An idea began forming while watching the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, and wondering if they are the best duo on a current roster to pursue an NBA championship.

That made me wonder what would be the best position player-starting pitcher combo to do the same in MLB.

This then made me wonder if the answer to that question is Shohei Ohtani and Shohei Ohtani. Does any team have a better combination of an individual starter and an individual position player than the Angels have with Ohtani, who began the weekend tied for the MLB lead in homers (22) and owning the best batting average against (.178) among qualified pitchers?

The downside of Ohtani for this exercise: The Angels need to use six starting pitchers to accommodate Ohtani, and also though he is, no doubt, a brilliant hitter, he does not play the field.

So that made me wonder if the right answer is Ohtani pitching and Mike Trout as a position player. But we might be seeing the shame of the Angels wasting Trout’s 20s by failing to surround him with a worthy cast. Trout is still an above-average player, but in his age-31 season, his strikeouts (27.6 percent of his plate appearances) were way up from his prime and his batting average (.248) was way down, and even in a liberalized stolen-base environment he had just one, entering Friday.

Ultimately, the presence of Ohtani and Trout together is a reminder that baseball is not basketball, in which teams with two elite players who stay healthy for a full season are pretty much guaranteed the playoffs, at a minimum. Still, I wanted to do the exercise for baseball. But we do need ground rules.

I want to focus on which duo you would want for the rest of this regular season and then the postseason. So at the moment, you have to factor in that Aaron Judge, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and Atlanta’s Max Fried, for example, are going to be out a while with injuries. Still, they should be back for the majority of the second half. Also, track record should matter, but so should projections. For example, I think Arizona’s Corbin Carroll is a great player even if he is a rookie.

So let the debates begin, my top five pairings:

Going into the weekend, the Rays had seven of the top 70 position players in Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement. It would not be difficult to pick Randy Arozarena, rather than Franco, for the position player since he is having a terrific year and has 11 homers and 1.121 OPS in 120 postseason plate appearances.

But this is what a scout said recently about Franco: “Every time I see him, I think he is better.” Franco is a switch-hitting shortstop who can defend, hit and run. The whole package. McClanahan has shown durability and excellence, producing a 2.39 ERA over the past two seasons.

This is the closest MLB comes to Jokic-Murray because the fall off from them to the next best position player and starter on the Yankees is stark. That speaks to veterans such as DJ LeMahieu and Luis Severino being so underwhelming. It is worrisome that Judge has a foot injury and how he will come back from that. Plus. Judge’s playoff ledger has power, but also too much emptiness. In his past three postseasons, once he reaches two strikes, Judge is 2-for-39 with 25 strikeouts.

It is a difficult call whether to take Valdez or Cristian Javier. The Astros’ rotation lost Justin Verlander to the Mets, and Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. for the season to injuries.

Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker are down a grade (at least) from their standards. Michael Brantley has yet to play. Free-agent signee Jose Abreu has been a disappointment. So the loss of Alvarez to an oblique injury is particularly troublesome now that the Astros have real competition in the AL West from the Rangers, and possibly the Angels and Mariners, too. Alvarez is arguably the scariest at-bat in the sport.

 Carroll just feels like a tent-pole player for a sustained run of contention from the Diamondbacks. He went into Saturday with 14 homers, 19 steals and an NL-leading .978 OPS. He is pretty much the NL Rookie of the Year lock and might just win the MVP.

Since the 2022 All-Star break, Gallen might be the majors’ best pitcher: 2.23 ERA in 29 starts, 181 ²/₃ innings, 132 hits, 38 walks and 203 strikeouts.

 This was not an easy call. There were a lot of candidates for the top five, including Ohtani and Trout. Clayton Kershaw is having a very strong year, and if you believe he will hold up, then the Dodgers should be on this list with the lefty plus either Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman.

Michael Wacha is excelling for the Padres, but there is not enough track record to believe that will continue, and Yu Darvish is perhaps taking a step back. But Darvish in conjunction with Juan Soto or Fernado Tatis Jr. is still worthy. Do you believe in Nate Eovaldi to tag-team him with Corey Seager or Marcus Semien for the Rangers, who had six of the top 54 in positional WAR?

Ultimately, I went with the Atlanta pair. Acuna is back (and more) from his 2021 knee injury. He had 15 homers, 30 steals and a .971 OPS. Fried is not due back from a forearm strain until early in the second half. I’m trusting the lefty’s track record: 2.64 ERA over the past four seasons.