Round 2: Greatest Team To Never Win a Ring: '86 Bucks vs '10 Magic

[pandrade83]

Over halfway there; into round 2.

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.

'86 Bucks 57-25, +8.7 SRS, lost to Celtics in ECF (sweep), +4.2 Offense, -4.5 Defense
Breuer
Cummings
P. Pressey
Moncrief
Hodges

Lister
Fields
Pierce


'10 Magic 59-23, +7.1 SRS, lost to Celtics in ECF in 6, +3.8 Offense, -4.3 Defense
Howard
Lewis
Barnes
V. Carter
J. Nelson

Pietrus
Reddick
Gortat
J. Williams

[JoeMalburg]

I'll take the '86 Bucks in what I would expect to be a long, ugly series. Home court advantage decides it.

These teams match-up pretty well and were both playing small-ball relative to their era. The Bucks with a three guard lineup and the perimeter shooting and face-up driving of Terry Cummings and the Magic who surrounded Howard with shooters at the other four positions.

The biggest edge for the Bucks I see is the defense that Pressey and Moncrief could provide against Nelson and Carter, I see the Magic struggling to get into their offense a lot of the time and they would become heavily dependent on Howard to score, which usually wasn't the best way for them to play. Between Lister, Mokeski and Breuer, the Bucks could afford to not double and use all 18 fouls if they need to to stop Dwight and limit the Magic's open three-point looks.

A see a lot of games where both teams hold each other under 100 points. The Bucks had the second best defense in 1986, the Magic were ranked third in 2010, add in that the pace typically slows a little in the postseason and the familiarity within a seven game series and while this might not be an aesthetically pleasing series, it's one that would be entertaining with a lot of close games.

Game One: Bucks 102 Magic 96
Game Two: Magic 99 Bucks 97
Game Three: Magic 95 Bucks 88
Game Four: Bucks 101 Magic 100
Game Five: Bucks 93 Magic 88
Game Six: Magic 100 Bucks 95
Game Seven: Bucks 99 Magic 97

Series MVP: Paul Pressey

[The Explorer]

I like the backcourt defense of Mil, and the interior defense of Orl. This is a tight matchup - ultimately I take Mil as I think Don Nelson would adjust better than SVG.

[penbeast0]

I tend to agree that Milwaukee's perimeter defense was outstanding and would hurt the outside shooting and spacing of Orlando enough to force an overreliance on Dwight Howard who was not a very good post passer and could be doubled very effectively. Breuer would have trouble with Dwight, Lister was more effective defensively but extremely foul prone but Cummings was very strong and quick enough to stay with Dwight if they switch or double plus Mokeski, while not that good, was an outside shooting 5/4 who could bring Dwight away from the basket since Orlando could not just sit Howard back in a zone due to the illegal defense rules of the 80s.

I have Milwaukee in a tough series (and I think I picked them to lose last round!)

[pandrade83]

I tend to agree that Milwaukee's perimeter defense was outstanding and would hurt the outside shooting and spacing of Orlando enough to force an overreliance on Dwight Howard who was not a very good post passer and could be doubled very effectively. Breuer would have trouble with Dwight, Lister was more effective defensively but extremely foul prone but Cummings was very strong and quick enough to stay with Dwight if they switch or double plus Mokeski, while not that good, was an outside shooting 5/4 who could bring Dwight away from the basket since Orlando could not just sit Howard back in a zone due to the illegal defense rules of the 80s.

I have Milwaukee in a tough series (and I think I picked them to lose last round!)

You picked the other Bucks squad (‘81) to lose. These guys got by the ‘79 spurs with 100% of the vote.

[JoeMalburg]

I tend to agree that Milwaukee's perimeter defense was outstanding and would hurt the outside shooting and spacing of Orlando enough to force an overreliance on Dwight Howard who was not a very good post passer and could be doubled very effectively. Breuer would have trouble with Dwight, Lister was more effective defensively but extremely foul prone but Cummings was very strong and quick enough to stay with Dwight if they switch or double plus Mokeski, while not that good, was an outside shooting 5/4 who could bring Dwight away from the basket since Orlando could not just sit Howard back in a zone due to the illegal defense rules of the 80s.

I have Milwaukee in a tough series (and I think I picked them to lose last round!)

You picked the other Bucks squad (‘81) to lose. These guys got by the ‘79 spurs with 100% of the vote.

Poor George Gervin, even in Retro hypotheticals he can't win a big game.

[pandrade83]

I tend to agree that Milwaukee's perimeter defense was outstanding and would hurt the outside shooting and spacing of Orlando enough to force an overreliance on Dwight Howard who was not a very good post passer and could be doubled very effectively. Breuer would have trouble with Dwight, Lister was more effective defensively but extremely foul prone but Cummings was very strong and quick enough to stay with Dwight if they switch or double plus Mokeski, while not that good, was an outside shooting 5/4 who could bring Dwight away from the basket since Orlando could not just sit Howard back in a zone due to the illegal defense rules of the 80s.

I have Milwaukee in a tough series (and I think I picked them to lose last round!)

I think you nailed it. I don't really have anything to add. I'm not big on the Dwight era Magic. I think they were very fortunate to get to the Finals because of the KG injury in '09. I picked the Suns over them in round 1, stand by it & take the Bucks here.