RealGM

I'm sure some side debates on this of sprouted out in other threads regarding whether or not our players will make the team, but I had a very interesting conversation with a Chinese friend at work the other day who is a big time basketball fan.

Forget injuries, withdraws or whatever other excuse. Think of this as a hypothetical military draft where you play or are sentenced to life in prison / execution.

Who would your starting 5 be for the best TEAM we could send? I want to super emphasize TEAM here. So putting Curry, Harden, KD, Melo and Cousins out there is 100% against the spirit of this question and as we have seen multiple times in Rio, going out with all isolation guys leaves us vulnerable to a team of far less talent but much better chemistry.

For SG, PF and C I easily selected Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis and Deandre Jordon. I love the offensive rebounding and shot blocking of a Davis / Jordon front court, along with the full court game of Klay.

PG and SF were the hardest for me to pick.

I love Westbrook but his game might not translate to the international game as well as others. So with Klay already here, I go with the chemistry factor and chose Curry at PG.

Call me absolutely nuts, but at SF I passed on Lebron, Melo and KD! We have enough shooters and ball handlers already. So I went with KL.

My Starting 5:
Curry
Klay
Kawhi
Davis
Jordon

No team with Curry and Thompson will struggle offensively but this lineup has a much greater defensive presence and less iso guys standing around than the current team USA starting 5. But is this the best lineup? Who would you guys pick?

I think this should be our Olympic/FIBA lineup

PG
PG
SF
SF
C

In my eyes, I'd go
Russell Westbrook
Steph Curry
Kawhi Leonard
Kevin Durant
Draymond Green (or DJ)

Davis/Jordan is too big and slow up front, other teams bigs have too good of perimeter capability.

j-ragg wrote:I think this should be our Olympic/FIBA lineup

PG
PG
SF
SF
C

In my eyes, I'd go
Russell Westbrook
Steph Curry
Kawhi Leonard
Kevin Durant
Draymond Green (or DJ)

Davis/Jordan is too big and slow up front, other teams bigs have too good of perimeter capability.

Yeah, I went back and forth between Davis and Green at PF. But this team has been much more productive overall with DJ in over Cousins. So I like having on there.

It's a good problem to have but this really is a tough job. There is just so much talent but how do you optimize it?

I'd slide Davis to the five and put in Durant or LeBron; probably Durant due to his size. I like Kawhi just fine over LeBron. He is an incredible player that is still somehow underappreciated even though he is highly regarded.

I wouldn't take Westbrook. I think he would do more harm than good. He is a great player, but he doesn't seem to understand that he isn't always the best option on the floor. On a roster with so much offensive firepower, him imposing his will on the game would just be doing the other team a favor.

Here is hoping for 2x2 half-court getting the Olympic nod. Would it be Durant and Davis, Curry and James, or another tandem?

I wanted to put magic starting five here just for laughs then I realized how many international players we actually have on this team. Fournier, Ibaka, Biyombo, Vucevic, Hezonja. Wondering if any other team has as strong international core as we do.

Curry
Redick
Lebron
AG
Howard

Went for the "Team" and wore my homer glasses