Player Trios -- which players play well together?

Inevitably people ask about the remaining combinations -- player Trios (also known as Triads or the more problematic "threesomes") and even the Quads/Quartets.

Given the notion in some quarters that an NBA offense can be a three man game in some circumstances, the player trios seem to be an interesting area of study. The one difficulty is that the permutations become so large that it's easy to find 500+ different trios on a team which makes for a tough display issue (we already get enough flak about the player pair tables being hard to read...)

So for this initial look we'll just size up the leading trio and worst trio per team in net +/- and our NBA friends can request the full data if they want to see it. Please note that these numbers are in raw form and have not been adjusted for the other players in the five-man unit, nor for the opposing 5-man unit on the floor at the same time.

Player Trio team leaders in 2007-08 (as of 01/31, top trio per team in net plus/minus)

Team	Player1	Player2	Player3	Min	+/-	Off/g	Def/g	Net48	Comments
ATL	A.Johnson	J.Johnson	Horford	666	+67	95	90	+5	Horford and JJ a view of the future
BOS	R.Allen	Pierce	Garnett	1069	+325	101	87	+15	Yup, the Big Three rule
CHA	Felton	Carroll	Richardson	359	+45	103	97	+6	The "shooters"
CHI	Duhon	Deng	Thomas	86	+54	110	79	+30	Bulls should give this trio more time
CLE	Gibson	James	Ilgauskas	615	+118	104	95	+9	LeBron plus PG plus C
DAL	Harris	Jo.Howard	Nowitzki	777	+239	108	93	+15	Why trade Devin??
DEN	Iverson	Najera	Camby	453	+148	111	95	+16	Najera a key Denver player
DET	Billups	Prince	Wallace	988	+238	100	88	+12	Powerhouse Pistons
GSW	Ellis	Jackson	Biedrins	735	+188	112	99	+12	Young guys producing
HOU	Alston	Battier	Yao	1041	+125	98	92	+6	No T-Mac? Huh...
IND	Rush	Dunleavy	Murphy	153	+66	119	98	+21	The "discards"
LAC	Maggette	Thomas	Kaman	615	+65	97	92	+5	E.B. come back soon!
LAL	Bryant	Odom	Bynum	677	+204	112	98	+14	Your Three Stars
MEM	Miller	Warrick	Gasol	145	+52	114	97	+17	Hakim barely playing, go figure
MIA	Quinn	Davis	O'Neal	128	+29	97	87	+11	Sad days in Miami
MIL	Bell	Redd	Mason	47	+42	130	87	+43	Nice numbers, but only 43 Minutes
MIN	McCants	Gomes	Richard	59	+46	106	69	+38	No Jefferson, garbage time?
NJN	Carter	Jefferson	Magloire	91	+43	105	82	+23	No Kidd
NOH	Paul	Stojakovic	Chandler	988	+240	105	93	+12	A true talent trio
NYK	Robinson	Crawford	Lee	486	+42	101	97	+4	The scrappy do's
ORL	Nelson	Lewis	Howard	933	+136	106	99	+7	Another core trio
PHI	Green	Korver	Dalembert	118	+57	106	83	+23	Um, Korver no longer with the team
PHO	Nash	Marion	Stoudemire	989	+282	117	104	+14	Could have guessed
POR	Roy	Jones	Outlaw	340	+79	106	95	+11	Jones a suprise
SAC	Udrih	Martin	Miller	350	+80	108	97	+11	Assume Artest will be in by end
SAS	Parker	Ginobili	Duncan	481	+135	106	93	+13	Carrying on...
SEA	Szczerbiak	Wilcox	Thomas	109	+57	115	90	+25	Durant-Green hurting on a +/- basis
TOR	Calderon	Parker	Bosh	802	+111	100	94	+7	Raptors discovered genius
UTA	Williams	Kirilenko	Boozer	1080	+153	111	104	+7	AK-47 not forgotten this season
WAS	Stevenson	Butler	Jamison	1063	+150	102	95	+7	Amazing job sans Gilbert

Let's look next at the twenty five leading trios in total plus/minus so far:

League wide top trios (net plus/minus)

