MJ/West vs Bird/Garnett

[durantbird]

Which duo would you prefer to build around? All in prime.

[tsherkin]

You know, I clicked Bird/Garnett, but I as I reflect, West made it work with Baylor, and Jordan is leaps and bounds beyond where Baylor was as a player, so I have to wonder. It wouldn't be the SG/SF vibe he had with Pippen, but West was like 6'3 or thereabouts and very much a good passer who could blend on- and off-ball play. Good shooter, too, probably be a fine 3pt shooter in forward eras of the league.

Garnett would be an interesting one to pair with Bird, though I wonder how their offensive spacing would work out, particularly since Garnett wasn't an especially high-end scorer when he was shooting in volume as a primary option. Then again, he might have looked more like Boston KG, where he was picking his spots and not functioning as a 20 FGA guy, and that suited him quite nicely alongside Ray and Pierce.

Hmmm. This one's actually a tougher call than I thought on first pass, heh.

[penbeast0]

I like the synergy of Garnett/Bird but frankly, Mj and West were more dominant players respectively than Garnett and Bird. It's reasonably close but unless you feel Jordan's personality will be toxic, I would favor Jordan and West by a little.

It's also a slight fit problem unless you feel Garnett could play center in the era of the great centers as I feel Bird's best position is PF just like Garnett. Today's league, no problem, but when teams were built around post scorers, I'm not sure Garnett is maximized defensively by having him at the 5 and Bird at the 4 nor Bird having Garnett at the 4 and Bird at the 3.

[homecourtloss]

I like the synergy of Bird/KG here. KG is a better player than anyone Bird played with by far, and we saw what Bird with good talent plus a 19 mpg rejuvenated Walton looked like (see 1986 games in January and February when McHale was hurt and you saw more Bird/Walton lineups).

Of course, Jordan and West would also be great though I see less overlap in the Bird/KG pairing and the best defender by far though both Jordan and West are better defenders than Bird even with his defensive rebounding.