Atlanta Hawks Seek to Win Championship Without a Superstar
Most NBA championship teams--and all NBA dynasties that have won at least three titles--are led by one or two of the 10 best players in the league. The 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks are built on a different model; they do not have one true superstar but they have several very good players. In my first piece for The Roar, where I am now a weekly columnist, I compare the Hawks to the 1979 Supersonics and the 2004 Pistons, two teams that won titles without having a superstar player.Here is the link to that article:
Atlanta Hawks Seek to Win Championship Without a Superstar
Labels: Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap, Seattle Supersonics
posted by David Friedman @ 10:52 AM
4 Comments:
It's great to see you get some exposure, David. It's a shame when the most brilliant and prolific person in their field does not get the proper recognition and hopefully this is the first step towards correcting that.
Anonymous:
Thank you! I appreciate your support and the support of all of my readers.
Would you include the 1988-89 Pistons on that list? They had no one make any of three all-NBA teams. I know Isiah is thought of as a superstar, but he was 17th in the MVP voting that year and was never higher than fifth (five years earlier). Robert Parish, Mark Eaton, and Moses Malone all finished higher in the 1989 MVP voting than any of the Pistons.
With the 1979 Sonics, what sticks out to me about them is their top three guards: Gus Williams, Dennis Johnson, and Fred Brown. Of course, Brown didn't do much in the playoffs that year, but when he's your third guard, you're in great shape.
Matt:
The '89 Pistons are an interesting team and I understand why you would mention them but I would not put them on this list. Isiah is one of the top 50 players of all-time and Dumars is a Hall of Famer as well. They both sacrificed individual glory to win titles, similar to the Knicks of the early 1970s. If you think about it, an Isiah-Dumars backcourt is just a little different than a Teague-Korver backcourt, plus the Pistons had a Hall of Fame forward in Rodman and a couple more All-Star caliber players in Aguirre and Laimbeer.
Post a Comment
<< Home