So last summer, when few frequent this board, ESPN did a ranking of all NBA players.

Here is their top 30 from last summer's rankings.


1.) LeBron James
2.) Dwight Howard
3.) Dwyane Wade
4.) Chris Paul
5.) Dirk Nowitzki
6.) Kevin Durant
7.) Kobe Bryant
8.) Derrick Rose
9.) Deron Williams
10.) Blake Griffin
11) Pau
12) Melo
13) Amar'e
14) Nash
15) Westbrook
16) K-Love
17) Rondo
18) Manu
19) Duncan
20) Zach Randolph
21) Paul Pierce
22) Garnett
23) Aldridge
24) Bosh
25) Al Horford
26) Marc Gasol
27) Rudy Gay
28) Tony Parker
29) Noah
30) Bynum

Blake and K-Love, too high. Bynum and Parker, too low.

You can also search by team: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7116977/nba-player-rankings-1




[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 5/16/2012 4:18p).]

LOL Amare 13th.

I'd say Amar'e at 13 is a lot worse than Kevin Love at 16.

The worst placements are Griffin and Stoudemire (too high) and Bynum, Rose, Love, and Parker (too low). Lots of players could move 1-3 spots one way or the other without much argument, but those 6 players are clearly out of place.

Maybe swap Love and Griffin, give Parker Stoudemire's spot and send Stoudemire to the D-League, put Rose in 3rd, slide Durant to 4th ahead of Chris Paul, and Bynum somewhere around 10th.


I'd be ok with sliding Griffin even farther down the list and moving Manu down a few spots but Duncan up a couple.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 5/16/2012 4:33p).]

Gives you an idea of how quickly player performance can change, from year-to-year.

Half the list that's below Blake's name belongs above him.

My comments are based on now, not last summer though.

After further review, I could see an argument for putting Love at about 5th (2nd in rebounding and 4th in scoring), but gaudy stats on a crappy team (otherwise known as the Elton Brand effect) don't always mean it's a great player

My opinion as of today:

1.) LeBron James
2.) Kevin Durant
3.) Dwight Howard
4.) Chris Paul
5.) Dwyane Wade
6.) Kevin Love
7.) Kobe Bryant
8.) Russell Westbrook
9.) Carmelo Anthony
10.) Derrick Rose*

Kobe way down at #7 is a bad joke.

Lebron
Durant
3-10 could be debated for days

Kobe is literally my favorite non-Houston player of all-time. His defense is what keeps him out of the top five. He doesn't have the quickness and agility he used to have. He'll show flashes, but nothing I've seen shows he can sustain it for four quarters like he used to.

Dwight Howard over Kobe. Dwight may not even be ovet Bynum at this point.

Him and Rose....too injured to be that high

Even last year, I don't see how durant is not atleast top 3... With Chris Paul and Dwight ahead of him...

Kobe is barely hanging onto the top 10. Those legs are washed up.

Kobe's got a lot of NBA miles on those legs. Lots of years and deep runs. He's pretty incredible still all that considered.

Lebron
Durant
Kobe

4-10 are not clear. dirk is somewhere in there still.

It is tough to rank players by position, and even tougher to do it with all positions mixed together.

Centers (including Tim Duncan)

1. Howard
2. Bynum (when motivated - not sure where to put him when he isn't)
3. Al Jefferson
4. Marc Gasol
5. Tim Duncan
6. Hibbert
7. Gortat
8. Joakim Noah
9. Tyson Chandler
10. Greg Monroe or JaVale McGee

^
no Nene or Al Horford?

Gortat over Noah and Chandler, though?

After the way he handled Jefferson in the last round and then schooled Jordan/Martin/Griffin in game 1, it'd be hard not to put Duncan 3rd on that list of centers.

He's just been playing possum the last couple years.

After watching them play, I'm convinced both Duncan and Garnett have been ****ing with us.

It's like 2004 all over again.

If we are going by position, Kobe is still the best 2 guard in the league.

First team all NBA lineup should be:

PG: CP3
SG: Kobe
SF: Lebron
PF: Kevin Love
C: Dwight Howard

Dp

[This message has been edited by Umichag (edited 5/17/2012 2:40p).]

M gasol over Timmy??

quote:

---

After watching them play, I'm convinced both Duncan and Garnett have been ****ing with us.

It's like 2004 all over again.

---

Both are finally completely healthy for the first time since 2008.

In trying to watch Rondo during the Heat series, I'm having trouble ranking him. At times, he looks like a top 12 PG, but other times, an argument could be made that he is the best.

So again, based on going forward (omitting D. Rose), a rank of PGs

1) Chris Paul
2) Tony Parker
3) Deron Williams - So hard to rank because he plays on a bad team.
4) Rondo
5) Westbrook - Highest ceiling(?)

-gap-

6) Nash

7) Kyrie Irving
8) Steph Curry
9) Mike Conley
10) Jose Calderon
11) Ty Lawson (just producing names at this point)

Love watching Rondo play.

Doesn't matter, number 1 can't win a ring.

They said the same thing about dirk, and then he won. The guy is only 27, he'll win

Slowdown in playoffs now.

So the shooting guards.

1) Wade
2) Kobe
3) Harden
4) Manu
5) Joe Johnson

6) Monta Ellis
7) Jason Terry
8) Tony Allen (?)
Having difficult time here getting to 10.

Paul George
Avery Bradley
OJ Mayo?
Iman Shumpert
Thabo Sefolosha

1. Kobe Bryant
2. Dwyane Wade
3. Monta Ellis
4. Joe Johnson
5. Manu Ginobli
6. James Harden
7. Eric Gordon
8. Kevin Martin
9. DeMar DeRozan (SMH)
10. J.R. Smith/O.J. Mayo/Aaron Afflalo/Whoever

That's a good list based on overall talent but I thought the rankings followed the format of 2011-2012 season rankings.

Eric Gordon was hurt, JR Smith arrived midseason, etc.

How many GMs do you think would take Monta ellis over James harden? I wouldn't.

[This message has been edited by guitarsoup (edited 6/7/2012 12:06p).]

if we're talking purely bench roles, i'd take ellis off the bench in a heartbeat

even though his +/- is always -100000, he's an amazing talent.

However, as starters, harden any day of the week