Rick Bucher (33:07)
So as of last night, seven different NBA franchises have won titles in seven years in succession. So I got fooled a little bit. I thought Boston had a chance to, you know, be a dominant repeat team. They were a very good regular season road team this year. Kind of quirky at and I thought Denver could not keep really important pieces like Brown and kcp. And you know, Joe Jokic feels like he just doesn't have enough support. He doesn't have another all star. So I was saying if I, if I take the last seven champions in terms of, you know, how good are they? None of them I believe are great. I think, you know, listen, if you're great, you win multiple championships. Shaq and Kobe, Michael Jordan, Katie, Steph, Duncan, I mean just San Antonio gets overlooked. Duncan's arguably a starter on the all time starting five man, who's the best six man ever. And Tony Parker was an mvp. And they had Bruce Bowens. You know, fighters, tough guys, legendary coach, well funded, great international scouting. And that team's overlooked. I think all those teams would take OKC to the woodshed. OKC doesn't have a consistent number two score. Depth has never been that important. We don't talk about depth with Michael Jordan's Bulls or Katie's Warriors. Depth wins. Now roster construction, the new aprons and cba, you have to build with depth. So. But I mean SGA is their only dependable score. And he's great, but he could not shoot from three point land in this series 24%. So I would say of the seven last champions, the weakest team was Toronto. Kawhi was absolutely a rental. They were very Kawhi dependent offensively. In three rounds they went six plus games and got a very fortuitous bounce against I think Philadelphia. So it was a team. It was a great story, but a much better story than an actual team. I would put the Thunder at, you know, number six. Listen, they don't have a number two score of note consistently. Chet Holmgren will be much better over the next three years than this year. I do think the coaching is good. It's not sensational. And they were 500 on the road. I think the Bucks in 2021, because Giannis is better than SGA was a much more dominant player on both ends of the floor. Giannis was a basket if he got the ball within five feet and he was the best defensive player in the league at that time. Chris Middleton drew Holiday. Now they were a team, they were not a great team and they, and they got old very fast. Chris Middleton especially. And they fell behind.02 in series. So Milwaukee again, we thought maybe all time stuff and they got old. Two years later, I think number four is the Warriors. It was their fourth title in an eight year run. They, you know, they, they look, they miss kd but I thought from their coaching and their fortitude between Steph Clay Wiggins had a nice final against Boston and Steve Curran Draymond, I think it was such an intellectually I think it's one of the smartest teams ever, along with LeBron, Wade, Spoelstra, Batty A, Ray Allen, those Hegel teams. I would put the warriors at number four. I would put the Nuggets at number three because Jokic at that time had certified himself as the best basketball player in the world. Dominant run in the conference finals and the finals. They only lost one game. I was fooled by this team. They were so dominant, so long, so confident. I love Malone, the coach, but again, they lost some peripheral pieces and became very Jokic centric in following years. I think number two is the Celtics, who had the best roster by far of the last seven champions. But it was still Jaylen Brown who was winning MVP of the conference finals and the finals. So you were never quite sure who was going to take that final shot. But they did not lose more than one game in any series. Most would put them number one. I would put the Lakers number one because I think AD is better than anybody on that Celtic team. And LeBron at that point was better than anybody on that Celtic team. And if you give me the two best players in a series, I think I'll beat you. I trust LeBron more than Tatum and AD more than Jaylen Brown. They were not as good, as deep as the Celtics, but don't forget, Alex Caruso was on that team before we all knew who he was or realized how great he was. And KCP was on that team. So now they also had the best record. People forget this. They had the best record in the west before the league shut down with COVID So you're dinging them because of COVID And my takeaway is I'm giving them credit. That was the quirky, weirdest year of sports in my life. Now, Rick Bucher was apoplectic when I told him and showed him my list.
