Rank 21 Suns, 22 Celtics, 23 Heat, 24 Mavericks, 25 Pacers

[Dr Positivity]

This group of finalists is not super imposing, nonetheless played well to get there. Which were the best?

[lessthanjake]

1. 2022 Celtics
2. 2021 Suns
3. 2024 Mavericks
4. 2025 Pacers
5. 2023 Heat

I’m fairly confident about #1 and #5, but there’s not a big difference between the middle three IMO.

I note, though, that this is separate from how impressive they had to be in the playoffs in order to get to the Finals. For instance, the 2023 Heat actually had to beat a really good Celtics team to make the Finals, while the 2021 Suns only beat injured teams. So there’s a plausible argument that the Heat were in better form in the playoffs (or at least had a tougher road to the Finals), but I just think the Suns were the better team more generally.

[MrIrrelevant]

I think most people will agree 22 Celtics are first and 23 Heat are last. Here is how SRS has them ranked:

1. 22 Celtics - 7.02
2. 21 Suns - 5.67
3. 24 Mavericks - 2.30
4. 25 Pacers - 1.68
5. 23 Heat - -0.13

That looks pretty close to me, I would personally switch the Mavs and Pacers.

[Dr Positivity]

1. 25 Pacers - Making a bold call here even if they don't beat OKC, they have balanced offense/defense roster with Siakam/Turner frontcourt, Hali efficient playmaker (and clutch in playoffs), I like the Nembhard and Nesmith defense and some solid bench sparkplug pieces.

2. 24 Mavericks - Powerful Doncic and Kyrie combination with athletic bigs, but relatively imbalanced team talent wise and backcourt D was a hole. Still in the playoffs having shot makers matters, Doncic was one of the few stars on here at his absolute apex, and I like their bench more than 3 and 4.

3. 22 Celtics - Celtics were a beast on defense with Smart's best year allowing them to play him at PG and the rare healthy Rob Will was a difference maker, but easily my least favorite of the top 4 on offense as grinded their way through 7 game playoff rounds. White wasn't the same guy this year hurting their depth.

4. 21 Suns - Good team but their backcourt scares me less than the Mavs and they benefitted from injuries in playoffs. They have some holes that could be exploited on defense and average bench that couldn't survive Payne collapsing. Probably the worst coach on the list and actually got outadjusted by Bud.

5. 23 Heat - They aren't THAT much worse than the 22 Celtics with a similar model of D/3s/star wing, but yea the obvious pick here.

[GSP]

24 Mavs
25 Pacers
21 Suns
22 Celtics
23 Heat

Ppl really overrating our 22 team. Having that team 1st and 23 Heat last also makes no logical sense. 23 Celtics were the same team as 22 unless you think Udoka to Mazzulla was some enormous historic downgrade. Smart as much as i love and defended him if hes your 3rd leading scorer your team isn't that great. Grant was also given too much credit for our depth he wasnt that good. Bucks w/o Middleton had us dead to rights Pat Connaughton was their 3rd leading scorer behind Giannis and Jrue that series lol that was a bad look for us

We mightve been better than Phoenix but injuries that whole playoff run just make everything specifically weird. Even Phoenix injuries. Cp3 was useless against Lakers and outproduced by Cam Payne. They had other injuries in Wcf too Iirc

[lessthanjake]

Ppl really overrating our 22 team. Having that team 1st and 23 Heat last also makes no logical sense. 23 Celtics were the same team as 22 unless you think Udoka to Mazzulla was some enormous historic downgrade. Smart as much as i love and defended him if hes your 3rd leading scorer your team isn't that great. Grant was also given too much credit for our depth he wasnt that good. Bucks w/o Middleton had us dead to rights Pat Connaughton was their 3rd leading scorer behind Giannis and Jrue that series lol that was a bad look for us

We mightve been better than Phoenix but injuries that whole playoff run just make everything specifically weird. Even Phoenix injuries. Cp3 was useless against Lakers and outproduced by Cam Payne. They had other injuries in Wcf too Iirc

A few things on this:

1. The fact that the 2023 Heat beat the 2023 Celtics doesn’t actually mean that the 2023 Heat were a better team than the 2023 Celtics. There’s a good bit of variance in a single playoff series, and that was pretty front-and-center that series, given how the Heat shot from three. And, even so, the Heat only won in 7 games. I think it’s pretty reasonable to think that the 2023 Celtics would beat the 2023 Heat the vast majority of the time, if we ran that series over a bunch of times. And, regardless, teams can match up well or badly against specific teams, so a team can actually be better than another team and not do better in a matchup between those two teams.

2. The logic of the 2023 Heat beating the 2023 Celtics could be reversed completely, by looking at the 2022 Celtics beating the 2022 Heat. And that happened despite the fact that the 2022 Heat had had a way better year than the 2023 Heat. This either suggests the 2022 Celtics were better than the 2023 Celtics (more on that below) or that the 2023 result was just kind of random. Or probably a combination of the two.

