Andre Iguodala cracks ESPN’s list of top-50 players

It’s that time of year again, where every sports publication ranks the best players in the NBA, and every fan base complains about how disrespected their team’s players are. This week it’s ESPN’s turn, and the sports media giant has been slowly rolling out their top 100 players over the course of the week.

Not surprisingly, the Warriors lacked representation in the 50-100 block (though I think plenty of us would cape for Patrick McCaw here!). Yesterday, however, the first Warrior made the list: Andre Iguodala, ranked as the 43^rd best player in the Association.

Iguodala cracking the top-50 is a strong reminder of how spoiled we are as Warriors fans. With Eric Gordon ranked 62^nd, Iguodala is the highest ranked bench player by a wide margin. And by my count, there are seven teams that don’t have a player ranked as highly as the Dubs’ top bench piece.

Of course, these rankings should always be taken with a rather large grain of salt, as evidenced by Jusuf Nurkic being one spot behind Iguodala (how’d he get there?). And Iguodala somehow managed to jump 12 spots in the rankings from last year, despite having a virtually identical season statistically. But we’ll happily take it, especially if it fans the flames of those who were so upset when Carmelo Anthony landed outside of the top-50.

ESPN now begins counting down the top-30, and there are still four Warriors remaining. Where do you think Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson end up?

(Note: ESPN has released the next batch and Klay Thompson is ranked #19. More on that later.)