A lot of talk about who the best player left in the playoffs is. But thinking about the teams left out there its kind of amazing how similar they are structured. Most have one elite offensive creator. One or two secondary creators who can create and score. At least 1 elite three and D guy. One or more shooting specialists. One big who can switch and either shoot or pass. A rim running big to mix things up. Some teams have more than one of these guys, but pretty much every time has at least 1 of each.
As a side note: Smart is the hardest to define. He is arguably a 3+D guy. Arguably he plays the same role as Draymond so he is almost a "versatile big." He is a playmaker but more for others than himself. Lowry is a similar player, so is Gary Payton III but both guys are injured. So you could put smart in a couple places.
So the challenge is to rank each category using the best player on each team from that category. You can use each player for only one category. If you can think of another category feel free to add it to the list.
My ranking:
Lead Scorer/Playmaker
-Doncic (DAL)
-Tatum (BOS)
-Curry (GSW)
-Butler (MIA)
Secondary Scorer/Playmaker
-Brown (BOS)
-Brunson (DAL)
-Poole (GSW)
-Hero (MIA)
Versatile Big
-Draymond (GSW)
-Adebayo (MIA)
-Horford (BOS)
-Kleber (DAL)
3D Guy Wing
-Grant or Smart (BOS)
-Wiggins (GSW)
-Tucker (MIA)
-Finney Smith or Bullock (DAL)
Pure Shooter
-Klay (GSW)
-Dinwiddie (DAL)
-Pritchard (BOS)
-Strus (MIA)
Rim Running Big
-Williams (BOS)
-Powell (DAL)
-Looney (GSW)
-MIA doesn't really play a guy like this big minutes.