Steph, Klay, Lebron, Bird and Jokic

Give me the best passing front court with the two best shooters of all time and let them cook

Late stage MJ makes it sound like he’s a malignant tumor

Just for pure basketball entertainment:

White chocolate

Ai

Vince Carter

KG

Dwight Howard

If I can add a specific year for each player:

PG - 2016 Steph
SG - 2006 Kobe
SF - 2013 Bron
PF - mid 10’s Blake Griffin
C - Hakeem

Kyrie - cleverest dribbler/finisher ever
MJ - neurolinked from brain to hand to basketball
KD - purest offensive weapon I’ve ever seen
Duncan - quiet killer, humble, loyal
Steven Adams - basketball sitcom character

Wade
Kobe
Tmac
Amare
Cousins

Arenas, Kobe, LeBron, Dirk and Yao. Just grew up watching these guys. Was too young to appreciate Jordan.

For fun?

I want something like Muggsy Bouges, Allen Iverson, Adrian Dantley, Charles Barkley, and Chuck Hayes. Shortest starting 5 I can think of where everyone still plays their natural position. I’m not sure how competitive it would be but it’s a realistic starting 5 on just positions. 

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: ginobilli
SF: Vince Carter
PF: rodman
C: Dwight Howard

White Chocolate

Steph “he’s a SG” Curry

Larry “only for the trash talking” Bird

Zion “prime, healthy, like those three games in his rookie season”

Steven “rag doll the opposition” Adams

PG: TJ McConnell

SG: Kevin Huerter

SF: Sophie Cunningham

PF: Sam Hauser

C: Mason Plumlee

I like this question so much more than best or greatest. It’s basically pick 5 you want to watch play together.

PG - White Chocolate Jason Williams

SG - Pistol Pete Maravich

SF - George Gervin

PF - Kevin Garnett

C - Moses Malone

My two guards for their showmanship, and for making passes an art form. Gervin obviously for the finger roll. KG for versatility, toughness and energy. Moses because he’s such a badass.

PG: Young Andre Miller. Just always thought Andre could hoop. Good floor general.

SG: Love me some Reggie Miller like 95–98 range.

SF: Raptors Kawhi. Just had everything.

PF: give me 2004 Garnett. Swiss Army knife at the position. He was so good that year. Fun to watch.

C: Give me a young Zydrunas Ilgauskas before the foot injuries. Like rookie year.

This is a goofy team but they’re all players I enjoyed.

Pg. Nikola Jokić

sg. Karl Anthony-Towns

sf. Tim Duncan

pf. Bill Walton

c. Arvydas Sabonis

just… just imagine the passing! And the length! This squad would he so weird no one would know how to plan for them. Besides running the fuck out of them of course.

PG: ‘15 Curry

SG: ‘91 Jordan

SF: ‘91 Mullin

PF: ‘93 Barkley

C: ‘94 Olajuwon

I want to see Lob City again but with a few more exciting pieces.

Chris Paul
Vince Carter
Aaron Gordon
Blake Griffin
Nikola Jokic

Three of the highest flyers in league history paired with two of the best lob throwers at their respective positions. You better pray your not the unfortunate soul who has to guard a fast break against any of these guys.

Vince Carter
Shawn Kemp
Shaq
Blake Griffin
Jason Williams

I really like flashy passes leading to dunks.

Edited to add this absolute humiliation station of a line up. These 5 guys were known to get in your head and piss you off all game. Put them all on the same lineup and assuming they don’t commit friendly fire, they will make the other 5 cry.

Larry Bird
Gary Payton
Rasheed Wallace
Kevin Garnett
Joe Ingles

Shaq, Nowitzki, KD, Jordan, Rose

Stockton, Tony Allen, Kawhi, Tim Duncan, and Hakeem. the paint will be hell to drive in

Curry - Skyfucker

Old Man Kobe - Smarter, wiser, assassin

Backpack KD - Young KD was a goat

Blake Griffin - Human highlight reel

Jokic - Goofy, fun, does everything

Love this topic.

PG: Late 2010s to early 2020s Dame Watching that “Fuck you” Paul George 3 in real time on edibles on a massive 4k tv may be the peak of basketball to me

SG: Late 90s Jordan Made basketball one of my first loves in my first memories of life. Still watch his best games and it’s my the peak of sports to me

SF: Miami Maybe Jimmy Butler? Moments like cursing out Jrue Holiday and Grant Williams while torching them as an 8th seed might be the most badass thing. 2018 LeBron but that’s such a chalk pick.

