Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals?

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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#141 » by homecourtloss » Thu Sep 4, 2025 7:02 pm

MavsDirk41 wrote:
NbaAllDay wrote:
Iwasawitness wrote:
That was actually a very good team, better than the 2023 one imo.


We all know why this team was chosen.



Their 3rd best player missed the entire series, their 2nd best player missed games 2 and 3. Meyers Leonard started 2 games in the series and two of the other starters were Duncan Robinson and Jae Crowder. Tyler Herro was a rookie. You want to tell me why this team wasnt chosen lol? Im all ears


You know why.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#142 » by MavsDirk41 » Thu Sep 4, 2025 9:44 pm

homecourtloss wrote:
MavsDirk41 wrote:
NbaAllDay wrote:
We all know why this team was chosen.



Their 3rd best player missed the entire series, their 2nd best player missed games 2 and 3. Meyers Leonard started 2 games in the series and two of the other starters were Duncan Robinson and Jae Crowder. Tyler Herro was a rookie. You want to tell me why this team wasnt chosen lol? Im all ears


You know why.



Why dont you explain it too me…..again im all ears and will wait for your response. No Dragic and banged up Bam for the 2020 Miami Heat = not a good team. But would love to hear you make 2+2 = 5
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#143 » by TheGeneral99 » Thu Sep 4, 2025 9:48 pm

A few that come to mind:

1999 Knicks - lockout season and East was quite weak that year.

2023 Heat - play-in team. Butler played out of his mind in big games, but not an elite team in my opinion.

I guess the early 2000s Nets and the 07 Cavs could be in the mix as well.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#144 » by TheGeneral99 » Thu Sep 4, 2025 9:52 pm

Bankai wrote:Recently:
2023 Miami Heat (#7 Seed, perhaps had no business being in an NBA Finals)
2021 Phoenix Suns (I will keep saying that they were highly overrated, and quickly fell back to earth)


I'm not sure that the Suns were that overrated. It's not like they got killed in the finals...they literally went to game 7.

This was CP3's last year playing as an elite MVP caliber player and every NBA fan knows how incredible CP3 was in his prime.

You had Booker, Bridges, Cam Johnson, Ayton, Crowder, Payne, Saric...good shooting, good defense, god size and lots of depth.

That was no fluke as the 2022 Suns won 64 games with the best record in the league and yes they lost to the Mavs...but Luka is an absolute assassin. Not sure how winning 64 games means they came back to earth.

What happened is that by 2023, Chris Paul was 37 years old and no longer a star and they went all-in for Durant which sacrificed a ton of depth. They had a bunch of injuries that year...Booker missed 30 games, Paul missed like 25 games, trading key players mid-season.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#145 » by FarBeyondDriven » Thu Sep 4, 2025 10:14 pm

2024 Mavs and 2001 Sixers are among the worst for sure
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#146 » by JujitsuFlip » Thu Sep 4, 2025 10:21 pm

Bankai wrote:Recently:
2023 Miami Heat (#7 Seed, perhaps had no business being in an NBA Finals)
2021 Phoenix Suns (I will keep saying that they were highly overrated, and quickly fell back to earth)
Any team would fall back to Earth if they trade 4 of their 5 starters and fire their head coach lmao
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#147 » by Bankai » Thu Sep 4, 2025 10:30 pm

You guys really think a 37 year old Chris Paul and Devin Booker led team was supposed to do as well as they did during a Covid year?

All im going to say is, look at the rest of that Suns Roster and tell me where they are now? Exactly. That team vastly over performed.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#148 » by Karate Diop » Thu Sep 4, 2025 10:37 pm

SuperDeluxe wrote:Nets 2002.


The weren't bad at all they just ran into a buzzsaw / were not built to battle Shaq. They made it back to the finals with more or less the same team (they got every little out of Dikembe thanks to injury so basically got nothing for Van Horn) the next year and arguably should have won Game 6 despite Tim Duncan's historic quadruple double that wasn't... Had the series gone to 7 the Nets would have had a fair shot of winning it all, but they'd still have to be considered the underdogs given that they were going up against Duncan AND Robinson...

