FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.
If Andrew Bynum is real, you're looking at the only lizard in the league who can crash the Dwight Howard-Greg Oden party of Best Beasts of Tomorrow.
Before February's cruel injury, Bynum lit the galaxy ablaze. The numbers were unspeakable for a 20-year-old: a double-double with two blocks in less than 30 minutes of work. If he's still learning the game and finding his body, the rest of the league is in immense trouble.
Again: what Bynum did last season in 35 games ... no one saw that coming so quickly. Look how his age-20 season compares to these recent young behemoths at the same age.
So, at age 20, Bynum was a better scorer, rebounder and shotblocker than every notable recent big man who was in the league by age 20 ... including Dwight Freaking Howard. And it can be argued Bynum's body was behind Howard and Jefferson at this point -- both those fellows came into the lig built like oxen. Bynum had baby fat and intsy calves last October when he started this mess.
No matter if Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Luke Walton or Vlad Radmanovic start the small forward, Bynum combines with Pau Gasol to create one of the best rebounding lines in the NBA. All those problems competing on the glass against Boston? Gone, just because of Bynum's presence (and its bump of Gasol to his natural PF position). L.A. didn't need scoring help, and Bynum probably won't feature heavily in the offense, barring an injury to Kobe or Gasol. But the chances he gets, he'll convert. And the team certainly should look for him: he won't embarrass himself, with smart moves and a good mind to both protect the ball and find options when the interior gates close.
He's already L.A.'s best defender in the paint. Gasol's too slight, as we learned in June. Odom, while active, has neither the size nor the intuition to hold someone like David West or Tyson Chandler at bay. Bynum may not incite mirages of Bill Russell, but he's a stout, insistent player too proud to let himself be played a doll.
There's a chance Bynum went over his head in the first half of '07-08. There's a chance the injury has set him back a year and he won't keep improving right away. There's a chance Bynum was a breeze of excellence lone gone, replaced by a snake-bitten young curse, pricking Kobe's side is way far more innocent than Shaq did. As a fan of a division rival which thinks itself to be on an upswing, I desperately hope Bynum has already come ripe.
But science says that isn't the case. Get your helmets, Big Men of the NBA. It's gonna be a long decade.
NBA Top 50
No. 50, Andris Biedrins, Warriors
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bynum>mcgrady? you've got to be kidding.
i watched bynum a lot last year. if i'm starting a team, there are only a couple of true centers i would take ahead of him- howard and maybe yao. you know how you look at guys who are 6-10 or taller and they blow a lay up and you think "why didn't he just dunk it?" not a problem with bynum- if he's in range he's slamming it. also started developing a little hook shot. plays nice defense, boxes out well.
throw in his age and he will be fun to watch for a long time.
bynum isn't really stout though, is he?
Just because the guy plays center and is one of the better centers in the league doesn't mean that he has to be a top 25 player does it?
I'm starting to get confused as to what this list is based on. Is it who you would draft today if starting a franchise? Or is it who do you think is the best player heading into the 08-09 season?
There is no doubt Bynum appears to have a bright future but in a big man's case the 36min comparison is drastically misleading. Could Bynum even try to handle 36 minutes a night to get to the numbers that Superman is putting up? Emphatically no, and while I understand that Howard will most certainly be a top 10 player on the list, I don't see how a guy who couldn't handle the rigors of 29 minutes a night over 35 games can be ranked as one of the top 25 best players in the league.
uh-Oh... here come the blazers fans all but-hurt.
muuuaahahahahah
good point Matt.
I've always found those per X-amount of minutes stats misleading for a number of reasons. The most important being that there is little reason to believe a player will sustain a high level of play (especially one that may be an anomaly) if asked to play more minutes, later into a game alongside and against, most likely, more experienced and better conditioned athletes.
looool bynum better than T-Mac? ok this list just lost all credibility... jeez youve got to be on some sort of drugs or something. So you're telling me that a player that was injured more than half the season and wasn't even considered as an mvp candidate the whole year is better than T-Mac? especially when the team did just fine without him vs. how the rox did without T-Mac? this is ridiculous tom you need to seriously reconsider this because it makes no sense on so many levels. C-Mon now. bynum? better than a.i.?T-Mac?Baron? you've gotta be joking. Seriously what is the standard of rating players? by season? or by career? because either way, T-Mac wins. and Iverson. wow i cant believe this list would go so far as to rate bynum better than the likes of 3 all stars... especially considering that A.I., T-Mac and Baron played better than bynum this season.
why do the blazers fans get singled out as being butt hurt. i think every non laker fan should be pissed at this. I am a blazer fan and yes i do think bynum is going to be very good but there is no way he is a top 50 player right now. i just dont understand why people think he is so good right now. I admit i hate the lakers, and i think bynum will be really good, but he isnt great right now. as a blazer fan i think roy is higher than 31 but i dont really care where they rate him, he does wonders for the blazers and that makes me happy but it annoys me that bynum is ranked 24. but really please explain why you single out blazer fans as being butt hurt?
