Hakeem/Lebron or Shaq/Wade or Duncan/Kobe

[Mr. Jabbar]

Duncan and Kobe of course. Guaranteed multiple championships, longer primes, and they won't be jumping around the league from team to team shortcutting into a ring if things don't go as expected.

No brainer really.

[ihoopallday]

Lol too hard to choose. But if you put a gun to my head and I have to pick one duo, LeBron/Hakeem.

[blablabla]

duncan kobe would be the perfect duo

[Dragonyeuw]

1995 Hakeem and 2010 Lebron

[ShaqAttack3234]

Hakeem is perhaps the best layer out of any listed, I go back and forth between Dream and Shaq, they're in a virtual tie as far as I'm concerned, I was leaning towards Hakeem for a while, but lately, Shaq has the edge on my list.

However, I think they'd be the worst fit together. Lebron is the most ball-dominant of the 3 perimeter players, while Hakeem in his prime had taken the next level due to Rudy T building a 4 out/1 in offensive system around him that involved Hakeem getting the ball in the post almost every time down the floor and either scoring with his many moves, his game being based around his baseline fadeaway, or drawing 2 or 3 defenders and kicking it out to the perimeter. I don't see that being the best fit with Lebron's style. Lebron hanging around on the perimeter would be a disaster....see the 2011 finals. Hakeem had more of a score first mindset, but for the duo to work best, Lebron may have to be the first option. They'd obviously be a contender, each of them are too talented to not contend. They have the type of talent where you don't need to put much talent around them like Shaq and Kobe. And Hakeem will guarantee that they'd be a fine defensive team, and Lebron has become a very good defender the last 4 seasons, and truly a fantastic defensive player the last 2.

Shaq and Wade are the proven duo, they won a title together in '06 with Shaq still a huge impact player, the best center and a borderline top 10 player in the league, but well past his prime. And prior to Shaq's injury late in the season/playoffs, and then Wade's injury in he conference finals, the '05 Heat looked like arguably the best team in the league. Wade and Shaq in their primes would be phenomenal, for example you have their 3rd seasons to look forward to('95 Shaq and '06 Wade), and even with a very raw Shaq in his second year, you'd have two elite players with tremendous physical gifts, so they could contend. You'd also their 6th years when Shaq was entering his prime('98 level) and Wade was at his peak('09 level), and their 8th seasons would be '00 level Shaq and '11 Wade who still compared to anyone in the league. Wade slipped last year, but he won a title with Lebron who wasn't as good as '01 Shaq and it wasn't the natural inside/outside duo. While I think this would be the most devastating duo in their primes, and Shaq had excellent longevity, Wade's longevity is questionable. He had a normal length prime from '06-'11, but he basically lost 2 of those years to injuries in '07 and '08. Shaq and Wade are also easily the least durable.

For a Duncan/Kobe duo, think a better version of the Kobe/Gasol duo which was pretty damn good already. Kobe probably takes over as the 1st option fairly early on, though some coaches prefer to run the offense through a post player. But I have very little doubts these 2 will succeed. Duncan gives you perhaps the best defensive anchor of his era, certainly the most successful of his era. That's because Duncan was a premier shot blocker, but also mobile, committed to defense, and so fundamentally sound. He was the best in the league at blocking shots flatfooted because he seldom bit on fakes, but also had terrific timing and length. However, he could jump and block shots when he had to. Despite Kobe truly learning to incorporate his individual talent into a team concept in the '01 playoffs, Duncan and Kobe would probably reach contender status in their 3rd seasons, though Duncan was out for the playoffs with an injury in his 3rd season. By their 4th seasons, you get '01 Duncan and '00 Kobe, certainly a team you can contend with given the right pieces. And in their 5th years, you get Duncan nearing his peak in '02 form, and Kobe joining the NBA's elite in '01 form. A duo that could obviously be phenomenal. And you still have many potential years to look forward to such as their 10th years which would be Kobe in '06 form which was arguably his peak, and Duncan in '07 form, when he led a team to another titke. And even in their 12th seasons, Duncan was really starting to slow down, but still one of the top 15 players in the game and pretty close to '09 Gasol's level, and you'd have '08 Kobe, who was still arguably at his peak and better than he was in '09 when he won his first title with Gasol. And you'd still potentially be able to keep them contending a few more years if you have a deep team because Kobe was a top 5 player this past season and Duncan was still very effective and a key player on a legit championship contender. One of Duncan's advantages over the other 2 big men goes to waste, and that's being by far the most polished and easily the closest to his prime level of any of the 3 big men because Kobe wasn't nearly as NBA ready as Lebron and Wade entering the league, but this duo looks like they'll fit together far better than Hakeem/Lebron and easily outlast Shaq/Wade.

