Hypothetical expansion team

[Bwelc679]

I'm bored and love basketball so here's an exercise I made up on the treadmill.

Imagine that you are the GM for an NBA expansion team that is going to compete next year.
Your goal, like any GM, is to win a title. Unlike other GMs you are going to have a plethora of talent to choose from so you're also looking at that 73 wins record as something you'd be happy to steal.

Choose one player out of the four listed for each position to create your starting lineup. Imagine that all of these players are at their absolute peak and have been training the whole off-season to get comfortable with the current style of play (shooting threes, learning defensive coverages and getting comfortable with all that extra space).

Let's go ahead and assume that the bench is somewhere around the average of other playoff teams benches.Do you think this team would be favored to win the title if they stayed healthy throughout the playoffs OR does the differences in era and unpredictability of the game make it so this team is lucky to make it out of the first round of the playoffs?

Point Guard:
Isiah Thomas (1985)
Derrick Rose (2011)
Anfernee Hardaway (1996)
Gary Payton (1998)

Shooting Guard:
Sidney Moncrief (1985)
Victor Oladipo (2018)
Joe Dumars (1993)
Eddie Jones (2001)

Small Forward:
Rick Barry (1975)
Bernard King (1984)
Clyde Drexler (IMO he's better suited to play SF in this era. 1992)
Dominique Wilkins (1988?

Power Forward:
Clifford Robinson (1999)
Antonio Mcdyss (2001)
Terry Cummings (1985)
Bobby Jones (1981)

Center:
Jack Sikma (1982)
Dan Issel (1979)
Dave Cowens (1973)
Mehmet Occur (2009)



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[penbeast0]

Payton, Moncrief, Uncle Cliffy, Bobby Jones, Dave Cowens.

This isn't an expansion team but I could see it as an Olympic team level of competition. I went for hustle and switchable defense, figuring that we could work out an offense with all this talent. As none of the 3's played much defense, I chose two combo forwards from the 4 list, but could use Drexler instead of Robinson if necessary. The forwards (even with 2 4's) are weak rebounders but Cowens and the guards are all good ones.

Only Robinson had a 3 point shot but Payton and Moncrief started shooting them a bit later on in their career and Cowens had good shooting range for a center. So, we'd either have to see how successfully we work on that or have a offensive coach who can work around it.

[jojo4341]

My team:

Gary Payton - greatest defensive PG imo and with decent size.
Joe Dumars - provides everything Jrue Holiday does. No real weakness other than size vs wings. Eddie Jones was very tempting but he's not as good as PG or have as much playoff success.
Clyde Drexler - He would be our main scorer while being athletic enough to defend modern wings. He wouldn't need to develop a 3-point shot on this specific team and just concentrate on midrange and drives.
Clifford Robinson - Solid stretch 4 with good defense.
Jack Sikma - Though he didn't shoot the 3 in 1982, he eventually started to develop it. With training camp and modern rules, he'd easily adjust and still provide solid defense.

We're pretty weak on rebounding, but the overall defense and versatility would be sufficient to win the title. Chemistry aside, they match up quite well against the '24 Celtics:

GP > Derrick White
Joe D > Jrue
Clyde Drexler > Jaylen Brown
Clifford Robinson < Jayson Tatum
Jack Sikma = KP

[ardee]

Gonna be honest, it's hard for me to just magically assume guys who barely ever shot 3s IRL are suddenly competent shooters in this hypothetical. I will be factoring in their real skills to this here...

PG: Penny Hardaway: easily the best overall player here, was arguably only behind Jordan and Robinson at his peak in the league at the time.

SG: Eddie Jones: Elite 3&D player on decent volume. Perfect backcourt compliment to Penny

SF: Clyde Drexler: no. 1 scoring option and actually did develop an ok 3 point shot in the years to come. Fastbreak with Penny would be a sight to see.

PF: Bobby Jones: Swiss-army knife and elite defender

C: Clifford Robinson: cheating a bit, but he could easily play center today. Very good defender and shot 42% from 3.

Team is built around the Penny/Drexler two-man game and supported with defense and shooting.

[durantbird]

Not too many good spacing options lol.

I'll go with:

Penny Hardaway
Joe Dumars
Clyde Drexler
Clifford Robinson
Jack Sikma