Sixers' lack of quality players reflected in ESPN rankings

CONSIDERING THAT the Sixers are almost universally pegged as being the NBA's worst team for this season, it should come as little surprise that they do not have an impressive showing in the ESPN.com and TrueHoop Network ranking of all 500 NBA players.

For the second straight year, only one Sixer is in the top 100.

According to the ESPN Forecast Panel, which is composed of more than 210 NBA contributors, reigning rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams is the highest-ranked Sixer, at No. 79.

The Milwaukee Bucks, with wing Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 88, and the Orlando Magic, with swingman Victor Oladipo at 81, are the only teams with no second-year players rated better than Carter-Williams, but, unlike the Sixers, both have at least two players ranked in the top 100.

Redshirt rookie power forward Nerlens Noel, who missed the entire 2013-14 season while recovering from a knee injury, checks in at 102.

The depth of non-quality players makes the Sixers stand out.

While the New York Knicks (Carmelo Anthony), Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe Bryant) and Boston Celtics (Rajon Rondo) are like the Sixers, with only one player in the top 100, each has at least three other players ranked in the top 150.

The Sixers are the only team with only two players ranked in the top 250, much less the top 150.

After Noel, power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is the next Sixer, at 255, and point guard Alexey Shved, who was acquired with Mbah Moute from Minnesota in the three-team deal for Thaddeus Young, is 264th.

Guard Tony Wroten (289) is the only other Sixer ranked in the top 300. That's only five Sixers ranked in the top 300.

The rankings continue through Opening Day, with five players' names released daily. Through yesterday, only the top 25 players were not listed.

The ESPN panel thinks so little of the roster general manager Sam Hinkie has assembled that veteran guard Jason Richardson, who has been injured for most of the last two seasons and might not play this season, is the sixth-highest rated Sixer, at 345.

Center Henry Sims, who might well be a starter on Opening Night, is ranked 407th.

To be fair to the Sixers, rookie center Joel Embiid, who was drafted No. 3 overall, would be ranked considerably higher than 398 if he were not injured and expected to miss much or all of the season.

Of the 2014 draft class, No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker is ranked 95th, while No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins is ranked 114th.

What this all means is what many have predicted - that based on the talent on paper, the Sixers actually could be worse in 2014-15 than in 2013-14, when they won only 19 games.

At the start of last season, Young was the highest-ranked Sixer, at No. 89, but at least Carter-Williams (198), Evan Turner (148) and Spencer Hawes (178) were in the top 200.

If you go purely by these rankings, the moves Hinkie has made since taking over the Sixers are open to wide interpretations.

Carter-Williams is the highest-ranked second-year player and has climbed 119 spots in the rankings. That's an unquestioned winner move.

Since Noel qualifies because he missed all of last season with injury, only Parker enters the season as a more highly regarded rookie.

Jrue Holiday, the player Hinkie traded to New Orleans for Noel, is ranked 68th, down from 43rd, but that could be attributed to the fact he missed much of last season with injury.

With the 2014 lottery pick Hinkie also acquired in the Holiday trade, the Sixers drafted point guard Elfrid Payton, who was traded to Orlando and is ranked 254th.

Hinkie turned Payton into Dario Saric, who is not ranked because he won't play in the NBA this season, and a future first-round pick.

Just for those wondering, Doug McDermott is ranked 192nd, coming in sixth among rookies.

So the net result is that for the 68th-ranked player in 2014-15 (Holiday), Hinkie received the 104th player (Noel); Saric; the conditional 2017 first-round pick he had traded to Orlando; and a 2015 second-round pick.

It is too early to say whether this is win-win or win-loss.

Considering LeBron James and Kevin Love (whose ranking have not yet been released) make Cleveland a favorite in the Eastern Conference, the 2015 first-round pick the Sixers netted in the Young trade involving the Cavaliers and Minnesota will likely be one of the last three or four in the first round.

If it were Minnesota's 2015 pick, which will likely be in the lottery, it would look better. But it is Cleveland's, and, considering no 2014 selection outside of the 14-team lottery is rated higher than 270, I'd say the 255th and 264th players, plus an extremely low draft pick, was not a great return for the 77th-ranked player (Young), who is still only 26 and has steadily risen in each of the four rankings.

For trading Hawes, who is up 49 spots from last season to 129, to Cleveland, the Sixers got Sims, second-round pick Jerami Grant, who is rated 468th, and second-round pick Vasilije Micic, a 20-year-old point guard who is stashed in Europe.

Paying the cap-friendly $22 million over 4 years that Hawes, a 26-year-old stretch center with three-point range, got from the Clippers might have been a better investment for the Sixers.

Since Danny Granger (225th, with the Heat) was released without ever playing for the Sixers, the 2015 second-round pick netted from the trade that sent Turner (from 148 last year to 220) and Lavoy Allen (down from 272 to 304) to Indiana looks like the bonus in a move of addition by subtraction.

If this year's player rankings trends like last year's, the Sixers are again on the way to achieving their intended goal of getting a high lottery pick for the next NBA draft.