Baski wrote:I see what you're saying, but I think it's more complex than that. For one thing, the vast majority of superstars have teams built around them, so potential teammate combinations don't always mean much. 2011 Dirk may have fit in more combinations than 2000 Shaq, but that's not a factor because you're always gonna pick Shaq regardless of who is already on the team.
Would he?
Because if he did (and I mean teams in actual contention for a title) it would mean that it's much easier to build a great team around him. Sure, all top players will have a front office working to fit the right pieces around them, but in some cases you'll always here "that GM is incompetent" (maybe because there are not so many guys who really fit hence it's extremely difficult to get them), in others guys will somehow have career years.
Not sure about your example because I am still wondering what to do with Shaq: almost all dominant big men had limitations in key moments as they needed an entry pass, needing the help of great backcourt players. And this has been true for Shaq as well, but he had a ridiculous stretch of super elite guards playing next to him.
Now, a fair question is how this exercise can be representative of this dynamic.
But I can tell that each of the top4, who are also considered the top4 in most rankings, will need very different kind of help. Those four GMs will soon realize how difficult it is to fill those gaps in the open market.
I don't want to be specific with the examples now, but I want to see what solutions everybody is going to come up with, how soon they must invest on a certain kind of player that it's needed to maximize their guy, and the consequences it will have in the overall team construction.
