What if ... it was 2015?
Welcome back for the second post of the week! This is the first in a new segment I’m calling “What If … ?”. I’ll be asking and answering some of the sillier, hypothetical questions I come across in the basketball world, still with my trademark analysis (and maybe even a chart or two), but a lighter touch.
For example, what if it was 2015 and not 2025? Well, for one we’d be listening to a lot more Omi, but what would the basketball landscape look like? Specifically, how would current, 2025 rosters look if all of their players were the 10-year-younger versions of themselves?
This question was inspired by Jared Dubin’s (more thoughtful) piece on the Clippers, already the oldest team in the league who got even older this offseason. As Jared pointed out, Clippers president Lawrence Frank is not worried:
Well if age is just a number, then we can subtract 10 from it. Here’s what the Clippers starting 5 might look like after that mathematical transformation:
Three MVP candidates, and two All-Defensive First Team guys plus Brook Lopez in his prime and Bradley Beal coming into his? That would be a problem for opposing teams. Then they have two young Aussie point guards coming off the bench in Ben Simmons (who was doing his one year at LSU in 2015-16) and Patty Mills, plus a trio of other international guys in Bogdan Bogdanović (23), Nicolas Batum (27), and Ivica Zubac (19).
I don’t see any other team competing with this one, but let’s run down the list to check.
Across town, the Lakers also sport one of the oldest lineups in the NBA, headlined by 41-year-old LeBron James. In this hypothetical they could still roll out a passable NBA lineup, though their backcourt would be, let’s say, inexperienced.
You could opt to start 20-year-old Gabe Vincent at point guard, but I like my chances with teenage Luka throwing lobs to a man twice his age.
It must be noted that in this scenario the Lakers roster also features an 11-year-old Bronny James playing with his dad. In reality, LeBron James Jr. was in fifth-grade, playing for the North Coast Blue Chips and demolishing the other kids. He supposedly already had college scholarship offers from Duke and Kentucky.
I would absolutely love to watch the Battle for LA matchup to see a 31-year-old Chris Paul, a competitive man to say the least, show absolutely no mercy to 11-year-old Bronny. He once won a free throw shooting competition against his own son 100 to 4, trash talking the whole way. I can’t imagine what he would make Bronny sit through.
The Clippers and Lakers would face the stiffest competition from the Warriors (Steph Curry 27 years old, Jimmy Butler 26, Draymond Green 26, Buddy Hield 23, Gary Payton II 23) and Rockets (Jeff Green 29 years old, Kevin Durant 26, Dorian Finney-Smith 23, Fred VanVleet 22 and either Steven Adams or Clint Capela at 22). The Mavericks could also put out a competitive lineup headlined by 25-year-old Klay Thompson, 24-year-old Kyrie Irving, and 21-year-old Anthony Davis, though it probably wouldn’t feature 9-year old Cooper Flagg.1
Of course, the Lakers could hide Bronny and the Mavs could hide Cooper and the rest of their 15-and-under teams on the bench, but most of the league wouldn’t be so lucky. With one of the youngest rosters in the league, in this hypothetical the Brooklyn Nets would be starting four 17-year-old high schoolers: Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton, Terance Mann, and Tyrese Martin.2 That is unless they’d want to go with 13-year-old Cam Thomas or one of their seven tween-agers.
OKC would be in a similar boat.
17-year-old Shai was still playing against his cousin Nickeil and friend Andrew Nembhard, but with slightly lower stakes than in the NBA playoffs. The most notable basketball accomplishment I could find for Jalen Williams in 2015 was growing 5 inches.
Then you have the Spurs, who could start 20-year-old Luke Kornet but that’s not very fun, so let’s slot in 12-year-old Wemby. He was supposedly already as tall as Chris Paul. He’d most likely play with 24-year-olds Harrison Barnes, Kelly Olynyk, and Bismack Biyombo and a 17-year-old De’Aaron Fox.
None of the other teams are all that interesting, so the 2025 née 2015 NBA season would most likely come down to Clippers vs Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
I have the Clippers winning this in 6, then absolutely destroying whichever team comes out of the East. Probably the Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon, Paul George, Andre Drummond, and 20-year-old (i.e., pre-injuries) Joel Embiid.3
Relatedly, I just want to point out that Liam McNeeley used the term “a young Cooper” when looking at a photo of their Montverde team from LITERALLY 1 YEAR AGO.
This Nets team may not finish much worse than the actual 2025-26 Nets …
Other (bad) options include: the Taj-Gibson led Charlotte Hornets, Nikola Vucević and some teenagers on the Bulls, the Tim Hardaway Jr. / Tobias Harris Pistons, and the Khris Middleton / C.J. McCollum / Malcolm Brogdon Wizards.