ESPN: D’Angelo Russell is the 69th-best player in NBA

ESPN is releasing its annual top-100 players – and in one of their tweets, showed a few notable players.

Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard D’Angelo Russell is going to be the 69th-best player in the 2020-21 NBA Season, ESPN predicts in their annual player ranking [subscription required].

While yes, the list is used to predict how good players are going to be in the coming season, and not how they have performed in the past, Russell certainly is better than most, if not all of the players in ESPN’s promotional graphic ahead of him.

Surely though, there is no way that Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, Tyler Herro, and Blake Griffin are all better than Russell. At only 24-years old, he is one of two players mentioned that has made an All-Star appearance in the past two seasons.

Over the course of his past two seasons, D’Angelo Russell is averaging 22 points, four rebounds, and seven assists on splits of 43/37/80. He is a high-level guard that, at the very least, should be in the top-50 of any list counting the best players in the league.

ESPN has yet to release the second-half of their list, but presumably it would include Karl-Anthony Towns. Looking back at the 2019 top-100 list, D’Angelo Russell dropped over 40 spots, moving down from 28.

Looking forward to this coming year, Russell has a lot to prove both from an individual perspective and a team success viewpoint. There is a lot that is riding on this season for the Timberwolves, and D’Angelo Russell’s performance will dictate a lot of it.

The only other Timberwolves’ player that is listed from 100-51 is Ricky Rubio, who makes his place on the ranking at 93. Rookie and first overall pick Anthony Edwards is the most notable exception. While he is no Zion Williamson, Edwards is one of the few top draft selections to not make ESPN’s annual player rankings.

Other players that could have been listed (but weren’t) were Josh Okogie and Malik Beasley, but their absences are less than surprising.