It is currently Thursday the 8th on the United States, your opening round matchup will begin tonight at midnight, and end next Thursday at midnight.Topic: Your the general manager for a team, and can pick any two current players in the league for the next year. Which two players would you pick, and why would you pick them?
This is an extremely huge and open ended topic, and I spent a while debating who I would want. There are a lot of factors that go into this including, experience, skills, knack for winning, etc. The other guys I debated about with these guys are Nash, Yao, Duncan, LeBron, Arenas, Wade, and Dirk. The two guys I would pick are Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. They compliment each other very well. Both guys can score at will, Garnett is a beast rebounding, and Bryant is an underrated passer. Both guys are extremely passionate and show emotion on the floor, and have willed their team to wins before. Kobe is probably the best scorer in the NBA. He's a winner, and is one of the most passionate guys I've ever seen play the game. He can shoot the three, drive, score in so many ways, and is one of the most underappreciated players in the NBA by fans other than Laker fans. Garnett is a great complement to Kobe because of his ability to score inside. He's a great post player, and he has the ability to step out to 20 feet and knock down consistent jumpers. He's a beast rebounding, he can get positional ones, leap for them, etc. He may be the only guy that is more passionate about winning than Kobe. He's never won, but you can't fault him because he has never had a great team around him in Minnesota. Both play extremely hard and like I've said their skills combined with their willingness to lay it all on the line to win are what set these two apart in my mind. They are two key compontents to building a team, as you get a big man who can dominate the post defensively and offensively, and a pure scorer who can take over the game at will. They can both score in many ways, and affect the game in areas that a lot of guys can't.
If I'm going to start a team, I'd like to have youth, skill, potential, leadership, etc. I'm chosing alot younger player than Garnett, but he is def. my next choice. I'm going with LeBron James, and Dwight Howard. This would give me a 6'8'' guard/forward that can pass/rebound/score/make things happen. Then Howard would give me a double double every night, and his offensive game seems to be improving by every game. LeBron and Howard could play at a fast pace, and get easy baskets because their both so versatile, athletic, and bigger than most at their positions. This would give us a legit Inside/Outside game, and we'd have a good size advantage on alot of teams.LeBron James is/one of the most unselfish stars in the game today. He can score the ball at will, he's very strong and very tall for a guard/SF. He's got incredible vision, and underated passing skills by many. He plays on a very inconsistant team, so the scoring load is dropped on him. He can shoot the 3 ball very well, and he can hit it while he's being defended strongly. The guy is 22 years old, and he is arguably one of the most talented players in the league. He recognizes that he has some holes in his game like FT shooting, and playing lock down defense. Theres no doubt that he will get alot better, I think Howard would be HUGE for a guy like LeBron. Dwight Howard is one of the best upcoming big men in the NBA. He can get his own shot now that he has a variety of low post moves. He shoots an extremely high percentage from the floor as well. He is the most muscular man in the world, and he can get rebounds over 99% of anyone. His presence is huge, just being there makes a difference. His timing is getting better and his ability to block shots is also improving well. He is an exceptional passer for a young big man, but with LeBron he wouldn't have to worry to much about it.With two big time offensive threats like Howard and James, the defense will have an extremely hard time defending them. Your two guys are very hard to argue with, because both are the best at their positions right now. In a couple years though, I would have to disagree and go with my guys. Even next year a Lebron/Dwight vs. Kobe/Garnett would be one of the best possible matchups anyone could come up with.
This topic is way too hard to debate because its so open ended and there are so many guys you can choose. The only thing keeping me from picking guys like Howard and LeBron is that it would be for next year (assuming that's the correct interpretation of the question) only. For future, LeBron and Howard would be the better choices, but both of the guys I chose for next year, would be in their prime. Kobe is dead in the middle of his, and KG is on the tail end of the best part of his. Both guys have plenty of years left in their primes, and next year I think will be their best years of their prime for both of them. It's extremely hard to argue with any of your points, as I would imagine it is to argue with mine. I think the main point for me choosing the two I did though is that it'd be only for that one year, meaning youth wouldn't need to be a factor, and experience already had would be a big factor, and that is a HUGE advantage that KG and Kobe have over LeBron and Howard. Kobe knows how to win, he's won 3 rings. You can't fault KG for not winning, fault his management, but he plays harder and wants to win more than anyone else, and I think given the proper situation, he would be a winner.
Yankshater your right that is the way I meant it to come out, for next season. I thought it would be easy to debate, you could pick any two players in the league for next season. You both picked two, explain why the players you have picked to have on your team would impact the game more than the two players the other person picked.
