disagree. assuming all superstars stay healthy (and also assuming kobe misses a good chunk of the upcoming season), rankings at the end of the year will be as follows: 1 - lebron 2 - durant 3 - cp3 4 - howard (when healthy and happy is easily DPOY, and a high quality mvp candidate because of his impact on both sides of the ball. fills the paint, helps his teammates, commands a double team and is willing to kick the ball out to shooters) 5 - rose (it's easy to forget that he's an mvp caliber player, and waited until he was back at that level to return) 6 - westbrook (often overlooked and underrated because he's not an elite shooter, but on any other team would look every bit as good as drose, pretty identical players and RW is, arguably, a better passer) 8 - parker (easy to see TP falling off, but hard to write him off given how well he has played the last 3 seasons.) 9 - harden (best SG in the league absent kobe, though SG is one of the least deep positions in the league) 10 - irving (had a breakout season once he returned from injury, made the all star team, and if bynum is healthy for half of their season, CLE is a lock for the playoffs. all that aside, has the best handle in the game, is fast, can shoot and create for others) 11 - curry (when those ankles holds up there isn't a better shooter in the game, and his passing is improving. he's the difference between the Ws being a lottery team and making noise in the playoffs). 12 - love (if he stays healthy, he's the best PF in the league. can put up top 5 #s in points and rebounds, kills people from behind the arc and has a team that can help him this season) 13 - wade (he's regressed noticeably but impacts the game in every way - scoring, rebounding, passing, defense, energy) 14 - kobe (he's kobe, but will be coming back from a major injury) 15 - melo (near-unstoppable scorer at times, but his one-dimensional nature makes him not a top 10 player). Under those conditions, OKC would have the best duo, followed by houston and miami.
Agreed. Everyone is igoring what he provides on defense and also what he brought to the floor with his passing this last year as well. You can pick anyone apart if you just focus on 1 aspect of their game. Look at them as a whole and not just at parts.
Whoever does the ESPN rankings has a very poor understanding of Rockets players. Then again, SAS didn't know Parsons was, and Lin was undrafted, so what do the "experts" know anyway.
