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Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans

Adhering to the no-rookie rule was difficult from the beginning. Zion Williamson made it hell between the ears. His per-36-minutes splits for the preseason: 30.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals on, ahem, a 73.7 true shooting percentage.

Sticking to principles is important. No rookie inclusions means no rookie inclusions. No exceptions. Not even for Zion. Even though I wanted to make one. And still do. Unless his right knee injury turns into a more sinister issue, it seems like he has a top-30 or better ceiling as a rookie.

Malik Beasley, Denver Nuggets

Braver souls would've included Malik Beasley. He found nylon on 42.2 percent of his spot-up threes while finishing in the 88th percentile of transition efficiency last season, and he gave the Nuggets' bare-bones wing rotation someone with the athleticism to guard wings.

Beasley should be a better defender. He isn't long, but he's quick enough to be more aggressive. He shouldn't get thrown off tilt by so many screens or end up caught in the middle of nowhere off the ball. There might be another level to his scoring, too. He shot 6-of-8 on threes in the playoffs when using two or more dribbles.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, Sacramento Kings

Leaving off Bogdan Bogdanovic stings—and not just because he torched basically everyone in sight during FIBA World Cup play. He's been an offensive dynamo for a while now.

Bogdanovic finished third on the Kings in assist rate last season, behind De'Aaron Fox and the sparingly used Frank Mason, and second in pick-and-roll possessions as the ball-handler. His offense can shape-shift depending on the lineup. He converted 40 percent of his standstill threes last year and shot an encouraging 34 percent on pull-up triples after the All-Star break.

Predicting what comes next for Bogdanovic is a headache. The Kings will get him reps as the de facto backup point guard, but the roster makeup caps his peak in Sacramento. Fox and Buddy Hield aren't going anywhere, and playing him beside the 2 is a hard defensive sell unless Harrison Barnes or Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon are on the frontline.

Goran Dragic, Miami Heat

Healthy Goran Dragic is a problem. He is an underrated finisher at the rim and a fit for pretty much any lineup, whether he's piloting the offense or playing off another ball-handler.

Right-knee problems torpedoed his 2018-19 season. He is Miami's biggest swing piece, aside from maybe Bam Adebayo, if he can muster 70-ish appearances. He's also 33, and his efficiency dipped in 2017-18. Even with good health, a decline isn't off the table.

JaMychal Green, Los Angeles Clippers

JaMychal Green will require reevaluation if the Clippers commit to using him almost exclusively at the 5. His three-point volume isn't scaring anyone, but he hits enough of his triples (37.7 percent since 2016-17) to pull opposing centers out of the paint.

Select teams won't try to counter Green-at-the-5 lineups. They will often pay. Letting him unleash the more-than-occasional three comes at a greater opportunity cost when he's physical enough to jockey with more brutish bigs.

Green isn't merely the Clippers' antidote to potential matches. He's their blueprint to creating them.

Serge Ibaka, Toronto Raptors

Serge Ibaka's impact continues to wane. He enjoyed somewhat of an offensive revival last year, but only after extreme accommodation. The Raptors cater to his every limitation by gifting him spot-up twos—which, to his credit, he knocked down 55.5 percent of the time—and surrounding him with better-defending bigs.

Not all of those luxuries remain. Toronto is light on proven shooters and could be hard-pressed to tee up its more dependent scorers. Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam provide adequate defensive cover, and Ibaka can get by on his own against bench mobs. But the lengths to which the Raptors must travel to prop him up are steep and, frankly, not quite worth it if he isn't taking or making many threes.

Andre Iguodala, Memphis Grizzlies

Andre Iguodala would sneak into the top 100 under normal circumstances. He is more of a 16-game player these days, but his defense and playmaking are still treasured commodities.

These are not normal circumstances. Iguodala is a member of the Grizzlies only in name. We don't know where he'll be traded or if he'll be traded. It could be mid-December before he plays again, or it could be sometime in February.

DeAndre Jordan, Brooklyn Nets

DeAndre Jordan squandered enough goodwill over the past season-and-a-half to earn exclusion.

