NBA: Lakers 03/04 Best starting 5 ever?

Lafortezza

Just thinking that on an individual basis the Lakers this season must have possibly the best starting 5 in history.
C: Shaq
PF: Karl Malone
SF: Devean George (an average player at best)
SG: Kobe Bryant
PG: Gary Payton

4 out of those 5 have been the best players at there positions for the last 5 or 6 seasons, admittedly Payton and Malone are getting old now but in their prime they were unstoppable.

Only other team I can think of to match it were the Bulls,
Longley, Rodman, Pippen, Jordan, Harper, but they were really only a 2 player team with Rodman on the boards.

At the moment the Lakers have Malone and Shaq out injured and are losing some games, but they've shown this season (against the Spurs) that when all players are fit they can beat any team.

kmart6

Originally posted by lafortezza
Just thinking that on an individual basis the Lakers this season must have possibly the best starting 5 in history.
C: Shaq
PF: Karl Malone
SF: Devean George (an average player at best)
SG: Kobe Bryant
PG: Gary Payton

4 out of those 5 have been the best players at there positions for the last 5 or 6 seasons, admittedly Payton and Malone are getting old now but in their prime they were unstoppable.

Only other team I can think of to match it were the Bulls,
Longley, Rodman, Pippen, Jordan, Harper, but they were really only a 2 player team with Rodman on the boards.

At the moment the Lakers have Malone and Shaq out injured and are losing some games, but they've shown this season (against the Spurs) that when all players are fit they can beat any team.

Hold your horses with the best five,George is definatly only average,Fisher is a better player,deadly at 3-pts too


Well the other four are called ''The Fab Four'' so make what you want of that


As for losing some games,they've lost 5 of the last 6 and are totally under-performing


Another thing,I would'nt take much from beating the Spurs,did you read the match report.

Duncan and Parker were injured did'nt even tog out just stayed in street clothes.


And the lakers did only win in double in over time after all

Lafortezza

Originally posted by kmart6
Hold your horses with the best five,George is definatly only average,Fisher is a better player,deadly at 3-pts too

Unfortunately for Fisher he's not a SF, with Horry gone too old, George is the best SF they have.

Originally posted by kmart6

As for losing some games,they've lost 5 of the last 6 and are totally under-performing

very true, but I was more asking if there had ever been a better starting 5 'on paper', Shaq one of the best centres ever, ditto Malone at PF, Payton at PG, and nothing wrong with Bryant at SG.


So going on names, reputations and past performances during their respective careers, has there been a better starting 5

tHE vAGGABOND

so they have 4 hall of famers in their stairing 5 - so what?

malone and gary P and both well past their sell by dates - and it remains to be seen if they can keep things up and keep injury free for a whole season.

I think the lowly nuggets beating them last night shows how much they need shaq - I would almost say one man team like the packers with favre in football. Yes there are other amazing players there - but without that one man in the middle they are very very beatable - as the team with one of the worst records in the NBA last season showed last night by leading for more than 10 points for all of the final 3 quaters..

Lafortezza

jebus I'm almost sorry I asked now :dunno:

maybe I'm phrasing my Q wrong, all I was saying was that to me the current Lakers starting 5 (George excepted) has 4 future hall-of-famers, and that the fab 4 have been the absolute best at their positions over their careers, and that off the top of my head I can't remember a similar team.

tHE vAGGABOND

what about the 83 Celtics..

Larry Bird - hall of fame
kevin Mchale - hall of fame
Danny Ainge
Robert Parrish - hall of fame
Dennis Johnson

(dont worry about things, we tent to bite here! Im sure were just happy to find someone to talk hoops with!!)

Lafortezza

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
what about the 83 Celtics..
Larry Bird - hall of fame
kevin Mchale - hall of fame
Danny Ainge
Robert Parrish - hall of fame
Dennis Johnson

true, that's almost the only team I could think of with 3+ hall of famers,
The Houston Rockets had Olajuwon, Drexler (meh fav player ev@r!), Barkley on it at one stage if I remember correctly

tHE vAGGABOND

http://www.nba.com/history/toptenteams_index.html

ah ha

So that bulls team had the best winning percentage ever, but does that make it the best team

As were here, what about the 86-87 lakers then..

Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
James Worthy,
Byron Scott,
A.C. Green

Jordan has enough money and accolades so I dont want to give him every award, even if he was the best player ever

Lafortezza

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
http://www.nba.com/history/toptenteams_index.html
ah ha

yep that link shows plenty of teams with 3 hall-of-famers (or future hall-of-famers)
none with 4 like the lakers right now (that I can tell).

I wonder will the Lakers get to the finals this year, seems as if the old men are starting to show their age with the number of injuries they've been having.