Boston Celtics: B/R ranks Tatum behind Middleton, ahead of Embiid in Top 100

Bleacher Report listed Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum just outside of the top 10 in it’s ranking of the top 100 NBA players today.

Quite frankly, the Houdini is bothered by Bleacher Report’s ranking of the top 100 players in the league today. Several Boston Celtics rank far too low for our liking.

For starters, Gordon Hayward being ranked below Fred VanVleet and John Collins doesn’t feel appropriate yet. He certainly doesn’t belong behind perennial playoff disappointment Eric Bledsoe, who ranks ahead of all three.

Jaylen Brown‘s ranking is less egregious, though with just 19 games played in his career, Zion Williamson feels too high. Then again, few have ever had a more impactful opening salvo than the 2019 NBA Draft’s #1 pick.

Kemba Walker should be ranked ahead of Trae Young, but with their careers on opposite trajectories at this point, it is easy to justify the 2018 #3 pick being a superior player given his other-worldly stat-stuffing performances in just his second season. #24 in the entire league sounds low, but considering guys like Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal couldn’t crack the top 20, it’s fair.

Now, as for our biggest concern, nothing sticks out to us quite like Jayson Tatum being ranked below Khris Middleton to miss the cut for the top 10. Middleton is a star, but he has yet to prove he can be the best player on a winning team.

Tatum was forced to answer that question in his rookie season. Injuries to Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward could have ended the C’s chances of contending, and could have put them in a similar position to this season’s Brooklyn Nets. Instead, Tatum spearheaded a playoff run that culminated in an Eastern Conference Finals game seven that LeBron James‘ Cleveland Cavaliers pulled away with in the closing moments.

No disrespect to Middleton–who is contributing across the board with both volume and efficiency–but no narrative supports him being a better player other than the fact that the game is easy for him…certainly no coincidence with Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s presence on the team.

Interestingly enough, Tatum ranked ahead of Joel Embiid. While the Philadelphia 76ers have been disappointing this season in many regards, they are still two games away from the #4 seed in the east. Embiid is an All-Star starter for the past two years, and while his scoring and rebounding totals have fallen, he has risen his 3-point percentage back to a respectable 35 percent amid a season where he has been sharing a frontcourt with Al Horford despite the poor fit.

We probably would have ranked the top ten differently…and perhaps will in the very near future.