Best NBA Champ Supporting Casts

[HookEm 2471]

All the talk about the degree to which Giannis carried the Bucks to a title this year has had me wondering about how the Bucks supporting cast stacks up against other champions in recent years.  

If you take out the best player on the last 13 champion teams, this is how I would rank the supporting casts:  

• 2017 Warriors – Steph Curry (MVP), Klay Thompson (All-NBA), old Iguodala (All-Def), Draymond Green (All-NBA), Zaza Pachulia
• 2018 Warriors – Steph Curry (MVP), Klay Thompson (All-NBA), old Iguodala (All-Def), Draymond Green (All-NBA), Kevon Loony
• 2014 Spurs – Tony Parker (All-Star), Marco Belinelli, old Manu Ginobli (All-NBA), Boris Diaw, old Tim Duncan (All-NBA)
• 2013 Heat – Mario Chalmers, old Ray Allen (All-Star), Dwyane Wade (All-NBA), old Shane Battier (All-Def), Chris Bosh (All-NBA)
• 2012 Heat – Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade (All-NBA), Shane Battier (All-Def), Chris Bosh (All-NBA), Udonis Haslem
• 2016 Cavs – Kyrie Irving (All-NBA), Matthew Dellavedova, JR Smith, Kevin Love (All-NBA), Tristan Thompson
• 2015 Warriors – Shaun Livingston, Klay Thompson (All-NBA), Andre Iguodala (All-Def), Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green (All-NBA)
• 2021 Bucks – Jrue Holiday (All-Def), Donte DiVincenzo, Khris Middleton (All-Star), PJ Tucker, old Brook Lopez (All-Def)
• 2019 Raptors – old Kyle Lowry (All-NBA), Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakim, old Serge Ibaka (All-Def)
• 2010 Lakers – old Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown, Ron Artest (All-Def), Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol (All-NBA)
• 2009 Lakers – old Derek Fisher, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol (All-NBA), Andrew Bynum
• 2011 Mavs – old Jason Kidd (All-Star), JJ Barea, old Jason Terry, old Shawn Marion (All-Star), Tyson Chandler (All-Star)
• 2020 Lakers – Avery Bradley, Kentavious Pope, old Danny Green (All-Def), Kyle Kuzma, Anthony Davis (All-NBA)

The Bucks are a well constructed team. Holiday and Lopez have both been all-stars and are still excellent defenders.  They beat Atlanta twice in the playoffs without Giannis (granted Trae was out one of them). I think they are middle of the pack when you consider all the other champs.

How would you all rank these teams?

[d2o 1602]

Zaza??

[HookEm 2471]

What about him?

[d2o 1602]

19 minutes ago, HookEm said:

What about him?

Just never thought of him as a part of a supporting cast.    Unless of course you count injuring Kawhi as a contribution.

 

EDIT:  Wow, guess I forgot he started all of their playoff games that yr.   He still only played 14 mins/gm though.

Edited July 22, 2021 by d2o

[HookEm 2471]

I guess technically if Durant weren't on the team, they might have gone small ball with Shaun Livingston playing guard and Klay moving to SF.  Still a great team.

[ztejas 43752]

Not really any qualms with that list. The 2020 Lakers are not last, though. AD was a top 5 player in the league last season. It doesn't really matter who else was on the team. I'd put the 2011 Mavs at the bottom and the 09 and 10 Lakers teams below the 20 Lakers. I think once you get past the top 5 or so teams it's all pretty comparable, however. 

We haven't seen a true carry-job title since Duncan in '03. I'm just not sure how possible it is in the modern NBA (LeBron in 2018 and Durant in this year's Bucks series is about as close as we've seen recently - and those were two all-time greats at the absolute height of their powers). Maybe you could argue Dirk in 2011 but if you go back and check his numbers they weren't really that crazy. They were just a really good team - more comparable to the 2014 Spurs or 2004 Pistons imo.

I'd give Giannis more credit for "carrying" the Bucks if their road to the title had've been tougher. Not that Giannis didn't impress me - I just think when you look at who was actually healthy this season Giannis pretty clearly had the best supporting cast outside of maybe Booker. Middleton had 40 fucking points in one of the Finals games and Jrue was one of the biggest keys to that series with what he did on defense.