With every offseason comes the opportunity for NBA writers to give their predictions on players and teams. It seems the athletes finally have had enough after writers across the league caught plenty of flak for their slew of player rankings heading into 2017-18 NBA season.
It began with ESPN and Sports Illustrated's questionable ranking of New York Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony. However, it would not be the first time SI has dropped the ball as far as rankings go, according to HoopsHype:
All-NBA Team selections and position on Sports Illustrated ranking before the season.
(Bad misses in red).
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/eMS7YIfyYm
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) September 13, 2017
It goes without saying that All-NBA First Team selections are easier to predict than the rest considering the consistent nature of today's NBA superstars. Where SI has been completely off was last year's second and third All-NBA teams.
Isaiah Thomas' resurgence with the Boston Celtics may have been a bit difficult to predict. However, the rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert were undoubtedly huge misses.
While it is not easy to account for each season's breakout players, the number of misses in their recent predictions makes it hard to prove the legitimacy of their annual lists. All this shows is that outside of players like LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Kawhi Leonard, preseason rankings mean absolutely nothing.
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