Welcome one, welcome all. This is a simple website with a simple purpose. Each week we will take a look back at the week that was and rank the NBA's DeAndres. Some weeks will be short and sweet, other weeks will take some explanation. This first week is a fairly comprehensive look at how we got to where we are today.
You may have some questions. Let's get those out of the way now.
How many DeAndres are there?
Four. They are DeAndre Jordan of the Brooklyn Nets, Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns, De'Andre Hunter, and DeAndre' Bembry - the latter two both playing for the Atlanta Hawks. You may notice that none of the four are spelled/punctuated the same way, which is at least 60% of the inspiration for doing this in the first place.
Are they all good players?
Not quite, and that's exactly why they need to be ranked.
How are you deciding where to put the apostrophe in the site name?
After the R feels like the most appropriate place due to how each player spells their name - Ayton and Jordan are spelled the same but Ayton lacks the second capital letter that the other three have. But since all of them are pronounced the same and I needed to mesh the "dre" sound with "rankings," I opted for where you currently see it. Fascinating!
Why are you doing this? Does anyone care?
That's none of your damn business and I'll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs.
Shall we get to this?
Yes, please.
THE INAUGURAL DEANDR'ANKINGS, DECEMBER 5, 2019.
4. Deandre Ayton
The most talented Deandre comes in at number 4?! What a world!
To be fair, this isn't a reflection of skill, but as the Washington Post's Ben Golliver (and Bill Parcells and lots of others) love to say, "the greatest ability is availability," and Deandre Ayton is not available.
His one game looked solid, but the 20 after that have been a whole lot of zeroes thanks to whatever illicit substance he pumped into his body. Too bad. But maybe by Christmas he'll climb out of the cellar in the DeAndr'ankings. The guy missed out on the Rookie of the Year award thanks to an other-worldly talent in Luka Doncic and now can't even win a race of 4 guys who share the same name? If Ayton doesn't reach number one quickly after his return, he should probably start going by his middle name - he'd be the top-ranked Edoneille by a mile.
3. DeAndre' Bembry
A spot-starting bench contributor through each of his first four seasons, DeAndre' Bembry hasn't shown me enough to climb above the third spot, but he's no slouch.
Bembry isn't a game-changer, and at 25-years-old he's inching closer to what we can expect his ceiling to be, but that's not necessarily a knock on him. A rotation player who gets 1.5 steals and a few rebounds off the bench is something a lot of teams will value. The downside is that he's not much of a shooter. At 28% on three-pointers in his career, Bembry doesn't stretch the floor or put defenders in much of a bind the way the two DeAndres ahead of him can (one as a shooter, one as a rim-runner).
But there's still time. DeAndre' Bembry had a career-best 22-point game earlier this season and shooting is a skill that can come with age. Frankly, he's right on the heels of the De'Andre in front of him.
2. De'Andre Hunter
Neither of the Atltanta DeAndres take the top-spot in week 1! An upset for the ages! A gambling man would've had a 50/50 shot by saying "I bet one of the Hawks guys is #1" and then that gambler would have lost. Tough break. Gambling is dumb*. Do better.
Anyway, through Atlanta's first 22 games, De'Andre Hunter appeared in each of the first 21, starting at the 3-position in all of them (he's day-to-day with a finger injury now). What sets him apart from DeAndre, Deandre, and DeAndre' is that Hunter can shoot from deep. He's taking nearly five 3PA per game and making over 36%, which is a tick above league average. He's also doing this for an Atlanta Hawks team that is abysmal, so his contributions are hard to measure fairly. Also, he's a rookie, so a negative Win Shares statistic doesn't bother me all that much (this is again partly due to how terrible the rest of his team has played. Not that he's been great, of course).
There are, of course, downsides for Hunter. I alluded to his concerning advanced stats by mentioning win shares above, but Hunter's NetRtg is -4.9 so far per NBA.com, which is, you know, kinda bad. Defense is something of an issue in particular, as opponents are shooting an eye-popping 78% against him within 6-feet of the rim. They're getting just over 3 attempts per game in there, and basically converting all of them. It's not great.
On the bright side, Hunter has played a grand total of 21 games in the NBA, so being 2nd in the DeAndr'ankings is a pretty good start to his career!
1. DeAndre Jordan
There would be no point in doing DeAndr'ankings if this were a contest of career achievements. DeAndre Jordan is far ahead of the others on this list, considering he's a 2-time rebounding champ, 3-time All-NBA selection, and 2-time All-Defense selection. But this ain't a career contest, kiddos, and 2013-2016 DeAndre Jordan is not coming back. We're looking at right here and right now. And you know what? He's still holding onto the #1 spot. Almost by default.
This summer saw DJ go to the Nets on what looked like a personal favor deal to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and what also looked like a head-scratcher because the Nets have Jarrett Allen. DJ started three of Brooklyn's first six games and has been coming off the bench ever since because, again, they have Jarrett Allen.
But DJ is still rebounding the ball like crazy: Jordan is grabbing over 9 rebounds in about 21 minutes of action per night, which is a hair over 15 per-36 minutes (better than his career average of 13.9). He's still blocking shots a bit and while he's never been a dominant scorer, he's still doing OK there when you look at those per-36 numbers. The problem is much like Hunter problem - the team just isn't playing very well when DJ plays - they're being outscored by more than six points per 100 possessions during his time on the court. When you factor in that the Nets are over .500 on the season, that's a pretty big red flag for how good DeAndre Jordan is currently playing.
But hey! It's good enough for now! Congratulations on the first ever #1 spot in the soon-to-be-coveted DeAndr'ankings to Mr. DeAndre Jordan!
Honorable Mention
DeAndre Liggins has had a longish career as a basketball player, in and out of the NBA. He's currently playing in Spain, so he doesn't qualify for the official DeAndr'ankings, but is worth noting.
