top three at each position

[Edgar]

so edgar, then who is your no. 3, you are just gonna stick with 2? This is the "top three at each position" thread. Why not just name that 3rd one, hell, even make it James Posey if you want, better yet, how about michael beasley

Healthy Manu, or hes a two
lol
Jefferson
wait
Josh
wait
Caron
wait
Durant
wait
Huge all tied

[kw10]

nash?? you got to be kidding me. I have officially placed him as a globe trotter but not a overall good pg. His defense is so average. Arenas aint not pg, his defense is very suspect also.

I forgot a little about tony parker. But rondo played very well against him this year .

Because of rondo's defense i'd take him over parker, cmon

lastly nowitski hasn't done much the past two years. Horrific losses. He is not really a pf either. Think about it, he is not around the post long to grab rebounds. Gasol was a decent inside presence as we saw defensively and offesnvily

Amen to that. TP for you.

[Steve Weinman]

nash?? you got to be kidding me. I have officially placed him as a globe trotter but not a overall good pg. His defense is so average. Arenas aint not pg, his defense is very suspect also.

I forgot a little about tony parker. But rondo played very well against him this year .

Because of rondo's defense i'd take him over parker, cmon

lastly nowitski hasn't done much the past two years. Horrific losses. He is not really a pf either. Think about it, he is not around the post long to grab rebounds. Gasol was a decent inside presence as we saw defensively and offesnvily

Amen to that. TP for you.

What part of the bolded statement is accurate?  A year ago, Nowitzki had one of the most efficient offensive seasons this league has seen from a big-time scorer, putting up the vaunted 50-40-90 -- 50 percent from the field, 40 from three, 90 from the stripe, for a true shooting of 60.5 percent -- and he earned 24.6 points per game that way.  Maybe I'm not thinking this through, but I can only think of only one other 20-plus-point scorer doing that sort of thing with any regularity; some here might be familiar with him: Larry Bird.  For a guy who isn't a great inside presence (you're right about that), I don't begrudge Dirk the fact that he averaged almost nine boards per game.  Though his percentages dropped this season, he still was very high in TS% and had another solid year as a scorer and rebounder.  Further, he also showed some of the more fiery leadership we've seen from him down the stretch when he was largely responsible for even getting the Mavs to the playoffs this season.

[Aside: In fact, having shot 48 percent in 2005-06, Dirk has come perilously close to going 50-40-90-20 twice, which -- if memory serves -- would make him the only non-Bird player to ever have done that.  Don't quote me on that one (there could be a player or two I'm forgetting on this list), but I believe that's what I heard the last time I looked into trivia of this sort.]

If you want to talk about the Mavs' struggles in the playoffs (some due to him, some not), that's another story.  But to say he "hasn't done much" over the last two seasons is grossly unfair.

-sw

[Triboy16]

In terms of playoffs sir, he hasn't done much. Getting ousted by the 8th ceeded gs and this past year once again ousted. And remember his teams weren't bad

Rondo >> nash in defensive by a heck lot. Rondo rebounds, steals, and is a havoc on everyone. Nash can barely stick with the pg he is defending sometimes. Nash once again is a great offensive pg but winning games playground style won't get you nowhere. And especially if you can't stop the other teams pg you are doomed no matter how many points you can generate for your team

And also right now rondo has a ring, nash doesn't. I've watched nash play and he is spectacular as cousy was as a pg. But DEFENSE wins championships

[Steve Weinman]

In terms of playoffs sir, he hasn't done much. Getting ousted by the 8th ceeded gs and this past year once again ousted. And remember his teams weren't bad

Rondo >> nash in defensive by a heck lot. Rondo rebounds, steals, and is a havoc on everyone. Nash can barely stick with the pg he is defensive sometimes. Nash once again is a great offensive pg but winning games playground style won't get you nowhere. And especially if you can't stop the other teams pg you are doomed no matter how many points you can generate for your team

And also right now rondo has a ring, nash doesn't. I've watched nash play and he is spectacular as cousy was as a pg. But DEFENSE wins championships

In the words of my main man Sopan, so does Gabe Pruitt.

I've never contested the defensive issue between the two of them, but I think you're going a bit over-the-top here is all I'm saying.

Certainly, the complexion of this team's style is a bit different with Nash rather than Rondo, but the C's are likely still a big-time defensive team -- and better on the offensive end.

Again, I have no complaints with the way things went.  I love Raj, and I'm looking forward to years of him developing more.  But I can't buy the claim that he is -- at this point -- better than the Nashty one.

Further, I'm just amused by your labeling of Nash's play as "playground" in comparison to Rondo's.

-sw

[Roy Hobbs]

C: Yao / Howard / Amare
PF: Duncan / KG / Dirk
SF: Lebron / Pierce / Carmelo
SG: Kobe / Wade / Ginobli
PG: CP3 / Deron / Nash

I haven't read this thread all the way through, but it shocks me the number of people who left Amare and Dirk off their lists on the first page.

Quibble with Nash if you want, but the guy puts up 17 points and 11 assists, while shooting 50% from the field, 47% from three, and 90% from the line.  I don't care how poor he is on defense, those numbers are enough to build a team around. 

On a per minute basis, Nash outscored, out-shot, out-rebounded, and out-passed the man he was guarding.  When you're outproducing the other side across the board when you're in there, I'd say you're doing something right.