*Now if you're talking about worst finals series, which is a different question, you can probably include the 2002 Nets.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#149 » by Iwasawitness » Fri Sep 5, 2025 4:02 am

TheGeneral99 wrote:
Bankai wrote:Recently:
2023 Miami Heat (#7 Seed, perhaps had no business being in an NBA Finals)
2021 Phoenix Suns (I will keep saying that they were highly overrated, and quickly fell back to earth)


I'm not sure that the Suns were that overrated. It's not like they got killed in the finals...they literally went to game 7.

This was CP3's last year playing as an elite MVP caliber player and every NBA fan knows how incredible CP3 was in his prime.

You had Booker, Bridges, Cam Johnson, Ayton, Crowder, Payne, Saric...good shooting, good defense, god size and lots of depth.

That was no fluke as the 2022 Suns won 64 games with the best record in the league and yes they lost to the Mavs...but Luka is an absolute assassin. Not sure how winning 64 games means they came back to earth.

What happened is that by 2023, Chris Paul was 37 years old and no longer a star and they went all-in for Durant which sacrificed a ton of depth. They had a bunch of injuries that year...Booker missed 30 games, Paul missed like 25 games, trading key players mid-season.


Image
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#150 » by Perishable517 » Fri Sep 5, 2025 4:55 am

Walmart wrote:2000 Sixers:
G 11 Bell, Raja 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 204 lb (93 kg) 1976–09–19 FIU
G/F 23 Buford, Rodney 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 189 lb (86 kg) 1977–11–02 Creighton
G 12 Claxton, Speedy 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 166 lb (75 kg) 1978–05–08 Hofstra
C 52 Geiger, Matt 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 243 lb (110 kg) 1969–09–10 Georgia Tech
F/C 40 Hill, Tyrone 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1968–03–19 Xavier
G 3 Iverson, Allen 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 165 lb (75 kg) 1975–06–07 Georgetown
F 33 Jones, Jumaine 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 218 lb (99 kg) 1979–02–10 Georgia
F 9 Lynch, George 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 218 lb (99 kg) 1970–09–03 North Carolina
C 50 MacCulloch, Todd 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 280 lb (127 kg) 1976–01–27 Washington
G/F 8 McKie, Aaron 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 209 lb (95 kg) 1972–10–02 Temple
F 7 McLeod, Roshown 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 221 lb (100 kg) 1975–11–17 Duke
C 55 Mutombo, Dikembe 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1966–06–25 Georgetown
G 5 Ollie, Kevin 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1972–12–27 Connecticut
G 4 Sánchez, Pepe 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1977–05–08 Temple
G 20 Snow, Eric 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1973–04–24 Michigan State
Naaaah. That was a decent team. Maybe ATL needs to build a team like this around Trae. Physical and solid defensively.

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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#151 » by DwayneSchintzus » Fri Sep 5, 2025 2:41 pm

Karate Diop wrote:
SuperDeluxe wrote:Nets 2002.
They made it back to the finals with more or less the same team (they got every little out of Dikembe thanks to injury so basically got nothing for Van Horn) the next year and arguably should have won Game 6 despite Tim Duncan's historic quadruple double that wasn't...


The Spurs outscored them 31-14 in the 4th and had a 19-0 run at one point. They won by 11 points.

Kenyon Martin went 3-23 from the field.

If New Jersey "arguably should have won Game 6", then what is the argument?
These are the opinions of one lifelong Spurs fan, nothing more
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#152 » by mfletcher4177 » Sun Sep 7, 2025 12:15 am

Bobbymcgee wrote:Who do you have as the worst teams ever to make it to the NBA Finals and where do you have these Dallas Mavericks ranked at?

1. Miami Heat 2023
2. Dallas Mavericks 2024
3. ?
4. ?


What the helly? How were the Mavericks the worst? They ran through the entire WC.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#153 » by JN61 » Sun Sep 7, 2025 11:53 am

2012 OKC? Durant and Westbrook were really good young all-star caliber players but had no help from anyone else. So if you want to factor in game as a team sport that's something to think about.
Pennebaker wrote:And Bird did it while being a defensive liability. But he also made All-Defensive teams, which was another controversial issue regarding Bird and votes.
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Re: Worst teams to make it to NBA Finals? 

Post#154 » by JujitsuFlip » Sun Sep 7, 2025 1:15 pm

JN61 wrote:2012 OKC? Durant and Westbrook were really good young all-star caliber players but had no help from anyone else. So if you want to factor in game as a team sport that's something to think about.
Harden off the bench was a solid 3rd option for them.

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