Steven Adams holds an exalted place within Niche Cache Towers, a feeling that’s surely shared by most kiwi sports fans out there. We’ve got shrines set up to honour the great one and his moustache, it’s probably one of the only offices on the planet where trash can hoops predominantly involves one-handed flip shots rather than deep range Steph Curry treble attempts. That’s because Steven Adams is everything that TNC wants to represent. He’s big time and he’s earned that success yet he remains kiwi as, bro. And by the grace of the OKC #12 we get to make money writing about him (we’d earn more if you smack an ad button, chur).

A couple things have happened with Kiwi Steve over the last week or so. One is that both ESPN and Sports Illustrated dropped their annual player rankings, which each saw Adams dropping a few places (but remaining in that top fiddy). Those are arguably the two most high profile sports publications in America (chuck in some Bleacher Report too, sure) and as arbitrary, irrelevant and unscientific as these lists may be they’re still pretty interesting to see how Adams’ particularly Aotearoa flavoured skill-set is perceived over in the States. So we may as well look at where and why they rated him where they did, as well as checking in on a couple other similar lists.

The second thing was that he went to the zoo.

Sports Illustrated – The Crossover

Adams Rank – 47

(2016 Rank - 40)

“Expectations were so high for Adams coming out of the 2016 playoffs that what turned out to be a career year (11.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.0 BPG) the following season was still regarded by some as a disappointment. Consider, instead, the reality. Adams raised the ceiling on what was a strange exercise in Oklahoma City last season. While Russell Westbrook drew attention from opponents and observers alike, it was Adams who was helping anchor the defense that actually got the Thunder into the playoffs. While the Thunder posted one of the lowest Effective Field Goal Percentages in the league, Adams was battling to secure extra, compensatory possessions. Only six players in the league grabbed a higher percentage of available offensive rebounds.

There will always be a cap on the box score contributions of players like Adams, in part because their games are tailored to complement. What he doesn’t do is the point; Adams knows what he does well and dedicates his game to aiding those who wind up filling the box score. It’s because of him and players like him that the high-scoring guard has become the standard bearer of modern basketball. When your center defends well, screens hard, aids in team rebounding, and finishes the opportunities presented him, the rest of the lineup can be maximized accordingly.”

Three Up: Andre Iguodala, GSW (46), Brook Lopez, LAL (45), Jae Crowder, CLE (44)

Three Down: Nicolas Batum, CHA (48), Harrison Barnes, DAL (49), Andrew Wiggins, MIN (50)

ESPN NBA Rank

Adams Rank – 46

(2016 Rank - 36)

“Adams battled alongside Russell Westbrook more than any player, as 94 percent of his minutes came alongside his MVP teammate. An underrated part of Adams' game is filling the lane, as he has finished in the 90th percentile in points per play in transition each of the past two seasons, making him an ideal fit next to the tempo-pushing Westbrook.”

Three Up: LaMarcus Aldridge, SAS (45), Jusuf Nurkic, DEN (44), Andre Iguodala, GSW (43)

Three Down: Goran Dragic, MIA (47), Ricky Rubio, UTA (48), George Hill, SAC (49)

Hoops Hype

Adams Rank - 45

(2016 Rank – N/A)

 “Adams’ four-year $100 million extension will kick in this summer, and the Thunder can be pleased with the way he has developed so far. He provides toughness on the inside and has steadily been increasing his skills, averaging 11.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in 2016-17.”

(These ranks were made back in April at the conclusion of the regular season, so the teams below are the teams they played for in 16-17 – Crowder’s been traded to the Cavs, for example – but they’re still curious for their direct relation to past performances).

Three Up: Patrick Beverley, HOU (44), Carmelo Anthony, NYK (43), Harrison Barnes, DAL (42)

Three Down: Jae Crowder, BOS (46), Cody Zeller, CHA (47), Andrew Wiggins, MIN (48)

FanRag Sports Offseason Rankings

Adams Rank - 50

(2016 Rank - 52)

 “Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams takes his spot at the midway point of our countdown, ranking 50th in the league … and they say MVP Russell Westbrook didn’t have any help last year. To be fair, Adams isn’t exactly an offensive force of nature or remotely described as a stretch 5, but he is a tremendous asset to the Thunder, and one of the top conventional centers in the NBA today … in the sense of someone who rolls instead of pops, gets his points at the bucket, protects the paint, and doesn’t get pushed around. In some ways, that makes him an ideal teammate for Westbrook’s Tasmanian devil style of play.”

Three Up: Avery Bradley, DET (49), LaMarcus Aldridge, SAS (48), Carmelo Anthony, NYK (47)

Three Down: Jae Crowder, CLE (51), Danilo Gallinari, LAC (52), Dwight Howard, CHA (53)

This Massive Reddit Thing

Adams Rank – 61

(2016 Rank - 50)

There’s no words written on this one, it was a survey conducted by a bunch of reddit users. They take a bunch of random head to heads and people pick the more useful player each time. So… Steven Adams vs Norman Powell or whatever. Pick Steven Adams and he gets the biscuits. Do that hundreds of thousands of times with every player in the NBA represented and eventually the numbers come out with some kind of fluency. Adams won roughly four of every five matchups which had him placed at 61, down eleven places from last time but, as seems to be the unanimous opinion, ever so slightly ahead of Jae Crowder.

Three Up: Dennis Schroder, ATL (60), Andre Iguodala, GSW (59), Danilo Gallinari, LAC (58)

Three Down: Dion Waiters, MIA (62), Jrue Holiday, NOP (63), Jae Crowder, CLE (64)

This is similar to a thing we did last year, which you can read right here. Bleacher Report hasn’t done their list yet so they don’t get to be represented but that doesn’t matter – you see the trends. And those trends play pretty close to another Steven Adams thing once published in these hallowed pages. The premise being that after a monstrous breakout performances in the 2016 playoffs, Kiwi Steve kinda found himself being overrated for what he might offer on the daily. He’s never gonna be a top scorer, he’s a player who does the tough stuff so that others can do those things more easily. Setting screens, hauling in offensive rebounds, boxing out big opposition defenders.

Those two great series against the Spurs and Warriors also coincided with Kevin Durant’s playing his last games for the team. Take him out and you saw what happened. So understandably while Adams clearly improved as a player in 2016-17 he maybe didn’t improve by the lengths others though he might and these rankings all seem to reflect that.

Plus the Thunder just weren’t as good last season. They were never going to be, no matter what superhuman feats Russell Westbrook happened to accomplish (and there were a few). That also affects a player’s perception. Detroit Pistons wing Tobias Harris said something recently that sums that idea up nicely…

Tobias Harris: “You understand in this league that if you don’t win, everybody’s stock tumbles. I think everybody got a dose of that this summer just through stupid things like (player) rankings.”

Meanwhile CJ McCollum was pissed off enough at some of his rankings that he tried to start an arbitrary, irrelevant and unscientific sports journalist rankings… which it really woulda been awesome if he’d gone all in on.

Steven Adams though? If he doesn’t care about stats then he damn sure doesn’t care about these. But you know what he does rank highly, don’t you?

Jump on our Patreon page if you wanna be a part of the TNC journey. Otherwise we’re always equally grateful for every ad that gets a whack and every like, share, comment, retweet, etc. that we get. You’re the best, keep it up.