The Greatest Team You Can Assemble

The premise: Build the best possible 12-man roster from NBA history for one 82-game season and one postseason. You have to pick an exact year for every player, so you can’t just say “LeBron.” Is it 2009 Bron? 2013? 2016?

The rules:

• Injuries that happened in the selected year happen on this team too. 2019 Durant is not a smart pick, because he was out before the Finals.
• Regular season and postseason both count. For most players in their prime it doesn’t matter, but, for example, 2016 Steph Curry (GOAT regular season, underwhelming playoffs) forces a trade-off.
• A player’s defensive prime travels to any team. However, their offensive prime and their raw ppg and apg probably don’t, because there is only one ball and a lot of mouths to feed. Some players get more efficient in a secondary or tertiary role, but most don’t, so think about that when building the roster. Stats will also shift with better teammates. Play with Steph and you’ll get more assists, because he hits more open threes than, say, Westbrook. Play with Shaq and your three-point percentage probably goes up, because defenses have to hard-double him in the post. Play with Barkley and your pizza consumption goes up, along with your gambling winnings, but team spacing might suffer.
• Twelve players. The starters play most, and spots 10 to 12 will get DNPs or minimal minutes. Players who wouldn’t be willing to come off the bench should get some kind of penalty.
• NBA seasons only. No ABA, no foreign leagues.

The philosophy

The 2009 Cavs had an offensive rating of 112.4, which was 4.1 points per 100 better than the league. The 2011 Heat were 4.4 points per 100 better than the league. Both teams had a prime LeBron James. Now look at the supporting casts. Mo Williams, Delonte West, Varejao, Ilgauskas and Gibson on one side. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Mike Bibby, Chalmers, Haslem and Mike Miller on the other. It’s pretty clear which team had the “better” supporting cast on paper, so how did they end up with essentially the same offense?

Quite simply, most of the value Wade and Bosh bring is when they have the ball, and if they have the ball, LeBron doesn’t. They also weren’t good shooters, which clogs the court for LeBron and for the team in general. The Heat put together a superteam on paper and got a really, really good team (four straight Finals is nothing to sneeze at), but they never became a transcendent, all-time team.

Compare that to the Warriors, who went 73-9 and then added Kevin Durant. Adding KD to any team makes it better, but the offense got amplified with him in it, and that wasn’t only because of the quality of the supporting cast. It was the type of supporting cast: movement, shooting, and ruthless efficiency.

The point of this exercise is to not build the 2011 Heat and to build the 2017 Warriors. Any team with five top-20 players is going to look awesome on paper. The goal is to have players amplify the team’s offense and defense, and complement each other’s skills, so the team can crush everyone else. Let’s begin.

The cornerstones: 1991 Michael Jordan and 2013 LeBron James

I’m starting with the two players who, to me, clearly have the highest peaks in NBA history. You can read any number of poorly thought out, biased, angry, unoriginal posts about who is better, or you can turn on your TV and listen to old men in their 50s, angry at life, yell at the camera that MJ’s “killer instinct” transcended the human race, or you can load up TikTok and listen to a zoomer tell you MJ played against plumbers. Regardless, I’m starting my team with these two.

Their games aren’t perfectly complementary. Both need the ball and neither one is a lights-out three-point shooter. But you’ve got the best scorer ever and probably the third best scorer ever, with insane athleticism, rim pressure, fantastic passing, and some of the best wing defense in league history. Jordan moved plenty off the ball once Phil Jackson took over, and LeBron would love diming up MJ for easy buckets when he isn’t dunking them himself.

The only real debate is which year.

• LeBron: He was most physically intimidating in his later Miami years, and he still had the speed and the hops (see the dunks over Terry and Lucas III, and the blocks on Splitter and Duncan). From 2012 to 2014 he averaged 30.5 points per 75 on +9.3 opponent-adjusted true shooting in the playoffs, some of the best playoff scoring in league history. 2009, 2014, 2016 and 2017 are all reasonable, but I’m going with 2013.
• Jordan: He still had his high motor on defense in 1991. I think it faded a bit in 1992 and more than a bit in 1993, and none of the second three-peat years were athletic enough for me. I think he was a better player after Phil arrived, so 1991. 1989 and 1990 are reasonable too.

