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Tandem #1


Michael Jordan
Anthony Davis

Tandem #2


Lebron James
Dwight Howard

Tandem #3


Shaq O'Neal
T-Mac

Tandem #4


Hakeem Olajuwon
Steve Nash

Tandem #5


Larry Bird
David Robinson

Tandem #6


Tim Duncan
D-Wade

Tandem #7


Magic Johnson
Dirk Nowitski

Tandem #8

Steph Curry
Giannis

Tandem #9


Nikola Jokic
Kobe Bryant

Tandem #10


Kevin Durant
Kevin Garnett

Damn Bro that's tough list well done. But I'm a little biased and voted for my main man Kobe on this one - Kobe/Jokic for me

The team with Lebron.

Lebron and Dwight. Lebron and AD already led an all-time team and probably the best team in the modern era outside of the Warriors. Dwight is similar enough to where we don't have to speculate, it's already been proven.

Without knowing who the other players are, I have a lot of confidence in the Bird/Robinson tandem meshing well regardless of circumstances and creating a high floor on both ends of the court.

But I could easily go with James/Howard, Jordan/Davis, and Durant/Garnett too.

Lets keep the votes going.

Only 2 with more than 1 vote. And 4 with 1.

IT doesn't looking like anyone may pull away as the clear cut favorite.

The defensive nightmare between James and Howard would be so, so much fun to watch. Not to mention that PnR. What are teams going to do against that PnR? They’re going to force James to shoot, and at his best, that’s 41% from deep on excellent volume. Either that, or with his head of steam and room to drive he’s just going to plow his way to the rim and draw foul after foul.

Factoring in health and length of prime I think I'd actually go with Nash and Hakeem(Magic/Dirk close second). Should win many titles in any era. Nash will make sure its a top 5 O and Hakeem will make sure the paint is protected. Dwight and AD's health is too iffy to take them and then Bird, Wade, TMac and others also have too many health concerns.

Cavsfansince84 wrote:Factoring in health and length of prime I think I'd actually go with Nash and Hakeem(Magic/Dirk close second). Should win many titles in any era. Nash will make sure its a top 5 O and Hakeem will make sure the paint is protected. Dwight and AD's health is too iffy to take them and then Bird, Wade, TMac and others also have too many health concerns.

I should have mentioned that this was health full

The era variable makes this choice from a huge menu even more complex. Obviously the absence of a 3pt line pre-merger is key but so is the fact that refs call pretty much everything much tighter the further back into NBA history you go, especially offensive contact.

There are 33 seasons before the merger and 45 after. If every season is equally likely for the random environment it means that 42% of the time there is no 3pt line, making interior players enormously more valuable than 3pt shooters. Any duo which gets a significant portion of its value from 3pt shooting is heavily deprecated by these terms. Tandems #4, #8, #9 and #10 are so heavily affected that they basically can be ruled out of consideration. What remains is to consider how the remaining tandems are affected by the various era environments.

I doubt peak Wilt would be better than peak Shaq in the 2000s officiating environment but in the 1960s I think Shaq would be quite a bit worse, and not just because he's the one getting displaced. The offensive contact Shaq got away with in 2000 would have put him in regular foul trouble in the 60s. Dwight is another hyperphysical offensive player who would find adjustment to the 1960s very difficult. A more finesse based interior offensive player, like Hakeem or Duncan, would suffer little from rules environment displacement.

Perimeter ball handlers would also get dinged in the 1960s but not nearly as badly as hyperphysical bigs since they aren't picking up a personal foul when they get whistled for carrying turnovers or travels. Adjusting their handle should be easier for perimeter handlers than adjusting their level of physicality would be for the beasts.

All of that in mind, I would rank the tandems as follows:
1. Jordan/AD
2. Duncan/Wade
3. LeBron/Dwight
4. Bird/Robinson
5. Garnett/Durant
6. Jokic/Kobe
7. Shaq/McGrady
8. Magic/Dirk
9. Olajuwon/Nash
10. Curry/Giannis

Are we assuming the same durability/longevity/injuries as real life

falcolombardi wrote:Are we assuming the same durability/longevity/injuries as real life

For sure full health

Steph/Giannis getting very underrated here

EmpireFalls wrote:Steph/Giannis getting very underrated here

I’m looking at both sides here. Steph and Nash either hurt their teams on defense (Nash) or aren’t of great benefit to their teams there (Curry).

PistolPeteJR wrote:

EmpireFalls wrote:Steph/Giannis getting very underrated here

I’m looking at both sides here. Steph and Nash either hurt their teams on defense (Nash) or aren’t of great benefit to their teams there (Curry).

And as Rand pointed out, their shooting is diminished before the three-point era.

Dwight and Nash are the only ones that are easy to pass on. Nothing against LeBron and Hakeem.

Got to go with 1….but man the Kevins would be intriguing.

It's Shaq/T-Mac. Hardly any guesswork in what would happen. 3 finals appearances with 3 players all somewhat similar in style of play. Easy decision for me.

Jokic/Kobe

In their primes?

Larry Bird and David Robinson, all day and every day. Can't think of two more complete team oriented star players.

Another tandem you should add to your list is Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.