The NBA championship formula used to be "A dominant big man + a deadly finisher". It causes two mismatches in different period of a game. Other than that, an all star tier six man who can change game momentum is also very important. The rest can be built around.
Let's do the same thing with animals now. T-Mac = baby deer with duck feet (used to be a gazelle but now his legs often look like they are about to give out on him and he runs like a person wearing flippers) Artest = tasmanian devil (not a real animal but he's wild, intense and often out of control) Yao = elephant (slow and clumsy)
Sloth is good but check out the eerie similarities to a baby deer: <div><embed src="http://www.livevideo.com/flvplayer/embed/5D9A42A295554D5DA7CB9737E79EDFD8&autoStart=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" WIDTH="445" HEIGHT="369" wmode="transparent"></embed><br/><a href="http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/5D9A42A295554D5DA7CB9737E79EDFD8/558162/gordon-shows-a-baby-deer.aspx">Gordon Shows a Baby Deer</a></div> And even giraffes are too aggressive to fit Yao (note how well they box out and fight for position): <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C7HCIGFdBt8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C7HCIGFdBt8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
