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play at least 70 games in ten of his thirteen NBA seasons.

Carmelo Anthony - 25.7 points per game - Best finish: Second in 2007

Iverson's tag-team partner in Denver, Carmelo gains the bulk of his points from the free flowing design of coach George Karl and the passing ability of the Denver roster. The Nuggets simply look to outscore the rest of the NBA and, with the top scoring duo in the NBA by over eight points per game, Karl has the horses to make it so. Carmelo's scoring has dropped the last three years but he is becoming a more complete player. He is also willing to lose some scoring opportunities to allow the team to win more, and is not trying to force the ball as often. Melo has learned to sacrifice scoring for wins. He does not have the defensive skill-set to push his scoring much higher but - since Denver provides Anthony with many more weapons than James in Cleveland - the fellow 2003 NBA draftees should be facing each other on this list for years to come.

Amare Stoudemire - 25.2 points per game - Second straight fifth-place finish

Amare is the only post player on this list, though he gets his points in much the same way as everyone else on this list - he is simply hard to stop at his position. Amare is by far the fastest center in the game, and no one other than Orlando's Dwight Howard has the quickness to stay with him. The reason why he is at number five and Howard is not is simple: Howard does not have Steve Nash finding him at any time. Amare's position on this list is not simply a matter of his point guard, though - it is the fact that he collects put-back and garbage points better than anyone since Dikembe Mutumbo. plus adds about 16-20 more points that he creates. Amare was slowed a bit by the addition of Shaq to the Suns, but moving to power forward is still not going to slow him too much as long as Nash is still handling the ball. It might even help matters, as he can hold the high post and allow the Diesel to roam the low post.

The hard part of looking at this list is trying to predict if they can repeat the feat next year. You cannot bet on James being figured out offensively, or Kobe losing heart, or Iverson simply remaining alive. The two spots that may open up are the last two, with Amare potentially falling simply because of the change in the Suns directions as well as Nash getting older, and Carmelo potentially falling out as he might be looking for a new home as well.

Learn more about this author, David Snipes.
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