ESPN is doing their Player Power Ranking series every week where they rank the Top 20 players in the league based on their play this season. In a completely non-shocking development, Stephen Curry, the dazzling Golden State Warriors point guard, is the best player in basketball but he wasn’t the only Warriors player on the list.
Also joining Curry on the list from the team were Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. In fact, all three players came in ranked in the Top 15. Green was ranked 13th and Thompson 15th. All of these seem very fair considering their level of play during the 2015-16 season.
From ESPN senior writer Chris Broussard about each of the three players:
For those who doubt we could inscribe Curry’s name on his second straight MVP trophy right now, peep his crunch-time stats: 50.8 percent shooting in the last five minutes of a close game; 51.6 percent in the last minute; 61.1 percent from 3. This dude actually gets better in the clutch. Just one more reason to say “unheard of” when discussing this man.
[Draymond Green] has had a nice week of scoring, and of course, is doing all other things well. Still, like a larger Jason Kidd, he can have a huge impact despite shooting poorly and scoring little.
[Klay Thompson] doesn’t have to do it much, but he can also take guys off the dribble. There’s a legitimate Big Three in the Bay Area. With all the love for Draymond, let’s not forget that.
It seems almost unheard of this day in age that a team’s Big Three can be their point guard, shooting guard, and small forward, but that’s the case with the Golden State Warriors right now. The team is that good, and the players are that darn dominant. They’re rewriting just how we view basketball.
While Curry is definitely playing the best basketball of anyone in the game this season, let’s not forget the contributions being made by both Green and Thompson. They’ve been nearly as important as Curry has been, and it’s hard to see the team winning without either of them in the lineup.
All three of these guys deserve the recognition as some of the best in the league and it accounts for the team’s success. It also kind of highlights the lack of contribution by Barnes,sure he will get a nice contract from somebody, just not sure if it should be from Bob Myers. Barnes actually might flourish on a different team so this may be part of the reason he did not sign the last contract offer.