Who do you think are the Top 5 current NBA players?

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

The NBA is an organization that has a lot of history behind it, being several decades old, it makes sense. Especially considering that the sport is over a century old.

Anyway, there has been a lot of talks about how is the best. When you look at different decades, you think of different decades. In my opinion, the 1960's was dominated by Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. The 1970's was dominated by Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and Julius Irving. The 1980's by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The 1990's was solely dominated by Michael Jordan, the man! If you disagree with me on anything, I strongly advice you to tell me your opinions and we can work something out.

Now, with all that said... who has been the star of the 2000's? Better yet, who are the top 5 current players in the NBA? I have my 5 in mind, but I would like to wait and see what you people think before I post my opinion. Please be sure to include the player name, their position, and their current team. Also the reason. Please make sure they are current players. Thanks!

 

[Rokitka]

The top four are gimmies, have been for the past few seasons. Kobe, Lebron, Wade, and Dwight. The fifth really is a matter of preference. You could put Carmelo in here, Steve Nash, you could make cases for alot of players. Personally, I'd go with Chris Paul. He's the most entertaining player to watch and certainly deserves to be mentioned in the top five, in my opinion.

 

[Big Sexy]

There's really only 6 guys that I would consider putting in my current top 5. LeBron, Kobe, D Wade, Carmelo, Dwight, and CP3. For RIGHT NOW I'd leave Chris Paul off, but if I made this list last season he would have been on there.

1. LeBron James SF Cleveland Cavaliers- LeBron is the best all around player in the NBA. Two years ago it was still Kobe, but I believe LeBron has surpassed him. He can score, dish, rebound, defend, and the dude is built like a fucking tank. He is the hardest player to defend in the NBA.

2. Kobe Bryant SG LA Lakers- Even with the championships I put Kobe slightly below LeBron. If you switch the two and have Kobe in Cleveland last year and LeBron in LA then it would be LeBron who got the ring last year. Kobe is still a dynamic scorer and great defender but I have LeBron slightly ahead of him.

Outside of the top two you can really have any combination/order of Melo, Wade, Howard, and Paul with one of the four being left off.

3. Carmelo Anthony SF Denver Nuggets- Melo has really stepped up his game the last couple years. The addition of Chauncey Billups has helped him mature as a player. He has become a solid defender and he might be the best pure scorer in the league right now.

4. Dwayne Wade SG Miami Heat- D Wade has basically single-handedly made the Heat a decent team the last couple years. He's a great scorer, good defender, and one of the most dynamic players in the game.

5. Dwight Howard C Orlando Magic- Dwight is a fucking beast. He is without a doubt the best big man in the game. He is a tremendous defender and probably the best rebounder in the NBA. If he continues to work on his post game and can get points consistently from more then just dunks then he could jump right towards the top of this list.

One more guy I'd like to mention as someone who will most likely be on this list in a year or two is Kevin Durant. I'd probably put Durant 7 right after CP3 as of right now, but Durant has all the tools to be a top 3 player in this league.

 

[gd]

5. Dirk - He's been freaking dominant this year. I've only watched a few Dallas games, but how does anyone ever stop this guy? He's 7 feet tall and is one of the best shooters in the league. It's scary.

4. Melo - Remember when he was just as good as LeBron then all of a sudden wasn't anywhere close to him? Now he is. Leagues leading scorer at the moment and has actually played a little bit of defense this year, which is always a bonus.

3. D-Wade - Did you see the end of the game on Christmas? Whenever he wants to take over, he does. He's also a great defender who will give you 3 or 4 steals a game. The rest of the Heat pretty much suck, but Wade can lead that team to 45-50 wins a year. His only weakness is his 3 point shooting, which is around 20%. If he can improve that, he'll be making a run at the best player in the league.

2. LeBron - Tough not to have him #1, but I don't think he's as great of a scorer as Kobe yet. He relies more on brute strength to get to the basket, which is perfectly fine. He's the best athelte in the league though and an outstanding passer and defender. Definetly will go down as one of the best ever.

