It’s the time of year when publications put out their positional rankings and the Detroit Pistons have plenty of guys who are tough to evaluate.
Cade Cunningham was surprisingly high in the point guard rankings but has a chance to climb into the top-10 if the Pistons improve and he continues to put up big numbers.
Most recently, HoopsHype did their top 30 shooting guard rankings and Jaden Ivey didn’t fare as well. He came in at just 24th on the list. Here are the players ahead of him:
HoopsHype top-30 shooting guard rankings |
|---|
Anthony Edwards |
Devin Booker |
Donovan Mitchell |
Jaylen Brown |
Jalen Williams (OKC) |
Desmond Bane |
Zach LaVine |
Austin Reeves |
Jalen Green |
Tyler Herro |
CJ McCollum |
Bradley Beal |
Devin Vassell |
Malik Monk |
Cam Thomas |
Donte DiVincenzo |
Anfernee Simons |
RJ Barrett |
Collin Sexton |
Klay Thompson |
Jordan Clarkson |
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope |
Jordan Poole |
Jaden Ivey |
The saddest part is that the Pistons could have drafted four of the players in the top six including Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Williams and Desmond Bane. In the case of Bane, the Pistons had three shots and drafted Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey instead. Ouch.
Even though the list includes a few backups and flops like Jordan Poole, Ivey was still near the bottom and there is an argument that he should be even lower.
Jaden Ivey’s shooting guard rankings
When you look at the players listed behind Ivey in the rankings, you can make an argument for any of them over Ivey.
Alex Caruso is a multiple All-Defensive player who is not as dynamic as Ivey offensively, but knocks down 3-point shots at a high rate. If we are just going with current value and not factoring in upside, Caruso is the better player overall.
Shaedon Sharpe put up similar counting stats on similar efficiency as Ivey last season, but only played 32 games. He’s a year younger than Ivey, so if you polled NBA execs about which of these players is better, you’d likely get a split vote.
I agree with Ivey over Buddy Hield at this stage in their respective careers, as Buddy doesn’t do much but shoot and is an even worse defender than Ivey.
The final three players, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Grayson Allen and Norman Powell all fall into the category of shooters who are more efficient than Ivey but far less dynamic with the ball, so you can choose your poison here.
Contending teams would likely take all three of these players over Ivey just because they are known commodities, but Ivey obviously has more room to improve.
And he has to, as the Pistons need more than one player in the top half of his respective positional rankings if they are going to build around this core and pull themselves out of the basement of the league.