Top 10 NBA players

New season have started and the games showing us a lot of great actions. Here is look at the best players in my opinion, who deserve attention all of fans. What is interesting on first three places are Shaq teammates.

Last 3 years statistics: Statistics

10. Amare Stoudemire
After big season 2006-07 had Amare health problems but his best years should come. Phoenix after changes needs time to consolidate and then again attack the top stages in the league. With Steve Nash are the very good synchronized duo and can be dangerous for all teams. Amare is very efficient scorer with potential to have a lot of 20-10 games and be on of the best forwards in the league.
2009-10 (19-8-1-0-1) - 29

9. Kevin Garnett
After injury last year and missing play-off is Boston team again with complete roster and is prepared to be leading team in NBA. Garnett is key point in Boston defense and he is regularly in the first All-Defensive Team. Garnett wants the second ring and his ability could help Boston to reach the title again. This year he could play doble-double games.
2009-10 (13-8-2-1-1) - 25

8. Steve Nash
Two MVP thophies are at home and still ambitions to win. Phoenix team is changed but still actions with Amare Stoudemire are still famous. Nash is still assists leader in the league, behind Chris Paul He has one of the best hand in the league and his shooting percentage is famous. In free throws is one of the best with more than 90% and 3pt shooting around 45% and 50% from the field.
2009-10 (15-3-9-0-0) - 27

7. Tim Duncan
Duncan has three titles and two MVP awards and a lots of ambitions to the new season. San Antonio with addition of Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess will be one of the most experiences team. Duncan will be maybe declining at scoring but he is still one of the best defender. He is regularly in top 10 in rebounds and blocks.
2009-10 (16-11-2-0-1) - 30

6. Dirk Nowitzki
Best european player and former MVP of the league is in the stronger team this year. Dallas has ambitions to be again in the finale. He is regularly in the First All-NBA team. He is offensive threat and very good defensive rebounder. He is in top ten scorers and has a lot of free throws. At his 31 his numbers are declining.
2009-10 (26-8-2-0-0) - 36

5. Chris Paul
The best in assists and steals in the league for last two seasons is still raising and we can expect a lot. He is member of first defensive team in the league and he is able to have more than 11 assists and 2 steals per game. This season will probably increase his PPG. However New Orleans is behind the top favorite on the title.
2009-10 (24-5-10-2-0) - 41

4. Dwight Howard
Actually the best in rebounds and blocks and Defensive Player of the Year. His team with Vince Carter will be attacking the title after being last year in the finale series. But competition in Eastern Conference is huge though.
2009-10 (20-13-1-1-3) - 38

3. Dwyane Wade
Wade is shooting machine and he is going to be the best scorer again. He has the title with Shaq and his is trying to go back. Miami has good team but they can wait for maturing of Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers. He is in the top ten in assists and steals also. He was second in turnovers.
2009-10 (29-5-7-2-1) - 44

2. Kobe Bryant
Kobe has the biggest season behind with Olympics title, NBA title and All-Star Game MVP and NBA Finals MVP. He is still focusing on the Lakers success, but I expect lower average numbers. There is expectation that other players will take more responsibility. But Kobe's actions are the best in the league.
2009-10 (25-5-4-1-0) - 35

1. LeBron James
Actually the best player in the league. Current MVP and the strongest candidate for MVP trophy this year. The only goal is title this season. His numbers are maybe at the top last year, but his all around skills are incredible. This year he maybe will play 8rpg and 8apg. We can expect many tripple double this year. Next year he is before signing of new contract and the clubs will offer him the best offerings.
2009-10 (28-8-8-1-1) - 46

There are many opinions who should be in the list. Trully Yao Ming should be on the list, but he will be missing the whole this season. Paul Pierce with the title and leadership in Boston is also strong candidate.

Team leaders

The team leaders are the key persons in the team and every general managers would like to have star like Lebron James in the roster. These stars has own team and everybody is focusing on them.

