Dennis Schröder lands at No. 96 in ESPN preseason player rankings

Prior to the 2016-2017 NBA season, the NBA crew over at ESPN ranked Dennis Schröder as the No. 91 overall player in the NBA. After a strong season in which he improved his counting numbers and overall efficiency, the now 23-year-old point guard has... slipped in those same rankings.

On Monday, the worldwide leader unveiled its first segment of #NBARank for 2017-2018 and Schröder was included at No. 96 overall with the following caption.

With the departure of Paul Millsap, Dennis Schroder is now the leader of a rebuilding Hawks franchise and a prime candidate for catchy yet empty box score stats in 2017-18. In 755 minutes he played without Millsap last season, Schroder averaged just under 22 points and eight assists per 36 minutes. Unfortunately for the Hawks, they were outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions during that time, a number that would have ranked dead last in the NBA.

Part of this evaluation is likely that ESPN’s RPM metric treats Schröder as a slightly negative player in its projections. Last season, that same metric rated Schröder as the No. 55 point guard in the league thanks to a disastrous defensive evaluation and, even if there is some influence from non-computer calculations, it paints an ugly picture when it comes to the top-100 list.

Almost simultaneously, Sports Illustrated ranked Schröder at No. 76 overall and, when it comes to Hawks fans, that is a ranking that surely will land softer. There is still some uncertainty as to what kind of player Schröder is presently and, especially, what kind of player he will be in the future. Still, it is safe to assume that this ranking won’t go over well with his supporters.

Stay tuned.