Top Duos in the NBA (inspired by the Thinking Basketball podcast)

[The-Power]

Inspired by the episode from Ben Taylor and Cody Houdek on their recent Thinking Basketball podcast. How would you rank the NBA's top duos (let's stick with one duo per team), and which are the teams where you are unsure regarding who the two players should be? List your top 5, top 10 or even your top 30 if you feel like it.

In line with the conditions outlined in the episode, consider also team-building aspects and synergy rather than just thinking about the two best players in a vacuum. You are asked to build a team around the duo with the aim to maximize success this year (not in the future).

List of teams and duos I picked (feel free to argue those and choose other players):

Atlanta: Young & Murray (but a strong Jalen Johnson campaign could sway me)
Boston: Tatum & Holiday (also considered White, Brown and Porzingis instead of Jrue – Boston's top 5 are crazy)
Brooklyn: Bridges & Claxton (also considered Dinwiddie and Thomas instead of Claxton)
Charlotte: Ball & Williams (also considered Bridges, Rozier and Miller instead of Williams – really poor options here)
Chicago: LaVine & Caruso (also considered Vucevic and DeRozan here)
Cleveland: Mobley & Mitchell (also considered Garland instead of Mitchell; shout-out to Allen, too)
Dallas: Doncic & Irving
Denver: Jokic & Murray (also considered Gordon here but ultimately I would not want to pass up on Murray with the Joker)
Detroit: Cunningham & Bogdanovic (also considered Ivey, Thompson and Duren – yikes)
Golden State: Curry & Green
Houston: Sengün & VanVleet (the latter is not a lock but nobody else convinced me enough push aside the safe choice)
Indiana: Haliburton & Turner
LA Clippers: George & Leonard (also considered Harden here, but there is still uncertainty to overcome)
LA Lakers: James & Davis
Memphis: Jackson Jr. & Morant (also considered Bane here)
Miami: Butler & Adebayo
Milwaukee: Giannis & Lillard
Minnesota: Edwards & Gobert (also briefly considered Towns but I'd still rather have Gobert)
New Orleans: Williamson & Ingram (but Murphy may make this an interesting conversation; shout-out to Herb)
New York: Brunson & Randle (not too convinced about Randle and Robinson, Barrett and Quickley are fine choices, too)
Oklahoma: SGA & Chet (could be talked into Williams instead of Chet, too)
Orlando: Wagner & Banchero (but it's not as clear-cut as it may be for others)
Philadelphia: Embiid & Maxey
Phoenix: Booker & Durant
Portland: Grant & Brogdon
Sacramento: Fox & Sabonis (although I really want this to be Fox and Murray in the future)
San Antonio: Wembanyama & Johnson (also considered Collins and Vassell)
Toronto: Barnes & Siakam (argument can be made for OG, too)
Utah: Markkanen & Clarkson (also considered Olynyk, Kessler, Collins, George – it gets really depressing after Lauri)
Washington: Kuzma & Avdija (also considered Poole (but one must believe that he'll get his heads straight) and Gafford)

[AEnigma]

As I am going down your list, here are the duos which stand out to me:
- Celtics
- Mavericks
- Nuggets
- Warriors
- Clippers, with an asterisk
- Lakers
- Heat
- Bucks
- Wolves
- Thunder
- 76ers
- Suns

So I guess that is my top twelve. To bring it down to a top ten, cut the Clippers (too transient) and…
…
Wow, that is tough. You need to assume some level of legitimate team construction, e.g. Kyrie/Luka could be mediocre if you nonsensically gave them no defenders. However, I still think there should be some crediting to balance, e.g. Butler/Bam are not transcendent talents but establish a strong shared base for their team.

Going to stick with eleven duos for now. Maybe other answers will help me cut it down.

For top five, give me the Bucks, Celtics, Lakers, Nuggets, and Suns. I think all of them except the Nuggets have valid claims to two top fifteen players in a postseason setting, and the Nuggets pair the still very good Jamal with the league’s top player.

