"This went way beyond just passing the torch," ESPN's Bill Simmons wrote of the dynamic between Wade and Shaq after the Finals. There, San Antonio exacted revenge in about as convincing a fashion as possible. Johnny Most's "Havlicek stole the ball!" In the end, this Warriors squad had the second-best postseason net rating of all the 2010s teams sampled. Golden State went 12-2 against the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and Cleveland Cavaliers, including a Finals sweep over the Cavs. Jordan’s squad went 72-10 in the regular season and easily moved through the playoffs with a 15-3 record. Those three, along with Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes and the rest of the roster, put together quite possibly the greatest regular season of all time. "He appears to be a robot built to destroy the NBA," Ben Cohen and Andrew Beaton wrote for the Wall Street Journal. Nowitzki alone had a plus-10.6 net rating (Dallas was minus-9.3 when he sat). Among the teams sampled from 2000 to 2009 for this exercise, this one ranks 20th or worse in regular-season win percentage, simple rating system, relative defensive rating and net rating. Another team that was loaded with top-end talent was the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors. He put up postseason career bests in offensive box plus/minus, defensive box plus/minus and turnover percentage thanks to averages of 30.2 points, 5.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 2.6 turnovers and 1.7 steals. Basically, there can only be one of the six Chicago Bulls title teams featured in this post about the best NBA teams of all time. The 1990-91 squad steamrolled the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons in an 11-1 run through the Eastern Conference. The Lakers were plus-8.4 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor, compared to minus-8.1 when he was off. Seven weeks remain in the regular season, but is there any reason the engravers should not get started on the championship trophy right now?". That season, they led the NBA in simple rating system (their 11.8 is the second-best mark in NBA history), offensive rating and defensive rating. The 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers are more of a folktale than a title-winning NBA team. Among the 1,294 individual seasons in which a player has taken at least as many threes as Barry's 287, the San Antonio wing's 62.6 effective field-goal percentage is tied for seventh all-time. 2 defense. I'm going to get this.". Jon McGlocklin and Greg Smith both averaged double figures, as well. But Boston wasn't done there. Russell's team- and defense-first approach to the game made him the more successful player (in terms of team accomplishments) despite inferior individual numbers. "Well, you said the one word that it was about, it was about a 'team,'" Barry said. And this was the campaign in which he proved himself one of the all-time heat-check guys. One of the hallmarks of this team was the bruising corps of big men. In the future, "But Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson didn't play..." may be a common refrain when people discuss the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors. Altogether, this team was a dominant force. "Fo', Fo', Fo'," or three straight sweeps. Every NBA team’s all-time starting five, ranked from 30 to 1 Andrew Lynch @andrewlynch Oct 20, 2016 at 4:33p ET And that's not the only similarity here. Of course, all of their Hall of Fame resumes are more than buoyed by the fact that they won multiple titles behind Russell's leadership, but most of those players were instrumental in 1958-59. I'm not saying you're at fault, but you know something that I don't know. Parish added 16.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 31.7 minutes. Again, it's obvious why Shaq and Kobe were the faces of the early-2000s Lakers, but there were plenty of solid players around them. He averaged 41.0 minutes, 27.3 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 3.7 blocks and 1.6 steals. In six games against the Indiana Pacers, O'Neal averaged 38.0 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 2.3 assists. Modern NBA fans know this feeling well. It was the second year in a row that Durant was able to top LeBron in the Finals. With five seconds to go and the Celtics up by one, Philadelphia's Hal Greer attempted to inbound the ball from the baseline toward the wing. Havlicek jumped the passing lane and tipped the ball back to Sam Jones, who dribbled up the floor and ran out the clock. In fact, Robert Parish, another Hall of Famer, was Boston's team leader in box plus/minus that season. And Sam Jones was also a double-figures scorer. 