1. Kobe - He has the championships, scoring titles, and pretty much everything else. He is just so smooth out there and is such a competitor. I give him the slight edge as #1, but this could easily change in as soon as a week or 2.

Honorable mentions: Nash (a little past his prime), Howard (no offensive game), Paul (down year, bad team), and Brandon Roy (he'll be up there in a year or 2)

 

[Toroc102]

My top 5, well the ones I just like more than any others would be

1. Chris Paul
2. Pau Gasol
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Jason Kidd
5. Manu Ginobili

As for who is actually the best in the game today?

5.Kobe Bryant, one of the alltime greats, probably the most diverse offensive player in the game, I feel he has become truly overrated the past couple of years. Championships will do that for a player, but everyone says he finally put it together by winning a Championship(on his own). I'd argue that the Lakers finally put it together and had Bynum, Ariza, and Gasol together with Kobe for a Finals run. Kobe imo, although still great, and still one of the best in the league, has obviously been on a downward path the past few seasons. He is not as athletic as he once was, he no longer gets to the hole with consistency, he seems to have lost the ability to make 3 pointers outside of the clutch, however he still does all those things better than most players, and more than anything, I'd say he is the most feared, demoralizing player in the league, which counts for everything. He makes the most difficult shots in the game, which to me is just as demoralizing as a blocked shot or a dunk.

4. Tim Duncan, I had a hard time putting him on this list because he's obviously now a step slow, but tbh, I think I'd still take TD over Dwight Howard on my team if I had the choice. Dwight Howard is obviously the 1 or 2 best body in the NBA, but the more that I watch him, the more I know he is mostly reliant on that body. He doesn't seem to have a very high IQ or any real feel for a post game. I'm not talking about developing a jumper, but he's 6 years in and still hasn't developed a reliable post game, and it doesn't really sem like he has it in him. Also, he could do so much more for his team if he just...saw the floor better. Too many times he gets caught not watching the ball and giving up easy baskets or in general not making things harder for the opposing team.

Back to TD, I think the only thing he doesn't have on Dwight is the body, but every aspect of his game is superior to Dwights. He has a better post-game, a spot-up game, a better passer with more ways to pass, more ambidextrous, a better more intelligent defender, and he's still putting up monstrous numbers at his age. Truly one of the greats, if he was half as popular as Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal he'd be a shoe in for Player of the Decade. Not to mention, the man hits clutch three's.

3. Dwyane Wade, people are saying he's having a down year this year, and if you go by the numbers he obviously is having a down year. But basically the Heat have already conceded this year and are waiting for next year to make that big free agency splash, so DWade is probably going along with that plan. But you can tell he still has it and is just avoiding injury at this point, because he basically turns it on whenever he want. That LA VS. MIA thriller DWade took over in a way that Kobe hasn't been able to in years, or anyone else has been able to currently(except for maybe 1 and 2 on this list). He does have a switch, and he's been playing with it on off for 75 percent of the season.

2. CP3, the man is amazing, he can do anything on the court, shoot from anywhere, rebounds exceptionally for his size, great and smart defender, and has dragged subpar teams farther than they had any business going. My personal favorite player in the league, before he got injured this year he was pulling off career numbers for a franchise thats done nothing for him. There is only one played I would draft ahead of him if I had to and that is

1. LeBron James, the biggest freak of nature I've ever seen play the game. If Magic could play all 5 positions then so can LeBron. He is above average in every aspect of the game, and really he could be the best at anything he wanted to. He could lead the league in assists, scoring, rebounding, probably blocked shots, probably steals, but he is probably the most well rounded player in the game so he settles for top 5 for every category(atleast at his position). Basically if ever there was a player built to play the game of Basketball LeBron James is him, I wish Jordan was still around so I could see if LeBron truly stacks up. Everybody talks about titles and all this nosense, but lets be real, Mo Williams is the best sidekick LeBron has ever had. I would trade Kobe for Lebron in a second and happily coast to the next 5 rings.

