Section126's Top 50 Current NBA Players.

Ron artest has no business in the top 50 anymore. Give Marc Gasol his spot.

 

Called Tyreke Evans. A shame Blake Griffin couldn't play this year. Also, I love Durant and Westbrook. Thunder fans are lucky.

 

Artest is shooting 42% this year and cant stay healthy. Gasol is a double double machine who is quickly becoming as good as his brother. Hes averaging close to two blocks a game, among the league leaders in FG%...he blows Artest out of the water in almost any stat you want to pick at. There is no comparison..artest is in there on reputation alone.

 

Section thank you noticing Andrew Boguts much improved play this year.

Mo Williams should be moved way down, Tyreke Evans and Steph Curry are already better players, and Mayo will be there soon.

 

yeah Memphis suddenly morphed in to a good team because Zach Randolph is a good defender and does all the dirty work. Artest is still a good defender but his offensive game right now is a notch above Bruce bowen status. Gasol over artest every time at this point in their careers.

 

agreed. I have Evans and curry in keeper leagues....they are serious problems for defenses who will be stars for years to come.

 

The only teams that Gasol has struggled at against are Charlotte (1 game), Dallas (2 games), The Lakers (3games), and Utah (2 games). Against everyone the team in the league he is either close to, at, or above he is season averages. Against Denver, SAS, Boston, Orlando, Atlanta and some of the other top teams hes done just fine. And one thing I like about him is that his defense stats dont really vary vs anyone. You may not be a fan but you dont give him any credit. Hes the second best player after Rudy Gay on that team and hes the player who allows Zach Randolph to get away with still not playing much D.

 

He wasnt awful last year, he averaged 12-7 as a rookie. Now as a 2nd year guy hes up to 15/10/2 and leading the league in FG%. Youll see

 

being a Homer here but i think Darrren Collison should/could be. It all depends what NO does with CP3

 

Not really suprised with Willams over Paul. He's been sensational. Did you consider Rondo over Paul, too?

 

kevin durant below howard. how dare you sir. how dare you.

 

That is a good point. Durant was not very good in the playoffs. You might think the same of Dwight, but foul trouble did him in.

Great job, btw. Love these lists.

 

Id still take Howard because of the fact he affects the game in so many ways and there's so few good centers. His defensive prowess combined with the scarcity of the center position makes Howard one of the top 5 players in the league and one of the top 5 players I would want to start a franchise around.

The Williams/Paul argument makes sense from both standpoints but if not for Paul's injuries I would still take CP because hes a better jump shooter and he plays the passing lanes phenomenally well much like Rondo. Those are the biggest differences between the two players that I see and both favor Paul. Because of Paul's injuries this year though I can understand why someone would take Williams

 

I think I would actually flip Nash and Billups at this point. Nash has upped his scoring to a different level assuming a role there and defensively he was previously unwilling to do.

David West and Pau Gasol should be flipped. Gasol had the better year in a big way. West is a two trick pony (points and rebs) who just doesnt affect the game on the defensive end. Gasol does everything West does except better.

Drop Tayshaun Prince for the love of God and add Marc Gasol. Do you do this just to annoy me

Josh Smith over Antawn Jamison should also be a no brainer. Jamison is not a 2nd option on a championship team. He's a #2 option on a bad team and he takes a lot of poor shots.

 

Please remove Al Jefferson. He can't play defense and is pretty much average. Brook Lopez is way better than Jefferson.

 

I'm not sure I would remove Jefferson but Id put Lopez where he is and put Jefferson where Lopez is. jefferson is still only a year removed from a serious knee injury and lacks any kind of supporting cast so I give him a partial pass.

BTW in other news the Ricky Rubio rumors are starting up again as his team won the euroleague championship and the T-Wolves may be looking to sell high...this is as good a spot as any since we dont get many good nba threads :

Ricky Rubio led FC Barcelona to the Euroleague crown on Sunday over Olympiakos, increasing his NBA stock in the process.
The Timberwovles could be forced to trade Rubio, who has been spending time in the weight room for the first time in his life. The Wolves have said they don't want to trade the young point guard, but as long as his value keeps climbing, offers could start rolling in.
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

 

I agree with the swap but Jefferson really cant play defense at all. He is soft.

Rubio is gone if we get the number 1 pick.

 

smith affects the game on both ends of the court though and his offensive game made huge strides once he realized he's not a three point shooter. Offensively jamison is slightly better but smith is an all nba quality defender and jamison has never seen the defensive side of half court.