HOWEVER!

Brooklyn is going to be good even without Kevin Durant. Jordan finally has a reason to get back on defense posthaste again.

Kyle Kuzma, Los Angeles Lakers

Kyle Kuzma can get buckets. He's averaging 17.3 points per game for his career, and it's fair to assume his shooting mean is closer to 2017-18 (36.6 percent from three) than 2018-19 (30.3). But his fit with the Lakers is slightly more awkward after the Anthony Davis acquisition.

Playing both of them and LeBron James effectively leaves Kuzma as the nominal 3. For all of the strides he took defending quasi-bigs last year, he remains a liability when tracking quicker wings and guards in space.

Los Angeles can stagger his minutes so he plays the 4, and that might be an answer if he can float lineups as the No. 1 scoring option. He probably can't. His scoring profile is accessory-friendly. The Lakers offense failed to hang in the 1,843 possessions he logged without LeBron last year, and even with better shooters around, giving him fewer minutes alongside Davis and/or James hardly registers as a solution.

Marcus Morris, New York Knicks

If Marcus Morris shoots like he did during the first half of last season and makes good on his promise to give the Knicks an old-school identity renowned for its resiliency, then he'll belong in the top 100.

You can therefore see why he didn't make the cut.

Terry Rozier, Charlotte Hornets

Terry Rozier has an outside chance of creeping into the top 100 by virtue of volume. That isn't exactly an endorsement. His breakout in 2017-18 was overstated, and the Hornets don't have the secondary shot creators around him to preserve the quality of looks.

Tomas Satoransky, Chicago Bulls

A 6'7" pass-first point guard? With a methodical handle to navigate through traffic? But also with blow-by speed coming around screens and against unset defenses? Who is content to play off the ball and drain catch-and-fire threes? And who can match up defensively with certain wings?

Regret is seeping through already. If Satoransky was more inclined to look for his own shot, he'd be a shoo-in.

Landry Shamet, Los Angeles Clippers

Labeling Landry Shamet a shooter undersells his ceiling.

Sure, he's a shooter. He nailed 42 percent of his spot-up threes and landed inside the 88th percentile of scoring efficiency coming off screens last season. But he has the bandwidth to do more.

The Clippers stretched his defensive range after acquiring him in the Tobias Harris trade, using him against both guard spots and select forwards. That margin of discretion opens up more lineup-building doors.

Chief among them: rolling out Shamet as the titular point guard. He has looked mostly at home when taking on spot pick-and-roll duty and is a useful alternative to Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams when the Clippers want to balance shot creation and defensive integrity.

Hassan Whiteside, Portland Trail Blazers

Hassan Whiteside is not Jusuf Nurkic. He doesn't have anywhere near the offensive versatility, and his rim protection is less about quick rotations and positional awareness than trying to swat anything he pleases.

Still: This high-variance marriage could pay off. Nurkic wasn't the most disciplined defender before being traded to the Blazers, and the offensive chemistry between Whiteside and Portland's guards will take form at some point.

And let's not forget, Damian Lillard is involved. This could be the year we get Hassan Whiteside reborn.

Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves

Scorers forever have their place in the NBA, but Andrew Wiggins' points have neither rhyme nor reason. His specialty, that one marketable skill to which optimists can cling, is unknown.

Getting to the line is no longer his thing. His free-throw-attempt rate has been on the relative decline since his sophomore season. Using him off the ball has come to serve no purpose. His effective field-goal percentage on catch-and-shoot jumpers has dropped beneath 53 in each of the past two years.

Letting him create is the quickest path to nowhere. He doesn't have the vision to warrant running more pick-and-rolls, and he might be the league's worst pull-up jump shooter. His 35.3 effective field-goal percentage on these looks last season ranked last among every player who averaged at least five attempts per game.

Head coach Ryan Saunders has high hopes for Wiggins. They are not entirely misplaced. Wiggins doesn't turn 25 until late February. Consistent and more inventive coaching might go a long way toward rebooting his career.

Five years in, though, the skepticism isn't just earned or expected. It is obligatory.