True Leaders
There are only several players who are able to dominate and lead their teams long time. Here are players who lead the same team's stats for at least four years:

• Lebron James (24)
  
• Nowitzki Dirk (31)
  
• Bryant Kobe (31)
  
• Vince Carter (32)
  
• Chris Paul (24)
  
• Dwight Howard (23)
  
• Tim Duncan (33)
  
• Bosh Chris (25)
  
• Baron Davis (30)
  
• Andre Iguodala (25)
  

To be in this list means to be the best in the team for several season and be able to resist against injuries. In several teams is big competition and is difficult be the best every year. The oldest leader is Tim Duncan (33). The young players are coming forward Paul James and the youngest Howard. Leadership of New Jersey should take Devin Harris. Iguodala took the leadership from Allen Iverson at Philadelphia after his trade in 2006.

Interesting duo Howard - Carter will be very strong at Orlando this year. Combination of powerful center with dynamic Vince Carter (potential 20-5-5 this year) can bring additional wins.

Team	2009	2008	2007
Atlanta	Joe Johnson	Joe Johnson	Josh Smith
Boston	Paul Pierce	Paul Pierce	Al Jefferson
Charlotte	Raymond Felton	Jason Richardson	Gerald Wallace
Chicago	Ben Gordon	Ben Gordon	Luol Deng
Cleveland	Lebron James	Lebron James	Lebron James
Dallas	Dirk Nowitzki	Dirk Nowitzki	Dirk Nowitzki
Denver	Carmelo Anthony	Allen Iverson	Carmelo Anthony
Detroit	Tayshaun Prince	Chauncey Billups	Richard Hamilton
Golden State	Stephen Jackson	Baron Davis	Baron Davis
Houston	Yao Ming	Tracy Mcgrady	Tracy Mcgrady
Indiana	Danny Granger	Danny Granger	Jermaine O'Neal
Clippers	Baron Davis	Corey Maggette	Elton Brand
Lakers	Kobe Bryant	Kobe Bryant	Kobe Bryant
Memphis	Rudy Gay	Rudy Gay	Pau Gasol
Miami	Dwyane Wade	Shawn Marion	Dwyane Wade
Milwaukee	Richar Jefferson	Andrew Bogut	Mo Williams
Minnesota	Al Jefferson	Al Jefferson	Kevin Garnett
New Jersey	Vince Carter	Vince Carter	Vince Carter
New Orleans	Chris Paul	Chris Paul	Chris Paul
New York	David Lee	Jamal Crawford	Eddy Curry
Oklahoma	Kevin Durant	Kevin Durant	Ray Allen
Orlando	Dwight Howard	Dwight Howard	Dwight Howard
Philadelphia	Andre Iguodala	Andre Iguodala	Andre Iguodala
Phoenix	Shaquille O'Neal	Amare Stoudemire	Amare Stoudemire
Portland	Brandon Roy	Brandon Roy	Zach Randolph
Sacramento	Jason Thompson	Brad Miller	Kevin Martin
San Antonio	Tim Duncan	Tim Duncan	Tim Duncan
Toronto	Chris Bosh	Chris Bosh	Chris Bosh
Utah	Deron Williams	Carlos Boozer	Carlos Boozer
Washington	Antawn Jamison	Antawn Jamison	Gilbert Arenas

Other leaders
There are players who are the leaders and the only reason why there are not every year the stats leader are injuries.

• Paul Pierce (32)
  
• Carmelo Anthony (25)
  
• Dwyane Wade (27)
  
• Joe Johnson (28)
• Amare Stoudemire (26)

Young guns
There are several young players who have stable position in their team. One of the most potential players is Kevin Durant, who should be 25ppg / 10 rpg player.

• Danny Granger (26)
• Rudy Gay (23)
• Al Jefferson (24)
• Kevin Durant (21)
• Brandon Roy (25)

Interesting will be to watch who will be the leader at New Jersey (Devin Harris), Milwaukee (Michael Redd), Houston (Luis Scola) and Chicago (Luol Deng).

2009-10 Standings forecast

New season of NBA is before start and everybody is looking forward to the games. Here are the results of the teams from previous years and forecast for the new season. The forecast is linear regression of team's results from past six years. This method is trying to find the trend in the results. Of course there are some possible inaccurancy because some team has in some season very unusual results due to injuries or other factors (Miami in 2007). On the other side there are team which make break (Boston in 2007) and than the trend is completely different. But in the most cases the is interesting to follow the trends and compare them with real situation. The last column is standings in ESPN Power Ranking before the season.

