We sought out expert advice for these dozen answers

1. Who will assert himself as the NBA's best player?

	LeBron James AP

Nagging foot injuries aside, Tim Duncan is still the gatekeeper to the NBA title. But this mythical award isn't reserved for the league's most influential player. This is for the league's best overall talent, the player who can fill up a boxscore, hit the game-winner, ice the contest with key free throws and make the game-clinching steal. By our estimation, that leaves three legitimate candidates:

• Kobe Bryant
Says a league scout, "Ask yourself the following:  If you had one possession on offense to win, who would you want to have the ball? If you had to have one defensive stop to win, who would you want to cover the ball? It is hard to imagine you would want anyone else, past or present, to answer the call. He is capable of playing multiple positions and dominates both sides of the ball. We ask champions to never back down from a challenge and to step up when it's time to do so, all of which Kobe has accomplished. We recognize greatness because it thrives under pressure, so does Kobe."

• LeBron James
The only player other than Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan to average at least 30 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists for a season, James enters his fourth season as a favorite to win the MVP award this season. This for a man who wasn't legally allowed to order a drink until last December. James' skills set isn't much different than Bryant's or Dwyane Wade's, it's that his 6-foot-8, 240-pound size -- and Cleveland's need -- allows him to use those skills for longer stretches of time.

"The big difference was that LeBron played so many more minutes [last season]," a front-office consultant says. "Part of that was probably because Cleveland didn't have as much additional support, so on the nights that LeBron wasn't playing that well, the Cavs lost." Last season, only Gilbert Arenas played more minutes than James, who averaged nearly two more minutes a game than Bryant.

• Dwyane Wade
It's difficult to make a case against Wade after he almost single-handedly dragged the Heat out of an 0-2 hole to win the title in June. "He stepped up and did everything that had to be done," a Western conference scout says of Wade's Finals MVP performance. "Kobe Bryant's a fabulous player, but I don't like what he's done without Shaq, and LeBron hasn't shown me he's capable of leading a team to a championship, but Dwyane Wade has."

Our verdict: Wade's championship credentials have made him the fashionable pick, LeBron is an appearance in the Finals away, but when, as a scout says, "you are the player all others compare themselves to," well, Kobe can take the last shot for us, anytime.