In honor of the NBA season avoiding complete cancellation and opening on Christmas day (!!!), I figured I would switch it up and make a non-poker related post. Instead, I am going to engage in one of my favorite activities: making a top10 list. Here are my thoughts on the10 best NBA players of the 2010-2011 season:
Honorable Mention: Kevin Love
Kevin Love has to be the most underrated player in the league because let’s be honest, his game is boring. It consists mainly of getting in insanely good rebounding position, grabbing offensive (and defensive) boards, using his ridiculously thick body to prevent taller players from blocking his shots, and then finally making a layup. While he may suffer from Tim Duncan Disease (being so boring that nobody cares how great a player you are), he did lead the league in virtually every rebounding category, averaging 15.2 RPG and 4.5 offensive RPG. Granted, when you’re rebounding for the likes of Wesley Johnson and Corey Brewer, you will get plenty of rebounding opportunities, but Love was also 3rd in the league in rebounding rate (behind Reggie Evans and Marcus Camby). The man had a ridiculous 53 consecutive double doubles last year including 31 and 31 in a game, and still somehow didn’t get voted into the all-star game. In addition to being an animal on the boards, he’s a great passing big man, shoots 85% from the line, and can actually step back and hit the three on occasion (42% last year).
Don’t believe me about how boring his game is? Check out this so-called ‘highlight’ video from one of his best games last season:
10. Zach Randolph
There are only two reasons why Zack Randolph is on this list over Love. First, his team had more than 16 wins and he was awesomely entertaining to watch in the post-season. Second, I am genuinely afraid he might find me and eat me if he found out he got left off a top10 list. Randolph was 2nd in off rebounding (4.2), 3rd in overall rebounding (12.2), and shot a very solid 76% from the FT line. Oh yeah, and he also averaged 20.4 pts a game while shooting over 50% from the field. For all the knocks of him being a selfish player, he averaged 2.2 APG (twice as many as Dwight Howard) and ‘only’ turned it over twice a game (roughly half as frequently as Howard). I’ve also never seen an NBA player be so effective without using his off-hand. I think he’s the only NBA player that could average 20 points a game if you chopped off his right arm. Check out this highlight where he scores 34 points while barely touching the ball with his right hand (Please forgive the Hubie Brown rambling). My favorite part has to be where he blatantly shoves Durant out-of-bounds to grab a board (2:18).
9. Chris Paul
Image taken from chrispaulworkout.com
Despite my alleged point guard bias, CPIII is one of only two PGs to make this top 10 list. Even though he has not been the same player since his knee issues (and playing on New Orleans certainly doesn’t help matters), he is one of the best pure PGs to ever play the game. While his APG and PPG were both down in 2010-2011 (9.9 APG versus 10.7 in 2009 and 16.3 PPG versus 18.7), he was still 4th in the league in APG. Most importantly, he had the best assist-to-turnover ratio of the top 5 point guards (Rose, Rondo, Nash, Williams) averaging almost 4.5 assists for every turnover. He also led the league in steals/game, shot 87% from the FT line, and pretty much single-handedly got New Orleans into the playoffs. I can't wait to watch him throw ridiculous alley-oops to Blake all year.
8. Amare Stoudemire
Image taken from shortshortsweakprose.com
Amare had a huge first half of 2010 and he was a lot of people’s early favorite for MVP. I think he had a great season and definitely proved he could succeed without Nash setting him up for dunk after dunk. He was tied for fifth in the league in scoring (25.3), shot over 50% from the field, and rejuvenated the Knicks franchise. That being said, stats can’t really capture how bad he is at defense or how many more points the Knicks because Amare is staring off into space instead of playing help-side D. I'll never forgive him for not playing any defense on those Suns teams. I’m not a huge fan of the +/- stat for basketball, but I think its telling that Amare couldn’t even crack the top 5 of the Knicks in terms of +/-
7. Kobe Bryant
Image taken from wikepidea.org
Kobe is obviously on the way down, but he still had a strong 2010-2011 campaign tying Amare for 5th in the league in scoring (25.3). While his points, rebounds and assists were all slightly down in 2010-2011, this seems to have been mostly a function of him playing 5 less minutes per game. He shot around the same FG% (45%) that he has his whole career and was still one of the most dangerous scorers in the game. Though I’ve never liked Kobe (mostly because people unfairly compare him to MJ and it’s not even close), he has 5 rings for a reason. Let's just hope he never gets that 6th ring or the Jordan comparisons will never end.
6. Dwight Howard
Image taken from soletron.com
This is probably lower than many people would rank Dwight and according to pretty much any player efficiency stat, he should be higher. ESPN ranks him 2nd behind only LBJ and hoopstats.com ranks him 1st in efficiency and for good reason. He averaged 14.2 RPG, 4.0 Off RPG, averaged 2.3 blocks per game, and shot almost 60% from the field. He did all that while averaging 22.9 PPG (good for 11th in the league) and playing awesome help defense. He’s very likely the most dominant defensive force in NBA history. But I still can’t put a player in the top5 when they are a liability on the FT line (59.6%) and can’t really create their own shot. His first few years in the league I was concerned he'd break the backboard every time he took a shot. His offensive prowess did improve significantly last year though (added his best impersonation of Tim Duncan with the bank shot and something of a rolling across the lane hook shot) so he could still end up being a very good offensive player.
Stay tuned for the top 5, which I will hopefully be posting by X-mas! Let me know which players you agree/disagree with.
All stats taken from espn.com, hoopstats.com, and nba.com. Videos uploaded from you-tube.
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