If the Spurs and Heat had all players in their primes,who do you think would win the finals?

spurs in 4

 

too bad Ray ray has to come off the bench because Prime Wade would start

The Heat team is redundant in that Shard and Ray both have to come off the bench while still pretty shallow in their Center and PG positions

Tim Duncan
Boris Diaw
Tracy McGrady
Manu
Parker

vs


Howard
Bosh/Shard
Lebron/Shard
Wade/Ray
Chalmers

 

prime duncan almost had quadrupple double in the nba finals.

 

I would actually make Wade come off the bench and start Allen. Surround the stars with complimentary players rather than just stacking superstars into the starting line-up. Just like SA did with Ginobli

 

Spurs hands down. TD and TMAC prime + Manu and Parker prime. That's complete dominance.

 

people overrate Lebron (who is in his prime) and underrate prime Duncan (who right now is maybe 80% of what he was on both sides of the court; think of Olajuwon when they had Barkley and Pippen). they also underrate current Parker and prime Howard and T-Mac.

Duncan is a top 10 of all time player. Lebron isn't, not yet or maybe ever. prime T-Mac was a top 5 player in the game along with prime Shaq, prime Duncan, prime KG and prime Kobe, of which only Duncan and maybe Kobe are in the top 10 of all time. Lebron only became the crowned best player in the game after all of those guys declined although Duncan and Kobe, in particular, are still playing at a top 10 level. heck, they both made the freaking All-NBA first team. in that sense Rodman is right. Lebron only looks so good because all the other top level players have aged or retired. when T-Mac first went to Houston in 05, he was clearly better than Lebron (20 years old).

the current forward (and wing and center) class in the NBA is laughable compared to ten years ago when Duncan and T-Mac were in their primes. after Lebron, you have just Durant (a very similar offensive talent as prime T-Mac but less playmaking and post-scoring, but more efficient shooting) and then humuna, humuna, the craptacular Carmelo? how is Bosh in the discussion for the best PF in the game as he was just a couple years ago? since then, no new great PFs have entered the league or broken out except Blake Griffin and Kevin Love. i remember when Zach Randolph was maybe the 10th best PF in the game, when his stats were even better than they are now. now he's arguably the best after 37 year old Duncan, and slightly ahead of the oft-injured Blake Griffin or freaking David Lee (All-NBA 3rd team forward). Hibbert and Marc Gasol are alright, but they don't compare to Shaq or a healthy Yao. for the first time since who knows how long, not a single NBA player averaged 20+ points and 10+ rebounds, let alone averaging 20/10 and getting 1+ blocks a game. no one even got 19 and 10 or 20 and 9.5. Lamarcus Aldridge, David Lee and Tim Duncan came the closest. the wing position (Wade and Lebron's positions) has declined substantially as well. no more prime T-Mac, Roy, Kobe, Ginobili, Wade, Pierce, Allen, Vince Carter or Michael Finley. or Iverson :grin: . the only new notable additions are Harden, Klay Thompson and Paul George and they're far from their primes.

we've already seen a Heat team with all 3 players in their prime and they lost to the freaking Mavericks and probably would have lost to the Spurs if they had beaten OKC and advanced to the Finals. adding prime Ray Allen to a team that already starts Wade and Lebron is nothing compared to adding a prime T-Mac to a team that starts Danny Green and Kawai Leonard. and then you roll back the clock 6-10 years to get prime Ginobili and Duncan, and then the Spurs have by far the better TEAM.

 

I think it'd be really close, but IMHO the Spurs would win simply because their best players all play different positions while the Heat have a lot of overlap.

Splitter/Duncan/Tmac/Manu/Parker would pretty much obliterate Bosh/LBJ/Battier/Allen/Wade because Tmac would cancel out LBJ and TD would just brutalize everyone else.

 

Wow, are you forgetting that players have to play on defense as well?