PF Suns Barkley I recently watched back every close 4th quarter of 1990s playoff game available on YT and 1993 Barkley is surreal. IMO the greatest single season of any player to never win a ring.

C Should be Prime Hakeem but for the personal bias vibes Brook Lopez. If you follow the Nets history, imagine how much you’d appreciate a genuinely nice dude who gave his all to the franchise for that long as a die hard fan.

Not sure how this team would do in the standings, but I would pay top dollar for courtside/ringside seats:

PG: Ja Morant

SG: Stephen Jackson

SF: Ron Artest/Metta World Peace/Metta Sandiford-Artest

PF: Draymond Green

C: Enes Kanter Freedom

Jordan, Rose and Butler in your favorite 5. Yup you’re from Chicago alright.

Steph, Klay, Bird, Dirk, and Hakeem.

Rose

Kobe

Bron

KG

AD

wall
wade
pacers pg/peja
bosh
howard

PG: Nash
SG: Curry
SF: Kobe
PF: Bird
C: Kareem

Gimme Steph, Rip Hamilton, Jimmy Buckets, KG, and Big Ben. Would be such a fun mix of speedy shooters and lockdown defense.

Plus getting Jimmy and KG trash talking at the same time? Lmao

Magic, Kobe, Worthy, Shawn Kemp, Shaq.

The what-if squad:

• Penny Hardaway
• Derrick Rose
• Grant Hill
• Larry Johnson
• Greg Oden

2017 Isaiah Thomas, JR swish 2016, Bron 2018, Dirk 2011, Przemek Karnowski (polish dude that played for gonzaga.

Edit:spelled dirk as kirk.

Dame
Jalen Suggs
Dr J
Prime Shawn Kemp
Prime arvydas sabonis

Mine would be a small ball line up cause I couldn’t think of a fav C:

Rose

Dame

Kobe

KD

KG

Pistol Pete, Dwyane Wade, Larry Bird, Dirk, Bill Russell.

Russell and Wade single-handedly make this a good defensive team. Got 3 white boys that can shoot the lights out. Bill Russell high IQ and can camp the dunker spot. Wade can operate and slash to his hearts content. We can see what Pistol could do without needing to absolutely carry his team and we could see how he looks in a 3pt pace and space era.

Russell outlet to Wade/Pistol gonna be some godly fast breaks

C - Early 90s Hakeem PF - Wemby SF - 2017 Kawhi SG - MJ (First Three-peat) PG - Steph (late 10’s probably)

I’d like to see a team just grind it out against this team. Also no one is a headache to play with and as we’ve seen with MJ, he’ll play within his role if given equally great teammates. Steph is the most malleable player of all time (besides KD). Wemby or Kawhi would be terrors as free safetys and Hakeem is just one of the most versatile players ever.

My dream 10 man lineup

PG: ‘16 Steph, ‘17 Harden

SG: ‘19 Klay, ‘03 TMac

SF: ‘17 KD, ‘19 Kawhi

PF: ‘21 Giannis, ‘18 LeBron,

C: ‘00 Shaq, ‘25 Jokic

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Lebron James

Dwyane Wade

Magic Johnson

We’ll start with the defense. Magic wasn’t a great defender on ball but generated a lot of steals. Wade was three time all defense. LeBron, Giannis, and Kareem are all wonderful defenders. Force misses and get rebounds. From there, Bron, Giannis, and Wade are all capable ball handlers coast-to-coast in transition. Magic being tall af and one of the greatest passers ever leads to a ton of points in transition.

Offensively, we’re running a ton of cuts and rolls. Our spacing isn’t great, but we’re faster and way stronger and a lot of misses become putback dunks.

Dennis Rodman
Dillon Brooks
Lance Stephenson
Ron Artest
Rasheed Wallace

Idc what positions they play. Just get out there be yourselves, guys.

For fun (not best):

PG: ¹⁶⁄₁₇ Russell Westbrook. Peak triple-double cocaine bear

SG: 08/09 Dwyane Wade. IMO, DWade’s best season, his peak combination of scoring, defense, and playmaking.

SF: ⁹⁶⁄₉₇ Grant Hill. The most versatile season of one of the most versatile forwards ever.

