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This isn't just about teams with less talent that accomplished a lot.

Sometimes a team with the most talent also display great team values (Miami Chris Bosh sacrificing his numbers for wins).

Who are the best TEAMS to ever step on the court?

Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.

I'll roll the ball out with a few that come to mind:

2004 Pistons

Spurs Dynasties (Popovich era) (ep. 2014)

Utah Jazz of the 90's.

2011 Dallas Mavericks.

...........................

“Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.”

These seem completely subjective. How do you measure any of these relative to other teams?

Richfield wrote:This isn't just about teams with less talent that accomplished a lot.

Sometimes a team with the most talent also display great team values (Miami Chris Bosh sacrificing his numbers for wins).

Who are the best TEAMS to ever step on the court?

Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.

I'll roll the ball out with a few that come to mind:

2004 Pistons

Spurs Dynasties (Popovich era) (ep. 2014)

Utah Jazz of the 90's.

2011 Dallas Mavericks.

...........................

What about these guys?

Pennebaker wrote:

Richfield wrote:This isn't just about teams with less talent that accomplished a lot.

Sometimes a team with the most talent also display great team values (Miami Chris Bosh sacrificing his numbers for wins).

Who are the best TEAMS to ever step on the court?

Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.

I'll roll the ball out with a few that come to mind:

2004 Pistons

Spurs Dynasties (Popovich era) (ep. 2014)

Utah Jazz of the 90's.

2011 Dallas Mavericks.

...........................

What about these guys?

Bud's Hawks definitely crossed my mind too..

homecourtloss wrote:“Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.”

These seem completely subjective. How do you measure any of these relative to other teams?

Measure with numbers? That's a challenge some may venture to attempt.

Others may use words and debate.

It's subjective to a point, it's your opinion and possibly your case for that team, if you believe in these values in the first place. I think there is some consensus "team values" lead to team success. If you feel otherwise, feel free to share your opinion.

1995 Rockets should be a consideration. Took out the number 1 seed. Had 4 players average over 4 assists per game during their playoff run including Horry who averaged 3.5.

Richfield wrote:

Pennebaker wrote:

Richfield wrote:This isn't just about teams with less talent that accomplished a lot.

Sometimes a team with the most talent also display great team values (Miami Chris Bosh sacrificing his numbers for wins).

Who are the best TEAMS to ever step on the court?

Cliche team values, sacrifice, effort, playing for one another, chemistry, collective intelligence, and whatever you see as the benefits of "team" play.

I'll roll the ball out with a few that come to mind:

2004 Pistons

Spurs Dynasties (Popovich era) (ep. 2014)

Utah Jazz of the 90's.

2011 Dallas Mavericks.

...........................

What about these guys?

Bud's Hawks definitely crossed my mind too..

If we want to consider teams that never even made a finals, that opens the door pretty wide. For instance, I'd mention a 90's and a 70's Cavs team.

Any team that won a title was a great team. It means they all bought into their roles and executed them better than every other team in the league. Teams are obviously built differently, but why were the 2004 pistons a better "team" than the 2009 lakers? The lakers had an alpha star in kobe, a beta star in gasol a point guard who hit clutch shots and a good supporting cast. Seems like a well put together team to me.

BigtimeNBAfan wrote:Any team that won a title was a great team. It means they all bought into their roles and executed them better than every other team in the league. Teams are obviously built differently, but why were the 2004 pistons a better "team" than the 2009 lakers? The lakers had an alpha star in kobe, a beta star in gasol a point guard who hit clutch shots and a good supporting cast. Seems like a well put together team to me.

I think you can win with just talent, you can win with teamwork, you can win with both.

Sometimes your best players can carry you with individual performances. Sometimes a talented team can take the first half off and then apply the clamps in the second half. Because of their talent.

Then there are teams that play for as close to 48 minutes a night as possible. Whether they can get it done with talent alone doesn't matter. They still embody team oriented concepts on defense (on a string or whatever), playing for each other, sacrificing body, taking full advantage of each other on offense, etc.

If you don't know what I'm talking about I'm probably not going to be able to explain it.

The 2009 Lakers is interesting because I don't remember them that well.. But you're correct in assuming just because a team has elite talent doesn't mean it's not an elite team. I think of the Warriors run pre-KD (and maybe with him too, just less so), as one of the best team teams I've seen. Basically the years just after Kerr got there. Even though they had some of the best talent in the league they really knew how to play well together as a team. The ball found where it needed to go for easy buckets so so often. It wasn't just great 3 point shooting from the best players (although that is a big part too, but not what I'm focusing on here).

Other mentions:

Curry-Klay-KD-Dray

Conley-Tony Allen-Gay-Zbo-Gasol

Rondo-Allen-Pierce-KG

Fisher-Kobe-Gasol-Bynum

Chalmers-Battier-Lebron-Wade-Bosh

Russ-Harden-KD-Ibaka

'73 Knicks... Beat the Celts in the ECF and the beat the Lakers in 5 games in the Finals.

Leading scorer during the regular season was Clyde Frazier with 21 PPG. The next highest was 16 PPG (DeBusschere, Monroe, Bradley).

Seven players averaged 8 PPG or more (the previous 4, Reed, Lucas, Phil Jackson).

Four players averaged 7 or more RPG (Reed, DeBusschere, Frazier, Lucas).

Four players averaged 4 APG (Frazier, Bradley, Lucas, Monroe).

One of the best coaches ever (Red Holzman).

4th in the league in FG%.

5th in the league in total assists.

Arguably one of the better defensive teams of all-time (Frazier and DeBusschere both made 1st Team All-Defense).

2012-2014 Spurs for sure. Deep teams, big three (aside from TP) out of their prime, and a bunch of unselfish guys who constantly moved the ball, knew where to be on defense, and did everything to make the right play. I miss that team

Teams with superstars can be considered great "team" teams as well.

Steph took a step back 3 straight years in his prime after winning back-to-back MVPs in order to let KD feel comfortable. Could have easily won his 3rd MVP award in a row if he wanted to.

GSW also led the league in team assists for several years, always having the most 30+ assist games. Big reason why Steph's assist numbers are low for a point guard, because their offense relied on ball movement for the whole team instead of letting one guy make all the plays.

With that said, the Atlanta Hawks from a few years ago was the first team that came to my mind. They were the Spurs East for a while and as mentioned above, had a month where their whole starting 5 won the Player of the Month award.