For no apparent reason, I found myself thinking about how today's NBA teams would stack up if all their players were in their prime.
Here are my top five:
Top 5 "prime" teams:
You'd have Allen Iverson at his quickest and with today's much stricter hand-check rules, no one could stay in front of him. Rip Hamilton would be more or less the same as would Tayshaun Prince. Rasheed Wallace would be more athletic, but equally versatile and Antonio McDyess (he averaged 21/11 on 54 percent shooting, with 2.3 blocks and 1.5 steals in '98-'99. ) would be an elite power forward. This would be a very good team.
The defensive trio of Dikembe Mutombo, Ron Artest and Shane Battier would be the best in the league (perhaps in league history). And you'd have 32/6.5/5.5 Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. The Rockets could go huge with Yao at center, Mutombo at power forward, Artest at the three, Battier at the two and McGrady bringing up the ball on occasion. Who cares if McGrady couldn't check opposing point guards - they'd never get a shot off!
The big-three in San Antonio aren't too far off their peak, and remember that Tim Duncan is likely a top-10 player in NBA history. But they'd also have Michael Finley who once averaged 22.3/6.3/5.3 with 40/46/82 shooting, Kurt Thomas, who was a solid defensive player and averaged a double-double one year, and Bruce Bowen who was as good a perimeter defender as anyone.
The talent in this lineup is a joke. Shaq at center, Stoudemire at PF, Grant Hill (21.4/9.0/7.3) one year was almost LeBron-esque, Jason Richardson and Steve Nash during one of his MVP years. The only reason this team wouldn't be ranked first is the difficulty of them playing together cohesively. Though when Shaq was on the bench, could you imagine Nash in his prime with Richardson, Hill and Stoudemire running the floor?
I think the Suns outmatch them in talent, but only by a little. They'd have the big three, but younger and quicker, with Rondo and a star sixth man in Sam Cassell. The Celts get the nod because we know these guys can play together at a high level.
You could also make a case for the Nowitzki/Kidd/Howard/Stackhouse/Terry Mavs or the LeBron/Ben Wallace/Wally Szczerbiak/Mo Williams/Ilgauskas Cavs (even Eric Snow was useful, one of the league's better perimeter defenders for a while). The Lakers would be good, too, but they'd pretty much be the current Lakers with a slightly better Lamar Odom.