Rk	Team	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	ESPN
1.	Cleveland Cavaliers	35	42	50	50	45	66	64	4
2.	Orlando Magic	21	36	36	40	52	59	64	2
3.	Boston Celtics	36	45	33	24	66	62	62	3
4.	Los Angeles Lakers	56	34	45	42	57	65	61	1
5.	Phoenix Suns	29	62	54	61	55	46	58	10
6.	Utah Jazz	42	26	41	51	54	48	56	12
7.	San Antonio Spurs	57	59	63	58	56	54	55	5
8.	Houston Rockets	45	51	34	52	55	53	55	22
9.	New Orleans Hornets	41	18	38	39	56	49	55	11
10.	Dallas Mavericks	52	58	60	67	51	50	54	7
11.	Denver Nuggets	43	49	44	45	50	54	53	6
12.	Portland Trail Blazers	41	27	21	32	41	54	47	8
13.	Atlanta Hawks	28	13	26	30	37	47	47	9
14.	Detroit Pistons	54	54	64	53	59	39	46	18
15.	Chicago Bulls	23	47	41	49	33	41	44	13
16.	Philadelphia 76ers	33	43	38	35	40	41	41	17
17.	Charlotte Bobcats		18	26	33	32	35	40	19
18.	Toronto Raptors	33	33	27	47	41	33	40	14
19.	Golden State Warriors	37	34	34	42	48	29	38	23
20.	Washington Wizards	25	45	42	41	43	19	32	15
21.	New Jersey Nets	47	42	49	41	34	34	31	25
22.	Miami Heat	42	59	52	44	15	43	29	16
23.	Milwaukee Bucks	41	30	40	28	26	34	27	29
24.	Indiana Pacers	61	44	41	35	36	36	26	24
25.	New York Knicks	39	33	23	33	23	32	25	26
26.	Los Angeles Clippers	28	37	47	40	23	19	23	20
27.	Oklahoma City Thunder	37	52	35	31	20	23	16	21
28.	Sacramento Kings	55	50	44	33	38	17	16	30
29.	Memphis Grizzlies	50	45	49	22	22	24	13	28
30.	Minnesota Timberwolves	58	44	33	32	22	24	12	27

The competition for the best season record will be very huge and the candidates for the title strengthen their teams. Top candidates are:

• Lakers - will try to repeat the last season and be again the team which is able to repeat the championships. The team is almost the same and the only change was replacement of Ariza by Ron Artest. There is big expectation how will be Artest able to integrate to this team and help to move forward.
  
  
• Boston - is back again with strong triplet: Pierce, Allen, Garnett and in addition is Rasheed Wallace. With dynamic guard Rajon Rondo the Boston's starter roster is maybe the strongest in the league.
  
• Cleveland - Lebron James will try to win the title with help of Shaquille O'Neal. If Shaq will be able to be 20-10 player, Cleveland will be very strong inside and most of the team will have big troubles.
  
• Orlando - The very ambitions team was in the final and goal is clear for this season. Best center in the league Dwight Howard will have new teammate Vince Carter. Question is if Carter will have expected performance and have a big season. Guard Jameer Nelson should be healthy and only player who will be missing is Hedo Turkoglu (to Raptors).
  
• San Antonio - is trying to compete again. The new players Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess (from Pistons), Theo Ratliff (from 76ers) make the Spurs one of the most experienced team in the league. Big expectations are from Richard Jefferson, who shoul add 20 points per game.

Behind these favorite teams should be Dallas with huge addition of Jason Kidd (re-signed), Drew Gooden (from Spurs), Tim Thomas (from Bulls), Shawn Marion (from Raptors). Roster is very strong and it will interesting how the team will be cooperate together. The second possible surprise could be Denver with Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. Denver had very strong series seven games series against Lakers in the last play off.

Preseason 2009-10: Lakers evaluation

Lakers preseasons games are finished and team show some good results. Overal results are 6 wins and 2 losses. Results are not so important because most of games are preparation and test for new players.
Bad sign are several injuries: Gasol, Bynum, Odom and Walton.

