I am a fan of WSU and a huge basketball fan so I watch their basketball games.  The Cougs made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament where they were eliminated by UNC.  Even making it that far in the tournament not many people know about them.  They have a good coach who was coach of the year last year in the Pac-10.  Their 3 star players Kyle Weaver, Derrick Low and Robbie Cowgill are all seniors and will be graduating at the end of this year.  Next year might not be a good year for Cougars basketball unless they recruited some good players or the rest of the team does good.  Robbie Cowgill doesn't have much of a chance at making the NBA so I don't expect him to declare for the draft.  But I think that Kyle Weaver and Derrick Low have a pretty good chance.  Derrick Low would probably go in the late 40's or 50's of the draft while Kyle Weaver could go in the 20's, 30's or 40's of the draft.  Kyle Weaver isn't a scorer type person but he is a really go all around player.  He is the only player in Pac-10 history to have 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 150 steals and 75 blocks in a college career.  Derrick Low is one of the top 3-point shooters in the country.  I hope they can both make the NBA but I don't know what the NBA Scouts think of them.

This blog is about which players are the best in the league by my opinion. 

 I will start with Centers.

 I think that the best choices for best centers in the league are Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum.  The obvious choice here that is not the best is Andrew Bynum because he is the youngest and has had only half a seasons worth of good games in his career.  I will break them down into best at each major category that should be part of a centers skill set.  Amare averages the most points out of them followed by Yao and then Dwight.  On defense Yao and Dwight are dominant forces while Amare isn't known for his defense just like his team.  Dwight averages the most points per game while Amare is second.  Yao may not average more blocks than Amare but he is barely behind him and he works harder on defense than Amare.  Rebound is led by Dwight then Yao and last is Amare.  Dwight and Yao are taller and have more tendencies to get rebounds than Amare.  Dwight has the most potential than all of them because he is the youngest by a couple years.  Yao and Amare are soon to enter there prime while Dwight has a couple years to go but I still think Dwight is the best.

 WINNER: Dwight Howard

 WHY: He is the most dominant of all of them on both ends of the court.  He may average the least amount of points but he leads in blocks and rebounds.

 Next is the Power Forwards which I have more options for.  The best choices are Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, and Chris Bosh.  Left out were Al Jefferson and Rasheed Wallace because Al is young and not known has one of the best and Rasheed is getting older and isn't as good as the other people any more.  If we look at stats than you see that the leading scorer is Dirk while the leading rebounder is Duncan.  Duncan and Garnett are probably most people's obvious choice for best power forwards in the league so I think the argument should be between both of them and Dirk because he is in his prime and doing well.  Chris Bosh and Pau Gasol have the most potential because they are the youngest but neither of them are as good as the other 3 yet.  Dirk has the best jump shot but that isn't really a power forward skill.  Tim Duncan and Garnett have been in the league the longest.  While Garnett has better career stats than Duncan, Duncan has the 4 championship rings.  Some people may think it's because he has people like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker on his team while Garnett was on the bad Timberwolves team.  Now that Garnett is on the Celtics with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce he knows what it's like to have all-star teammates.  Tim Duncan is known for being the best power forward and that's what I think he is.

 WINNER: Tim Duncan

 WHY: He has the rings and has led his team to do great things and he makes his teammates better while being a dominant force.

Next is the Small Forwards.  The best small forward's in the league are Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Caron Butler, Richard Jefferson, and Paul Pierce.  Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony are definitely the 2 best small forwards in the league so the argument will be about them.  Lebron has way better stats than Carmelo but Carmelo has to share the spotlight with Allen Iverson.  Lebron drives to the basket about 95% of the time and just out muscles and out travels everyone else to score.  He is leading the league in scoring while putting up good assist and rebound numbers as well.  He doesn't really make a real flow of everyone on the team with ball movement he just drives and scores or passes to one of the open people for an assist-score.  Carmelo isn't ever the facilitator because that is not his role on the team.  Carmelo has a way better jump shot and is a more clutch shooter while Lebron just gets game winning lay-ups and dunks which aren't really clutch.  They are both good but I have made my decision.

 WINNER: Carmelo Anthony

 WHY: He is a better shooter and can score good too while not complaining about sharing the spotlight with one of the greatest ever in my opinion.

