Top 25 Players - Who's #13?

[NyCeEvO]

Top 25 Players
1) LBJ
2) D12
3) Durant
4) Wade
5) Dirk
6) CP3
7) Kobe
8) D-Will
9) D-Rose
10) Melo
11) LMA
12) Love

I have a feeling things might get a little tough here.

Who's #13?

Bosh?



Bynum?



Griffin?



Harden?



Nash?



Parker?



Pau?



Pierce?



Rondo?



Westbrook?

[NjNeTs1029]

i went with Westbrook

[Shappy]

Chose Westbrook aswell.

[N Ireland Nets]

Id vote for Westbrook but I'm away for a few days so can't vote properly on here so count my vote for Westbrook

[624]

I agree, this is about where Westbrook belongs.

[Ronito]

I went with Parker.

[vincecarter4pres]

I think you know who I voted for.

And for the record, I have Nash as the 4th best point guard left on board.

[jeff1624]

I'm gonna kick a puppy if Harden is voted in the top 15.

[vincecarter4pres]

I'm gonna kick a puppy if Harden is voted in the top 15.

Why's that though? I voted for him right now. He's the 2nd best player on OKC.

[N Ireland Nets]

Chris Bosh should be up soon, around 15 on my board, the dude is the most underrated player in the entire NBA.

[treiz]

I'm gonna kick a puppy if Harden is voted in the top 15.

[JoseRizal]

Westbrick...

[NyCeEvO]

Westbrook is so polarizing for me, but I'm voting for him.

I can't stand the Thunder offense and all of their jumpshots, but there is nothing I can say when they're making them.

Westbrook went 15/26 tonight with 37 pts and he's the reason why the Thunder were even close at the end.

I believe Westbrook can serve as option 1a for a certain number of games, but I don't feel the same about Harden. Harden is best served coming off the bench and playing as a 6th man. Personally, I believe if he was a clear cut 1a or 1b option, he wouldn't be as lauded as he is by many people.

If he goes to another team on his own, I think he'll put up numbers but I see his peak as just like Ginobili. They can win you the game because they can destroy you as the 3rd option, but (imo) if they're your first option all of the time, you won't have too much success.

[therealbig3]

Switched to Westbrook.

Obviously, I'm on the Nash bandwagon, but he's not getting serious traction, and I can at least understand Westbrook's case.

[vincecarter4pres]

People are so easily swayed.

Harden's had 2 great games this playoffs already when Westbrook was subpar, if that game was on tonight you would have voted Harden?

And I've really come around on Westbrook lately and there's obviously nothing wrong with voting him here anyway, just sayin'...

[therealbig3]

People are so easily swayed.

Harden's had 2 great games this playoffs already when Westbrook was subpar, if that game was on tonight you would have voted Harden?

And I've really come around on Westbrook lately and there's obviously nothing wrong with voting him here anyway, just sayin'...

LOL, 2 people voted for Westbrook (or at least posted) tonight, NyCe and me. And I've discussed Westbrook plenty of times before and mentioned how highly I think of him. And NyCe has a whole post discussing why Westbrook, with one sentence talking about his game tonight.

I've definitely put more thought into it than tonight's game, and based on his post, I'm pretty sure NyCe has as well.

[NyCeEvO]

I've actually felt this way about Harden and Westbrook for awhile.

Westbrook is so annoying because he can be painfully terrible or be exceedingly good. However, I do feel like he's learning the game more and is making less dumb decisions now, so he's playing better more frequently.

It will always be hard for me to believe that Harden is a true star simply from the fact he's not focal point one or two for the opposition. If though he's got incredible, playing the 6th man does somewhat shade him from being that main feature role.

I know people are going to take this to the extreme and think I'm saying 'teams don't gameplan for Harden' which is far from true. It's just that I feel like Westbrook is 1b and plays that 1b/1a at times. Harden can be 1 for a good part of the game, but I don't feel like he has the ability to be 1a/1b every night. Maybe he needs to shake the 6th man tag before i can vote for him at this spot.

[vincecarter4pres]

Are you one of the people that severely underrate Manu because he was mainly a 6xth man?

[NyCeEvO]

LOL, I don't think so. If anything I'm usually defending him.

As I explained before, I rank my players on who I think can provide the most amount of wins with the least amount of help (i.e. Aristotle's theorem that the greatest thing(s) is/are that which are most self-sufficient). Players who are clear #1 or 1a options and who dominate are very easy to judge for me.

What's harder to judge are low 1b/#2 options vs. an elite 6th man. Now, fortunately we've seen Ginobili start for a while and we know that he really couldn't be stopped whether he was a starter or not. He had a greater impact on the team when he came off the bench, but he was still an excellent player. To me, most of the time, Ginobili was 2nd best for SAS and would often deliver the killer blow.

I think Ginobili and Harden are pretty similar, but I'm not going to just assume that he can beast as well and as often as Ginobili could/can in the starting lineup and as the #2 option.

As the 6th man, people notice when you have big games, but they don't really say much when you don't, because you're not a part of the starting unit, who usually get most of the playing time.

At this time, I will keep Westbrook a notch ahead of Harden because he bears the 1b/2 option tag full time and he's too important to bench for an extended period of time, if he's not playing well. He's got to play through it.

I'm not saying that Harden can't do it (because he probably has the ability to do it, if he were to go on his own), but I'm not going to gift that to him solely based on potential. When I see it, he'll earn that extra stripe in my book.

This may sound like I'm being extra-critical, but I know that I'm splitting hairs. This is a ranking so I feel like if somethings are very close, I have to be extra-critical. That doesn't mean I don't like Harden though. I still think he's an awesome player and I'd love to have him if I could.

[vincecarter4pres]

You're dead to me!