Wow, I put a lot of though into this post.

 

[NSL]

This thread could be asking for a Top 10, and it would still be easy.

5. Carmelo Anthony - He scores a ton of points, has matured in to a real team player, and has been the staple of a relatively unknown Denver Nuggets team. If the team had more postseason success, he could easily move up to 3 or 4.

4. Dwayne Wade - He has the ring and the awards to cement his place here, and he's still playing great. Like Carmelo, he puts up a ton of points, and he makes his team better.

3. LeBron James - I'm not a King James hater, and I don't disagree with anyone that has him at 1 or 2, but I just don't think he's better than the two I have ahead of him.

2. Kobe Bryant - He's a terrific all around player, and continues to get better as the years go by. He's proven himself as a real leader, and finally proved that he doesn't need Shaq to be successful.

1. Tim Duncan - He only made one other list? Really? He's got about as many rings as anyone else in the league, and he's won more trophies and awards than I can think to count. He's the best player on one of the consistently best teams, and even as he reaches the "later days" of his career, he's still a force to be reckoned with.


Honorable Mentions: Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Chauncey Billups

 

[Super Crazy]

5. Carmelo Anthony - He's matured from a young star into an excellent team player. The Nuggets aren't a very popular team, but they are one of the underdogs in the league. If there was any bit of post season success that I could remember, I think I'd move him further up the list.

4. Shaquille O'Neal - The man has been consistent his entire career. He is a staple of whatever team he's on and he brings up the morale of the players around him. He has the awards to show for it too. He is a 14 time All Star I believe.

3. Dwayne Wade - He started off as a hot rookie and he has grown into a major staple of the Miami Heat. He is makes the critical shots and scores the points when they need to. He's got the awards and accolades to show for it.

2. LeBron James- LeBron has done so much in his illustrious and young career. He's one of the best of all time. He's has the awards and accolades to back it up, all he needs is a ring.

1. Kobe Bryant - He has been consistent his entire career. He was a great partner with Shaq, and he became even better once Shaq left. He is a huge point scorer and he is constantly making the game winning shots. You know anyone else that could score 81 points in a game?

 

[rkofromhell]

For my top 5 i decided to do just one per position so here it goes

C - Dwight Horward - He needs to work on a few things to be more complete. His defense is top notch, his inside scoring is unstopable, his rebounding skills are un-parrell. He needs to improve his free throw shoting first and for most. I know he is a big man and historically big mean dont need to be the best of shoters by times have changed nowadays you want a center that can knock down a 15 foot jump shot and howard just cant do that. All in all he is still the best center in the league today and he is still young plenty of upside.

PF - Chris Bosh - I had a lot of trouble with this postion, this postion by far has the most depth of them all. It really depends what you want if you want a PF that can shot lights out from three then you got Dirk Nowitzki. If you want a PF that is just going to dominate down low than you got guys like Kevin Garnett or Amara Stoudimare. I went with Bosh simply because like Garnett he cam dominate down low, he can rebound, he can defend, and he can score but he gets nod over Garnett becuase he is younger and is still growing while Garnett is starting to slow down.

SF - Lebron James - Lebron in my mind is overall the best player as well. He can beat teams so many ways he can score, he can pass, he can defend just all around the best player. Not since the Big "O" has someone put up all around numbers like Lebron and what is even scarier every year Lebron has gotten better. When he first came in his biggest downfall was his defense then he worked on it and now his defense is top notch. Then he wasnt a good enough mid range shooter and he has worked at that and improved there every year. Then he couldnt shoot 3's and now he has improved there.

SG - Kobe Bryant - Kobe is the second best player in the NBA. No one is a better pure scored in the NBA then Kobe, all though IMO Lebron is sneaking up on him. He is probably the most clutch player in the NBA. He is also a top notch defender. People say his biggest down fall is he shots the ball to much and is a ball hog, well i am sorry but what Postion does he play again oh yea SHOOTING Guard.

