NBA Superstar Power Rankings: Who’s The Top Dog?

Many great players have came into the NBA over the years. There’s Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James just to name a few. Yesterday, Stephen Curry was awarded his second straight NBA MVP award, but that wasn’t the controversial part. In the midst of becoming only the third point guard in league history to receive back to back MVP awards, he also became the first player EVER to unanimously win the award. The remarkable accomplishment, as you can imagine, brought in mixed responses on whether this was a good thing for the league. One of the more notable comments came from two time scoring champ and current ESPN NBA analyst Tracy McGrady, who had a pretty decent career himself. In the clip above during ESPN’s The Jump, McGrady was asked about his thoughts on Curry becoming the first ever unanimous MVP in which he responded by saying that league had been “watered down” and that in previous years there were more superstars on different teams. At first glance, the comments seem ridiculous and similar to what your granddad may be saying about Curry’s record breaking season. But if you look deeper… Nope still seems ridiculous. The one thing about McGrady’s comments that didn’t deserve a “Donkey of The Day” nod is when he said that during the Jordan era, the diversity between the competitiveness of teams was more apparent. You had the usual suspects in Boston, LA, and Chicago, but you also had superstars in places like Philadelphia, Orlando, and even Seattle with players like Charles Barkley, Penny Hardaway and Gary Payton, respectively. Now a days in the Association, we see stars pair up in cities like Miami, Cleveland, and an attempt in Houston (even attempt might be a reach of a word). Regardless, T-Mac’s comments got us to thinking, who really are the top dogs in the league right now? We decided to put together a list of the top superstars in today’s league. To be included, the player had to have marketability, team success, individual talent and most importantly, a big impact on the league. With that being said, we present you with RESPECT. Mag’s NBA Superstar Power Rankings.

Give me a Bromance like Cameron Payne and Russell Westbrook’s! ? https://t.co/1iUWdPMYAp

— King T’Challa (@Edwin_AFC) May 8, 2016

5. Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder

Never mind what Mark Cuban thinks, if we were making a list based off of pure talent and heart, Westbrook would have a strong case for number one. The Los Angeles native has always been known for his smash mouth style of play which includes incredible heart, ferocious dunks and on occasion, a lot of turnovers. Russ had one of his best seasons to date in his young career with him averaging 23.5 PPG, 7.8 RPG (remember he’s a point guard) and 10.4 assists per game which was a career high. He also finished 4th in MVP voting this year, and helped lead the OKC Thunder to a 55-27 record all while becoming one of the most marketable players in the league. Before this year, Westbrook was by no means an unknown commodity, but endorsers had yet to realize the marketing potential of the UCLA alumni. They did not make the same mistake this year with Russ getting nationally played commercials with Mountain Dew and Jordan. Probably the most impressive statistic though was his 18 triple doubles this season which is the most by any player since Magic Johnson had the same amount during the 1981-1982 season. Long story short, Westbrook has officially arrived.

4. Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs

Since Kawhi Leonard has entered the league as the 15th overall pick out of San Diego State, people have been undervaluing his talent. That stopped this year. Although Leonard has been chosen in previous seasons as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and the Finals MVP in 2014, people have been hesitant to anoint him as one of the top 3-5 players in the league. With a second DPOY in his back pocket and his first ever NBA All-Star appearance (travesty!), Leonard made the 2015-2016 season his personal coming out party. His Spurs team played one of the best seasons in NBA history while tying the NBA’s record for home wins going 40-1 in San Antonio this year. Kawhi also became a house hold name this season with stories on his spending habits, or lack of, and his massive hands (seriously they’re massive). With a strong season in the books which saw him post a career average in points (21.2) and player efficiency rating (26.11) which was third in the league for small forwards trailing only Kevin Durant and LeBron James. With Spurs’ legends Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli likely to retire soon, the keys will be officially handed to the 24-year-old Los Angeles native, which is scary for everybody else.

3. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

The common flaw that has always plagued the career of 27-year-old Thunder forward Kevin Durant is that he’s too nice. Critics have faulted him for being friendly with other players, not having a killer instinct during games, and being too passive with his point guard Russell Westbrook. Though those arguments carried weight in the past, the former number two overall pick dispelled every single one of those this season. After only playing 27 games last seasons due to injury and seeing his team miss the playoffs, The Slim Reaper (yeah I’m bringing that nickname back) elevated his game with a career high in rebounds (8.2) and a PER (28.25) which was second in the whole league only to Curry. While many people were singing the praises of Leonard, Curry and even Westbrook, Durant quietly solidified himself as one of the best 4th quarter performers in the league. With an MVP and a million scoring titles on his resume, the only thing holding KD back is that elusive first title, but with a commanding 3-2 series lead currently over the San Antonio Spurs, this could be the year we see Durant grow right before our eyes. With his contract up this summer with the OKC Thunder and speculation coming out that he could be pondering a team up with the Spurs, this series and these playoffs are do or die for Durant and company.

2. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

Recently I made the comparison of Akron native LeBron James to Hip-Hop superstar Drake (though Drizzy may prefer KD) to some colleagues of mine and they thought I was crazy until I explained, so hear me out. While both men are clearly among the best in their profession, we constantly demand more from them no matter what they’ve already given us. For example, Drake released one of his best sounding albums to date, as well as his best commercially released album in which people acknowledged the greatness of the album, but said that he hadn’t “evolved” or showed anything different (I’m talking to you Blanco and Joe Budden). Similarly, ‘Bron averaged 36 PPG, 13.3 RPG, and 9 APG during last years NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors without the other two members of his Big Three, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Despite having Timofey Mozgov and J.R. Smith as their replacements, LeBron took one of the greatest teams of all time to six games all by himself. Yet, everybody, myself included, rushed to sing the praises of Stephen Curry as the new face of the NBA, leaving LeBron with heated criticism about his amount of Finals’ losses and his failure to yet bring a championship to his hometown team. Plain and simple LeBron is the best basketball player in the world. The combination of his size at 6’9 250 lbs and his wide receiver like speed and athleticism already make him a problem but when you throw in his excellent court vision and his newly discovered post game, LBJ is something that we have never seen and might not ever see again. Like Drake with any new up and coming hot rapper, we tend to forget about LeBron’s greatness with 4 league MVPs by swiftly anointing challengers like Curry, Durant, or even Anthony Davis as the new faces of the league.

Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

Is this really a shock or a surprise to any of our readers out there? After completing a record breaking 2014-2015 season that saw him break the single season NBA record for threes in a season, win his first MVP award, and bring a title to The Bay for the first time in decades, Golden State Warriors’ point guard Stephen Curry gave the world an encore that nobody expected. Chef Curry followed up one of the best individual seasons in NBA history by garnering several first place votes for Most Improved Player this year. Let me repeat that, the man followed up an MVP season by almost winning Most Improved Player. That’s ridiculous. The 2015-2016 season saw Curry officially take LeBron’s place as the face of the league and despite criticism from retired legends who say he couldn’t last in the “Old NBA” (yawns), Curry led his team to the best regular season record in NBA history, 73-9, while breaking his own records for threes in a season and posting career highs in PER (31.56), points (30.1), and steals (2.1). Steph also became one of only a few players in history and the only scoring leader to join the 50-40-90 club which means he shot at least 50% from the field, 40% from three (he shot 45%), and 90% from the free throw line. Curry proved himself to be one of the most efficient scorers the league has ever seen all while helping elevate the games of teammates Draymond Green and Klay Thompson who became stars in their own right. The one and only flaw pointed out about his game has always been his durability with his career being plagued with ankle injuries the first four years. Though he stayed healthy all season, those fears became a reality when Curry not only tweaked his ankle but also sprained his MCL during these playoffs which cost him most of the first and second round of these playoffs. Despite critics saying “I told you so”, Curry returned for game 4 of the series against the Portland Trailblazers to “provide depth off of the bench” instead gifting us one of the greatest post season performances in sports history and arguably the greatest overtime outing ever which saw him score 40 points in the game 17 in overtime. Combine ridiculous nights like that with highlights like these and the unanimous MVP award and you have a recipe for becoming the face of the NBA. Oh, and I guess hanging out with the first family, your wife having a cooking show, and your adolescent daughter becoming the darling of sports media couldn’t hurt either. This league belongs to the Chef.