Greatest Team to Never Win a Ring: '17 Spurs vs. '75 Nuggets

pandrade83 · Post #1 » by **pandrade83** » Tue May 21, 2019 12:20 pm

This is a voting based tournament to determine who was the GOAT team to not win a title. The original thread for this is

here

Each matchup will utilize the rules, refs, & equipment of the older team in this tournament. This hopefully will eliminate a bit of the recency bias. Health is as it was at the close of the Regular Season; perhaps a team didn't win because of injury.

One last thing. Voting without any reason listed at all will not be counted. Each thread will be open until it slips to page 2 of the board.

'17 Spurs (have HCA) SRS +7.1, 61-21, lost in WCF to Warriors in 4; offense +2.3, Defense -5.3
P. Gasol
L. Aldridge
K. Leonard
D. Green
T. Parker

J. Simmons
Manu
P. Mills
D. Lee

'75 Nuggets SRS +6.6, 65-19, lost in WCF to Pacers in 7, Offense +4.7 Defense -2.0

M. Green
B. Jones
R. Simpson
M. Calvin
F. Taylor

D. Robisch
B. Beck
J. Van Brenda Koff

pandrade83 · Post #2 » by **pandrade83** » Tue May 21, 2019 12:27 pm

I think the Spurs have this pretty easily.

They were better in their era, and their era was/is much stronger than the mid 70's pre-merger. They'll have a 3 point line - I assume the Nuggets have time to practice & adapt to the Spurs' style - after all Denver shot just 102 3P which should help Denver off my admittedly relatively small knowledge of their backcourt.

However, I worry that the Spurs will feast inside and dominate the boards, they'll gum up Denver's offense with their size and if it turns out that Simpson (just 75% ft) or Taylor (also, just 75% ft) aren't strong 3 point shooters, that Denver's offense will become stale rather quickly.

Pick: Spurs in 4 or 5.

Post #3 » by **penbeast0** » Tue May 21, 2019 7:20 pm

Denver were pretty much overachievers for their talent in 76 with young Coach Larry Brown and his jump and switch defense causing problems for opponents in the regular season. But, they failed to live up to their regular season record (in 75, in 76, and again in 77 when they added a ton of talent (David Thompson, Dan Issel, Willie Wise, Marvin Webster), but kept coming up short in the postseason after leading the league in the regular season.

So, yeah, I'd take the Spurs (might be a tougher decision in 77 when there is more talent though admittedly less cohesion).