name your top 5 nba players.yes 5

[t-wizzle]

1. Kobe Bryant
2. Dwyane Wade
3. Lebron James
4. Derrick Rose
5. Kevin Durant

Bryant stays number one until Lebron proves he can win a championship in which case it's between him and Wade for the top spot.

[305GURU]

Lebron
Kobe
Rose
Wade
Howard
Durant

Tough to put them in order, but heres my top six players....melo and novitski in top ten

[MarlinsFan2212]

Overall-
Lebron- Most talented, explosive , best all around player in the NBA. Needs a mid-range
Dwight Howard- When D12 is on your team, you are always considered a contender. Defensive MVP, offensive mismatch for any center.
Durant- Best pure scorer in the NBA. Lethal from anywhere.
Rose- Does the most with the least. Boozer, Deng, Noah all very overrated. All a product of the most explosive PG in the NBA.
Kobe-Still got it. What he lacks in athleticism now, he makes up for w/ IQ. Best arsenal of moves.

By Position.
PG-Rose/ Paul/ Westbrook/Williams/Rondo
SG-Kobe/Wade/Ellis/Harden/Ginoblli
SF-Lebron/Durant/Melo/Iggy/Batum
PF-Aldridge/Love/Griffin/Millsap/Gasol
C-Howard/Bynum/M Gasol/Chandler/Hibbert

[LUNT101]

Regardless of who is a "winner" "clutch" or whatever... SKILLWISE only.... which I think this thread is asking for...

1. LeBron James -- you really can't argue this. nightly triple-double threat who plays lock down D.
2. Kobe Bryant -- been doing it twice as long as any of these other cats and still going strong
3. Kevin Durant -- might be best pure scorer in the game right now.. also improving in other areas, career high in rebounds, assists and blocks
4. Derrick Rose -- other then LBJ, nobody can get to the rim quicker and harder than the reigning MVP
5. Dwayne Wade

Honorable mentions
Dwight Howard -- Dominant force defensively, but too inconsistent for me, he is good for a clunker every 5 or 6 games.

[hessy1225]

1) LeBron
2) Kobe
3) Durant
4) Wade
5) Paul or D-Rose

[deadphish]

how can u put lin in a top 10 list? way to early. i wouldnt even put him in a top 50 until he plays a full season with consistency.

[HoulihansTX]

Derek Fisher
Dampier
Ron Artest
Brain Scalabrine
Kwame Brown

[SparJMU]

I guess it all depends on how you define "best in the league". Would you rather have a regular season stat machine, or playoff leader?

If the latter is the case, how in the world is Lebron James making a single list? Regular season? Fine. Playoffs? How dare you!!

Did anyone here actually watch the Finals last year? Nowitzki, Wade, and Jason Terry all outplayed Lebron. He is completely ineffective in the fourth quarter, why would you want someone like that on your team?

[HoulihansTX]

Johan Petro
Hamed Haddadi
Hasheem Thabeet
Luke Walton
Sebastian Telfair

[SparJMU]

If the playoffs started tomorrow, and NBA coaches held a draft, the top five picks would be in this order:

Kobe
Durant
Paul
Wade
Howard or Rose

[dlunc3]

If the playoffs started tomorrow, and NBA coaches held a draft, the top five picks would be in this order:

Kobe
Durant
Paul
Wade
Howard or Rose

Considering that lebrons player EFF goes up in the post season, and kobes goes down?

lebron has been great in the postseason yet you wanna gauge off of one bad series... you people are clueless


Why would they want rose? he was awful last yr vs miami since you wanna judge off of one series

[jmonkres]

Dirk
Lebron
Rose
Dwight
Aldridge

[3PtShooter]

Tskitishvili

scalabrine

rubio

milicic

scola

[zsr]

Funny thing is if Lin does anything close to what he did his first 7 games the rest of the season he's probably top 15. Unreal numbers and PER, especially considering the garbage around him.