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers: Considered one of the greatest offensive teams of all-time, the 76ers took off after a new coaching staff made the shrewd tactical decision for Wilt Chamberlain to be much taller and better than everyone they played against. That season, he averaged 31.9 points (11th all-time), 7.1 assists and 5.4 threes (first all-time) per 75 possessions. Manu Ginobili added 12.3 in 22.8 minutes off the bench. The best teams across history were similarly influential. Tony Parker added 18.6 points and 5.5 assists per game, and Manu Ginobili provided 16.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.7 threes per contest off the bench while leading the team in BPM. A 40-25 disparity in free-throw attempts in the series' penultimate game raised red flags for plenty of fans. They were top-four on defense as well, thanks in large part to the presence of Reed and Lucas inside, as well as the gritty Phil Jackson. When the 1990s teams were separated from the group, this Rockets squad still didn't crack the top 10. On a less mathematical level, it's worth pointing out how good Odom and Ariza were during this era. The 2002-03 San Antonio Spurs were led by a dominant Tim Duncan, who averaged 23.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.9 blocks on the way to his second consecutive MVP. And a supporting cast that included Tom Heinsohn, Tom Sanders, Willie Naulls and K.C. The 1963-64 and 1964-65 Celtics, the 2019-20 Milwaukee Bucks and the 2003-04 San Antonio Spurs are the only teams in league history with better relative defensive ratings. For this article, let’s take a look back and rank the 10 greatest NBA teams of all time. I feel like a rookie again.". 1996-2016: 25.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.7 apg, 172.7 Win Shares, 1-time MVP, 15-time All-NBA, 5-time champion The final two of those titles cemented Bryant in … And finally, there was Derek Fisher, who ascended to his role as the Lakers' starting point guard during this postseason (he would later relinquish it in 2003-04 before returning to the Lakers in 2007-08). These are the 10 Best NBA Finals Series of All-Time by Darrelle Thompson on June 7, 2019 The first few games of the 2019 NBA Finals delighted fans as both the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors threw heavyweight punches at each other. They went on to beat the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals in 6 games. In just his second season, Duncan averaged 21.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.4 assists. Philadelphia couldn't quite back up Malone's prognostication, but it sure came close. Andrew Toney added 19.7 points. The next, in which the 1963-64 Boston Celtics secured Bill Russell's seventh of 11 titles, saw Havlicek take off to the tune of a team-leading 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Jones and Clyde Lovelette. By the time the 1981-82 Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship, Magic Johnson had established himself as the new face of the franchise. His 23.9 points per game led the team, and he managed 8.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.7 blocks in his age-34 season. And, as seems to be the case with the modern Rockets, they were ahead of the analytical curve, leading the NBA in three-point attempts per 100 possessions. And everyone coalesced to dominate in the playoffs. With solid role players Derek Fisher, Horace Grant, and Rick Fox the Lakers were bound for a title and that’s where they ended up. Kareem, in his age-39 campaign, added 17.5. During the playoffs, Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr and Scott Burrell all posted above-average box plus/minuses. The Spurs were plus-70 in that series, the best mark in Finals history. Like the Lakers, the Boston Celtics have had tons of good teams in the history of their franchise but this one takes the top spot. The Jazz, who went 64-18, were plus-11.7 points per 100 possessions with Malone on the floor and minus-10.2 with him off. Thanks to Kevin Pelton of ESPN, he has come up with a formula that has determined the 20 best teams in NBA history. Jordan would finish that 33-point blowout with 39 points and 11 assists. Altogether, the rotation seemed about as close to flawless as rotations get. The Greatest NBA GMs of All Time They're not players, coaches or owners. Jordan was the main attraction, with Pippen as a worthy supporting actor. The regular season doesn't really count from here on out.". And the team's 55.1 effective field-goal percentage was an epic outlier. This wasn't entirely a one-man show, though. I don't want another scoring title. Fantasy Basketball Rankings 2020/21: Top 50 Forwards in the NBA ranked! Wade and Bosh did plenty of damage as the second and third options. The attack wasn't quite as triple-heavy as those of today's teams, but the philosophy of surrounding a dominant big with shooting is something that still resonates. That season, he won his first of three league MVPs behind a 65-17 record and averages of 23.9 points, 12.2 assists and 6.3 rebounds. "We've had a very unique success this year, and I think we have a great team," Jordan said after securing the single-season wins record. "If he was a jerk, if he had no character, if