When I originally debuted this list almost two years ago, I took some (surprisingly angry) flack for not settling on a 10th player and for ranking a few guys too high.

The idea for the list sprung from a conversation that I regularly have with a buddy when we are tipping back a few adult beverages: If you could have one current NBA player to build your franchise around, with the goal of winning a NBA title in the next five years – who would it be?

Here’s who I had almost two years ago:

10. Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker (A reader named “all” was very upset that I couldn’t pick a #10 guy. He’s probably still upset about it.)
9. Derrick Rose
8. Brandon Roy
7. Deron Williams
6. Chris Paul
5. Kevin Durant
4. Dwight Howard
3. Kobe Bryant
2. Dwyane Wade
1. LeBron James

I took some heat for including Rose, but obviously he has panned out very well and is likely to win the league MVP this season. Roy’s knees have killed his stock. The other seven picks look pretty solid.

So let’s take another stab at this. Remember, we’re trying to win a title in the next five years, so youth and health is paramount.

Honorable Mention: Carmelo Anthony (defense), Amare Stoudemire (defense, age, knees), Pau Gasol (age), Tyreke Evans (regressing) Tim Duncan (age), Dirk Nowitzki (age), Paul Pierce (age), Rajon Rondo (moody, in a funk since Kendrick Perkins trade) and Kevin Garnett (age).

NOT QUITE WORTH MAX MONEY…YET

12. John Wall (20 years-old)
All right, I’m projecting a little bit here, but it worked with Derrick Rose and I think Wall has a chance to be in the same league. Check out his month-by-month stats over the course of his rookie season:

So he burst into the league with a good October and November, but struggled a bit over the next two months as teams had a chance to game plan for him. Then in February and March, he’s able to counter that and get back to his early-season numbers. Great sign.

He’s an outstanding playmaker (9.1+ assists in 2-of-5 months) and is lightning quick. His rookie numbers are very similar to Rose’s, only he’s averaging 2.4 more assists per game. He’d likely be the Rookie of the Year if Blake Griffin hadn’t blown out his knee last season. In three or four years he might be vying for best point guard in the league honors.

11. Russell Westbrook (22)
I like Westbrook a lot, but his turnovers (3.9 per game) worry me for a third-year point guard. His assist-to-turnover ratio has actually decreased by 12% since last season, and that shows a lack of progress. Other than a sketchy (yet improving) outside jumper, he’s a great all-around player and his stats are comparable to Derrick Rose’s:

One’s an MVP favorite and the other isn’t even in the conversation. Go figure.

WORTH MAX MONEY, BUT KEEP THOSE FINGERS CROSSED

10. Kobe Bryant (32)
Sorry Laker fans, I had to drop him several spots on this list after that 6-for-24 outing in Game 7 of the Finals. The Lakers still won the game, but it wasn’t because of Kobe. Plus, he’s not even practicing these days, so it would be tough to build a team around him if they can’t build chemistry. Still, he is Kobe Bryant.

9. Kevin Love (22)
What’s not to love about Love? He’s averaging 20-15 and is shooting 42% from 3PT and 85% from the free throw line. His defensive numbers at 82games are a little worrisome (-6.2 net defense?), but the by position PER (24.6 vs. opponents’ 15.7) is very favorable.

8. Blake Griffin (22)
He’s not the long-range shooter that Love is, but he’s averaging 22-12 and is a better playmaker (3.7 apg). His defensive numbers (-1.3 net defense) look better as well. I’m just worried that he’s going to kill himself with one of those acrobatic dunks that he’s become famous for.

THE BONA FIDE ‘FRANCHISE PLAYERS’

7. Dwyane Wade (29)
He’s getting a little long in the tooth for this particular list, but he still has three or four years of dominating play left in him. My only issue with his game is that he takes too many threes (2.7 per game) given his accuracy (31% this year).

6. Deron Williams (26)
5. Chris Paul (25)
I’m still going to give CP3 the edge despite the sore knee since he didn’t clash with a Hall of Fame coach like Williams did. I still think the Nets got a great deal in the trade and that Deron Williams is definitely a franchise point guard, but right now I lean Paul.

4. Dwight Howard (25)
Let’s see, he’s averaging 23-14 with 2.4 blocks, and is shooting 60% from the field. Plus, he’s just 25 years-old and is a bona fide center in a league that doesn’t have very many. He already has one Finals appearance under his belt, but he’s going to need a great perimeter player to take the load off.

3. LeBron James (26)
I dropped him one spot because of “The Decision” (I don’t need the drama) and another spot because he has been very unclutch in big moments the last few years. If I’m going to pay max money, I need a guy who is going to give max production, especially in those last few possessions in the game (his solid clutch stats notwithstanding).

2. Kevin Durant (22)
Yes, I’d take “No Drama” Durant ahead of LeBron because he’s my kind of superstar: quiet and unassuming. He leads by example and he’s arguably the best scorer in the league. After all, the team with the most points usually wins.

