do we have 2 of the top 10 players?

[Paeds]

You guys are such homers it's hilarious. Amar'e made one critical defensive play and now he "makes them when he has to" ? Sorry, fail. Comparing to Dirk is absurd, too. Even as a scorer Dirk is more versatile than Amar'e. Compare STAT now to Dirk five years ago for a better comparison. Dirk, hands down.

Last 7 games.......30+/6(yes,6 boards)/2/.8(yep, point 8). To me that screams scorer only. Lots of those guys and don't think having Melo hasn't made his life easier, too. Guy is playing huge minutes and taking a lot of shots.

The question is asking TODAY

Amare is a top 10 Player right now period

Amare is averaging more POINTS REBOUNDS and BLOCKS

Dirk is shooting with a far better efficiency (.624 vs. .574), his team has a far better record than the Knicks (47-18 vs. 34-30) and he averages more defensive rebounds (6.1 vs. 5.7) than Amar'e, then. and he plays PF while Amar'e plays C

http://bkref.com/tiny/4szAJ

LMAO@Reaching with Team Records & Center Position

Amare is shooting a MUCH better 3pt percentage

See how that works?

[RayFinkle]

Carmelo and Amare are clearly top ten NBA players.

[alphad0gz]

You call Amare one dimensional and he stuffs more in a stat sheet than Dirk. Why is Dirk so hands down better?

OK..I'll play. What team is better? What team relies on their star player to score more? I won't go into this over and over. I disagree.What Dirk does or doesn't do is not relevant. Amar'e is a superstar scorer and not much more. I won't hide that fact that I am not a fan of his and didn't want him. I think we could have won big with him and Melo IF we had a well rounded team, but we do not and we have no realistic means to getting one without being lucky. I don't believe in basing business decisions on luck.

James
Wade
Bryant
Melo
Durant
Howard
Rose
Griffin
Paul
Love
Westbrook
Dirk
E Gordon
Bosh (forget his numbers this year, he's a third option)
Aldridge

Some of those guys score less but contribute is other valuable ways. Value is very subjective and scoring is not necessarily the most important.
Ellis (not a fan, but....)

Williams

[RayFinkle]

My top ten in no particular order:

Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
Dwight Howard
Carmelo Anthony
Kevin Durant
Amare Stoudemire
Deron Williams
Dwayne Wade
Dirk Nowitzki
Derrick Rose.

[alphad0gz]

Amare is shooting a MUCH better 3pt percentage

Surely you are more intelligent than to really compare a guy who has a career 24.8% from three to a guy who has a 38+% from three, right? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here.......

[koogiking]

You call Amare one dimensional and he stuffs more in a stat sheet than Dirk. Why is Dirk so hands down better?

OK..I'll play. What team is better? What team relies on their star player to score more? I won't go into this over and over. I disagree.What Dirk does or doesn't do is not relevant. Amar'e is a superstar scorer and not much more. I won't hide that fact that I am not a fan of his and didn't want him. I think we could have won big with him and Melo IF we had a well rounded team, but we do not and we have no realistic means to getting one without being lucky. I don't believe in basing business decisions on luck.

James
Wade
Bryant
Melo
Durant
Howard
Rose
Griffin
Paul
Love
Westbrook
Dirk
E Gordon
Bosh (forget his numbers this year, he's a third option)
Aldridge

Some of those guys score less but contribute is other valuable ways. Value is very subjective and scoring is not necessarily the most important.
Ellis (not a fan, but....)

Williams

Are you serious? Eric Gordon, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin?

[RayFinkle]

Amare is shooting a MUCH better 3pt percentage

Surely you are more intelligent than to really compare a guy who has a career 24.8% from three to a guy who has a 38+% from three, right? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here.......

Dirk is a great, great player and a perennial MVP candidate, however, if you honestly can't admit that Amare is having a definitively better season than Dirk, than you're simply not being honest or objective. Amare is averaging 26.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.6 apg, and 2.0 bpg on 51.2% shooting from the field. Dirk is averaging 23.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, and 2.5 apg on 52.8% shooting from the field. I don't see how it's even remotely debatable.

[alphad0gz]

Are you serious? Eric Gordon, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin?

Dude, are you serious? Love is at 21/16/3 and has gotten better every single year. There is not a guy in the GM business that would pass on Amare for Griffin straight up... right now.

Why no love for Gordon? You look at his numbers? The guy is legit and would be really talked about if he wasn't on the Clips. Plug in Gallo for stat and Gordon for Fields and we are better.

