If You Could Pick 5 NBA Players, Past or Present, To Create One Starting Lineup...

Pistol Pete was awesome... but Air Jordon is just the pinnacle. I couldn't even imagine displacing him at SG with anyone.

 

You get the assist if your pass sets up the score...

No way the assist is overrated...

It is necessary in basketball...

Hockey is an entirely different thing, and, you can't legitimately compare the two...

And, BTW, Jordan had more APG early in his career...

His assist numbers declined later...

The reason there's so many highlights of Jordan scoring is because you couldn't stop him from doing it...

At any rate, the assist numbers between the three aren't all that different...

Bird is about 1 APG higher for his career...

 

PG - John Stockton
SG - Michael Jordan
SF - Larry Bird
PF - Bill Russel
C - Wilt Chamberlain

Rest of the team:

PG - Oscar Robertson
SG - LeBron James
SF - Scottie Pippen
PF - Karl Malone
C - Hakeem Olajuwon
C - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
PF - Moses Malone
SG/SF - Kevin Durant

 

I feel like this list will be very different for me if I am picking a list of the best players and if I was picking the best team. The best players wouldn't necessarily create the best team, because most importantly, there are only so many shots to go around. The dream team could come together and beat other national teams, because they had a similar construction. However, if you created a similar team, but put them into the NBA against another team that was properly balanced and constructed, I think they would find chemistry and defense difficult.

So here is my best players list

Magic- PG
Jordan- SG
Bird- SF (Lebron is insanely close here)
Duncan- PF
Chamberlain- C

The next list depends greatly on the rule set we are playing under. The rules which allowed for physicality, like those in the 1980s and before, favored big men. So you would want to build a team around scoring big men, pass first point guard, and shooting from the wing. If you play with todays rules, which favor wing play, then the team would be constructed very differently. Then you would prefer scoring from the wings, defense and rebounding from the bigs, and a passing point guard who could still score enough to not be an offensive liability. Either way, defense would need to be considered greatly for both eras. Picking great scorers will get you so far, but defense is just as important.

So my best team would be made up of a point guard who can play defense and get others involved, but score enough to keep defenses honest. Magic was a great all around offensive player, but was a defensive liability. Jason Kidd is some one I would consider, because he was a great facilitator and defender, but his offense was too much a liability. Chris Paul can do everything, but he has never done it in the pressure packed situations that other great PGs have done. Despite that fact, I will fill my team with others who have proven themselves under those circumstances, so I will go with Chris Paul.

For shooting guard, Michael Jordan. He was the greatest ever, and he played great defense.

For small forward, It is difficult. Bird was a great defender fundamentally, but he was too slow and unathletic to guard a lot of players. I never saw Oscar Robertson play. So I would choose between Lebron and Scottie Pippen. Lebron is bigger and a slightly better offensive player, Pippen is probably the greatest wing defender of all time and was still a quality offensive player. I will go with Lebron though, because of his physical superiority over Pippen. Lebron plays great defense, great passer, rebounder, and he has shown his willingness to play second fiddle in a team (which he would have to do in this team).

Power forward, I also thought about for a while. I feel like there needs to be a position where you have some one willing to do the dirty work in a team. So I considered Dennis Rodman. He is a nutcase, but he was always a great basketball player. He did all the little things you need for a team to win, and was actually a decent teammate. I also considered Tim Duncan, who is a great player and winner. However, I will ultimately go with Bill Russell. He did all the things Rodman did, but was a better shotblocker. He could add the dirty work and intangibles, but was too small to play center in the modern NBA. So I will play him as my power forward.

Center, I will take Olajuwon. He could score, rebound, and he was a great defender. He was the perfect modern big man. He was athletic, could shoot, great shot blocker and rebounder, and could stretch the floor.

So my team would be

Paul
Jordan
Lebron
Russell
Olajuwon

I feel like that team has a balance between scoring ability and the ability to play defense, rebound, and outwork the other team.

PS. I just wrote a lot of words on this relatively silly question!!

 

Jordan, Chamberlain, Bird, Magic, Dr J.

 

Bird
Nash
Jordan
Nowitski
Magic

 

PG magic
SG MJ
SF Pippen
PF Rodman
C Shaq/Olajuwon/russel

i don't see why u wudnt take pippen and rodman, especially if u have mj on the team...with this lineup ud have the goat playmaker/pg, the goat player/scorer/one of the best defenders ever, pip-one of the best and most versatile defenders ever, the goat rebounder/ also one of the best defenders ever, on C id probably go with shaq - one of the most dominant C´s ever on both ends

u can only score so many points, defense comes first imo...but i guess u cud make a case for bird over pippen, quite similar to rodman, bird is just such an unique player...id always take roman on a team like this, his contribution for the teams he played is just vastly underrated

 

I take Olajuwon over shaq any day. Better defender, better rebounded and way way better free throw shooter.

Think about it. If you have 4 all time great scores playing the other positions what are opponents going to do the moment the ball goes inside to Shaq? Hack a Shaq.

 

I'd have to add Bird and Wilt in mine but it's hard to argue when you're at the very top of the best of the best. Karl Malone and others rank up there as well. Can't argue Magic and MJ at all.

Coolest move by a ball player that I can recall: Game with only seconds to go and Bird tells the Sonics player guarding him, "I'm getting the ball and," pointing to the floor, "I"m shooting from right there." Bird takes a pass, takes the exact shot he told the opponent he would take, right in his face...for the game.