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06-11-2017, 11:53 PM #1
Greatest TEAM of All-Time?
Due to popular demand from the GOAT player thread, let's discuss which TEAM was the greatest! While it's fun to argue on a player-by-player basis, basketball is a team sport after all.
I propose the following criteria for determining the greatest team:
- Team accomplishments (championship or not, records set/broken, etc)
- League competition that year (how easy/hard was it to secure a playoff spot due to either number of wins needed or number of teams the team had present at the time.
- Hall of famers/future hall of famers faced or in the league in general
- Important statistics i.e. margin of victory average
- How the team would fare across decades
And, anything else you consider relevant! Where does this year's GSW team fit amongst the league's greatest teams ever if they close this series out?
As always, let's keep the debate fun and civilized.
Happy debating! :)
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06-11-2017, 11:54 PM #2
@Jameis1of1 @pwaldo as requested :)
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06-12-2017, 03:00 AM #3
My picks for the top 5 greatest teams ever:
1. 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (this will obviously change if the Cavs beat them ... but I don't see that happening ... they're the most loaded offensive team I've ever seen and extremely quick defensively with great team defense and three four individual defenders ... depth and talent galore)
2. 1986-87 Lakers (Showtime ... loaded)
3. 1985-86 Celtics (Slow but dominant down low ... 3rd best offensive rating and best defensive rating that year)
4. 2001-02 Lakers (Prime Shaq was the most dominant player ever and Kobe was better this year than the previous two ...)
5. 1995-96 Bulls (I know this is considered the GOAT team and their ELO rating is out of this world but I just don't see them beating any of the above four teams)
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06-12-2017, 05:55 PM #4
The 95-96 Bulls by a huge margin. That team was super dominant in a super tough era in basketball. Just the presence of Jordan drove fear into the eyes of opponents every game that season.
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06-12-2017, 09:19 PM #5
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06-12-2017, 09:24 PM #6
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06-13-2017, 01:30 AM #7
You've got to be kidding me ... the Bulls were pushed to 6 games by a sorry SuperSonics team (a team this year's Cavs would have obliterated imho) and got spanked by a combined 32 points in games 4-5.
Jordan was 32 at the time ... the same age as LeBron right now and he shot an abysmal .415 from the field and averaged 27.3/5.3/4.2 ... LeBron against far superior competition shot a scorching .564 from the field while averaging 33.6/11.6/10.0 ... and the Warriors still dominated the series.
This year's Warriors would beat the Bulls in 5 games imho. The Bulls simply have no chance to score enough points to win consistently, not with Jordan chucking and not being able to hit a 3 to save his life and the whole team being abysmal at 3s (36-137 in the Finals for a disgusting .263) ... the Warriors would have blown them off the floor!
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06-13-2017, 09:04 AM #8
So you don't like Jordan? Why?
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06-13-2017, 12:05 PM #9
1 thing I find hard doing is comparing generations. It is too difficult to compare what ifs when style of play changes so drastically. Can you matchup early 2000 Lakers to current warriors? Style of play in late 90s early 2000's was to play big. Teams often used twin tower approach or tried to get the most dominant big in the league. Style now is positionless with spreading the floor and shooting 3s. No one on warriors could defend shaq but also shaq would not be able to guard anyone on the warriors when zaza and javale are out of the game. I think criteria 1-4 are very valid when trying to decide best teams but 5) how teams fare across decades is not as useful when rules and styles change.
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06-13-2017, 12:28 PM #10
I think a lot of teams could be argued I will advocate for 1 the 2000 2001 Lakers who went 15-1 to win the championship. Reason I am picking them is because I think the level of competition they went through was extremely high. I will admit I have a bit of bias because the Lakers are my team and am definitely speaking out of opinion not pure fact.
1st round sweep the blazers who the previous year played the Lakers in the conference finals which went 7. Blazers should have beat them the year before but Lakers overcome something like 14-15 point 4th quarter deficit which was my personal all time greatest game. Blazers had pippen, damon stodemire, Rasheed Wallace, sabonis, steve smith, schremp, kemp. Yes some older guys but a very good team.
2nd round sweep the Kings. Big Laker rival for several years. Chris webber in his prime who was 1 of the best power forwards at the time along with KG and Duncan, Jason Williams, peja stojakovic, doug Christie and vlade divac. Another very good team.
3rd round sweep the Spurs. Any time a team can beat the spurs in the Duncan Popovich era is something significant not to mention sweeping them. This is the year before Duncan won back to back MVP's so he was in his prime. Also 2 years after Duncan robinson won their first championship.
finals beating the 76ers in 5. Yes the sixers in the east was weaker competition at the time but Iverson was the MVP in the League and was absolutely beasting at the time. Even though the team was not deep they had a top 1-3 offensive talent in AI and probably the best defensive big man in the league in Mutumbo.
Basically my argument is that the lakers beat 2 very good teams and 2 special teams and lost only 1 game in the process.
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