NBA GMs Pick James Harden Over Kobe Bryant as the Best Shooting Guard


It’s not just the SLAM Top 50 that has Kobe Bryant coming in second to James Harden in the shooting guard category heading into the 2013-14 season. That’s one of the interesting outcomes from the always fascinating annual survey of the League’s general managers: “Can the Miami Heat do it again? A majority of the league’s general managers think so. According to NBA.com’s 12th annual GM Survey, the Heat are the clear favorite to win their third straight title. But five other teams also received votes to win the 2014 Finals, the most title contenders in the survey in five years. The GMs have made it clear that LeBron James is the best player in the world. And after a three-year absence, 37-year-old Tim Duncan is back as the top power forward in the league. But for the first time in the history of the survey, someone other than Kobe Bryant has been named as the league’s best shooting guard. All 30 GMs responded to 56 different questions about the best teams, players, coaches, fans, and offseason moves. General managers were not permitted to vote for their own team or personnel. Percentages are based on the pool of respondents to each question of the survey, rather than all 30 GMs.”