[mbunner23Participant]

I thought MWP and Artest was the same person…jokes aside I think LA would have the team to beat if this were the case along with Miami. But Dallas would be tough too, can’t forget Elton Brand who was a 20/10 guy a few years.

[HitsterParticipant]

I recall a couple of years ago, we had a topic about which would be the strongest team if all the players were at their peak and the consensus was the Boston line up of Rondo, Ray Allen, PP, KG, Shaq and JO as 6th man. Taking that forward imagine all the players on their current rosters at their peak, which team is strongest?

Miami would have a franchise Ray Allen and an All Star Rasheed Lewis to back up their current big 3 plus Battier and Haslem at their best.

The Lakers would have 4 franchise players – Howard, Gasol, Kobe and Nash plus two all stars in MWP and Artest.

The Clippers would have a franchise Grant Hill, All Star Chauncy Billups, peak Odom etc to go with CP3 and Griffin.

Dallas would have a franchise Dirk and Carter plus All Star Marion and Kaman.

The Knicks would have franchise Kidd and STAT, peak Camby, All Star Sheed to go with Melo and Chandler.

The Spurs would have peak Duncan, Manu and Jackson to assit Parker.

Boston would have peak Pierce, KG and Terry to help Rondo.

Which would be the strongest peak team this time do you all reckon?

[For_Never_EverParticipant]

I would go with the Lakers roster first, then the Heats at second and Knicks third.

[skate1385Participant]

The Knicks or the Clippers jason kidd will make everyone better. Grant Hill and Chauncy Billups omg there no words lol

[For_Never_EverParticipant]

Actualy, I change my mind. I’m going with the Knicks at second, Heats third.

[r377Participant]

Just to be different I will take the Clippers with a prime Grant Hill. Before his injury he was suppose to take over the league after Jordan – Yes he was really that good. If he didn’t get injured I am sure he would only be small notch behind Kobe and Lebron when the discussion comes to greatest players.

Mr Big Shot Billups is a great leader and teammate. He could of put up better stats on a weaker team.

Clippers – CP3, Chauncy, Hill, Griffin, Jordan – Odom
Heat – Wade, Ray Allen, LBJ, Lewis, Bosh – Battier

The Heat prob just have a slight edge but it is closer than a lot of kids think….

[HitsterParticipant]

Sorry I meant Jamison as well as MWP/Artest for the Lakers.

Dallas were the one team that went from lottery to contenders as the Lakers are now just about in the play offs in reality.

My own order is perhaps Lakers, Heat, Knicks, Clippers in that order.

[ChewyParticipant]

I thought you meant Artest and MWP because he is obviously crazy and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had AT LEAST one other personality in that head of his.

[For_Never_EverParticipant]

Just think about how nasty Kidd, Camby, sheed would be defensively alone.

[HitsterParticipant]

The Knicks defensively Kidd, Camby, Sheed, Chandler and Thomas would be scary.

[BigChamp12Participant]

Dont Forget the healthy and in prime Kenyon Martin! He was a savage also

[Chilbert arenasParticipant]

I remember thinking about this topic in 10-11 when Celtics had Jermaine O’neal, Kg, Shaq, Jeff Green, and Troy Murphy in their front court

[FLY22Participant]

Lmao Troy Murphy should never be brought up in any discussion on this site. Your point was valid till u three him in there. St Patricks day is here so u must be in the spirit throwing his name around with the likes of kg shaq n jermaine oneal in their primes

[TurnipParticipant]

In fairness, prime Troy Murphy was a lights-out outside shooter and a double double machine.

[kingofbumsParticipant]

If the clippers could have that franchise grant hill…damnnnnn…he was like the first lebron james…

paul, mr. big shot, hill, griffin, jordan…thats a sweet line up

the heat would be crazy good too…with a finals mvp dwade and ray ray back in his prime….with the lebron we see now…dont forget juwan howard in his prime was a solid guy LOL

and the lakers…self explanatory…two time mvp nash with healthy d12 and the ageless kobe (wouldnt matter which kobe you choose to be honest)

i think those are the top 3 and whichever you choose would only be explained by preferences and favourites

[theprophetParticipant]

i think right now that would be between the spurs and the lakers and heat in that order. the spurs players we have seen at their peak. but the advantage this team has is we know they can play together, imagine them priming at the same time with the best coach in the league right now calling the plays. the ability to play big or small, coexisting at both ends of the floor and understanding their roles, the spurs would be a tough formula to beat. with that lineup that’s an mvp caliber duncan. and lets not forget the bench is still deep.

