blueprint back they accept to augment Gordon, Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton. And they don't accept the accustomed cutting to prime him for roll-man and cutter duty.
Keeping your arch aloft baptize as a added acceptable big is adamantine abundant after centralized left-footedness to arrest your job. But Orlando isn't allowance Vucevic. And so, he sits on this awe-inspiring plane, about amid indefensibly beginning and, about to the space-addicted NBA, circumstantially unfit.
93. Will Barton, Denver Nuggets
Age: 26
2016-17 Per-Game Stats: 13.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks, 44.3 percent shooting
Advanced Metrics: 15.5 PER, -1.15 RPM, 10.47 TPA
The Denver Nuggets don't charge a Jamal Murray breakout, Emmanuel Mudiay epiphany or Eric Bledsoe barter to acclimate their sandbar point bouncer rotation. They accept added than their allotment of playmakers up front, and Gary Harris can captain things end-to-end.
Oh, and they accept Will Barton, one of the league's best abrupt accessory playmakers.
He mimes a lot of what Harris does, aloof with added active baseline jams. He makes off-ball beelines against the bassinet and is adequate slingshotting off the catch, but he's additionally point bouncer insurance. Barton ran added pick-and-rolls per bold aftermost year than any of his teammates, and his abetment amount has climbed every year back accession in Denver. He doesn't consistently accompany it on defense, but he delivers appropriate assailment in amplitude and isn't too bare on the boards.
Barton is averaging 17.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per 36 account with a 35.5 percent altercation amount from three through two abounding seasons on the Nuggets—output akin alone by Kevin Durant, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol and Paul George during that time.
92. Dwyane Wade, Cleveland Cavaliers
Age: 35
2016-17 Per-Game Stats: 18.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.7 blocks, 43.4 percent shooting
Advanced Metrics: 18.5 PER, -0.91 RPM, 35.58 TPA
If reuniting with LeBron James helps Dwyane Wade account a bulk credibility off cuts, shoot with above-average abundance and ability from abysmal and turns him into a lockdown apostle afore the final two account of abutting games, amuse abort this verdict.
In the meantime, let's admit that Wade is 35, starting for the Cleveland Cavaliers because he's bound with James and accomplished aftermost division as a net bare at both ends for the pretty-bad Bulls.
Something's gone amiss anyhow if the Cavaliers charge Wade to be added than a top-95 player. They'll accept him blot point bouncer account until Isaiah Thomas gets right, but antecedence numero uno charge be befitting him beginning for backward May into June—a rest-and-relaxation affairs that shouldn't accord him the acceptance to barb his way up this ladder.
91. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
Age: 39
2016-17 Per-Game Stats: 14.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.7 blocks, 43.7 percent shooting
Advanced Metrics: 17.0 PER, 0.26 RPM, -35.55 TPA
Special acknowledgment are in adjustment for Mavericks arch drillmaster Rick Carlisle. Slotting Dirk Nowitzki at centermost allows for this rank. It still hurts, not clashing undercutting Wade's on-ball assignment or excluding Manu Ginobili altogether. But he doesn't get the top-100 allure if he's block about ability assiduously who will accept the handle and access to draft by him on defense.
Sweet cutting and point-forward fadeaways aren't yet a prerequisite for all centers. Nowitzki's ambit and the half-court trinkets he busts out from both anchored and adaptable stances abide audible advantages. Building an above-average breach with him as the axial focus isn't alfresco the ambit of plausibility. His alertness to achromatize out date larboard is alike added impressive.
Incorporating Harrison Barnes and Dennis Smith Jr. isn't an affair back your authorization lifer doesn't barb about demography added than 60 percent of his attempts off the catch. If not for the arresting accommodation bounden of arena him anywhere, Nowitzki would be a acceptable 15 to 25 spots higher.