[Steve Weinman]

In terms of playoffs sir, he hasn't done much. Getting ousted by the 8th ceeded gs and this past year once again ousted. And remember his teams weren't bad

Rondo >> nash in defensive by a heck lot. Rondo rebounds, steals, and is a havoc on everyone. Nash can barely stick with the pg he is defensive sometimes. Nash once again is a great offensive pg but winning games playground style won't get you nowhere. And especially if you can't stop the other teams pg you are doomed no matter how many points you can generate for your team

And also right now rondo has a ring, nash doesn't. I've watched nash play and he is spectacular as cousy was as a pg. But DEFENSE wins championships

Again, your phrasing was "nowitski [sic] hasn't done much the last two years."  That's a non-restrictive comment, and thus I commented to clarify the issue of his regular season play.

As far as the playoffs are concerned, I won't accuse him of being the most clutch player in the world, but I have at least something of a problem with grouping this year's loss with last year's.  The GSW loss was humiliating. This year, they were the seven seed playing against a team simply much better than they were -- and all Dirk did in the series was go 26.8-12-4 on 47.3 percent shooting.  It's his fault they didn't have the personnel to have a chance to stop CP3?  Again, I think not.

-sw

[Triboy16]

for the current celts team rondo is a better fit than nash.

[soap07]

On a per minute basis, Nash outscored, out-shot, out-rebounded, and out-passed the man he was guarding.  When you're outproducing the other side across the board when you're in there, I'd say you're doing something right.

I agree on Nash's greatness, Roy. But on this point, Nash doesn't always guard opposing point guards because of his weakness on defense.

[soap07]

David west i've watched for a while he is more like a sf. The way he dribbles, shoots. He doesn't post alot, stays within the mid perimeter, drives alot. Is a good rebounder. I dunno i think he is a sf

Is Kevin Garnett a PF?

[Steve Weinman]

David west i've watched for a while he is more like a sf. The way he dribbles, shoots. He doesn't post alot, stays within the mid perimeter, drives alot. Is a good rebounder. I dunno i think he is a sf

Is Kevin Garnett a PF?

Well, he is a better three-point shooter than West 

With respective trey percentages of .284 and .279 for their careers, neither is blowing anyone's doors off from there.

The mid-range shooting is simply part of these games for a lot of PFs.  Rasheed Wallace loves to jack 'em up, too.  But like West, he defends opposing PFs, plays interior defense and does his share of rebounding.  These guys are PFs.

-sw

[Roy Hobbs]

You have duncan as pf but amare as center??

Amare played center for over half the season, with Marion at PF.  He's played center for most of his career.  According to 82games.com, he played 52% of the Suns' total minutes at center this year, as opposed to only 15% of their minutes at PF.

Duncan, Elson, Thomas, and Oberto all rotate between the center and power forward positions; none is a "true" center or "true" power forward.  When Elson is in there, Duncan plays more as a classic power forward; when Oberto or Bonner plays, Duncan takes on the role more of a center.  With Kurt Thomas, it's a mix.

Still, if you're going to quibble, feel free to flip-flop the two.

[cooleststan]

does nash play any good defense?? is parker better than rondo in defense?? rondo is the best defensive pg right now and in overall factor with his progressing offense(i mean he is above average, most smart teams rather have him than nash)

nash is good on offense but how about defense?

HA you make it sound like rondo is a lock down defender, if you even watched the palyoffs this year, you know he could work on lot on his defense as well
saying rondo is better than tony parker or steve nash is just pure idiocy, and this is coming from a huge celtics and rondo fan as well.
plz at least know what you are talking about before you post.

[Steve Weinman]

does nash play any good defense?? is parker better than rondo in defense?? rondo is the best defensive pg right now and in overall factor with his progressing offense(i mean he is above average, most smart teams rather have him than nash)

nash is good on offense but how about defense?

HA you make it sound like rondo is a lock down defender, if you even watched the palyoffs this year, you know he could work on lot on his defense as well
saying rondo is better than tony parker or steve nash is just pure idiocy, and this is coming from a huge celtics and rondo fan as well.
plz at least know what you are talking about before you post.

Also a crucial point, TP.  Raj helps make this defense go by virtue of the fact that he is a very good gambler -- he jumps passing lanes and sprints over for traps and very well, which leads over to plenty of sneaky help-side steals, a lot of deflections and the occasional blocked shot due to his quickness and athleticism.  That being said, like many on this team, while he is a very good team defender already (not to say that couldn't improve, but he's very good in that area for a second-year player), he has more than a fair bit of work to do with regard to his individual man defense.  He still tends to be a bit too susceptible to flying all over the place on up-fakes (which means both being out of position and committing fouls), and he's had his share of trouble with stronger point guards this season.

As coolestsan (and others) point out, I don't mean this as any sort of Raj-bashing session.  I'm a huge fan of the youngster, and I love watching him play.  But that doesn't mean that aren't areas for his game to improve -- or that he's necessarily at the level of two-time MVP Steve Nash.

-sw

[Cooldude5t5]

C- 1.Yao 2. Amare 3. Howard
PF- 1. Duncan 2. KG 3. Dirk
SF- 1. LeBron 2. Pierce 3. Butler (he's a more complete player than Melo)
SG- 1. Kobe 2. Manu 3. Monta Ellis (if Wade comes back strong then he moves above Ellis)
PG- 1. CP3 2. Parker 3. Deron Williams ( The future of PG is so bright, these three plus rondo and rose coming this year)