Team 35+ – Title Favorites?

The-Power · Post #1 » by **The-Power** » Mon May 26, 2025 8:42 pm

Current versions

Stephen Curry | Mike Conley
James Harden | Russell Westbrook
Jimmy Butler | Nic Batum
LeBron James | Draymond Green
Al Horford | Brook Lopez

Is this team beating OKC and the other contenders? Or is their age too much to overcome, especially over the course of a long playoff run?

edit: Only including players who have played in this year's playoffs (thus no Durant and PG13). It's the current (meaning 2025) versions of these players (not these players at 35 years old). Added poll.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #2 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Mon May 26, 2025 9:22 pm

Come on. That team utterly destroys the league. LeBron was the best player in the league still at 35 and would still be top 3 today.

jalengreen · Post #3 » by **jalengreen** » Mon May 26, 2025 9:28 pm

Cavsfansince84 wrote:Come on. That team utterly destroys the league. LeBron was the best player in the league still at 35 and would still be top 3 today.

Pretty sure it's the current version of these players (who are all 35+)

Ol Roy · Post #4 » by **Ol Roy** » Mon May 26, 2025 9:32 pm

Is Durant left off for some reason?

The-Power · Post #5 » by **The-Power** » Mon May 26, 2025 9:38 pm

Ol Roy wrote:Is Durant left off for some reason?

Good catch. I went on the NBA's website and sorted players by age, not seeing that it was displaying only players who played in this year's playoffs.

Obviously Durant would otherwise be added. Same for Paul George. Let's leave them out for now and pretend I meant to only include players who have been in the playoffs this year.

The-Power · Post #6 » by **The-Power** » Mon May 26, 2025 9:40 pm

jalengreen wrote:
Cavsfansince84 wrote:Come on. That team utterly destroys the league. LeBron was the best player in the league still at 35 and would still be top 3 today.

Pretty sure it's the current version of these players (who are all 35+)

Yeah, it's the current versions of the players. In fact, it's these players as they have just played in the playoffs – so we have a pretty good idea what they are still capable of (and what their limitations are) when the stakes are high and the refs allow playoff physicality.

Doug_12 · Post #7 » by **Doug_12** » Mon May 26, 2025 10:45 pm

Right now no, but if they were all 35 yo, then definitely:
Curry '23-24 / Harden '24-25
Conley '22-23
Lebron '19-20 / Butler '24-25
Draymond '24-25
Lopez '23-24 / Horford '21-22

Batum and Westbrook could get some minutes in garbage time, but I wouldn't make them regular rotation members. Lebron and Curry are MVP and All-NBA level players complementing each other extremely well, while they are surrounded with good (Butler. Horford, Lopez) to great defenders (Draymond), adequate spacing and probably the league's best off the bench combo-guard.