Top 5 single season duos of all time?

[ardee]

I would go:

1. 2001 Shaq/Kobe
2. 2020 LeBron/Davis
3. 1992 Jordan/Pippen
4. 1971 Kareem/Oscar
5. 2017 Steph/KD

It feels very weird not to have Kareem and Magic but their peaks were so far apart from each other I don't think they measure up to any of these duos as a tandem. I'd have '86 Bird/McHale, '16 Steph/Draymond, '83 Moses/Doc and '11 LeBron/Wade rounding out the top 10 in some order.

[ShotCreator]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

[OhayoKD]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

[OhayoKD]

I would go:

1. 2001 Shaq/Kobe
2. 2020 LeBron/Davis
3. 1992 Jordan/Pippen
4. 1971 Kareem/Oscar
5. 2017 Steph/KD

It feels very weird not to have Kareem and Magic but their peaks were so far apart from each other I don't think they measure up to any of these duos as a tandem. I'd have '86 Bird/McHale, '16 Steph/Draymond, '83 Moses/Doc and '11 LeBron/Wade rounding out the top 10 in some order.

Warriors are almost certainly worse without dray than they are without durant in 17

[70sFan]

I think it's a good list, I might also consider:

1965 Jones/Russell
1967 Greer/Wilt
1970 Frazier/Reed
1983 Julius/Moses
1985 Magic/Kareem
1986 Bird/McHale
1999 Duncan/Robinson
2005 Manu/Duncan
2011 Wade/James
2016 Westbrook/Durant
2016 Curry/Green

[rk2023]

I think it's a good list, I might also consider:

1965 Jones/Russell
1967 Greer/Wilt
1970 Frazier/Reed
1983 Julius/Moses
1985 Magic/Kareem
1986 Bird/McHale
1999 Duncan/Robinson
2005 Manu/Duncan
2011 Wade/James
2016 Westbrook/Durant
2016 Curry/Green

I like 1962/63 West Baylor as well within this conversation.

[70sFan]

I think it's a good list, I might also consider:

1965 Jones/Russell
1967 Greer/Wilt
1970 Frazier/Reed
1983 Julius/Moses
1985 Magic/Kareem
1986 Bird/McHale
1999 Duncan/Robinson
2005 Manu/Duncan
2011 Wade/James
2016 Westbrook/Durant
2016 Curry/Green

I like 1962/63 West Baylor as well within this conversation.

Great mention, I'd have them ahead of a few pairs I mentioned.

[parsnips33]

No Stockton/Malone?

[ShotCreator]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

I’m not pretending.

17 GS was pretty much beyond +10 without KD in the first round. They were trashing that conference one way or another.

And I also want to say time told us that Curry/Draymond is a more potent duo without so much star stacking. Without KD, Draymond had his last prime playoff run in 2019, and it started as soon as Durant went down and they rode the dominance into the finals. He was really better than Curry that playoff run.


Curry and Klay were better in their natural roles without KD as well.

They’ve won titles before and after Durant for a reason.

Without KD you just see the Curry/Draymond pick and roll get way more action in the 2017 playoffs, especially with Mike Brown as coach. And this would be a more clear take.

[No-more-rings]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/Draymond were indeed great but this post is pretty out there.

[Cavsfansince84]

I would go:

1. 2001 Shaq/Kobe
2. 2020 LeBron/Davis
3. 1992 Jordan/Pippen
4. 1971 Kareem/Oscar
5. 2017 Steph/KD

It feels very weird not to have Kareem and Magic but their peaks were so far apart from each other I don't think they measure up to any of these duos as a tandem. I'd have '86 Bird/McHale, '16 Steph/Draymond, '83 Moses/Doc and '11 LeBron/Wade rounding out the top 10 in some order.

I think this is a solid list with Baylor/West, Frazier/Reed and Hondo/Cowens also worthy of mention. Plus Duncan/Robinson in 99.

[OhayoKD]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

I’m not pretending.

17 GS was pretty much beyond +10 without KD in the first round. They were trashing that conference one way or another.

[/quote]
Which still isn't on par with the 2001 Lakers(+18.39 PSRS) or the 2020 Lakers(+11.70) despite that sample coming against a weaker first round opponent and the warriors having better support around their big two than the lakers had around bron/ad.