Team	Player1	Player2	Player3	Min	+/-	Off/g	Def/g	Net48
BOS	R.Allen	Pierce	Garnett	1069	+325	101	87	+15
BOS	Rondo	Pierce	Garnett	946	+287	99	85	+15
PHO	Nash	Marion	Stoudemire	989	+282	117	104	+14
PHO	Nash	Bell	Marion	883	+277	116	101	+15
PHO	Nash	Bell	Stoudemire	761	+273	117	100	+17
BOS	Pierce	Garnett	Perkins	857	+269	99	84	+15
BOS	Rondo	R.Allen	Pierce	917	+267	100	86	+14
BOS	Rondo	Pierce	Perkins	780	+256	100	84	+16
BOS	Rondo	R.Allen	Garnett	880	+252	99	85	+14
BOS	Rondo	Garnett	Perkins	744	+244	99	83	+16
PHO	Nash	Hill	Marion	774	+242	119	104	+15
BOS	R.Allen	Garnett	Perkins	794	+240	99	84	+15
NOH	Paul	Stojakovic	Chandler	988	+240	105	93	+12
DAL	Harris	Jo.Howard	Nowitzki	777	+239	108	93	+15
DET	Billups	Prince	Wallace	988	+238	100	88	+12
PHO	Bell	Marion	Stoudemire	700	+237	116	100	+16
BOS	R.Allen	Pierce	Perkins	818	+225	99	86	+13
NOH	Paul	West	Chandler	1172	+220	101	92	+9
DET	Billups	Prince	McDyess	959	+218	98	87	+11
DET	Billups	Hamilton	McDyess	927	+214	99	88	+11
NOH	Stojakovic	West	Chandler	940	+212	103	92	+11
BOS	Rondo	R.Allen	Perkins	691	+210	99	85	+15
NOH	Paul	Stojakovic	West	1050	+210	104	94	+10
NOH	Peterson	West	Chandler	827	+205	103	91	+12
LAL	Bryant	Odom	Bynum	677	+204	112	98	+14

So of the top twenty-five trios, Boston has ten of the best, and the Suns have five..

Since we've seen the best from each team, we might as well delve into the unsavory business of looking at the least successful in overall plus/minus:

Worst Player Trio by team (net plus/minus)

Team	Player1	Player2	Player3	Min	+/-	Off/g	Def/g	Net48	Comments
ATL	Childress	M.Williams	Horford	302	-53	92	100	-8	Somewhat surprising
BOS	Pierce	Posey	Perkins	83	-47	80	107	-27	Three P's
CHA	McInnis	Richardson	Okafor	598	-124	92	102	-10	McInnis not part of future plans
CHI	Hinrich	Gordon	Wallace	672	-101	92	99	-7	Red Alert!
CLE	D.Brown	Pavlovic	Ilgauskas	136	-61	80	102	-22	Scrubs
DAL	Stackhouse	Bass	Diop	132	-49	90	107	-18	Bass+Diop = no Dirk
DEN	Carter	Iverson	Camby	734	-49	105	108	-3	Not good since these guys start
DET	Murray	Hayes	Maxiell	147	-38	91	103	-12	all Bench guys
GSW	Ellis	Azubuike	Biedrins	318	-54	102	110	-8	Monta+Andris part of best trio
HOU	James	McGrady	Yao	127	-51	95	114	-19	James experiment didn't last long
IND	Granger	Murphy	O'Neal	388	-85	97	107	-11	Not the optimal frontline
LAC	Knight	Mobley	Kaman	458	-80	88	96	-8	Help!
LAL	Farmar	Walton	Odom	119	-56	83	105	-23	These guys do play with Kobe
MEM	Miller	Gay	Milicic	625	-151	94	106	-12	So much for Darko
MIA	Wade	Davis	Haslem	791	-182	96	107	-11	Ugly
MIL	Redd	Yi	Bogut	885	-125	94	101	-7	Maybe not the core to build on
MIN	Telfair	Gomes	Jefferson	744	-179	93	105	-12	Definitely not the core to build on...
NJN	Kidd	Jefferson	S.Williams	609	-106	96	104	-8	You heard? Jason wants out
NOH	Pargo	Jackson	Butler	197	-40	76	86	-10	All bench
NYK	Crawford	Richardson	Curry	708	-197	91	104	-13	Thomas starting lineup
ORL	Arroyo	Dooling	Foyle	93	-30	79	95	-16	All bench
PHI	Miller	Iguodala	Evans	984	-108	89	95	-5	Reggie not the answer
PHO	Hill	Diaw	Skinner	200	-41	93	103	-10	Amare+Marion matter
POR	Roy	Webster	Aldridge	852	-87	90	95	-5	Starters...hmmm
SAC	Douby	Garcia	Thomas	95	-64	80	112	-32	All bench
SAS	Vaughn	Finley	Oberto	116	-39	86	103	-16	All bench
SEA	Watson	Durant	Collison	508	-189	94	112	-18	Maybe not the trio for the future
TOR	Calderon	Delfino	Humphries	224	-37	92	100	-8	Missing Bosh?
UTA	Brewer	Harpring	Boozer	156	-33	92	102	-10	A little surprising
WAS	Mason	McGuire	Blatche	102	-77	76	112	-36	All bench

So there's some food for thought. Teams with three starter trios in this "hall of shame" might want to consider mixing things up, no?