3. The 2022 Celtics were at least a little better than the 2023 Celtics, IMO. For one thing, the 2022 Celtics had a 7.02 SRS, while the 2023 Celtics had a 6.38 SRS. Not a big difference, but the 2022 Celtics were a bit higher. Even that obscures how well the Celtics were playing by the end, though. They’d started 25-25, and then went 26-6 to finish the season, with a +14.53 net rating. I don’t think the 2023 Celtics reached the level that the 2022 Celtics had gotten to. And yeah, Idoka > Mazzulla is probably part of why that is.

[GSP]

I think most people will agree 22 Celtics are first and 23 Heat are last. Here is how SRS has them ranked:

1. 22 Celtics - 7.02
2. 21 Suns - 5.67
3. 24 Mavericks - 2.30
4. 25 Pacers - 1.68
5. 23 Heat - -0.13

That looks pretty close to me, I would personally switch the Mavs and Pacers.

Srs severely underrates the Mavs team that was in playoffs since post trade they were a completely different team



They were a top 5 defense after the trade deadline when they got Pj and Gafford 2 starters and Pj was their 3rd best player. Full season Srs for the 24 Mavs is meaningless when there are 50 games w/o Pj or Gafford. They were 29-24 before trades and defense was a massive problem. Making playoffs wasnt a lock for them until the trades and they were a dominant force after going 21-9 and that was w/ games not having their starting lineup in tact then the playoff run they had beating 3 50 win teams 2 great teams in Okc and Minny who are in the Wcf season after granted w/ some changes in roster

24 Mavs are easily 1st here only Pacers are close

[SpreeS]

I think most people will agree 22 Celtics are first and 23 Heat are last. Here is how SRS has them ranked:

1. 22 Celtics - 7.02
2. 21 Suns - 5.67
3. 24 Mavericks - 2.30
4. 25 Pacers - 1.68
5. 23 Heat - -0.13

That looks pretty close to me, I would personally switch the Mavs and Pacers.

Srs severely underrates the Mavs team that was in playoffs since post trade they were a completely different team



They were a top 5 defense after the trade deadline when they got Pj and Gafford 2 starters and Pj was their 3rd best player. Full season Srs for the 24 Mavs is meaningless when there are 50 games w/o Pj or Gafford. They were 29-24 before trades and defense was a massive problem. Making playoffs wasnt a lock for them until the trades and they were a dominant force after going 21-9 and that was w/ games not having their starting lineup in tact then the playoff run they had beating 3 50 win teams 2 great teams in Okc and Minny who are in the Wcf season after granted w/ some changes in roster

24 Mavs are easily 1st here only Pacers are close

The same with BOS in 2022. They finished season 24W and 6L with +14.4nrtg. BOS dominance was on absurd level. Also these teams looked very different in the Finals. Doncic played like a chair on defence b/c of injuries. The same with MIA, they looked gassed in the Finals.

BOS
PHO
DAL
IND
MIA

BOS was 5min away from taking the series to 3w-1L, like PHO.

[wafflzgod]

'22 Celtics
'24 Mavs
'21 Suns
'25 Pacers
'23 Heat

[iggymcfrack]

1. Celtics
2. Suns
3. Pacers
4. Mavericks
5. Heat

Pacers vs. Mavericks is definitely the closest. However, while the Mavericks may have had better all-around numbers and better numbers from their late season improvement, they were also relying on a very injured star by the time they reached the Finals who was easily exploited by a smart coach who could easily take away his efficacy by attacking him repeatedly on his defensive possessions. The Mavs were fundamentally flawed. The Pacers on the other hand have been peaking with a star playing at his absolute best and no obvious counters to render him ineffective.

[TheGOATRises007]

1. Celtics
2. Suns
3. Pacers
4. Mavericks
5. Heat

Pacers vs. Mavericks is definitely the closest. However, while the Mavericks may have had better all-around numbers and better numbers from their late season improvement, they were also relying on a very injured star by the time they reached the Finals who was easily exploited by a smart coach who could easily take away his efficacy by attacking him repeatedly on his defensive possessions. The Mavs were fundamentally flawed. The Pacers on the other hand have been peaking with a star playing at his absolute best and no obvious counters to render him ineffective.

I mean this isn't true considering we just saw him be very ineffective in game 2 and his numbers for the finals so far are fairly average.

He's not outshining Siakam or Turner by a clear margin at all thus far in the finals.

[Narigo]

Suns
Mavericks
Celtics
Pacers
Heat

[One_and_Done]

1. 2022 Celtics
2. 2021 Suns
3. 2025 Pacers
4. 2024 Mavs
5. 2023 Heat

[dcstanley]

Yeah, the 2022 Celtics are seriously overrated. Back-to-back 7 game series against a Bucks team without Middleton and a Heat team with a hobbled Butler and poor shooting performances from their role players. The finals, despite going 6 games, wasn't all that close and it's not like the 2022 Warriors were juggernauts.

I don't see how they rank higher than the 25 Pacers, 24 Mavs, and 23 Heat who played and beat stronger teams in the playoffs.