Best team ever assembled... IF all players are in their prime?

bucks with jabbar and big o,or celticks fom 80s with bird,johnson, mchale

 

2001 Portland Trailblazers-

Damon Stoudamire/ Rod Strickland
Steve Smith/ Bonzi Wells
Scottie Pippen/ Detlef Schrempf
Shawn Kemp/ Rasheed Wallace
Arvydas Sabonis/ Dale Davis

 

Chicago! Well balanced team. No description needed for what Jordan can do. Both Jordan n Pippen could create their own shots and we great defenders and passers. Rodman was a rebounding machine and also good defender. Kerr was always a 3-point threat. Longley had a good mid range game as well as a decent rebounder. IMO this made a complete team and each player knew what their role was.

 

Cant believe I need to wait 3 pages for someone to post this. Lebron and Shaq. fillers - all stars - Antawn Jamison, Mo willams, Ilgauskas. And there is still Verajao.

Honorable mention, Yao, Artest, Tmac and Francis.
Last years finals team - Heat - Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Allen, Juwon Howard, Rashard Lewis.

Spurs - Duncan, Tmac, Ginobili, Parker.

03 Pacers - Reggie Miller, Artest, Jermain O'neal,Brad Miller, Tim Hardaway

 

I'd go with the year before. The 22 win Rockets. With all the players injury free and in their prime, our streak may have rivaled the Heat's streak and we would've tore through the West Conference playoffs.

PG-Steve Francis/Mike James/Rafer Alston/Aaron Brooks
SG-Tracy McGrady/Bonzi Wells
SF-Shane Battier/Steve Novak
PF-Luis Scola/Carl Landry/Chuck Hayes
C-Yao Ming/Dikembe Mutombo

 

As much as I despise Charles, he was a beast.

 

I love the old Ron Ron. Not a big fan of Stevie short term franchise. Prime Artest >> Steve Francis

I like hard D. Ron is the man!

 

Honorable mention: '02 Kings or 01' kings

Not sure who was better Jason Williams or mike bibby prime

02 kings
Mike bibby
Peja Stojakovic
Gerwald Wallace "Crash"
Chris Webber
Vlade Divac
6man: Hedu Turkalu

 

I would take Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton, Grant. Best Defense out of all the teams mentioned, the two strongest players ever Shaq and Malone, the best finisher in Kobe, the best defender at the PG position in the Glove and one of the best garbage players in Grant. All 5 are tough as nails. I hate all these players and there is good reason because they were never Rockets and they were a pain in the ass when the Rockets played them.

Even as old farts they beat Duncan, Manu, and Parker. Lost to a Detroit team that matched up really well, was extremely athletic, and had a very deep bench.

* Wilt is the strongest player in NBA history

 

Finally an interesting poll. Tough choices...but I'd have to go w/Bird/Parrish/McHale front line and supporting cast which included Walton. . Second choice would be Wilt/Elgin/West/Goodrich. In their prime as op stipulated, I don't see anyone beating that Lakers team...even the old Celtics w/Russell. I'd bring the Rockets team of Hakeem, Clyde, and Charles in next.

Interesting poll.

 

Barkley/Olajuwon but Erving/Cheeks/Toney trumps the supporting cast Barkley/Olajuwon would have. You'd have either Drexler or Pippen to offset Erving but then no one close to Cheeks/Toney (and Bobby Jones off the bench)

 

I'm officially too old.

 

I would say that it is difficult to pass on Wilt. A one of a kind player. Maybe MJ was at the same level, but we probably need more time to see the balance picture. When I'm thinking about Wilt and MJ, I feel that these were players that could make any team a contender. The reat more or less needed a certain constellation around them to get to the highest level.

 

Gonna be a homer here for a second.
Brooks, McGrady,Battier, Scola, Yao.

 

I don't think people realize how good Jerry West and Elgin Baylor were. Here is a trivia question.

What 4 players retired with the highest career scoring average?
Jordan, Chamberlain, Baylor, West.

3 of those guys were on the 71 Lakers. They won 33 games in a row when they were all past their primes.

 

I think to judge this fairly we HAVE to consider the era the players we are discussing played in. The 90's big men were considered the best era of big men thus far. You could probably also make the argument that the 90's had some of the toughest guards aswell: Jordan, Stockton, Payton, Drexler, T. Hardaway and the list goes on.

Obviously, what is more important than just talent is chemistry. Remember, the _Dream Team got creamed by a bunch of college kids in their first scrimmage together. Teams fall apart if chemistry falls apart. Some of those stacked teams look like egos would have got in the way of success. As someone stated earlier about the Bulls squad, knowing your roll and fitting into the system is more important than simply having ridiculous talent.

Last thing to think about is the coach. P. Jackson, R. Auerbach, Riley, Tomjanovich, etc. are truly the X-Factors that need to be added into the equation.

 

Big ball

 

'04 LAL

3 top 15 players All Time.... 4 top 25ers.


Game Over

 

There are a few teams I can think of:
2004 Nets:J-Kidd,K-Mart,Zo,Jefferson,Kittles,Rodney Rogers,Luicious Harris.
2002 Magic:T-Mac,Hill,Ewing,Grant,Armstrong,Mike Miller
2011 Mavericks:J-Kidd,Dirk,Marion,Peja,Terry,Chandler,Butler
2002 Trailblazersippen,Sheed,Kemp,Mighty Mouse,Wells,Kerr,Derek Anderson,Z-Bo,Dale Davis,Ruben Patterson