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Over halfway there; into round 2.

This is a voting based tournament to determine who was the GOAT team to not win a title. The original thread for this is

here

Each matchup will utilize the rules, refs, & equipment of the older team in this tournament. This hopefully will eliminate a bit of the recency bias. Health is as it was at the close of the Regular Season; perhaps a team didn't win because of injury.

One last thing. Voting without any reason listed at all will not be counted. Each thread will be open until it slips to page 2 of the board.

'09 Cavs 66-16, lost in ECF to Magic in 6, SRS +8.7, +4.1 Offense, -5.9 Defense
Ilguaskas
B. Wallace
James
West
M. Williams

Gibson
Varajeo
Szczerbiak


'16 Thunder 55-27, lost in WCF to Warriors in 7, SRS +7.1, +6.7 Offense, -0.8 Defense
Adams
Ibaka
Durant
Roberson
Westbrook

Waiters
Kanter
Morrow

How much do you believe in the power of (arguably) peak Lebron?

Or, how little do you believe in the power of (arguably) prime Westbrook?

I think OKC would overwhelm them clearly.

The Cavs don't have anyone to check KD besides Lebron while the Thunder can throw Roberson on Lebron to rest KD at times.

Westbrook would destroy Mo Williams.

I think OKC in 6, perhaps even 5. Think they're a tier above as a team. We've already seen Lebron go supernova against the Magic and it wasn't enough(he'd need to be even better since the Thunder are better than that Magic team IMO).

'16 Thunder, more starpower. Too much for LeBron and co.

penbeast0 wrote:Or, how little do you believe in the power of (arguably) prime Westbrook?

Or, how much you believe in him if you know what I mean lmao

I've had a very busy last few days but I'm going to join in here with the Thunder. Lebron's teammates aren't going to produce enough offense aside from him & this Cavs team is the type of team that Westbrook just destroys given the backcourt.

Pretty terrible matchup for the Cavs, their only advantage I could see against most teams would be rebounding and defense but both of those are pretty much negated by the Thunder here. OKC probably has the 2nd-5th best players in the series, and 8 of the top 12.

Maybe if Ben Wallace was 100% he could maybe make a bit of a difference but he was done as an NBA player after that injury.

Cavs only hope really is to wall off the paint and force KD and Westbrook to win from the outside which might work for a couple games but likely not over the course of a series, Cavs just don't have enough offense themselves.

Lebron went 38/8/8 on 59 Ts% and they still lost.

I just don't see them taking this over a team that should have made the NBA finals if it wasn't for their own explosion.

I'm not a voter but OKC in 6, maybe even 5 games. The Magic were comfortably worse than that version of OKC, and i feel Westbrook would destroy them. The 09 and 10 Cavs weren't really a legit 60+ win team to me, they just overachieved because of Lebron's greatness.

OKC. Better team and better matchup.
Also 2009 Lebron wasn't assassin as post 2011 Lebron (don't mention that shot against Magic pls).

As a Cavs fan, I can say unequivocally, the Thunder. The Cavs were Lebron and a few decent players and great team defense.

The Cavs get smacked. They lost to a Magic team that is unequivocally less talented than this Warriors team: WB/Durant are both certainly better players than Dwight.

that 16 OKC team was one of the best teams ever, even better than 16 warriors team. We narrowly beat them by riding hot shooters..

OKC wins
Westbrook will have his way vs the Cavs backcourt

Mrakar wrote:OKC. Better team and better matchup.
Also 2009 Lebron wasn't assassin as post 2011 Lebron (don't mention that shot against Magic pls).

Eh, idk. I think his 2009 playoff runs was definitely his most driven/assassin like, at least until the last game or so. Probably would put his 2017 and maybe 2018 run ahead of that now.

He was definitely on a mission that year and had a confidence level that didn't waiver. Just didn't have the right guys around him and came up against a tough matchup that got hot at the right time.

I'd re-watch those games. His approach was definitely different than other seasons I think.