I'm delighted Roy is a Blazer and I look forward to having him back full strength next year, but I took some heat for previously going on record as saying I didn't think Roy was a top 10 player in the NBA. I listed, as part of the reason, that he hadn't performed at a high enough level for long enough to warrant automatic entry into that class. What about now? Is Brandon Roy top 10? Who's clearly above him? I think that these players are clearly superior: 1. LeBron James 2. Kobe Bryant 3. Dwight Howard 4. Dwyane Wade And these guys are probably better: 4. Chris Paul 5. Dirk Nowitski 6. Tim Duncan Leaving him in this group: Kevin Durant Carmelo Anthony Deron Williams Amare Stoudemire Steve Nash Pau Gasol Chauncey Billups Joe Johnson Is he better than five of those eight guys, which it would take to get him into the top 10 with the other six already entrenched? I don't think so. Ed O.
As a result of injuries and some chemistry problems early, Roy is not a top 10 player this year. Much like Deron from last year. At full strength, he's bottom 3.
Definitely not in my book. Good player? Yep. But I don't consider him or Joe Johnson on the level of most of those guys you listed there. Most of those guys average over 25 points a game. Roy barely makes about 22 most seasons. I know a lot of folks will argue he does more than that, rebounds and assists. But the NBA has a stat for that too, leaders in total points, rebounds and assists combined. Roy is listed 23rd in the NBA in that stat line. Many of the players listed above, average 7 to 15 more of those stats across the board then Roy. Good player? Yep. Elite? Nope.
NBA Coaches strongly disagreed with you last year. You don't get on the 2nd team NBA team being just a good player,
I think these guys are clearly better: 1. LeBron James 2. Chris Paul 3. Dwyane Wade 4. Dwight Howard and these guys are probably better: 5. Tim Duncan 6. Chris Bosh I think Roy is in the tier with Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Chauncey Billups, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol. Joe Johnson is solidly behind that tier. So that makes Roy an arguable top-10 player (as are all the rest in that tier). I don't think that tier of players can be clearly divided into the four best who are definitely "top ten" players. This leaves out Yao Ming, who I'd put in the "clearly better" category when he's healthy.
I wouldn't put Bosh above him, personally. I think he's better than Parker, Billups, Nash, Gasol and Amare.
"As of February 16, 2009, Roy has had 24 shots which tied or won the games with 35 seconds or less." I think the total is like 36 now. That speaks of a top-10 player right there, to me. Lots of players can put up points, but few can impact a game the way BRoy does.
Yep they did. But coaches voted Jamaal Magloire into the All star game once too. Some of the players on that list have scored 600+ more points than Roy over the season. That, is a lot of points per game of difference. Many of them scored more than him and on top of it, doubled his assist numbers. Try looking around the league. There are great players everywhere. Roy is just one of many.
When you look around the league, try not to focus just on stats. Impact says a lot more than saying wow, this guy scored 600 more points. Easiest example to throw out there is Z-Bo's 20-10 lines. With minimal impact. Stats are nice, but Ricky Davis put up 20-5-5 as a 23 year old. There's raw stats, and impact on a team.
Clearly superior: 1. Lebron James 2. Kobe Bryant 3. Dwight Howard 4. Dywane Wade 5. Chris Paul Probably better: 6. Kevin Durant 7. Dirk Nowitzki 8. Chris Bosh 9. Pau Gasol 10. Deron Williams Meh-be better: 11. Carmelo Anthony 12. Tim Duncan
That's a bad comparison. Coaches had to vote for Magloire out of necessity. But Roy made the second team all NBA over players like Nash, Billups, Deron, and Tony Parker. He beat out quite a few legit players to make that list.
This was not exactly a banner year for Brandon. I'd say this season he was top fifteen, what he'll be going forward through his prime years is hard to say, because we just don't know how he's going to respond after the latest injury.
All-NBA 2nd team is not the same thing as making an All-Star game. Roy has been a Top 10-15 player over a 3-year stretch, IMO. I'm comfortable with those who disagree, but bringing up a 2004 All-Star selection from the East, which was basically a conference without centers outside of Ben Wallace, and equating it being an All-NBA player seems like a stretch.
Brandon Roy had a down year. But his year was better than Chris Paul's. And Tim Duncan's. And Tony Parker's (as usual). Unless you think that the Hornets tanking without Paul counts as evidence of Paul's greatness. I think Roy is a Deron Williams-level player. And I think VERY highly of Williams. The main thing holding Roy back from true greatness is his average defense.
I think it's more helpful to think of the Blazers as built on the model of the 2004 Pistons. Ben Wallace = Greg Oden Rasheed Wallace = LaMarcus Tayshaun Prince = Batum Chauncey Billups = Andre Miller Rip Hamilton = Brandon Roy Roy should be like our Chauncey Billups in that he can be Mr. Big Shot when needed and would be Finals MVP if we got there, but otherwise it's more a balanced team than Roy and the Royettes. Now if only we had Larry Brown as coach...