Heat would kill the Spurs. Not enough prime players. Wade was arguably the best player in the game for a year or two. He plays both ways. Anyone that got the chance to see Ray Allen in his hay-day knows he was as good as Tracy McGrady. Bosh in his prime was hitting every open shot and grabbing every rebound. I'd take the Heat on this argument that has no legitimate way to end.

 

In terms of Match ups:

Starters:
Duncan vs Bosh
McGrady vs Lewis
Parker vs Mario
Leonard vs Lebron
Green vs Allen

Bench:
Ginobli vs Wade
etc...

 

1. Duncan in his prime wouldve destroyed Bosh...Advantage Spurs
2. While Lewis was a tremendous shooter, Mcgrady does too much offensively and when he does play defense...he is quite long and too explosive..adv SPurs
3. Parker...aside from this game, Chalmers would still have his lunch eaten...
4. Lebron...enough said
5. Allen...too good of a career shooter...and was explosive to the rim when he was younger...
6. The Battle of the Euro step....this one was really hard, and I wanna say tie, but Wade was just nasty as a scorer...

Clearly the rest falls on the bench, and the Miami bench on paper looks better..with the Glue in Shane, and the Birdman...

Coaching still Pops...

Winner: I dont know....lollllll...but I have to lean with the Spurs just based on rings...

 

You can argue that Juwan Howard in his prime was better than Chris Bosh

 

Lebron is a 4 time MVP. his stats are superior to Duncan. I wouldn't be surprised if lebron didn't end up 2nd on the all time list.

 

Did you even watch T-mac play? How can you compare him to Ray Allen? Ray Allen is probably one of the best shooters of all time, but T-mac was a much better scorer, playmaker, and basketball player just because of his size.

Go watch videos of T-mac blocking Kobe's fadeaway. Just because he didn't try all the time doesn't mean he didn't play good D. In the Dallas series he pretty much locked down Nowitzki and dropped 40 pts a game.

In fact go watch videos of Mcgrady playing the Bucks in his prime. When he single handedly almost beat Sam Cassel, Ray Allen and Glen "Puppy Dog" Robinson. Don't knock him because he always had the worst teammates. You put him with prime Time Duncan and they would have 5 rings or more.

 

Lame ass thread... what if this and that! This crap never happen so quit whining and b****ing.

 

If it was lame it wouldn't have gotten past the first page, but look we are at the 9th.

 

Close series. Heat win .

#1. *Bench play goes to the Heat.
#2. Lebron doesn't have to worry about scoring just play lockdown defense.

*Second Unit too much for Spurs ( Anderson Howard Lewis/Battier Miller Chalmers): Defense, post scoring, shooters. Game Over.

 

Heat, easily.

LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Allen, Lewis, Battier, and Miller all in their primes would destroy

Duncan, Parker, Ginobli, T Mac, Diaw in their primes

 

Didnt a team consisting of Lebron, prime Bosh, prime Wade, and the best the Nba had to offer lose in the Olympics (pre-Jason Kidd).

 

I don't know why this is even an argument.

You can't just play your top 5 players at the same time regardless of position.

For instance, a team of 5 superstar PGs is not going to beat a well balanced team with good PG,SG,SF,PF,C.

Yes, the Heat have more "good players" if everyone was in their prime, but you realize all of them are wing and perimeter players? Where's the post presence? Are you really going to run with a lineup of Wade/Allen/James/Lewis/Bosh? Just 5 guys trying to score 20ppg from outside?

And it's not even like the perimeter players on the spurs will be bad either. Prime Tony Parker/Manu/T-Mac are all world class players. The difference is you have one of the all-time great big men to anchor that team, and no amount of 20ppg wing scorers will make up for prime Duncan namely because you don't need more 20ppg wing scorers on the Heat, you need a big man. It's their biggest problem now, and it will be even more exposed if you replaced aging Duncan with prime Duncan.

 

An extreme example of what I'm trying to say is if you had the option of playing 5 Michael Jordans (best player of all time) or trading it for a team of Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen, Tim Duncan, and Hakeem Olajuwon.

You would do the trade. Yes none of those 5 players are individually better than Michael Jordan, but you would have a balanced team that would more likely win.