NBA Power Rankings: The 5 Best Players at Each Position in the League Today
There is a debate in the NBA that is never-ending: Who is the MVP? This is something that people can argue about for hours and still never change their opinion.
There has been a Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James debate for the past four or five years.
We've had a Deron Williams vs. Chris Paul debate that has all but ended since Paul's knee surgery.
Up until this year we have had people arguing between Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo (Rose absolutely murdered that debate this year, in case you were wondering).
People have been debating over whether one player is better than another since the dawn of sports, and it is something that is going to happen until a nuclear holocaust destroys the planet.
Instead of me wasting everyone's time and trying to solve individual player debates, I'll just go through and give you the best player at each position.
Point Guard: The Contenders
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The five best point guards in the league shape up, in no particular order, as Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook.
Derrick Rose is a guy that is athletically superior to any other point guard in the NBA. He is faster, stronger and can jump higher than anyone guarding him.
He's averaging 25-8-4 along with shooting percentages that amount to 44-33-86, all while holding a team together that had at least one of its most important players out for a big chunk of the season.
Russell Westbrook is like a bigger version of Rose, but it seems he would be more suited as a two-guard at times.
He is a great point guard, but he isn't a great decision maker like Rose, Rondo or Steve Nash.
Chris Paul is one of the best facilitators in the league, averaging 16-10-4, and is one of the best at getting everyone in the offense involved in the game.
Deron Williams can break nearly anyone down off the dribble and is an amazing scorer for a point guard, and is one of the few guards averaging a double-double at 20-10 a game.
Rajon Rondo is one of the most exciting players in the league to watch.
There are things he can do with a basketball that absolutely leave a person in awe. He can find any passing window and get the ball through it as it is slamming closed.
Rondo is also one of the few triple-double threats at the point guard position.
NBA's Best Point Guard: Derrick Rose
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To give the nod to anyone other than the MVP candidate Rose would be an absolute slap in the face.
You would have to have me institutionalized for even considering anyone else after the season Rose has had.
He has held a team together that has seen Joakim Noah miss 35 games and Carlos Boozer miss 24 games.
Since the whole team has been together the Bulls have been absolutely on fire, with Derrick Rose continuing to be the centerpiece of the team.
The Bulls absolutely have to be the favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference just because of Derrick Rose, and I wouldn't be surprised if they end up winning their first title since the days of Michael Jordan.
Shooting Guard: The Contenders
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This debate comes down to Kobe Bean Bryant and Dwyane Wade—forgive me for not pretending there are three other guys in the league that could even make a case to be included here.
For the sake of making the title of this slideshow make sense, the other three would be Manu Ginobili, Joe Johnson and Monta Ellis, but they don't matter in this debate.
Let's start by comparing their games bit by bit.
This year Wade has been the better shooter by far—by any statistics or advanced metrics you try to use, Wade takes this category.
Wade is shooting 50-31-75 from the field, three-point line and free-throw line respectively, while leading all shooting guards at 25.8 points a game.
For all of the advanced metrics people out there, his effective field goal percentage is just around 52 percent and his true shooting percentage is just over 58 percent.
Kobe is right at 45-32-82 for his shooting percentages, scoring 25.1 per game with an effective field goal percentage of 48.5 percent and a true shooting percentage of 54.5 percent.
As far as defense goes, it's hard to argue against Wade here as well.
Statistically speaking, Wade has a handful more steals than Bryant and a truckload more blocks, out-rebounding Bryant along the way as well.
The biggest factor that makes me feel that Wade is a better defender this season is age and usage.
Bryant has logged many more minutes than Wade, and as a result he is a step slower and a step easier to get around. This isn't a knock on Bryant, but rather a compliment to Wade.
In the clutch, both players are very close, but the nod goes to Bryant just a tad over Wade. Kobe shoots a percent better than Wade from the field, gets to the free throw line more often and shoots better from the free throw line, assists more and rebounds more in the clutch.
The only knock on Kobe is the fact that he shoots way too many threes in crunch time while making only 31 percent of them. Conversely, Wade drains 42 percent of his threes.
NBA's Best Shooting Guard: Dwyane Wade
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I just can't make myself decide against Wade here. No matter how much it goes through my mind that the Kobe fan-boys are going to flip their lids when they read this, I just can't convince myself that Bryant had a better season.
Over the course of their respective careers, Bryant wins out over Wade every time, but this year, Wade takes the cake.
He has been better than Bryant in almost every conceivable way, arguably with less help than Bryant.
