NBA Power Rankings: One Way Each of the Top 10 Players Can Get Even Better
One thing that makes Kobe Bryant one of the ten greatest players of all time, is that he consistently has worked on his game, developed his game and improved his game. It's why he is arguably the most complete player in the league right now.
Even with Kobe though, there is still room for improvement, as there is with even the best in the NBA. In this slideshow I'll address the biggest flaw in each of the top ten players in the league.
So that the list doesn't break down into a debate over how the players are ranked I want to emphasize the order here is alphabetical, not ranked from first to last.
Kobe Bryant
1 of 10
Kobe Bryant is one of the ten greatest players of all time, and probably generally considered the greatest player off his generation (though Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal would get votes too). He's worked on and developed virtually every aspect of his game.
From a skill level, you could say he has no weakness. He no longer goes to the rim the way he used to, but that's to be expected as his athleticism declines with age. The hardest thing to do in basketball though is the step back jumper, and he does it better than anyone. It's why there's still a lot of life left in his career.
There is one thing he could improve on though, and that's passing the ball out of difficult situations. The Lakers have a somewhat dysfunctional relationship on the court, and it's what rears up when the struggle (which for them means losing three in a row).
People debate whether it's because Kobe shoots too much, or whether the rest of the team doesn't do enough. I'd say it's probably a little bit of both. In dysfunctional relationships there is unually an offending party and an enabler. When Kobe wants to shoot too much, the team is content to let him.
Being the leader of the team, Kobe's biggest (and possibly only) flaw is that he'll take a bad shot with an open teammate too often. When he's not doing this, the other team is forced to defend the entire floor, which usually leads to wins.
In games where Kobe has at least 4 assists in the Gasol era, the Lakers are 209-49. In games where he's failed to hit four assists, they are 56-34. That whole "20 shot effect" doesn't figure in when he's distributing. The Lakers are 56-17 when he takes 20 shots, but has at least five dimes. That's the same number of wins but only half as many losses.
Kevin Durant
2 of 10
Kevin Durant is arguably the best scorer in the game right now. He has led the league in scoring for two straight seasons, which pretty much eliminates the need for offensive improvement.
No, for the Durantula to take it to the next level, and for the Thunder to follow, KD needs to develop his defensive game more. Last year, there was some improvement, as he went from bad defender to average defender. Now he needs to go from average defender to good defender.
The Thunder give up 107.9 points per 100 possessions, which is below the league average. As great as the team is offensively, they only outscore their opponents by 2.7 points per game. The Thunder will not be a threat to win a championship until they start playing championship level defense. They know that and that's why they got Kendrick Perkins.
However, the leader of the team is Kevin Durant, and the team goes the way he goes. Look at the top contenders, the leader of the team puts consistent effort on defense. Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and even this year Derrick Rose all bring good to great defensive effort. When Kevin Durant does, the Thunder will be a great team.
Dwight Howard
3 of 10
Dwight Howard is the most dominant big man in the league right now. Already with Defensive Player of the Year awards to his name, he's added a considerable amount of scoring after working on his moves with legendary center Hakeem Olajuwon this summer.
Now not only is he the most dominant center in the game defensively, he's also become one of the premier players offensively. In fact, only Amare Stoudemire scores more than Howard among big men.
Here's the catch with Howard though. He's attempted 685 free throws this season. That's nearly 150 more than anyone in the NBA. However his percentage is an appalling 59.3. Seriously.
He doesn't even make two out of every three attempts. It's so bad that Howard's field goal percentage is higher than his free throw percentage. Howard's career free throw percentage is the fourth lowest in NBA history among players with more than 4500 attempts.
That's bad. Really, really bad.
I know he's tried to work on it, the same as Shaq did. The thing is, with his athleticism, he should be able to improve it. It's the biggest weakness in his game, and arguably the only weakness in his game. He's a fantastic player, but his free-throw shooting is like a wart on Angelina Joelie's nose.