Next is the Shooting Guards.  It is a pretty obvious choice but I will make an argument for the other 2 guards in the league as well.  My choices are Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, and Manu Ginobili.  Andre Igoudala, Joe Johnson and Ray Allen just missed the cut.  The two best from this group are definitely Kobe Bryant and a healthy Dwyane Wade.  Kobe has better stats then D-Wade except in assist and fg%.  Kobe is leading a championship contender team while Wade is out for the season on the worst team in the league.  The choice is obvious so I'm not going to waste any more time.

 WINNER: Kobe Bryant

 WHY: He is considered the best shooting guard in the league by everyone except for die-hard fans of the other shooting guards and kobe-haters.  He is also the most skilled shooting guard and if you don't believe just watch a laker game.

And last but not least is the point guards which will be the closest and best argument of them all.  The contenders are Baron Davis, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams and Allen Iverson.  Paul is the best passer, Iverson is the best scorer, Kidd is the best rebounder and Nash is the worst defensively.  Chris Paul is a major MVP candidate while none of the others are and he leads the league in assists and steals.  Steve Nash has won two MVP's before even if he deserved it or not.  Iverson and Kidd has been some of the best for a long time.  Chris Paul and Deron Williams just got really good.  Steve Nash has been really good for the past couple of years.  We will do a process of elimination to come up with a final two that will compete for the title of best point guard in the league.  A point guard has to be someone that enforces ball movement and doesn't chuck up shots so Baron Davis is out first.  They are all good passer and scorers but not all of them are good on the defensive end.  Because of his lack of defense Steve Nash is eliminated second.  It doesn't mean he is the worst out of this group of people it's just that he isn't the best and isn't very good defensively.  On the scoring part of the offensive end they are all good (including Nash) except for Jason Kidd, so he is eliminated next.  Every one of the nominees even the ones out are good passer's so I can't judge it on that until the final round.  If you look at how good they are and how underrated some of them are Deron Williams is out next.  Deron Williams is very underrated and should have been on the all-star team.  The final round is Chris Paul vs. Allen Iverson.  One is a multiple scoring champ and MVP while the other is an up and coming and incredibly good player.  They are both crazy good but one of them has to loss.  It is close but one of them is more of a point guard than the other one.  I'll give you a hint the winner wears #3 on their jersey.

 WINNER: Chris Paul

 WHY: He is turning into a really good point guard and an amazing passer.  He has made his teammates around him better while leading them to the playoffs.

 Leave a Comment telling me about who I accidentally left out and your opinions on who is the best of each position and of the whole league.  The finalists are Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.  The post that is the final round with the best from each position is coming soon.

The NBA playoff system is the best 8 teams from the western conference and the eastern conference.  With the Western conference being so dominant right now there are many people who want to change the playoff system to the best 16 teams in the whole league.  The Warriors, Mavericks or Nuggets are going to miss the playoffs because they are in the West.  If they were in the east they would be the third seed and would have clinched a playoff spot weeks ago.  One of the problems with just putting in the top 16 teams from each conference is that the regular season schedule would have to be completely changed and teams would have to travel cross country several times for a playoff series.  That way wouldn't work very well and there would be more traveling for the players.  If they kept the schedule the same and still had the best 8 from each conference making the playoffs and they made the team with the worst record play the team with the best in a 1-16 bracket a lot of the western teams would advance past the first round instead of being eliminated in the first round like they are going to be with the playoff setup there is now.  The only problem would be the traveling but it would be a lot more fair for the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th seed western teams because they would have homecourt advantage against weaker eastern teams that are ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th in their conference instead of not having homecourt advantage against stronger western teams.  The Celtics would be the #1 seed and would face the #16 seed which will probably be the Hawks and the #2 Pistons would face the #15 seed Raptors or Sixers, but the better matchups would be the #10 seeded Magic facing the #7 seeded Suns (could be Rockets by playoff time or Jazz without division leader rule) and the #8 seed Jazz (could also be Suns or Rockets) facing #9 seed Mavericks.  Other good matchups are Lakers vs. Cavaliers and Rockets vs. Nuggets or Warriors.  With this playoff format the finals could end up being Celtics vs. Pistons, Hornets vs. Lakers or any other combination.