sprignaturemoves

OK. Here’s my criteria: Only players that played between 1974 and now are eligible. Players must have played in at least 500 games or played over 12000 minutes in their career. Only NBA stats count. The rest of the breakdown is subjective, since I like to make stuff up.

First Team

G – Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf – 90.5%		G – Ray Allen – 88.7%
F – Rick Barry – 89.3%	C – Dirk Nowitzki - 86.9%		F – Larry Bird – 88.6%

Second Team
G – Mark Price – 90.4%
G – Calvin Murphy – 89.2%
F – Kiki Vandeweghe – 87.2%
F – Peja Stojakovic – 89.2%
C – Jack Sikma – 84.9%

Honorable Mention
G – Steve Nash – 89.7%
G – Reggie Miller – 88.8%
F – Ricky Pierce – 87.5%
F – Chris Mullin – 86.5
C – Mike Gminski – 84.3%

Didn’t make the cut/Could be on a future list
G – Jeff Hornacek – 87.7% (he had to make the list because of his free-throw ritual — you know — the cheek thing)
G – Scott Skiles – 88.9% (gotta love his gritty play and his gritty coaching)
G – Sam Cassell – 86.0% (if it weren’t for his complainin’…)
F – Wally Szcerbiak – 86.2% (barely made the minimum # of games cut)
F – Glen Rice – 84.6% (he played for the Heat, Lakers and the Knicks — that’s enough to bump him down here)
C – Bill Laimbeer – 83.7% (how can “Crybaby” Laimbeer not at least be mentioned?)

Why he will win it:

1. The Sonics don’t have any one else who can carry the scoring load. Ray Allen? Gone. Rashard Lewis? Gone. Wally? Uh, no.
2. No one cares about FG% — just points. Barring injury, he’s going to be their leading scorer. I have no doubt.
3. He has the agility to play the 2, which makes him a match-up problem for opposing teams.
4. Greg Oden is out. It’s Durant’s to lose now.
5. The Sonics are going to slap his face up everywhere. He can dunk, shoot the 3 and he has nice teeth for those shoe commercials. (However, he certainly can’t replace the PR sweetness that is Ray Allen)

Why he won’t win it:

1. He’s never seen a shot he doesn’t like. He scores a lot of points even when his team loses. It doesn’t matter if his shot isn’t falling either. He averaged 39.9% from the field at Texas.
2. He’s a wuss. I’m sure this will change now that he’s in the NBA, but I’m still interested to see how he handles the big guys. There’s going to be games where he gets locked down because he’s the only scoring threat.
3. He’s not a good teammate. Players like LeBron make their teammates better. I don’t see KD doing that in Seattle.
4. Defense, defense, defense. One of the knocks on him at Texas was that he loafed on “D.”
5. NBA fans are tiring of players like AI, Melo and Kobe. I know am.