The Off-Decade Team(s)

[henshao]

I thought this might be an interesting meal for the mind. What is the best team you can make using one year of a player from the 84-85 season to the 93-94 season? I start here as it is one of the most analyzed timeframes in pro basketball, but the concept lends itself to the 94-95 to 03-04 stretch, 74-75 to 83-84 stretch, etc

For instance
93 Olajuwon, 86 Bird, 91 Barkley, 88 Jordan, 90 Magic

[70sFan]

The best team in an all-nbe sense, or we have to take fit into account as well? If so, I would not use Barkley on my team.

[Dutchball97]

The best team in an all-nbe sense, or we have to take fit into account as well? If so, I would not use Barkley on my team.

Who would you replace him with? I don't think Karl Malone was on the same level as Barkley in the late 80s-early 90s but even if someone thinks he was (or even better) I don't see him improving the fit that much. Pippen has proven to work well with other stars but won't have the ball in his hands much with Magic running the show and adding another heavy usage secondary ballhandler in Bird. So since he'd be pretty much there for his defense, Rodman could also be an option in that case since we're talking about the leaner, DPOY Pistons version. In the end I'm leaning towards just going with the true and tested Celtics frontcourt and pick McHale.

[SpreeS]

Jokic/Giannis/Lebron/Doncic/Curry
Howard/Duncan/Lebron/Kobe/Paul
O’Neal/Duncan/Pippen/Jordan/Kobe
Hakeem/Barkley/Bird/Jordan/Magic
KAJ/Bird/Erving/Barry/Magic
Wilt/Russell/Baylor/West/Oscar

[70sFan]

The best team in an all-nbe sense, or we have to take fit into account as well? If so, I would not use Barkley on my team.

Who would you replace him with? I don't think Karl Malone was on the same level as Barkley in the late 80s-early 90s but even if someone thinks he was (or even better) I don't see him improving the fit that much. Pippen has proven to work well with other stars but won't have the ball in his hands much with Magic running the show and adding another heavy usage secondary ballhandler in Bird. So since he'd be pretty much there for his defense, Rodman could also be an option in that case since we're talking about the leaner, DPOY Pistons version. In the end I'm leaning towards just going with the true and tested Celtics frontcourt and pick McHale.

Yes, I also thought about McHale. You need another strong defender to cover Bird and Magic weaknesses, McHale is a nice choice for that. His offense was also extremely scalable in my opinion (especially in an era without big emphasis on spacing), as he didn't need the ball in his hands to give you 20 points on elite efficiency.

Barkley was worse than either of them on defense and I don't think his offense brings much value outside of offensive rebounds next to the rest. I am very high on Barkley offense, but you don't need him dominating the ball on the team with Magic and Jordan. Yes, I would prefer someone like Rodman or Larry Nance over him in such scenario.

Hakeem is also an interesting case, because I don't love his offense next to these guys. He was never a great off-ball player and he relied heavily on tough shots diet. I may consider Robinson over him in this scenario.

Of course, I have Barkley much higher than Rodman, Nance and even McHale. I also have Hakeem clearly higher than Robinson. Creating such team is unrealistic, which shouldn't have much effect on your all-time list.

[Braggins]

If I'm picking one player from each season to fill out an actual 10 man team.

PG - Magic Johnson (88/89)
SG - Reggie Miller (93/94)
SF - Michael Jordan (89/90)
PF - Larry Bird (85/86)
C - Hakeem Olajuwon (92/93)

G - John Stockton (91/92)
G - Michael Cooper (86/87)
F - Dale Ellis (87/88)
F - Kevin McHale (84/85)
C - David Robinson (90/91)

[OhayoKD]

I thought this might be an interesting meal for the mind. What is the best team you can make using one year of a player from the 84-85 season to the 93-94 season? I start here as it is one of the most analyzed timeframes in pro basketball, but the concept lends itself to the 94-95 to 03-04 stretch, 74-75 to 83-84 stretch, etc

For instance
93 Olajuwon, 86 Bird, 91 Barkley, 88 Jordan, 90 Magic

hmmm might replace barkley with drob. Not a fan of bigs who don't offer defensive impact when constructing ideal teams. If i was feeling crazy i'd replace bird with pippen but that feels like too big of a talent trade-off even though i like having three atg defenders in addition to jordan and magic stylistically. Also relative to position you get great two way play from everyone but magic who can can function fine on that end anyway.