*Gambling is also real fun sometimes.
You may have some questions. Let's get those out of the way now.
How many DeAndres are there?
Four. They are DeAndre Jordan of the Brooklyn Nets, Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns, De'Andre Hunter, and DeAndre' Bembry - the latter two both playing for the Atlanta Hawks. You may notice that none of the four are spelled/punctuated the same way, which is at least 60% of the inspiration for doing this in the first place.
Are they all good players?
Not quite, and that's exactly why they need to be ranked.
How are you deciding where to put the apostrophe in the site name?
After the R feels like the most appropriate place due to how each player spells their name - Ayton and Jordan are spelled the same but Ayton lacks the second capital letter that the other three have. But since all of them are pronounced the same and I needed to mesh the "dre" sound with "rankings," I opted for where you currently see it. Fascinating!
Why are you doing this? Does anyone care?
That's none of your damn business and I'll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs.
Shall we get to this?
Yes, please.
THE INAUGURAL DEANDR'ANKINGS, DECEMBER 5, 2019.
4. Deandre Ayton
The most talented Deandre comes in at number 4?! What a world!
To be fair, this isn't a reflection of skill, but as the Washington Post's Ben Golliver (and Bill Parcells and lots of others) love to say, "the greatest ability is availability," and Deandre Ayton is not available.
His one game looked solid, but the 20 after that have been a whole lot of zeroes thanks to whatever illicit substance he pumped into his body. Too bad. But maybe by Christmas he'll climb out of the cellar in the DeAndr'ankings. The guy missed out on the Rookie of the Year award thanks to an other-worldly talent in Luka Doncic and now can't even win a race of 4 guys who share the same name? If Ayton doesn't reach number one quickly after his return, he should probably start going by his middle name - he'd be the top-ranked Edoneille by a mile.
3. DeAndre' Bembry
A spot-starting bench contributor through each of his first four seasons, DeAndre' Bembry hasn't shown me enough to climb above the third spot, but he's no slouch.
Bembry isn't a game-changer, and at 25-years-old he's inching closer to what we can expect his ceiling to be, but that's not necessarily a knock on him. A rotation player who gets 1.5 steals and a few rebounds off the bench is something a lot of teams will value. The downside is that he's not much of a shooter. At 28% on three-pointers in his career, Bembry doesn't stretch the floor or put defenders in much of a bind the way the two DeAndres ahead of him can (one as a shooter, one as a rim-runner).
But there's still time. DeAndre' Bembry had a career-best 22-point game earlier this season and shooting is a skill that can come with age. Frankly, he's right on the heels of the De'Andre in front of him.
2. De'Andre Hunter
Neither of the Atltanta DeAndres take the top-spot in week 1! An upset for the ages! A gambling man would've had a 50/50 shot by saying "I bet one of the Hawks guys is #1" and then that gambler would have lost. Tough break. Gambling is dumb*. Do better.
Anyway, through Atlanta's first 22 games, De'Andre Hunter appeared in each of the first 21, starting at the 3-position in all of them (he's day-to-day with a finger injury now). What sets him apart from DeAndre, Deandre, and DeAndre' is that Hunter can shoot from deep. He's taking nearly five 3PA per game and making over 36%, which is a tick above league average. He's also doing this for an Atlanta Hawks team that is abysmal, so his contributions are hard to measure fairly. Also, he's a rookie, so a negative Win Shares statistic doesn't bother me all that much (this is again partly due to how terrible the rest of his team has played. Not that he's been great, of course).
There are, of course, downsides for Hunter. I alluded to his concerning advanced stats by mentioning win shares above, but Hunter's NetRtg is -4.9 so far per NBA.com, which is, you know, kinda bad. Defense is something of an issue in particular, as opponents are shooting an eye-popping 78% against him within 6-feet of the rim. They're getting just over 3 attempts per game in there, and basically converting all of them. It's not great.
On the bright side, Hunter has played a grand total of 21 games in the NBA, so being 2nd in the DeAndr'ankings is a pretty good start to his career!
1. DeAndre Jordan
There would be no point in doing DeAndr'ankings if this were a contest of career achievements. DeAndre Jordan is far ahead of the others on this list, considering he's a 2-time rebounding champ, 3-time All-NBA selection, and 2-time All-Defense selection. But this ain't a career contest, kiddos, and 2013-2016 DeAndre Jordan is not coming back. We're looking at right here and right now. And you know what? He's still holding onto the #1 spot. Almost by default.
This summer saw DJ go to the Nets on what looked like a personal favor deal to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and what also looked like a head-scratcher because the Nets have Jarrett Allen. DJ started three of Brooklyn's first six games and has been coming off the bench ever since because, again, they have Jarrett Allen.
But DJ is still rebounding the ball like crazy: Jordan is grabbing over 9 rebounds in about 21 minutes of action per night, which is a hair over 15 per-36 minutes (better than his career average of 13.9). He's still blocking shots a bit and while he's never been a dominant scorer, he's still doing OK there when you look at those per-36 numbers. The problem is much like Hunter problem - the team just isn't playing very well when DJ plays - they're being outscored by more than six points per 100 possessions during his time on the court. When you factor in that the Nets are over .500 on the season, that's a pretty big red flag for how good DeAndre Jordan is currently playing.
But hey! It's good enough for now! Congratulations on the first ever #1 spot in the soon-to-be-coveted DeAndr'ankings to Mr. DeAndre Jordan!
Honorable Mention
DeAndre Liggins has had a longish career as a basketball player, in and out of the NBA. He's currently playing in Spain, so he doesn't qualify for the official DeAndr'ankings, but is worth noting.
*Gambling is also real fun sometimes.
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