The rest of the team is about complementing these two. They will do the most scoring and have the ball the most, so I need pieces that support them rather than compete with them for touches. (Melo and AI won’t be making this team, but they can help us promote it on FanDuel.)

The shooter: 2017 Stephen Curry

With a wrecking crew on the wings, I don’t have to worry quite as much about defense, so I’m taking the player who adds the most value requiring the fewest touches in league history: Stephen Curry. Jordan and LeBron obviously benefit from shooting, and while this team won’t be centered on Curry the way his Warriors teams were, Curry running around for 36 minutes, always a threat to catch fire, keeps teams from doubling MJ or LeBron too much. They have to keep an eye on him.

His year is tough to pick because of the injury and poor postseason in 2016. I’m going with 2017: 29.6 points per 75 on a whopping +12% efficiency in the playoffs, leading the best team ever to a 16-1 title run. I don’t need him to carry the weight he carried in 2016, so I’ll take the 2017 vintage of the Baby Faced Assassin.

I have Magic above Steph on my overall GOAT list, but Magic’s ball dominance and complete lack of shooting make Steph the better pick for this exercise.

The four and the five

Now it gets tough. Do we go twin towers, Shaq and Duncan style? Do we run LeBron at the four and add another guard or wing? Do we want an offensively dominant center (Kareem, Wilt, Shaq) or a paint protector (KG, Duncan, Robinson, Hakeem, Russell)?

The 4: 1986 Larry Bird. With MJ and LeBron on the wings, and LeBron a very good defensive rebounder and generally huge dude, we can give up a little size without getting killed by a bigger team. Bird gives us more elite shooting, spacing and off-ball movement. Other than Curry, he is one of the all-time players who doesn’t need many shots to affect the game. Picture 12 points on 3-for-4 shooting, making every free throw, a few steals, 8 assists, two cigarettes at halftime and excellent trash talk next to MJ. His outlet and touch passing will keep the ball flying around the court to our great scorers, and he was no slouch as a scorer himself. Bird was also a great rebounder, so we won’t get killed on the glass. I think the extra juice, space, freedom, and passing we get from Larry Legend outpaces the defensive gap if we went a more traditional power forward.

I went with 1986 because I think it’s his best overall season. In my estimation, his 1984 postseason features four of his top seven playoff performances of all time. While he was likely a stronger defender in 1984, his 1986 campaign saw better three-point shooting along with a noticeable boost in overall efficiency. 1984 and 1987 are acceptable picks too.

The 5: 1994 Hakeem Olajuwon. With Bird next to him, I think we have to go with a defensive big. Shaq catching lobs from LeBron, the pick and roll with MJ, and the dual gravity of Shaq inside and Curry outside is extremely tempting, but I want defense, at least from the starter.

Wilt is immediately out. He couldn’t handle being the fifth best player (or anything but the best player) on a team, and he has about the biggest drop-off in postseason scoring of any great player ever. Wilt can have a seat in the Mind Freak box and enjoy the show.

That leaves Duncan, KG, Robinson, Russell and Hakeem as the five best defensive players remaining:

• Robinson: Too big a playoff drop-off for me, although I think he’s generally quite underrated. He has the best three-year playoff plus/minus data ever, in the late 1990s. His playoff scoring drops more than I’d like, but everything he brought when he wasn’t scoring yielded fantastic results.
• KG: The most modern type of defender, fitting the most schemes, and the best shooter and passer of the group. His one flaw is that he was a bit slender guarding the biggest of the big dogs, and since we went smaller at the four, we need someone who can handle them.
• Duncan, Russell, Hakeem: Duncan and Russell wouldn’t mind in the slightest having zero field goal attempts, as long as they rebound and play defense. But Hakeem is the best lob threat of the three and an all-time playoff scorer, while the others were good scorers but nothing special.

Pretty tough decision, but I’m going with #34. Hakeem swept Shaq, neutered David Robinson, and made Patrick Ewing less efficient than Westbrook in the Finals, all in a two-year span. I think he’s the best post-merger defender: big enough to guard the huge guys, nimble enough to defend in a modern scheme. 1993 was the better defensive year, but 1994 had the magical playoff run and he put it all together with his passing, which we will need on this team loaded with talent.