As for pau vs west...pau is soft but he affects the game in multiple ways. He shoots an extremely high percentage as he did pre la. Difference is west is not a good defender.

Nash vs billups...I think nash took that slot the second half of the year when he played great. I mean he is playing maybe the best ball of his career.

 

Isn't Yao retired?

 

Nope. He is all taped up though.

 

I still stand by my statement that compared to the 90s, the talent level is really lacking, and these playoffs are proof positive. Look at the Cavaliers. LeBron + Aging Shaq + Scrubs = suck. Celtics? Over the hill players who have a Shaq-like mentality when it comes to the NBA, which is only play good basketball in the playoffs, but they're a severely flawed team that's gotten to where it they have largely thanks to the play of their point guard. Out west the Lakers are also a severely flawed team, but I have to give Kobe credit that at least he plays hard all year round. The Suns beat an old Spurs team that finally ran out of gas but are now losing to the Lakers.

There's Kobe who plays like a Jordan-lite, he's definitely in a level above everyone else. I don't even like the guy, but as a player, I've come to respect his game. Wade plays like Kobe but needs to be motivated to do so. Otherwise he's happy jacking up jumpshots when the games don't count. He's at his best when he attacks the basket and he knows this, but why risk injury when you're playing with garbage? I think LeBron realized this as well and is going to be buying his time. I don't think it's easy to compare LeBron and Wade as #2 and #3 because their games are totally different, but they're both in a level above everyone else but a step below Kobe. Kevin Durant seems to be catching up, he grew up alot this year but he still got a ways to go, but I think eventually he's going to be competing for MVP in the next coming seasons. Bosh and Stoudemire are easily the two best bigmen, with Gasol and Nowitzki as the best shooting bigmen.

Now the best center is no doubt Dwight Howard...but who else? This to me is the biggest flaw in the NBA right now, no dominant big men at all. Howard has shot-blocking ability, but that should be natural being he's just under 7 ft. He doesn't bring much else to the game. As long as he plays soft, he will be exposed by smaller but more powerful PFs and Cs. In the 80s and 90s, you had Shaq, Zo, Hakeem, Mutombo, Ewing, Dominique Wilkins, Charles Oakley, Divac, Sabonis, Rik Smits, Rony Seikaly, Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley....We have today...Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Glen Davis(bench), Kendrick Perkins, Zack Randolf, Jermaine O'Neal, Yao Ming...I mean come on, its no contest.

Point Guards? Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, Derrick Fisher, Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Nate Robinson, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose are all pretty good, but compared to Gary Payton, Derrick Armstrong, Avery Johnson, Tim Hardaway, John Stockton, Ron Harper, Greg Anthony, Mark Jackson, Charlie Ward, Chris Childs, Penny Hardaway(when healthy) ect I'd argue were a much better class overall.

As a whole, the NBA right now has 1 all-world player, 2 elite players, 5 above average players, and the rest are average role players. Pretty sad. But I still watch, and I love my Miami Heat, even when they're not winning.

 

Dwight Howard isn't 7 ft tall, let alone over it.

 

6'11 mr. smarty pants

 

I agreed and disagreed with parts of this but when we get to the PG's specifically I think its pretty clear that Paul, Deron Williams, Nash, Billups, Rose, Tony Parker, Stephen curry, Rajon Rondo, Andre Miller, Baron Davis, Jason Kidd, Brandon Jennings, etc make this an absolute golden age for PG's. That doesnt even include some of the combo guards like Wade, Tyreke Evans, Joe Johnson, and Monta Ellis who routinely lead their teams in assists and are the primary ball handlers for their teams. After Stockton, Jackson, Penny, Payton, Derek Harper, and Hardaway there's not a single point guard in the 90's who can hang with any of those players I listed from these past few years. I've been a Knick fan my whole life and at no point would I say Chris Childs or Charlie Ward could even hold a candle to any of those guys. As a matter they were part of what held those Knicks teams back because for all their toughness on defense they were very inconsistent (to be kind) on offense. Ive followed the NBA since I was a kid and I have never seen a generation of PG's like this. What this generation lacks in big men, and to be clear it does lack there, there may not have been as many good PG's at any point in NBA history as there are right now in the NBA.

 

it should look like this :

Kobe Bryant

Dwayne Wade
Lebron James

kobe still the best player in the league, with all the injuries he played through this year including a broken finger on his index finger on his freakin shooting hand, james is a choker for the 3rd year in a row, also you have to drop Amare "NO D" Stoudamire a notch and Pau Gasol needs to be way higher

 

Amare is horrible, soft as Butter. You put a body on him and he can't do ****.

 

thanks