PG - Another tough call I am giving the nod to CP3 over Steve Nash simply because of his age. I think Paul is the best all around PG in the NBA he can pass, shoot, and defend. Rondo can pass and defend like no other but he needs to improve his shooting to be consider one of the best PG's in the game. Derron Williams is also right there he can do everything as well but I think Paul is just slighty better in defense and passing.

 

[jmt225]

Wow... not one vote for Kevin Durant? Seriously, have you guys been following the NBA at all this season? He's easily establishing himself as one of the best players in the league.

That said, my five:

5. Steve Nash - Defense lacks, but offensively... the guy is unbelievable. The Peyton Manning of basketball, definitely. This guy has an absolutely deadly shot, can get to the goal whenever he wants, and knows how to find the open man with his eyes closed. He's an excellent, excellent basketball player.

4. Kevin Durant - Tall, long length, fast, can shoot and handle the basketball, and the man can play some defense. He's a PHENOMENAL player, and you know what the real amazing thing about him is? He's only 21-years-old. Yep, 21 and the 3rd leading scorer in the entire league, shooting nearly 50% from the field. It's ridiculous how good this kid is, and if he can stay healthy... it's possible he may become of the greatest to ever play the game, if not THE greatest.

3. Carmello Anthony - Best scorer in the league, plus a very good defender. He's also establishing himself as one hell of a leader. The USA Team said that THIS man was the leader of that squad; not Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, etc., but Carmello Anthony. He's a general on that floor, and when he's 100%... there's no stopping a determined Carmello.

2. LeBron James - It's obvious why he's so high on my list. No need to explain. I'll just get into why he isn't #1 in a second.

1. Kobe Bryant - Had to go with Kobe here, and it's not even close in my eyes. Reason? Kobe is just scarier player in the NBA, which makes him the best. Whenever he has the ball, as a fan you sit there feeling so helpless because you know the man will not be stopped no matter what you throw at the bastard. Whether it's going to the basket, or jacking up a three 4 steps behind the 3-point-line, you just feel that no matter what, that man is going to find a way to put the ball in the basket and defeat your team. LeBron has yet to get to that point. He doesn't scare teams/fans when he has the ball like Kobe does. And to me, that's the ultimate reason why Kobe is better than LeBron, right now. Kobe is a closer who knows how to win games in the 4th Quarter, no matter what the situation is. LeBron isn't that type of player just yet. He will get there though, and when he does... man, dude's going to be unstoppable.

Honorable mention goes to Dirk Nowitzki. I thought about placing him at number 5, but he's just not the leader he needs to be to require a spot on my list.

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

My top 5 best players in the NBA stack up like this, my 4 and 5 are a little different from everyone elses but I gotta show some love to guys that often get overlooked. I'd also make a case for Wade, Paul, Bosh, Dwight Howard, and Roy but this is a top 5.

5) Joe Johnson- Joe is the best player on the Hawks and can put up 40 on any given night. He is highly underrated by almost everyone and just two years ago the feared defensive-minded future NBA Champion Celtics couldn't gaurd him, the 8 seeded Hawks to the future champs to 7 games, alot of that had to do with Joe Johnson.

4) Kevin Durant- Durant has been a scoring machine since his days at Texas and has transitioned flawlessly into the pro game. Kevin won the scoring title this year and his dominence won't let up in the playoffs.

3) Carmelo Anthony- My favorite player on my favorite team, nobody, not LeBron, Wade, or Bryant have hit more game winning shots than Melo, that defines clutch. The only reason he is 3 is because he seems to be hot and cold at times.

2) LeBron James- King James can do everything there is to do in a basketball game and do it pretty good. He is a genetic freak and a near unstoppable force on offense. I do think he is a little overrated on defense because of his come from behind blocks, but is a good defender.

1) Kobe Bryant- No real explaination needed. Best player in the NBA on the best team. Kobe has always been an elite player but since the arrival of Pau Gasol he has hit another level. I think the Lakers will repeat this year making it no question who the best is.