Draymond Green Responds to Rasheed Wallace: '17 Warriors Would've Smacked '04 Pistons

Rasheed Wallace believes his 2003-04 Detroit Pistons would have beaten the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors.

Draymond Green respectfully disagrees:

Wallace's Pistons pulled off one of the biggest NBA Finals upsets in league history, defeating Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. The 2016-17 Dubs, however, won 67 game in the regular season and went 16-1 in the postseason, led by the elite foursome of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

It was one of four titles Curry, Green and Thompson would go on to win together. The Pistons haven't won a title since their upset over the Lakers.

The case for the Warriors is that they simply had more firepower than arguably any team in NBA history could have handled, able to space the floor and rain shots from the perimeter. Durant was also the best one-on-one scorer in the league at the time, and Curry and Thompson each had clutch performances throughout their playoff careers to rip the hearts out of opponents.

The Warriors were also underrated defensively, but their advantage would have come on the offensive end.

The case for the Pistons is that they were a fantastic defensive team who probably would have translated to the modern game on that end given Ben Wallace's rim protection, their overall length and the ability of Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton to lock down the perimeter.

But Green's point is fair—would that team have been able to keep pace with the floor spacing, perimeter shooting and pace of the Warriors?

Yes, the Pistons were physical and tough. Yes, they upset a Lakers team that had won three straight titles between the 1999-00 and 2001-02 seasons.

But by that point, the relationship between Shaq and Kobe had withered beyond repair and the Lakers were a collapsing empire.

The Warriors, meanwhile, were at their absolute peak in the 2016-17 season. They had some mild growing pains with Durant, but stylistically he was a fairly natural fit into the team's offensive scheme and finished as the Finals MVP after averaging 35.2 points per game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wallace's gritty Pistons would have done their best to muck up a series with the Warriors. But most basketball historians would pick the Warriors—and in resounding fashion—in the hypothetical matchup.