Curry/Durant/Jokic vs Lillard/Wade/Giannis

[No-more-rings]

All at their peaks in today’s league.

Who’s better/who would you prefer?

[Colbinii]

This is a weird comparison in a good way [ie difficult].

On one hand, the offensive fit of the first trio is perfect--it would be difficult to construct a trio with a better fitting offense. The spacing is maximized, Jokic's playmaking is maximized and Curry's gravity is near maximized.

As for the second trio, there is some clunkiness with Lillard/Wade/Giannis offensively, significantly less spacing [Lillard isn't really the spacer Curry is even though he is up there as one of the next best shooters] and all 3 players are maximized with a high usage [#1 or #1B at the least].

However, the defensive gap is large enough where I do slightly lean for the 2nd trio. Good comparison.

[The-Power]

However, the defensive gap is large enough where I do slightly lean for the 2nd trio. Good comparison.

Something to keep in mind is the rest of the line-up or roster. The first trio just needs defenders and are fine if they cannot shoot that well. The second trio needs shooters, so they'd have to add worse defenders (if we assume each team is given a similar quality of players). Of course that changes the calculation for both defense and offense. It's certainly close, though. The first trio has more talent overall, so that may be the deciding factor for me.

[Tomtolbert]

Tough one, but I just can't pass up the offense of the first group.

[Colbinii]

However, the defensive gap is large enough where I do slightly lean for the 2nd trio. Good comparison.

Something to keep in mind is the rest of the line-up or roster. The first trio just needs defenders and are fine if they cannot shoot that well. The second trio needs shooters, so they'd have to add worse defenders (if we assume each team is given a similar quality of players). Of course that changes the calculation for both defense and offense. It's certainly close, though. The first trio has more talent overall, so that may be the deciding factor for me.

It is very unlikely the first trio adds a wing defender on the level of Wade and a big 4 who can defend like Giannis.

[Fadeaway_J]

Really don't like the offensive fit of the second trio. I'll take my chances on finding good defenders to complement Steph/KD/Jokic.

[dygaction]

Even on defense, I see Curry/Durant clearly better than Lillard/Wade. The offense gap alone is too huge for Giannis to cover from defensive side.

[homecourtloss]

Even on defense, I see Curry/Durant clearly better than Lillard/Wade. The offense gap alone is too huge for Giannis to cover from defensive side.

Basically this. Any team that has peak or prime Lillard/wade/Giannis is of course going to be very difficult to defeat for anybody, but the first team can find any defensive players and still have enough offense due to the creativity/playmaking of Jokić, the iso/off ball scoring ability of Durant, and the off ball/on ball scoring of Curry. I will take my chances finding two defenders.

On another note, these hypotheticals that involve Curry and Durrant highlight the fact of how impossibly good that 2017 team was. You had two peak players who can both create their own offense and play off the ball, you had a defensive player of the year type in Draymond, probably one of the five or so best shooters in NBA history in Klay and still a very good defender in Iggy.

[The-Power]

However, the defensive gap is large enough where I do slightly lean for the 2nd trio. Good comparison.

Something to keep in mind is the rest of the line-up or roster. The first trio just needs defenders and are fine if they cannot shoot that well. The second trio needs shooters, so they'd have to add worse defenders (if we assume each team is given a similar quality of players). Of course that changes the calculation for both defense and offense. It's certainly close, though. The first trio has more talent overall, so that may be the deciding factor for me.

It is very unlikely the first trio adds a wing defender on the level of Wade and a big 4 who can defend like Giannis.

Well, but that's not necessarily needed. Curry is a better defender than Lillard. Not sure how to rate Durant versus Wade for peak but even if you have Wade as (clearly) better defensively, the duos are at least somewhat close. So the question effectively becomes: who's more impactful, Jokic and two plus defenders, or Giannis and two negative defenders? And that changes the equation.

[OhayoKD]

Team 2. Giannis and Lillard make each harder covers than anyone on team 1 and defensive gap is pretty big

[Eagle4]

The odd man out here is Lillard.

Wade
Curry
Giannis
Durant/Jokic

Lillard.

So team 1 has the W imo.

[Colbinii]

The odd man out here is Lillard.

Wade
Curry
Giannis
Durant/Jokic

Lillard.

So team 1 has the W imo.

This isn't how trios work. There are diminishing returns when players are together.

[iggymcfrack]

You put by far the 2 best players on the same team (Curry/Jokic). And Durant's better than Dame. This is a bad comparison. Too lopsided.

[CharityStripe34]

IDK flip a coin I'd be perfectly content with either trio.