lakers might get the spurs because of the talent of players and because some have proven to have been there before. the only issue with this team is d’antoni would have his hands full trying to balance the egos of this team. if somehow that gets done, then sky’s the limit for this team. dwight would be a force in the lane and mwp would be a menace on defense. with kobe and nash together, dwight would have to play the role of trash player like he is right now. not sure if he could take a back seat two years ago. pau would fit nice as a team player. jamison (i think you meant to include him instead of mwp twice) could be huge. at one point he was the best pure scorer in the game besides kobe. this team would have as much of a chance to win as the spurs but i edge the spurs by depth and coaching.

the heat you couldn’t count out. i admit that i’m not the biggest fan of spoelstra but this team would have undeniable top talent. prime ray allen on this team would be extremely hard to beat. you can put wade, allen, lewis, bosh and lebron all in at the same time a lot. fact of the matter is though that even with the best haslem and chalmers so far, the weakness of this team is the same. they still have no answer for a good big inside presence like dwight nor would they have an answer for an elite point like every other team mentioned on the list. but this team is deep enough and talented enough to possibly overcome these challenges. i mean lebron’s in his prime and a prime wade know what it takes to win a title. i think somebody would edge them out though.

celtics would be a darkhorse. jeff green not mentioned is coming into a zone right now. jason terry was clutch in the finals. avery bradley would be a menace on defense even though he wasn’t mentioned. rondo, we are talking triple double rondo that sets everyone up. it would be an mvp kg. he made a case for being the best player in the game for two or three years. and pierce was very clutch in his prime. he showed he has what it takes and for a while lead the league in fourth quarter points. and they have some young bigs to produce fouls and a great coach on top of that. i just think this team is slightly out matched by the three teams above.

then the rest of them-

knicks would be good and maybe the deepest of these teams if everyone was prime but nobody has proven they can win a title besides chandler and outside shooting would be inconsistent.

clippers would be fun to watch and very deep, but billups and paul i think would have to carry to much of the load. besides those two, the clippers are a bunch of athletes. a team like the spurs can take athleticism away.

mavericks could be challenging, but that team just lacks a point quality enough to hold his own against a chris paul or tony parker or rondo or nash.

good thread!

[HandDownManDown13Participant]

Don’t forget about Mike Miller for the Heat. He used to average 20 ppg for the grizz

[IvoLParticipant]

you actually make me reflect about a team that would be unbeatable if 2 of the players where both in their primes and if another one actually played well the 2003-2004 lakers

Shaq- he was underpreforming and we all remember the 2004 finals
Karl Malone
Fox
Kobe
Payton

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

Lakers over Heat, just because they have a Center and a Point Guard

[HitsterParticipant]

The Heat’s offensive unit of Allen, D-Wade, LeBron, Lewis and Bosh would have been awesome too, LeBron or Wade moving the ball, Ray Allen who has always been regarded as perhaps the best off the ball player in the NBA and leading 3 point scorer ever plus Bosh’s threat and Lewis’s 3 point range and stretch game would have made defence virtually impossible unless against the Lakers or Knicks prime ability line ups on here.

CP3, Hill and Billups would have been fun to watch feeding Blake Griffin and co too.

[TurnipParticipant]

Dallas would be pretty good. Dirk, Carter, Marion, and Kaman, like Hitster said, are a pretty good team. Also, Mike James was a 20 ppg guy at his peak and Elton Brand was a beast before he went to Philly.

[JoeWolf1]

Nets would be very good.

Gerald Wallace – was a defensive stat stuffer in his prime

Reggie Evans – was a 10 + rpg player

Jerry Stackhouse – was a great scorer in his day

Joe Johnson – only a few years ago was viewed as an elite or close to elite NBA wing

not to mention their cast of young players.

[doubledribblerParticipant]

I think people are overlooking a few things in this. Once again the Lakers would look great on paper, but people forget who the coach is. D’antoni has already shown a willingness to play lesser players ahead of Pau. Now you give him Jamison when he could move well and was more potent offensively (and the same with Artest). To me that says that with this coach you are probably going to end up with either Pau or Dwight not getting many minutes so they can have a shooter at the 4. It sounds crazy to list Dwight as a possibility to come off the bench when we know any reasonable person would play both guys as much as possible, but Pau is the better fit for what D’antoni wants to do. Also Nash would be overmatched against pretty much every backcourt that has been mentioned on defense and there would be no one to hide him on. I think Nash would be turned into pretty much a spot up shooter, because Kobe would be so ball dominant (kind of like what you see now only with an even better Kobe who could shoulder an even bigger load). One advantage they would have is that they would not have to go far in their bench at all.

