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Do any of you consider the Suns favorites to win it this year? Or serious contenders? Why? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by yeahcheckmeout@alien.top to c/nba@nba.space

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Despite the obvious, maybe all time offensive firepower they’ve assembled, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that there is no chance in hell we see them making noise past the first or second round. Curious to hear the counter arguments, if that’s how you really feel.

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[–] MiopTop@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Those teams were still defensively focused.

Your point about offense helping defense doesn’t mean much because the opposite is also true. Good defense will lead to stops and liveball turnovers which lead to fastbreak offense. It also forces the opponent to expend more energy to score which leaves them vulnerable on the other end, or forces their coach to switch to more offensive slanted lineups to get some points up and the expense of their D.

The 2022 Warriors being a better offensive team than their Finals opponent isn’t relevant. They were the two best defensive teams in the league that year and surprise surprise, they ended up in the Finals.

2021 Bucks were notoriously sluggish on offense in the playoffs at times but got through because they were the best defensive team in the playoffs.

2020 Lakers’ had virtually no offense outside of Bron/AD and the resurrected corpse of Rondo come playoff time, but they were stacked defensively with Bron/AD/Green/Caruso/Dwight/KCP/McGee.

2019 Raptors had offensive series where nobody but Kawhi got get anything going and even he was going 15/39 and shit, but got by because they were stacked with defensive talent. Even if they weren’t in the primes, you had Kawhi/Ibaka/Gasol as former DPOY level defenders, Lowry and Green as All-D guards, pre-prime Siakam and FVV, and even a young OG even if he didn’t play in the playoffs.

Even the dynasty world ending Warriors teams, for all their offensive firepower, were roughly as good defensively as they were offensively.

Just because the league as a whole has gotten much more slanted towards offense doesn’t mean that you can afford to be a mediocre defense, relative to these standards, and expect to win a title.