Are the 2017 Warriors the most collective amount of Raw talent on team of all time?

[Doctor MJ]

Are the 2017 Warriors the most collective amount of Raw talent on team of all time?

Certainly a strong candidate for most talented NBA team ever, and personally my go-to for best team ever.

I do think a team like the 1969 Lakers deserve discussion in something like because each of Baylor, West & Wilt was seen as a bigger star than Draymond, and I'm happy to talk about that Laker team relative to its era, but just generally you're not beating the 2017 Warriors without being able to shoot 3's way better than anyone shot them in the decades before.

[mdonnelly1989]

Too be clear I don't think they are better than the 1996 Bulls

I'm talking about raw talent.

well that's very unclear. you gotta define raw talent

is it the talent you get when you strip away all the years of training???? what's in your dna

is it the SKILL or athleticism

is it Olympic talent of strength and speed

is it PURE talent ONLY as you can't do anything else but,,,,,,? like if the grandmaster used his melting stick on you all that would be left is a basketball. or maybe ayton who has the body but not the brains

I think of raw talent as natural ability minus any skill. Like take away skill in the entire league and who remains competitive

[Lalouie]

Too be clear I don't think they are better than the 1996 Bulls

I'm talking about raw talent.

well that's very unclear. you gotta define raw talent

is it the talent you get when you strip away all the years of training???? what's in your dna

is it the SKILL or athleticism

is it Olympic talent of strength and speed

is it PURE talent ONLY as you can't do anything else but,,,,,,? like if the grandmaster used his melting stick on you all that would be left is a basketball. or maybe ayton who has the body but not the brains

I think of raw talent as natural ability minus any skill. Like take away skill in the entire league and who remains competitive

play other sports maybe?
prolly only a handfull. being tall is a hindrance in general for everything but basketball and volleyball

[f4p]

The problem when people try to say other teams (or try to prop up Steph) is they ignore the ages of the players. Steph and KD were 29 and arguably in their peak season. Klay and Dray were 27 and arguably in their peak seasons. Only iggy was an older player.

These other teams almost always feature at least one of the main guys being 35+ or 21 or something. Even the 96 bulls had 33 year old Jordan and 35 year old rodman. Two MVPs and a DPOY (who isn't one of the MVPs) and 1 more all star all between 27 and 29 with a high impact fmvp 6th man in Iggy has never been matched and won't again because we'll probably never have the cap spike again that made it possible for a maxed out team to suddenly have a max contracts space.

[Statlanta]

2019 Warriors I think is the most raw collective talent. Took unprecedented injuries for them to lose. Nobody remembers them because they don't have hardware but they were not a failure like the 2013 Lakers.

[Mean_Streets]

2019 Warriors I think is the most raw collective talent. Took unprecedented injuries for them to lose. Nobody remembers them because they don't have hardware but they were not a failure like the 2013 Lakers.

People say that because of the Cousins signing, but he was kinda washed by 2019. I still remember how bad his defense was in the Finals, Looney got more playing time in that series.

[nazario]

2019 Warriors I think is the most raw collective talent. Took unprecedented injuries for them to lose. Nobody remembers them because they don't have hardware but they were not a failure like the 2013 Lakers.

People say that because of the Cousins signing, but he was kinda washed by 2019. I still remember how bad his defense was in the Finals, Looney got more playing time in that series.

True, he was on the downslope because of the previous injury.

But remember he played through a torn quad in the finals.

[WarriorGM]

The problem when people try to say other teams (or try to prop up Steph) is they ignore the ages of the players. Steph and KD were 29 and arguably in their peak season. Klay and Dray were 27 and arguably in their peak seasons. Only iggy was an older player.

These other teams almost always feature at least one of the main guys being 35+ or 21 or something. Even the 96 bulls had 33 year old Jordan and 35 year old rodman. Two MVPs and a DPOY (who isn't one of the MVPs) and 1 more all star all between 27 and 29 with a high impact fmvp 6th man in Iggy has never been matched and won't again because we'll probably never have the cap spike again that made it possible for a maxed out team to suddenly have a max contracts space.

You saying Steph still has something to prove?

[cupcakesnake]

1983 Sixers have to be in the discussion.

Moses Malone
Julius Erving
Maurice Cheeks
Bobby Jones
Andrew Toney

That team is actually the most analogous to the 2017 Warriors of any other team, in that a team lost in the Finals and then added an MVP winner in his prime and completely steamrolled the playoffs.

In terms of raw talent (not success), I'd mention the 1986 Sixers.

Charles Barkley
Julius Erving
Moses Malone
Maurice Cheeks
Bobby Jones
Bob McAdoo
Sedale Threatt
Andrew Toney

[GrindCityHustle]

I still have a soft place in my heart for those Jailblazers teams that couldn't even find PT for Jermaine Oneal. That was the deepest 12 team to me while the Warriors the most top heavy.