Don’t forget about the Spurs. Duncan, Ginobli, Parker at full health with Jackson, Diaw and role players would be a tough team. They don’t have guys with high peaks in their career outside of the main 3, but a lot of these guys would have been upgrades to some of their championship teams. A healthy and younger Duncan and Manu would also go a long way. Best coach and probably the only team that completely fits.

Miami would probably be 1st or 2nd best. Chalmers wouldn’t start. Not sure he would play to be honest. Wade, Lebron and Allen could all give you 40 mins in their prime. Then you give them a more mobile Battier, Miller with a good back. You have 3 other guys that have averaged at least 20 a game in Howard, Lewis and Bosh. I’m not sure how or if they would hold up defensively, but offensively they would be pretty brutal especially running.

Clippers would struggle defensively against these other teams.

Mavs would have nothing on the bench or at PG and even at Chris Kaman’s peak he wasn’t a great player. They would likely get shredded by these other teams on offense.

Celtics, eh. KG, Pierce and Rondo sounds great. Terry is really good. You still end up with a smallish backcourt, no bench and the other guy people mention is Green, but at his best so far he has been inconsistent and the best he has played has been when your best pg doesn’t play, plus he would get ate up on D by these teams.

Not sure how I feel about the Knicks. They would have a ton of front court depth. Surely they would have to trade somebody. Melo definitely wouldn’t be getting 20 shots a game, so not sure how into it he would be since he’s allergic to d. On the flip side, the best group of players Kidd would have ever played with. He went to the finals with Jason Collins starting.

[i’m jus so offendedParticipant]

Knicks no question. A 20 something year old J Kidd with healthy Amare knees, a younger and more athletic Melo, Sheed’s all around game from the Blazer days, Camby and Tyson swattin everything, Shumpert pre ACL, JR from this year, K-Mart from the Nets, Felton at his best. That team would run s***. I think they would play the Lakers in a hypothetical Finals with the Knicks winning as J Kidd could defend Nash better than the opposite. Great topic.

[doubledribblerParticipant]

I see what you are saying. I can just see this being the one team with so much depth at one position that you might see some fighting over minutes at the 4 and 5. Maybe Camby always getting hurt would in a weird way make it work out. I mean you can’t play them all. I think Prigioni would move ahead of Felton in the rotation though as Kidd’s backup. Obviously I’m talking about Pre-NBA Prigioni.

It is a great topic though. Too bad it is impossible to watch it play out. I think T Wolves would have an interesting team with a healthy Roy. Not saying they would win the championship, but it would be a really good team in my opinion.

[mini_marzParticipant]

As a Knicks fan its nice to just think about a prime Kidd with STAT Kmart and chandler. Just imagine the lobs all over the place

[kingofbumsParticipant]

it would be interesting to see which duo would have been better, nash and stat or kidd and stat….hmmmm

[HitsterParticipant]

The Knicks beast frontcourt offence being fed by Kidd would be damn scary, think peak STAT under peak Nash and then add in Melo at 25ppg plus and Chandler being in lob city.

Likewise a peak Nash running offence for D12, Gasol and Kobe plus 20ppg Jamison would be fun to watch.

The Thunder would not really be stronger apart from a peak Kevin Martin.

Good call by Joe Wolf to remember a peak Stackhouse, that had slipped my mind.

If we took this topic on what do people think was the strongest peak roster in recent times?

The Celtics from 2010/11, the 2003/04 Lakers, the 2005/06 Miami Heat ( Peyton, Lonzo, Walker on the bench, Shaq maybe past his peak), One of MJ’s Bulls’ teams, Showtime Lakers ( Kareem, McAdoo at their peak with Magic and Worthy)

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

The Celtics from 2010/11, the 2003/04 Lakers, the 2005/06 Miami Heat ( Peyton, Lonzo, Walker on the bench, Shaq maybe past his peak), One of MJ’s Bulls’ teams, Showtime Lakers ( Kareem, McAdoo at their peak with Magic and Worthy.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

That’s an interesting question. I might be inclined to go with the 2011 Celtics or maybe even the 1985 Philadelphia 76ers:

PG Maurice Cheeks
SG Andrew Toney
SF Julius Erving
PF Charles Barkley
C Moses Malone

with Bobby Jones as a defensive stopper and Sedale Threatt (who averaged 15 PPG and 7 APG during his two peak years) coming off the bench.

