NBA top ten decade team: The aughts

[wdleehi]

I was very close to replacing AI with Gasol since Gasol played like the teams best player when winning one of the titles.


Lebron should have been put ahead of AI.  More success.  (AI had only one playoff run that went to the finals, Lebron has had multiple deep playoff runs)

[Marcus13]

This is really tough because you have to gauge primes vs. longevity

1. Kobe
2. Duncan
3. Shaq
4. KG
5. Kidd
6. Iverson
7. Nash
8. LeBron
9. Ray
10. Pierce

[LooseCannon]

Top 10 from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 according to some stats, as taken from basketball-reference.com:

Win Shares
1    Dirk Nowitzki    149.4
2    Tim Duncan    140.8
3    Kevin Garnett    139.1
4    Kobe Bryant    132.7
5    Paul Pierce    107.7
6    Steve Nash    105.1
7    Chauncey Billups104.8
8    Shawn Marion    104.3
9    Ray Allen    103.9
10    Shaquille O'Neal103.5
Lebron barely misses the top ten despite playing four fewer seasons than everyone ahead of him.  Duncan, Garnett, Pierce, and Nowitzki make the top ten over that period in both offensive and defensive win shares.

Win Shares/48 (minimum 400 games):
1    LeBron James    0.224
2    Tim Duncan    0.222
3    Dirk Nowitzki    0.219
4    Manu Ginobili    0.217
5    Kevin Garnett    0.213
6    Shaquille O'Neal0.205
7    Yao Ming    0.200
8    Kobe Bryant    0.197
9    Chauncey Billups0.196
10    Dwyane Wade    0.189

PER (minimum 400 games):

1    LeBron James    26.9
2    Shaquille O'Neal26.1
3    Dwyane Wade    25.7
4    Tim Duncan    25.4
5    Kevin Garnett    25.1
6    Kobe Bryant    24.4
7    Dirk Nowitzki    24.1
8    Tracy McGrady    23.2
9    Yao Ming    23.0
10    Amare Stoudemire22.6

Shaq was a monster for the first half of the decade and still had value in his decline, while Lebron has a huge peak despite not being in the NBA for the first four seasons of the decade.  Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett played at such a high level for the entire decade that they are there whether you talk peak or longevity.  I would argue those six are slam-dunk choices for the list.  Paul Pierce is on a tier behind the four peak+longevity, but ahead of everyone else when you talk about players with both high peak and decade-long value.  You might be inclined to dump him if you don't agree that his defense has been criminally underrated.  So, I would go for those seven for sure.  I think the contenders for the other three spots are Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups, and Ben Wallace.  I probably lean towards Allen, Nash, and Kidd from that list.  I think the only other players mentioned in this thread as possibilities have been Wade, Ginobili, Parker, and Gasol, who I think all suffer from not having played well enough for having less than a full decade of work.