Which Eastern Conference Champion was the best, '04 Pistons, '06 Heat, or '08Celtics

[InRareForm]

I think '04 Pistons are the best of that group.

what do you think?

[dknights411]

1. 08 Celtics
2. 04 Pistons
3. 06 Heat

[xtremesteven33]

2008 Celtics would beat 2004 Pistons in 7 Games.

[T Park]

04 Pistons in a rout.

[JamStone]

This year's Celtics.

The 2004 Pistons had just as good, perhaps even slightly better, defense than this year's Celtics. But, their offense was absolutely anemic at times. The Celtics have Paul Pierce to take over with one-on-one isolation plays when the offense breaks down. The Pistons didn't have that, especially one that would consistently get to the rim when jumpers don't fall. And, since the Celtics had a much better regular season record, they would have homecourt advantage in a hypothetical 7 game series.

I say edge to this year's Boston Celtics team.

[xtremesteven33]

2004 Pistons were a great defensive team but did not have great offensive power.

these 2008 Celtics are deeper and have a better offensive game are just as good if not better defensively

[baseline bum]

The '04 Pistons were the best of the three, and it's not even close. The Wallace boys and Prince were far superior to the Cs defensively, and the only team to ever shut down the inside like they did was the 99 Spurs. The Pistons were deeper; they went three deep at the point (Billups/James/Hunter), and their frontcourt rotation was Wallace/Wallace/Prince/Okur/Williamson/Campbell. They annihilated a Lakers team that was far superior to one that made the Finals this year. They had great low post scoring in Rasheed and Williamson, a strong PG who could play in the post, hit big shots, and get to the line in Billups, an efficient shooting guard in Hamilton, the best transition defender in the game in Prince, a bigman in Big Ben who was good enough to step out and pressure guards, a Posey Jr. in Mike James, and a lockdown defender at the point in Hunter. '04 Pistons by a mile.

[baseline bum]

This year's Celtics.

The 2004 Pistons had just as good, perhaps even slightly better, defense than this year's Celtics. But, their offense was absolutely anemic at times. The Celtics have Paul Pierce to take over with one-on-one isolation plays when the offense breaks down. The Pistons didn't have that, especially one that would consistently get to the rim when jumpers don't fall. And, since the Celtics had a much better regular season record, they would have homecourt advantage in a hypothetical 7 game series.

I say edge to this year's Boston Celtics team.

WGAF about regular season record? If the 04 Pistons had Rasheed the whole year, they'd have prob won 62+.

[Cry Havoc]

This year's Celtics.

The 2004 Pistons had just as good, perhaps even slightly better, defense than this year's Celtics. But, their offense was absolutely anemic at times. The Celtics have Paul Pierce to take over with one-on-one isolation plays when the offense breaks down. The Pistons didn't have that, especially one that would consistently get to the rim when jumpers don't fall. And, since the Celtics had a much better regular season record, they would have homecourt advantage in a hypothetical 7 game series.

I say edge to this year's Boston Celtics team.

That year the Pistons sure as had a lot of swagger though. Big Ben would have destroyed KG. Prince would have given Pierce fits, and Chauncey and Rip could have locked down Rondo and Allen.

I think as good as the Boston offense is, it would have been smashed to bits by those Pistons. I mean, the Lakers took 2 games from this Celtics team and they don't play 1/10th the defense that the 04 Pistons did.

Wouldn't the 04 Lakers have beaten the 08 Lakers?

I think Boston's offense only looks explosive because they didn't play a really gritty defensive team for the entire playoffs. A rested Spurs team would probably have taken them to 7 games.

[Supergirl]

Celtics
Pistons
Heat

[InRareForm]

Wouldn't the 04 Lakers have beaten the 08 Lakers?

absolutely

[baseline bum]

I mean, it's not even close at all. The 04 Pistons came one desperation three from sweeping Los Angeles.

[stretch]

This year's Celtics.

The 2004 Pistons had just as good, perhaps even slightly better, defense than this year's Celtics. But, their offense was absolutely anemic at times. The Celtics have Paul Pierce to take over with one-on-one isolation plays when the offense breaks down. The Pistons didn't have that, especially one that would consistently get to the rim when jumpers don't fall. And, since the Celtics had a much better regular season record, they would have homecourt advantage in a hypothetical 7 game series.

I say edge to this year's Boston Celtics team.