[vergogna]

The question is asking TODAY

Amare is a top 10 Player right now period

Amare is averaging more POINTS REBOUNDS and BLOCKS

Dirk is shooting with a far better efficiency (.624 vs. .574), his team has a far better record than the Knicks (47-18 vs. 34-30) and he averages more defensive rebounds (6.1 vs. 5.7) than Amar'e, then. and he plays PF while Amar'e plays C

http://bkref.com/tiny/4szAJ

LMAO@Reaching with Team Records & Center Position

Amare is shooting a MUCH better 3pt percentage

See how that works?

this is how it works when you use a small data sample to disrupt an argument made of statistically significant data

58-136 from three (.426) is huge, 10-22 (.455) is enough to make this list: http://bkref.com/tiny/z8tkm


Team Record is somehow relevant when talking about the value of a player, otherwise Kevin Martin should be considered on the same level of Melo (http://bkref.com/tiny/2LULN - by they way, isn't Martin a little underrated?)

and blocks are heavily related to the center position (http://bkref.com/tiny/S3IMn), come on

The question is asking TODAY

Amare is a top 10 Player right now period

Amare is averaging more POINTS REBOUNDS and BLOCKS

Dirk is shooting with a far better efficiency (.624 vs. .574), his team has a far better record than the Knicks (47-18 vs. 34-30) and he averages more defensive rebounds (6.1 vs. 5.7) than Amar'e, then. and he plays PF while Amar'e plays C

http://bkref.com/tiny/4szAJ

Why do you want to limit it to defensive rebounds and not just total rebounds? Also, the difference between 6.1 and 5.7 is nothing.

also, obviously the Mavs have a better record. They are a better team. When you have players like Jason Terry and Shawn Marion and Brenden Haywood coming off the bench, you are going to be a great team. Their team is stacked.

Dirk plays on the perimeter and Amar'e goes inside more often, this prevents a fair comparison (and that difference is nothing, I agree)
Dirk does also share defensive rebounds with Chandler (6.7 drb), but this is minor

[J0rdan4life42o]

[quote="alphad0gz"]You guys are such homers it's hilarious. Amar'e made one critical defensive play and now he "makes them when he has to" ? Sorry, fail. Comparing to Dirk is absurd, too. Even as a scorer Dirk is more versatile than Amar'e. Compare STAT now to Dirk five years ago for a better comparison. Dirk, hands down.

Dude, what are you talking about? Off the top of my head, I remember the opener Vs Toronto, Amare had a key block down the stretch in the 4th on Bargs...the very next game he had a big time block Vs Boston against Rondo in the final minute...was a loss but still a big play that kept NY in the game...then of course the Charlotte game where he had two HUGE game saving blocks on Jackson, one being a dunk attempt with less than a minute in the game. He had a big block on Rose in the Christmas game with like 2-3 minutes left when Chicago was still in it, down 6 or 7 points. Then of course, the block on LeBron... he's had a fair share of big time defensive plays this year that were crucial to wins or kept the team in the game... so are you just blind or do you just not watch many Knick games?

[MSGBallerz]

Lower top 10 or top 13-14 at worst.

[NY_Knicks]

Dude, what are you talking about? Off the top of my head, I remember the opener Vs Toronto, Amare had a key block down the stretch in the 4th on Bargs...the very next game he had a big time block Vs Boston against Rondo in the final minute...was a loss but still a big play that kept NY in the game...then of course the Charlotte game where he had two HUGE game saving blocks on Jackson, one being a dunk attempt with less than a minute in the game. He had a big block on Rose in the Christmas game with like 2-3 minutes left when Chicago was still in it, down 6 or 7 points. Then of course, the block on LeBron... he's had a fair share of big time defensive plays this year that were crucial to wins or kept the team in the game... so are you just blind or do you just not watch many Knick games?

Then someone can point to Amare's terrible defense in the middle of the second quarter against the Bobcats, the times he takes a step back to let his man in the post get a layup, the time he doesn't even try to defend because "he doesn't want to foul", etc.

Since when is an MVP candidate in the 12-15 range? Usually they're top five. Even if he's isn't playing at that level now did he drop that much?

Sorry but Amare isn't in the running for MVP anymore. Our record isn't good enough for him to win it. Just because MSG chants "MVP" for him doesn't mean he's still a MVP candidate.

[J0rdan4life42o]

Dude, what are you talking about? Off the top of my head, I remember the opener Vs Toronto, Amare had a key block down the stretch in the 4th on Bargs...the very next game he had a big time block Vs Boston against Rondo in the final minute...was a loss but still a big play that kept NY in the game...then of course the Charlotte game where he had two HUGE game saving blocks on Jackson, one being a dunk attempt with less than a minute in the game. He had a big block on Rose in the Christmas game with like 2-3 minutes left when Chicago was still in it, down 6 or 7 points. Then of course, the block on LeBron... he's had a fair share of big time defensive plays this year that were crucial to wins or kept the team in the game... so are you just blind or do you just not watch many Knick games?

Then someone can point to Amare's terrible defense in the middle of the second quarter against the Bobcats, the times he takes a step back to let his man in the post get a layup, the time he doesn't even try to defend because "he doesn't want to foul", etc.

Sure, he's had lapses like ALL players do...but the point is Amare stepping it up defensively down the stretch when the game is on the line was put into question, saying he's only done it once...well, that's been proven false...that was the point I was addressing. And what relevance does Amare, the only legit go-to scorer at the time, trying to stay out of foul trouble in the 2nd quarter have to do with him stepping up defensively down the stretch of games?