PF: ⁹⁸⁄₉₉ Antonio McDyess. Bit of a “guilty pleasure”. One of my favorite players from the 90s. Absolute freak athlete at the forward spot, defense, rebounding, scoring, and highlight dunks galore.

C: 02/03 Ben Wallace. Another of my absolute favorites of all time. One of the only players ever to relish guarding Shaq 1-on-1, and actually being able to do so.

Curry, Tmac, Lamar Odom, Durant
, Jokic. Lots of sh going on there.

1. Trae YOUNG
2. Gradey DICK
3. Rudy GAY
4. Kevin LOVE
5. Ramon SESSIONS

PG: Triple Double Era Russ
SG: Josh Hart, current vintage
SF: Dennis Rodman
PF: Young Charles Barkley
C: Wilt - stat grabbing era (Perhaps Bill Russell would be better instead. I wasn’t around)

Sure. No one can shoot but our strategy is to get all the rebounds while everyone else in the league is focused on things like scoring or athleticism or 2 way play.

I think any “favorite” starting 5 should have Magic at PG. Whoever your favorite player is, his game would be more fun to watch. Magic was infectious ;)

Everyone in their prime:

White chocolate
Wade
Klay
Blake Griffin
Jokic

2016 Curry
1996 Jordan
2012 Lebron
1993 Barkey
2001 Shaq

Steve Nash, Kobe, Larry Bird, Tim Duncan and Hakeem

Ja Morant T Mac Gerald Green Stromile swift Dwight howard.

We will put the entire NBA on a fucking poster

Glove
Air
Bird
Timmy
Big Ticket

Muggsy bogues, isaiah thomas, gary payton ii, bruce brown, pj tucker

Steph, Manu, Peja, Webber, Jokic.

Duncan is actually my favorite player, but in that group we all know Webber would be more fun.

Edit, and if you can’t tell, I enjoy creative passers mixed with off ball threats.

Steph, klay, KD, dirk, jokic id love to watch just a stream of ridiculous shotmaking

Steph, klay, kawhi, Lauri, jokic

For the memes:

PG: Jokic

SG: KAT

SF: Giannis

PF: Tim Duncan

C: Prime Yao Ming

PG - 1996 Gary Payton - post up, back down, spin all while poppin shit.
SG - 2001?? Kobe; 2009 may have been his peak, but Kobe 8 was so fun to watch.
SF - 1994-97 Pippen. Jordan was the show, but you couldn’t deny pippen’s skillset and especially his attention to defense.
PF - 1996 Shawn Kemp - lob city!!
C - 1994-95 Shaq. Watching him run the floor was amazing. Winning championships in LA made ppl forget how fluid he was when he was younger. Him and Penny probably could’ve ran a few off.

Looking back at the players, damn I’m an old head. I do love Castle and Harper’s games plus mentality so I’m filing for temporary Spurs fandom…until the SuperSonics return!!

Gimmie Iverson, Curry, Vince Carter, Larry Bird, and Jokic. Just 5 guys I absolutely love to watch. The team would make bugger all sense.

1 Manu 2 Kawhi 3 Wemby 4 Duncan 5 Robinson

I mean, could you imagine attempting to score against them?

Kind of an utopia lineup;

PG: Full potential John Wall/Derrick Rose

SG: Dwyane Wade that never got injured

SF: Vincent Carter/ the idea of Zion

PF: Dirk

C: Hassan Whiteside if he tried

Penny, MJ, Grant Hill, Kukoc, Kareem

SG - Michael Jordan

PG - Rajon Rondo

PF - Kevin Garnett

SF - Getoffmydickerson

C - Hakeem Olajuwon

Steph
Ray Allen
Klay Thompson
KD
KAT

3 > 2

PG: Lindsey Hunter SG: Joe Dumars SF: Dennis Rodman PF: Rasheed Wallace C: Ben Wallace. Might not score 60 points per game but they wouldn’t give up 60 either.

Steph, MJ, Bird, Dirk, Shaq. No one is touching these guys.

S Curry, MJ, Vince Carter, Shown Kemp, young Shaq

Jason Kidd, Jerry Stackhouse, Kevin Durant, Kevin Garnett, Ben Wallace

Loved watching Kidd play as a kid in the 2000s.

Jerry Stackhouse was my favorite Piston until he was traded. If it wasn’t for Jerry I don’t know if I would’ve ever watched the Pistons.