So my rankings are obvious from my post, but in case anyone wants to skip my post.

1.Duncan/Kobe
2.Shaq/Wade
3.Hakeem/Lebron

[NumberSix]

Hakeem/LeBron, obviously. lol.

People, this isn't even close.

[Quickening]

Hakeem/LeBron, obviously. lol.

People, this isn't even close.

This.

[sundizz]

This.

This.

I disagree. I think the only fair way to do this is to pick 3 average to slightly above average players and add them to the teams and compare. We'll go from the current era so that it makes more sense for everyone. Additionally, the three teams play all at the same time (1999-2014).

How this will go is everyone is a rookie on their team and no one gets traded or injured, including the coach. They are 'clones' of each other. It's a what if situation so I'm taking this liberty to create a proper scenario. We need to add 1 more team, so that there are 2 'super teams' in each conference. We'll add Michael and Karl Malone. To make it fun, we'll put Malone/Jordan and Shaq/Wade in the East, and Kobe/Duncan and Hakeem/Kobe in the West. They still come out at the same time though (Kobe, Lebron out of high school etc so there would be an age discrepancy).

Pg: Andre Miller
Sg: Aaron Affalo (for Lebron's team)
Sf: Danilo Gallinari (for Kobe, Jordan and Wade)
Pf: Luis Scola (for Lebron, and Wade)
C: Martin Gortat (for Kobe, and Michael)

Coach: Doug Collins

6th man: Jose Calderon
7th man: Klay Thompson, could possible be switched with Affalo, or Danilo.
8th man: Shane Battier

Team 1
Hakeem + Lebron: I think that they would be insanely insanely dominant in the regular season. I think they would have the biggest points differential in the league and the best regular season of all four teams. I think that if they played together for 15 years that they would win 0 championships. I think that closing against 3 other teams (2* they'd play) with perimeter players of insane abilities would be too much for Lebron to mentally take that burden. If he succeed he would minimize Hakeem's offensive abilities because he has to dribble drive to be successful and playing post, off the screen, in pure isolation at the high post etc is still his most glaring weakness. Their best chance would be during the first year, when alpha status is still a tough issue for the rest of the ego filled teams.

Wade + Shaq: I think that in years 4 and 5 they win because of Shaq's insane dominance during a two year period. Additionally Wade would be close enough to the level of Jordan and Kobe to effectively be at least a good enough sidekick to get it done.

Kobe + Duncan: I think in years 1 (due to Duncan), 3, years 6, year 8, years 9, 10, years 15 they win. I think in year 3 Kobe would be good enough and Duncan an insane enough force where there ability to play as teammates (as evidenced by an unwilling Shaq and Kobe) would be the best out of the 4 teams. I think in the prime of the 4 and 5 years the competition would be too tough. I think that from year 6 to year 10 it would come down to Michael and Kobe's team in the finals every year almost and that they would basically split it. Mostly due to Duncan's superior ability to Malone to play the right way and corral Kobe into the right attitude through his constant support. Malone and Jordan would be explosive but but heads on critical times. Duncan's work ethic and laid back attitude would make him an ideal partner for Kobe.

Malone + Jordan: I think that even though they'd but heads a ton that Jordan's superior ability would take them to the top in years 2, years 7, 11, 12, 13, 14. I think that Jordan needs a perimeter partner to make him the player he was. A big man that demands the ball wouldn't work as well with his style. Still he isn't regarded as the best of all time without good reason. As such, they'd win but not with the consistency him and Pippen had.

[jlauber]

I'll take a prime Chamberlain and a prime Magic.

[raprap]

Duncan/ Kobe

Both high character, hard workers and very competitive.

[Fazotronic]

Hakeem is perhaps the best layer out of any listed, I go back and forth between Dream and Shaq, they're in a virtual tie as far as I'm concerned, I was leaning towards Hakeem for a while, but lately, Shaq has the edge on my list.

However, I think they'd be the worst fit together. Lebron is the most ball-dominant of the 3 perimeter players, while Hakeem in his prime had taken the next level due to Rudy T building a 4 out/1 in offensive system around him that involved Hakeem getting the ball in the post almost every time down the floor and either scoring with his many moves, his game being based around his baseline fadeaway, or drawing 2 or 3 defenders and kicking it out to the perimeter. I don't see that being the best fit with Lebron's style. Lebron hanging around on the perimeter would be a disaster....see the 2011 finals. Hakeem had more of a score first mindset, but for the duo to work best, Lebron may have to be the first option. They'd obviously be a contender, each of them are too talented to not contend. They have the type of talent where you don't need to put much talent around them like Shaq and Kobe. And Hakeem will guarantee that they'd be a fine defensive team, and Lebron has become a very good defender the last 4 seasons, and truly a fantastic defensive player the last 2.

