The-Power wrote:Looking at Cleveland's new starting 5 with Garland, Mitchell, Hunter, Mobley and Allen has got me thinking – who has the best starting 5 in the league right now? Because that's a damn good one without any apparent flaws. Yet there are also some other really strong starting line-ups around the NBA right now.
The obvious candidates besides Cleveland are Boston and OKC (whoever you put in there). Other candidates I could see are the Knicks and Denver who are good teams on the backs of their starters. Houston, Memphis and Indiana have also been very successful with their starting line-ups though I personally would put them more in the ‘fringe candidates’ category. The Clippers with Kawhi are in the conversation, too, and who knows what the Lakers will look like. The 76ers with healthy Embiid might be a candidate, too, but it's difficult to anticipate a ‘healthy Embiid’ at this point.
So, who's wearing the crown right now?
Note: The poll only allows for 10 options and since I like to always have an ‘other’ option, I could only include 9 teams and decided to not include the Pacers and 76ers. Don't come at me – just vote ‘other’ if you truly believe they have the best starting 5 and post it in the comments. Note that I personally also do not think of the Lakers as a real candidate right now but I assumed a team with Luka and LeBron is going to have its believers already.
That starting 5's weakness is the size of Mitchell and Garland and being picked on defensively.
This is countered by putting a few giants behind them in the paint which is working well so far.
One day Marcus Smart will be defensive player of the year, mark my words.