Kevin Durant unique player because of his size and ability

Kevin Garnett the one guy I always wanted to be a Piston

Ben Wallace once Jerry was traded I turned my attention to the dude at the 5 spot because he looked cool blocking shots

Bob Cousy
Pistol Pete
Doctor J
Dennis Rodman
Yao Ming

not my fave guys but one that i think would be fun that isn’t just the usual suspects

Lebron  KD Wemby AD Bam

Guaranteed the tallest NBA lineup ever and can legitimately cover the entire width of the court. 

Which now makes me question the legality of such a defense. If they stood in a chain and opposing players cannot get past them without fouling, could they generate 8 second violations every time the opponent doesn’t set up fast enough? If you can I’ll double down and get the biggest, tallest boys and build a literal wall. 

This team has one more benefit. Wemby can defend the inbound pass as the roamer while you have another 7 footer guarding the inbounder.  And another 3 extremely athletic and versatile defenders guarding the strong side of the ball.

John Stockton Jeff Hornacek Andrei Kirilenko Larry Bird Nikola Jokic

ben gordon sixth man; joakim noah backup big

Payton, Jordan, LeBron, Duncan, Jokic

Jason Williams

T-Mac

Dominique Wilkins

Shawn Kemp

Shaq

Steph, Luka, LeBron, dirk, Kareem

Luka, Manu, Peja, Dirk, Steven Adams

Luka, Jerry west, Larry Bird, Dirk, Jokic

Shaun Livingston Brandon Ingram Kevin Durant Chet Holmgren Wembanyama

It would honestly be interesting to see these tall and lanky guys matchup against a physical team.

Chris Paul

Dwyane Wade

Duncan Robinson

LeBron James

Nikola Jokic

1: Tim Hardaway jr 2: Tim Hardaway jr 3: Tim Hardaway j 4: Dwight Powell 5: Dwight Powell

D-Wade, LeBron, Bosh, Allen and Chalmers

‘07 Nash
‘05 Manu
‘17 Kawhi
‘04 KG
‘20 AD

Nash and Manu would be an absolutely nasty offensive backcourt, Kawhi was arguably at the peak of his offensive and defensive powers, 04 KG is a legendary all around monster, and Bubble AD to give Nash a roll partner on par with Amare.

Draymond Green, Dennis Rodman, Isaiah Stewart, Ron Artest in 2004, Jaden McDaniels

• Cliffus Jiggrin

Davion mitchell Harden Amen thompson Ben wallace Hakeem

Magic,  Jordan, LeBron, Rodman, Bill Russell 

I never saw Russell play, so… 

Rondo

Ray Allen

Lebron

Giannis

Yao

Iverson
JR Smith
Carmelo
K Mart
Nene

all healthy and in prime

pg - lonzo ball
sg - zach lavine
sf - Lebron
Pf - zion
C - Dwight

they running 48 minutes

All def to win GP, TA , KB , Worm, Ben Wallace

PG: MVP SGA (thou Clippers SGA was also one of my favorite young players to watch, those underhand finishes and crafty layups were insane)

SG: NBA-Finals-Season Booker

SF: OKC-and-early-Clipper Paul George

PF: Champion Jayson Tatum

C: Late-NO-era AD

I like lanky dudes who can shoot

Derrick Rose
Stephen Curry
Scottie Pippen
Tim Duncan
Andrew Bogut

Banana boat team: CP3, Wade, LeBron, Melo, Bosh vs OKC: Westbrook, Harden, KD, Ibaka, Aquaman

2016 Steph Curry, Choke Sign Reggie Miller, 2019 Kawhi Leonard, 2003 Tim Duncan, 1962 Bill Russell. My favorite is also the best I can come up with if you take into account chemistry & fit.

PG: Stephen Curry (I say this as a hater, so it should carry some extra weight)
SG: Vince Carter (hands down the nicest dunker in history, don’t @ me)
SF: LeBron (when your PG does the crazy shooting, someone has to deliver the Magic)
PF: Dirk (2nd best shooter in history, don’t @ me)
C: Hakeem (I mean just look at the way he moves)

2019 Kyle Lowry

1974 Julius Erving

2026 Scottie Barnes

2004 Kevin Garnett

2018 Marc Gasol

Great length, playmaking, defense, and potential for phenomenal highlight dunks. Plus they all got that dog in em’.

