Whimsical: Would an "All-time" Pacer team beat the Warriors superteam

[mirrornick]

I think OP question was would an all time pacers team beat the current Warriors.

yes, I took it to mean last year's Warriors which is why I hadn't considered Cousins. it's a fun question but I doubt any one season team could beat any team's all-time best playing at their prime.

There might be 2-3 teams who probably wouldn't beat the current Warriors. The Bobcats/Hornets comes to mind.

[Topofthekey]

There might be 2-3 teams who probably wouldn't beat the current Warriors. The Bobcats/Hornets comes to mind.

I spent a few minutes thinking about this, and I came to the conclusion that Pacers are actually in the top half of the league when it comes to an all time team, especially if we exclude players active in the early to mid 80s and before

I am convinced that some combination of Vic, Reggie, PG, Granger, Jermaine, plus some other solid contributors like Artest, Dale Davis, and Mark Jackson can put up a good fight against all but the best franchises in the league

There's of course Lakers who can field the likes of Shaq, Kobe, Kareem, Magic, and now Lebron

Celtics with Bird, Pierce, McHale, and maybe Garnett and Ray Allen, plus Kyrie and Hayward

Of course Bulls with MJ, Pippen, Rodman, Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler

Rockets are scary as well with Olajuwon, Barkley, T-Mac, Harden, Drexler, Steve Francis, Yao Ming (Jezus, now that I listed who they have Rockets are like low key top 3)

Heat with Lebron again, and Wade, Bosh, Mourning, and Hardaway

And yes of course the current Warriors superteam

Those are the powerhouse teams that I could immediately think of that would dominate (Bulls, Lakers, Rockets top 3 in no particular order, with Celtics and Warriors rounding out the top 5)

Beyond that, I think Pacers are as good as anyone else, perhaps even good enough to be in the top 10

Edit: the way I made the selection was, each team could tap into the best version of a particular player they had playing on their team, meaning although Lakers could technically claim Karl Malone and Gary Payton, it would be the versions they got playing for them, not the versions in their prime playing for their respective teams

[Miller4ever]

MY STARTING FIVE IS DC, VIC, BOGIE, THAD, AND MYLES RIDE OR DIEEEEEEEEEEE--

--jk

I'm assuming we're taking peak years for the Pacers, Cousins is reasonably healthy (fair to say after an achilles and rehabbing most of a season, you don't come back 100% and maybe play 30 mpg?), and this is in a 7-game series. My lineup isn't the most talented. You can tell just from the omissions. But it's constructed well and designed to capitalize on the dubs weaknesses. Some inspiration was taken from the Rockets, who managed to push the Warriors to 7 and honestly, should have won if they literally shot better than 18% from deep and/or had a healthy CP3. Some inspiration was taken from aspects of the Cavs upset.

12-Man Depth Chart:

GEORGE HILL ('15)/JALEN ROSE ('00)/DON BUSE ('76)
REGGIE MILLER ('94)/VICTOR OLADIPO ('18)
PAUL GEORGE ('17)/ROGER BROWN ('70)
DANNY GRANGER ('09)/RON ARTEST ('04)
MEL DANIELS ('71)/DETLEF SCHREMPF ('92)/GEORGE MCGINNIS ('75)

COACH: RICK CARLISLE ('04)

First, a few words about key omissions:

MARK JACKSON - Arguably the greatest PG in NBA Pacers history, but his defense is garbo and Steph Curry would negate any contribution he brings to the table by torching him.

FREDDIE LEWIS - A very good scorer and leader, but at 6'0" with no three-point shot and suspect efficiency, he'd be an expoitable liability against the Warriors.

BILLY KNIGHT - Honestly, just don't have the same data and footage of him that I do the other old ABA guys.

JERMAINE O'NEAL - The toughest omission because he was really good and overall a pretty underrated Pacer. BUT. We tend to forget that this guy NEVER SHOT OVER 50% from the field as a Pacer. In fact, he shot 43% from the field in his PEAK YEAR and several other seasons. If I was Steve Kerr, I'd totally be okay with Jermaine O'Neal's black hole post-up turnaround jumper playstyle because he SUCKS AT THEM. Now, he brings rebounding and rim protection, but so does Mel Daniels. And Mel scores at a higher rate and has hardware, albeit ABA hardware.

Lineups:

This roster was constructed to be able to defend, switch, shoot, and exploit the hell out of Golden State's weaknesses. Golden State is not a very deep team, while the Pacers have incredible players going 12-deep. So it's more about the lineups that we put together to force Golden State to adapt.

ESTABLISHMENT

George Hill
Reggie Miller
Paul George
Danny Granger
Mel Daniels

This lineup has the spacing around Mel Daniels to turn him into a threat or a monster-grade Tristan Thompson. This lineup also has decent defense.

