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.
Do they really need one though? Duncan played C a lot during his career, and posted one of the best defensive stats as a center with his interior defense. I definitely think he can hold up against the behemoths of the league, and in turn take advantage of them with his speed.
Duncan playing C was more towards the end of his career when the entire league got smaller and there were less good offensive centers in the league. If he could have played center during his prime, then the Spurs wouldn't have had a need to start guys like Rasho Nesterovic, Tiago Splitter, Fabricio Oberto, etc. (I think its safe to say their names)
I mean he did prefer to play PF ala a certain big man now in Los Angeles, who could play C as well as anyone in the league right now but has forced his team to start Javale McGee (surely his name can be mentioned right?!) at C to play him at PF. I think prime Duncan playing C isn't a huge issue-he had more muscle than KG or Dirk and defended guys like Shaq pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV1w6xUbLWshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrChJym7cRIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZhIJjJOUJ8Obviously he would need a good backup C who can defend and play next to him in this exercise (as Timmy still had an old David Robinson who was a fringe All-Star as a partner to guard Shaq), but I don't see much issue in him playing C for decently long stretches. They could get that backup C later on in the draft imo, and focus on getting the necessary glue guys to complement Oscar's ball dominance and Duncan's strong inside game that also demands the ball quite a bit right now. I probably exaggerated a bit with my first statement of them not needing a beefy defensive center, but I still think that it's not a truly pressing need atm.