he wasn't smart enough to know it's for the good of the team, I'd have all kinds of problems," Popovich said. In the end, Philly went 12-1 in a dominant postseason that included a sweep of Magic and Kareem's Lakers. The 1969-70 New York Knicks were the first of two teams to bring a title to Madison Square Garden, thanks to a balanced scoring attack and two superstars at the top of the roster. I can't imagine this team without him.". For the series, he averaged 35.8 points and shot 42.9 percent from three (Drexler averaged 24.8 points and shot 15.0 percent from deep). But none of that mattered in the playoffs when the Lakers authored one of the most dominant postseason runs in NBA history. From wire to wire, this was a completely and utterly dominant team performance. One of the toughest teams in NBA history, the “Bad Boys” Pistons won the franchise’s first championship in style. Dwyane Wade's first NBA title came in just his third season, playing alongside a post-prime Shaquille O'Neal for the 2005-06 Miami Heat. Few superteams across NBA history came together as seamlessly as the 2007-08 Boston Celtics. Armstrong was a spark plug off the bench. Bob Dandridge, who would go on to make four All-Star teams, one All-NBA team and one All-Defense team, added 18.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists. But when it mattered most, Jordan was able to once again assert his dominance. After sweeping the New York Knicks in the first round, the Sixers went up 3-0 against the Milwaukee Bucks, who stole Game 4 before losing the series three days later. Those five were the leaders of a 69-13 Lakers squad that has the third-best simple rating system in NBA history. As a member of the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks, in just his second NBA season, Kareem won his first of six titles and first of six MVP awards. Odom was a playmaking 4 who could dominate the glass, and Ariza was the kind of switchy three-and-D combo forward teams are constantly after these days. Eight Blazers averaged at least 8.0 points per game that season. This particular Houston squad featured Hakeem's lone MVP season and his second-best individual campaign by box plus/minus. Robinson's example of selflessness seemed to rub off on Duncan, who led the Spurs through one of the game's greatest stretches of team basketball with the same sort of humility. LeBron James (three times) and Tim Duncan (2003) are the only players in league history to total more in a single postseason. The Kings, who were the top seed in the West, led the series 3-2 heading into Game 6. When you have Kareem averaging 31.7 PPG and 16.0 RPG and Robertson putting up 19.4 PPG and 8.2 APG you will be tough to beat and they proved that. It was a triumph that came on the back of years of struggles. This is another placement that may be somewhat difficult to believe. Walton and Parish were 23rd and 33rd, respectively. And in the Finals, he hit one of the biggest and most memorable shots in league history. His 12.7 box plus/minus over those nine games topped LeBron's 11.8. Of course, he had plenty of talent to work with. The 2012-13 Miami Heat rode the momentum of the 2012 championship into a dominant regular season that included a 27-game winning streak (the second-longest in league history within a single season). After Phil Jackson led the Chicago Bulls to multiple NBA championships he turned his attention to the Los Angeles Lakers. No one has ever combined that level of volume with that level of efficiency. When all four were on the floor, Boston scored, "I was a little bit upset that I didn't get the MVP that year and they gave it to Charles Barkley," Jordan, In Game 1 against Drexler's Blazers, Jordan drilled six threes in the first half before giving the world his famous, Some are quick to point out the injuries suffered by other teams during their playoff run, but all the numbers indicate, "I was ready to become a scorer," he said, per, "On" is something of an understatement when describing Magic's own offense in 1986-87. And that Rockets team led by Chris Paul and James Harden put a very real scare into the defending champions in the Western Conference Finals. He was an integral part of a three-big rotation with Bird (24.2 points, 10.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.8 steals) and Parish (19.