Top Franchise Players of RealGM

[sabonis]

I don't know if this had been done before, if yes, I'm sorry for the garbage thread. if not here is the case:

if you want to win a championship next year and you have the opportunity to grab any player in the league as your franchise player to start building your roster, which 15 guys do you pick in order? (barring any injuries, since Kobe is injured but we will think he will return 100%, same as Rose)

we'll go ahead an average each of the players ranks and determine the order of the top 10 players in the NBA.

Here is mine:

1) Lebron James
2) Kobe
3) Durant
4) Dwight Howard
5) Curry
6) Irving
7) Carmelo Anthony
8) Chris Paul
9) Deron Williams
10) Rose (him missing the whole season really bugged me, otherwise he could have been #5 or 6)

as you noticed the real point guards are at the bottom for me since I don't believe real point guards are essential for success.

[GSP]

Lebron
Kd
Dwight
Cp3
Curry
Love
Harden
Rose
Kobe
Lma (i think he will bounce back in a big way)

[HeartBreakKid]

I don't know if this had been done before, if yes, I'm sorry for the garbage thread. if not here is the case:

if you want to win a championship next year and you have the opportunity to grab any player in the league as your franchise player to start building your roster, which 15 guys do you pick in order? (barring any injuries, since Kobe is injured but we will think he will return 100%, same as Rose)

we'll go ahead an average each of the players ranks and determine the order of the top 10 players in the NBA.

Here is mine:

1) Lebron James
2) Kobe
3) Durant
4) Dwight Howard
5) Curry
6) Irving
7) Carmelo Anthony
8) Chris Paul
9) Deron Williams
10) Rose (him missing the whole season really bugged me, otherwise he could have been #5 or 6)

as you noticed the real point guards are at the bottom for me since I don't believe real point guards are essential for success.

Kyrie Irving? The hell?

[Dr Positivity]

1. Lebron
2. Durant
3. Paul
4. Harden
5. Rose
6. Marc Gasol
7. Parker
8. Wade
9. Deron
10. DIRK
11. Curry
12. George
13. Duncan
14. Melo
15. Noah

[2Chainz]

1. Lebron
2. Rose
3. Westbrook
4. Durant
5. Anthony
6. Wade
7. CP3
8. Gasol
9. Parker
10. Harden

[sabonis]

Kyrie Irving? The hell?

don't know man I think he can even be better than Rose, once he gets non-scrub teammates. but #6 could be high.

[Sasaki]

Deron Williams and Irving over Harden? What?

[sabonis]

instead of just commenting on other people's decisions, you guys should put down your own.

and I do think Harden is a bit overrated when it comes to 'franchise player' title. he is not really that efficient. and I really do love Irving. and Deron when healthy is just a beast.

[Woodsanity]

1) Lebron
2) Durant
3) CP3
4) Dwight(healthy)
5) Paul George
6) Marc Gasol
7) Tony Parker
8) Wade
9) Dirk
10) Harden

[BattleTested]

1. Lebron
2. Durant
3. Dwight
4. CP3
5. Kobe
6. Curry
7. Harden
8. Parker
9. Marc Gasol
10. Carmelo

[Jory04]

1. Lebron
2. Durant
3. Rose
4. Duncan
5. Marc Gasol
6. George
7. Kobe
8. Curry
9. Love
10. Westbrook
11. Carmelo
12. Dwight

[Andre3822]

You said barring any injuries and put Kobe on 2# then bring up the fact that Rose missed a whole year dropping him down your list.

[sabonis]

it has nothing to do with his injury, him not returning just shows a huge lack of competitive spirit, leadership and mental strength.