Ai, Frobe, Miami LeBron, Wolves Garrett, and Three-peat Shaq

Jeff McInnis

Darius Miles

Corey Maggette 

Lamar Odom

Elton Brand

Pete Maravich
Michael Cooper
Scottie Pippen
Draymond Green
Wemby

Great shooting, great defense, Plenty of toughness & a monster who can go inside or outside. Plus we get to see Pistol get absolute nutty throwing lobs.

Bill Laimbeer
Ron Artest
Charles Oakley
Xavier McDaniel
Maurice Lucas

We can beat the crap out of any other five!

Nash

Booker

Marion

Barkley

Amare

I’m a suns fan and I think that team would beat a lot of other teams best 5.

Pat Bev
Ron Artest
Draymond Green
Rasheed Wallace
Isaiah Stewart

C Bill Russell

PF Tim Duncan

SF Giannis Antetokounmpo

SG Manu Ginobili

PG Mark Price

PG - Uncle Drew

SG - Johnny Kilroy

SF - Jesus Shuttlesworth

PF - Preacher

C - Neon Boudeaux

From an entertainment point, late 80s jordan, and lebron right before he left to Miami when he had like 21 straight points against celtics. Then lets gets 3 almost average defending players that shoot okay, but are a little slow and can’t dribble well. That way lebron and jordan have to hard carry the team. Could also put iverson in there instead of lebron as he was wildly entertaining to watch as well.

I would love a team of crazy one-touch and bullet passers. Just want to see the ball fizzing around at crazy speeds

Rondo Manu Bird Pippen Walton

Boris diaw off the bench.

Picked Walton over Jokic because for this team i prefer elite passing + elite defense over elite passing + elite scoring. Picked Rondo over Magic just for vibes

JKidd, Kobe, Tmac, KG, Shaq. Guess when I was born?!!!?!!!??

Couple of different ideas depending on what your personal flavor is.

Lob LOB City: Cp3, MJ, Vince Carter, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan. Assume everyone at their athletic peak, shot chart is either fundamental elbow jumpers from Chris or dunks, nothing else allowed.

Flamethrowers: Steph, Klay, Ray Allen, KD, Jokic. Good luck with the Steph/Jokic pick and roll with Klay and KD running pin downs for each other on the weak side while Rays in the corner.

You are not allowed to dribble: MJ, Pippen, Kawai, Rodman, Wemby. Good luck getting the ball over half court, if you do watch out for the alien sitting in the lane, and don’t miss cu you’re never getting a rebound.

From pure basketball entertainment, give me 

PG: 2006 Nash - the passing ability, vision, putting everyone else in better positions

SG: 2012 Ginobili - you could put him anywhere and he’d be entertaining 

SF: 1977 Dr J - athletic prime was a force

PF: 2016 Draymond - obviously high IQ, but want to see how he works with Wilt

C: 1967 Wilt - enough said, anything can happen

Derrick Rose
Tracy McGrady
Kevin Durant
Tim Duncan
Yao Ming/Victor Wembanyama

Jamal Murray

Tmac

Carmelo Anthony

Aaron Gordon

Nikola Jokic

Derek Fisher, Delonte West, Tony Parker, Jason Richardson, Shaquille O’Neal.

The team chemistry due to them all trying to sleep with each other’s wife’s and girlfriends would be terrible, but the stories would be great. 

If we talking just straight favourite players:

PG - Jalen Brunson - Knicks Fan
SG - Allen Iverson - a kid that grew up in the 2000’s
SF - Gerald Wallace - grew up in the 2000’s and loved all athlete defenders before they became dead boring 3 & D players
PF - Dirk Nowitzki - Mavs were my first favourite team as a kid because Dirk was that guy
C - Hakeem Olajuwon - seeing a guy that size be that much of a beast defensively and offensively is who I tried to be (I stopped growing at 6’5

Bench:
Carmelo
Ben Wallace
Josh Howard
Kevin Garnett
Stephon Marbury
Sebastian Telfair

94 Reggie Miller
Orlando era Shaq
85 Larry Bird
Playoff Rondo
06 Shawn Marion

PG - Kyle Lowry, the GROAT

SG - Mitch Richmond, NBA Jam monster

SF - Scottie Pippen, destroyer of worlds

PF - Jorge Garbajosa, the greatest 29 year old rookie ever

C - Rasheed Wallace, the genius

White Chocolate Jay Will, Raptor VC, 95 Pistons Grant Hill, Bucks Vin Baker & Pre Knees Serbian Sabonis

pg - 2011 d rose
sg - 2016 klay thompson
sf - 1967 rick barry (or 1981 dr j)
pf - 2014 blake griffin
c - 2014 joakim noah
6th - 2026 lamelo ball

“The quiet game”

Lillard

Brandon Roy

Kawhi

Timmy

Jokic

No shit talking, only basketball rotation call outs.

