Greatest (over)hyped team to never sniff a NBA finals?

[Easy-E]

Suns
Ealy 2000s Blazers

I don't see any other team on that list being a legitimate contender tbh...who really thought the Grizz, Roy-Alridge Blazers were really gonna make the Finals

They couldn't get pass the doggone Lakers

 

[bxrfan]

He was, however, he injured his ankle in practice the day before Game 5 of that series; a series in which the Clippers took a 2-0 lead, then lost two straight and Memphis were gaining the upper hand long before his injury. He had his fair share of struggles in that series; getting punked by Z-bo in the process. That was still a winnable series for them, and they lost control of it before Griffin was injured.

Funnily enough, that was another series in which Paul failed to be aggressive in an elimination spot, when he needed to take over the game and didn't.

I hate whenever someone brings up that Blake got hurt as if that's why they lost against us, when he got hurt after the series was already tied up. I'd also like to add (and no one mentions this) that Z-Bo suffered an ankle sprain of his own in Game 2 yet went on to average nearly 25 and 10 on 60% shooting the next four games

 

[Greenhornet]

As a Suns and Nash fan ... I really enjoyed Jrich and GHill over Joe Johnson, although I think Joe has one of the best Iso games of all time. I don't think he would have fit as well if he stayed. Point 2 is Shaq coming because of STEVE KERR... he was our GM and he fukked that all up. Point 3 ... the Amar'e knee injury wasn't as bad as everyone was saying. That's when he was lights out from midrange AND right at that moment before he left, he was absolutely destroying Tim Duncan because he had to come all the way out to the elbow to guard stat. Point 4 which I never understood, they always put GHill or Dudley? sometimes on Kobe, why not push a much more athletic Jrich on Kobe? His vert would disrupt Kobe alot more than a 37 year old GHill just putting a hand up.


Kobe hit the game winner off the tip
Horry throws Nash into the announcers table
D. Fish breaks Nash's nose
Spurs elbow Nash in the eye and he beats them half blind
That Spurs chaos shyt where Duncan hits an ice cold 3 to seal it
Ron Artest put Kobe's airball back


Suns were right there every time forever .... it was just 6 or more really unfortunate games, I think like 5 of those are series sealing games too

I don't think shooting more 3s would be the answer because we had no rebounding ... Amar'e was worthless and we had Robin Lopez and Lou Amusden ... Ghill was better at midrange.... maybe playing James Jones more would have been better for that shyt

 

[Professor Emeritus]

It's gotta be either the Clippers or the Suns. They were the only ones on the list who got real hype AND got a fair chance to pull it off.



Jail Blazers - who da fukk ever hyped up the Jail Blazers? That team was pretty mediocre.

Yao-TMac Rockets - they were devastated by injuries way too early in their run

DRose-Thibs Bulls - they weren't hyped until that first run, and were never healthy again after that

07-10 Nuggets - I don't think anyone ever really thought they had next

Grit n Grind Grizzlies - they WAY overachieved. Won a bunch of series as big underdogs, came close in others

Roy-Aldridge-Oden Blazers - had an incredible winning record when they were healthy, they were just never healthy

the later lebron years during his first cavs stint. the cavs were still garbage but bron was getting handled by the magic and Celtics

Getting "handled"? Against the Magic he averaged 39-8-8 on 50% shooting, against the Celtics he nearly beat their championship team scoring 45 in Game 7 (only some random P.J. Brown jumpers saved the Celtics)

It was an obvious case of "hard to win when one team is exploiting 4 mismatches and the other team is reliant on just one."

 

[Jalether]

for me its the clippers. talent wise any way.
Chris paul, Blake, DJ, Jamal crawford. Their roster depth was no joke either with Bledsoe,reddikk,matt barnes,Butler,Billups, lamar etc. they along with OKC had next before the warriors emergence and were always regarded as a tiltle contender every season until the media finally realised that they were perennial underachievers

 

[Dwight Howard]

He really was insufferable.

It's almost as if the basketball Gods sent this Warriors squad to punish him for his past indiscretions - a squad that hot-lined, hot-song'd the '00s Suns' style, anchored by a player who is the evolution of Nash, and didn't have the run of bad luck that the '00s Suns had. It's no wonder he hates GS so much - they're everything those '00s Suns teams were, and MORE, and have multiple titles to show for it. Now he's doing everything in his power not to acknowledge how great this Warriors team is, because he spent all those years trying to get others to acknowledge those Suns teams.

I'm surprised he even watches basketball anymore after all the torment and pain.

his hatred for the warriors make since now.

 

[DlAMONDZ]

Clippers

They should've made the WCF 3 straight years and possibly sneak in a finals appearance. Instead they choked in spectacular fashion each time

 

[Primetime]

Missed them in 2009.


Those bulls had a core team of multiple players that were critical to their success and weren’t hopelessly dependent on Rose. shyt, he missed 2012-13 and 2013-14 and they still made the playoffs and won a game 7 on the road. LeBron left Cleveland and they went 19-63 with 26 straight losses and were a bottom 3 offense and a bottom 3 defense . Isn’t that kind like having expectations for the 2004-07 lakers or 2007-10 heat?

Yea, with the Bulls I think they were more disappointment (due to injuries) than overhyped or overrated but it may come down to how sincere people's expectations really were of the Bulls core, versus people needing a protagonist to go against Miami.

