lilfishi22 wrote:sunskerr wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:I think that 64 win season had a lot of similar vibes but I wonder how much of it was due to just being so dominant and being able to bury some of those issues unaddressed because "winning cures all". Those cracks really broke out out when the going got seriously tough in that Mavs series which culminated with that Monty/DA exchange towards the end. And vibes just never really got better. Not until now
My gut feeling is that 64 win team was maybe 5-6 wins worse in actuality. I think we won a lot of REALLY close games... That can be interpreted as being good at closing, or the flip side not being good enough to just win comfortably. Imo it was more of the latter.
We weren't like a super deep team lead by a superstar. We had our two all star guards and a couple of upper tier role players... rest of the roster really wasn't that great lol. And Ayton imo was not star level during our competing years and I will die on that hill because his box stats and impact metrics do not label him as such (borderline sure you can argue and I wouldn't complain).
OK we weren't
stacked like say the Celtics were the last couple of seasons where each of their starters were either putting up all-star stats or were on an all-defensive team then they had Horford and Pritchard off the bench (who was 6MOY last season). But that's like an unusually stacked team.
We were a stacked contender but the usual level of stacked you need to win 60+ games. Like let's not forget Book and CP3 weren't just all-star level but in that year they were all-NBA level with Book getting on the 1st team. Then we got probably the deepest C rotation in the league with DA putting up 17/10 and playing good defense with McGee (might've been the best back up C that season) and Bismack off the bench. CamJo was getting the 6MOY love that season coming 3rd, Cam Payne had a down year but was also won us a handful of games himself, Craig, Mikal and Crowder were defending 1-5 between them and overall that was a very strong and very deep team.
I'll give you the point about DA not playing at a star level though. I think he played like an all-defensive first team guy on the Finals run but he kind of reverted back to just playing good enough D and putting up some stats on that 64 win team.
Yeah I just don't think we were thaaaat good. Definitely didn't have as much talent as the 07 team imo which won 61 so by that our 2022 squad is more like 58-59 wins. High 50s if we're saying that our sum is greater than the parts, which seems about right if you look at other high 50 win teams talent.
We were like true 8 deep. I don't count guys like Torrey Craig or Shamet or Biyombo, especially in 2022 as rotation level guys. Bleds their contributions but they were 3rd string level guys.
The upper tier role players I refer to are Mikal, Ayton, Johnson, and Crowder. After that a clear drop off to Javale and Payne who were pretty decent. Then after that well who really cares imo.
You crank that rotation down to 8 as often happens in the playoffs and then compare to other teams rosters and we're not that much better if at all than any of the competition especially if the other team had a superstar.
Like I just look at that roster and I can't get really excited about anything on it aside from the starting backcourt. But that's how I usually evaluate teams- mostly on talent. I feel the same way about the 2016 warriors- punching above their weight.