Dominant big men have historically been the most valuable players in basketball.
Before he got hurt, Bynum was turning into a dominant big.
Assuming that he comes back healthy and continues to improve, he will be a top 25 player in the NBA by default. There just aren't very many players capable of playing the way he was before his injury.
As much as I hate to say it, but with Bynum, next year the lakers will win the championship
Bynum may very well be one of the top 25 players in the NBA...in a few years. I understand he had an incredible PER for someone his age, but that doesn't mean he's better than T-Mac, Caron Butler, David West, Allen Iverson right now...his offensive repertoire is still very limited, and I just don't see him improving enough next year to put himself in the top 25.
Tom Ziller's Fanhouse never had any credibility.
Since Bynum is here basically because he will be really good someday, I'm sure we'll all be happy to see Kwame and Darko both ranked in the top 5. I bet they'll all be great someday. Or something.
I think Bynum is going to be a star, but he's played around 2 months of quality basketball in his entire NBA career.
haha u are a joke just like bynum the kid plays 20 minutes a game and gets winded
rofl...better than t-mac and A.I.
Just go shoot yourself, you probably checked bynum's stats for 3 wks and compared it to them.
T-MAC carried the rox to 55 wins stupid.
to those of you who are saying he can't handle 20minutes a game.
even playing only 35 games, his stats are skewed because he started the season BACKING UP Kwame Brown.
stats from his last 10 games before injury (including the game he got injured.
@NYK: 6-8, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks in 38 minutes
PHO: 11-13, 28 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks in 42 minutes
UTH: 5-11, 10 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block in 26 minutes (123-109 blow out win)
BOS: 2-2, 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block in 22 minutes (foul trouble, but also shows that Bynum may not have been the difference in the finals match up.)
PHI: 6-8, 17 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks in 29 minutes (124-93 blow out win)
IND: 8-11, 23 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks in 34 minutes
@MEM: 5-11, 12 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block in 29 minutes
@NOH: 8-10, 17 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks in 28 minutes (109-80 blow out win)
MIL: 10-13, 25 points, 17 rebounds, 3 blocks in 37 minutes
MEM: 5-7, 10 points, 9 rebounds, 0 blocks in 20 minutes (game he got injured)
I could have gone back further, but the point is, other than the game at home against Memphis, where he just had a sub par game, the blow out games, and the game he got injured, there wasn't a game where he played less than 30 minutes.
what this, albeit small, sample shows us, is that Bynum was A ) averaging 16/10/2 in 30.5 minutes (thats including his horrendous outing against Boston), and B ) having problems with bigger players. (Eddy Curry of the Knicks, Kendrick Perkins of Boston etc.)
those averages, stretched out to 36minutes (which Bynum showed he is capable of playing) are
18.8 points 11.8 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks
this isn't to say Lakers fans are expecting him to average 20/10 next season, it's just to say that it's theoretically possible, and we wouldn't be surprised.
I'm personally stoked to see how Bynum and Oden do against each other on the season opener. this could end up being a great rivalry that Blazer and Laker fans will be privileged to take part in
So what Jonny is saying is that it wasn't 35 games that Bynum couldn't sustain a high level of play and remain healthy. It was 10.
How hard is this to figure out...
Theres a buttload of athletic wings and undersized shooting guards capable of putting up huge scoring numbers shooting crap percentages and playing bad D.....
There are screw all Big men who can Defend the interior, rebound both Off/def, block shots and and shoot 60% from the field as a starter.
Now find one that is 20 years of age and 7-8 years from their peak....
You wonder why the lakers would not trade Bynum for Kidd 18 months ago? You wonder why the spurs have ridden Timmy Duncan like a dog to the finals time and time again? You wonder why Shaq got titles in L.A then another one in Miami, (its also why phoenix took a flyer on him). You think the celtics take it last year without a big like KG? You build round the big first to get your championship because thats the hardest position to fill with quality.
Forget about the cult of personality that revolves around all stars and famous guards with good nicknames. If you gave any gm worth his salt a pick of TMAC , Ai and bynum right now i would bet my car / wife/ child / and left nut Bynum would be the first to go.
Its so obvious ....and i'm a spurs fan btw not some blinkered Purple and Gold wearing fool.
this list is the biggest joke. he is going to be -going to be great one day. But he have not yet proved his self yet. It is a lot of players that have played a lot better this last year and years that should be in the top 25, tmac ai. this list is what they have done, not what they might do. so long suckers
Are you serious???? you put a guy in the top 25 for less the a seasons worth of work?????
how many of the other players have you sighted would have been higher or made the list if they had a higher career average in something? he has less then a season of career numbers, im sorry but putting a player in the top 25 for potential is unthinkable and just plain dumb. When he puts in 2 more full seasons of numbers like that at an actual 35 min a night then you can put him in the top 50.