Observations and questions:
Can Chicago land a center who can defend Shaq, Wilt, and D-Rob? I think there is 1 or 2, maybe 3, centers available who could possibly fit that bill. If so, then with Duncan being able to defend Dirk and Malone, plus having Oscar Robertson on offense I think could make them my favorites in the East (of course unless another team really nails their pick). Lot can still change though.
Hakeem and Kobe seem to be such an ideal fit on paper. I think GreenFaith's point about their types of leadership is a really interesting one that I hadn't thought of, and probably accurate.
Durant and Russell is a very nice pairing. Curious to see if Durant eventually gets slotted in at SF or PF. He will get murdered by PFs like Duncan and KG maybe Malone too, but he'd be such a fantastic floor spacer on an all-time team and offensive player at PF. He's a rare player who might have been able to defend Dirk at the 4 to some degree?
IMO, there are a few players who "broke the game" through history. I have those players as being Wilt, Russell, Magic & Larry, Jordan, Shaq, Curry. Not necessarily the best 7 players of all time, but they all did something that near future players/teams either tried to hard emulate or every team had to go overboard into trying to stop. They are players that are really fascinating to build around and I think those teams are doing a fine job so far.
I haven't decided how much I should penalize poor FT shooters. I think it's pretty clear that every team is capable of at least a > 57 TS% even against the great defenses being assembled. Is a hack-a-shaq strategies on sub 55% ft shooters a way to gain an advantage over those teams? Not literal hack-a-shaq, but fouling whenever they touch the ball. You can only do it for so many possessions a game, but every edge helps. I've been considering that in my roster selection.
Something I love about Utah is how much transition offense we'll create with MJ's steals and Walton's fast break initiating mindset, passing, and defense. I see a lot of teams that will be able to get out in transition, but Utah looks to be leading in that regard so far. I'm not sure if I will keep building that way or not though.