[giddyup123Participant]

 After seeing the poll on the site about how many franchise-level players this upcoming draft will turn out, I’m curious as to what people think "franchise player" means? Given that some people believe 3-5 players from this draft turn into franchise players (to my standards, way to high), I think the label is a bit ambiguous.

I think its super hard to define because of the complexities of the NBA and becomes a sort of arbitrary argument. But the most black-and-white way I see it, a franchise player is someone whose presence essentially elevates a team to a whole new "tier" in the nba scheme compared to a league-average starter at their position. a couple examples: 

-on one end of the spectrum: making a team go from a 10th place finish to a legit title contender by his joining the team (Lebron James), or simililarly Anthony Davis leading to a very tough-to-get 8th seed in the west instead of likely a bottom 4 conference finish with an average starting PF replacement.

-someone like Stephen Curry, whose game takes the warriors from a playoff team with a ceiling of the WC Semi-Finals if they still had a pretty decent nba PG (like Jrue Holiday, for a completely random example) to a favorite

So its a little aribitrary but to my estimation, I don’t believe that many players exist in the league. To me right now these guys are:

Lebron, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Russell Westrbook, Paul George, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Marc Gasol, John Wall (wouldn’t have listed him prior to the playoffs!)

A few others that are borderline without a doubt and can go either way:

Demarcus Cousins, Lamarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan*, Kawhi Leonard*, Joakim Noah, Al Horford

And then these guys who used to be (within the last 3 years ) or are close:

Dwight Howard, Damien Lillard, Klay Thompson, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, D-Wade, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki, Derrick Rose, Carmelo, Kobe

*the Spurs players are tough because with Pop’s wizardly ways, his players always seem to be so much more "nonessential" than they really are due to his ability to make his system work with unheralded players. That being said I believe right now the Spurs are in a period where Duncan is leaving the "franchise-level" player and Kawhi is entering it.

Just my 2 cents though.. Thoughts?

 

[Ribet JimiParticipant]

So its a little aribitrary but to my estimation, I don’t believe that many players exist in the league. To me right now these guys are:

[Author]

Posts