I think it is kinda funny how everybody says "I´d pick LeBron since he is not in his prime yet". But just like Andrew says you cannot be too sure about that. At the moment I think LeBron is really playing outstanding so what do you guys expect from him ? Okay, he may improve his defense and also his outside shot ... experience may do it in these areas. But do you really think he will get that much better. He is on the top of his physical strenght he wont get any quicker, stronger or jump higher. Quite the opposite, every game following and every injury coming up will hurt on the longer run.
I do not think he will ever put up better numbers than 30/7/7 because such numbers are simply awesome.
And without any help (and I mean more help than Hughes, Big Z and some reserves) he might not even make it to the finals.
So I think Scottie would be the safer choice because potential is not everything (hello @Darko) and LeBron has almost no room to grow (a bit exaggerated).
But Scottie I think is not the player who can carry a team since he does just not score enough. Unlike most of you I think he had the offensive ability to be a topscorer. You see his moves around the basket he was simply an awesome ballhandler and was very agile and strong at the same time. But he liked it more to pass the ball and to set plays.
His defense was maybe the best you could see at that time, intercepting passes or defend one-on-one, he could do it all. But maybe it is like the Kevin Garnett problem, just a player who doesnt want to do it all alone.
So if you ask for a player to build a team around, Scottie is not the right one I think, and Lebron is just not comparable because we dont know what he will look like in 5 years.
I would go for MJ, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson or Shaquille O´Neal
