June 16, 201412 yr W/ the highest average margin of victory in NBA Finals history, this Spurs team has to be discussed as an all-time great team. Where do they rank? IMO, they are like the '86 Celtics. Skilled passing bigs, tons of long depth off of the bench. Where they do not have a Larry Bird, they have 3 other guys who would start on that team. If the '86 Celts are a Top 10 team, and many say that they are, then the '14 Spurs are a Top 10 team. No way dude. Maybe...maybe Ginobili over Angie...and I'm not 100% sure even on that. DJ and Parker are two sides of the spectrum in regard to point guards, so would depend what strengths you wanted on the floor, but Parker is not a "for sure" starter over Johnson. Same with Duncan and McHale. Though Duncan is seen as possibly the best PF to play the game, McHale isn't far behind I am more of a fan offensively of McHale and in my lineup he would be the starter at the 4. If anything, I might move Duncan to the 5 and move Parrish out of the starting lineup. I don't know how that would look, but I'd give it a try. But even then, that's not a given. I personally think the 86 Celtics are the better team and would take them in an "all time" matchup.
June 16, 201412 yr No way dude. Maybe...maybe Ginobili over Angie...and I'm not 100% sure even on that. DJ and Parker are two sides of the spectrum in regard to point guards, so would depend what strengths you wanted on the floor, but Parker is not a "for sure" starter over Johnson. Same with Duncan and McHale. Though Duncan is seen as possibly the best PF to play the game, McHale isn't far behind I am more of a fan offensively of McHale and in my lineup he would be the starter at the 4. If anything, I might move Duncan to the 5 and move Parrish out of the starting lineup. I don't know how that would look, but I'd give it a try. But even then, that's not a given. I personally think the 86 Celtics are the better team and would take them in an "all time" matchup. As would the Magic Lakers, Kobe/Shaq Lakers, Bad Boys and MJ Bulls.
June 16, 201412 yr Author I am and have always been a huge Spurs fan. They are good, but I am not going to be a prisoner of the moment. While Manu, Parker, and Duncan may find their way in to the HOF - which in basketball has an odd set of evaluating criteria in that Splitter may make it, but I digress - none of these guys with the exception of Duncan for a spell of his career would ever roll off the tongues as a top 10 player in the NBA. And all 3 are playing on the back 9 of their careers. This team was deadly because of the quality depth and masterful roster building done by the league's best GM, R.C. Buford. No true superstar power talent makes it hard to for me to justify as an all time great NBA team. If that nucleus of Manu, Parker, and Duncan were 25 years old, maybe so. The Spurs were nasty on defense their first few titles. They are still solid thanks to Leonard, but not to that degree. I am speaking of the 2014 Spurs only, so you have to kind of be a prisoner of the moment. That is the only way to evaluate teams on a year-by-year basis...how did they dominate the other teams that particular year. They just won 8 playoff games by an average of over 15pts per game. That is all-time right there, superstar or not.
June 16, 201412 yr Author No way dude. Maybe...maybe Ginobili over Angie...and I'm not 100% sure even on that. DJ and Parker are two sides of the spectrum in regard to point guards, so would depend what strengths you wanted on the floor, but Parker is not a "for sure" starter over Johnson. Same with Duncan and McHale. Though Duncan is seen as possibly the best PF to play the game, McHale isn't far behind I am more of a fan offensively of McHale and in my lineup he would be the starter at the 4. If anything, I might move Duncan to the 5 and move Parrish out of the starting lineup. I don't know how that would look, but I'd give it a try. But even then, that's not a given. I personally think the 86 Celtics are the better team and would take them in an "all time" matchup. I love the fact that that DJ was 6'4", but Parker is a level higher athletically. I put him, Leonard over Ainge, and Duncan over Parrish. The x-factor b/n the two teams is the level that Bird was playing at in '86. He scored 30something points left handed b/c he was bored on a road trip. I just think that Popp w/ this team would figure the Celtics out in 7.
