Jerry Meyer reevaluates Blake

[Seymore Cox]

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1173365

Meyer, the Rivals ranking guru takes 5 years to acknowledge the evaluating mistake on Blake Griffin. If Meyer were completely honest, he would acknowledge that politics goes into his evaluation. With my crimson glasses off, I thought Blake was a top 5 guy. With them on I thought he was the best. Now I think he's a top 10 guy in the NBA. I don't feel that way about Rose or Love. Meyer makes one of the weaker points ever when he says that if he could rerank the list he would put Rose at the top of the list because he's a "dominant" pg. But to me, the great teams have always had great post players, not neccessarily great pgs. Case in point, Derek Fisher. But anyway, here's a list of players that Meyer thought were better than Blake.

Michael Beasley
OJ Mayo
Bill Walker
Kyle Singler
Eric Gordon
Donte Greene
Deandre Jordan
JJ Hickson
James Harden
Anthony Randolph
Nick Calathes!!!
Austin Freeman!!!!!
Kousta Koufas once the #1 player
Patrick Patterson
Nayal Kowshal???? Who's he
Chandler Parsons, really
Craig Brackins
Jamelle Horne
Johnny Flynn.

Now Blake checks in at 23. But it's not like Blake didn't dominate on the AAU circuit. I remember him having triple doubles with high twenties in points and 15 plus rebound games. Fact is rivals lists have more to do about politics and less to do about talent. Anyone who looks at Blake Griffin and Austin Freeman and comes to the conclusion that Austin Freeman is better has to be using some sort of bias. The bigger crime to me was when Blake was left off team USA after dominating the boards, for Donte Greene, one of Boheim's signees who again is clearly is less of a player than Blake. Sloth Aldrich checks in at #30, and to me that's too low for him.

 

[One More Rebound]

Oh. My mistake. I thought Jerry Meyer was infallible.

 

[seniorsooner]

Well he IS a living legend.

 

[campbest]

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1173365

Meyer, the Rivals ranking guru takes 5 years to acknowledge the evaluating mistake on Blake Griffin. If Meyer were completely honest, he would acknowledge that politic goes into his evaluation. With my crimson glasses off, I thought Blake was a top 5 guy. With them on I thought he was the best. Now I think he's a top 10 guy in the NBA. I don't feel that way about Rose or Love. Meyer makes one of the weaker points ever when he says that if he could rerank the list he would put Rose at the top of the list because he's a "dominant" pg. But to me, the great teams have always had great post players, not neccessarily great pgs. Case in point, Derek Fisher. But anyway, here's a list of players that Meyer thought were better than Blake.

Michael Beasley
OJ Mayo
Bill Walker
Kyle Singler
Eric Gordon
Donte Greene
Deandre Jordan
JJ Hickson
James Harden
Anthony Randolph
Nick Calathes!!!
Austin Freeman!!!!!
Kousta Koufas once the #1 player
Patrick Patterson
Nayal Kowshal???? Who's he
Chandler Parsons, really
Craig Brackins
Jamelle Horne
Johnny Flynn.

Now Blake checks in at 23. But it's not like Blake didn't dominate on the AAU circuit. I remember him having triple doubles with high twenties in points and 15 plus rebound games. Fact is rivals lists have more to do about politics and less to do about talent. Anyone who looks at Blake Griffin and Austin Freeman and comes to the conclusion that Austin Freeman is better has to be using some sort of bias. The bigger crime to me was when Blake was left off team USA after dominating the boards, for Donte Greene, one of Boheim's signees who again is clearly is less of a player than Blake. Sloth Aldrich checks in at #30, and to me that's too low for him.

I bet if you would of asked him after 2009 he would of told you Blake was better than most of those guys...should have written his mailbag.

