I thought the SI list was fair, and consider this one fair too, especially since for C's it's pretty similar so far (SI had Smart at 82, Brown at 68, and Hayward at 59).
My one beef is with Smart's year-over-year ranking. Last year ESPN had him 55 (current article says last year was 54, but checking last years actual list shows him at 55), then he went out and made 1st Team All-D, 3rd in the league in steals, posted career highs in PER and games played, and improved his TS% by 90 basis points.
While most of the C's played worse then expected last year (Irving, Brown, Tatum, Hayward, Rozier), Smart was probably the only one who actually exceeded expectations. And he drops 32 spots? C'mon.
55 seems awfully high for Smart - what could they possibly have been expecting from him last year? With 30 teams in the league, each team should have, on average, 3 1/3 players in the top 100. The Cs having 5 players shows that we should be quite competitive.
But Smart at 55 assumes he could be the 2nd best player on a team - which just doesn't seem right at all. Having him at 87 sounds better given that he is hitting his prime and the intangibles he adds to a team.
Generally, I agree -- but Smart is one of those players who may not be among the best players on a team, but who may very well be among the most valuable. There were times at the end of games last year that I thought Smart was THE most important Celtic to be on the court.
I have no idea where should be ranked, but I might put him top 20 in terms of ability to impact a game.
Do not agree at all with that last statement.
LeBron
AD
Kawhi
Paul George
Steph
Klay
KD
Harden
Chris Paul
Giannis
Embiid
Jimmy Butler
Jokic
Gobert
Lillard
KAT
Beal
Griffin
Westbrook
Kyrie
That's an easy 20. I could go farther. Heck, Al Horford impacts a game more than Smart. There's a whole bunch more I could name, too. McCollum, Booker, Kemba, Middleton, Doncic, Jrue, Conley, Simmons, Siakem, etc. Heck, Tatum may impact a game more than Smart.
Smart is great, but he is not a top 20 player in how he impacts a game. Let's not forget, he still has lots of nights were he is a net negative because he can't hit a shot but keeps taking early in the clock bad shots. Because he was a main ballhandler this then set the tone and suddenly the whole team was doing the same thing. It's happened a lot over the years and still does.
I think Smart in the 80's or 90's is about right.