2016 Offseason

Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith listed in SI’s top 100 players

By Justin Rowan Sep 12, 2016, 2:06pm CDT

NBA: Finals-Golden State Warriors at Cleveland Cavaliers

Ranking season is upon us, and two Cavs outside of the big three have made it into Sports Illustrated’s top 100 NBA players. At this point only players 51-100 have been revealed, so Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and LeBron James are yet to be revealed. But J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson were listed today by Sports Illustrated.

For J.R. Smith, SI had him ranked as the 96th best player in the NBA. When you consider that there are 150 starters in the NBA - plus some of the faults Smith has shown in his game - this feels like a pretty good spot to place him. That being said, when you start to see names like Evan Fournier and Cody Zeller immediately after him, you start to wonder if he could have been placed a little higher. Part of his value to the Cavs, is that they are able to highlight his best traits while limiting the number of opportunities for mistakes by him. So if you’re ranking his value in a vacuum, I get placing him here. But his impact to the Cavs is much greater than his individual value.

SI had this to say about Smith:

The Cavaliers' title was validation for the much-maligned Smith, whose immaturity on and off the court made him a target for critics over the years. To secure his first ring and becomeone of the world’s most famous shirtless men, Smith (12.4 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 1.7 APG) had to evolve from a streaky freelance scorer early in his career into a narrower 3-and-D role. Playing alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, Smith has virtually abandoned his off-the-dribble game, morphing instead into a valuable floor-spacing shooter. While his usage rate, free throw rate, assist rate and dunks all fell to career lows, Smith knocked down a career-high 204 three-pointers at a blistering 40% clip. Defensively, the 31-year-old Smith is still quick enough to put effective pressure defense on the perimeter, and he ramped up his effort level as the Cavaliers closed in on the title. Getting the best out of Smith requires the right circumstances—no bright lights, a veteran-dominated locker room, stars to create clean looks for him—but he proved last season that he could play big, valuable minutes on a team that won it all.

Tristan Thompson also made an appearance on today’s rankings, rising from 70th last season to 52nd. Immediately I quickly rolled my eyes to see him listed as a power forward, a position he hasn’t really played much of over the last few seasons unless it was out of necessity. Thompson being ranked this high is a testament to his versatility defensively and ability to be selective and effective on the offensive side of the floor.

SI had the following to say about the man in the middle for the Cavs:

LeBron James said this summer that he’s interested in potentially becoming an NBA owner one day, pointing to his interest in player evaluation. On that note, hats off to James and his agency for seeing and cultivating Tristan Thompson, a critical piece in Cleveland’s back-to-back runs to the Finals. The 25-year-old Thompson (7.8 PPG, 9 RPG) was easy to dismiss as he stacked up meaningless double-doubles on poor teams early in his career. James’s 2014 return to Cleveland coincided with some blossoming and refining from Thompson, who took a step back as a scorer to focus on rebounding and defense. The results have been extraordinary: Thompson has put his special nose for offensive rebounding to full use giving James extra possessions while also emerging as an undersized force with enough versatility and quickness to handle defensive assignments on the perimeter. After filling in admirably for the injured Kevin Love in the 2015 playoffs, Thompson supplanted Timofey Mozgov as Cleveland’s starter last season. With a James/Love/Thompson frontline in place alongside starting guards Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith, the Cavaliers truly hit their pace, posting a 119 offensive rating against a 106 defensive rating during the regular season, per NBAWowy.com. While there’s no doubt that Thompson (and his pocketbook) owes much to James’s game and influence, he’s held up his end of the bargain by becoming an indispensable two-way contributor on a championship team.

It’ll be interesting to see if Thompson’s contract continues to be brought up so frequently, especially as more and more people sign contracts under the new CBA. A similarly limited player to Thompson in Bismack Biyombo signed for four years and $72 million this past summer. So I’m not sure if the money he’s earned can solely be attributed to James. But there’s no denying the impact he’s made on the Cavs, and at the end of the day that’s all that really matters.

Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith listed in SI’s top 100 players

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