Building the Ultimate NBA Team

The challenge is to build the ultimate 12-man roster using existing NBA players. There are no restrictions in terms of salary cap or roster movements.

The key is to build the best team not the best assimilation of players. Sometimes there may be better players that could be added, but without the benefit of filling in a secondary role. 

I will have a starter and backup for every position, as well as two other role players. The starters will be chosen for their ability to play together. The bench players will be chosen for the individual contributions they bring to the team. 

The Stopper: Tony Allen

Every great team needs the ultimate perimeter stopper, and right now that distinction goes to Tony Allen. He's the best perimeter defender in the league.

While a lot is put on who takes the closing shot, sometimes it's a closeout defense that wins games. If you're going to have the ultimate team, you're going to need to have the ultimate stopping team, and Tony Allen would be the key to the perimeter there.  

The Closer: Carmelo Anthony

On a team like this you're going to have a ton of guys who can be the guy to take that last shot. That's no reason to not have the best at it though. No player in the NBA has a higher shooting percentage than Carmelo Anthony with the game on the line. 

Even having Anthony, the best offensive threat in the game, on the floor will make it almost impossible to defend everyone else on the court. 

The Captain: Kobe Bryant

The reality is that Kobe Bryant isn't as good as he once was, but he's as great as he's ever been. No one playing dons more rings and knows more than what it takes to get it done. If you're building the ultimate team there's no way you can leave Kobe off. He's the captain. 

He still brings it on both ends of the court, and is a top tier player on both ends of the court. He's not going to be the starter, but he's going to be a key player in the rotation and the backup shooting guard.  

The Low Post Stopper: Joakim Noah

The reason that Joakim Noah was selected to the NBA's All-Defensive second team last year is that he's the second best defensive center in the NBA. He's an amazing presence that can stay with virtually any player in the NBA defensively. 

Noah isn't going to bring you a ton of offense, but he's going to bring you devastating stopping power and has the versatility to play the power forward defensively when needed. 

He also plays with a passion that ignites the team. Every player needs a player whose heart is the greatest aspect of his game, and Noah fits that role better than anyone in the game today. 

The Low Post Scorer: Blake Griffin

If I'm looking for the best scoring power forward, I'll take Amar'e Stoudemire, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm going to have plenty of other players who can score from elsewhere on the court. I want a player who can play in the paint. 

Griffin averaged 10.35 points in the paint last year. Stoudemire averaged 8.6. Griffin's ability to score in the post when needed will spread the court and make it impossible for teams to cheat. 

The Perimeter Scorer: Kevin Durant

Next thing you want is a guy who can come off the bench and put up huge numbers. Why not the highest scorer in the league? Kevin Durant can score from anywhere at any time. He's a scoring monster, and that's why he's led the league in scoring two years in a row. 

With Durant on the outside and Griffin on the inside, defenses won't be able to focus on one or the other. 

The Sixth Man: Derrick Rose

How freaky is this team? Derrick Rose, the league's MVP is the sixth man, that's how freaky it is. The number one thing you want from a sixth man is a guy who can come in and generate massive offense off the bench.

Last season, either through passing or scoring, Rose accounted for over 40 points a game for his team. When he passed the ball his teammates shot about six percent higher on average because his ability to penetrate and break down defenses left a big vacuum.

Now, imagine he's dumping the ball off to Kevin Durant on the wings instead of Keith Bogans and Luol Deng. As if that's not enough he can always toss it up for the alley-oop to Griffin. With those three on the court spreading defenses he could splice the defense and get to the rim in a millisecond for a dunk at will.

And with all that going, you've got the ultimate garbage collector in Joakim Noah to clean up any misses.  

The Starting Point Guard: Chris Paul

For a super team, why not have a super passer who can break down defenses and score when necessary? Chris Paul's passing is impressive and his ability to set up and run an offense is second to none. He passes better than Rose and he scores better than Rono.

Paul would be a perfect fit to run this offense, and he'd be an equal asset on the defensive end. 

The Starting Shooting Guard: Dwyane Wade

At this juncture Dwyane Wade is the best shooting guard in the world. His speed, his hops, his explosiveness to the rim—all of those things and more combine to make him an incredibly hard player to guard. 

He handles the ball extremely well and passes well too. He would make a better point guard than most of the point guards in the league, and this is the age of point guards. 

With Wade and Paul you would have a backcourt that you couldn't double team, you couldn't play up on and you couldn't play back on. In short, you wouldn't be able to play. 

The Starting Small Forward: LeBron James

Say what you want, but the fact remains when he's on he's the best basketball player in the world. Imagine if he's got Chris Paul to feed him the ball. 

If he goes into one of his lapses, no biggie, you just bring Durant or 'Melo off the bench. For the majority of the time where he's the most dominant basketball presence in the world though, you've got to have him on your team. 

And not just for what he does on the offensive side of the ball either. When it comes to defense, he is one of the best shutdown defenders in the NBA. 

