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[SleepingHero]

Not sure why you think the author took this exercise as a personal attack on Mavs. 

Based on what would you put THJ ahead of Brooks, Barnes and Hayward? Hayward is scoring a bit more, has more rebounds and assists while playing similar defense. Brooks is a worse offensive player but way better defender. Barnes is a steady 2-way player, scoring more on a better team and playing better defense. 

What would make GW better than Bey, Williams, Love, Stewart or Avdija? He was 8th or 9th guy on Boston. Nothing really puts him convincingly ahead of names mentioned. Sure we may hope he will show more in a bigger role, but at the moment that is just our hope.

Mark Williams, Collins and Wiseman (in Detroit) were better than Powell in probably every stat category, certainly key ones.

1. I didn't think this author took this exercise as a personal attack on the Mavs. But since this is a Mavs board I voiced my gripes with his rankings from a Mavs centered lens. Especially because I found his ranking system to be inconsistent throughout based on the criteria provided and general choices (I.E. saying injury history plays a factor then putting Paul George 3rd at his position and Hayward at 19th).


THJ vs. Hayward
Hayward cannot play an entire season. Since 2020, Hayward has missed, without fail, the entire 2nd half of the season due to a variety of injuries (besides last year, where he missed almost the entirety of the 1st half of the season). He cannot be counted upon at all. THJ produces similar numbers, on similar efficiency, and doesn't suffer that issue. 

THJ vs. Brooks
You bury the lead here when you say "Brooks is a worse offensive player but way better defender". Brooks isn't just a worse offensive player, he has been statistically a bottom 5 worst volume shooter in the league. Brooks almost single handedly killed the Grizzlies offense. There is a reason why the Grizzlies happily said "Go somewhere else, we don't want your defense" this summer. This is the same argument as why people didn't want Thybulle here, except Brooks shoots it 3x more. THJ isn't a great defensive player by any means, but his offensive is so stratospherically greater than Brooks it automatically catapults him above Brooks. 

THJ vs. Barnes
Here we can split hairs and argue until the next morning, but overall they're both similar players. They both have similar production. They both have flaws that cause their respective teams heart attacks. But why is one 14th and the other is 27th? Barnes defense is not good enough to rank him 13 spots ahead. And I feel like Mavs fans are uniquely qualified to make that given that we had Barnes here for 2 and 1/2 years. 

No matter, though you missed my important caveat at the end there where I said I wouldn't put THJ that much higher, at most 7 spots more. 

Now onto GW.

First  according to minutes played, GW was Boston's 4th most played guy. In MPG he was tied with Brogdon at 6th. So no he wasn't Bostons 8th or 9th guy but rather their 6th to 7th guy who fell out of favor in the playoffs. 

GW vs. Love
Love was waived by CLE this last season and picked up by Miami and you're telling me he's better than Grant Williams? Love is on his last legs, barely can defend, AND has injury issues. He's not a bad role player by any means but you're telling me that being 3 spots ahead of GW is accurate? Give me a break.

GW vs. Bey. 
Bey has been my "one that got away" since 2020, but despite that I recognize he's been a guy who puts up stats that doesn't necessarily translate to winning. Williams meanwhile has put up similar production and has been apart of winning teams. You can say the talent level is a wash, but that doesn't explain a 6 spot difference between them. 

GW vs. Jalen Williams
Jalen Williams is not a power forward and I don't understand why he's included in this list. He played a grand total of 22 minutes at PF last season (out of 2276 mins total). This isn't a proper comparison whatsoever and kind of shows the authors lack of knowledge. 

GW vs. Stewart.
Stewart is a center and his inclusion in the PF ranking is again nonsense. 

GW vs. Avdija
Avdija's offensive limitations and lack of clear defined skills makes him a 1 way player who can rebound. He's a good defender but Grant Williams is a better one. The only clear skill where Avdija is noticeably better at is rebounding. At the end of the day, Williams can hit a 3 AND defend. If Avdija ever figures out the 3pt shot then maybe we can revisit this. 


Regarding Powell, I said that there are justified arguments at putting him at 29th. In fact I think I even put him at 29th in my own ranking I made 2 months ago (got to double check that). But Wiseman isn't the starting center for Detroit, its Duren who is noticeably absent from the list.

Anyways, TL;DR, this article is a mess of inconsistent rankings and guys emphatically out of their position. I merely pointed out that THJ and Williams were ranked way too low for it to make sense on the face of it. If you want to disagree with that then by all means. 

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. I think this team will surprise a lot of people as long as they're healthy (and can get a freaking center).

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I was too quick going through that piece.  The author assessed the team total at each position, which is represented by the chosen starter. The starter weight on the score is roughly 70 %. Thats why George backed by Powell combo is 3rd in SG, for example. Of course each excercise like that is subjective to an extent. But, it gives us a picture, what a more or less objective author thinks about where Mavs are. To be honest, I am not at all interested in disecting each player and if he should be 25th or 26th on the list as I don't think it is that much important in a big picture.

I wish I read this before I gave my fingers arthritis typing up my much too long reply doing exactly this, because I largely agree with you.

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Can someone post the total rankings?

The author used the most inane graphs to post the rankings instead of just doing it numerically so it makes copy pasting a chore. So we'd have to go through individually and rank all 150 guys and I don't have that kind of time.