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks). Among the teams sampled from 2000 to 2009 for this exercise, the Celtics finished first in simple rating system, net rating and relative defensive rating, and it's that last number that really sets this team apart. San Antonio allowed just 97.7, giving it the best playoff relative defensive rating of the 2000s teams sampled. Seemingly every rotation was made perfectly. And every one of them picked the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. And that postseason, MJ averaged 35.1 points and 6.0 assists while shooting 38.9 percent from deep and connecting on a playoff career-high 28 threes. The experts were split 50/50 on whether they'd get out of the first round. And his basic averages of 18.6 points, a team-leading 9.6 rebounds and a team-best 9.5 assists were eye-popping. Those two, of course, fell well shy of Magic's assist numbers (they combined for 10.2 per game). And Michael Cooper maintained his brilliant perimeter defense and averaged 11.9 points of his own. And in the playoffs, Rice shot 41.8 percent from three. Initially, all 1,507 teams across league history were examined using the following numbers: From there, one hard-and-fast rule was instituted: To qualify for the final list, teams had to make it to the NBA Finals. And then, of course, there was Magic. This may have been something of an "Andre Iguodala in 2015" situation, though. Though many of the names were the same, this was a deeper and more balanced team than the 1992-93 version. Houston also received solid contributions from a young Robert Horry, Otis Thorpe, Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Mario Elie and Sam Cassell that season. In the preceding offseason, the Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. In that Finals series, LeBron led the Cavs in every major statistical category, averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks. Both had skill sets that were ahead of their time. With time winding down in Game 6 and Chicago in possession (thanks to Jordan stealing the ball from Malone a few seconds earlier), Jordan isolated on Bryon Russell on the left wing. "I asked for veterans, I didn't expect to get a seven-time All-Star or a [10-time] All-Star. And they gave LeBron a title that he and some of his supporters point to as the one that put him over the top in the GOAT debate. This team's 52-20 record, league-leading simple rating system and stifling postseason defense were the products of a team effort, though. He led the team in points (27.5), rebounds (11.0), assists (5.9) and steals (2.3) per game. Ever since throwing that errant pass to Larry Bird in Boston Garden three years ago, Isiah Thomas has been as clutch a player as there is in the league. Best NBA Teams of All Time 2010s Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors changed the way that NBA basketball as played in the 2010s. He was 10th in the league in points per game, but when you limit the sample to those who matched or exceeded his 60.2 true shooting percentage, he trailed only Bird and McHale. But it was Wilt's performance in the Eastern Division Finals that really stands out. "Holding that [Finals] MVP trophy over his head, Dwyane Wade realized he was the best player in the league. He had plenty of help in this campaign, though. Not only do they have the decade's best simple rating system, they boasted an MVP in Larry Bird, Sixth Man of the Year and former MVP Bill Walton, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish still in (or near) their peaks and a solid supporting cast around the stars. They came up short. In 1976-77, Walton averaged 18.6 points, 14.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.2 blocks and 1.0 steals. Among every team sampled (so we're talking all of NBA history here), regular-season relative defensive rating was the only number in which the 1993-94 Houston Rockets ranked in the top 50. And his basic averages of 18.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.8 assists in just 28.0 minutes were nothing to sneeze at. Once I said that, I thought he kind of exhaled a little bit.". Wade's 27.2 points, 6.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game were remarkable numbers for a 24-year-old near the outset of his career. Against the venerable Russell, Chamberlain averaged 32.0 rebounds, 21.6 points and 10.0 assists in dispatching the Celtics in five games. But they really started to stake their claim as one of the best duos of all time in 2000-01. "If you talk to people who have been around the league," longtime Portland play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely said in 2017, "they'll tell you that if Bill Walton would have been healthy for a longer period, he might have gone down as the best center ever.". And he did much of his damage in Portland while rocking a beard, mop of red hair and outspoken politics that were all thoroughly '70s. Ron Harper carried over his role from the dynastic Chicago Bulls as head coach Phil Jackson's triangle point guard. Leon Powe was the only player with at least 500 minutes and a below-average defensive box plus/minus. In 2012, the former explained his sacrifice to ESPN's Israel Gutierrez: "It was probably one of the hardest things I had to do in sports was to, in a sense, take a step back. They combined to average 52.4 points, 16.2 rebounds and 8.5 assists, and over 60 percent of the team's regular-season wins over replacement player came from them. Pippen almost averaged 20 PPG that season playing a secondary role which led a lot of people around the league to think that the Bulls potentially had two top 5 players