Opinion question: Which is the better overall backcourt

[celticmania]

Which of the following two backcourts is better and why:

Russell Westbrook and Dion Waters

Or

Isaiah Thomas and Jimmy Butler

[max215]

Russell Westbrook is awesome, and Waiters has improved a lot recently, but IT and Butler would be as good as it gets outside of GS.

[Ilikesports17]

Isaiah and Jimmy.

I think Russ is a bit overrated.

Russ > Butler
Isaiah >> Waiters

[Ilikesports17]

Not to mention we'd also have Smart and possibly Rozier, while they'd have Cam Payne and randy Foye?

[jpotter33]

Eh, that's close.

2 on 2, I think they beat us due to mismatches.

As in who is the better backcourt for a five player team, I'd probably give us the advantage. Butler's a legit two-way player that neither of them really are, and IT is versatile being able to play off the ball.

If you add in the benches with Smart and Rozier (assuming we traded Bradley to get Butler), then I think we definitely take the cake. When you have three top-notch perimeter defenders (two of them All-Defensive Team worthy) to throw at opponents, that's pretty great.

[PhoSita]

I think it might depend on matchups.

[Csfan1984]

Curry and Thompson

[tarheelsxxiii]

Russ is the most polarizing figure in the NBA right now. He may be the best athlete on the planet and he's dominant in so many ways, yet he disrupts disrupts the flow of the game in crunch time and may not be a reliable first option to win a chip.

IT has hie warts, bit Butler is a superior 2 way player and Waiters is a joke. I wouldn't trust him with my 5th born child. Advantage hypothetical celts tandem that likely won't come to fruition.

[crimson_stallion]

Thomas and Butler by a mile.

Thomas and Butler both impact the game in multiple ways.  Thoms with his scoring and play-making, Butler with his scoring, defense and play-making.  It takes a special offensive talent to be able to score 20 PPG against NBA defense on a nightly basis - both of those guys are capable of that, and both are actually relatively efficient on offense too.  Finally both guys are capable of creating match-up nightmares - Butler with his size, Thomas with his speed. 

Westbrook is an absolute beast, but Waiters is pretty much Marcus Thornton 2.0 - he's a volume chucker who contributes very little beyond scoring, and who is incredibly hot/cold as well. 

You can't really depend on Waiters to carry the load when Westbrook is out or has a bad game.  However if Thomas it out you could easily depend on Butler to step up and carry the load as the go-to guy (and vice versa)/.

So to me, this one is a no brainer - Thomas and Butler all the way.

[Big333223]

Definitely IT/Butler. They're both potent scorers and Butler is the bset defender of the 4. IT will always be too small but he doesn't make dumb mistakes on defense.

Waiters is a poor defender and an erratic scorer. He's the worst player of the four and the gulf between him and IT or Butler is huge. Westbrook has this otherworldly talent and he's definitely the best player listed but he doesn't always know where to focus that talent.