1. Derrick Rose (22)
Rose is the front-runner for the league’s MVP award after (possibly) leading the Bulls to a #1-seed in the East despite having to deal with the absence of Joakim Noah and/or Carlos Boozer for long stretches this season. His three-point shooting (34%) is now respectable, which makes him nearly impossible to guard. He’s not a classic pass-first point guard, but drops enough dimes (7.8 per game) to keep his teammates happy. It looks like it may be his year.

So those are my Top 12 — who are yours?

San Antonio played pretty well down the stretch this season, winning 17 of its last 25 games in March and April. (That’s a 56-win pace, by the way.) The Spurs looked sharp in their first round series against the Mavs, but looked old and slow as they were swept by the Suns.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the Spurs approach this offseason. They just signed Manu Ginobili to an extension, and Tim Duncan is signed for two more seasons, so Tony Parker may be the player most likely to be moved. He has one more year on his contract at the tune of $13.7 million and at just 27, he’s in the prime of his career. George Hill could take over the full-time point guard duties, if necessary.

Trading Parker would be a big shift in direction from a personnel standpoint. San Antonio’s Big Three — Ginobili, Parker and Duncan — have been together for eight seasons and three titles, but they haven’t reached the Finals in the last three tries and haven’t made it out of the semis in the last two years. This begs the question — how big of a change are the Spurs willing to make?

Richard Jefferson didn’t exactly pan out, but he’s unlikely to opt out of the final year of his contract (worth a staggering $15.2 million) and no one is going to want to take on his contract unless they’re trying to unload a bad contract of their own. Jefferson was solid in the first round (9-4, 54% shooting), and while he posted decent numbers against the Suns (10-6), he shot just 42% from the field. I was surprised to see his FG% for the season (46.7%) which was a tad below his career clip, but the better shot selection on the half court didn’t offset the fact that he wasn’t getting the fast break opportunities that he did with Jason Kidd in New Jersey.

The good news is that the only players under contract for next season are the Big Three, Hill, Jefferson, DeJuan Blair and Antonio McDyess — all good players, one terrible contract (Jefferson’s) — so with some savvy moves this offseason, the franchise could keep this core intact with the possibility of adding a good player or two. The bad news is that the Spurs are well over the cap with a payroll of $69 million for next season so they’ll be limited to the mid-level exception and below.

Competition for mid-level players could be tough this summer as there are plenty of teams with cap space that could outspend the Spurs for a player they like. The other problem is that it’s not exactly clear what this team needs. They have good guards in Ginobili, Parker and Hill, good forwards in Jefferson, McDyess and Blair, and Duncan in the middle. One thing they do need is a sharpshooting forward (like Kyle Korver?) who could make teams pay for doubling Duncan or sagging on Ginobili’s drives. Jefferson shot just 32% from 3PT, and that’s not going to get it done.

The addition of a player like Korver would likely force more defensive responsibilities onto Ginobili; Jefferson did do a nice job defensively this season. He also played quite a few minutes at power forward this season, and that’s something that Korver wouldn’t be able to do. That means more McDyess and Blair, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

If the Spurs do elect to trade Parker, they’ll need to find a third guard to play heavy minutes behind Hill and Ginobili. My guess is that they hold onto him and see how things go throughout the first half of the season. If whatever changes they make this summer aren’t panning out by then, they could move Parker before the trade deadline in order to get something for him before his contract expires next summer.

After watching that Suns series, it sure seems like whatever “it” factor the Spurs had (chemistry, execution, or some combination of the two) is fading, and the odds are very much against another title run in the near future. But Duncan is still playing at a pretty high level, Ginobili posted 20-4-8 despite playing with a broken nose, and the Spurs hit the jackpot in the last two drafts with Hill and Blair. With the right addition(s) this summer, they could be back in the thick of things this time next year.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Well, I’ll be honest — I didn’t see this one coming. I thought the Spurs would win this series in six or seven games. I knew the Suns were good, but I had no idea that they were this good.

Amare Stoudemire had 29-5, Steve Nash posted 20-5-9 and Jared Dudley added 16-6-4 off the bench to lead the Suns over the Spurs in Game 4, 107-101. It was tight down the stretch, but Stoudemire hit a couple of long jumpers off of Phoenix’s screen-and-roll to keep the Spurs at bay. The Suns almost let the Spurs climb back into it with a Dudley turnover (leading to a bucket) and a Stoudemire foul on a George Hill three-pointer, but Phoenix played a clean final minute and closed out the series in style.

I figured after winning Game 3, the Suns would relax (not unlike the Cavs in Game 4) and the Spurs’ pride would be enough to avoid the sweep at home, but this win in San Antonio shows what these Suns are made of. They have great chemistry, two stars (Nash and Stoudemire) and a number of talented role players (Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Channing Frye, Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa), who all made news at one point or another in this series. They should also be getting Robin Lopez back for the Conference Finals, which should help the Suns match up with the Lakers’ long and lean front line.

