All-Decade: The 10 biggest ranking misses of the 2010s
What defines a “miss” in rankings? Everybody has their own definition and own formula. Today in our All-Decade series, National Analyst Eric Bossi examines what he feels are 10 of the biggest misses of the decade and what made them misses.
MORE ALL-DECADE: Ranking the No. 1 prospects from 2010-19
2020 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2021 Rankings: Rivals150 | Position
Bossi’s take: Look, I made the decision to drop Simmons to No. 2 behind Skal Labissiere in the final rankings of the class and I’ve regretted it ever since. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the single worst decision I’ve made in 20 years in the business. If that doesn’t make it No. 1 on the list of misses, then I don’t know what could top it. Four and a half years later Simmons is an NBA All-Star making millions of dollars and though I owned the mistake early, it still eats at me that I did it.
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Bossi’s take: I never even saw Morant play. In fact he wasn’t even evaluated by anybody on our staff. It’s a big country and we can’t see everybody. But, Morant went to a well-regarded mid-major in Murray State and one that wasn’t too far removed from producing another unheralded (as a high schooler) first-round draft pick in Cameron Payne. Given so many others overlooked him, it is quite likely that we would have blown the eval too, but it would be nice to at least be able to try to learn from anything we might have missed.
Bossi’s take: The DeMatha team that Oladipo played on during his senior was stacked featuring a total of four (Jerami Grant, Jerian Grant and Quinn Cook are the others) eventual NBA players. So, he kind of got lost in the shuffle and he was a bit of a late bloomer who looked like a solid pickup for Indiana given his athletic upside. By his junior year in college he had developed into a first team All-American and the No. 2 overall draft pick and turned out to have been vastly underrated.
