For the first time in 15 years , Lebron is not on the list. These are the 5 most valuable players in the NBA based on trade value + ability to lead/be on a championship team going forward. In no order - 1-5 Kevanna Durant Nikola Jokic Giannis Antekpoumpto Draymond Green Kawhi Leonard 6-10 LeRon James Kyrie Irving James Harden Anthony Davis Karl Anthony Towns 11-15 Rudy Gobert Damon Lillard Stephanie Curry John Wall Bradley Beal 16-20 Joel Embiid (if healthy, in top 5) Kay Thompson Ben Simmons Jimmy Butler Gordon Hayward Interesting to note, ball dominant PG's like Westbrook and Paul just aren't wanted because they can't elevate teams.
You're talking to the source, cowboy. The go to source for high rolling gamblers worldwide, the modern day Doctor Jack Ramsey of basketball knowledge. A visionary who gets it. Now are you wet for 11-15, or what?
Top 20 posted. Ball dominant PG's like Westbrook and Paul aren't wanted by anyone because they can only take their team so far.
If the OP wants serious responses he should make a serious post. Otherwise, people will just troll each other to death and waste valuable minutes of their lives while participating in the cluster****. BTW, I'm sorry for causing you to make a non basketball related post here. However, I think that's a healthy thing for you. I would like to see you make more of those and shake off that contrarian ******* bit that you like to play to but don't fully believe in. Sometimes I stumble on to some of your posts where you yield to common sense and real data while not trying to crap on the team just for the sake of doing so, those are also some really GOOOOOD posts. You should stick to that. You have good knowledge of the game but you waste so much of it on the illusions that you try to create. Anyhoo, the dude loves BBholic because he's just too much fun. The OP needs to work on his troll game a bit more because it's rather boring.
I have no idea what you're talking about, Dr. Phil. I only speak what I believe. I don't take contrarian positions for giggles. It's what I think. There are no created illusions from me. Created illusions are posters starting threads that we are going to win the championship after one playoff game because we have the best value bigs in the Association. That, my friend, is the very essence of created illusion.......or is it created delusion? Maybe both? Coming from a poster I really like and a very knowledgeable poster. Nevertheless it is not true. And you and others are going to be sipping coffee on the morning after we've been sent fishing in a couple weeks wondering what's next and/or being satisfied with also-ran status here in Harden's fifth season with us while he's in his prime. The only thing that matters in the NBA is winning championships. In just a few short years most basketball people will have no knowledge of who Mike Bibby was or how good he was and Allen Iverson will be as much of an afterthought as Tiny Archibald is today. Players are remembered by rings. Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Oscar, Magic, Larry, Isaiah, Michael, Hakeem, Kobe, Shaq, Timmy, Dwyane, Lebron, .....none of those guys won rings by themselves. Their championship teams were littered with other great players. They all shared the ball and shared possessions. And they all played good team defense. Those are prerequisites to championships. We're not there. Haven't been there all season. And we haven't done anything about it all season. And we could have done something about it. And finally there are reasons why we didn't address these things and it's not because there were no players available. There were. Human beings are funny creatures. We signed Dwight almost 5 years ago with the hopes of winning a championship. We were also-rans the first two seasons and then finally last season we underperform dramatically. Everybody blames Dwight. I kept telling you it was both Dwight and James, that James was every bit as responsible as Dwight for that debacle, acting immature, partying away, setting the wrong example, and not being willing to work with Dwight just as badly as Dwight being unwilling to work with him. Most posters here denied that. And then finally as this season winds down, Harden finally fesses up and admits he stunk it up, partied too much and had to refocus last summer. Posters here go silent about that. But everybody is raving about what a monster year Harden is having. We win 55 games and everybody thinks we're much-improved. Serious question for you. Do you really think that with a healthy James and Dwight actually working together that we wouldn't have put together 55 wins under McHale? Seriously, think about it. We won 54 games in 2014, the first season of Harden/Dwight. Then we won 56 games in 2015, the second season of Harden/Dwight. Now this year we get back to......... 55 wins. 55 wins! Wow! We're almost as good as we were in 2015!!! Another season and we should be better than we were in 2015. And everybody is happy, happy, happy, because Dwight is gone and we run up and down and score a lot of points! Shoot a ton of threes! We kill lottery teams, blow them out! Exciting!!! But here's the cold stark reality. We've treaded water since 2014. We're still also-rans. And the same people that hated Dwight and Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons are the same guys that are happy we are now one game worse than we were in 2015. You know what's happened here over the last 5 seasons? We've simply become more one-player centric. We've just boxed ourselves in by catering to James, removing all shot creators from the roster, and removing any defensive players and coaches that would attempt to hold Harden accountable on the defensive end. Yeah, James is a top 5 player. Yeah he's had an incredible season on a team built to his specs. Yeah he's putting up monster numbers just like I said he would before the season started. And yeah we aren't good enough to win it all because we are catering the whole franchise to one guy who has this creative illusion that he can win a championship playing his way and controlling every possession from the top. We are no better of a team right now than we would have been if James and Dwight actually had determined to work together right and let McHale coach them. We're simply a different kind of team with different strengths and weaknesses. We've simply made one of our previous strengths a major weakness in order to fix a previous weakness and make it a strength. But the overall results? The same. James Harden STILL doesn't accept what it's going to take to win a championship. Keep pushing the illusion that we are going for a championship though. And yeah, I wrote you a book. You'll either have to read it or ignore it. Frankly, I don't care. Just like I don't care what Harden or any of the silly posters here think about what I wrote. Nor do I care about whether I'm a contrarian or not. The only thing I care about here is winning championships. Got it?
Jokic has IT. A big body with a high basketball IQ and a knack of stumbling into the heart of the action. Expect him to have a prime KG like impact in terms of his ability to elevate teammates, w/ the passing to make him the new Point Forward the league has lacked since CWebb and Vladimir Deebox left us high and dry. Davis hasn't shown he can be anything more than a dominant athlete --- see Westy. In this era, 1 guy can only do so much if he doesn't have an idea of how to elevate his teammates. As an NBA fan , you hope Denver messes it up and he finds himself on the Lakers come Free Agency. Stephanie is like Little Red Riding Hood, skips around and knocks down a few jumpers but is pretty basic. She ain't got the booty to hang with the big boys. Put Curry on a non playoff team, they still don't make the playoffs. A sham of an MVP. Still an asset (unlike Westbrook and Paul) any championship team could use, but needs a lot of help. And no team has more help than GSW. Irving's ability to penetrate + control his body is very underrated, He destroyed Curry in the Finals because his game works in the regular season AND playoffs. More to basketball than stats - something nerds on here will never understand.