Would be wild to see in action

PG: Jason Williams

SG: Dwyane Wade

SF: Marcus Smart

PF: Duncan Robinson

C: Kyle Anderson

It’s a shitty lineup, but these are my favorite play styles I’ve seen in my life time.

I wanna have a team of what-if’s

PG: Penny one of the most fun to watch players to watch when i was a kid

SG: Drazen Petrovic if guys like mj and reggie are talking about him as one of the best players they’ve played against then that will be a fun one to watch

SF: Len Bias/Reggie Lewis never had a chance to watch them play but apparently they were really good.

PF: Ralph Samson him and the dream were so good together that they were able to beat prime showtime lakers while still not being at the peak of their careers

C: Walton/Oden/Sabonis sorry portland.

Dana Barros, Brandon Roy, Corey Brewer/Walt Williams, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Nenad Krstic

Edit: Why? I think the lineup speaks for itself

5 Luke Kornets

MJ, Rondo, YONNIS, Sheed Sheed, Kyrie

AI Jordan Bird Barkley Shaq

I’m going with the all “What If” team, players whose peak was cut short by injuries or other circumstances:

PG: Penny Hardaway
SG: Brandon Roy
SF: Grant Hill
PF: Len Bias
C: Bill Walton

Super Subs: Tracy McGrady, Derrick Rose, Arvydas Sabonis, Drazen Petrovic, Bernard King

Tempted to include Bird because wet probably would have seen 2-3 more seasons out of him at peak had he not missed almost that entire season and had the back issues, but I that seems to be cheating. Bird and Walton was amazing when Walton was a broken down player only capable of 19mpg–1986 Bird and 1978 Walton would have been insane.

Steph
Mj
Magic
Bird
Hakeem

As a rookie, Shaq was the heaviest player in the league but moved like a gazelle

‘91 Kevin Johnson  ‘89 MJ ‘87 Bird ‘96 Shawn Kemp ‘99 Alonzo Mourning

With pre injury LJ, White Chocolate, Detlef Schremp,  BJ Armstrong, and KG offf the bench…

Lots of flashy passes, dunks, a few threes, but mostly big bruising guys filling lanes and dunking, with a couple of killers for the end of the game…

2022 Stephen Curry

1991 Michael Jordan

2009 LeBron James

1985 Larry Bird

2004 Ben Wallace

I always place Big Ben as the starting Center in my hypothetical starting 5s due to his defense and effectiveness without the ball, and I make sure my other 4 picks cover his offensive limitations.

Good luck stopping a Wallace block turning into a Bird rebound-outlet pass into a Lebron-Jordan fastbreak with Curry running to the 3-point line.

PG: Pre-Injury DRose - favorite player all-time. Hell, you could give me New York Knicks DRose and I’d still put him here. Did you not get the memo?

SG: 2003-04 Steve Francis - Steve-o was the first Diamond card I ever got on MyTeam in 2K17. Whenever I did MyTeam in high school I never spent any money on VC, and I found the most success on 2K17. He had a 94 OVR card that could shoot and slash to the hoop, it was great. Pair him with a Diamond George Milan card you got from one of the offline modes and you were set.

SF: 1985-86 Larry Bird - Prime Larry Legend, favorite player of the 80s. I loved watching his highlights growing up, and his portrayal in Winning Time was awesome. I truly believe he could dominate in any era of the NBA you put him in.

PF: 2017-18 Nikola Mirotiç - let me tell you, this dude was like if Curry was a power forward and rode the bench; he was so fun to use in 2K when he played for the Bulls, then got traded to the Pelicans and it wasn’t the same :’(

C: Any version of Wilt Chamberlain - I played a lot of 3v3/5v5 games on 2K in college where me and my friends would smoke a blunt and pick legends to run on the street court. Wilt was incredibly underrated; I was always the only person to pick him and every time I’d win.

