The status of Best in the league is up for stake this year...do you agree?

[SpecialQue]

It's between Durant and Lebron. I don't think anyone else is close really. Dwight Howard is 3rd.

Distant 3rd. CP3 also could have contended if the Clippers didn't fall off as much as they did.

[blablabla]

Are you using MVP criteria or just best player? Because Love has simply played better than Rose this year. Not even really debatable.

Rose has not only missed a lot of time, but his team is proving to be elite even without him. So you can toss out "wins" as a main criteria because they are winning without him. Rose has missed 16 of 50 games....LOL. Bulls are now 12-4 without him. And statistically he's been good, but not great:

23/8/4 on 45% shooting and he's played poorly overall in crunch time this year

LOL at acting like Westbrook over Rose this season is some crazy notion. Westbrook has better stats, is also winning, hasn't missed a lot of games, and has played much better in crunch time.

Rose could be argued for top 5....he could also be argued for not top 8.

the heat were winning without wade too and let's not act like the thunder would be a borderline playoff team without westbrook
and in what world is 24/5/5 on 4tos better than 23/8/4 on 3 tos
also if you can't make the playoffs you cant be a top 5 player

[Kingwillball]

I interprete things differently, Lebron has been the best player in the league for the past 3 years, however the gap is closing mainly because of Lebrons inability to close or show the clutch gene compiled with his awful Finals Performance has opened the door. Now if it happens again this playoffs and Durant or Rose have a great Playoffs and one of them wins Finals and Finals MVP than I agree the argument can be made..

[Celtics4ever]

If Durant didn't have Westbrook, he would be averaging 35 ppg

If durant didn't have westbrook, he would be constantly double teamed and his numbers would be down.

Durant is good, but Westbrook makes him look better

[DMAVS41]

the heat were winning without wade too and let's not act like the thunder would be a borderline playoff team without westbrook
and in what world is 24/5/5 on 4tos better than 23/8/4 on 3 tos
also if you can't make the playoffs you cant be a top 5 player

westbrook is more efficient and playing better in crunch time. i'm not saying its clear or that westbrook is even better.

i'm saying its debatable.

Love is definitely top 5 this year in my opinion. but that is just my opinion. i understand if someone wants to debate that. but nearly being .500 and playing the way he has is unreal.

heat won without wade. sure...when did i used that as a criteria for saying wade has been perhaps better than rose?

i could just as easily respond to all of your posts with:

you can't be a top 5 player putting up 23/8/4 on 45% shooting while missing 16 games and not playing well in crunch time and your team goes 12-4 without you.

Rose is somewhere in the 5 to 9 range this year. i can see arguments both ways. I'd lean closer to the 8 or 9 spot though.

[Jasi]

I'd say it's between Durant and LeBron as well, but damn this LeBron... every time something more than your average regular season game is at stake, he shrinks...

[D-Wade316]

the heat were winning without an injured wade

Fixed

[Sarcastic]

If Durant didn't have Westbrook, he would be averaging 35 ppg

[blablabla]

Fixed

[Nash]

Durant is like Dirk only with better range, more athletic and younger.

[guy]

Are you using MVP criteria or just best player? Because Love has simply played better than Rose this year. Not even really debatable.

Rose has not only missed a lot of time, but his team is proving to be elite even without him. So you can toss out "wins" as a main criteria because they are winning without him. Rose has missed 16 of 50 games....LOL. Bulls are now 12-4 without him. And statistically he's been good, but not great:

23/8/4 on 45% shooting and he's played poorly overall in crunch time this year

LOL at acting like Westbrook over Rose this season is some crazy notion. Westbrook has better stats, is also winning, hasn't missed a lot of games, and has played much better in crunch time.

Rose could be argued for top 5....he could also be argued for not top 8.

Where are you coming up with Rose being poor in crunch time? He's arguably been the most clutch player in the league.

