Best NBA Team of the Last 20 Years - Bracket

[Sadat X]

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, here's my idea:

We do a WhatifSports tournament pitting the best 16 teams of the last 20 years against one another. Because there have been so many repeat winners, we take only the best incarnation of each team that won the NBA title. For example, we'd take EITHER the '94 Rockets or the '95 Rockets, not both. For teams that had 2 separate title runs (Lakers, Bulls, Pistons, Spurs), we take one team from each era.

This gives us 11 teams. I will add 5 wildcards that you guys can select. I'm looking for teams from '85-'86 or later that did NOT win the NBA title and are not teams represented in the original 11. One team that immediately comes to mind is the '93 Suns.

I also need some help from you guys to pick which incarnation of each championship team to select, which I'll post in poll form later in the thread.

Also, maybe it would be better to just take a poll to determine the winner of each series. What do you guys think? My concern is that this might take all the element of surprise out of the tournament, also we won't get stats and play-by-play. On the other side of the token, the WhatifSports simulations may be too unpredictable, and some off-the wall team may go all the way.

General thoughts? Anybody want to nominate some wild-card teams?

[Linksys]

I nominate the 97 or 98 Jazz- take your pick.

Edit: Also add the 96 Sonics. Maybe I'll have more later on.

[Case Closed]

Do the 2004 lakers count as a wild card team?

[capone0]

Kings 2002-2003. Suns that lost to the Bulls.

[Sadat X]

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I nominate the 97 or 98 Jazz- take your pick.

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I was thinking we've got to have one of these teams in the hunt. I wanna go with '97 - Stockton, Malone, Hornaceck all a year younger - gave the Bulls a decent run.

[Clarkmeister]

This would be cute if there was some doubt as to the eventual winner.

Baseball would be far more interesting.

[Sadat X]

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Do the 2004 lakers count as a wild card team?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, I'm trying to minimize repeat teams, the Lakers will already have 2 representatives.

[Linksys]

Add in 2006 Dallas Mavericks of course. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

How about 1992 Trail Blazers? Great team.

[Sadat X]

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Kings 2002-2003. Suns that lost to the Bulls.

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Kings gotta be in it, they were the better team vs the Lakers in that classic 7-gamer, just not when it counted (save Bibby).

[Sadat X]

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This would be cute if there was some doubt as to the eventual winner.

Baseball would be far more interesting.

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I don't think this is going to play out how people think if we do it on WhatifSports. If this goes well maybe me (or someone else) will do baseball in the near future.