The Starting Power Forward: Dirk Nowitzki

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you've got a problem with him being here, just look above. 

Sometimes we view basketball players as static figures incapable of growing, maturing or developing from one year to the next. Dirk Nowitzki was better than anyone in the NBA this season and if you don't believe me, just ask Chris Bosh. 

This morning on First and 10 Skip Bayless asked him who the best player in the world was, and without hesitating or blinking the man who was the teammate of both Lebron and D-Wade said "Dirk Nowitzki." 

He elaborated on how Nowitzki's ability to score from anywhere on the court, and suddenly drive it to the rim and finish with either hand made him simply unguardable. 

The Starting Center: Dwight Howard

I could literally just say duh, and leave it at that. Who else is going to be your starting center? The best offensive center in the game has his offense as a sub skill. He's the most dominant defensive presence in the game. 

Dirk's improved his defense tremendously, but even if it's not enough, Howard's presence would more than make up for the difference. There's no way you don't have Howard as your starting center. 

There might however, be times when you'd rather not have him on the court. So now that you've seen the starting five, let's look at some of the other lineups you could put together.

The Down by 20 Lineup

So you're down by 20 because the other team actually told you the game was starting a half hour later and they just played without you. Honestly, I can't think of any other possible reason to be down by 20, but hey, we need to think about these things!

So what you want is a veritable explosion of scoring the likes of which have never been seen. You want speed to get down the court. 

PG: Rose

SG: Wade

SF: James

PF: Griffin

C:   Howard

I can't even wrap my head around what kind of points that quintet could amass in the blink of an eye. It would be absolutely otherworldly.

Just imagine Rose and James, arguably the two fastest players in the league running a fast break together. Or imagine Howard and Griffin in the front, James and Wade on the wings and Rose blazing down the court with the ball. 

What do you do? Short of actual firearms I can think of no way to defend that. 

The Stop 1 Shot To Win It All Lineup

So you've got a must-stop situation. The other team has the ball with 20 seconds left and you are up by a point. You can't give up anything. What's the lineup you put out there? How about this one?

PG: Paul (or Rose if it's a big point guard like Deron Williams)

SG: Allen

SF: James

PF: Noah

C:   Howard

Yeah, you just try and figure out how to score on that lineup. The only potential weakness is Paul, who while a great perimeter defender can be shot over by longer point guards. That's why you can always put Rose in if he's guarding a taller point guard like Deron Williams. 

The Clutch Lineup

On 82games.com they have a listing for "clutch stats" and that means production per 48 minutes of clutch-time play. Clutch is defined as the score being within five with five minutes left to go in the fourth quarter or overtime. 

A number of the best clutch-time performers are on this team. The numbers in parenthesis are their clutch time stats.

PG. Derrick Rose (47.8 pts, 10.4 reb, 9.8 ast). 

SG: Kobe Bryant (49.8 pts, 8.5 reb, 7.6 ast).

SF: LeBron James (45.1 pts, 11.2 reb, 4.9 ast).

PF: Dirk Nowitzki (41.9 pts, 11.1 reb, 5.6 ast).

C:   Dwight Howard (24.8 pts, 22.0 reb, 2.2 ast).

I imagine some would take exception to my putting Rose over Paul in the clutch lineup, but really, it's not even close. Paul has .6 more assists than Rose. Rose has 23 more points, five more boards and a higher field-goal percentage.

The other thing you could do if they were playing "hack-a-Howard" is go to a small-ball lineup, moving James to power forward and bringing in Durant (44.2 pts, 11.6 reb and 2.3 ast) to play the small forward.

Finally, I'm catching some flak for having James here. So allow me to explain a couple of things. First, you have to understand that James can be clutch. Look what he did to Boston and Chicago. Yet, he can disappear to. If he does though, you can easily put Melo in.  

The Make 1 Shot To Win It All Lineup

So you need to make a shot to win it all. Who do you put in there? Well on this one you have to be smart. You don't want to put your horrible free-throw shooters in there. You don't want to give the other team the chance to foul them and end the game that way. 

You also want to put in your proven closers and best shooters.

PG: Paul 

SG: Kobe Bryant

SF: Carmelo Anthony

PF: Dirk Nowitzki

C:   Joakim Noah

Now I know what you're thinking. Noah? Why would he put Noah in there?

Well there are two reasons. First, he shoots about 20 points higher from the stripe than Howard and about 10 points higher than Griffin. Second, he's an outstanding offensive rebounder, so if the shot doesn't go in you've got the best chance of him getting the putback. 

One other thing that needs some explanation is the difference between this lineup and the clutch lineup. This is the game winning shot lineup. Anthony's field goal percentage in game winning situations on this is the best of any active player in the NBA. He is "clutch" in that sense. 

However "clutch time" is a different definition and has a different measure. Based on those measures LeBron's overall performance is better than 'Melo's. That's why James is in one lineup but 'Melo is in the other. 

As you can see this ultimate team is not only potent, it's versatile. Can you build a better team?