No way, the 2004 Pistons defense >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2008 Celtics defense.

[slayermin]

I give my vote to the '04 Pistons.

[JamStone]

WGAF about regular season record? If the 04 Pistons had Rasheed the whole year, they'd have prob won 62+.

They didn't have Rasheed the whole year. I'm comparing the two teams in their respective seasons. And, even if the Pistons won 62+ games, as long as it wasn't more than 66, the Celtics would still have homecourt. I mentioned how the Celtics had a "much better" record because if you put both teams in the same season, the Celtics still most likely have the better record, thereby giving them homecourt advantage.

Pistons played great that year, but talent-wise, I feel this year's Celtics still has more. And, as I mentioned, the difference is each team's respective offense and the Celtics having a player like Paul Pierce that can take over, attack the rim, and consistently get to the line by drives to the basket.

[stretch]

sorry, but I just think the 08 Celtics defense is so massively overrated its not even funny. its not bad, but their defense is a lot like the Suns defense back in 2006 or whatever, when they actually had some pretty solid defensive stats, but mainly due to the fact that they would run ty teams out of the gym so easily with their proficient offense, which in turn leads to the opposing team taking bad, forced shots. the entire series is proof of that... they got hot, hit everything, and the Lakers would lose focus and take ty shots (except for that game the Lakers came back from being down a bunch, cuz they actually started taking good shots and driving straight at KG in the 4th and were able to get some easy buckets and momentum. the only difference between that Phoenix defense and this Celtics defense, is that the Celtics actually have people that can guard the paint. But their defense is no where close to being as good as that Pistons team, or any Spurs team of the past 8 years or so. Not even as good as the Rockets have been the past several years.

[xtremesteven33]

I mean, it's not even close at all. The 04 Pistons came one desperation three from sweeping Los Angeles.

you have a point, but if it were to happen i see Boston winning cause of better offense

[Vinnie_Johnson]

04 Pistons that defense set the NBA back 10 years.

[jack sommerset]

Celtics and unless something changes in the East they will represent the East the next 2 - 3 years easily.

[The Franchise]

08 celtics. They are the 04 pistons with a little more offense.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Pistons

[lrrr]

Why does everyone say the 04 Pistons offense was bad? They had 4 guys who could put up 20-30 points on any given night, the Spurs have NEVER had that balance. It's just that Larry Brown put so much emphasis on defense. They could guard the perimeter and the middle.

I still believe that if the 08 Pistons were healthy, they would have taken out the Celtics.

[JamStone]

Why does everyone say the 04 Pistons offense was bad? They had 4 guys who could put up 20-30 points on any given night, the Spurs have NEVER had that balance. It's just that Larry Brown put so much emphasis on defense. They could guard the perimeter and the middle.

I still believe that if the 08 Pistons were healthy, they would have taken out the Celtics.

So if they had such a balanced offense with such a great defense, are the 04 Pistons better than any of the Spurs championship teams?

[Ghazi]

Why does everyone say the 04 Pistons offense was bad? They had 4 guys who could put up 20-30 points on any given night, the Spurs have NEVER had that balance. It's just that Larry Brown put so much emphasis on defense. They could guard the perimeter and the middle.

I still believe that if the 08 Pistons were healthy, they would have taken out the Celtics.

Health had nothing to do with that series, the better team won. Sheed wasn't injured, he just sucked (in game 6) whereas Billups and Hamilton played fine.

[endrity]

I also think people are selling the 04 Pistons offense a little short, and they were also deeper than people remember. They had a very effective Memo, a still contributing Elden Campbell, plus the younger Lindsey Hunter giving solid contributions off the bench. It's not like this year's Celtics had that much talent coming off the bench, Cassell was inneffective, Leon Powe had one good game, and then the best they had was 39 year old PJ Brown.

The reason people think their offense was bad was because LB had them playing a very slow pace, but under Flip in 06 they had a tremendous offense during the regular season. They were actually very effective during the Finals, they got any shot they wanted.

Having said that, their defensive domination also had a lot to do with the Lakers simply imploding, especially Kobe who checked out mentally right after Game 2 and went on a do-it-alone mission.

I still think that that year's Pistons were one of the best teams we have ever seen, but also a case of a team who played some amazing team ball, in the most appropriate time. IT's very hard to reach that peak again, and they haven't.

So I would say
Pistons
Celtics
Heat (no debate about them, they weren't the best team that season to begin with)