i love the guy and wanted the wizards to draft him until the ariza/okafor trade me that improbable (although i guess the bobcats would've taken him anyway), i think a franchise player is, mainly, at least one of:

* a great quarterback
* a great scorer
* protect the paint and set the tone defensively
* a statistically gaudy winner (your leading scorers and 20/10 in their sleep types)
* perceived by other players/teams as a franchise player

unless mkg learns to shoot or guard nba big men full-time i don't see that happening. he could be the best perimeter defender in the league and light a fire under his whole team's ass with his intensity and work ethic but that'll just make him an angrier iguodola. i hope i'm wrong.

imo, only three guys are definitely franchise players:

lebron
chris paul
dwight howard

a team either of these guys joins expects to contend, even if otis smith or whoever has donald sterling's hand up their ass is filling in the rest of the roster. when they leave teams, women lament their barren breasts, babes cry for want of milk and sports radio is filled with frustration-fueled and tear-choked racial hostility.

maybes:

kevin garnett: the celtics are still the defensive standard for the league and he's why (imo thibodeaux's defense wouldn't be shit if kg hadn't shown how to execute it). rondo gets all of the hype but his individual brilliance correlates with the decline of the celtics' offense as a whole. maybe this year is when kg finally gets too old.

steve nash: i think he was coasting these past couple of years. but maybe he wasn't.

wade and kobe: the case for and against both has been done to death around here and i'm leaning towards Not Anymore with both anyway.

on the verge:

kevin durant: if you're the best scorer in the world, your pg can't dominate the rock more than you, no matter how good he is, and at some point that becomes your fault. also, coaches don't try to hide franchise players on mario chalmers.

kevin love: amazing individual performances need to translate into wins at some point. also, and this is probably unfair, but franchise players can't come off the bench in the olympics, right?

andrew bynum: has no resume as first option. i don't see why he shouldn't step up. i personally think he'll hate doug collins and the sixers will miss iggy more than they thought but that should only be a bump in the road.

down the road:

kyrie: he was so prepared. andrew luck with speech therapy.

anthony davis: i mean we all saw the guy

james harden: he'll have to change teams, though

and since i'm a wizards fan responding to a uk fan, i'll add john wall as a long shot because you can not convince me he's not going to make a leap this year, etc.