FkLA
12-31-2009, 02:04 PM
UNDERACHIEVERS OF THE DECADE
TEAM
DALLAS MAVERICKS
Here are the overall regular-season records of the five winningest teams of the decade, for the seasons stretching from 1999-2000 through 2008-09:
SAS 576-244 .702
DAL 548-272 .668
LAL 530-290 .646
DET 497-323 .606
PHX 491-329 .599
These are the five standout teams by far. Utah has the next-best winning percentage at .561.
The Spurs and the Lakers were the teams of the decade, and the Pistons managed to sneak away with one championship, even though they couldn't capitalize on excellent opportunities for more rings in 2005 and 2006.
That the Suns had to experience yet another tantalizing but ringless decade is certainly a disappointment to their faithful fan base. While Phoenix was struck with plenty of misfortune during its 2005-07 prime, there was never a year in which I thought they were the best team in basketball - I never thought that they flat-out blew a chance to win a title.
That honor would be reserved for the Dallas Mavericks. In general, their decade has to be considered a huge success. Pro basketball was brought back from the dead in the Metroplex: the Mavs went from 24.6 wins/season in the '90s to 54.8 in the '00s, after Mark Cuban took over the franchise in January, 2000.
Indeed, the mark of 55 wins per season is a fairly staggering number - 5-plus wins per season over both the Pistons and Suns. Dallas clearly deserves to share the top tier of the NBA decade with the Spurs and Lakers, if not for the harsh fact that the standings of titles won reads LAL 4, SAS 3, DAL 0.
It has to be a bitter disappointment to end such a fruitful decade without a championship, especially because the title was within their grasp in 2006. They won the best playoff series of the decade - a seven-game thriller over San Antonio - which seemed to decide the best team in the league. Dallas held a 2-0 series lead over Miami, and blew a chance to go up 3-0 after giving up a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. Blame Bennett Salvatore for Game 5 all you want, it never should have been that close. Dallas should have been the 2006 NBA champions and blew it.
Maybe the Mavs weren't better than the champion Spurs in 2007, but it's pathetic that we never even got a chance to see a rematch of their 2006 playoff epic to find out. Dallas' 67-15 record tied the '99-00 Lakers for best single-season record of the decade, yet they were famously upended by the 42-40 Warriors in the first round.
Take a look at the biggest playoff upsets of this decade, using the metric of teams which overcame the biggest deficits of regular-season wins. Here's the entire list of series where a team overcame a deficit of 5 wins or more in the '00s:
'07 GSW v DAL 25
'06 MIA v DET 12
'06 MIA v DAL 8
'09 ORL v CLE 7
'04 DET v IND 7
'07 NJN v TOR 6
'05 DET v MIA 5
The Mavs were by far and away the biggest playoff underachievers of the decade. They definitely should have won a championship in 2006, and at least challenged the Spurs for another in 2007. That was when both Dallas and Dirk peaked, that was their chance.
It's been a remarkable decade for the Mavericks in many ways, but in the end they stand on the side of the 25 franchises who went ringless.
http://thepaintedarea.blogspot.com/2009/12/nba-all-decade-2000s-underachievers.html
TEAM
DALLAS MAVERICKS
Here are the overall regular-season records of the five winningest teams of the decade, for the seasons stretching from 1999-2000 through 2008-09:
SAS 576-244 .702
DAL 548-272 .668
LAL 530-290 .646
DET 497-323 .606
PHX 491-329 .599
These are the five standout teams by far. Utah has the next-best winning percentage at .561.
The Spurs and the Lakers were the teams of the decade, and the Pistons managed to sneak away with one championship, even though they couldn't capitalize on excellent opportunities for more rings in 2005 and 2006.
That the Suns had to experience yet another tantalizing but ringless decade is certainly a disappointment to their faithful fan base. While Phoenix was struck with plenty of misfortune during its 2005-07 prime, there was never a year in which I thought they were the best team in basketball - I never thought that they flat-out blew a chance to win a title.
That honor would be reserved for the Dallas Mavericks. In general, their decade has to be considered a huge success. Pro basketball was brought back from the dead in the Metroplex: the Mavs went from 24.6 wins/season in the '90s to 54.8 in the '00s, after Mark Cuban took over the franchise in January, 2000.
Indeed, the mark of 55 wins per season is a fairly staggering number - 5-plus wins per season over both the Pistons and Suns. Dallas clearly deserves to share the top tier of the NBA decade with the Spurs and Lakers, if not for the harsh fact that the standings of titles won reads LAL 4, SAS 3, DAL 0.
It has to be a bitter disappointment to end such a fruitful decade without a championship, especially because the title was within their grasp in 2006. They won the best playoff series of the decade - a seven-game thriller over San Antonio - which seemed to decide the best team in the league. Dallas held a 2-0 series lead over Miami, and blew a chance to go up 3-0 after giving up a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. Blame Bennett Salvatore for Game 5 all you want, it never should have been that close. Dallas should have been the 2006 NBA champions and blew it.
Maybe the Mavs weren't better than the champion Spurs in 2007, but it's pathetic that we never even got a chance to see a rematch of their 2006 playoff epic to find out. Dallas' 67-15 record tied the '99-00 Lakers for best single-season record of the decade, yet they were famously upended by the 42-40 Warriors in the first round.
Take a look at the biggest playoff upsets of this decade, using the metric of teams which overcame the biggest deficits of regular-season wins. Here's the entire list of series where a team overcame a deficit of 5 wins or more in the '00s:
'07 GSW v DAL 25
'06 MIA v DET 12
'06 MIA v DAL 8
'09 ORL v CLE 7
'04 DET v IND 7
'07 NJN v TOR 6
'05 DET v MIA 5
The Mavs were by far and away the biggest playoff underachievers of the decade. They definitely should have won a championship in 2006, and at least challenged the Spurs for another in 2007. That was when both Dallas and Dirk peaked, that was their chance.
It's been a remarkable decade for the Mavericks in many ways, but in the end they stand on the side of the 25 franchises who went ringless.
http://thepaintedarea.blogspot.com/2009/12/nba-all-decade-2000s-underachievers.html