June 16, 201412 yr Author As would the Magic Lakers, Kobe/Shaq Lakers, Bad Boys and MJ Bulls. The Bad Boys??? Come on now. Detroit got lucky that Larry Bird and the Celtics aged in dog years in 87-88.
June 16, 201412 yr Author Also, why don't the Rockets ever get any love? Those '94-'95 teams were tenacious.
June 16, 201412 yr Also, why don't the Rockets ever get any love? Those '94-'95 teams were tenacious. Because Jordan was away. Not saying it is right but a big reason. I think the rockets were a 6 seed one year they won.
June 16, 201412 yr The Bad Boys??? Come on now. Detroit got lucky that Larry Bird and the Celtics aged in dog years in 87-88. So them defeating MJ and Pippen doesn't count? Them getting to the Finals and beating Magic doesn't count either? Really? They were arguably deeper than this Spurs team and they would pummel them into submission.
June 16, 201412 yr Because Jordan was away. Not saying it is right but a big reason. I think the rockets were a 6 seed one year they won. Exactly. MJ likely wins 8 in a row if he never leaves the game.
June 16, 201412 yr Author So them defeating MJ and Pippen doesn't count? Them getting to the Finals and beating Magic doesn't count either? Really? They were arguably deeper than this Spurs team and they would pummel them into submission. They beat MJ and a very young Pippen, pre-Phil. Also, that Lakers team in '89 was beat to heck. I'm not saying that they weren't good. I just don't think that people will give the Spurs their due since there isn't that one superstar. They are a system team.
June 16, 201412 yr Author Exactly. MJ likely wins 8 in a row if he never leaves the game. Very possible, but the '95 Rockets would have driven them crazy.
June 16, 201412 yr They beat MJ and a very young Pippen, pre-Phil. Also, that Lakers team in '89 was beat to heck. I'm not saying that they weren't good. I just don't think that people will give the Spurs their due since there isn't that one superstar. They are a system team. Historically we never give any modern teams credit over any from the Magic Lakers to the MJ Bulls. Why start now? The Spurs trio is the winningest playoff trio of all time and they beat a battered DWade team.
June 16, 201412 yr Historically we never give any modern teams credit over any from the Magic Lakers to the MJ Bulls. Why start now? The Spurs trio is the winningest playoff trio of all time and they beat a battered DWade team. They destroyed the back to back champions and four time consecutive eastern conference champions. They weren't battered against Indiana...They just couldn't play with this spurs team.
June 16, 201412 yr That #8 seed was a match up nightmare for the Spurs, but they still pulled it out. They were a Vince Carter 3 from taking it in 6, if I remember correctly. Still, it's hard to say that a team is as dominant as everyone is acting when there were enough teams capable of beating Dallas throughout the year to make them the #8, but were still a bad matchup. If we're playing the "IF" game for the playoffs on the Carter 3, we could also say that: "IF" LeBron doesn't go out with Game 1 undecided because of "faulty" air conditioning, the Heat could have went back to Miami with a 2-0 lead in the series. "IF" Serge Ibaka was healthy for Games 1 & 2, the Thunder would have been able to win that series. They had swept San Antonio in the regular season, and in the 4 games where the team had him, they were 2-2, with one of the two Spurs' wins coming in overtime. This San Antonio team is great, don't get me wrong. Their biggest asset is their depth and experience. I'll also say that, like so many other championship teams, they had some things really fall into place for them along the way, some of those being things that were outside of their control (e.g., an injury to a key player of the team they faced in the Western Conference Finals). Things that they could control (e.g., shooting an unreal clip in the Finals), they did, so hats off to them. I think it's fair to say that they are one of the best Champions of this generation (with the Lakers team who only lost 1 playoff game along the way to the title being the best of the 2000's), but I think that if they're in the top 10 teams Champions of all time (or possibly even this generation), then it's as one of the (very) last teams in, if even that. Edited June 16, 201412 yr by JokersWild24
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