OCTOBER	OPPONENT	RESULT	W-L
Wed, Oct 7	Golden State	W 118-101	1-0
Fri, Oct 9	Golden State	L 91-110	1-1
Thu, Oct 15	Sacramento	W 98-92	2-1
Sat, Oct 17	Charlotte	W 91-87	3-1
Sun, Oct 18	LA Clippers	W 114-108	4-1
Tue, Oct 20	Golden State	W 113-107	5-1
Thu, Oct 22	Denver	W 106-89	6-1
Fri, Oct 23	Denver	L 105-119	6-2

Here is my evaluation of player's preseason games. I use my special coefficient Net Efficiency (NEFF).

Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Kobe Bryant, SG	22	11	20	21	10	18	23	5	130
Andrew Bynum, C	19	17	22	20	25	23			126
Jordan Farmar, PG	14	6	5	21	10	9	11	4	80
Josh Powell, FC	-1	2	6	26	6	6	13	7	65
Ron Artest, SF	17	5	10	-9	13	11	6	7	60
Lamar Odom, PF	8	7	8			15	15	7	60
Shannon Brown, SG	6	5	6	-3	15	5	11	11	56
Sasha Vujacic, SG	5	3	6	13	-1	5	9	16	56
Adam Morrison, SF	0	3	3	5	12	5	5	5	38
D.J. Mbenga, C			2	4	6	-2	12	12	34
Tony Gaffney, G	1	5	4	11	4	3	2		30
Pau Gasol, FC	16	14							30
Derek Fisher, PG	1	-3	8	1	7	5	3	3	25
Luke Walton, SF	4	0					6	8	18
Mickael Gelabale, SF	4	5							9
Thomas Kelati, G	1	1	2	-3		3			4
Michael Fey, C		2							2
David Monds, F	2								2

In the preseason games leader was as always Kobe, who plays limited minutes. The biggest improvement showed Bynum. His offensive performance was very promising. Question is if his performance level will be stable during the season and if he is able to stay healthy.

Positive:

• Bynum offensive plays
  
• Lamar Odom all around plays
  
• Shannon Brown dunks and athleticism
  

Negative:

• Derek Fisher
• Luke Walton
• Adam Morrison
  

I expect bigger improvement from Morrison and Vujacic. To find time for these two players will be very difficult. Very important will be participation of Ron Artest who is learning the Lakers system. Maybe many people expect bigger impact on the team. He is very strong but his quite slow. I expect more and for me it's little disappointment. We will see how will be comparison with Ariza.

Expected starters should be:

• Bynum
• Gasol
• Artest
• Bryant
• Fisher

Sixth man would be Lamar Odom but during the season he very probably receive chance to start the games. For the guard position there will be interesting how strong will be the effort of Farmar and Brown to became the starter.

Lakers roster and salaries for 2009-10 season:

No	Player	2009/10
24	Kobe Bryant	$23,034,375
16	Pau Gasol	$16,451,250
17	Andrew Bynum	$12,526,998
7	Lamar Odom	$7,500,000
37	Ron Artest	$5,854,000
6	Adam Morrison	$5,257,228
2	Derek Fisher	$5,048,000
18	Sasha Vujacic	$5,000,000
4	Luke Walton	$4,840,000
12	Shannon Brown	$2,000,000
1	Jordan Farmar	$1,947,240
28	Didier Ilunga-Mbenga	$959,111
21	Josh Powell	$959,111
	TOTALS:	$91,377,313

Lakers are spending most money in the league for the player's salaries (Salary Cap for season 2008-09 is $57.7 million, luxury tax level is set at $69.92 million). From the last season the biggest change is replacement of Ariza by Artest. What is interesting both players have the same salary $5,854,000 in the coming season. The team remain almost the same. On the other hand there are only 13 players on the roster due to salaries cap. Morrison, Vujacic and Walton (15 million for all three) have very high salaries in compare to the role in the team and I expect the discussion about possible trade of them before trade deadline.

So I hope that the new season will be successful and Lakers repeat the championship title year and all the Lakers fans will be happy. Good luck Lakers in new season 2009-10!