ESPN Top 100: Andre Iguodala and DeMarcus Cousins crack the top 75

Last week, Sports Illustrated unveiled their list of the top 100 players in the NBA. It led to some excellent, spirited debate in the Golden State of Mind community, so . . . let’s keep it going, shall we?

With SI’s list concluded, ESPN is jumping in on the action, and they just released the start of their top 100 list, with players 51-100.

Just as was the case with SI, two members of the Golden State Warriors enter at those ranks: Andre Iguodala, and DeMarcus Cousins.

Iguodala fared a bit better on the ESPN list. After being ranked 87th by SI, the Warriors versatile sixth man was ranked 73rd by the worldwide leader. Even though it’s a rise relative to the other publication, Iguodala fell 30 spots from the 43rd ranking that ESPN gave him a year ago.

Coming in just ahead of Iguodala was Cousins, who was ranked 69th (SI had him 68th, so the two publications see things similarly). Like his teammate, this is a pretty big fall in the rankings for Cousins, who ranked all the way at 17th a year ago.

Of course, for Cousins, the fall in rankings is due to his injury. In the intro to the piece, ESPN explained that, “We asked, “Which player will be better in 2018-19?” To decide, voters had to consider both the quality and the quantity of each player’s contributions to his team’s ability to win games.”

Cousins obviously will have a low quantity of games this year, and the quality is a bit of an unknown as he rehabs from an Achilles injury.

But my guess is, when these rankings come out in the summer of 2019, he’ll have played his way to a much, much higher ranking.