Watch Out Miami Heat: Five NBA Super Teams That Never Won a Title
Every since LeBron James chose to relocate "his talents" to Miami and form a "superteam" with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, many have been questioning the ethical ramifications of the decision.
Some say it will inspire many of the leagues other top players to stack the deck in their favor by joining teams with other superstars to win titles. This would ruin the competitive balance of the league and create a system where only a select few teams can win.
I say, building a super-team does not guarantee playoff success.
There are many teams in the past that, when you looked at them on paper you automatically thought: "This years Champions!"
But when they made it to the floor together, it just didn't quite work out.
Here are the top five most stacked teams that just did not win, proving once again that playoff series are won on the hardwood and not always on the roster.
5. 1991 Golden State Warriors
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Their Big 3: Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond
Why The Should Have Won: Wow, look at that offensive talent! These guys could shoot lights out and combined to average 72.5 ppg. Plus, they had a great clutch shooter and future three-time NBA Champ in Mario Elie, and they were coached by future hall of famer in Don Nelson. It also helped that their big three actually had a colorful moniker (RUN TMC based on the group RUN DMC) and averaged 111 ppg. What could go wrong?
Why They Didn't Win: Aparently, nobody told them their was a defensive end of the court which they also had to play at. For all their offensive proficiency, their defensive was very poor. Seriously, they made the Steve Nash Phoenix Suns look like the "Bad Boy" Pistons. They gave up 110 ppg to their opponents, which was 23rd of 27 teams in the league. Their high powered offensive attack was able to garner them 45 wins that year and a playoff series win over the Spurs. But once they faced the LA Lakers of Magic Johnson and Vlade Divac, they simply could not stop anyone on the floor and lost in five games. The next year, Richmond was shipped to the Kings.
4. 1997 Houston Rockets
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Their Big 3: Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley
Why They Should Have Won: C'mon, do you need to ask? You got three hall-of-famers on this team all putting up solid numbers still. They combined to average 60.4 ppg and the entire season Barkley talked (imagine that!) about how important it was for this team to get to the finals and win a title. The fact that they'd won a title just two seasons earlier made them look like a virtual lock to advance to the finals and face the Chicago Bulls that year. The rest of their players were pretty good as well. They had Kevin Willis, Othella Harrington and three-point ace Sam Mack.
Why They Didn't Win: Well, for one thing Charles Barley's mouth, shockingly enough.
During the 1997 NBA Playoffs when the Rockets were playing the Sonics, Charles let some controversial remarks made about his own team leak to the media.
"Some of these guys have won it already so they don't know the sense of desperation I feel to win," Charles said clearly calling out Drexler, Olajuwon or Elie since they were the only prominent holdovers from the title team. "They can't play like this is not the most important thing in the world to them, because it should be."
These comments hurt the chemistry of the team.
Age was also a factor. Charles and Hakeem missed times with injuries, which hurt the team's ability to jell properly.
The Rockets were also plagued with inconsistency. They would go out and beat the Chicago Bulls at home one night and then lose the next night to the New Jersey Nets. They just couldn't maintain their focus for the entire game. That game six loss against Utah, when John Stoxkton hit that open three and sent them home, was them in microcosm.
They actually led by 12 points in the fourth quarter of that game, but just could not keep up the defensive effort for the entire game.
Oh, and somebody name Jordan was hogging all the titles at this point.
3. 2004 Indiana Pacers
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Their Big 3: Jermaine O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Ron Artest
Why They Should Have Won: Well, their big three averaged a combined 51.7 ppg. They had the Defensive Player of the Year in Ron Artest, who, along with Jermaine O'Neal were having the best seasons of their careers. Reggie Miller was still a major contributor and clutch playoff performer. Plus, they had secured home court advantage throughout the playoffs with a 61-21 record and had the third best defense in the NBA, giving up only 85 ppg.
Why They Did Not Win: Well, despite all the talent this team had, it also had some pretty volatile guys who were susceptible to losing their cool. In fact, when they played against the Celtics in the first round, one of Boston's strategies was to push, shove and bait them into reacting to get inside their heads. When you have that many guys who could be taken out of their games so easily, it's hard to maintain the focus to win a title. Artest was always a live wire during this period of his career and remember this was just a year before "The Malice in the Palace" brawl. Artest would win a title was the Lakers this year on a team with Kobe and Pau Gasol, neither of which would have tolerated any shenanegans. They also had to play the Detroit Pistons, the leagues 2nd best defensive team as well, who after they obtained Rasheed Wallace that year, simply had enough size to counter Indiana.
