Those lists are stupid. ESPN in general is stupid.

At least their explanation admits that it’s because of the potential fit with Luka and him, meaning more projected output. It’s not just “oh he’s a laker now that means he’s better.”

But also you can’t convince me it’s not at least a little bit just because he’s a laker now lol

I have serious doubts he’d be top 100 if he still played for the Jazz

How is he actually as a roll man? I know he does a lot of good things. Finishing, rebounding. But the Jazz didn’t really even run any pnr.

He looked very good in the few games he played. He was doing like a Jokic impression, with much improved shooting and passing.

If that turns out to be real, he could be very good.

They have rookies in the list too which does mean these rankings at least consider some form of prediction of what they will be in this upcoming season.

well he shot 75% from 3 in those games LOL

maybe it’ll translate

His defensive +/- is going to be off the charts with these guys as his teammates.

“Luka makes everyone else around him better or something like that. Here’s a gambling ad”

-ESPN probably

I think he’s going to shut a lot of people up to be honest. Health is an obvious risk factor but on the floor he projects to be a great pairing with Luka and Reaves. Elite offensive rebounding and putback ability. Elite rim protection. In terms of impacting opponent’s FG% there has only been two players ranked higher – Wemby and Chet. Has double the rate of contested rim shots as Ayton which signals a much higher motor. Runs the floor well relative to his size.

Showed flashes of significantly improved passing/vision so he’s not a blackhole once we gets the ball to continue a possession – and even then he’s a very high efficiency finisher. Offensively he has played with very underwhelming pick and roll ball handlers outside of an old Conley and a very young Keyonte George who is still developing in that area. Now he’s playing w/ Luka and Reaves. Not to mention the admittedly limited sample 3pt% improvement as a potential stretch option. He’s bound to make a jump.

technically he’ll double his free throw rate

The Lakers glow up! 🤣😂 It’s all subjective bullshit

Got that Luka alley oop boost

I mean, playing with Luka really could/should boost his value/contributions. Like how playing with Chris Paul used to make guys look like all stars.

Once again. These are a projected ranking

If he played through appendix surgery and beat the celtics in the playoffs, he woudlve dropped significantly.

“Article written as click bait contains click bait bullshit inside”

Usually laker players are overrated. And more forgiving.Look at Luka Oncic who has no defense and flop all the time have most FTs in last season with less game played.And people are all shitting on SGA and avoiding Luka oncic

His FTA just jumped from 4.0 to 8.0 after joining the Lakers

And ESPN thanks you for linking their post and spreading their sorry attempt at sports journalism. When will people realize they are rage baiting on purpose, bc they know that gets reactions and YouTube videos/reddit posts made about how stupid the list is, creating more engagement and more ads for them.

Or, technically, everybody else might have gotten worse.

ESPN is hogshit

Sounds about EPSN.

ESPN not beating the ‘doesn’t watch games allegations.

It’s a dumbass list by a dumbass company.

That being said have you considered that a young player is also expected to improve some and that theirs also other players that have gotten worse? Lmao your crash out is the only funny thing here

Lakers tax.

Built different

Shameless

ESPN player ranking lists like the equivalent Bleacher Report lists of the same genre are just clickbait we shouldn’t pay attention to at this point. Ever since they ranked Jae Crowder above DeRozan back 2016 or so, it really showed the bias towards role players on teams writers like over actually better players. At least some of the power rankings are more based on material outcomes

Drop the mic

BSPN

Cuz they know he’s gonna get every call in the book now.

What a joke

A) they’re projecting forward so the thinking is he’ll have a big season playing with Luka and Reaves

B) the further you get away from the top-10 or top-30 the harder it is to rank the players and there’s less differentiation among them. There’s very little difference between say the 80th and 90th best players but there’s a big gap between the 1st and 11th best players.

C) Lakers bias

It’s an ESPN list. Their objective is to have people talk about how stupid it is by commenting and sharing it, driving up their engagement.

I would put every player from 74-85 over him, and maybe even a couple of the guys in the high 80s and 90s

Could be that they also moved a bunch of people down in the ranks and he just floated up.

well he plays for the lakers and with the best passing guard in basketball. he’s only going to get better this year

Lakers fans are already on board with Kushner. Fucking losers

Potentially hot take but I think 73rd is more in line with his value on the Jazz or Lakers than 98. He’s one of the best shot blockers and rebounders and overall defensive bigs in the NBA at the right age where he doesn’t have the age concerns slowing him down or the inexperience concerns limiting his effectiveness.

I could definitely see him being as good as the average team’s 3rd best player which puts him firmly in that 70-80 range.

I’m guessing they’re projecting an offensive bump playing next to Luka

The Luka factor. Dudes gonna be eating easy buckets all season.

Top 100? Yea…no

they’re probably expecting him to have a better season offensively with luka feeding him, which to be fair is not a bad hypothesis but it’s definitely hilarious that he climbed that many spots by doing nothing.

i don’t really have an opinion on this. now that i think about it i don’t know if i’ve ever actually seen kessler play. they were fun to watch in the mitchell/gobert years but the jazz have been tanking for a while in a way that i find really unenjoyable, so i don’t really watch their games. idk if kessler is athletic or not or what his playstyle is, just that he gets a lot of blocks and not a lot of points. so maybe this is warranted or maybe this is dumb. we’ll just have to wait and see.

If the Lakers wanted him, he must be good

ESPN bad, true, but in that very limited time he did show some real stretch 5 potential which raises his ceiling significantly

I don’t understand why people are mad about this, surely it’s reasonable to project him to have a better year this year?

Or… is it possible that 25 players fell off?

Just don’t see how you can list rookies who have played exactly 0 NBA minutes can be included in a best players list.

Well yeah man he’s playing with the best pick and roll ball handler in the league