in the entire league. With Pau, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher and others, it was perhaps deeper than any of the three-peat Lakers teams. In Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bulls, Thomas did indeed make the game his, finishing with 21 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. L.A. averaged six such players from 1999-00 to 2001-02. Chicago won the series in six games, but the Jazz were only outscored by four points in the aggregate. On the other end, the Celtics weren't quite as dominant, but the three superstars and second-year point guard Rajon Rondo did more than enough to carry the offense. In six Finals games against the Houston Rockets, Maxwell averaged 17.7 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 blocks while shooting 56.8 percent from the field. Elsewhere on the 1998-99 roster, the Spurs got solid contributions from Sean Elliott, Avery Johnson, Mario Elie and Jaren Jackson. That season, he averaged 22.1 points and 3.5 threes while shooting 42.5 percent from deep and often saving Curry from the hassle of defending opposing 1s. "I'm one of those players who can just turn the scoring on and off.". The NBA (or BAA, as it was originally known) has been around since the 1946-47 campaign. Every drive and pull-up jumper seemed destined for the bottom of the net. With time winding down in Game 6 against the San Antonio Spurs, Allen scrambled to the corner following an offensive rebound from Chris Bosh. Had CP3 not been hurt in Game 5 of that series, we may not be talking about the 2017-18 Warriors in this forum. In 1985, L.A. ousted its rivals in six games. And he maintained his dominant performance through the postseason. They pulled off a historic series comeback after falling behind 3-1, made all the more impressive by the fact that it came against a 73-win team. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers were led by three experienced and hungry Hall of Famers. 1. KG was the vocal middle linebacker who managed everything, and everyone on the roster appeared committed to their assignments. This wasn't a one-man show, though. The 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Sacramento Kings are an NBA conspiracy theorist's playground. Whenever you have a game-changing player like Larry Bird averaging 25.8 PPG 9.8 RPG and 6.8 APG in that era you are going to be tough to beat on a nightly basis and they proved that en-route to an NBA championship. Near the twilight of their careers, Tony Parker (16.7) and Tim Duncan (15.1) were still the team's leading scorers. And it reached its zenith in the Finals, when they got a rematch against LeBron's Heat. The rookie Magic averaged 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 2.4 steals. Detroit's leading scorer, Adrian Dantley, put up 19 points in what would be his final game with a team he helped to a 58-win pace through 45 contests. The best basketball executives build championship teams. The team’s 63-19 record was the best in Pistons history at the time and their 15-2 run in the playoffs is about as close to perfect as you can get, with their only two losses coming against Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. San Antonio had nine players with at least 500 minutes and an above-replacement-level BPM, and the group's connectivity on defense led to a stifling effort in the postseason. The cold, calculated dominance led to a Terminator spot after the season. And they were even more dominant in the heightened intensity of the playoffs. He had a 60.7 true shooting percentage and collected 8.0 wins over replacement player (value over replacement player times 2.7). They were a whopping plus-230 over those 17 games, the best raw point differential for a single postseason in league history. Jones said that year. That was largely because of better performances from Pippen and Grant. In fact, the 2009 postseason may have been the best of his career. They deserve the fourth place in our list of the top 10 best teams in NBA history. The length and athleticism of Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Kukoc allowed the Bulls to play something of a positionless game akin to today's. Keith Langlois of the team's website explained the lead-up to a trade that shocked the league and its fans: "The body language of the Bad Boys was worrisome. In fact, Wade finished 10th in MVP voting. He posted career highs in assists per game (2.9), offensive box plus/minus (4.5) and defensive box plus/minus (minus-0.1). This team is still considered to be one of the greatest teams of all time by NBA historians. The 1962-63 campaign was Bob Cousy's last (until he came back for a seven-game stint with the Cincinnati Royals in 1969-70), but one of the game's most decorated organizations barely missed a beat, thanks in large part to the arrival of John Havlicek that same season. But in typically Spursian fashion, this team was about more than the big names. In the league’s 65-year history, 65 teams …