Although the regular season starts in about another month, fans of the LA Clippers already have their eyes set on the end of the season. The 82 games will be a fun ride, and so will the playoffs, but Clipper Nation is eager to review specific rankings and votes from different media outlets to see which ones were proven wrong.
ESPN posted a voting, from league-insiders, in which fans are already holding on to, as the Clippers made it to the list of teams that had a great offseason, but they were at the bottom of the barrel.
Fans know these votes will not age well, and to put the cherry on top, another publication from ESPN will be logged. This time, it is their annual player rankings, which were released in increments all the way down to the number one spot.
Several players on the Clippers made the list, but someone who deserved to be on it was not, and this confirms that he is underrated.
John Collins missed ESPN's ranking of the top 100 players in the NBA
On ESPN's top 100 ranking, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac, and Bradley Beal were included. There was a significant gap in between, as the superstar duo, along with Zubac, were in the top 40, and then in the eighties was the recently signed three-time All-Star.
Chris Paul not making the list was fair, but ESPN completely disregarded John Collins, who is easily one of the top hundred players in the league.
At first glance, Collins' 40 games played last season seemed to be the reason why he was left off. Yet, with Victor Wembanyama (46), Joel Embiid (19), and Paul George (41) on the list, his missed time could not have been the reason.
Moreover, Collins averaged 19.0 points and 8.2 rebounds, while shooting 52.7% from the field and 39.9% from a distance. These numbers should have his ranking near Beal's, or maybe even higher.
On the contrary, Jonas Valančiūnas, a center the Denver Nuggets acquired through a trade, had the 87th spot, directly behind Beal, and he averaged 10.4 points and 7.7 rebounds last season, shooting 55.0% from the field and 21.6% from three-point range. These numbers are lower than Collins', albeit ESPN believed the Nuggets' center belongs in the 80s.
That said, these rankings do not add up, and it is clear ESPN simply overlooked the Clippers' star forward, who will quickly prove this list wrong.