So there’s the starting five: 2017 Curry, 1991 MJ, 2013 LeBron, 1986 Bird, 1994 Olajuwon.

The bench

With this many great bigs, and traditional bigs becoming less valuable in the modern game, the PF/C spots are a real conundrum, both who to take and how many of them to carry.

The other question is how many “glue” guys we want. We already have plenty of star power. Do we keep adding stars, or add players who aren’t as “good” but provide specific value without touching the ball, the Andre Iguodala types? And there’s the minutes and shots dynamic. You’d like to think this team would be like the 1992 Dream Team, where nobody cared who scored and the point was to win by 50, but personality has to count a little when you stack this many stars. Even with just the first two players, there’s plenty of ego to go around.

A few “glue” guys worth considering, but ultimately not making the team: Andre Iguodala, Andrei Kirilenko, Shane Battier, Danny Green, Robert Horry.

3/4/5 candidates: Duncan, Shaq, Kareem, Robinson, Russell, Jokic, KG, Giannis, Draymond, Rodman, Pippen, KD, Kawhi, Dr. J.

We want at least two more guards, so that leaves five of those names.

Kareem and Shaq are individually the two best, but honestly I think they’re the worst fits. Throwing it into the post and letting them score one on one isn’t going to yield the best team offense, even though they’re the best ever at exactly that. I worry I’m getting too cute or overthinking it by leaving both off. Rodman I’m not as high on as most people. He needs zero shots, but he’s also close to a zero on offense, and a head case.

Sixth man: 2004 Kevin Garnett. First, a nod to Draymond, who is maybe the second most versatile defender ever (behind KG), a fantastic passer who can push the ball in transition, with great offensive and defensive reads. He and Steph have the highest on/off of all time, and they are both why the Warriors are a dynasty. I don’t care if he gets a triple-single every game. Few players can guard Jokic, LeBron and Damian Lillard in a playoff series. But if I have KG, Draymond is too much feral energy, too much trash talking and too much adrenaline. I don’t want to worry about my team getting too erratic and unfocused, nor do I want to worry about suspensions, just give me the Big Ticket.

Garnett: the best defensive instincts in history, god-tier reaction time, a 7-footer with pterodactyl arms who can teleport across the court, protect the rim and guard Kobe at the three-point line. He was also a fantastic passer and decision maker, and one of the best motors ever. His only knock is that he averaged 24 points per 75 on +2.4 efficiency in the playoffs during his three-year peak. Good thing we have an assortment of playoff scoring gods to make his job easier, and four guys who can throw him a lob better than anything he saw from Sam Cassell or Wally Szczerbiak in Minnesota.

Giannis gives us another modern, switchable defensive big. However, I’m taking KG’s defense overall given his instincts, read and react time, and recoverability all over the court over Giannis’s physical advantage. I’m also higher on KG as an extra passer and shooter and what value that brings to the team over the Freak’s one on one offensive advantage.

The remaining bigs and wings fall into three groups:

• The scoring centers: Shaq, Kareem
• The great teammates who don’t care about shots, all-time defenders: Robinson, Russell, Duncan
• The small forwards: KD, Kawhi, Pippen

I don’t want more than four centers, because there’s no sense in five of twelve roster spots playing the same position. So I’ll take one of each group. We already have Garnett and Olajuwon locking down the paint, so let’s get a scorer.

Shaq (2000). Both Kareem and Shaq would struggle against modern teams on defense, but both would cook whoever guards them. I’m going with Diesel, because his gravity, his athleticism and his ability as an all-time lob threat gel a bit better with this team. I feel terrible leaving off Kareem, who is number 2 on my GOAT list, but in terms of cohesion his style doesn’t fit quite as well. There’s also no way you play him next to Shaq, whereas the other bigs can all play the four next to him.

Bill Russell (1962). Duncan and Russell are both ultimate winners. Russell shut down Wilt, had the drive to win 11 titles in 13 years without needing to retire in the middle, and really didn’t care about points. I think the team might think Duncan is a good enough scorer that he takes too many of those bank shots, which weren’t nearly as efficient as you’d think. They’re basically even to me, and if you prefer Duncan I have no issue, but I’m going with Big Bill (10-0 in Game 7s, 27-2 in playoff series). I’m taking young Russell to make sure he’s at his peak athletically.

