Following the completion of NM State Nation’s Greatest Aggies of All-time series, the most natural next step was an all-time greatest roster. The NCAA allows for thirteen scholarship players and two walk-ons to fill a Division I roster. We perused our lists to pull the best of the best and construct the greatest Aggie team of all-time! See the breakdown below and let us know how we did. We love to speculate at NM State Nation so join us in answering: “how would this team fare against an NBA roster?”
Starting five:
Center: Sam Lacey
Power forward: Pascal Siakam
Small forward: Justin Hawkins
Shooting guard: “Super” John Williamson
Point Guard: Steve Colter
We auto-populated the starting five with the #1 player from each of our five position rankings. This wasn’t the original plan, but after a quick look at the top five, I was convinced I got it right. The duo of Lacey and Siakam produce an all-NBA front-court that is the strength of the lineup; keep these two on the floor. The backcourt has plenty of NBA experience as well in all-star John Williamson and NBA vet throughout the 80’s and 90’s, Steve Colter. Hawkins is the only one in the starting lineup without NBA experience but I’m confident that he could hold his own with his size, shooting ability and overall craftiness.
Bench:
Forwards:
Sim Bhullar, Jemerrio Jones, Wendell McKines,
Guards:
Jimmy Collins, Reggie Jordan, Charlie Criss, Randy Brown, Jonathan Gibson.
The backcourt is stacked with NBA talent with Gibson and Brown. Additionally one gets an absolute shutdown defender in Brown and an automatic bucket in J-Gib. At shooting guard, you have NBA talent in Collins and Jordan making a similar 1-2 defense and offense punch combination. At forward, Jemerrio and Wendell provide the scrappiness needed to make up for a slightly undersized roster. Can you imagine those two coming off the bench? Talk about pick your poison. Sim would be Lacey’s lone backup unless you wanted to play small ball like many do in today’s NBA. Either way, with those two splitting minutes, you’re bound to gobble up plenty of rebounds and swat more than a few shots into the seats.
Walk-ons:
James Moore, Albert “Slab” Jones
The walk-ons close out the roster and bring some needed depth to the front-court. While both would be undersized at the four position, Moore’s length and Jones’ Rodman-like positioning makeup for it.
Back to our original question of how this team would fare against an NBA roster--I’d say pretty well. The three NBA all-stars in the starting lineup is today an indication of superior talent and is usually reserved for the best teams in the league. That’s why my official prediction is this squad would make a deep run in the NBA playoffs. Even with the drop off in talent from the starting five, there’s enough size, skill, and athleticism to compete with the best in the world. Aggie Nation should be proud of the talent we’ve seen go through the Pan Am doors over the years. Join me in daydreaming about all these greats on the floor at once.
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