Jokic/Tatum or Shai/Giannis

[mdonnelly1989]

A healthy 2025/2026 Tatum and Jokic

Or

Shai and Giannis

[TheGOATRises007]

With the unknown of Tatum and how he recovers, Shai/Giannis rather easily.

Presuming that it's not a given Tatum returns back to his old form.

If so, then I'd pick Tatum/Jokic.

[mdonnelly1989]

I think Shai and Giannis would be too good defensively together.

[nate33]

I think the Shai/Giannis tandem has slightly more collective talent, but I also think they wouldn't be all that complementary because they both occupy the same space on the floor. It would mostly be them taking turns. Still, if you're going to have two guys taking turns as a ball-dominant primary option, who better than those two? And since they're both plus defenders, it would be easy to build a stout defensive team around them.

Jokic and Tatum have tremendous synergy. Tatum would be like Aaron Gordan and Jamaal Murray combined into one player. Just give them three 3&D shooters around them and they'd be awesome. On offense, they would be a sure bet to be the league's best. The only real issue is Jokic limits the ceiling of the defense.

I think I'd go with Jokic and Tatum.

[RoyceDa59]

Tatum / Jokic is a much better fit chemistry wise as both are elite shooters and great facilitators.

[falcolombardi]

Tatum / Jokic is a much better fit chemistry wise as both are elite shooters and great facilitators.

Tatum is not a elite shooter and he is not a better passer than shai/giannis either

[jalengreen]

Last two years do not give me a ton of confidence in how Giannis fits with a ball-dominant guard. I’d probably take them anyway because Tatum’s clearly the worst player here and I’m inclined to trust the talent, but I’d be reluctant and wouldn’t be shocked if the Jokic/Tatum duo ended up fitting together better.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

Okay so we just saw Shai outplay or at least play peak Jokic kind of even and Giannis is way better than Tatum so I say this isn't fair tbh.

[ShotCreator]

Shai and Giannis are about as terrible of fit as you can get at this talent level.

Giannis is the more forceful personality, he would brute force his game and have Shai duly picking up the scraps and waiting his turn off ball.

Shai doesn’t win MVP over Giannis if they’re ever paired together.

Defensively it’s okay but at this stage neither are too dominant. Shai is at least borderline elite for his position in the RS.

Jokic and Tatum can play their full games next to each other. I think potential synergy is there.

With good fit, Tatum and Jokic have more potential and I tend to like to bet on potential.

Of course this is ignoring OP’s premise, because no one knows what 2026 Tatum will look like.

[PistolPeteJR]

Jokic/Tatum. Although I prefer the other pairing defensively, I’d rather have Tatum than Shai on defense, and on O, I don’t think the synergy between Shai and Giannis is there. Don’t trust Shai’s playmaking as much. Meanwhile, Tatum playing off of Jokic, limiting his ISOs that I hate and slashing more is nice.