nbrans said:
You act like you have a formula for everything, but the fact is you (and I) have no more idea than anyone else what is going to happen in any given year, nor do you (and I) have any more idea than anyone else about what makes a championship team. Hindsight is really tremendous. But history does not necessarily predict the future. History would not have predicted the 2004 Pistons or the 1995 Rockets.
And to call the Showtime Lakers one of the better defensive teams of their era is a tad extreme. Yeah, they were consistently a top 5-10 defending team in a given year, but that doesn't exactly make them elite. And it might surprise YOU to know that the Lakers won their championships in 1987 and 1988 without a single player averaging more than 9 rebounds a game. Not exactly following your championship formula. These Lakers won because they overwhelmed teams offensively. Yes, it can be done.
And there you go again doing the most annoying thing you do -- intentionally distorting a fact to try to win an argument. And that's me giving you credit for not simply overlooking things time and agian. So I'm going to assume you know as well as I do that those two Lakers teams beat opponents on the glass night after night -- +2.3 and +1.7 on the boards respectively. Your "nobody averaged over 9" is a made up boondoggle. They were one of the better defensive teams, one of the beter rebounding teams, had 2 (or 3 depending on how you thought of Worthy) superstars, killed teams inside with multiple post options, had far and away the most experience of any team outside of Boston...geee, nope how odd they won. Their offense was one of the best of all time, and what did that mean for them? It meant that they could be Top 8 in defense and win the title instead of having to be Top 3. It did not give them the option of ever being bad defensively and scoring their way to a title.
Houston, BTW, were the favorites to win the title going into the '95 season -- in case you had forgotten they were only the defending champs. Their regular season was ruined by injuries, but they were also the proverbial team nobody wanted to play come playoff time, equipped as they were by the end of the season player with two HOFs and the greatest interior player of his era (which was full of great ones). They broke one rule -- they never could find enough rebounders to surround Hakeem with, but cinderella or not, the only surprise was that they weren't better during the regular season. And that was only a surprise if you ignored how things went for them that year.
2004 Pistons violated one rule too -- they did not have a superstar. Much has been made of that. Its cute, and good for them. However let's see how much more PERFECTLY could they fit everything else on the list? Tough, rugged defensive team, been together for years (with the exception of Sheed obviously), win the battle of the boards, win the battle inside. In a down year with teams injured and imploding all around them, they managed to get by without one of the championship markers. But only one.
And these are absolutely the best the NBA has to offer for "exceptions". Teams that lack maybe one championship trait. Tough teams. Experienced teams. Teams with great interior presence.
And you know what, while it seems it may have come as a shock to you, evryone else in the league knew that it was going to come down to Indiana, Detroit, Miami, San Antonio last year. Indiana was scuttled by the brawl, but the rest were absolutely no surprise at all. Except maybe to you, I don't know. And how did we do it? How did we do the impossible and actually know which teams were going to be serious contenders? How is that possible??? Go find my little checklist above. Study it. Memorize it. And amazingly you too may be able to do the impossible.
Arguing our team is going to adopt all those championship traits next year seems a real stretch given our history and the players involved. But arguing that they do not NEED to is just wishful thinking.
Here, I will make a prediction for you: given our offense, if the Kings can somehow become a Top 10 rebounding AND Top 10 defensive team by the end of the next year, we will at least get ourselves into the conversation. We will still be lacking a star to lead us, experience together as a unit, and will likely go down. But we would at least be in the conversation.