Derrick Rose
4 of 10
Derrick Rose is the youngest person on this list, and if you missed it there was a great write up in Sports Illustrated about how he, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love worked on their game together last summer. Is it any wonder they are arguably the three most improved stars this year? It sounds like they may be doing a repeat next year.
Derrick Rose plans to work on his post game. How much does that frighten the rest of the NBA. If Derrick Rose finds another way to score, it's just not fair.
But that's not the biggest thing he needs to improve in his game. His biggest flaw isn't a matter of skill, it's a matter of mentality. In a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Bulls were down by one and Rose flipped the ball towards Luol Deng, it was intercepted and the Hawks drove down the court and Joe Johnson got a dunk. It was the decisive play of the game.
Derrick Rose will sometimes get what can only be described as "lazy" with the ball. He'll make an ambivalent pass, or carelessly dribble and give up a turnover. In close losses, these one or two of those lazy turnovers can be the difference between defeat and victory.
When he's driving with the ball and turns the ball over, Tom Thibodeau doesn't mind. He calls those "good turnovers" because they are coming off his aggressiveness, and that's the heart of the offense. It's the bad ones that irk Thibs though, and that's the biggest thing that Rose needs to work on.
Dirk Nowitzki
5 of 10
Dirk Nowitzki has the most beautiful shot in the NBA. It's perfection.
He handles the ball amazingly well for a seven footer, and he rarely turns it over. He can score from just about anywhere on the court. Midrange, threes or free throws, his shots usually are accompanied by a swishing sound as the ball hits nylon. For Dirk, a bad shot means the ball touched the rim.
The flaw in his game though is related to his toughness. Among the 12 seven footers in the NBA, he's tenth in rebounds per 36 minutes. He's 11th in fouls. He's 10th in blocks. His field goal percentage is actually lower when he gets to the rim, which is just weird for a player his height. All these things illustrate the criticism against him, that he doesn't play tough enough.
The thing is that he's a lot tougher as a person than he gets credit for. I saw him get fouled so hard he got his tooth knocked out, only to run to the locker room to get something shoved into his mouth to stop the bleeding, and then come back and sink the free throws and stay in the game. He's a tough individual, no doubt.
He's not a tough player though. He doesn't force his way in the paint. He doesn't assert himself. He doesn't occupy the lane. If he could hit the weight room and get stronger, it would make him a better player.
LeBron James
6 of 10
Lebron James is the best player in the world. He is one of the most amazing basketball specimens to ever grace a court. His combination of athleticism, size, court vision and instinct are a package we've never seen before.
However, he's also short on skills, particularly the more practiced skills. For instance, he has virtually no step jumper. Hid footwork is off when it comes to the most difficult shot in basketball. Compare his with someone like Kobe's who has the most polished step back in the NBA.
That's not to say that LeBron hasn't worked on his game, he probably doesn't get enough credit for his work ethic. Once a weak defender, he's now turned into an elite defender. But it seems as though he's content to settle for being the best basketball player in the world, if that makes any sense.
With players like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant you always felt like they had squeezed every drop out of their tremendous ability. With LeBron, you feel like he has this tremendous oil reserve there that's just waiting to be drilled. Over the last three seasons his game hasn't improved much, but the potential seems limitless.
He could have a better midrange jumper, improve behind the arc and even improve at the line. For a player that gets as many fouls as he does, and for a player who is so hard to guard on the ball, you'd think he could do all three much better.
It simply comes down to spending a ridiculous amount of hours in the gym, perfecting his craft. It's part of the reason that when I look at things like "greatness" versus "best," I distinguish between Kobe and LeBron. LeBron is a better player, but Kobe is greater.
LeBron needs to decide to be the best in the world is not enough, he needs to determine to be great, and become the best player he can be. If he ever hits is ceiling, he might be the greatest ever.
Kevin Love
7 of 10
It may be surprising that Kevin Love is on this list at all, but I'm not ready to punish him for how his teammates play. What's not to be impressed with here? He stands to be the first player ever to combine a 20 percent rebounding percentage and a 40 percent three point percentage in the same season.
