Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-1181222-20171220113821/@comment-1458758-20171221195354

I think people are mistaking balancing teams with balancing function. For example, Team 8 is balanced because they cover a wide variety of tracking methods and approaches. Team Gai is balanced because they use a combination of hard and soft styles along with weapon skills. Team 10 is balanced entirely on the fact that they've spent 15 generations using their clan's skills in tandem to create lethal combination attacks.

The original team 7 balanced Naruto's poor test scores against Sasuke's to avoid having a team terribly dragged down by, let's be frank, Naruto's complete lack of theory and tactics, but he more than made up for it in combat power, along with Sasuke and Sakura's later training, this made Team 7 a front line combat unit of great power. The new team 7 does something similar, balancing Sarada's calm and collected nature against Boruto's rashness, cause while these three test high, their difference of approach makes it difficult for them to work together, but also difficult for them to work with others. There are times Boruto's rashness is needed, but there's also times when Sarada's cooler head is required. As top ranked students, if they were in a team with much lower scoring students, they might override them when they shouldn't, while together, they can hash it out between them.