They’ve won titles before and after Durant for a reason.

And that reason is not that they were "better in the postseason at their peak" than Kobe/Shaq and Lebron/AD's Lakers...

The Warriors got deeper and added some nice young talent and still were not peaking as high as the two teams you said they peaked higher than...

Without KD you just see the Curry/Draymond pick and roll get way more action in the 2017 playoffs, especially with Mike Brown as coach. And this would be a more clear take.

Or they lose to the Cavs again and we're not having this conversation

[KobesScarf]

Duncan + Robinson
Reed + Frazier
Cousy + Russell
Jones + Russell
Havlicek + Russell
Havlicek + Cowens
Baylor + West
Wilt + West
Wilt + Greer
Unseld + Elvin
Kobe + Pau

Are better than Steph + Klay(not even sure why you keep mentioning Green lol)

[parsnips33]

Or they lose to the Cavs again and we're not having this conversation

Even in this hypothetical they would have gone to 3 straight Finals. Not something you could say for the vast majority of duos

[Owly]

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

I’m not pretending.

17 GS was pretty much beyond +10 without KD in the first round. They were trashing that conference one way or another.

Which still isn't on par with the 2001 Lakers(+18.39 PSRS) or the 2020 Lakers(+11.70) despite that sample coming against a weaker first round opponent and the warriors having better support around their big two than the lakers had around bron/ad.

Not an expert here ...
On this ... is PSRS points dif plus opponent SRS?

If so doesn't that assume opponents are at RS levels in a small sample in the playoffs?
And if so why are we assuming that one team is exactly at RS levels but another can be vastly better ... does it not simultaneously require strong belief in the RS (for the opponent) and a willingness to cast it aside (to focus on this playoff SRS)?

[OhayoKD]

Or they lose to the Cavs again and we're not having this conversation

Even in this hypothetical they would have gone to 3 straight Finals. Not something you could say for the vast majority of duos

Sure, but that’s a lower bar. Without Durant, the Warriors are simply a hypothetical dynasty like the healthy lebron/ad lakers. As it is, that third final appearance probably isn’t a garuntee with okc and sas looming and we actually saw draymond/curry and Kd on the ropes in 2018 to a team of that caliber when iggy missed games.

[OhayoKD]

Which still isn't on par with the 2001 Lakers(+18.39 PSRS) or the 2020 Lakers(+11.70) despite that sample coming against a weaker first round opponent and the warriors having better support around their big two than the lakers had around bron/ad.

Not an expert here ...
On this ... is PSRS points dif plus opponent SRS?

If so doesn't that assume opponents are at RS levels in a small sample in the playoffs?
And if so why are we assuming that one team is exactly at RS levels but another can be vastly better ... does it not simultaneously require strong belief in the RS (for the opponent) and a willingness to cast it aside (to focus on this playoff SRS)?

[\quote]
Well the reason you use the rs is sample size(and you need something as a base). That said, I’m not sure making it more playoff-focused helps. E-balla did some derivation where every playoff was scaled based on their playoff performance and he ended up with the 16 warriors scoring at a +8. Though there was some dispute about where to score the raptors…

[Heej]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

The audacity to put Draymond over KD is actually crazy

[parsnips33]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

The audacity to put Draymond over KD is actually crazy

That's not really what's being said though

It's Steph + Draymond > Steph + KD

[OhayoKD]

Curry/Deaymond has the highest overall peak IMO and infinitely more battled tested across the board than the likes of 01 Shaq/Kobe and 2020 LeBron/AD who primarily had ridiculous playoff runs.


But again 2017 Curry/Draymond is easily on that level postseason wise.

The level of all-time offense and defense combined is just too high, too resilient, too portable to me. They’re the best ever. Peak for peak, prime for prime to win a series to save my life or otherwise.

Curry/draymond's warriors were not on the same level as lebron/ad, or shaq/kobe's in kd's absence and it certainly wasn't due to weaker supporting pieces(at least in a comparison with Lebron/AD). Let's not pretend it was a "duo" doing the damage in 17

The audacity to put Draymond over KD is actually crazy

I think it's defensible to have Dray over KD for "who provided more value to the Warriors". They are more of a defensive dynasty than an offensive one.