The Trail Blazers take on the Los Angeles Lakers on November 6, 2021. Bruce Ely / Trail Blazers
With NBA training camps starting next week, the annual attempts to rank players are upon us. But instead of trying to rank the entire league, an impossible and unnecessary task, the folks at CBS Sports have set out to rank the top 100 players, just under a quarter of the league. But they’ve broken down their top 100 players by position before releasing their overall rankings, with five Trail Blazers on the list in their respective categories.
Considering the most recent season the Trail Blazers endured, having a version of their starting lineup (at least if you help a little) makes the Top 100 seem rather unbiased. Observe…
Last season was a wash for Lillard, so let’s look back at how magical 2020-21 was when he led the league with 162 clutch points on 51 percent shooting, resulting in a differential of more than 100 clutch points for the Blazers. Over Lillard’s last two full seasons, he’s averaged 28 and 30 points, respectively, and now the Blazers have equipped him with a much better defensive support system.
Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Ja Morant are the only point guards ranked ahead of Lillard, respectively, with Trae Young, Chris Paul, James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Kyrie Irving and Jamal Murray all behind Lillard. There is no position in the NBA with more talent than point guard, and it’s not particularly close.
• Next, shooting guard, the only position where the Trail Blazers have multiple players in the CBS Sports rankings. First, Gary Payton II, signed as a free agent this offseason after winning a championship last year with the Warriors, starts the shooting guard rankings at No. 22…
Payton went from a partially guaranteed contract to a key piece of the Warriors’ 2022 championship run. This summer he signed a three-year, $26 million financial deal with the Blazers. Portland is getting a defensive ace who is an elite positional rebounder, floor runner and half-court cutter. Payton isn’t a self-made scorer by any means — 83 percent of his buckets were assisted last season — but he’ll make the most of every touch he gets, posting a 99th percentile 134.9 point average. per 100 shot attempts last season. to clean the glass.
If you’re one to defend, you could probably classify GP2 as a forward just as easily as a guard, but most of those positional distinctions have been left pretty loose in today’s NBA. Either way, it’s good to see Payton II on the list, where he comes in behind Derrick White at No. 19, Buddy Hield at No. 20 and Jalen Green at No. 21.
Ten spots down the list, one of Payton’s new teammates, Anfernee Simons, who also signed a lucrative free agent contract this offseason, is No. 12…
Simons can score in bunches, and he can do it at all three levels. Like CJ McCollum before him, he will start and close games at the 2 next to Damian Lillard and the point guard when Lillard is rested. He was one of the most improved players in the NBA last season, and the next step is to continue to round out his game: maintain his shutdown efficiency from the perimeter, get to the line more often and improve on the ball. defender All the guys who manage the kind of defensive attention Simons saw last season are stars.
Not a bad ranking for Simons, though I suspect he’ll at least be in the top 10 next year. Ant comes in ahead of Bogdan Bogdanovic at No. 15, Norman Powell at No. 14 and Seth Curry at No. 13 while coming in just behind Jordan Poole at No. 9, Gary Trent Jr. at No. 10 and Tyler Herro at No. 10. 11. And Devin Booker ranks first among shooters.
• After going blank in the small forward category, which begs the question since he’s not listed as a shooter either: Where is Josh Hart? — the Blazers round out the power forward roster with another newcomer, Jerami Grant, coming in at No. 10…
Grant has played small forward for much of his career, but in the modern NBA he looms as an incredibly versatile four who can get to the 3-point line, defend multiple positions and create his own offense when needed. He’ll be tasked with getting fewer buckets now that he’s flanking Damian Lillard in Portland, and he should be able to slide back into a more involved version of the role he excelled at in Denver. His ability as a spot-up shooter and isolation defender should serve the Blazers well.
Grant is easily the best forward on Portland’s roster since LaMarcus Aldridge, so yes, that should serve the Blazers well.
Grant comes in ahead of Aaron Gordon at No. 15, Julius Randle at No. 14, Dorian Finney-Smith at No. 13, John Collins at No. 12 and Tobias Harris at No. 11. He is immediately behind Evan Mobley at No. 1. 9 , Jaren Jackson Jr. at No. 8 and Draymond Green at No. 7, with Giannis Antetokounmpo taking the top spot.
• Finally, we arrive at the centers, where Jusuf Nurkic, fresh from playing in EuroBasket 2022 with Bosnia & Herzegovina, reaches number 19…
Ranking Nurkic as the 19th best center on our list is a bit misleading; it can be much more effective than this suggests. He’s a limited drop defender and can be pretty sloppy with the ball at times, but he’s a huge body who averaged 15 and 11 last season while scoring 1.19 points per possession as a home roll, by Synergy. With the Blazers not going small this season, Nurkic, who signed a four-year, $70 million extension this summer, needs to play big for them to have a chance at a good playoff seed.
Nurkic is ahead of Bobby Portis at No. 22, Wendell Carter Jr. at No. 21 and Jakob Poeltl and behind Jonas Valanciunas at No. 18, Kevon Looney at No. 17 and Christian Wood at No. 16 with Nikola Jokic taking the top spot. stain.