[NY_Knicks]

Sure, he's had lapses like ALL players do...but the point is Amare stepping it up defensively down the stretch when the game is on the line was put into question, saying he's only done it once...well, that's been proven false...that was the point I was addressing. And what relevance does Amare, the only legit go-to scorer at the time, trying to stay out of foul trouble in the 2nd quarter have to do with him stepping up defensively down the stretch of games?

Except Amare has lapses a lot more than other players. There's times where he just quits on defense and lets his guy grab a rebound or get a layup. He's still a poor defender. Just because he has some "clutch" defensive plays doesn't make up for the fact he's very bad at other times in the game. And the relevance is that Amare is a poor defender. You can defend without fouling, but Amare doesn't know how to do that. That would make him a bad defender.

[RaZzMaTaZz]

I really don't understand why some posters in here hate Amare it is very mind boggling. w/o this man in the first half of the season Knicks would have been bottom dwellers in the east He has carried this franchised behind his back. THAT ALONE MAKES HIM A TOP 10 PLAYER. smh at some of you.

[J0rdan4life42o]

Sure, he's had lapses like ALL players do...but the point is Amare stepping it up defensively down the stretch when the game is on the line was put into question, saying he's only done it once...well, that's been proven false...that was the point I was addressing. And what relevance does Amare, the only legit go-to scorer at the time, trying to stay out of foul trouble in the 2nd quarter have to do with him stepping up defensively down the stretch of games?

Except Amare has lapses a lot more than other players. There's times where he just quits on defense and lets his guy grab a rebound or get a layup. He's still a poor defender. Just because he has some "clutch" defensive plays doesn't make up for the fact he's very bad at other times in the game. And the relevance is that Amare is a poor defender. You can defend without fouling, but Amare doesn't know how to do that. That would make him a bad defender.

"Has lapses a lot more than other players" - is that really your stance...I mean do you expect anyone to side with that sort of argument that really holds no basis unless you have some statistical formula that led you to that conclusion...I've watched every Knick game, and I have yet to go see him "quit" on anything...and what are you basing Amare having more lapses than other players. Do you honestly have any clue how many blown defensive assignments Durant or Dirk or Rose have had this year? You don't so don't make silly comments like "Amare has lapses a lot more than other players".... and again, I was addressing the point that Amare does in fact come up witth clutch defensive plays, I'm not here defending Amare for playing defense for a full 48 minutes.

[NY_Knicks]

"Has lapses a lot more than other players" - is that really your stance...I mean do you expect anyone to side with that sort of argument that really holds no basis unless you have some statistical formula that led you to that conclusion...I've watched every Knick game, and I have yet to go see him "quit" on anything...and what are you basing Amare having more lapses than other players. Do you honestly have any clue how many blown defensive assignments Durant or Dirk or Rose have had this year? You don't so don't make silly comments like "Amare has lapses a lot more than other players".... and again, I was addressing the point that Amare does in fact come up witth clutch defensive plays, I'm not here defending Amare for playing defense for a full 48 minutes.

lol terrible defense. You watch a lot of Knicks games, yet my statement is a joke? Maybe you should watch Amare on defense a bit more.

[Paeds]

Amare is shooting a MUCH better 3pt percentage

Surely you are more intelligent than to really compare a guy who has a career 24.8% from three to a guy who has a 38+% from three, right? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here.......

And past performance does not mean it will be repeated in the future


Amare is playing better than Dirk THIS year and is a top 10 player

[J0rdan4life42o]

"Has lapses a lot more than other players" - is that really your stance...I mean do you expect anyone to side with that sort of argument that really holds no basis unless you have some statistical formula that led you to that conclusion...I've watched every Knick game, and I have yet to go see him "quit" on anything...and what are you basing Amare having more lapses than other players. Do you honestly have any clue how many blown defensive assignments Durant or Dirk or Rose have had this year? You don't so don't make silly comments like "Amare has lapses a lot more than other players".... and again, I was addressing the point that Amare does in fact come up witth clutch defensive plays, I'm not here defending Amare for playing defense for a full 48 minutes.

lol terrible defense. You watch a lot of Knicks games, yet my statement is a joke? Maybe you should watch Amare on defense a bit more.

Terrible defense? Not really. The fact is, I have watched every Knick game this season while I highly doubt you've watched every game of those other players who you had in mind when stating they don't have as many lapses as Amare...

And for the 3rd time and final time, I am not crowning Amare as a player who defends for an entire game...he doesn't, few players do...but he brings it in crunch time on defense and I've shown a handful of games that prove that. I really don't know what you're trying to do here? No, Amare isn't a great defensive player, quite mediocre, but he does step it up several notches in crunch time in close games...compound that with his leadership, diverse offensive arsenal and being a go-to scorer in 4th quarters and it easily puts him in the top 10 this year. Easily.

[Joseph17]

1. Lebron
2. Dwight
3. Wade
4. Kobe
5. Dirk
6. Durant
7. Melo
8. Rose
9. Amare
10. Deron