The DeAndr-ankings

It's been a while since the last DeAnd'rankings for a few reasons, but none of them matter now. What does matter is that Deandre Ayton has run away with the title of best NBA player named Deandre (or some variation thereof) and it's not close. DeAndre Jordan stinks, DeAndre' Bembry has fallen out of the rotation altogether again (though this time it's in Milwaukee and not Brooklyn, who should've kept him so they had at least 1 capable defender besides Bruce Brown), and De'Andre Hunter is oft-injured but totally fine. He's just not as good as Ayton. Round up done? Great. I want to talk about Nikola Jokic. Over the last few months it's been apparent that the MVP race is down to Jokic, Embiid, and Giannis. I've felt like the answer has been Jokic all along, but I understand the arguments for the other two (namely that they're excellent offensive players and great defensive players - if Giannis wins Defensive Player of the Year and is one of the ...

What a time for the NBA. All-Star selections, All-Star snubs, All-Star games amid a pandemic - high drama for a league that is as much about off-court drama as it is about on-court product. But let's take a moment and consider this week's rant topic: The 3-pointer. The 3-pointer has been something of a hot-button issue over the last 5-8 years in the NBA. Has it ruined the game? Are teams taking too many of them? Are all teams basically playing the same style? Should they add a 4-point line? Is there any place for variety in the NBA or are we soon going to see 70% of shots taken from beyond the arc? Some of these are fair questions, some are stupid. The "problem" surrounding the 3-pointer is that it's worth more points and thus it's more valuable, therefore teams are going to take more of them. That's it. There is literally nothing else to it. So how do we solve this "problem?" Adding a 4-point line is not gonna do it, because then the math shifts...

Welcome back. Glad to have you. If this is your first time, we here at the DeAnd'Rankings are in the business of ranking the NBA's four players named DeAndre (or some variation thereof) on a maybe-kinda weekly basis. Is it silly? Yes. Is it useful? Not really, no. Is it making a difference? Also probably not. But does it give the Committee a reason to ramble on about basketball so that Mrs. Committee doesn't have to be the recipient? Hell yes. So let's dig into this week's opening thoughts. While part of the world is still metaphorically burning, none of it is blazing quite like the Utah Jazz. They don't have any DeAndres, which certainly gives them a disadvantage in the eyes of the Committee, but even so, this team is on an absolute heater.  In this season of COVID absences, compressed schedules, increased DNP-Injury Management/rest, and goofy travel restrictions, it seems like every good team is just trying to find their way through. The Jazz are no different ...

The Rankings are back, and the Committee has some things to talk about. While there have been some undulations in the value of the league's DeAndres, let's take a moment to talk about what's going on in the league.  Item : An All-Star game is stupid. The only way it can be even remotely palatable is if the league breaks on Friday, holds a game Sunday, then gives every team the next week off. It's not even about COVID safety at that point (obviously - as holding the game at all proves that COVID safety is not a primary concern), it's about giving something  to the players in exchange for how they've met the league's demands in bizarre ways over the last 12 months. Give them extra time off at the mid-season mark and hold a no-frills exhibition game and then get the guys out of town immediately. Item : The Mavericks are bad? They've won 3 out of 4, but have been outscored by about 20 points over that 4-game stretch. Health is still a concern, and Luka's...

Remember when last season took a 5 month break, gave 8 teams an 8-month offseason, put a bunch of teams into a fan-less quarantine, allowed players to opt out of the end of the season + playoffs, played games in mid-afternoon, squished the schedule, and we thought "this is the weirdest season the NBA is ever gonna see?" Well, this year is already weirder. Between Harden finally getting dealt, Kyrie Irving disappearing for personal reasons and then word getting out that he's basically just hanging out and not playing basketball, the Toronto Raptors playing all of their home games in Tampa, multiple teams having 5+ players out at a time due to COVID, games being canceled, half the season not getting scheduled at all yet, the Knicks and Cavs winning games early in the season, the growing realization that the NBA stats-people are giving out assists for almost any play where someone passes the ball to another player within the 24-second shot clock, seeing scoring outbursts fr...

Basketball is in (relatively) full swing: star players are upset (Siakam and Harden), bad teams are looking good (Cleveland), and trade rumors are flying around like wasps on a garbage can at a carnival (Harden, Beal, Griffin, Love, etc). That means we have enough of a sample size to make some real judgments about the league's four same-named/different-spellinged DeAndres. Instead of the 5-question intro this week, I'm going to mull on something obvious for a couple hundred words. LeBron James was celebrated this week for clearing 1,000 consecutive regular season games with at least 10 points scored. Thousands upon thousands of words have been written about this accomplishment, but I'm going to throw a few of my own into the ring. Here is a rundown of things that have happened to me since January 6, 2007, the last time LeBron scored fewer than 10 points.  I was a sophomore in college in January of 2007. Starting from there I changed my major, met a girl, dated her for 2 yea...