[john248]

1. Lebron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Chris Paul
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Dwight Howard
6. Stephan Curry
7. Marc Gasol
8. Tony Parker
9. Carmelo Anthony
10. Russell Westbrook
11. Derrick Rose
12. James Harden
13. Dwayne Wade
14. Dirk Nowitzki
15. Kevin Love

[NaturalThunder]

1.) LeBron
2.) Durant
3.) Chris Paul
4.) Dwight
5.) Rose
6.) Westbrook
7.) Marc Gasol (think he really takes "the leap" next year)
8.) Kobe
9.) Curry
10.) Carmelo
11.) Dirk
12.) Harden

It gets kind of murky for me after the top 2. LeBron and Durant are no-brainers and extremely easy to build-around. You can put the ball in LeBron's hands and he can get others involved while scoring at a good volume at an extremely efficient clip. Durant's the ultimate portable player. Not on the same level as LeBron as a ball-handler and playmaker, but still decent in that regard, and he plays off the ball extremely well. Can also score very efficiently at a high clip without always having the ball in his hand.

Assuming no one is injured, and/or back to 100%, I think there's a clear #2 tier with Chris Paul and Howard. I just can't put Kobe at that level anymore, even at 100%. I know his numbers were very good this year, but he's just not the same in his ability to raise the level of his team; not to the same extent as LeBron and Durant.

And really, you could make a good case for any of my 3-12 guys being ranked higher. It depends on your personal philosophy (win with bigs or win with guards) and how you want to construct your roster as a whole.

[therealbig3]

Thread kind of asks two different questions...the top 10 players as of right now are different than the top 10 players I would build a franchise around going forward. Guys like D-Will, Kobe, and maybe Melo would make my top 10 list as of right now, but I don't think they'd be on it going forward (I'd take Irving going forward easily over all three of them). Heck, I might take Irving #1 overall...actually no, I would take Durant #1, but Irving would be #2.

My top 10 franchise players going forward:

1. Durant
2. Irving
3. LeBron (he's still got another 5+ years of MVP-level play)
4. Curry
5. Harden (this is close, but I think Curry has a higher ceiling...bigger injury risk though)
6. Westbrook
7. Davis
8. Lillard
9. Griffin
10. Rose (I'm just really unsure of how he'll bounce back)

[sp6r=underrated]

Realbig3,

Could you explain why you would take Irving over Lebron? Do you think Irving is about to make a massive leap like Paul did in 08 and that Lebron is ready to go into significant decline? Is this a salary thing?

You're a smart guy and I learn reading your stuff so I'm pretty shocked you would take Irving

[NinjaSheppard]

Davis at 7 is ridiculously too low.

The Hornets would laugh at a Curry for Davis offer

[therealbig3]

Realbig3,

Could you explain why you would take Irving over Lebron? Do you think Irving is about to make a massive leap like Paul did in 08 and that Lebron is ready to go into significant decline? Is this a salary thing?

You're a smart guy and I learn reading your stuff so I'm pretty shocked you would take Irving

I do think Irving is ready for a big leap, he just needs to stay healthy, and he's still ridiculously young (only 21 IIRC). He's already a top 5 PG (again, when healthy), and he's got the skills to be an MVP-level player.

I'm probably underrating LeBron though and probably underrating the value of a super-high peak in general in comparison to longevity. I see LeBron staying at this current level for maybe another 2-3 years, and then gradually falling off. So he would still be a ridiculously good player for the next 5-6 years, but Irving is about to hit superstardom and stay there for another 10 years at least.

Davis at 7 is ridiculously too low.

The Hornets would laugh at a Curry for Davis offer

They probably would, but personally, Davis is still a "wait and see" for me. Similar to Irving, Curry is already a superstar and considering his skill set, is probably going to remain one for a while, he just needs to stay healthy.

[sabonis]

Thread kind of asks two different questions...the top 10 players as of right now are different than the top 10 players I would build a franchise around going forward. Guys like D-Will, Kobe, and maybe Melo would make my top 10 list as of right now, but I don't think they'd be on it going forward (I'd take Irving going forward easily over all three of them). Heck, I might take Irving #1 overall...actually no, I would take Durant #1, but Irving would be #2.

dude, I said "if you want to win a championship next year", how on earth is that not clear