Which dynasty or stretch of championship teams had the best supporting cast?

[HoopsNY]

Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, Warriors, Bulls, etc. Whose supporting cast was the best?

[Turbo Slayer]

Warriors.

[Turbo Slayer]

Curry, Klay, KD, Draymond, and Iggy!?!

I'm taking them.

[HoopsNY]

Curry, Klay, KD, Draymond, and Iggy!?!

I'm taking them.

Well keep in mind I'm referring to support casts. So in the case of Golden State, it would be Curry-Klay-Draymond-Iguodala.

[Turbo Slayer]

Well keep in mind I'm referring to support casts. So in the case of Golden State, it would be Curry-Klay-Draymond-Iguodala. I still taking the Warriors.

We all know what that supporting cast is capable of.

[HoopsNY]

I still taking the Warriors.

We all know what that supporting cast is capable of.

Yea I know what you mean. Still though, Kareem-Worthy-Cooper-Wilkes-Nixon or Kareem-Worthy-Cooper-Scott-McAdoo is amazing.

McHale-Parish-Ainge-Johnson-Walton is another one that comes to mind.

Dr. J-Cheeks-Toney-Bobby Jones....dayyum.

[97 bulls]

Pippen-the best perimeter player ever
Rodman-the best rebounder ever
Kukoc-One of the best 6th men ever
Kerr-One of the best 3pt shooters ever
Harper-a very good defender and capable 20 ppg scorer

We know that this is a 60 win team.

[AlternativeAcc.]

Relative to the competition it's the Bulls easily, followed by Warriors

[LeCroix]

Relative to the competition it's the Bulls easily, followed by Warriors

Co sign

[Axe]

Poor cavaliers from 2014-18 wouldn't easily count nor is the 2010-14 heat.

[LAL]

Kobe, Shaq, rick THE fox, fisher and samaki walker.

[Turbo Slayer]

Kobe, Shaq, rick THE fox, fisher and samaki walker. HoopsNY said supporting casts. You are going to have to exclude the best player.

[LAL]

HoopsNY said supporting casts. You are going to have to exclude the best player.

Horry, medvedenko and richmond's corpse

[Turbo Slayer]

Horry, medvedenko and richmond's corpse :oldlol:

Good one.

[Da_Realist]

Relative to the competition it's the Bulls easily, followed by Warriors

Wait. I thought the 80's were plumbers and mailmen...? If you're right in your implied assertion that all these 80's teams had strong supporting casts (therefore the Celtics and Lakers didn't stand out that much), maybe we can understand why MJ couldn't defeat them by himself.

Looks like you may have solved a mystery here.

[1987_Lakers]

1. 2017 Warriors - Curry, Klay, Draymond, Iggy,
2. 1986 Celtics - McHale, Parish, DJ, Ainge, Walton
3. 1985 Lakers - Kareem, Worthy, Scott, Cooper, McAdoo

Warriors are #1 because their #2 option was basically a superstar and a top 5 player in the league, Klay as a 3rd option is straight up bad ass then you have Draymond winning DPOY.

Both McHale & Kareem were top 10 players, Kareem was past his prime but still an elite scorer, his rebounding and defense by that point had taken a considerable dip.

[Roundball_Rock]

Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, Warriors, Bulls, etc. Whose supporting cast was the best?

Well, lets look at the real life info we have of "supporting casts" in action minus their best player. Anything else is speculation. These are actual results.

Lakers after Magic retiring: go from 58 wins and the finals to 43 wins and losing in the first round.
Celtics after Russell retiring: go from champs to missing the playoffs.
Celtics without Bird (76 games missed): go from 57 wins and the ECF to 42 wins and losing in the first round.
Bulls after MJ retiring: go from 57 wins, champs to 55 wins and losing in 7 in the ECSF
Lakers after Shaq is traded: go from 58 wins and the finals to 34 wins and missing the playoffs.

So to recap, it is -14 wins for the 60's Celtics, -15 for the Showtime Lakers, -15 for the 80's Celtics, -2 for the Bulls, and -24 for the 00's Lakers.

We don't have full season information for the Warriors but the available evidence from a decent sample of games missed shows they did fine without KD (around .900), but without Curry they became a .600 team.

The answer, relative to their comp, is obvious. Whether people want to ignore the data is up to them but the data has a clear answer.