Do politics play a part in rankings? Absolutely, but not just in Rivals 100, in every facet of life. Weekly football and basketball rankings are political, that's just how it goes. If Blake signs with Duke or UNC does his stock shoot up a bit? Probably, but what is the difference at this stage, 10 spots doesn't mean anything. In Meyer's defense and having watched Blake play numerous HS games, Blake got a lot based on his size, so it's easy to hold that bias against him. Probably isn't fair, but that's the truth. Blake had a stigma of being a really athletic big man, while a lot of other guys were labeled as more talented basketball players.

Side note: that is a really talented class, good God.

 

[bocabull]

I still don't have a problem with Rose being ahead of Blake. You could not go wrong with either of them. Both elite studs.

 

[campbest]

I still don't have a problem with Rose being ahead of Blake. You could not go wrong with either of them. Both elite studs.

Precisely. Just depends on who is building your team, do NBA GMs want a PG or dominant PF?

 

[campbest]

Well he IS a living legend.

lol, well he is definitely no Joe Blow.

 

[seniorsooner]

Who would win in a cage match? Jerry Meyer, or Ditka?

 

[Seymore Cox]

I bet if you would of asked him after 2009 he would of told you Blake was better than most of those guys...should have written his mailbag.

Do politics play a part in rankings? Absolutely, but not just in Rivals 100, in every facet of life. Weekly football and basketball rankings are political, that's just how it goes. If Blake signs with Duke or UNC does his stock shoot up a bit? Probably, but what is the difference at this stage, 10 spots doesn't mean anything. In Meyer's defense and having watched Blake play numerous HS games, Blake got a lot based on his size, so it's easy to hold that bias against him. Probably isn't fair, but that's the truth. Blake had a stigma of being a really athletic big man, while a lot of other guys were labeled as more talented basketball players.

Side note: that is a really talented class, good God.

I get what your saying about Blake dominating due to size, but Meyer isn't seeing him dominate in HS, he's seeing him do it on the AAU circuit against the best. I remember that summer and all the hype behind Is love going to go to UCLA or Duke or if Singler would go to Oregon or Duke, or what was Beasley going to do and what was Rose and Gordon going to do? Was Bill Walker and Mayo going to the same school? Or was Patterson going to UF or UK. That played a lot into the rankings. More than a 2A kid from Oklahoma already committed to a first year coach.

And I'm OK with missing on the top 5, 6, maybe even 7, but on some of those players, my son could have told me Blake was better.

 

[campbest]

I get what your saying about Blake dominating due to size, but Meyer isn't seeing him dominate in HS, he's seeing him do it on the AAU circuit against the best. I remember that summer and all the hype behind Is love going to go to UCLA or Duke or if Singler would go to Oregon or Duke, or what was Beasley going to do and what was Rose and Gordon going to do? Was Bill Walker and Mayo going to the same school? Or was Patterson going to UF or UK. That played a lot into the rankings. More than a 2A kid from Oklahoma already committed to a first year coach.

And I'm OK with missing on the top 5, 6, maybe even 7, but on some of those players, my son could have told me Blake was better.

Oh I agree, can remember those storylines like it was yesterday. Followed recruiting pretty closely back then (was in college, so WTH else was I going to do?) and that is all the bball guys would talk about. At the end of the day I look at something like Rivals as what it is, a business. Yahoo paid $100mm for Rivals, which almosts reaches around 80mm views on football national signing day. So naturally if you're on the Rivals staff, you're going to cover your clientele...which are the perennial schools and their recruits. Now if Blake was by far the #1 player in the class without a doubt, think he would have been there regardless of his college destination.

 

[bgrch1350]

Guys on here give all the credit to Blake and none to Capel...But you guys forget...Blake was not better than Rose, Love, Beasley(who out-performed Griffin when they played), and Gordon as a freshman...while other guys like Mayo, Singler, Greene, Patterson, and Blair were all about the same performance wise. It wasn't til his sophmore year that he became this dominant force in college basketball with 6 of the 9 guys that out performed him or was just as good as him during his freshmen year departing for the NBA after just 1 season.
Theres no doubt that Griffin shouldn't have been ranked that low...but he was borderline top 5 out of high school. Love and Rose took their teams to the final 4 and Beasley was just a hair away from being the best player in college that year. While Singler has won a National Championship.