PG: Mugsy Bogues SG: Wemby SF: Shaq PF: Manute Bol C: Gheorghe Muresan

Because it would look ridiculous

I’ll give you a full rotation!

PG - 2007 Steve Nash

SG - 2024 Jayson Tatum

SF - 1986 Larry Bird

PF - 2008 Kevin Garnett

C - 2003 Tim Duncan

6th - 2008 Paul Pierce

7th - 2012 Rajon Rondo

8th - 2018 Steven Adams

9th - 2000 Reggie Miller

I’m a lifelong Celtics fan so a majority of them are pretty self explanatory. The five Celtics mentioned are my favorite players of all-time. Duncan and Nash are two of my three favorite Non-Celtics (didn’t include Dirk because I didn’t want him to come off the bench.)

All in their primes:

Jason Kidd - pure facilitation

Kobe - electric, killer

T Mac - would push Kobe 

Amare Stoudamire - dunks 

Dwight Howard - dunks + blocks 

Stockton, Nash, Magic, Triple-Double Westbrook, and White Chocolate.

I’m looking for ball movement and a little dazzle dazzle

PG - Nets Jason Kidd SG - East Champ Reggie Miller SF - pre injury Grant Hill PF - Any era Tim Duncan C - 2000-2003 Shaq

Chris paul, luka, lebron, anthony davis, demarcus cousins

G: prime AI - this feels like it speaks for itself as a sixers fan who was a kid when AI played in philly

G: ‘87-‘93 MJ - top 2 player all time (and he aint #2), top tier trash talker, and this era was his best defensively and the best evidence of what MJ would look like in a modern heliocentric offense (mainly ‘87-88). I’ve been a MJ stan since I watched Space Jam as a little kid, and frankly, when it comes to the GOAT debate, tie breaker is always that MJ is cool af while LeBron is goofy af

F: ‘83-‘87 Bird - another great trash talker. Also adds some playmaking since this team lacks a true PG

F: ‘88-‘91 Barkley - another Sixers pick and chuck is hilarious

C: ‘03-‘08 KG - this team will get under anyone’s skin. Not just beating other teams but psychological warfare and completely demoralizing opponents.

Oldhead here.

PG - Jason Williams

SG - Vince Carter

SF - Blake Griffin

PF - Kevin Garnett

C - Alonzo Mourning

Baron Davis, Dwade, LeBron, Sheed, Jokic

Iverson, Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Kemp, Jokic

Magic at PG, Kobe at SG, Bron at SF, AD at PF, Shaq at Center

Steph, Kawhi, MJ, Bron, and Victor.

Let them go up against…

Nash, Magic, Kobe, KD, and Shaq.

Nash, Ginobili, Bird, Diaw, Jokic — Lots of idiosyncratic play from all 5.

PG - Arenas
SG - Rip Hamilton
SF - T-Mac
PF - Melo
C - Amare

my small ball mid-late 2000s wet dream

Steph, Joe Dumars, Bird, Garnett, Wemby

Offensively, Bird has the ball, Garnett is on the high block, Dumars is on the opposite wing, and Steph and Wemby are screening for each other in chaotic crossover. Stop that.

Defensively, Dumars is at the POA, Wemby is roaming the paint, Garnett is covering the best scorer, while Steph and Bird play team defense and ambush passing lanes.

Havilcek is my sixth man.

C.  Alonzo Mourning

PF Charles Barkley

SF Larry Bird

SG Chris Mullin

PG LeBron James 

All my favorite non-Knick players over the years. 

Smart, Caruso, Brooks, Green, Wemby.

Everyone would fucking hate us. No fun allowed.

PG Mookie Blaylock SG Manu SF Shane Battier PF Andrei Kirlienko C Bill Walton

Decision making, defence and ball movement are my kinks.

Not astonishing shooting or athleticism, but incredible game sense, incredibly resilient defence and a total lack of ego. Can play off Walton in the post, let Mookie run traditional PG sets or clear out and let Manu do Manu things.

PG: Ricky Rubio. SG: Steph Curry SF: Luka Doncic PF: Giannis C: Tim Duncan

PG: Isaiah Thomas (2017)
SG: Stephen Curry (2016)
SF: Paul Pierce (2008)
PF: Jayson Tatum (2027)
C: Shaquille O’Neal (2002)