Championship Roster Challenge

[Bankshot]

I'm not going to even bother. Adding the two best players you can, like LeBron and DHoward to any of the 6 pieces of garbage you listed still isn't going to get the job done versus the Celtics.

Heck, LeBron, DHoward and any of those 6 pieces of garbage couldn't defeat any of the teams in the conference finals last year as well as San Antonio, Phoenix, and Cleveland.

There's just no quality or cohesion in any of the available parts you gave to put together a team good enough to beat any of the teams I listed.

That said I do believe a great two player pair with enough decent talent around them could win it all and beat the Big Three's that exist in SA, Boston, Houston, Phoenix and so on. But there has to be some talent there.

For instance, if you put LeBron on the Magic in place of Turkoglu, I think they win a title. Now some might consider Rashard Lewis good enough to be considered in a Big Three type of thing, but I don't. He might get paid like an elite player but I find him rather average over all.

Agreed.  There are a couple of teams I think could come really close though:

SF   Lebron James
PG   Deron Williams
SG   Raja Bell   
C    Josh Boone
PF   Drew Goodwn


PG   Dan Gibson   
SF   Matt Barnes
C    Nazr Mohammed

OR

SF   Lebron James
PG   Rafer Alston
SG   Raja Bell   
C    Josh Boone
PF   Tim Duncan
same bench

[dcsceltics]

C- Dwight Howard
PF- Drew Gooden
SF- LeBron James
SG- Raja Bell
PG- Steve Blake
6- Dan Gibson
7- Jason Kapono
8- Nazr Mohammed

[Michael Anthony]

I'm not going to even bother. Adding the two best players you can, like LeBron and DHoward to any of the 6 pieces of garbage you listed still isn't going to get the job done versus the Celtics.

Heck, LeBron, DHoward and any of those 6 pieces of garbage couldn't defeat any of the teams in the conference finals last year as well as San Antonio, Phoenix, and Cleveland.

There's just no quality or cohesion in any of the available parts you gave to put together a team good enough to beat any of the teams I listed.

That said I do believe a great two player pair with enough decent talent around them could win it all and beat the Big Three's that exist in SA, Boston, Houston, Phoenix and so on. But there has to be some talent there.

For instance, if you put LeBron on the Magic in place of Turkoglu, I think they win a title. Now some might consider Rashard Lewis good enough to be considered in a Big Three type of thing, but I don't. He might get paid like an elite player but I find him rather average over all.

For comparison purposes, the Celtics 4-8 players by minutes and their 2008 PER:

Rondo - 15.63
Perkins - 13.36
Posey - 12.08
House - 13.02
T. Allen - 10.70

There are plenty of players listed at or above the levels of the players listed here, along with a range of skills between shooters, rebounders, defenders, or generalists. The exercise is challenging because we have a third star, not because the players included are not average NBA starters / role players.

[nickagneta]

I guess we will have to kindly agree to disagree about the quality of the players you listed and whether adding 2 of the best players in the league to anyone in that group would make them contenders, never mind able to knock off the World Champions and become champions themselves.

Perkins is better by far than any of the centers you have listed.

Rondo is better by far than any of the point guards you have listed.

Posey is better by far than any of the players listed as a sixth man.

Eddie House's outside sniping is only equaled by Kapono and Gibson.

And what all of the Celtics 4-8 do that almost none of the players you listed do is they are multifaceted. The Celtics players are all well above average defenders as well as being good at other areas of the game. The group of players you listed are not.

I am sorry but with the group of players you listed it is impossible to build a championship rotation simply by picking 6 of them and adding two of the best players in the league.

To illustrate your point of 2 star teams still being able to win it all a better exercise might have been saying take any team in the league. Remove their three best players. Now replace those players with any two players in the entire league and a player who's PER is under 13. Now build a championship contender.

[Michael Anthony]

Let's talk this out.

Perk is a gamer, but Boone has better numbers and is more athletic. Diop is bigger and a better shot blocker, and Mohammed is a more well rounded center. Not saying I am ready to make a trade, just saying that they are comparable.

I love Rondo, so I will not disagree with you, but the pointguards listed are all capable - two have started for playoff teams, and the other has produced for various teams.

Posey is supremely overrated here and in New Orleans; Garcia is a much better player (Production, not reputation), Bell is a better defender against shooting guards, Bonzi is equal but differnt (Better rebounding and scoring, worse defending and deep shooting), and Barnes is pretty comparable.

Gibson and House are essentially the same player.

I suppose I should throw my hat in the ring too - Not sure if they beat the C's, but I choose Ming and Duncan as my star players, with the following 8 man rotation:

PG Gibson
SG Bell
SF Kapono
PF Duncan
C Ming
 
6 Garcia
7 Goodin
8 Alston

My assumption is that the only way to build a two star champion is through the aquisition of two star big men - I do not believe a two star team built around a wing player or pointguard will win the championship.

[jdub1660]

Alston   -  Gibson
Kobe
LeBron   -  Barnes
Drew Gooden
Diop     -  Mohammed

The duo of Kobe and Bron...scary. Both players can dominate the ball, and there's noway team defense would work efficiently against these 2 players. Gibson would have been better if he wasn't hurt, and didn't have Delonte taking most of those minutes. Alston would out play Rondo offensively, and Gooden would be left open for shots. Obviously there needs to be more than 8 players to a team, but you made the rules.