Player Rankings

More for my own peace of mind, I figured I'd scan through the starting players in the East and see where our guys stood. Rather than do what the NBA does at the all-star game and pretend there are only three positions on the floor (G, C, F), most teams still have five identifiable positions. In other cases where it was ambiguous I used what they're listed as (Kenyon Martin as a PF, Van Horn at SF, Iverson at OG).

Newsflash: the East his horrible. If Krause was determined to tank for 5 seasons in a row, he picked a good time to do it. I think there's a reality perception: some of our guys are looking good because a lot of other teams in the East play guys who are even worse. Remember when Washington had Webber, Howard and Strickland at the top of their game, Muresan, Cheaney, and Murray and Whitney off the bench, and barely made the playoffs? I think that team would be putting some serious distance between themselves and everyone else if they were playing against the likes of Chucky Atkins and Jumaine Jones on a nightly basis.

My main point was to figure out where the Bulls' main starters figure in here, so forgive any controversy about if Carter's better than Allen's better than McGrady's better than...

PG

1 Jason Kidd, NJ 2 Baron Davis, CHA 3 Sam Cassell, MIL 4 Alvin Williams, TOR 5 Andre Miller, CLE 6 Darrell Armstrong, ORL 7 Jamaal Tinsley, IND 8 Kenny Anderson, BOS

Jeez, I can't even rank the rest. Say they're all tied for 9th: 9 E Davis/J Vaughn, ATL (what the hell is Lon Kruger doing down there?!) C Atkins/D Barros, DET A Carter/R Strickland, MIA M Jackson/C Ward, NY E Snow/S Claxton, PHI Chris Whitney, WAS

While it is obvious that the Western Conference overall has better teams than the East, one thing that can be overlooked is how deep the Eastern all-star guard selection will be. To me it is as deep as the number of super talented forwards in the West.

Sure. But put Andre Miller at #2 and not 5.

I would put Greg Anthony ahead of Anthony Carter (the most overrated player in the past offseason), Craig Claxton, and Chucky Atkins, who like Anthony are all fit for back-up duty. And Jason Terry has been moved to point guard once again.

Now it is easy to see how the East is basically a collection of super-talented shooting guards with a bunch of role-players attached to them.

The few Heat games that I saw Alonzo hurt his team more than he helped.

Good lord. Jamal Crawford could not play another game and the Mihm trade will still be considered equal in value.

A lot of the players you listed are power forwards playing out of position at center.

I think the Oakley/Fizer combo is easily the worst pf rotation in the league.

I think if a team of only Artests played each other in a 48 minute game the final score would be 33-36, with every made field goal being a 3 pointer. I've never seen someone that can shut down an all-star the way he can, but he has no offensive moves.

In article

We (Jerry, Jerry, and I) prefer the designation 'tied for ninth-best'.

I think you're being generous. Thanks!

Pierce is the star at this position. Jordan has the name. Rose and Sprewell are pouting, and their numbers are down. With Kidd passing him the ball, Van Horn has finally maximized his potential

Compares with Mashburn, okay. But there's just no chance that Ron Artest is going to score 40 points in any game this