Kevin Durant (2017). Now let’s take stock: Steph, MJ, Bron, Bird, KG, Hakeem, Shaq and Russell. Plenty of defense, and we need more shooting. KD proved he slots perfectly into a great team: he can stand in the corner as a shooter, or dominate a Finals and average 35 a game. A good defender and passer (not great at either), an all-time scorer, mismatch, and another 7-footer. Easy add.

That’s nine. Three spots left.

The guards

Candidates: Magic, Oscar, CP3, Jerry West, Nash, Reggie Miller, D-Wade, Kobe.

Isiah Thomas was a great playoff performer but not a good enough shooter or efficient enough scorer. I want to give Stockton a mention only to say I don’t think he’s in the discussion. Unbreakable steal and assist records don’t mean he had the high-end playoff value of the players above. Kidd, Clyde Frazier or Payton as defense-only options are worth a thought, but we don’t have a bad defensive team and Steph is still a positive defender, just not a great one. Nash was too bad on defense and too ball dominant, but he’d be really fun with all this talent around him.

Magic Johnson (1987). Thinking about KG, Shaq and KD on the bench, I want Magic. The best point guard of all time and best passer. Would love running the floor with KD. He can’t shoot or guard a traffic cone, but his leadership, control of the pace, and passing, combined with really underrated efficiency, get him the spot.

The last two spots are dicey. With Magic and Steph at the point there’s an argument for a defensive guard, and you can never have enough shooting.

• Oscar vs. Paul: I think Paul is the better fit here because of his defense and his shooting. He’d be fine with two field goal attempts and 20 assists, he’s one of the best at not turning the ball over, and his outside shooting and lob passing are superior. That eliminates Oscar. Paul goes on the shelf for now.
• Kobe: He’d just want to take too many shots. There isn’t much evidence that he’d take on a much smaller load or take more efficient shots. A good defender, but not all-time elite, same with his shooting. We also don’t want any internal conflict between him and MJ.
• Wade: Stronger defensively, and we’d have the two best shot-blocking guards ever (Wade and MJ). He was a great cutter and was fine taking a step back in his later Miami years, and we’ve seen him work well before with Dr. O’Neal. But he was a bad three-point shooter and mediocre from the line. The Heat offense was also better when he was off the floor and it was LeBron running the show with shooters like Shane Battier. I think this is enough evidence to show he wouldn’t be the biggest value add to this exercise.
• Reggie Miller: Deserves serious consideration. He averaged 30.4 points per 75 on +10.6 aTS in the playoffs from 1993 to 1995, which is about as good as it gets, and he hit over .700 TS on the Olympic team, showing he can provide huge per-shot value alongside tons of other stars. His movement would pair beautifully with Steph, and defenses wouldn’t know where to go with Shaq in the middle. Offensively he’s a perfect fit. The problem is his defense, which was tolerable at best.
• Jerry West: The Goldilocks pick. He was always an excellent defender with a huge wingspan and quick hands, and he made All-Defense the first few years it existed, at the end of his career, so he was likely an All-Defense caliber player for most of his time in the league. He was also an excellent shooter with plenty of range even before the three-point line, a good passer who could play the one or the two, and fine stepping up to score or taking a lesser role. His offensive game was similar to Miller in that he was no nonsense. It was get to the action and pullup if the defender yields any space or drive to the rim and get free throws. There was no iso-heavy stalling with a priority of breaking ankles as he played before Instagram. Anyone who won a title with Wilt Chamberlain has to be compatible with huge egos so that’s yet another box he checks. West was not quite as athletically imposing as Kobe or Wade, nor the outside shooter Reggie was, but he was an S-tier playoff performer and winner, and had no exploitable weaknesses like all the above players did. So I feel comfortable slotting in as the backup 2-guard.

