RealGM

starting a franchise. who you got?

Shaq/Wade and I wouldn't need a moment to think about it.

Shaq and Wade are the two best playoff performers out of these 4 which just makes the choice even easier, imagine a Young and Prime Shaq playing next to DWade they would destroy the competition. Unless the Duncan/Kobe team ended up with a far superior supporting cast around them I highly doubt they would win a series against Shaq/Wade.

TD/Kobe pretty easily.

For one season I'd take Shaq/Wade but not building a team.

Shaq has a great personality, especially when it comes to on court play. Shaq/Wade could easily last 12+ seasons with the right Coach/Franchise which is as long as you could hope for with any duo.

I really think Kobe's Ego (especially young Kobe) would bother a young and Prime Duncan to the point where it would cause problems for the franchise. Yes TD isn't the type to air his problems with the media but im sure behind closed doors is where the problems would start. With a young Wade developing under Shaq I don't see them having similar issues certainly not in the first 10 years when Shaq will be playing GOAT level center ball.

Its hard for me to say no to having the most valuable player in the league for 10+ years.

One of these players is not like the other.

This is a hard one
i would pick Shaq over Duncan and Kobe over Wade

I say Duncan and Kobe.

kobe duncan for me. wade and shaq are great players but it just seems that no matter where shaq is there always seem to be problems. he just about bad mouths every organization he has been with. it's like my dad used to say if you have a problem everywhere you go,then it's you. plus for all of shaq's mde duncan was right there with him in production especially when they went head to head. shaq in his younger days could not really deal with a player approaching his level long term. it happened with penny,kobe,and wade. he always found something to bitch about. wade would have to swallow so much to play with shaq,and after a while it get's old especially with shaq pulling alot of the stunts he has pulled.

Shaq had no problem coexisting with Penny in his younger days, the only player Shaq ever truly had problems with on the court was Bryant because of his massive Ego and his inability to appreciate how lucky he was to play with the best bigman in the game who made life so much easier for him and did so much for that franchise. Shaq played 99% of his young and prime years on only two franchises so for anyone to act like he created problems where he went are just fooling themselves or hate the big fella. There is no reason to assume a young Shaq & Wade wouldn't or couldn't coexist beautifully for 8-10+ years.

Sure he had a few bad words for Miami in the media after he left, but who cares? By that point he was already a shell of his former self and its not like it matters since he wasn't even on the team at that point. The media is always searching for their next story so of course they are going to report on it but for people to act like that was a big deal it wasn't, Shaq just wasn't his former self anymore and that team wasn't going anywhere obviously something had to give.

You surround Shaq with great shooters and you get a championship team, Wade is not a great shooter, and Shaq clogs up what Wade does best, driving in the paint, getting layups, dunks, and free throws. I don't think they're as good of a match as TD/Kobe, so i'll take the latter combo.

Timmy and Kobe, comfortably.

Kobe is nobody to me, I don't care what other people think about him.

Just because I think Shaq/Wade would be a far more valuable duo and have far more success on the court doesn't mean I dislike Bryant, what is wrong with you?

The Kobe fanbase definitely has the market share majority of the 12 year old's.

Have to point something out real quick, Shaq's longevity is consistently underrated compared to Duncan.

Seasons of 18+ points and 10+ boards a game: 13 for Shaq, 13 for Duncan (and I made it 18+ points to help Tim out there, Shaq averaged at least 21.5 points every one of those seasons).

Shaq's 14th season in the league, he averaged 20 and 9 on a championship team. Duncan's 14th season in the league, he's averaging 14 and 10.

I think people underrate Shaq like that because they always think of him paired with Duncan since they both have been battling since around 99, but they forget Shaq was dominating the NBA for 6 seasons prior to that.

I think that Kobe + Big Man > Wade + Big Man, even if I think that Prime Shaq was more dominant than Prime Duncan. This is because Kobe's has a better mid-range game, so by default, I think that would be the better duo, because the game's of the two would be more complete, and thus it would be easier to build around them.

nonemus wrote:I think that Kobe + Big Man > Wade + Big Man, even if I think that Prime Shaq was more dominant than Prime Duncan. This is because Kobe's has a better mid-range game, so by default, I think that would be the better duo, because the game's of the two would be more complete, and thus it would be easier to build around them.

To add onto that, TD has moderate range as well, 15+ feet out, and Kobe has a tremendous post game as well, you could switch In and Out play with those 2.

Kobe and Duncan would be better defensively and would have better longevity. They are also a significantly better shooting combo and for those 3 reasons I go with them. I find it hard to believe that prime Shaq and prime Wade wouldn't have the same problems that Kobe and Shaq had in the earlier part of the decade. Duncan would have absolutely no problem holding down the paint and playing pivot offensively, but letting Kobe be the go-to-scorer. I couldn't think of a better big men to pair with prime Kobe and the more I think about it the more I'd go with Duncan and Kobe.

Nothing but assumptions there^
Wade doesn't have the same Ego problems that Kobe had/has and wouldn't have any problem deferring his game for the benefit of his team until Shaq's prime ended. He also doesn't have that weird Ego that would require him to score 30+ ppg, he would be more then happy putting up 25/5/8/2/2 next to a Prime Diesel as they collect Championships yearly. Shaq was an Elite Defensive Anchor during his time in Orl/LA and Wade is a very good defender also so any gap between these duos defensively would be insignificant.

of course they're assumptions, we've never seen either combo, at their full primes at least.

Andrewchos wrote:Kobe is nobody to me, I don't care what other people think about him.

Just because I think Shaq/Wade would be a far more valuable duo and have far more success on the court doesn't mean I dislike Bryant, what is wrong with you?

The Kobe fanbase definitely has the market share majority of the 12 year old's.

Shots Fired

andrewchos cares so little about kobe that he goes into every kobe related thread and posts. That is how little he cares.

Pretty sure this thread is also about Shaq, Duncan, and Wade but I could be mistaken.