[Jasper]

supporting cast is referring to guys of the bench playing a role …

Got to take Bulls, with Toni K. and the rest of the bench warmers....

76's had the jones and and never seemed to let up.

Warriors I will say come in 3rd or 4th … because there team concept of run and gun .

[HoopsNY]

Pippen-the best perimeter player ever
Rodman-the best rebounder ever
Kukoc-One of the best 6th men ever
Kerr-One of the best 3pt shooters ever
Harper-a very good defender and capable 20 ppg scorer

We know that this is a 60 win team.

Better than a Lakers supporting cast of Kareem-Worthy-Wilkes-Nixon-Cooper-McAdoo? No way man.

[HoopsNY]

Well, lets look at the real life info we have of "supporting casts" in action minus their best player. Anything else is speculation. These are actual results.

Lakers after Magic retiring: go from 58 wins and the finals to 43 wins and losing in the first round.
Celtics after Russell retiring: go from champs to missing the playoffs.
Celtics without Bird (76 games missed): go from 57 wins and the ECF to 42 wins and losing in the first round.
Bulls after MJ retiring: go from 57 wins, champs to 55 wins and losing in 7 in the ECSF
Lakers after Shaq is traded: go from 58 wins and the finals to 34 wins and missing the playoffs.

So to recap, it is -14 wins for the 60's Celtics, -15 for the Showtime Lakers, -15 for the 80's Celtics, -2 for the Bulls, and -24 for the 00's Lakers.

We don't have full season information for the Warriors but the available evidence from a decent sample of games missed shows they did fine without KD (around .900), but without Curry they became a .600 team.

The answer, relative to their comp, is obvious. Whether people want to ignore the data is up to them but the data has a clear answer.

So Magic retires in 1991 and the team wins 43 games and you can use that, but Larry retiring and the team dropping from 51 to 48 wins doesn't count?

Anyway this isn't a post about MJ retiring (especially seeing that he's the only GOAT player to retire in the midst of his prime on a championship team).

If you want to champion the 1993 team as having the best supporting cast, then I'm curious to know what you think about the early 80s Lakers, mid 80s Celtics, late 80s Pistons, 1982-83 Sixers, 2017 Warriors, 2010-2012 Heat, early 50s-60s Celtics, etc.

[Roundball_Rock]

So Magic retires in 1991 and the team wins 43 games and you can use that, but Larry retiring and the team dropping from 51 to 48 wins doesn't count?

The Celtics dynasty, as well as Bird's prime and those of McHale and Parish, was long over by 1992. Accordingly, what does 1992 and 1993 tell us about the Celtics when they were contenders many years prior?

It should be noted for accuracy's sake that the Celtics were a 56 win pace team in the half season Bird actually played in 92'. Surprise, surprise, in 82 games without him in 93' the performance mirrored what they did in the games Bird missed in 92'.


then I'm curious to know what you think about the early 80s Lakers, mid 80s Celtics, late 80s Pistons, 1982-83 Sixers, 2017 Warriors, 2010-2012 Heat, early 50s-60s Celtics

It is all speculation. Names on papers. We don't know how the interlocking parts would work if you took the best player off (unless the player missed significant time). We also have to compare relative to eras. People, for whatever reason, compare 1996 rosters to 1986 and 2016 as if roster construction doesn't change. In the 90's you could contend with Klay as your best player (Miller). That would be impossible today or in the 80's.

Let's look at rivals for some context. Let's take Kareem off the 1986 Lakers (we have a real life example of Magic being removed) but also take Bird of the 86' Celtics.

Lakers' best players: Magic, Worthy, Scott
Celtics' best players: McHale, Parish, D. Johnson

How do you weight the two? The Lakers clearly have the better #1 player (also true if you use Kareem instead of Magic) but the Celtics' #3 is clearly better. Is the gap between Magic and McHale greater than that between Scott and DJ?

Let's do the same exercise with the Bulls and their top rival, the Knicks (1993).

Bulls' best players: Pippen, Grant, Armstrong
Knick's best players: Starks, Oakley, Smith

How about the 2012 Heat and the 2012 Thunder?

Heat's best players: Wade, Bosh, ? (Chalmers?)
Thunder's best players: Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka

These are the "cast" comparisons that need to be made, not comparing the 1967 Sixers to the 2017 Warriors.