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

The rotations as I would see them for the two best teams:

Heat

G Dwyane Wade (makes sense to put him on Kidd while LBJ remains the primary ball handler)
G Ray Allen/Mike Miller
F Lebron James/Shane Battier
F Rashard Lewis/Udonis Haslem
C Chris Bosh (not a true center but he fits with what the Heat do best)

Knicks

PG Jason Kidd
SG Iman Shumpert (for his defense)/JR Smith (offense off the bench)
SF Carmelo Anthony
PF Amare Stoudemire/Rasheed Wallace
C Tyson Chandler/Marcus Camby

I actually think this would be pretty close. A prime Stoudemire and a prime Bosh are practically equal (Bosh a better shooter while Stat is more explosive). IMO a prime Wade and a prime Kidd would be pretty equal too (both great defensively, Wade a better scorer, Kidd a better passer and rebounder). LBJ would obviously have the edge on Melo but as we’ve seen with matchups between the two Carmelo always steps up and plays well. Miami has better outside shooting but the Knicks are far better in the paint and with Camby and Chandler defend the rim very well which might prove to be the biggest challenge LBJ and Wade have faced yet.

Ultimately I think it would come down to outside shooting. If a combo of Allen, LBJ, Miller, Lewis, Battier or Bosh heat up from down town it’s game over. But if the Knicks start to bully the Heat down low then things could go New York’s way.

[theprophetParticipant]

wade/chalmers (limited)
bosh/juwan howard

same results though i believe from where your standpoint is.

[The Scare Crow RisesParticipant]

I think the Knicks have it all to be the best Team is this Scenario IMO

A Prime HOF/Triple Double machine Jason Kidd and All star level Ray Felton at PG
A Focused JR Smith and A healthy Iman Shumpert at SG
A Prime Top 3 Scorer in The NBA Melo and 3 pt. sniper Steve Novak at SF
A Prime Amare and Rasheed Wallace at PF
A Prime Tyson Chandler and Marcus Camby at Center with a younger Kurt Thomas to Foul the bullSISH out of Lebron/Wade/Bosh/Kobe/Nash/Howard/Duncan/Parker or Ginoboli

I pick this Team and would honestly start J.Kidd-Shumpert-Melo-Sheed and Chandler and bring in Ray Felton-JR-Novak-Amare and Camby off the bench, people forget how good Thomas was is college and I’m sure Pablo Prignioni wasn’t a slouch either in his Prime, Amare would be the most explosive 6th Man ever, he could come in for Sheed or Chandler and Play Pf or C and run the P and R with Kidd to lethal perfection FROM OFF THE BENCH!!!

Sheed was a lockdown defender and could post up, pass and hit 3’s, he and Chandler/Camby would lock it down on the interior and Amare could just jump in the game and DUNK on/over EVERYONE, people forget he has a pretty good outside jumper too and he and Ray Felton had very good chemistry, JR and Novak is 3 point overkill, I think this Team makes a strong push for greatest of All Time, I think they’d give the 72 win Bulls a Run for their Money, not saying they’d win but DAMM that would be a hell of a Series!!!

Heat Vs. Knicks

Lakers Vs. Spurs

That’s the Final 4 IMO, I think the Knicks and Lakers meet up in an Epic Series and David Stern and the NBA share holders blow a load in their pants as they finally get the L.A Vs. N.Y Final they have dreamed about for decades…

[BenchWarmerParticipant]

“A focused JR smith”…..

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

I would go with the Heat, they’d be way too good.

LeBron James in his prime along with
Dwyane Wade: 30PPG, 7.5APG, 5RPG
Ray Allen: 25PPG, 4RPG, 4APG
Chris Bosh: 24PPG, 11RPG
Udonis Haslem: 12PPG, 9RPG
Rashard Lewis: 22PPG, 6RPG
Mike Miller: 18PPG, 5RPG, 4APG
Juwan Howard: 22PPG, 8RPG, 4APG

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

I forgot that Howard was just signed. I guess he’s technically on the roster even if he hasn’t played a single minute all year.

[TRC1991Participant]

you guys are all mad… The Heat are killing everyone and only 3 of their 8 best players are in their prime…this team would be unstoppable

[theprophetParticipant]

none of these teams would be unstoppable against these other great teams. heat would be better than they are now but they still have the same weaknesses as they do right now.

[Author]

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