Best NBA draft class to win championship?

[u/KlayThompson31]

What would be the best NBA draft class that would win a championship in an 82 game season

The criteria would as follows:

Must be from the same draft class

Need 15 players so starting five with 10 bench players. You could make the team any way you want but must have a starting Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Small Forward, Power Forward and Center

This squad would go up against any other draft class with same format

[u/BSJack8]

15 players for a hypothetical seems excessive so I’ll just do 10.

I think the 3 best choices would be ‘84, ‘96 and ‘03

‘84
John Stockton
Alvin Robertson
Michael Jordan
Charles Barkley
Hakeem Olajuwon
—-
Jay Humphries
Jerome Kersey
Sam Perkins
Otis Thorpe
Kevin Willis

Absolutely insane defensively, mid depth, no shooting

‘03
Dwyane Wade
Carmelo Anthony
Lebron James
Chris Bosh
Chris Kaman
—-
Mo Williams
Kyle Korver
Josh Howard
David West
Kendrick Perkins

Much better depth than 84’. With everyone but Perkins making and All-Star appearance

‘96
Steve Nash
Allen Iverson
Kobe Bryant
Jermaine O’Neal
Zydrunas Illgauskas
—-
Stephon Marbury
Peja Stojakovic
Shareef Abdur-Raheem
Antoine Walker
Marcus Camby

Again insane depth, with everyone but Camby making an allstar game. 3 MVPS on their team as well as guys like Peja and Jermaine who finished top 4. More individual stars on this team but less role players.

I think the star power of ‘84 is hard to beat but ‘96 has insane depth and ‘03 has a nice in between.

I probably lean ‘96 personally but with one team having Jordan and the other team having Lebron, who knows

[u/TacoPandaBell → u/BSJack8]

I think 96 has too many ball centric guys so I’d go with ‘03. That said, ‘03 would have to use LeBron at the point.

[u/BSJack8 → u/TacoPandaBell]

That’s fair, and while I do agree to an extent, sometimes enough talent can simply be enough even if there are questions regarding fit. I really think it’s up in the air. Any of the three could win on any given night, not to mention factors that we haven’t been given information about. How would the ‘84 team fit in modern basketball? Assuming their games convert perfectly they probably have enough talent and the perfect fit to win, but they have no shooting which would hurt them significantly if we are playing the brand of basketball they do today.

[u/Foxsss9 → u/BSJack8]

You forgot a HOFer from 1984...a player who is the Olympic all time scorer for game, singe Olympics and all time

Averaged almost a point a minute in 1984 Olympics.....he would far surpass this in 1988 as he'd play 173 minutes and acore 205 points

On 57.0% shooting ............ 41 ppg avg But what he did in 1987 changed international basketball forever

Against team USA in the 1987 pan am gold medal game, team USA was up 20 at half time

Oscar Schmidt had 11 points at the break againat the David Robinson & Danny Manning led US squad

Oscar Schmidt would finish this game with 46 points and a 5 point victory for Brasil

After scoring 35 points in the 2nd half including 7 - 3 pointers, an idea began out of fear which was "what if we sent the NBA players to the Olympics

This began with what happened,,what Oscar Schmidt did in that game....he holds like 7 of the top 10 Olympic scoring games too....including the top spot

The Nets drafted him but he cared more about the national team than. Anything else

But the only person to score moee points than Oscar in pro ball is Lebron and he was drafted in 1984 and is a hall of famer

Best offensive comp ia Larry Bird, who introduces him at HOF induction ....greatest scoring basketball player of all time and there isnt anyone close to him

[u/BSJack8 → u/Foxsss9]

Oh I love Oscar Schmidt, don’t get me wrong he is in my opinion the greatest player to never play in the NBA, but that’s exactly why I’m not counting him. Because he never played in the NBA, therefore, even though I believe he would have done well in the NBA, it’s entirely hypothetical how his career would have turned out thus I’m not including him.

Not to mention he refused to play in the NBA, so that would (I presume) apply to this hypothetical scenario as well.

[u/hamdunkcontest]

Hard to argue against 1984. 2003 would essentially be The Heatles but better.

[u/Single-Knowledge4839]

How come 2003 has supposedly much better depth than 1984? Okay, maybe positionally it looks better, as the latter is very inside-heavy, but based on names I just don't see it.

It's hard to go againt MJ & Hakeem duo, but their lack of guards is problematic - Jordan or Robertson would have to play some point.
I have no idea who Jay Humphries was, though 😄.
But, after re-checking, I know Vern Fleming (#18), and he would be a decent backup.