[Heej]

I think it's the Suns but Nuggets Sixers Celts Bucks and Lakers have an argument. Wouldn't be surprised if OKC tops this list by 2025

[Texas Chuck]

I'll take Jokic and anyone I think.

[prolific passer]

Best duos of all time for each team.

Who ya got?

[Ryoga Hibiki]

I would take Jokic-KCP over what every other team has to offer.
Jokic-Reggie is in the top 10

[AEnigma]

I would take Jokic-KCP over what every other team has to offer.
Jokic-Reggie is in the top 10

I guess it takes all of 18 months to forget how Jokic actually fares when you give him a legitimately mediocre or inadequate co-star.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

I would take Jokic-KCP over what every other team has to offer.
Jokic-Reggie is in the top 10

I guess it takes all of 18 months to forget how Jokic actually fares when you give him a legitimately mediocre or inadequate co-star.

Jokic + Monte Morris was legitimately top10 as well

[eminence]

I would take Jokic-KCP over what every other team has to offer.
Jokic-Reggie is in the top 10

I guess it takes all of 18 months to forget how Jokic actually fares when you give him a legitimately mediocre or inadequate co-star.

Jokic + Monte Morris was legitimately top10 as well

Damn, '22 Steph/Poole top 1?

[Ryoga Hibiki]

I guess it takes all of 18 months to forget how Jokic actually fares when you give him a legitimately mediocre or inadequate co-star.

Jokic + Monte Morris was legitimately top10 as well

Damn, '22 Steph/Poole top 1?

they won the title (but it's not Steph Poole)

[pancakes3]

hot take, it's the Mavs for me. or at least 1b to Dame/Giannis.

[eminence]

Jokic + Monte Morris was legitimately top10 as well

Damn, '22 Steph/Poole top 1?

they won the title (but it's not Steph Poole)

Kinda the point. It wasn't Jokic/Morris either (it was Jokic/Gordon), but either got cleanly outplayed by a duo of Steph fresh off injury and Jordan Poole.

Jokic+solid player is a fine enough back end top 10 pick, but top 1 is ridiculous.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Damn, '22 Steph/Poole top 1?

they won the title (but it's not Steph Poole)

Kinda the point. It wasn't Jokic/Morris either (it was Jokic/Gordon), but either got cleanly outplayed by a duo of Steph fresh off injury and Jordan Poole.

Jokic+solid player is a fine enough back end top 10 pick, but top 1 is ridiculous.

What about the rest of the team? Jokic/Morris was not outplayed by Curry/Poole but by the whole Warriors team, what is this nonsense?
Give Jokic/KCP the same kind of balanced cast as Curry/Poole (lol) had and then we'll see.

[The-Power]

I was just surprised that there's not even a mention of Haliburton and Turner. Sure, there are more talented duos out there and I'm not even necessarily arguing for them to rank in the top 10 (though I do see a clear case for them).

But Haliburton is an All-NBA level player and while Turner clearly is a sub-All-Star level player, he's still a valuable starter who – perhaps most importantly – fits very well with Haliburton. Looking at AEnigma's solid list of 12 teams, I think Indiana's duo has a decent argument against at least three and as many as six of those teams.

[AEnigma]

I like the Pacers, but if you are assessing Turner as a sub-all-star and Haliburton as all-NBA, I do not really see how that gives them a case. I am guessing the Thunder are one of your three, and I can see that, but I think that requires a low view on both Shai and Holmgren. Similar with Edwards and Gobert possibly, where I think the average value of both is a comfortable step ahead of the average value of Haliburton and Turner as a duo. Similar with Miami, similar with the Mavericks (although there you have more value overlap, so I can respect a push for Haliburton and Turner having more natural synchronicity).

Put it this way, if we asked this question last year, they are obviously not in the conversation at all. Haliburton has improved (although imo not as much as the production may suggest), but Turner feels like basically the same guy, and Turner as basically the same guy qualifies him as the worst second option of all those names (depending on your level of skepticism about breakout guys like Maxey or Holmgren).

