The DeAndr-ankings

There's really no telling how long all this is going to go on, but it's hard to imagine the NBA returns to normalcy before next winter. Even if the league comes back, the likelihood of having packed arenas is almost 0. That sucks. So in the meantime I've found myself digging through Wikipedia and looking at high school stat lines for some NBA players to see who might have the most ridiculous numbers. As I look at these, it's important to remember that high school basketball games have 8 minute quarters. It's also important to remember that a lot of teams which featured future NBA stars were probably beating some pretty crappy teams along the way and thus the superstars weren't going to play every minute of every game. So when I tell you that Brandon Jennings averaged 35 points per game as a senior in high school, that should be extremely impressive. Because it is impressive. Is that more or less impressive than what big men could do? When you're 6 inches...

I don't know how many days it's been since we all started staying inside, but today is another one of those days. It's been...uh...2 weeks? since the NBA took a breather and is still taking that break, I think. I miss basketball, obviously, but thankfully we get things like Mike Breen reminding us to avoid each other and then breaking out a somber "bang" as his jumper drops . So let's talk about Mike Breen for a moment, I guess? Can you imagine if that jumper was ugly as hell? It's one thing to do a video where you have to shoot a basketball after a 35-second take and the take is ruined if the shot doesn't go in. It's another thing to think "well, OK, I can probably make a 15-footer, so worst case scenario it takes me 3-4 tries." It's still another to square up, hoist the jumper, and turn back to the camera because you know it's going in. God dang, Mike Breen. That was nice. That was nice enough that I would even watch the Kni...

It's now been almost a week since the NBA went dark, and the rest of the world has slowly followed. To say it's been an intimidating week, or a stressful week, or an anxiety-riddled week - any of those would be understating things. But on the other hand, I feel good, my family is (so far) healthy, and I own games 3, 5, 6, and 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals from the Google Play store. Truth is, I do miss basketball, but I miss it on my own terms. I switched on NBATV (online - I don't have cable but do have League Pass) and watched a few minutes of the 2014 Finals' last game. LeBron was doing everything he could to keep the Heat's heads above water and the rest of the squad just couldn't do anything right. If you don't remember, Miami jumped out to a 22-6 lead early (LeBron had 12 points in the game's first 6 minutes) and then the wheels just slowly fell off. James had a dynamite game - 31/10/5/2 blocks, made his FTs, 10-21 from the floor while being guarded...

It's Sunday. The NBA has been off since Wednesday night due to the COVID-19 situation here in...well, Earth, I guess. The truth of the situation is that there's not a particularly good outlook in the United States, and people are still being very stupid about going out and gathering in public. But this is an NBA blog, so let's talk about the NBA. The NBA decided to release a handful of PSAs on their twitter account over the past few days - Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Oladipo, and Jayson Tatum thus far - encouraging people to take this virus seriously. It's a good move, even if this is all probably too little too late. In an effort to stave off what could become a 6 month offseason, the NBA internet is getting silly very quickly. R/NBA on Reddit is already a mess of posts like " A quantitative analysis of attractiveness of every player on the LA Lakers ." So I guess things are going great from a stir-crazy point of view. For me, the answer...

Well, here we are. The DeAnd'Rankings has had a nice run, but we may be unexpectedly coming to a close. Temporarily, at least. The COVID-19 situation and subsequent suspension of the NBA season has really thrown a wrench into what is clearly the NBA's definitive ranking program, though the Committee acknowledges that our rankings are minor when compared to the wellbeing of the rest of the world. But at the same time, this is exactly when people need distractions. And what better distraction is there than the (decidedly not) scientific ranking of the four NBA players named DeAndre - or some variation thereof? None that I can think of. We typically start with a handful of questions en route to ranking the DeAndres. Let's do that again. Q1. Do any of the DeAndres have COVID-19? So far no. On the bright side, NBA players are extremely unlikely to be aggressively infected by the disease, as they're fairly young and in great physical health. It's entirely possib...

Here we go, one more time, everybody's feeling fine. Here we go noowww. It's the DeAnd'Rankings; the internet's #1 option when it comes to ranking the NBA's players named DeAndre (or some variation thereof) on a weekly basis. It's Friday, which is slowly but surely becoming known as DeAndre day. The members of the Committee who oversee the rankings chose Friday to help get fans started on their weekend vibes because, let's get real, more basketball around the weekend is great. The race is heating up, as late-bloomer (thanks to suspension) Deandre Ayton is gaining ground on season-long surprise DeAndre Jordan while Atlanta's De'Andre Hunter and DeAndre' Bembry have had a rougher go of it. But this week may have brought about more change. Find out below after reading through the customary five introductory questions. Q1: Will there be playoff DeAnd'Rankings? Considering only one of the three teams which carry a DeAndre is currently in t...