Let's pretend every star is an unrestricted free agent looking for a cameo on portlandia. Curry is unreal, but would he play well along side dame? A lot of people like Cousins, do you consider him the ultimate prize? Paul George is playing lights out, would him at SF along with Dame and CJ bring us rings? Lebron James may be one of the most talented basketball players ever, but would you rather have him over Paul George/Durant? Durant is a phenomenal scorer, but is scoring something we need? Kawhi Leonard has proven to be an elite player at that position, but how much of his success comes from playing within the Spurs system? Hassan Whiteside has shown a lot in under two seasons, but is Plumlee the guy in the starting unit who you would want to replace? It's a tough question, if you can only pick one of the best players in the league to bring here and try to win. There are certainly a lot of desirable players out there. I'm not sure any one choice is better than the next - they are all different, which is what makes this interesting. After thinking about it I decided that I would probably go with Blake Griffin. His all around game is so complete, and I don't think there is anyone else in the NBA at his size who can do the things he is capable of. Blake running the transition with this team would be amazing. Dame - Griffin connections would be a delight to watch. A starting lineup of Dame-CJ-Aminu-Griffin-Plumlee would not only be a thrill to watch, but also very difficult to play against.
Either Paul George or Blake Griffin. I dont think we need a big in the paint guy that cant score. Dont want head case Cousins. I think Plumlee, Davis, Leonard can fill the C position just fine. Gimme Blake. Throw in George and we in a ring.
Ben Simmons. But Blake Griffin might be a great choice. I think he and Plumlee would play well together given that they're both great passers. I'm generally not in favor of having a PF as one of your cornerstones, but since all of the wings are kinda weak right now, Blake might be the better choice. Unlike many PFs he can actually create offense and dribble/pass the ball, which is what kept LMA from being a cornerstone-worthy player. I don't have a solid argument against Blake. That said it's still kinda hard to go against the conventional wisdom of LBJ/KD. But both of those guys lack something that the true greats possessed. And besides, LBJ is so often dinged up, and I've never, personally, been overly impressed by KD. I don't know if I'd want to build around either of those guys. They'd both certainly put us deep into the POs, but for how long?
Yep. Only thing that would even give me pause is injury history. But not enough pause to move him down yet.
Curry, Kawhi, Paul George, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Durant, Towns or Wiggins. They all have very similar value in my opinion. Could make a case for any of them. Curry and Dame would be unreal you can certainly build a title winning team with them even though their both PG's. Cousins is in the next lower tier with Porzingis, Ibaka, Jimmy Butler, Marc Gasol, Draymond Green. Reluctantly have to put Harden here even though I despise him. Westbrook gets the nod with his physicality but so wish he had a coach that could yell at him to make correct decisions like Pop. LeBron is certainly in the first tier this season but he's such an unusual case and aging I'll leave him out. Where would CJ and Plumlee rank? Certainly a few more tiers down but they've both exceeded my expectations at this early part of the season. They have a chance to be a special group.
Anyone in the game right now? Curry. Or LeBron. If I can get anybody, I am getting the best player in the NBA. I'll worry about combinations later. If your qualification is that we are keeping both Dame and CJ and we are using the signing to fill a need, it'd be LeBron or Anthony Davis. Davis actually would fit with the way this team already is being built.
I was thinking anyone in the game. But I personally don't think I would swap our best player out for someone else. But if you think we would be better off bringing in Curry to substitute Dame then that goes along with the question.
Not saying anything about swapping out our best player. I said I'll worry about combinations later. We play Dame and CJ together a lot. I'd just play Curry and Dame together. The whole point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, center thing is overrated anyway, especially in this NBA. You get two bigs, two guards and your 3 player kind of fits what you need once you put those four on the court ... you play small guards, you get a small forward who can defend and rebound. If you think it's comical now watch teams try to keep up with Curry and Thompson or Dame and CJ, it would be hysterical watching a team trying to defend a backcourt of Curry and Lillard.
I'd lean towards Kawhi since he's the best two way player of the group, proven himself more than some of the younger players but young enough he has long term upside. Really can't go wrong with anyone from that group. Curry would be good but since he duplicates Dames position it'd probably be best to grab someone else if they are on the same tier. LeBrons health would really concern me. Getting shots for his back. Having to take off weeks last season. Laying down on the floor like Larry Bird. He's definitely not the athlete he was 2 or 3 years ago. He'll still be very effective and can contribute in other ways but if I'm building a team for the future he's dropped past a half dozen guys at least.
I actually had a pretty difficult time narrowing down my choice. Kawhi is real nice, but I grave Griffin the nod because I like Aminu's game and I think if we had Griffin we would be a different team anyways since we would have solid paint and post scoring with him. Aminu would be amazing if we had someone like Griffin who can score on the elbow or in the paint and dribble/drive/pass. I think with Aminu, Dame, and CJ's ability to collapse the interior defense, somebody like Griffin who is a dual threat would make us difficult to guard. I feel that is the main thing we are missing right now. Outside of Meyers our big's can roll, but they can't pop. That is the most crucial element we are missing, and we will see this team being much more successful once we are able to get a big who can do the things Plumlee/Davis do on the inside, while also consistently knocking it down outside. I think the 4 is definitely our weak spot, and it probably wouldn't even take Blake Griffin to increase our success. I'll be honest, I think we might already have that player in Vonleh, but it is a question of if he can reach his potential, and how long it will take him. I honestly think he will get there, because he seems like a hard worker and a great team player. You watch the way he's interacting with team mates out on the court and you can tell his head is in the right place as far as learning the game.
I'm trying to come up with a ranking of who I would want. It gets fairly difficult to choose some of these guys over the other because you can make a case for all of them. I also think Kevin Love would be huge for us, but would take Griffin over him. But then would I take Love over Kawhi, Lebron, Durant, Curry? I feel like we could all make our own lists and the chances that 2 people's are the same would be slim to none.
I not going to rank them all but I would go: Anthony Davis Blake Griffin Kawhi Leonard (Best two-way guy) Kevin Durant Andre Drummond (If he could shoot free throws he would be #2 for me) Stephen Curry (only due to some duplication)
How'd I forget about him? Also forgot about Davis. I'll take Drummond. Lillard CJ Simmons Meyers Drummond
