Most talented rosters: 2001 Blazers

[JoeMalburg]

Looking through some of the early 2000's years, I took notice of the 2000-01 Portland Trailblazers roster and thought, I bet this is the most talented group of players ever assembled 1-12.

I don't mean at the time, I mean in terms of the quality of careers these guys had. Here's the squad, tell me what you think and what other teams you'd nominate:

Rasheed Wallace
Scottie Pippen
Arvydas Sabonis
Steve Smith
Dale Davis
Damon Stoudamire
Shawn Kemp
Detlef Schrempf
Greg Anthony
Rod Strickland
Stacey Augman
Bonzi Wells

Nine of those guys were all-star level players in their prime. You have a rookie of the year in their, a sixth man award winner, multiple All-NBA guys, college National Champions, NBA Champions, Olympic Champions. You have at least four Hall of Famers and all of them were solid starters at worst at some point. Heck of a roster...

Oh and they got swept by the Lakers.

[Texas Chuck]

you can do this with a bunch of teams if you don't care how they were playing at the time.

Now that was a deep Portland team, but their problem was their best players weren't elite and you typically need those players to win playoff series. Especially against peak Shaq.

[nolang1]

Yeah most teams going for a title are filling out their roster with old vets, who are more likely to have been stars and gotten worse than constantly have stayed at role player level for 10 years without declining. Lots of old Lakers/Celtics teams were pretty stocked with Hall of Famers and even had guys like Bill Walton and Bob McAdoo coming off the bench.

If you're using college accolades as a measure of talent, the last LeBron Heat team was pretty interesting with old guys like Ray Allen, Battier, Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis, and Udonis Haslem and former top prospects like Greg Oden and Michael Beasley in addition to LeBron, Wade, and Bosh.

[HBK_Kliq_33]

2004 Lakers, 2014 Spurs, 2019 Warriors are all better in talent if we're talking peaks.

[JoeMalburg]

Yeah most teams going for a title are filling out their roster with old vets, who are more likely to have been stars and gotten worse than constantly have stayed at role player level for 10 years without declining. Lots of old Lakers/Celtics teams were pretty stocked with Hall of Famers and even had guys like Bill Walton and Bob McAdoo coming off the bench.

If you're using college accolades as a measure of talent, the last LeBron Heat team was pretty interesting with old guys like Ray Allen, Battier, Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis, and Udonis Haslem and former top prospects like Greg Oden and Michael Beasley in addition to LeBron, Wade, and Bosh.

You're certainly right about how you end up with that type of roster and that '14 Heat team is a good pull, but even those Laker and Celtic teams kind of died after 9-10 deep. Can't remember many 12-deep rosters like this Blazers one.

Would have to be fun to be around so many established and proven guys.

[nolang1]

Yeah most teams going for a title are filling out their roster with old vets, who are more likely to have been stars and gotten worse than constantly have stayed at role player level for 10 years without declining. Lots of old Lakers/Celtics teams were pretty stocked with Hall of Famers and even had guys like Bill Walton and Bob McAdoo coming off the bench.

If you're using college accolades as a measure of talent, the last LeBron Heat team was pretty interesting with old guys like Ray Allen, Battier, Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis, and Udonis Haslem and former top prospects like Greg Oden and Michael Beasley in addition to LeBron, Wade, and Bosh.

You're certainly right about how you end up with that type of roster and that '14 Heat team is a good pull, but even those Laker and Celtic teams kind of died after 9-10 deep. Can't remember many 12-deep rosters like this Blazers one.

Would have to be fun to be around so many established and proven guys.

Heh, given the relative success of the teams being discussed, it probably speaks to the importance of not only having high-end talent (it's probably fair to argue that one LeBron/Magic/Bird is worth multiple 'regular' all-stars) but the chemistry benefit of having at least a few players who understand they aren't going to be getting any minutes or touches.

[HEAT33]

Miami Heat 07
PG J Williams, Payton, Penny
SG Wade, Ricky Davis
SF Walker
PF Marion
C Shaq, Mourning

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

2,000 Blazers have JO and Braian Grant but don't have Kemp.
2,002 Blazers have Zach Randolph

[Owly]

Miami Heat 07
PG J Williams, Payton, Penny
SG Wade, Ricky Davis
SF Walker
PF Marion
C Shaq, Mourning

That 07 team is good enough that you don't need the double counting trick (Shaq and Marion), which in any case shows you are merging two seasons (Marion trade in 07-08, Penny in 07-08, Ricky Davis in 07-08 -- Payton in 06-07, Walker in 06-07 and fwiw [unmentioned] Eddie Jones in 06-07, James Posey in 06-07).

Kevin Pelton's WARP had 2006-07 Heat as he best "If al in their peaks" season.

[Warspite]

The late 80s Celtics were loaded with former all stars who were vets on the bench.

89 had 8 players who played in all star game and 5 future NBA starters.

Bird, Mc Hale, Parrish, Ainge, DJ, Paxson, Birdsong, Lewis

Brian Shaw, Joe Kleine, Brad Lohaus, Ed Pinkney, Kevin Gamble

[Texas Chuck]

Miami Heat 07
PG J Williams, Payton, Penny
SG Wade, Ricky Davis
SF Walker
PF Marion
C Shaq, Mourning

seems like cheating since Shaq was traded for Marion but okay...