So now we have:

• G: Steph, MJ, Magic, West
• F: LeBron, Bird, KD, KG
• C: Dream, Shaq, Russell

The last spot

The last spot could go a million ways. A big part of me wants Paul. Magic is the only traditional setup point guard we have, and he can’t shoot or guard. CP isn’t as transcendent on offense as Magic, but he’s an efficient scorer who can set the table and play defense, and with these players you don’t have to make crazy plays to set them up. He’d get them the ball without turning it over. But health is an issue: he never really put together a three-year peak where he was healthy in the playoffs, and we already have plenty of ball handlers.

Wade and Reggie also appeal to me, and there’s a not-so-quiet voice in my head asking how the hell I don’t have Kareem on an all-time 12-man roster. Kawhi Leonard is very appealing as well, although I consider him one of the most overrated players, because people pretend his defensive peak (2014) and his offensive peak (2020) were merged into one player. But he can shoot and guard the hell out of anyone. He’s also too quiet to make any noise in a locker room that needs it next to Bird, MJ and Garnett.

I also love Scottie Pippen in the last spot. A pure winner who could pass, play point forward, rebound, and was the best wing defender in history. Five-out shooting lineups centered around MJ or LeBron getting to the rim would suggest Reggie, but switchable multi-position defenders would suggest Wade, Pippen or Kawhi.

I’m going with Scottie (1992). We already have a good amount of shooting with Steph, West, Bron, Bird and KD, and KG can space out too. I like being able to put Pippen on anyone, and I know he doesn’t care about shot attempts as long as we don’t have Kukoc on the roster. CP might be the hardest to leave off, but MJ and LeBron will bring the ball up often anyway when Magic and Steph don’t, and Pippen gives me the option of rolling out MJ, LeBron, Pippen, KG and Hakeem, a defensive lineup that will make the other team pull a Paul Pierce and poop themselves mid-game.

The final team

Starters: ‘17 Curry, ‘91 Jordan, ‘13 LeBron, ‘86 Bird, ‘94 Olajuwon

Bench: ‘87 Magic, ‘66 West, ‘17 Durant, ‘04 Garnett, ‘00 O’Neal, ‘92 Pippen, ‘62 Russell

Possible lineups

• LeBron, MJ, Pippen, KG, Hakeem: the most smothering defensive lineup imaginable. Physical, switchable, stifling, and suffocating D with relentless isolation scoring on offense.
• Steph, West, KD, Bird, Shaq: four-out god shooters, with Shaq fouling out the other team’s center. A really scary offense.
• Magic, MJ, LeBron, Bird, KD: no real center, but the ultimate Showtime. Imagine this squad in transition. Swap Bird for Pippen or KG for more defense if you want.

Coach

Only a few real options.

• Option A: Bill Russell as player-coach. He’d have more respect than anyone, and this team probably doesn’t need too much in the way of Xs and Os.
• Options B, C, D: Riley, Phil or Pop. Riley might be too hard and clash with all the star power, but he’s a worthy consideration: he’s won at every level. Phil vs. Pop is tough, and I’m going with Pop for his military background. He let players be themselves, but he was never afraid to yell at anyone or bench someone acting like a chode. If MJ won’t pass, LeBron gets lazy on defense or Steph gets careless with the ball, I think Pop puts them in line. He’s also proven to be very flexible. The Spurs’ style changed so many times from 1999 to 2014 that he clearly adapts to his roster instead of forcing it into a mold. Phil is the master of ego management, so maybe he’s the best option here, but if the triangle isn’t the offense we run, he might not be the best in terms of Xs and Os. I also don’t like the smell of sage.

I’m giving Popovich the edge over Russell. We need some kind of ATOs and schematics to unify the team, though any of these (along with Steve Kerr or Spoelstra) would be a totally fine pick.

Head coaching records only, through the 2024-25 season. Playoff series count every best-of series, including the Finals. Win percentages are in parentheses.

Final thoughts

There are many ways to approach building the best team ever, and honestly, a team with none of my players could be just as formidable: Oscar, CP3, Wade, Kobe, Reggie, Dr. J, Kawhi, Giannis, Draymond, Duncan, Kareem and Jokic is not bad. I struggled most with the final spot, going back and forth between Reggie, Paul, West and Pippen, but I think I have enough shooting, a ton of defense and plenty of creation.

M.