[d2bets]

If the playoffs started tomorrow, and NBA coaches held a draft, the top five picks would be in this order:

Kobe
Durant
Paul
Wade
Howard or Rose

When you say "draft" - are we talking career or just going forward, and then are we considering salaries? If we're starting a team for the future, I wouldn't take Kobe since he's already got 16 years under his belt. Guys like Rose and Durant have probably 10+ years left. Kobe might have 2-4. Probably same for Wade too. So we have to clarify.

[blankoblanco]

i think everybody who's leaving howard out of their top 5 is underestimating what a gamechanger he is on D. doesn't always show up on the stat sheet but that guy single-handedly changes so many possessions and shots that it's ridiculous. guy is top 5 no question, especially if you're talking about players i want to build a team with

[zsr]

i think everybody who's leaving howard out of their top 5 is underestimating what a gamechanger he is on D. doesn't always show up on the stat sheet but that guy single-handedly changes so many possessions and shots that it's ridiculous. guy is top 5 no question, especially if you're talking about players i want to build a team with

Agreed. I don't think there's any debate he's by far the most dominant player in the league just because there's no big capable of even slowing him down, and like you said his dominance on the defensive end is often overlooked.

[flyingillini]

Kendall Gill
Kenny Battle
Nick Anderson
Marcus Liberty
Stephen Bardo

[Tree Rollins]

Considering that lebrons player EFF goes up in the post season, and kobes goes down? lebron has been great in the postseason yet you wanna gauge off of one bad series... you people are clueless Why would they want rose? he was awful last yr vs miami since you wanna judge off of one series

I would guess that these coaches were drafting to try and win a title. And you aren't going to win a title when your best player goes into panic mode in the 4th quarter of playoff games, and it gets worse in the Finals. As the stage gets bigger, Lebron gets mentally weaker. By the Finals he is a shell of himself, and in the 4th quarter of finals games he is damn near a liability on the court offensively.

[dlunc3]

I would guess that these coaches were drafting to try and win a title. And you aren't going to win a title when your best player goes into panic mode in the 4th quarter of playoff games, and it gets worse in the Finals. As the stage gets bigger, Lebron gets mentally weaker. By the Finals he is a shell of himself, and in the 4th quarter of finals games he is damn near a liability on the court offensively.

really? how was he in the 4th vs boston and chicago last yr? or all the playoff series he dominated in cleveland? sure the guy had a bad series in the finals. Lets judge him off one bad series over a career full of thousands of great games im sure thats what these great coaches would do

[zsr]

He had a bad series against the spurs in the finals in 07.

He quit against Boston when he was with Cleveland in game 5 when he had already emotionally checked out of Cleveland.

This isn't something new. He played well in the 4th against Boston and Chicago sure.

The finals was an absolute embarrassment to his career and the fact that your defending that is really strange.

[dngf]

Kobe Bryant 5 rings

Lebron James
Dwayne Wade
Dwight Howard
Kevin Durant

[dlunc3]

He had a bad series against the spurs in the finals in 07.

He quit against Boston when he was with Cleveland in game 5 when he had already emotionally checked out of Cleveland.

This isn't something new. He played well in the 4th against Boston and Chicago sure.

The finals was an absolute embarrassment to his career and the fact that your defending that is really strange.

He played fine in the finals vs that great defensive spurs team.

Kobe quit in a game 7 game vs the suns... whats the point? you cant judge a guy off one game or ever one series... saying any coach in the league would take 5 guys over lebron is absurd

[zsr]

He shot like 30% in that series against the spurs.

I'm just saying your trying to make it sound like oh it's one bad game, etc. It's not.

Of course he's one of the 5 best players in the league, even I wouldn't argue that lol.

[dlunc3]

He shot like 30% in that series against the spurs.

I'm just saying your trying to make it sound like oh it's one bad game, etc. It's not.

Of course he's one of the 5 best players in the league, even I wouldn't argue that lol.

