Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009...4:32 am
Slam Online’s Top 50: Ginobili, no. 29
This morning at Slam Online, Adam Sweeney, a man with no love for the Spurs, penned an excellent piece on why “Manu may be the most underrated player of our generation.” Fittingly enough, I think saying he is only the 29th best player in the league is slightly underrating him, but I guess that, if you take his injury woes into account, it seems appropriate. Here’s a quick excerpt:
As a Houston native, I loathe the San Antonio Spurs. I can assure you that no bias exists here. I went to college twenty-five minutes away from San Antonio and had to listen every day about the San Antonio Spurs dynasty. I made it my mission to debunk the fantasies Spurs had about their team. The thing is that the more you examine Manu’s career, the better he becomes.
8 Comments
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:29 am
Nice! On a related note, there was a discussion on ESPN about the hall of fame credentials of Pau Gasol. But almost everything Pau has done Manu has done better! What are the odds of Manu making the hall?
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
Since it’s the “Basketball” Hall of Fame and not the “NBA” HoF, then I’d say his odds are somewhere between excellent and shoo-in.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 am
Nice article. Especially coming from a Rockets fan.
The greatest thing is that TD and TP haven’t made appearances yet, so they oughta be top 15 EASY, right?
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Slightly underrated at 29? When a player has accomplished all that Ginobili has accomplished, shouldn’t that at least earn him the benefit of the doubt? In other words, let’s wait to see if/or until Ginobili drops off rather than assuming he already has just because of an injury.
This is not Grant Hill, who’s been out so long that we no longer know what type of player he is. Even last year, Ginobili had the 11st best PER in the league. The year before that, he was easily one of the 10 best players in the league.
To me, he’s still around the top 20 until proven otherwise. If we find out this season he’s not quite the same, then maybe you drop him to around 29. Conversely, if we find out he’s able to make it all the way back to where he was two seasons ago, he’s in the top 15.
They’ll probably put Duncan 6th, behind: James, Bryant, Wade, Howard, and Paul.
Parker will probably fall somewhere around 15th, behind: Garnett, Nowitzki, Anthony, Pierce, Roy, Williams, Gasol, and Bosh.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I agree with your thoughts except one or two: do you really think they’ll put Garnett that high? Still? I’d say he’s gotta be outside of top 10.
And Bosh ahead of Tony? I guess by others’ rankings, maybe, but we know differently, right?
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
The lineup changes made for the upcoming season were made for Manu. Sure, with the overall intention of resting him, but I completely expect him to take advantage of the added athleticism.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
Manu is pretty much a shoe-in for the HoF based on his international play - he’s pretty much won everything that can be won on the basketball planet, most of the time while being MVP (remember he wasn’t the NBA Finals MVP in 2005 only by a hair).
Re: these rankings, last year Manu was 15th and Parker 21st (already ahead of Bosh) and most (clueless) readers went crazy over that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Parker around 10th based on last year’s performance.
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
SAJkinbigD,
Yes, I do think they’ll put Garnett that high. He maybe the most universally liked player of his generation in the NBA. Almost everyone likes, and overrates Garnett. He’s slipped a lot more than Duncan has, but it’s never acknowledged. I can almost guarantee he’ll be either 7th or 8th on the SLAM top 50 player rankings.
As for Bosh ahead of Parker, that’s 50/50. Either way, they’ll probably be back-t0-back, with Gasol right around them.
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