Bryant has had three great big men, a better point guard and a better bench to play with, while Wade has basically been playing three-on-five all season long.
Sure, Wade is playing with one guy who could be argued to be the best player in the league and a big man who is an All-Star, but they have played with corpses at the 1 and 5 spots.
Wade is my pick for best NBA shooting guard this year by the smallest of margins.
Small Forward: Contenders
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LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce and Rudy Gay would round out my top five small forwards this season in the NBA.
There could be a case made for Carmelo or Pierce against LeBron or Durant (there's a big dropoff in talent after the top four), but the debate is really between James and Durant, no matter how long you ponder the question.
When you look at these two guys, they are quite similar statistically, but there is one obvious choice, no matter how bad you want to decide otherwise (and I do).
James' shooting, at 51-33-76, up against Durant's, which is 45-35-88, is the only point in this debate where you could consider giving the edge to Durant.
James is better at creating his own shot, he is a better rebounder and ball handler, and he is a better defender by about a mile.
In the clutch, you could also give the edge to James, as his percentages stay about even with his regular stats (save for his three-pointers, which dip to 26 percent), while Durant takes a noticeable dip in field goal percentage and becomes a bit handcuffed in comparison to James when you take in his slight inability to create for himself.
Durant is the better leader, but that is about the only thing on the checklist that is a given for this argument.
NBA's Best Small Forward: LeBron James
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LeBron James could not be an easier choice here, and although there are forwards that do individual parts of the game better than James, there are none that combine their game to be great in almost every aspect.
Because of that, James is an MVP candidate, although winning another one is questionable because of Derrick Rose's amazing season.
James may be one of the biggest villains in the NBA (a role that he still hasn't embraced, despite everything he says), but he is still the best small forward in the game and arguably the best all-around player in the league.
It pains me to praise this guy, but it has to be done.
Power Forward: The Contenders
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Of the power forwards around the NBA, the top five would go Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol and Amar'e Stoudemire.
There is a lot of competition for the number one power forward spot, and some people may look at this and see three guys inexplicably left off the list.
Kevin Love, Chris Bosh and Blake Griffin have been great all year long, and their exclusion from the top five is a testament to how deep the power forward position is in this league.
There are three guys on there who are either the best player on their team all year or for part of the year and two more who would be considered the second best on their team.
When it comes down to it, Love is just a bit defensively shaky, Griffin is still young and Bosh is the third-best player on his team and is defensively soft.
The other guys are all either offensively sound enough to lead their teams to a good number of wins or are defensively stout enough to anchor their team's defensive efforts.
NBA's Best Power Forward: Dirk Nowitzki
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Dirk Nowitzki is having a monster year leading a team that shouldn't be as good as it is to the No. 3 seed in the West.
The Mavericks' second-best player is Jason Terry, a guy who might not even be a top-five player in Portland or Los Angeles.
Along with Terry, Dirk has dragged along Jason Kidd's slowly deteriorating body, Shawn Marion, who is slowly sliding toward retirement, Roddy Beaubois, who is good on his own right but still a bit young, and Tyson Chandler, who has played well this season.
Dallas has 50 of their 54 wins with Dirk in the lineup; without him they are clueless.
Dirk is the reason this team is the third-best team in the West, and has done an amazing job of getting the most out of this team.
Center: Contenders
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The top five centers in the league, at least as far as I can tell, would be Dwight Howard, Al Horford, Nene, Al Jefferson and Andrew Bynum.
There is such a big gap between the best center and the second-best center in the NBA that Evel Knievel should jump it.
Without spoiling the suspense of the next slide (because I'm sure nobody out there knows who I'm talking about yet), the league's best center is a top-five player in the league, while the next best center may not even be in the top 25.
It used to be that there were at least two terrific centers roaming the league that would eventually clash in an epic matchup. Now one guy is head and shoulders above the rest.
NBA's Best Center: Dwight Howard
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Raise your hand if you are surprised. If your hand is currently raised, walk out your door, get into your car and drive into the nearest lake.
This is the biggest no-brainer in the NBA.
Dwight Howard has the tools to absolutely dominate the rest of the league, and although he doesn't do it as much as he could, he is the most dominant player in the game when he gets rolling.
Howard is averaging a nice 23-14 with 2.3 blocks a game, and you could complain that he should be better, but that doesn't mean he isn't the best center in the game, just that he could be better than the best center in the game.
Dwight Howard is an absolute monster, and with the lack of talent at the 5-spot in the NBA recently, he is able to dismantle his competition.