Here are his shooting numbers within 5 point games under certain time frames in the 4th and OT:

last 3 min: 11-25
last 2 min: 9-17
last 1 min: 7-11
last 24 sec: 5-7

shots to tie or take the lead:

last 2 min: 5-10
last 1 min: 5-8
last 24 sec: 4-6
last 5 sec: 2-3

He's been a beast in crunch time. And the only reason he's not top 5 so far this year is cause of all the games he's missed. If it wasn't for that, he'd be basically having more or less the same year he had last year, and would be top 5 pretty easily with only Lebron, Durant, and Howard arguably over him.

His team isn't "elite" without him. They wouldn't have a chance to win anything significant in the playoffs without him and just looking at record without him and concluding that he doesn't have an impact on winning is very lazy.

[DMAVS41]

Where are you coming up with Rose being poor in crunch time? He's arguably been the most clutch player in the league.

Here are his shooting numbers within 5 point games under certain time frames in the 4th and OT:

last 3 min: 11-25
last 2 min: 9-17
last 1 min: 7-11
last 24 sec: 5-7

shots to tie or take the lead:

last 2 min: 5-10
last 1 min: 5-8
last 24 sec: 4-6
last 5 sec: 2-3

He's been a beast in crunch time. And the only reason he's not top 5 so far this year is cause of all the games he's missed. If it wasn't for that, he'd be basically having more or less the same year he had last year, and would be top 5 pretty easily with only Lebron, Durant, and Howard arguably over him.

His team isn't "elite" without him. They wouldn't have a chance to win anything significant in the playoffs without him and just looking at record without him and concluding that he doesn't have an impact on winning is very lazy.

Rose is taking 27.4 shots to score 28.3 points in crunch time this year.

He's shooting 34% from the field. 0% from the 3 point line...LOL...and a downright dreadful 65% from the ft line (even worse, because he gets to the line a ton late in games....more than double his normal rate and he's converting at only 65%...not good)

That is not good. That is a 34% efg and 41% TS.....

Nobody is claiming he doesn't have an impact on winning or that the team is remotely close to as good without him. What I'm saying is that its not fair to hold "not winning" against Love and then turn around and use it in Rose's advantage.

Because the Bulls would be a 50 win team with Rose in a normal 82 game schedule.

[guy]

Rose is taking 27.4 shots to score 28.3 points in crunch time this year.

He's shooting 34% from the field. 0% from the 3 point line...LOL...and a downright dreadful 65% from the ft line (even worse, because he gets to the line a ton late in games....more than double his normal rate and he's converting at only 65%...not good)

That is not good.

Nobody is claiming he doesn't have an impact on winning or that the team is remotely close to as good without him. What I'm saying is that its not fair to hold "not winning" against Love and then turn around and use it in Rose's advantage.

Because the Bulls would be a 50 win team with Rose in a normal 82 game schedule.

What are you measuring as "crunch time"? cause those stats I just pulled up clearly don't indicate what you're saying and I'm thinking + or - 5 points with 3 min or less is pretty much crunch time.

I don't have his FT stats, but just from watching he's definitely had some issues at the line at the end of close games. But he's hardly been "poor" overall in crunch time.

[DMAVS41]

What are you measuring as "crunch time"? cause those stats I just pulled up clearly don't indicate what you're saying and I'm thinking + or - 5 points with 3 min or less is pretty much crunch time.

I don't have his FT stats, but just from watching he's definitely had some issues at the line at the end of close games. But he's hardly been "poor" overall in crunch time.

I'm using the accepted criteria of crunch time. Poor compared to some of the guys he's being compared to like Love, Durant, and Westbrook...

http://www.nba.com/advancedstats/player.html#Derrick-Rose|201565;year=201112;season=r;splitType=clutch; splitValue=all

[guy]

I'm using the accepted criteria of crunch time. Poor compared to some of the guys he's being compared to like Love, Durant, and Westbrook...

http://www.nba.com/advancedstats/player.html#Derrick-Rose|201565;year=201112;season=r;splitType=clutch; splitValue=all

Okay. I don't really care if thats the accepted criteria or not. Clearly its somewhat misleading cause it gives the impression that he's been that poor at the end of games, when he hasn't been given the stats I just gave, at least for FG%. If anything it shows that he's been poor from the 3:00-5:00 range of the game in the 4th and OT. The stats I show actually show that he shoots better the later the game gets in a close game.