He has been better in the post season then kobe. People act like kobe is the best postseason player ever and that lebron is the worst. Sure, put them on the same level, or even put kobe slightly ahead if you want. But its hilarious to hear that coaches would drool over kobe but wouldnt even want lebron on their team when fact is that lebron has been better.

[zsr]

Coaches would take Kobe in an NBA finals series because at least they know he won't be afraid of the pressure that comes with it. It wouldn't even be a debate.

This isn't one bad game. It's consistent. He's legitimately afraid of the pressure of the finals. It says even more that he's able to pick apart Boston and Chicago then just fall apart like he did, just like he did against the spurs.

He's a regular season stat stuffer so of course the Lebron fans will always win the stats argument. No debate there.

[dlunc3]

Post season stats:

PPG: Lebron 28
Kobe 25.4

Assists: Lebron 7
Kobe 4.8

Rebounds: Lebron 8.4
Kobe 5.1

FG%: Lebron 46%
Kobe 44.8%

Steals: Lebron 1.7
Kobe 1.4

PER: Lebron 26.3
Kobe 22.3


Can you please tell me how they are even close??? Let alone people saying Kobe is leagues ahead of lebron in the post season?? Its amazing how many people are clueless

[zsr]

It's amazing how clueless you are.

Finals stats.

Lebron 19 PPG at 41% shooting

Kobe 25 on 41% shooting

Please tell me how Lebron is better? Sure, Lebron will win you a first round series, enjoy that first round trophy

Just for comparison MJ 34 PPG on 48% shooting. Unreal how far ahead he is of everyone.

[dlunc3]

Jordan is by far better then all of them. But you basing Lebrons whole career on 10 games is outrageous. Ok you showed us that lebron and kobe both shot 41% (the same) but sure kobe averaged 6 points more.. how did all the other stats look? They both shot the same % but kobe took more shots. Obviously lebron had more assists and more rebounds. Again, this is only a 10 game span.

With postseason pressure as a whole, lebron has outperformed kobe.

Kobe has definataley been great, but all im trying to say is that lebron is in his league, when people are acting like he is postseason garbage and kobe is a post season god

[zsr]

I didn't even check the rebounding and assists.

Im guessing Lebron is something like 7 and 7 and Kobe is probably 5 and 5 or so. I'll check.

You posting those numbers just proved my point even more. It's amazing how he can dominate until he gets to the finals when the pressure is obviously the highest.

[dlunc3]

I didn't even check the rebounding and assists.

Im guessing Lebron is something like 7 and 7 and Kobe is probably 5 and 5 or so. I'll check.

You posting those numbers just proved my point even more. It's amazing how he can dominate until he gets to the finals when the pressure is obviously the highest.

its kinda tough to judge off just 10 games dont you think? he wasnt that bad vs a great defensive spurs team.. Last yr he def was awful, but I dont think judging him off 6 games is really a fair judgement. The pressure was high vs boston and chic last yr and he was dominant

[zsr]

He'll obviously, well probably, get more chances in the finals but its just amazing the difference in his play. Let's see what he does next time but all we have to go off of is what he's done in his 2 finals appearances, and it's clear the pressure of the finals gets to him.

But also I have to LOL at the people who want to compare Kobe to Jordan. There playoff numbers are so far apart it's not even funny. Wow.

[Romocide]

What does KLove have to do to get any props in here? The guy is definitely top 5. He is Karl Malone in a white man's body.

[dlunc3]

He'll obviously, well probably, get more chances in the finals but its just amazing the difference in his play. Let's see what he does next time but this is all we have to go off of is what he's done in his 2 finals appearances, and it's clear the pressure of the finals gets to him.

But also I have to LOL at the people who want to compare Kobe to Jordan. There playoff numbers are so far apart it's not even funny. Wow.

He better show up this yr... put 1k on them at +150... I will never defend him again if not haha

[dlunc3]

What does KLove have to do to get any props in here? The guy is definitely top 5. He is Karl Malone in a white man's body.

No doubt

Lebron
Dwight
Rose/Paul
Durrant
Love

Westbrook is very close... this time next yr he may be there