Explain the mid-90s Sonics to me. '94 &'95, WTH happened???

[tone wone]

1994: 63-19 (best record), 8.68srs (1st), 2nd rated offense-3rd rated defense, +9.5net (1st)

1995: 57-25 7.89srs (1st), 2nd rated offense-10th rated defense, +8.5net (2nd)

Now, we all know about the infamous 1-8 upset against Denver in 1994 but what the hell happened in 1995 against a very middling Laker team. Of course a best-of-5 lends itself to a bit more volatility than a best of 7 but seeing a team this strong and well rounded (more so in '94) get put out in 1st round is shocking.

How was the reaction to the 1995 series in real time?

How can a team go from pushing PHX to a game 7 in the '93 WCFs to back to back 1st round upsets? Yes the 93 team is different with Ricky Pierce and Derrick McKey but with the Schrempf addition and Payton and Kemp coming into their own they didnt seem to miss a beat in the regular season.

1993: WCFs
1994: 1st rd exit
1995: 1st rd exit
1996: Finals

This is an absurd 4yr stretch.

[Owly]

Depends what you want to discuss.

Haven't got time to go deep right now.

1) As you mention, 5 game series (and playoffs in general).
2) Related to the above, they do outscore their opponents in both series (versus Lakers comfortably).
3) Reactions were "They're chokers", at least from some.
4) Van Exel seems to have really hurt them in '95 (pg defense mainly a strength of Seattle, they didn't force turnovers from him either ...)

[f4p]

someone posted a david robinson video in the peaks series (i think DraymondGold), and it was a TNT game that kept cutting to game 4 between denver and seattle. apparently kemp had 2 ft's to put them up 5 in the final minute but he missed both and then robert pack, not a shooter, hit a 3 to tie. so they were a few ft's from probably avoiding that infamy. as a rockets fan that got homecourt after the loss, i was very happy.

i don't remember much about 95 other than rooting like crazy for NVE while he tried to help the rockets win another title (unlike in 1994 when we split the series with seattle, they swept us in 1995).

in a lot of ways, the sonics are the perfect team to have this happen to them. nba history is full of the deep and talented team that suddenly needs someone to get them a bucket in a big moment and they can't do it. it's why practically every team to win in the last 40+ years had an offensive engine (or two) to either get a bucket or get someone else a wide open shot. i don't even remember seeing deke on the court (but he played 44 minutes so i guess he was) but the sonics late game and OT offense was pathetic. kemp taking a 3 as denver slowly pulled away was all you needed to see. and they should have lost in regulation when pack stripped payton and had a breakaway but lost his dribble. payton and kemp are just not guys you want to trust at the ends of games.

so the sonics could scramble around and out-effort you with a 10 man lineup in the regular season but then a team with a defensive stopper like deke could shut them down or a hot hand like the lakers could outscore them. but eventually they put it together in '96 and that depth was hard to stop. if they put payton on jordan earlier, they could have made it a series.

also, somewhat similar to mavs/warriors and heat/knicks, the nuggets were just a good matchup for seattle. they beat them twice in the regular season.


side note: what a weird playoffs for denver. obviously they came back from 0-2 against the #1 seed and i'm sure most remember that they were down 3-0 against utah before forcing a game 7. but man, games 4 and 5 against seattle went to OT. game 3 against utah went to OT. then they saved the series with a 1 point win. then a double OT win. then a 3 point win. so in the span of 8 games, they won 5 of them, three in OT, one by 1 point in regulation, and one by 3 points in regulation.

also, deke got at least 4 blocks in the first 11 games of those playoffs, is that some sort of record?

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

It was fun to watch Kemp dunk. He is my favorite big man dunker. 2nd favorite was Daryl Dawkins.

But sometimes I had my doubts about Payton as a point guard and about how the offense was coached.
Payton could make the athletic assist and he had decent court vision but I had doubts about his choices. Sort of like Westbrook. They get assists but something feels wrong..

[CharityStripe34]

Definitely a "What If?" team of the 90's.

[AEnigma]

In addition to Payton having a disastrous series on both ends and Van Exel going on an unbelievable hot streak, the Sonics schematically did a poor job of countering the Lakers’ high post offence. Vlade scored above his usual level, but the Sonics never seemed to figure out how to keep the ball out of his hands or otherwise limit his ability to find good looks for his teammates (to whatever extent the regular season matters, the Lakers won four of five against the Sonics that year).

[An Unbiased Fan]

They didn't have a closer.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

Well the common denominator here is Kendall Gill. In '94 he replaced Ricky Pierce as Seattle's starting SG (Pierce was their leading scorer in '93 both RS and their PS run to the WCF), Seattle suffers 1st round upset losses in both '94 and '95 with Gill being awful in both series (to the point of being benched in '95), then they trade Gill for Hersey Hawkins and make the Finals. Gill's athleticism, defense and age seemed like it'd align perfectly with Payton/Kemp and Seattle's style of play, but it turns out that his lack of shooting and weakness in a halfcourt setting (which was compounded by a seemingly low offensive IQ) really wasn't what the Sonics needed from their starting SG

[VanWest82]

In 94, Dikembe happened.
In 95, NVE happened.

But from Sonics POV, Nate McMillan kinda bombed both those series. Even though he came off the bench, I always felt like he was the real engine of their offense, and he just got intimidated by Mutombo. And then he wasn't super effective vs. Lakers either.

95 wasn't as shocking but I can remember thinking GP got punked. To his credit, he came back with a vengence the next year winning DPOY, but his off ball defense on NVE was not good. So short version, it was their back court that let them down.