Who are the "franchise players" in the NBA?

[moiso]

This was a good thread.  Think I am closer to phosita's side of the spectrum here.

Franchise Player = Player you would feel comfortable building your franchise around for the foreseeable future. 

Surefire Franchise Players-
LBJ
Durant
CP3
Anthony Davis
John Wall

Probably-
James Harden
Carmelo Anthony

Maybe they are, Maybe they aren't-
Kevin Love
Steph Curry
Demarcus Cousins
Paul George
Kyrie Irving
Damien Lillard
Russell Westbrook
Rajon Rondo- the fact that the Celtics are unsure of whether or not they feel comfortable building around him as their franchise guy is pretty indicative that he is somewhere near where the line is between franchise and non-franchise players
Dwight Howard

After a few drinks, I still wouldn't be convinced

Blake Griffin
Lamarcus Aldridge



Kobe, Dirk, Duncan have obviously been franchise players of their respective teams for the last decade or two.

Not sure how Wall is ahead of Love, Curry, and Harden.

[PAOBoston]

The way I see it, there are cornerstone players and there are franchise players. Cornerstone players include the likes of Pierce, Allen, Anthony, Love, etc. They are good to great players but not generational type talents. The list of franchise players is much shorter (for me, it's LeBron and Durant). That's the creme de la creme. It would be nice to somehow land a transcendent franchise player like James but you can build contenders with cornerstones as well. I think winning titles is just waaaay easier with a true franchise player.  We all saw what happened when you took 2 cornerstone players and added a true franchise type player in  KG to the mix.

[CelticSince83]

This was a good thread.  Think I am closer to phosita's side of the spectrum here.

Franchise Player = Player you would feel comfortable building your franchise around for the foreseeable future. 

Surefire Franchise Players-
LBJ
Durant
CP3
Anthony Davis
John Wall

Probably-
James Harden
Carmelo Anthony

Maybe they are, Maybe they aren't-
Kevin Love
Steph Curry
Demarcus Cousins
Paul George
Kyrie Irving
Damien Lillard
Russell Westbrook
Rajon Rondo- the fact that the Celtics are unsure of whether or not they feel comfortable building around him as their franchise guy is pretty indicative that he is somewhere near where the line is between franchise and non-franchise players
Dwight Howard

After a few drinks, I still wouldn't be convinced

Blake Griffin
Lamarcus Aldridge



Kobe, Dirk, Duncan have obviously been franchise players of their respective teams for the last decade or two.

Not sure how Wall is ahead of Love, Curry, and Harden.

He's nearly three years younger than Curry, so that's an easy one.  I can see why you would raise the question with Love and Harden though.  However, Minnesota is in what?  Year 5 of Love now?  And about to start over possibly. 

[D.o.s.]

think of it like this, you put Durant or Lebron on any team in the league and that team is part of the title discussion.  You put DH on any team in the league, they're part of a playoff discussion not necessarily a title discussion.

This seems like a pretty excellent smell test to me, and I advocate that we all adopt it.

Not sure about that one...Lebron or Durant on the Sixers or Bucks is not even going to smell the playoffs let alone contend for a title.  I just don't think Title Discussion is a requirement for a Franchise player....

Go back and take another look at the Roster that LeBron dragged to the Finals in '07. That was a bad basketball team. By virtue of his absence, James was almost-singlehandedly responsible for the biggest single-season decline in a team's record in NBA history.

It is probably just as good as the roster Dwight dragged to the NBA Finals in '09 and the Magic's drop off post Dwight was epic as well.

Dwight's finals team was much better -- plus he had, you know, a real coach.


Also the amount of slack that Kevin Love gets as a franchise player that can't seem to bring his team to wins is astonishing.

[Roy H.]

If a "true" franchise player is a guy who is instantly going to make an average team a contender, I think the list is Lebron, Durant, and Duncan.  (Yes, I think Duncan is still that good.)

There are a lot of borderline guys.  Chris Paul, Paul George, Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, James Harden, Boogie Cousins, Carmelo, Dirk, Tony Parker, Steph Curry, Blake Griffin, and probably plenty of others.

[Surferdad]

If a "true" franchise player is a guy who is instantly going to make an average team a contender, I think the list is Lebron, Durant, and Duncan.  (Yes, I think Duncan is still that good.)

There are a lot of borderline guys.  Chris Paul, Paul George, Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, James Harden, Boogie Cousins, Carmelo, Dirk, Tony Parker, Steph Curry, Blake Griffin, and probably plenty of others.

I agree with this, just those 3 guys are what I call transcendent players.