The 2021-22 offseason has been good for Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier. He received a big contract extension, took on a larger leadership role and put together a full-team workout and practice with the organization in Miami this summer.
Charlotte Hornets: Terry Rozier disrespected by ESPN’s player ranking
However, despite coming off one of the best seasons of his career, the disrespect has already begun for Rozier as ESPN.com ranked him No. 81 in their annual NBA Player Rankings.
Players No. 50-100 were released on Tuesday and while the Hornets were well represented with three players (Gordon Hayward at No. 58 and Miles Bridges at 87) cracking the list, Rozier should not be ranked as low as he was.
Rozier was also ranked No. 78 in Sports Illustrated’s Top 100.
The reason why the ranking is so disrespectful is because of some of the players listed above him.
Yes, these are just ESPN writers using a panel to decide the rankings and ultimately they don’t mean anything, but players do use them as motivation, and Rozier should do just that.
Listed at No. 76, just a few spots ahead of Rozier is this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick Cade Cunningham.
Cunningham hasn’t even stepped on the floor in an NBA game yet and he’s supposed to be better than Rozier?
In an ESPN+ story written this week about the history of NBARank, they said the lists are based on which direction players are trending, but Rozier is still in his prime and Cunningham didn’t show enough in college that he’ll have a better season this year than Rozier.
Other questionable players listed above Rozier are Andrew Wiggins (77), Joe Harris (75), Jusuf Nurkic (74), Tyrese Haliburton (73) and OG Anunoby (72).
Rozier has proven to be clutch in crunch time, a much-improved shooter and a solid defender. Just the versatility and different skill set that he has should put him ahead of some of the guys he’s ranked below.
He should at least be ranked between 65-70 and debatably somewhere from 60-65 depending on which players you move down.
Rozier needs to take this as motivation and possibly even show he’s one of the league’s top 50 players by season’s end.