[The-Power]

I like the Pacers, but if you are assessing Turner as a sub-all-star and Haliburton as all-NBA, I do not really see how that gives them a case. I am guessing the Thunder are one of your three, and I can see that, but I think that requires a low view on both Shai and Holmgren. Similar with Edwards and Gobert possibly, where I think the average value of both is a comfortable step ahead of the average value of Haliburton and Turner as a duo. Similar with Miami, similar with the Mavericks (although there you have more value overlap, so I can respect a push for Haliburton and Turner having more natural synchronicity).

Put it this way, if we asked this question last year, they are obviously not in the conversation at all. Haliburton has improved (although imo not as much as the production may suggest), but Turner feels like basically the same guy, and Turner as basically the same guy qualifies him as the worst second option of all those names (depending on your level of skepticism about breakout guys like Maxey or Holmgren).

I agree with you if we're purely looking at it in terms of individual goodness. But once we factor in synergy, I believe the Haliburton and Turner duo clearly takes a jump forward and some other duos lose some value or at least do not gain much if anything.

The teams I was thinking were LAC, OKC, MIA, MIN, DAL and honestly even BOS to some extent (I'll give GSW the benefit of the doubt for now but I wouldn't be surprised if they are overtaken soon).

Now, that doesn't mean that I would personally rank the Pacers higher than even most of the teams I just mentioned. It's just that I can see at least an argument that isn't too far-fetched.

LAC -> Haliburton may well be the best player at this point (though that will depend on how he performs in the playoffs) and the Clippers duo has limited synergy, even as their individual talent is a step ahead
OKC –> Haliburton and SGA could be argued as players in a similar tier, and while I'm personally more impressed with Chet, the experience of Turner may come into play here for a decision
MIA -> again, Haliburton may be the best player in this comparison and Butler and Bam have historically not produced incredible results as a tandem in terms of plus-minus numbers (and you can't rule out that Butler has lost a step finally)
MIN -> one would have to obviously rank Haliburton as being clearly better than Edwards, and for that gap plus better synergy of the Pacers duo to be enough to overcome Gobert's clearly greater impact compared to Turner
DAL -> here it comes down to synergy that may trump individual talent (and you'd have to have Haliburton at least close to Luka in terms of goodness which I think is reasonable for the RS but is clearly a question mark for the playoffs)
BOS -> it all comes down to how high you are on Tatum (MVP-level player or a step below) and how you view Holiday individually at this point in time and his synergy with Tatum

Gun to my head, I like the Pacers duo over the Clippers and honestly the Heat (though I'll admit it's a gamble considering their playoff success, even as it came within Spo's unparalleled system) even as I'm happy to admit that these two duos have solid arguments themselves and it's completely fair to rank them higher. I would have the Pacers duo below the Celtics and the Timberwolves for the time being. I'd also lean towards the Thunder and Mavericks right now but it's close and may change over the course of the season. From next season onward I may take the Pacers over the Warriors duo, too, but I'm not there yet given its historical track record.

So the Pacers may be just outside the top 10 right now for me, but definitely deserve a mention with a bunch of the other duos. To me, only the Nuggets, Lakers, Bucks, 76ers and Suns are obviously ahead of them as I would struggle to come up with a reasonable argument for the Pacers duo.

[Texas Chuck]

Jokic+solid player is a fine enough back end top 10 pick, but top 1 is ridiculous.

Strongly, strongly disagree. The best player matters so much.

[OhayoKD]

Jokic+solid player is a fine enough back end top 10 pick, but top 1 is ridiculous.

Strongly, strongly disagree. The best player matters so much.

Didn't matter much in 2022 or 2021.

[Special_Puppy]

Jokic+AG or Jokic+Murray. Both pairings have their pluses and minuses.

[eminence]

Jokic+solid player is a fine enough back end top 10 pick, but top 1 is ridiculous.

Strongly, strongly disagree. The best player matters so much.

Chuck, if going into the conference finals last season Murray and Gordon were out (some might argue MPJ too), would you have honestly told me Jokic/KCP was a better top duo than LeBron/AD?