Top 10 Players in the NBA

[Racer X]

Right now Locke is discussing his list for the top 100 players in the NBA, and especially his Top 10. When I started thinking about it, I really am finding it tougher than I expected. Locke's only criteria is who helps you win the most NOW.

1) LeBron (no question in my mind)
2) Durant (I think people overvalue his supporting cast. I wouldnt want Westbrook running my team)
3) Wade (Has THE worst supporting cast in the league)
4) Kobe (I guess)
5) Brandon Roy (see Paul, Chris)
6) Deron Williams (Jazz rarely win with a bad DWill game)
7) Chris Paul (done a lot with little this year in my estimation)
8) Dirk (crunch time assassin)
9) Pau Gasol (he is freaking good)
10) Joe Johnson (most under appreciated player in the league)

Where do you buttholes weigh in?

[edfmx86]

Dwight Howard is a top 10 player in this league, no doubt.

[Racer X]

Dwight Howard is a top 10 player in this league, no doubt.

I dont know if I can put him there. I watched the Boston game over the weekend, and he still has no offensive moves. I cannot put a guy in the Top 10 when his team does not go to him for big buckets.

[dr0welf]

Carmelo Anthony is better then Joe Johnson and many others on that list. Also you have Chris Bosh. I would even put Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan in their veteran years above Joe Johnson.

I would put
1) Lebron
2) Kobe
3) Anthony
4) Wade
5) Howard (Defensive BEAST)
6) Durant
7) D Will
8) Chris Paul
9 & 10) Bosh, Roy, Duncan, Nowitzki, Nash, Garnett ** any of these could definately be in it

[Sloanfeld]

Carmelo Anthony is better then Joe Johnson and many others on that list. Also you have Chris Bosh. I would even put Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan in their veteran years above Joe Johnson.

I would put
1) Lebron
2) Kobe
3) Anthony
4) Wade
5) Howard (Defensive BEAST)
6) Durant
7) D Will
8) Chris Paul
9 & 10) Bosh, Roy, Duncan, Nowitzki, Nash, Garnett ** any of these could definately be in it

I like your list better. Dork is definitely there, hard not to include Roy or Bosh either.

[edfmx86]

i think the only guy i'd take before Dwight is LBJ, big men win championships and Dwight eventually will.

[DRose4MVP]

1. Lebron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Dwyane Wade
5. Kobe Bryant
6. Chris Bosh
7. Deron Williams
8. Chris Paul
9. Joe Johnson
10. Brandon Roy

I'm also very hesitant to put Dwight Howard on my top 10 list. The guy is a freak of nature, the most athletic big man I have ever seen, but he hasn't developed a go to post move and he is playing in his 6th season. That's pathetic.

[drivewayball]

Incredible homerism. DWill is not even in CPaul's league in efficiency ... and if you are a better player, you ought to be able put up better numbers.

On that note, here is a list of the efficiency ratings for the league at this moment. These numbers take into account shooting percentage, scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, turnovers ... everything statistically measurable. If you are going to have an objective list of top players, you pretty much have to start with this list. If you disregard certain player's numbers, you should probably have a pretty concrete reason for doing so. For example, no one credits D. Lee for being any good - he's just putting up numbers because his team is so lousy. I guess the same goes for Boozer.

1 James 2 Paul 3 bosh 4 durant 5 lee 6 duncan 7 gasol 8 howard 9 boozer 10 anthony 11 nowitski 12 wade 13 randolph 14 wallace 15 bryant 16 nash 17 lopez 18 dwill 19 m gasol 20 stoudemire

[dr0welf]

Incredible homerism. DWill is not even in CPaul's league in efficiency ... and if you are a better player, you ought to be able put up better numbers.

On that note, here is a list of the efficiency ratings for the league at this moment. These numbers take into account shooting percentage, scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, turnovers ... everything statistically measurable. If you are going to have an objective list of top players, you pretty much have to start with this list. If you disregard certain player's numbers, you should probably have a pretty concrete reason for doing so. For example, no one credits D. Lee for being any good - he's just putting up numbers because his team is so lousy. I guess the same goes for Boozer.