[penbeast0]

The best team in an all-nbe sense, or we have to take fit into account as well? If so, I would not use Barkley on my team.

I wouldn't use him anyway with Bird eligible, I don't want either of them guarding 3's out on the floor. There are too many other good options including Pippen or using Jordan at the 3 with someone like 84-85 Moncrief at the 2 or Reggie Miller like someone did above for the spacing.

[penbeast0]

If I'm picking one player from each season to fill out an actual 10 man team.

PG - Magic Johnson (88/89)
SG - Reggie Miller (93/94)
SF - Michael Jordan (89/90)
PF - Larry Bird (85/86)
C - Hakeem Olajuwon (92/93)

G - John Stockton (91/92)
G - Michael Cooper (86/87)
F - Dale Ellis (87/88)
F - Kevin McHale (84/85)
C - David Robinson (90/91)

I like Bird at PF but who guards quick PGs in your starting lineup? Magic always played next to someone who could cover the 1 defensively (Nixon, Cooper, Scott).

[OhayoKD]

The best team in an all-nbe sense, or we have to take fit into account as well? If so, I would not use Barkley on my team.

I wouldn't use him anyway with Bird eligible, I don't want either of them guarding 3's out on the floor. There are too many other good options including Pippen or using Jordan at the 3 with someone like 84-85 Moncrief at the 2 or Reggie Miller like someone did above for the spacing.

Forgot about reggie actually. Would be a pretty ideal pairing with Hakeem I think.

[Doctor MJ]

I thought this might be an interesting meal for the mind. What is the best team you can make using one year of a player from the 84-85 season to the 93-94 season? I start here as it is one of the most analyzed timeframes in pro basketball, but the concept lends itself to the 94-95 to 03-04 stretch, 74-75 to 83-84 stretch, etc

For instance
93 Olajuwon, 86 Bird, 91 Barkley, 88 Jordan, 90 Magic

I like that you're thinking "off" traditional decade divisions. I actually recently did an analysis where I found POD (player of the decade), OPOD, DPOD & COY over running decade-long stretches based on my season voting shares.

To your team, the 5 players seem reasonable, though I'm not so sure about the years. '91 Barkley in particular seems weird to me as I think I'd expect '89-90 or '92-93.

[henshao]

I thought this might be an interesting meal for the mind. What is the best team you can make using one year of a player from the 84-85 season to the 93-94 season? I start here as it is one of the most analyzed timeframes in pro basketball, but the concept lends itself to the 94-95 to 03-04 stretch, 74-75 to 83-84 stretch, etc

For instance
93 Olajuwon, 86 Bird, 91 Barkley, 88 Jordan, 90 Magic

I like that you're thinking "off" traditional decade divisions. I actually recently did an analysis where I found POD (player of the decade), OPOD, DPOD & COY over running decade-long stretches based on my season voting shares.

To your team, the 5 players seem reasonable, though I'm not so sure about the years. '91 Barkley in particular seems weird to me as I think I'd expect '89-90 or '92-93.

Well my team is just a template based on versions of each player that stood out to me at a glance, not an exhaustive selection. If we let the chess engine run for 400 moves into the future probably we end up with Robinson at a forward position more often than not. Although I'm obviously not going to build a team in this timeframe without the Nigerian Nightmare I can also envision teams that do

[Braggins]

Spoiler:

If I'm picking one player from each season to fill out an actual 10 man team.

PG - Magic Johnson (88/89)
SG - Reggie Miller (93/94)
SF - Michael Jordan (89/90)
PF - Larry Bird (85/86)
C - Hakeem Olajuwon (92/93)

G - John Stockton (91/92)
G - Michael Cooper (86/87)
F - Dale Ellis (87/88)
F - Kevin McHale (84/85)
C - David Robinson (90/91)

I like Bird at PF but who guards quick PGs in your starting lineup? Magic always played next to someone who could cover the 1 defensively (Nixon, Cooper, Scott).

26 year old MJ. Magic and Bird are the forwards on defense. Bird was still a pretty good defender at that point in his career. Reggie was solid at SG. If you need MJ to help on the wing you have Stockton off the bench with great PG defense and not much of a downgrade from Magic overall. Cooper was 1st team all-defense that season. McHale wasn't on an all-defense team that season for some reason, but was 2nd team the year before and 1st team the two years after.