Can you create an 'unbeatable' NBA team?

[Newell Steamer]

Easy peasy.

Spiderman
Cannonball
Mr. Fantastic
Beast
Captain America

 

[BurnItDwn]

Jordan
Pippen
Grant
Cartwright
Paxson

Jackson for Coach

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You could pick 2 teams from the dream team as it had 12 members (11 not counting Laettner), and they can't both win 51% of the time against each other, so your premise is flawed

I think the confusion occurs because I used the word "any" by mistake. The question in the OP is "Pick 5 players to build an unbeatable team." I should've said said pick 5 players from the Dream Team (remove the word "any") and they'd win 51% of the time consistently. I stand by that. Presumably, you'd pick the best 5 and the guys left to select, while certainly no slouches, would still not be at the talent of the Dream Team "A Team."

The "A" team would have Jordan and Johnson in their primes, probably Bird in his prime, and Malone or Barkley coupled with Ewing. I think that team consistently wins 51% of the games against the prime versions of Drexler, Stockton, Malone or Barkley (the one not making "A" team), Mullin, and Robinson.

The "A" team is full of scorers no matter how you slice it. Let's assume that the A team selects Malone and the B team gets Barkley. Let's look at the individual matchups, with team A on the left and B on the right:

Jordan vs. Drexler
Johnson vs. Stockton
Bird vs. Mullin
Malone vs. Barkley
Ewing vs Robinson

Team A is better at every single position and even if you ditch Mullin and give Team B Pippen, that gives Team B a defensive boost but takes away their outside shooting. No way Team A doesn't beat Team B consistently.

How about a counter of:

Kobe
Kareem Abdul Jabar
Bill Russell
LeBron
Larry Bird

That's a good team but any team with Kobe and Lebron is one I'm skeptical of (there's that 80s/90s bias coming in from me!). Team A from the Dream Team still wins IMO. My initial list of:

Jordan
Johnson
Barkley
Malone
Ewing

is still probably good enough to win 51% of the time there. Also, I admitted I made a mistake and I'd likely put Bird in his prime on my team as well, likely replacing Barkley.