Stan Van Gundy first became an NBA Head Coach in 2003 and coached some elite teams during his run. He was last the coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, but he is better known for his work with the Miami Heat and then Orlando Magic in the 2000s.
Stan Van Gundy coached players like Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, and Zion Williamson during his tenure. So it was interesting to see what players he would pick for an all-time starting 5 of the players he’d coached.
“I mean I was lucky, I got to coach a lot of good dudes,” Stan Van Gundy said. “Well, Wade for sure… I’d say Wade for sure and I’d take Dwight over Shaq and that’s a hard one because I don’t think Dwight was better than Shaq. But I coached Shaq in the last year that he averaged 20 and 10, I coached Dwight when he was in his prime, so I wanna be clear about that.
“So I’d take Dwight and Wade and from there it’s tough. I only coached Zion for a year but that dude’s unbelievable. I gotta put Zion in there. The tough one for me would be between Rashard (Lewis) and Hedo (Turkoglu)… I might have to have a 6-man team. So at the point, I could put Jameer (Nelson) as our point.”
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Van Gundy gave some more reasons as to why he would choose the players that he chose, but eventually, he named 6 players without including Shaquille O’Neal:
Jameer Nelson
Dwyane Wade
Rashard Lewis
Hedo Turkoglu
Zion Williamson
Dwight Howard
How Well Would This Team Do In The NBA?
Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard in their primes are among the greatest to ever do it at their positions. Both made All-NBA Teams and Al-Defensive Teams while playing for Van Gundy, so they would be an excellent combo. Adding Zion Williamson to that, who has averaged 25.8 points per game in his career, would mean that likely no one would be able to stop this team from scoring.
Hedo Turkoglu was a knockdown shooter from three-point rage, he shot it at 38.4% for his career. Rashard Lewis was a two-time All-Star and a 38.6% three-point shooter. In his prime, Jameer Nelson averaged over 7 assists a game too. This team would have scoring, defense, playmaking, and everything one could ask for. Stan Van Gundy’s all-time team would probably win an NBA championship.
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