 

[SilliSooner]

Oh I agree, can remember those storylines like it was yesterday. Followed recruiting pretty closely back then (was in college, so WTH else was I going to do?) and that is all the bball guys would talk about. At the end of the day I look at something like Rivals as what it is, a business. Yahoo paid $100mm for Rivals, which almosts reaches around 80mm views on football national signing day. So naturally if you're on the Rivals staff, you're going to cover your clientele...which are the perennial schools and their recruits. Now if Blake was by far the #1 player in the class without a doubt, think he would have been there regardless of his college destination.

So do Stanford recruits get any special love? Considering the parent of Rivals was founded and mostly run by Stanford grads?

If there were politics in the rating systems you'd think it might show up here.

 

[gracefor24]

I can't imagine anyone taking Rose over Blake at this point. Rose isn't a dominant player, IMO. Blake is on the cusp in his very first year.

 

[stoops4pres]

I still don't have a problem with Rose being ahead of Blake. You could not go wrong with either of them. Both elite studs.

Agreed. Especially when you consider Rose is having an MVP-like season right now.

 

[coolm]

I am a HUGE Blake backer and certainly have crimson-colored glasses when it comes to him....but I don't think you can take anything away from Rose.

I had a bad taste in my mouth over him because of Calamari, but watching him in Chicago makes you realize he has it all. OMG remember how poorly Kidd shot coming out of Cal? Rose is likely to be one of the best ever - as will Blake for that matter.

Beasley was ahead at the time, but not now. OJ is behind as are many of those others ... and DJ may be about to burst on the scene.

 

[campbest]

What really strikes me about Rose is how well he is shooting the ball, especially from three. This is a guy who through his first two years shot the deep ball 22% and 27%, respectively. Until the last game he was over 40%.

 

[gracefor24]

What really strikes me about Rose is how well he is shooting the ball, especially from three. This is a guy who through his first two years shot the deep ball 22% and 27%, respectively. Until the last game he was over 40%.

Yeah, that has made a huge difference.

Still, Rose is averaging 23 and 8 in his 3rd year. Great stats but not anything that separates him from his competition in Paul, Westbrook, Rondo, Williams, Nash.

Griffin is averaging 22 and 13 as a ROOKIE!! That is nuts, who was the last guy to do that? He's also averaging like 3 assists a game. It's absolutely ridiculous. Not only this season but historically as well.

 

[Sam]

Yeah, that has made a huge difference.

Still, Rose is averaging 23 and 8 in his 3rd year. Great stats but not anything that separates him from his competition in Paul, Westbrook, Rondo, Williams, Nash.

Griffin is averaging 22 and 13 as a ROOKIE!! That is nuts, who was the last guy to do that? He's also averaging like 3 assists a game. It's absolutely ridiculous. Not only this season but historically as well.

I saw a comparison a few weeks back that his numbers (points, boards and dimes) are most comparable to Larry Legend as a rookie. As Larry was the last rookie to have 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and 4+ assists.

Larry 21.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists
Blake 21.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists

Also I think Blake is averaging about 4.5 assists a game during his 22 game double double streak (his monster 44, 15, 7 vs the Knicks kicked it off). He's went for 7 assists 5 times during this streak.

 

[Sawyer]

Yeah, that has made a huge difference.

Still, Rose is averaging 23 and 8 in his 3rd year. Great stats but not anything that separates him from his competition in Paul, Westbrook, Rondo, Williams, Nash.

Griffin is averaging 22 and 13 as a ROOKIE!! That is nuts, who was the last guy to do that? He's also averaging like 3 assists a game. It's absolutely ridiculous. Not only this season but historically as well.

Rose's team has also won 12 more games.

 

[Seymore Cox]

You cant really use wins/losses in this debate.