2. 1969 LA Lakers
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Their Big 3: Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain
Why They Should Have Won: Look at those names. Do I need to spell this one out? We're talking about three of the best players EVER to play the game. We have Wilt, playing alongside the NBA logo and Elgin "I lit up the Celtics for 61" Baylor. That's all you should need.
Why They Didn't Win: Well, as near as I can tell, they simply ran into to two teams in the NBA playoffs that were mentally tougher than they were. Boston should NOT have beaten them in 1969. But Bill Russell was not going to watch West, Baylor and Chamberlain send him off to retirement with a game 7 loss in the finals. So he motivated his team to win and the Lakers failed to match their intensity until the games' final moments when they cut an 18 point lead to two, but the Celtics hung on.
"There's no way we should have lost to Boston,"said Chamberlain. "I still don't know how they beat us. It's a mystery to me."
It wasn't talent, it was mental toughness that pulled this series out for gang green.
Then in 1970, a more mentally tough Knicks team beat the Lakers with their star center Willis Reed injured.
Yeah, I know, they were inspired by Reed's game 7 cameo, but seriously? Wilt only had 21 points on 10 shots. In a game of that magnitude playing against Nate Bowman, I would have thought he'd fare a bit better.
1. 2000 Portland Trailblazers
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Their Big 3: Rasheed Wallace, Scottie Pippen, Bonzi Wells, Jermaine O'Neal, Brian Grant...
Why They Should Have Won: The 2000 Portland Trailblazers were one of the most talented teams ever in the league. That roster had everything: great defenders: Greg Anthony, Scottie Pippen, great shooters: Steve Smith, veteran experience: Detlef Schrempf and Joe Klein, big guys that can shoot: Arvydas Sabonis and Rasheed Wallace, terrific defense (they were 5th in the league that year giving up 100.8ppg, but in the playoffs they were better) and great offense (3rd in the league at 107.9ppg). They simply had it all.
Why The Didn't Win: They had a lot of great players, but lacked THE PLAYER. In other words, they didn't have a guy that could take over a game or salvage one when the defenses locked down and someone needed to get a shot. Pippen was never that guy in Chicago, Wells and Schrempf weren't go to guys either. Steve Smith was a go to guy in Atlanta, but at this point in his career he was merely a complementary player. They didn't have that guy that could take over a game and make big shots the way a Kobe or Shaq could.
As a result they spent a lot of time looking lost when they offense didn't flow properly. Everyone remembers the monumental collapse in game 7 of the finals, but that game was foreshadowed in a regular season game between the teams earlier that year when LA played the Blazers in Portland and both teams carried identical records. After leading most of the game, the blazers hit a dry spell and couldn't score. Down 3, Steve Smith hoisted a prayer with 10 seconds still on the shot clock and they ended up losing that game and their focus for the remainder of the season.
The Blazers had all the talent that money could buy, but none of their guys could take on the role of the go-to guy and you have to have one to win the the playoffs. Even that 2004 Pistons team, while certainly not as talented, still had a go to guy in Chauncey Billups to carry them in big playoff games.
This blazer team also had its fare share of volatile guys as well.
Remember Rasheed Wallace's ejection for taunting the referees in game 1 against the Lakers, or Pippen slaming some packing material down after they lost game three to L.A. or Bonzi Wells' immaturity and bad shots taken out of frustration?
This team never had the go to gut or mental wherewith all to win a title. But they were certainly talented.
1a. 2004 LA Lakers
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The Big 3: Shaq, Kobe, Malone
Why They Should Have Won: This team boasted three of the best players of the last 20 years on its roster and when you include Gary Payton (who was past his prime, but still productive) it looked like a tough team to beat. By my count, this team had four hall of famers on one team. Plus, many of the same members of the Lakers 3-Peat team were still on the team, like Rick Fox and Horace Grant. Shaq averaged 21 ppg this year, mostly to accommodate Payton and Malone, but he was still a beast. Kobe was really coming into his own and contributed 24ppg to the cause.
Why They Didn't Win: Well, I think Rick Fox said it best right after they were eliminated by the Pistons in the Finals: "A team will always beat a group of individuals and we picked a bad time to become a group of individuals." It also didn't help that LA mistakenly thought that their talent was going to carry them to the title. Phil Jackson admitted in his book The Last Season that LA just didn't respect the Pistons and didn't really see them as a serious threat to defeat them. Malone's knee injury was also a huge factor as well. Malone, when healthy actually bodied up on Rasheed Wallace pretty well. But with him out, 'Sheed really got going, especially in game 4 of the series. Gary Payton was abused by Chauncey Billups in the finals as well, which really hurt them since Payton was scoring much on the other end. Essentially, this was a team with great talent, but too many egos, Payton's refusal to learn the triangle offense and Malone's knee doomed a great team on paper to also-ran status.
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