Identifying the best offensive player at each position in the NBA.
People can preach that “defense wins championships” all they want, but it’s offense that we pay to see. It’s great scoring that glues eyes to screens and puts people in seats. The NBA is business at the end of the day, so its job is to give us what we want, and what we want is lots of high-flying dunks, flashy passes, and deep 3s from half-court.
Not all players are created equal in this aspect. Some players are defensive specialists, tasked with trying to slow down the league’s high-flyers. Others play an all-around game and contribute meaningfully on both ends of the floor. Then, there are those who were crafted by the Gods to put the ball in the net.
These are the generational players that kids try to imitate during pick-up games and who they choose to play when playing NBA 2K.
There have been some unbelievable offensive talents throughout the game’s illustrious history and thankfully the average quality of them has gotten better and better. With this in mind, I am going to select my starting 5 of who I think have been the best offensive players in the league this season.
Please note, I am using Basketball Reference’s Play-by-Play stats to determine what position every player has played in for the majority of this season. If a player has traditionally been a small forward but has played most of their games at power forward, they will be treated as a power forward.
Ok, let’s begin.