1 James 2 Paul 3 bosh 4 durant 5 lee 6 duncan 7 gasol 8 howard 9 boozer 10 anthony 11 nowitski 12 wade 13 randolph 14 wallace 15 bryant 16 nash 17 lopez 18 dwill 19 m gasol 20 stoudemire

This would be a great list of the most selfish players in the league. And this is a Jazz board so it will have some "homerism" but even so, I would still take Dwill over Paul. He does a lot of stuff that doesn't show in stats. Like assist the assist. In the Jazz system we run great when everyone is passing the ball well. Being the #1 team in assist to basket ratio shows that we have leader that directs the traffic.

I gaurantee if their was a draft it would not go in the order of your efficiency rating.

[Racer X]

Not having Melo was a mistake on my part.

No Bosh, too much of defensive liability.

People need to start to take notice of the way CP3 plays and how that inflates his stats. For instance Steph Curry just had a 36 pt 13 Asst 10 Reb game. Curry's triple-double was the league's first rookie triple-double that included 30 points since Kevin Johnson did it for Phoenix in 1988. But not a single person batted an eyelash. Why? Because he plays for Golden State and the way they play inflates players stats. CP3 is similary in that the ball rarely leaves his hands and his offense is built for him to dribble around until someone is open or he gets a shot. Hes still a great player, but to say he is the 2nd best player in the league, especially how poor his on ball defense is just not true.

[erudite23]

Its homerism of the highest order to say that Deron is better than Paul. The most we could say is that DWill is on the same level and in the argument. I personally think CP is clearly a notch above him. Here's my list:

LeBron
Wade
Dwight
Kobe
Paul
Bosh
Dirk
Durant
Deron
Carmelo

And if efficiency stats meant anything, then why would they say that Carlos is better than Deron, when everyone who has ever actually watched this team knows better?

I think that, right now, among the top 25 guys Deron Williams is the foremost player in the NBA whose stats do not capture his value to a team.

I barely put him in the top 10, though, and you could easily bump him down by putting Melo ahead of him or Duncan.

Saying that Bosh isn't in the top 10 is absurd. So is saying he's a defensive liability. He was the best defender in the world during the Olympics. While he doesn't bring the same energy to his NBA game, he's certainly no slouch.

As for Dwight...I don't even know what to say. He's the focal point of one of the best defenses in the NBA on a team that doesn't have ONE single good defender in the starting lineup outside of himself. His impact on the game defensively is every bit that of LeBron's on offense. No list is complete without those two players.

[drivewayball]

But you have to make note ... have the Jazz played worse basketball when DWill has been out of the lineup? I can't sight an instance in which they have played more poorly.

[GP]

1) LeBron
2) Durant
3) Wade
4) Kobe
5) Brandon Roy
6) CP
7) DW
8) Dirk
9) Bosh
10) Joe Johnson

I agree, its close, but CP3 is the better pg, as much as I love DW. Also if you are going to discuss intangibles for DW, CP3 also gets "assists of assists", has leadership qualities...etc. If the draft was done over again, I think the jazz would draft CP3.

[hoops4life]

If Paul's injuries continue to stack up, I would have no problem putting Deron above him.

Howard is difficult. Shaq was dominating and he was still pretty raw. There is no reason why Dwight can't be more dominate.

I don't consider Bosh a top ten.

[BadabimBadabum]

1) Kobe
2) Lebron
3) Wade
4) Durant
5) CP3
6) Howard
7) Nowitzki
8) Carmelo
9) Nash
10) Bosh

Also i thought about AI, Roy, D-Will. But top ten is certain .

Note: Kob is first because, i hated Lebron . Lebron is most talented but i can't put him to the first.

[DelaneyRudd]

1) LeBron James
2) Kevin Durant
3) Dwayne Wade
4) Kobe Bryant
5) Chris Bosh
6) Deron Williams
7) Chris Paul
8) Dirk Nowitzki
9) Carmelo Anthony
10) Dwight Howard

This is in no particular order.

[edfmx86]

1. Lebron James
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Dwight Howard
4. Dwayne Wade
5. Chris Paul
6. Kevin Durant
7. Carmelo Anthony
8. Deron Williams
9. Dirk Nowitzki
10. Brandon Roy

i never get the Bosh hype to be honest.

[carrottop12]

1. Bron
2. Kobe
3. Wade
4. Howard
5. Durant
6. Dirk
7. Deron
8. Paul
9. Roy
10. Gasol

It's hard to leave Duncan off the list but his team just isn't winning enough games with Tony, Many and RJ for me to think he's as good as he used to be.