The NBA and its Future

The question is often asked: If you could pick one player to build a franchise around, who would you take?

Lately, this has become a no-brainer of a question and nine out of 10 times the answer is Lebron James. So we are going to skip the first pick and move on to picks two through six.

Pick 1: Lebron James: Enough said.

Pick 2: Carmelo Anthony: The 25-year-old Anthony is having by far the best year of his career. In his sixth year out of Syracuse, he is averaging 29.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Ever since he played for “The Redeem Team” Melo has been a completely new player. He has come out and worked on his defending and rebounding and it shows by how hard he works on the court. Anthony has shown time and time again that he can make the big shot when it counts.

Pick 3: Kevin Durant: Durant can flat out score. He’s been doing it since his surprise freshman year at Texas and hasn’t stopped since.

At only 21 years old he has as much upside as any player in the NBA. Over his first 3 years in the league his scoring and shooting percentage have both gone consistently up. Durant has also proved to be an incredibly hard worker and it has shown not only in his offensive stats but also defensively.

Kevin Durant IS the one guy on this list that I would think about taking ahead of King James.

Pick 4: Dwyane Wade: Flash is one of the most electric players in the game today. He has an average three-point shot but can create his own shot as well as anyone in the league.

At just 6’4” he throws his body around more than anyone outside of Allen Iverson. Because he throws his body around so much, he tends to get injured and has never played the full 82 games.

In the 2008-09 season, Wade averaged more points per game (31) against “good teams” than any other player in the league. The main concern with Wade going forward is that his body won’t stay healthy enough for him to play the brand of basketball that he currently plays, but he is still one of the top players in the NBA.

Pick 5: Chris Paul: Paul is one of the top three point guards in the game today and is a double-double waiting to happen averaging 20.4 points and 11.2 assists per game. Paul is also a solid on-ball defender averaging 2.3 steals per game.

CP3 is one of the classiest guys in the league as he continues to suffer through New Orleans' money-saving tendencies, which have severely limited the talent around him (David West cannot be the only other true talent on your team.) Given a strong nucleus, Paul could carry any team to the top because he simply makes the players around him better.

Pick 6: Dwight Howard: You can’t go wrong with a 6’11” 24-year-old who has averaged a double-double every year in the league. Howard’s scoring is a little down this year at 17.8 points per game, but he is doing this while shooting 60 percent from the field.

On top of the offense that Howard brings to the floor, he is also averaging a league-leading 13.3 rebounds and 2.73 blocks. Howard changes the game at the defensive end of the floor as much as any player in the NBA and if he will continue to work on his offensive game he will define himself as the best big of his Era.

Honorable Mention: Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Monta Ellis, and John Wall.