Says who? Says Charles Barkley. It just got me thinking... without much regard for game awareness / IQ, clutch or pedigree, how successful would a team of tough, strong, high-effort guys be? They can have talent too, let Barkley be their captain, but no top 25 players (sorry young Jordan, Kobe, LeBron & Dwyane Wade) or guys from championship teams....what I really want to imagine is to be able to watch a bunch of fast, athletic crazies go recklessly all-out offensively, play tough defense and muck up the other team without regard to the score. Let them play an 82 game season vs. random playoff teams (including title contenders and champs) since 1980 or so...

Here's what I've got:

C: '87 Bill Laimbeer
PF: '88 Charles Barkley
SF: '04 Ron Artest
SG/PG: '11 Derrick Rose
PG/SG: '18 Russell Westbrook

Bench:
C/PF: '12 Kevin Garnett
PF: '93 Charles Oakley
PF/SF: '93 Dennis Rodman
SF: '04 Bruce Bowen
PG/SG: '07 Leandro Barbosa
PG/SG: '16 Isaiah Thomas
PG: '13 Patrick Beverly

How would they do? One weakness is that Barkley is the only interior offensive threat (though neither Laimbeer nor Garnett can be left alone)....I don't want to clog the lane for guards crashing toward the rim. Another is a lack of 3-pt skill (except Barbosa), but maybe Rodman & Barkley can clean up the bricks.

was this supposed to be a league idea?

You say no top 25 players but have Charles Barkley on the team. Do you mean no other top 25 players, because Charles Barkley is definitely one of the greatest 25 players of all-time...

Posted by copernicus on 4/26/2019 2:22:00 PM (view original):
was this supposed to be a league idea?

Nah, I'm just spitballing for fun

Posted by ashamael on 4/26/2019 4:48:00 PM (view original):
You say no top 25 players but have Charles Barkley on the team. Do you mean no other top 25 players, because Charles Barkley is definitely one of the greatest 25 players of all-time...

Yes, no other top-25 guys. Sir Charles has to be the captain / best player....

You might argue Westbrook, but that's the quote so he's an exception anyway. Maybe argue KG too, but I chose a non-peak year where he played more center so he wouldn't qualify either.... I think Rodman is the greatest role player ever, but I don't think you could build a team around the guy, not like you could with Karl Malone or Kevin McHale or even Blake Griffin, so he's easily out of the top 25 for me.

"fast, athletic crazies" = Laimbeer?

1 of 3 maybe.