The Blazers plan on running everyone to death. We intentionally drafted players from high scoring teams and several real life teammates. We also focused heavily on the same era to add a big level of familiarity and cohesion.
PG - Magic, Parker
SG - Dexler, DJ
SF - Worthy, English
PF - Barkley, Wallace
C - Moses, Mikan
We are led by Magic, the 4th best player in NBA history per ESPN. He is a 3-time MVP and 5-time champion. We are leaning towards 87 when Magic was MVP, Finals MVP, led the league in apg, and upped his scoring to 24 a game. He is also an elite rebounder, making him the perfect man to build around.
We surround Magic with real life teammates ranked 15 and 18 all time. Like Magic, Moses is a 3-time MVP and his 1st season in Philly led what many consider the greatest team ever to play (83 and the year selected). That year Moses led the league in rebounding by nearly 3 a game.
Sir Charles joined Moses a couple of seasons later and they had a tremendous chemistry together. As we want a fast break team, we will select 90, an earlier Barkley season, in order to maximize his athleticism. That year he finished 2nd in MVP voting to Magic (more 1st place votes), but led the league in 2 point % and essentially averaged 25/12/4 along with 2 steals.
Rounding out the starting 5 we have 36th ranked Clyde Drexler and 43rd ranked James Worthy. Clyde showed great versatility throughout his career. Easily serving as the #1 player on 2 finals team and also gladly stepping into the 2nd man role on his way to winning a title in Houston. For this exercise we will select 92 when Clyde finished 2nd in MVP voting leading the Blazers to their 2nd Finals (with him), earning a slot on the Dream Team and generally just being awesome.
James Worthy joins his Showtime Lakers teammate on the squad and in the starting lineup. The Blazers wanted to add someone on the wing who could defend, run, and didn't need the spotlight. There are few better than Worthy in filling that description. People also forget that James was the 1st pick in the draft and won a Finals MVP. His talent was immense and real. The Blazers will use 89.
For the bench, the Blazers wanted to keep to the theme of great rebounders and fast breakers but also wanted to grab some defensive toughness. We accomplished this goal and then some. With our first bench selection we grabbed the 33rd greatest player of all time. A man that essentially played 6 seasons and won 5 titles as the best player in the world. Mikan was a monster on offense, defense, and rebounding. He led the league in defensive win shares 5 times. He has the 3rd highest win share season in nba history and has the 2nd, 7th, and 10th best offensive win share seasons in history. He played long ago, making him harder to judge, but Mikan was an absolute monster and we are happy to have him anchoring our bench. We have selected his 2nd year, 1950 for this exercise.
Joining him in the paint is the only man not in the top 84 all time on the roster, of course he is a 4-time DPOY and when adjusting for pace one of the greatest rebounders the league has ever seen. Big Ben Wallace provides everything you would want on your bench. We will take his 1st DPOY season, 02, when he led the league in both rebounds and blocks.
In the backcourt, the Blazers add uber versatile Finals MVP, Dennis Johnson, ranked 84, and Finals MVP, Tony Parker, ranked 58. We like the hard nosed nature of both players, each of which won multiple titles with varying degrees of responsibility. We will select DJ's Finals MVP winning season of 79, when he was just entering his prime. For Tony, we will also select his Finals MVP season of 07 when his shooting was superb and he was still in his athletic prime.
Rounding out our bench and our top 10 is Alex English, the 62nd best player of all time. Alex was the offensive anchor of the most explosive scoring team in league history (even surpassing the output of Wilt's Warriors). Over the span of his prime 5 seasons English basically averaged 28/5.5/4.5 with uber efficient scoring. We needed some top tier scoring pop for our bench and thus were happy Alex fell to us. We will select his best season of 83.
As indicated, we believe we will run teams into the ground and have crafted the team most capable of winning shootouts. While the starting 5 may not be the best defensive team, we believe we make up for it by having the best offensive team, the best rebounding team, and the team with most unique positional challenges for every other team to guard. When we need a stop we can go with the defensive unit of Mikan, Wallace, Worthy, Johnson, and Parker (or a yet undrafted player). All teams in this our great, but we believe we are the greatest collection of talent coupled with the best chemistry and thought of actual team building. We purposefully chose real life teammates and players that thrived playing with other great players. We focused heavily on selecting players with extensive time in the 80's. We have 3 Dream Team members. We are Portland and we are the best.