Top 50 NBA Players

2006-2007

Here’s a list of the top 50 players in the NBA as I see them at the end of the 2006-2007 season. I have been compiling the 50 best NBA player list since the 2000-2001 season. I take into account regular season performance, playoff performance, consistent performance over the past couple of years, injuries, ability to contribute on a WINNING team, defense and all around impact of each player. I’m sure not everyone will agree with my list, but here it is:
(oh, and these are NOT fantasy rankings!)

Tim Duncan: Best Player in the NBA

Gotta give the nod to Tim Duncan after carrying the Spurs to the title, again. In the 7 years I have been doing this list, Duncan has been ranked in the top 3 every year and #1 overall four times! Thats amazing. I don’t think people appreciate how great the Big Fundamental is. Is he the greatest scorer in history? No, but his all around game allows him to dominate without scoring 40+. Forget about defensive player of the year awards… the defensive player of the year every year is Duncan. Definitely the best power forward I have ever seen. Probably the second best player I have seen in my lifetime. Jordan is the easy number one, but I put big Timmy over Shaq and even Bird and Magic. Sacrilegious? Some would say so, but thats how I see it. Four Championships with his supporting cast should speak for itself.

Movin’ on Up…

Biggest improvements in this year ranking go to Carlos Boozer (up from #48 to #13) and Deron Williams (unranked to #20 this year). I never really bought into Boozer as an all-star level player but he was an absolute beast last year. Williams absolutely destroyed Houston in the playoffs. This kid is going to be a mainstay in this poll for a long time. I love what the Jazz are doing, if only they could get superstar turned basket-case Andrei Kirilenko back to his form of a few years ago and they could challenge in the West. They might even with AK-47 back to half of what he was.

Overrated

Yao Ming - Yao is a great player, no doubt. And he is on a good team, helping them to become a borderline contender. But this talk of him as an MVP is ridiculous. John Hollinger actually has him ranked as the #1 player in the NBA according to his PER ratings. I do like a lot of the stats Hollinger comes up with, but it looks like its time to re-tune that algorithm. Basically, Yao just does not have the stones to be the player that he could be. How can this guy be 7-6 or whatever and be as timid as he is? Could he play with any less emotion? His demeanor on the court makes Tim Duncan look like freaking 1998 Junior Seau. He is also too slow and requires teams to be built around his strengths. In other words… slooowwwww it down. Just take a look at the Rockets-Jazz series… can you honestly say you would rather have Yao over Deron Williams? That being said, he does put up 25 pts, 9+ boards, 2 blocks and outstanding percentages. Top 25 player sounds fair to me.

Amare Stoudamire - Sensational offensive player who made a great comeback from microfracture surgery. But First Team All-NBA? Are you freaking kidding me?! Over Kobe, Arenas, KG, Bosh? No way! I’m sorry, but his defense is just horrendous! Was Phoenix even a better team with him last year than they were the previous? I don’t think so. Surely, if you add a player that is a first team all-NBA to your squad, you would think tremendous improvement, right? Amare does some amazing things, but he is not a great team player, a terrible defender and Phoenix played just as well, if not better, without him. Though, they probably could have used him in game 5 vs the Spurs.

Underrated

Paul Pierce - Yes, I really have Pierce ranked at #11, even after last year’s injury plagued season. The Celtics were 20-27 (.438%) with Pierce in the lineup and 4-31 (.114%) without him. Even with some obvious tanking, thats just crazy. The Celtics were historically bad without Pierce and not that far from a playoff contender in the East with him last year. Thats what these ranking are all about: players who make a difference.

Other Ramblings…

- Third year players who made their debut in the top 50: Luol Deng, Andre Igoudala, Emeka Okefor, Ben Gordon, Al Jefferson and Kevin Martin. I might have slept on a few of these guys the year before (or maybe I couldn’t spell some of their names), but they have arrived and they should be sticking around in the ranking the foreseeable future. They join Dwight Howard, who was the only one from this class to make the top 50 last year. I would be shocked if any of these guys were not in the top 50 at the end of the 2007-2008 campaign.

- 14 players have been ranked every year since the first rankings in 2000-2001: Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Shawn Marion, Elton Brand, Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Jermaine O’Neal and Rasheed Wallace.