Jordan Magic Bird LeBron Oscar Kobe Dr. J Barkley West Baylor Wade Oscar Durant Nash Dirk English Carmelo McGrady Gervin CP3 Dantley Wilkins K Malone Barry
Ok... Best: Jordan LeBron Magic Bird Worst: English Dantley I don't know how to rank all the middle ones, it's too tough and eras and rules are different.
I would guess that's why OP didn't include centers into the list. It would be too pointless on a Rockets site.
Most of the players I listed were great scores or perimeter players who all of have some sort of offensive skills.
Jordan LeBron Bird Magic Barkley Kobe CP3 Oscar Barry West K Malone Wade Dr. J Durant Dirk Nash Baylor English McGrady Carmelo Gervin Dantley Wilkins
not following the rules, but here's my top 15 all time: wilt-jabbar-shaq duncan-russell-hakeem bird-lebron-baylor jordan-kobe-oscar magic-thomas-nash
Group 1: Jordan; Magic; Bird; Kobe; LeBron; Oscar; Dr. J; West Group 2: Barkley; Baylor; Gervin; K Malone; Group 3: Durant; Dirk; Wade; Barry Group 4: Dantley; Nash; English; CP3; Carmelo; McGrady
I like your idea of groups, much easier to sort this way than a list. Group 1: Jordan LeBron Magic Bird Durant -- he obviously doesn't belong yet in terms of achievements, but his 2014 season belongs with these players. In terms of quality, he belongs. Hopefully there's more of the same to come. Group 2: Kobe -- this probably makes me a Kobe hater Dirk -- Duncan and Bruce Bowen double him, he averages like 27-13 on 65% TS for a playoff series. Garnett defends him, he averages like 33-15 on even better efficiency. I'm saying numbers off memory so I might be slighly off, but he had some truly epic playoff series. Take away 2006 finals and 2007 vs. GSW, and I'd have him in group 1. But those series did happen. CP3 Karl Malone Wade Barkley Rick Barry -- my favorite player to watch from 1970s. Precursor to Bird. Great shooting. Intense defense. Fantastic passing ability. Good size and length for SF, good enough athleticism. If he was a nicer person, he probably would've got a few MVPs and would generally be ranked much higher. But he was a prick and everyone hated him. Oscar -- a great, strong, fundamentally sound player, extremely ball dominant. Maybe the most ball dominant player ever. I might have him too low, but I think it's not easy to build a team around him. Also, he lost a lot. He had Jerry Lucas, a legit superstar, and he usually had other all star caliber players besides Lucas, they should've won more. Nash -- he was helped a lot by handcheck changes in 2005 and by the system, but still, a great player who belongs in this group. Jerry West Dr. J -- Great to watch, not just because of dunks, but because he's very smart and always seems to make the good decision. Very unselfish, moves the ball well, he plays like a Spur. But I think he was often too unselfish. He mostly played with chuckers and should've been more aggressive. Baylor Group 3: Wilkins TMac -- he played his best defense in Toronto, peaked on poor teams in Orlando, and he settled too much for long jumpers in Houston. I think he had it in him to be better than he was, but a great player nonetheless. Carmelo -- great in 2009 playoffs. Without them, I'd rank him lower. Gervin English Dantley -- I might rank him too low. His defense was an issue and he had reputation of a black hole who doesn't play within team offense. He also had multiple conflicts with coaches and teammates, which got him traded several times, including from the Pistons. That said, he had fantastic stats.
Good list, you got them categorized in a certain order. You let people see it instead of having a hard time to figure it out.
Man this is a hard list because each are good in some way. But each one one should be ranked by stats impact ability and etc.
Pretty good list but I think McGrady and CP3 could be group 3 players easily. Durant might be group 2. Kobe and Dr. J I would drop to group 2. West I would drop to group 2 or 3. Add Shaq and Olajuwon to group 1.