Right before the '11 ECFs the TNT crew was gassing up the Bulls defense as the greatest of all time, stating that it was better than the '04 Pistons and that Miami was in for a world of hurt. (They were mad quiet after the backdoor sweep and didn't want to credit Miami for overcoming "the greatest defense of all time"). And of course D.Rose was seen as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Noah wasn't too far behind in praise. Thibs was seen as this mastermind coach and defensive whiz who could take almost any team and improve them.

Even after the injury in 2012, people were heading into the 2013 playoffs thinking "damn, once D Rose comes back against Brooklyn in round 1, Miami gon be in trouble in round 2 "

It wasn't until that bad start to the 2014 season, and ensuing season ending injury against Portland that reality started to set in that things may never be right.

Core wise, they weren't dependent on Rose to be competitive, and were like pitbulls, but the lack of offensive weapons ("Boozer and shooters", geriatric Rip Hamilton, etc) always made me wonder what their ceiling really would be if they had stayed healthy. Granted, the Pacers took a '13 Heat team to 7 games in part b/c the Heat's achilles weakness was a lack of quality bigs, which had Hibbert looking like an all star.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

his hatred for the warriors make since now.

The same type of arguments he made for the 7SOL Suns on SOHH, are the same type of arguments he argues against the Warriors now. It's as if he's arguing against his former self.

 

[O.iatlhawksfan]

those team except lob city made it to a con final the others had injuries excuse but yu can make that claim for lob city as well. Idk why Suns getting votes, if not for a dumb call against the Spurs they be in the finals

 

[Primetime]

With the pre-decision Cavs ('05-10) I think they overachieved in 3 of those years (took 60+ win Detroit to 7 in '06, upset Detroit to reach the Finals in '07, took a 60+ win Celtics team to 7 in '08). And '09, that's just a tough one, bc both Lebron and Dwight balled out. In '10 however, even though that Celtics team did go on to embarrass the Magic and take the Lakers to 7, that 2nd round series by the Cavs would likely have always been damning on some 30 for 30 conspiracy tip, if he hadn't come back and won one.

 

[Jplaya2023]

Steve Nash
Joe Johnson
Quentin Richardson
Shawn Marion
Amare Stoudemire

damn near perfect lineup

stackhouse broke joe's nose and that ended their chapter. Than horry broke nash's back and ended it again.

 

[Rakim Allah]

NBA purposely didn't want Sactown winning over the Lakers as @El Poyo Loco said they get a pass

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Yea, with the Bulls I think they were more disappointment (due to injuries) than overhyped or overrated but it may come down to how sincere people's expectations really were of the Bulls core, versus people needing a protagonist to go against Miami.

Right before the '11 ECFs the TNT crew was gassing up the Bulls defense as the greatest of all time, stating that it was better than the '04 Pistons and that Miami was in for a world of hurt. (They were mad quiet after the backdoor sweep and didn't want to credit Miami for overcoming "the greatest defense of all time"). And of course D.Rose was seen as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Noah wasn't too far behind in praise. Thibs was seen as this mastermind coach and defensive whiz who could take almost any team and improve them.

Even after the injury in 2012, people were heading into the 2013 playoffs thinking "damn, once D Rose comes back against Brooklyn in round 1, Miami gon be in trouble in round 2 "

It wasn't until that bad start to the 2014 season, and ensuing season ending injury against Portland that reality started to set in that things may never be right.

Core wise, they weren't dependent on Rose to be competitive, and were like pitbulls, but the lack of offensive weapons ("Boozer and shooters", geriatric Rip Hamilton, etc) always made me wonder what their ceiling really would be if they had stayed healthy. Granted, the Pacers took a '13 Heat team to 7 games in part b/c the Heat's achilles weakness was a lack of quality bigs, which had Hibbert looking like an all star.

The hype for the bulls going into that series was too over the top. After game 1 espn releases a column asking if rose was the best player in the world and Ric Bucher tells dan and Stugotz that he’d take rose over LeBron . Their defense and rebounding was no joke though. They needed one more guard who could run the offense and get his own at a decent level and they didn’t have him until rose was too far removed from him mvp form. Indiana pushed Miami so far because Bosh was hurt and missed all but 13 minutes in 2012 and Wade was playing hurt through the 2013 playoffs. Roy thabeet also seemingly was given free run to do whatever he wanted defensively by the refs. Pretty sure the bulls and heat were called pretty evenly when they met up. If rose never blew out his knee then maybe they’d have gotten past them in 2014 or 2015 if butler develops and Noah stays healthy too, but I don’t see how they’d have done it in 2012 or 2013

 

[FunkDoc1112]

The hype for the bulls going into that series was too over the top. After game 1 espn releases a column asking if rose was the best player in the world and Ric Bucher tells dan and Stugotz that he’d take rose over LeBron . Their defense and rebounding was no joke though. They needed one more guard who could run the offense and get his own at a decent level and they didn’t have him until rose was too far removed from him mvp form. Indiana pushed Miami so far because Bosh was hurt and missed all but 13 minutes in 2012 and Wade was playing hurt through the 2013 playoffs. Roy thabeet also seemingly was given free run to do whatever he wanted defensively by the refs. Pretty sure the bulls and heat were called pretty evenly when they met up. If rose never blew out his knee then maybe they’d have gotten past them in 2014 or 2015 if butler develops and Noah stays healthy too, but I don’t see how they’d have done it in 2012 or 2013

Man, the Bulls overhype in 2011 was what turned me into a Heat fan . Especially after Game 1. God were Bulls fans insufferable about that. Then the backdoor sweep happened