SNIPING

George Hill
Reggie Miller
Paul George
Danny Granger
Detlef Schrempf

Across the board, this lineup is better at 3-point shooting than even the Warriors. Since this is '15 George Hill, he is at his shot creator-iest in his career, so between him and PG, there's still a good way to direct touches with Mel out of the game.

[LOCKDOWN]

George Hill
Victor Oladipo
Paul George
Ron Artest
Mel Daniels

This is shades of Vogel. You get Mel Daniels instead of Hibbert,; Ron Artest and Victor are better individual and team defenders than David West and Lance, and with Carlisle coaching you're almost guaranteed to have a top-of-the-league defense. You also don't sacrifice that much offense.

[SWITCHTASTIC]

Jalen Rose
Victor Oladipo
Paul George/Danny Granger
Ron Artest/Danny Granger
George McGinnis

This is an incredibly small lineup, but is designed to do things on both ends of the floor. First, it can switch everything against the lineup of death. Granted, they'll eventually switch into an iso situation with Jalen, but as the Rockets showed, if you turn the Warriors into an iso team, they're still really good, but not godly. On the other end, there is great shooting and shot creation and everyone can obliterate Steph Curry if they switch.

[BIG TALENT]

Jalen Rose
Victor Oladipo
Roger Brown
George McGinnis
Mel Daniels

One thing I like about our ABA talent is they could at least hack 33% from deep. With this lineup, it's all about out-talenting the Warriors at the start of the 2nd and 4th quarters and overwhelming them with size and scoring.

[TRADITIONAL]

Don Buse
Reggie Miller
Roger Brown
Detlef Schrempf
Mel Daniels

An alternative to the bench mob above, this one would also be reliant on old-school post-up cut play. Again, a great lineup to obliterate the Warriors bench while starting to rotate in starters to close out the half or the game.

[CLOSERS-O]

Victor Oladipo
Reggie Miller
Jalen Rose
Danny Granger
Detlef Schrempf

This is the lineup I would trust the most to get us a crunchtime bucket. George Hill is classically unclutch and Victor is feathery. Schrempf could be replaced by McGinnis provided McGinnis hangs on to the ball. He had the turnover rate of a spatula at a Waffle House. Defensive closers would be the same as the lockdown lineup to cover the court and have Mel secure the rebound.

This team is pretty balanced in terms of skill. I think if anything I would replace Buse with JO to give us an extra rim protector and 6 fouls but big men get exposed hard by the Warriors so I'd rather have Buse there to distribute and choke passing lanes.

[Miller4ever]

I think OP question was would an all time pacers team beat the current Warriors.

yes, I took it to mean last year's Warriors which is why I hadn't considered Cousins. it's a fun question but I doubt any one season team could beat any team's all-time best playing at their prime.

There might be 2-3 teams who probably wouldn't beat the current Warriors. The Bobcats/Hornets comes to mind.

That is the newest franchise, and on top of that the best player in franchise history is Kemba Walker followed by Gerald Wallace, IIRC, so yeah, they would get mopped.

Other young franchises would be like... Suns, Magic, Raptors, Heat, Mavs...

Suns with Barkley era + the D'Antoni Suns would just be monstrous.

Magic with Shaq AND Penny AND McGrady AND Dwight would be beastly.

Heat with the Heatles + Mourning + prime Eddie Jones as 6th man is tough to beat

I think Clippers might not be able to put a team together to beat the Warriors or it would be close. Might also be hard for the Raptors.

[mirrornick]

yes, I took it to mean last year's Warriors which is why I hadn't considered Cousins. it's a fun question but I doubt any one season team could beat any team's all-time best playing at their prime.

There might be 2-3 teams who probably wouldn't beat the current Warriors. The Bobcats/Hornets comes to mind.

That is the newest franchise, and on top of that the best player in franchise history is Kemba Walker followed by Gerald Wallace, IIRC, so yeah, they would get mopped.

Other young franchises would be like... Suns, Magic, Raptors, Heat, Mavs...

Suns with Barkley era + the D'Antoni Suns would just be monstrous.

Magic with Shaq AND Penny AND McGrady AND Dwight would be beastly.

Heat with the Heatles + Mourning + prime Eddie Jones as 6th man is tough to beat

I think Clippers might not be able to put a team together to beat the Warriors or it would be close. Might also be hard for the Raptors.

Well now that the Raptors have been mentioned. Their team

Lowry
Carter/DeRozan
Kawhi/Tmac
Bosh
JO
All time, not in prime

Billups/Lowry
TMac/DeRozan
Kawhi/ Carter
JO/Bosh
Hakeem/ JV

boom