[Warspite]

1983 Sixers have to be in the discussion.

Moses Malone
Julius Erving
Maurice Cheeks
Bobby Jones
Andrew Toney

That team is actually the most analogous to the 2017 Warriors of any other team, in that a team lost in the Finals and then added an MVP winner in his prime and completely steamrolled the playoffs.

This is the single greatest collection of talent. The last 3 MVPs 4 all stars and Bobby Jones who was all-star the year before.

That jailblazer team was super deep and a great call. The Bad Boys were also super deep. Microwave, Rodman, Salley, Buddha on the bench

[DaPessimist]

Outside of the original Celtics dynasty, I would probably go with the Showtime Lakers. That team had 2 top-10 GOATs and an insane supporting cast.

Magic
Kareem
Worthy
Cooper
Scott
Green
Thompson

Top to bottom I think they were more talented than the KD Warriors.

[Mean_Streets]

In terms of raw talent (not success), I'd mention the 1986 Sixers.

Charles Barkley
Julius Erving
Moses Malone
Maurice Cheeks
Bobby Jones
Bob McAdoo
Sedale Threatt
Andrew Toney

Big names for sure, but lots of those guys were past their prime and Barkley didn't really hit his prime until '88 or so.

Outside of the original Celtics dynasty, I would probably go with the Showtime Lakers. That team had 2 top-10 GOATs and an insane supporting cast.

Magic
Kareem
Worthy
Cooper
Scott
Green
Thompson

Top to bottom I think they were more talented than the KD Warriors.

That's the '87 team. Kareem was an old man by then, a 17 PPG player. Far from top 10 GOAT production. The 2017 Warriors for sure beats them out in terms of overall talent.

[Lalouie]

in basketball, which is a skill driven sport, when people say "raw", come to think of it in ANY sport really, they SPECIFICALLY mean the player is yet to develop.

the top 9players in mpg, of which west was #9, combined for 87 seasons!!!

2017 gsw was anything but raw...are you kidding!

[Godymas]

nah, it will be the 2025 OKC Thunder. First of all, I can’t believe Hartenstein is only 26.

Second of all, SGA, Chet, and JDub could be HoFers. Team has insane talent depth. Vets like Dort and Caruso. Wildcard pieces like Nikola Topic and Jaylin Williams. Cason Wallace would be called the future of some poverty franchise and he’s coming off the bench for OKC.

Their 6-10 is literally another team’s rebuild.

[og15]

2003 Kings. Webber & Peja were MVP-level players, Bibby was the Jamal Murray of his time, Christie was the best perimeter defender in the NBA, Vlade was Jokic-lite, and their bench was nothing but 6MOY candidates. B-Jax, Pollard, Turkoglu, Jim Jackson, Keon Clark.

They had the rare combo of overwhelming talent & unparalleled chemistry. In most parallel universes, they're a multi-title dynasty.

One of, but I don't remember ever thinking he was better than Bowen, Artest or even Kidd at that time, and there might be others I'm missing, though yes, one of the top perimeter defenders in the league.

[Rdude22]

The biggest what if that nobody cares about is if Kawhi didn't get Zaza'd.

That Spurs team likely takes the 2017 Warriors to 7 just like the 2018 Rockets did (at least 6 games, whether it be losing in 6 or beating them in 6 like the '18 Rockets were in position to before CP3 got hurt), and hence the mystic of the '17 Warriors as this "unbeatable" team that swept the West and lost 1 game on post-season would've never been a thing, even if they'd have gone on to still win the 'chip. Just notice how nobody talks about the 2018 Warriors as much, tho it's essentially the same core 7 players.

Stacked on paper as the Warriors were from 2017-2019, they did benefit greatly from injuries just as much as the Raptors benefited from the Warriors being injuried in the 2019 Finals.

[dhsilv2]

If we don't have to factor in age. 2011 Boston?

Shaq
KG
Pierce
Ray Allen
Rondo
Jermaine O'Neal
Avery Bradley
Nate Robinson
Carlos Arroyo

There also has to have a few Mav teams with Dirk that will blow your mind.

2002 Mavs

Dirk
Nash
Finley
Juwan Howard
Raef LaFrentz
Nick Van Exel
Tin Hardaway
Shawn Bradley
Danny Manning
Avery Johnson

[Stan]

It's pretty obvious that they are. 4 All-NBA players all in their prime, 2 of them MVP's/top 20 players of all time, another an All-NBA/All-Defensive player who is a mount rushmore shooter, the other another All-NBA/All Defensive player who's a DPOY and assists leader.

The 40% claiming no are just objectively wrong.

[ShootersShoot]

2019 Warriors I think is the most raw collective talent. Took unprecedented injuries for them to lose. Nobody remembers them because they don't have hardware but they were not a failure like the 2013 Lakers.

2013 lakers were affected by injuries too, both in the RS and playoffs. Playoffs especially with kobe going down because of the achilles.