Shaq and Wade are the proven duo, they won a title together in '06 with Shaq still a huge impact player, the best center and a borderline top 10 player in the league, but well past his prime. And prior to Shaq's injury late in the season/playoffs, and then Wade's injury in he conference finals, the '05 Heat looked like arguably the best team in the league. Wade and Shaq in their primes would be phenomenal, for example you have their 3rd seasons to look forward to('95 Shaq and '06 Wade), and even with a very raw Shaq in his second year, you'd have two elite players with tremendous physical gifts, so they could contend. You'd also their 6th years when Shaq was entering his prime('98 level) and Wade was at his peak('09 level), and their 8th seasons would be '00 level Shaq and '11 Wade who still compared to anyone in the league. Wade slipped last year, but he won a title with Lebron who wasn't as good as '01 Shaq and it wasn't the natural inside/outside duo. While I think this would be the most devastating duo in their primes, and Shaq had excellent longevity, Wade's longevity is questionable. He had a normal length prime from '06-'11, but he basically lost 2 of those years to injuries in '07 and '08. Shaq and Wade are also easily the least durable.

For a Duncan/Kobe duo, think a better version of the Kobe/Gasol duo which was pretty damn good already. Kobe probably takes over as the 1st option fairly early on, though some coaches prefer to run the offense through a post player. But I have very little doubts these 2 will succeed. Duncan gives you perhaps the best defensive anchor of his era, certainly the most successful of his era. That's because Duncan was a premier shot blocker, but also mobile, committed to defense, and so fundamentally sound. He was the best in the league at blocking shots flatfooted because he seldom bit on fakes, but also had terrific timing and length. However, he could jump and block shots when he had to. Despite Kobe truly learning to incorporate his individual talent into a team concept in the '01 playoffs, Duncan and Kobe would probably reach contender status in their 3rd seasons, though Duncan was out for the playoffs with an injury in his 3rd season. By their 4th seasons, you get '01 Duncan and '00 Kobe, certainly a team you can contend with given the right pieces. And in their 5th years, you get Duncan nearing his peak in '02 form, and Kobe joining the NBA's elite in '01 form. A duo that could obviously be phenomenal. And you still have many potential years to look forward to such as their 10th years which would be Kobe in '06 form which was arguably his peak, and Duncan in '07 form, when he led a team to another titke. And even in their 12th seasons, Duncan was really starting to slow down, but still one of the top 15 players in the game and pretty close to '09 Gasol's level, and you'd have '08 Kobe, who was still arguably at his peak and better than he was in '09 when he won his first title with Gasol. And you'd still potentially be able to keep them contending a few more years if you have a deep team because Kobe was a top 5 player this past season and Duncan was still very effective and a key player on a legit championship contender. One of Duncan's advantages over the other 2 big men goes to waste, and that's being by far the most polished and easily the closest to his prime level of any of the 3 big men because Kobe wasn't nearly as NBA ready as Lebron and Wade entering the league, but this duo looks like they'll fit together far better than Hakeem/Lebron and easily outlast Shaq/Wade.

So my rankings are obvious from my post, but in case anyone wants to skip my post.

1.Duncan/Kobe
2.Shaq/Wade
3.Hakeem/Lebron

while you're right, you don't think that hakeem could change his role a bit to fit with lebrons ball dominate playingstyle?
also teams not being able to double hakeem due to having lebron on his team would make things so much easier for hakeem.

[rhythmic]

Hakeem = Shaq > Duncan

LeBron > Wade = Kobe

Hakeem/LeBron >>>> other two

[rhythmic]

It's between James & Hakeem and Kobe & Duncan.
It's impossible to choose without further context.

Duncan & Garnett are two superstars that I would pair with Kobe, moreso thn any other superstar in history. Especially Duncan, who had a better post-game.

[ShaqAttack3234]

while you're right, you don't think that hakeem could change his role a bit to fit with lebrons ball dominate playingstyle?
also teams not being able to double hakeem due to having lebron on his team would make things so much easier for hakeem.

Teams would still double Hakeem. They just wouldn't double off of Lebron.

And those 2 players are good enough to be dangerous, but I just don't think it's as natural of a fit as the other 2. Both other two duos can play their games without being limited while playing together, but Lebron and Hakeem seem less natural to me. I don't see Duncan/Kobe and Shaq/Wade having to make any real adjustments to their game while playing together.

So I have to rank that duo 3rd in this hypothetical.

[scandisk_]

Duncan and Frobe