ESPN NBA Rank 2018-19: 5 players they ranked too high
ESPN's preseason player rankings for the 2018-19 season were released, and as with most of their publications, they drew a lot of flak for making some poor selections. As with their rankings every year, there are obvious double standards which they failed to identify when their writers pose arguments for why specific players are at specific spots on their top players' lists.
The entirety of the list resembles a hastily hashed-together collection of seemingly prophetic words which are eminently liable to be proved inaccurate and the misuse of specific stats to estimate players' overall impact on their teams' seasons. While time will definitely flesh out these flawed chains of reasoning, there are some flaws which are obvious right at the outset if one bothered to truly introspect the list.
Let's take a look at 5 players they have overrated going into the season:
#1 Stephen Curry
If this was a list based only off the offensive side of the game, a case could genuinely be made about Steph Curry as the second best player on the planet - perhaps even for #1. However, the only unanimous MVP in the history of the league has a significant flaw in his game that opponents have mercilessly exploited over the course of the playoffs over the years - he is, at best, a passable on-ball defender.
He is not actively a detriment to Golden State's excellent defense, but he is by far the weakest link of their Death Lineup.
The very best players of their times tend to have few weaknesses or none, and that is one way of describing LeBron's game as well as that of the 2-time reigning Finals MVP, Kevin Durant. Durant is as elite a scorer as Steph during the regular season, but the unstoppable nature of his shot allows him to rack up 20 points in his sleep even in pressure-cooker games.
Arguments can be made that Durant is indeed a better offensive player than Steph even today, in a vacuum. And since we're compiling a straightforward list of the best players in the world in a vacuum, Steph falls short of the Durant-LeBron pedestal atop the list of best players on the planet.