The talking heads on tv seem to have confused everyone. Lemme drop some real knowledge. Rankings are as the players currently exist, not considering future potential past this season.
1. Dwight Howard - Arguably best defender EVER, and interior defense is ALWAYS underrated by casual fans. Also excellent on offense and rebounding.
2. Lebron James - Best offensive player in the game: very efficient offense on high usage and makes everyone around him better, also a top 2 perimeter defender and the most versatile player in the game.
3. Dwayne Wade - Shoots a high percentage on high usage, excellent passer and excellent defender.
4. Chris Paul - Nobody in the history of the league has been as good a passer as CP3 while making as few turnovers, also can take over games with his shooting/shot creation and an excellent defender.
5. Kevin Durant - Second best offensive player in the game but sometimes lacks vision and still makes too many mistakes on defense.
6. Pau Gasol - Very efficient scorer who gets robbed of opportunities so Kobe can take more contested 20 foot Js, also way underrated on defense.
7. Derrick Rose - Didn't deserve MVP last season but has shown impressively consistent improvement at just about everything.
8. Kevin Love - At 23 has already shown himself to be one of the best rebounders of all time while also being a top tier offensive player. If only he was better on defense...
9. Dirk Nowitzki - Nearly unstoppable highly efficient offense, decent defense.
10. Steve Nash - Nobody (not even cp3) makes his teammates better on offense than Steve Nash; consistently in top 5 of adjusted +/- numbers. Too bad his defense sucks.
Not making the list:
Kobe Bryant - He's using a ridiculous 40% of his team's possession this year despite scoring 10-20 points less per hundred possessions than either Gasol or Bynum, effectively robbing points from his team. Overrated defender. Also hurts his team in the clutch, despite what people think: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24200/the-truth-about-kobe-bryant-in-crunch-time
Carmelo Anthony - Another player who forces shots and is not an efficient shooter, taking shots away from more efficient scorers on his teams. Just look at how much better Denver's offense was last season after trading him. Also an absolutely terrible defender, which is a big mark against him. Not a top 30 player.