Who would have thought a few months ago, with Stoudemire very much on the trade block, that the Suns would be the first team to clinch a spot in the Conference Finals?

Photo from fOTOGLIF

I don’t think the Suns are running the pick-and-roll so much because they want to attack Duncan. I think they run it because they’re really, really good at it. Nash is one of the best ball handlers and decision makers in the league, and Stoudemire is one of the best finishers in all of basketball. It makes sense that they’d run this over and over because everyone has trouble defending it, not just the Spurs.

That said, Duncan (34) is not quite the defender he once was, which is why I was so surprised when he made the All-Defensive Team over Andrew Bogut, who was terrific on that end of the floor this season.

Phoenix 110, San Antonio 102

When starters Amare Stoudemire (23 points), Jason Richardson (19), Steve Nash (19) and Grant Hill (18) combine for 79 points, it may seem odd to give props to the Suns bench, but without Channing Frye’s 15 points (5-of-6 from 3PT) and Jared Dudley’s all-around game, Phoenix would have been in trouble.

Tim Duncan posted 29-10 for the Spurs, but was having a tough time matching up with the Suns on the defensive end. (By the way, Andrew Bogut got screwed out of 2nd Team All-Defensive honors. I realize that Duncan plays a lot of center, but he’s listed as a forward. Anderson Varejao made the 2nd Team at forward. Are they really serious that Varejao had a better defensive year than Bogut, who had the second most combined blocks, steals and charges in the league? They should have listed Duncan as a forward and given Varejao’s spot to Bogut.) Duncan was forced to guard Frye out on the perimeter, so at one point he switched over to Hill for a couple of possessions and Hill just dribbled into his range and knocked down a pair of key jumpers.

With this win in Game 2, the Suns own all the momentum in the series. Their mission now is to win one game in San Antonio, while the Spurs desperately need to win both Game 3 and Game 4 if they hope to come back and win this series.

It’s funny — for years, I’d always root for the Suns in their playoff matchups with the Spurs, but now I find myself rooting for San Antonio. Maybe they’re a bit of an underdog, or maybe they’re the team that could seriously challenge the Lakers in the Conference Finals. Or maybe it’s a combination of the two.

Anyway, they’re in big trouble, so there’s a great chance we’re going to see a Lakers/Suns matchup in the next round.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

The Spurs said they were going to treat Game 6 at home as if it were a Game 7, and that’s the right mentality. You want to close the series out at home if you can, because winning a Game 7 on the road is no easy task.

San Antonio jumped out to a big lead early in the game, and were up 35-16 in the middle of the second quarter when Mavs rookie Roddy Beaubois entered the game. Over the course of the next 16 minutes, Beaubois would score 16 points and lead the Mavs on a 45-28 run that would bring Dallas to within two points with 2:43 to play in the third quarter. The Spurs simply didn’t have an answer for him on the defensive end.

With the Mavs trailing by seven, Beaubois started the fourth quarter on the bench, and didn’t re-enter the game until there was 2:44 remaining in the game. Rick Carlisle wanted to get Jason Terry going, and while he did hit a six-foot runner to cut the lead to two with six minutes to play, that was the only shot he made all night. Mavs fans are left wondering what would have happened had Carlisle brought Beaubois back earlier in the quarter.

From the Spurs perspective, check out this series of scores in the fourth quarter:

6:33 Tony Parker makes 18-foot jumper
5:50 Antonio McDyess makes 13-foot jumper
4:47 George Hill makes 10-foot two point shot
4:07 Antonio McDyess makes 17-foot jumper
3:18 George Hill makes 23-foot three point jumper
1:28 Tony Parker makes 20-foot jumper

Notice anything? For a team that usually leans on Manu Ginobili drives and Tim Duncan post ups, the Spurs scored on jump shots on six possessions in just over five minutes. During that stretch, Tim Duncan didn’t take a single shot, Ginobili missed three shots and Parker missed a 16-footer. Otherwise, they were all made jumpers by McDyess, Hill and Parker. (Ginobili and Duncan did combine for five assists during that stretch.)

After a 29-point performance that essentially won Game 4 for the Spurs, George Hill scored 21 points tonight on 12 shots. Ginobili finished with 26, Tim Duncan had 17 and Tony Parker chipped in with 10. Hill gives the Spurs another offensive weapon to go to in crunch time when the Spurs’ “Big 3″ need a break or just aren’t getting it done. As Reggie Miller noted, Hill was a great scorer in high school and college, so he can “score with the best of them.”

I’ll write more about the Mavs tomorrow. As it stands, they just seem like they’ve been snakebitten since losing the 2006 Finals to Dwyane Wade and the Heat. I can’t imagine what is going through Mark Cuban’s mind right now after making several big acquisitions (Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood) over the past few years. He was expecting that this team would make a run to the Finals, but instead, they just lost Game 6 to their arch-rivals and are heading home in the first round. Ouch.

Photo from fOTOGLIF