I watched the NBA All Star Game tonight and that got me thinking. Whatwould my ultimate fantasy team from the current NBA roster look like?

I could choose any player from any team. But that would be pretty boring…. The main restriction is to pick a head coach and then pick a team that would fit that style of play. For the purpose of this exercise, D’Antoni is my head coach.

This would be my starting five:

PG Nash
SG Kobe
PF Dirk
SF Marion
C  Amare

When I came up with that list, I was pretty surprised. 3 of the 5 are already starters for the Suns. The other two are huge upgrades over the current starters (Kobe for Bell, Dirk for Diaw). Imagine what Dirk would do with Nash as the PG again and D’Antoni as the head coach. I struggled with Amare as the starting center for a couple of minutes…. Played around with the idea of Timmy, Dwight, CB4, JON, Okur as the starting center instead. Amare just seems perfect for D’Antoni’s system. Gasol was the other likely choice. It’s a tradeoff between what either of those guys give you.

Who would be in the second unit? Since I’m playing fantasy, the second unit would be pretty stacked too.

PG Agent 0
SG Ray Allen
PF  KG 
SF  Gerald Wallace
C   Gasol

It would raining treys if Ray had Nash as his point guard. I see Ray playing the open court with Nash and hitting those long range bombs on the break. It was hard to take Marion over KG but I had to go with the incumbent. Wallace and Marion are such similar players though Marion is better overall. JSmoove might also have worked out. Arenas would do the Hibachi thing all day if he played for D’Antoni.

Lots of big names missing from the list. The head coach restriction forces you to think of players that would fit into a system.