Comments on: 20 At The Top: ACC Player Rankings

By: TM

TM — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:47:14 +0000

Really enjoyed reading these. You’re reassessment of Leslie is accurate. He’s long and athletic, but aside from that, isn’t too spectacular. One of the top 5 NBA prospects? Oh definitely, but definitely not one of the 5 best players in the league right now.

By: DMoore

DMoore — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:00:39 +0000

When the player who was clearly third best in the conference last year is projected as 5th best in the conference this year, I’d say that bodes well for the conference as a whole.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:19:07 +0000

Anyone who knows me can attest I have a strong pro-Duke bias. For sure.

Delaney needs to play defense before he can be #1 on any list. Kyle Singler pretty much does everything solidly on a basketball court and is the frontrunner for NATIONAL player of the year in 2010-11, not to mention his MOP of the Final Four a couple months ago. Not even really close, IMO.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:06:58 +0000

How is Malcolm Delaney not #1? He was all the Hokies had last year and nearly brought them into the dance. Oh wait, if he played for Duke, he would be #1. Why don’t you just go ahead and list the whole Duke team numbers 1 through 10. Yeah, I’m a hater when it comes to Duke, as if you couldn’t tell. Even still, Delaney smokes ’em all down there on Tobacco Road.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:33:58 +0000

The only thing Bullock does better than Brown is shoot the 3. Other than that Brown can get to the rack and is a better creater off the dribble than Bullock. I don’t think either should be in the top 25, by the way. The freshman learning curve plays a big factor unless your are talking about super talents like Barnes, Irving and Leslie. Also Plumlee in front of Smith? Never. I think your top 5 is pretty spot on, but after that it’s anyone’s guess.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:40:23 +0000

I absolutely did consider defense in my rankings. Singleton has the tools to be a great defender and FSU was a crazy good defensive team last season. His fundamentals on that end are still slightly lacking, but he has improved his effort. Athleticism and quickness have never been in question.

By: DMoore

DMoore — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:39:35 +0000

I think this listing underrates players’ defense somewhat. Chris Singleton was the best defender in the conference last year and should be again.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:21:20 +0000

A lot more than me, I’ll end up looking like a fool when Barnes wins ACC POY or something lol.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:35:13 +0000

Durant and Beasley were NPOY candidates. This is a list of the best players in the ACC. Barnes and Irving are a step below those two. I stand by my rankings. Of course I had BJ Mullens as a top-5 player in the B10 pre-2008-09 so what do I know, haha.

I’m not overlooking Brown. I mentioned him in the Smith paragraph. I just feel Bullock is the better player. He can light it up with the best of ’em.

By: Cwolf

Cwolf — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:07:15 +0000

Funny how Lorenzo Brown (going to NCSU) keeps getting overlooked….He is better than Bullock right now….more complete player who can do it all.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:32:36 +0000

You are right, most have said Irving is the best PG to come from the area. Still, I have a hard time putting freshmen, who haven’t played a minute of college basketball, high up on any list. They may very well turn out to be there but I think we were all spoiled by the Durant and Beasley types who were already NBA-ready out of high school and proved it in their one year in college.

I’m with you on Zeller. Tremendous talent and will be a major factor if he stays healthy. I think Zeller’s stock will suffer a bit from people trying to compare him to the last Tyler to play in the frontcourt at UNC.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:08:47 +0000

I’m pretty high on this crop of freshmen, more so than any other conference. I can see Leslie being a couple spots too high, but not Barnes and Irving. These are special talents, potential ACC POY candidates immediately and likely top 5 picks in next year’s Draft. Those who have followed Irving are saying he’s the best PG to ever come from NJ which is saying something. They’ll both have the opportunity to produce right away on huge stages.

I’ve always been a sucker for Zeller. I think he has a really impressive skill set. I hope that he’s not one of those players that constantly falls victim to the injury bug. Hard to believe a school like UNC doesn’t have the best conditioning and training staff in the country.

By: Ballatologist

Ballatologist — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:21:50 +0000

The list has no arguments from me, but I do believe the freshman are getting a lot of credit on the list. I especially worry about curry because Irving will be on the court for most of the time and we all know that smith will be logging a lot of minutes. I would have to agree with Brian and more Shumpert up the list because GT will go uptempo and he will have the ball in his hands a majority of the time. He will be the go to guy. Also, Jackson will have to move up the list for me with BC going to an open floor system and he will be logging more minutes than last year with the ball in his hands.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:59:01 +0000

Hard to argue with the list but I’d be wary of ranking the freshmen so high.

I’d rank Shumpert higher and Plumlee lower if I had to pick a couple disagreements.

By: JR

JR — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:39:46 +0000

I am not sure what Duke is going to get from Curry. On one hand, he looked solid on a weak Liberty team where he was the best player by far. Now though, he comes into the ACC on a team that is absolutely loaded with guards. How much PT will he get? Coach K is not going to play anybody substantial minutes that does not play great defense and I am not sure whether Curry can do that (mainly because of his size, he might prove me wrong).

Zeller is a bit too high in my opinion. Sure, if he can stay healthy he might justify that spot but he has not proven he can do that yet. I am from the camp that says while there is a definite luck aspect of staying healthy, there is something about the way you condition, train, play (along with some things you can’t control) that makes some players injury prone. Zeller might be that guy.

Nice list all around though. I think it will be a battle between Barnes and Singler (with Delaney as darkhorse) for POY.