by Brian on April 1, 2008 at 4:18PM
ESPN has taken a poll off all of its Hoops writers on the best players under 23 years of age in the league. You can see their results here. No surprises in the top ten, really, but if you take a look at the individual ballots from Henry Abbott and John Hollinger you'll see a pleasant surprise at the bottom.
They both picked Thad Young as their wild card. Here are the quotes from each ballot:
Abbott:
For the most part, I think Hollinger is wrapped up in PER his analysis is useless, but I'll give him props for this selection. Abbott is great, and it's good to see him recognize Thad.
One thing I would add to Abbott's appraisal: Thad can guard 2's as well.
They both picked Thad Young as their wild card. Here are the quotes from each ballot:
Abbott:
He can guard 3s and 4s, he can score on anyone at the rim, and his outside shooting shows promise. He's already a top NBA player by the measure of adjusted plus/minus. You can bet against him, but I won't.Hollinger:
Few people are talking about him, but he's the same age as Oden and Durant and he's been very good for the Sixers as a rookie. With an NBA body supporting an MBA head, he could be the third superstar of the '07 draft.
For the most part, I think Hollinger is wrapped up in PER his analysis is useless, but I'll give him props for this selection. Abbott is great, and it's good to see him recognize Thad.
One thing I would add to Abbott's appraisal: Thad can guard 2's as well.
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Isn't PER just a per-minute measure of points and rebounds and assists and turnovers and field goal percentage, more or less? What's wrong with that? I generally find that it identifies the best players. For instance, currently his top ten is LeBron, Paul, Amare, Ginobili, Garnett, Dirk, Duncan, Bosh, Kobe... and Carl Landry. Okay, Landry's an outlier, but by all accounts he's been incredible, so I'm not that bothered by his high score.