He really is a remarkable player both inside and out. The only thing missing from his game is low post scoring. Of the five players with at least three offensive rebounds and 20 points per game, he has the fewest points inside the paint, and the fewest at the rim.
In spite of the fact that he's second in the NBA in offensive rebounding with 4.7 per game, he translates less than one of those per game into put-backs. He averages 1.2 points per game on tip ins and only 1.8 points per game at the rim. That's fewest among the those same top five offensive rebounders.
If Kevin Love ever develops a true low post game, he would be one of the most unstoppable forces in the NBA.
Chris Paul
8 of 10
Chris Paul is such a complete player. He's the only player in NBA history to what I will call the, "quadruple doubling." He has a 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, i.e. four doublings. He is the only player to average two steals, four rebounds, eights assists and 16 points per game over the course of his career. How's that for complete?
You would think with such a complete player (and keep in mind he's an excellent defender too), there would be nothing to criticize right? Well, even Paul has something he could improve though, which is the ability to take over games at crunch time.
He is 35th in the NBA in clutch scoring. He doesn't make up for it much with passing either. He's fifth in the NBA in assists in clutch time per 48 minutes, but his assist numbers per 48 minutes actually go down from his non-clutch time averages.
Compare his 27.2 points, 11.1 assists and 8.3 rebounds to Derrick Rose's 40.8 points, 13.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per 48 minutes of clutch time, and you'll see why Rose is in the MVP conversation and Chris Paul isn't.
When the crunch comes, Paul needs to become the type of player that can put the team on his back and take over games. There is a time to facilitate, but there is also a time to dominate too.
Chris Paul has the ability to be an MVP caliber player, but until he can pick up the team and carry it on his back in close games, he'll be on the outside of that conversation looking in.
Dwyane Wade
9 of 10
Dwyane Wade might be the most underrated player in the NBA.
I know it might sound crazy to say that, but his player efficiency rating is sixth in NBA history. He is arguably one of the best players in the history of the game, yet when the conversation of the best player in the league is brought up he tends to get dismissed, almost out of hand.
Truth be told, there's not much difference statistically between Wade and James. While I do think James is the best in the NBA, the second best is very much a conversation between Wade and Kobe. I think either argument could be logically supported.
He's a fantastic scorer, passer and rebounder, and plays well on both ends of the court. He's all in all a great player. But there's on hole in his game that's surprising, particularly since he's a shooting guard. This might surprise you if you don't pay attention to these things, but he's a pretty bad three point shooter.
Note that I didn't say "below average," I said bad. I mean historically bad, especially for a shooting guard. In fact, of the 252 players who have attempted 1000 three point field goals, only three, Charles Barkley, Ron Harper and Isaiah Thomas have a lower three point percentage. Wade's career average is a dismal .292. His career high is only .317.
I had to laugh the other day while watching "Around the Horn" when some of the panelists suggested that LeBron should let the "better three point shooters" like Wade take those attempts from outside when the game is on the line. These people actually get paid to say such nonsense? Perhaps he should pass them off to Mike Miller or James Jones, but not to Wade. That's the biggest and only flaw in Dwyane's game.
Deron Williams
10 of 10
Deron Williams is another one of those complete player. His scoring, passing and defense are pretty thorough. This season, he is on pace to become only the seventh player in league history to average 20 points and 10 assists per game.
Despite the fact that he averages over 20 a game, his shooting leaves something to be desired. Surprisingly, Williams field goal percentage is the worst it's been since his rookie year.
Williams isn't a bad shooter, nor is he really a particularly inefficient player. His 1.33 points per attempt is above the league average. It's just with some of these players, and on this scale, you don't want to see them settle for average.
If Williams could improve the rate he scores on long twos, or become a better post up player, he could raise his field goal percentage. It's not a glaring flaw, but it is an imperfection that could be improved upon.
