What are some of the best NBA teams to never win a championship?
Pretty sure the “almost win” caveat in the question was designed to eliminate teams like the 2016 Warriors, who won 73 games and were 1 minute away from repeating as NBA champions. I would think a reasonable interpretation of this question might be to eliminate from consideration any team that made it to the NBA Finals, regardless of whether or not they won.By that standard there are many great team performances that have been more or less forgotten. However, two teams in particular stand out to me. There have been 10 times in NBA history where a team has won 67 or more games in a season; seven of those teams became NBA champions that season. One of the teams that did not was, of course, the 73–9 Warriors. Everyone’s heard about them, of course. The other two teams receive much less widespread recognition:2015-16 San Antonio Spurs67–15 recordMargin of victory: 10.63 points per game (5th-highest in NBA history, trailing only the 2016 Warriors, the 2017 Warriors that actually did win the championship, and two of Jordan’s championship Bulls teams)Simple Rating System (metric that takes into account margin of victory and strength of schedule): 10.24 (5th-highest in NBA history, trailing the same teams as above)2006–07 Dallas Mavericks67–15 recordMargin of Victory: 7.22 points per gameStrength of schedule: 0.06 (where 0 is average) - only team in NBA history to win 64+ games with an above-average difficulty in strength of scheduleUnfortunately, the Spurs became nothing more than a footnote in the history of the record-setting Warriors and then the victorious Cavaliers, while the Mavericks are notorious only for their stunning first-round upset at the hands of #8 seed Golden State. But in any other year, the Spurs would have likely been NBA champions in 2016, and if they had managed to avoid an unfortunate collapse, Dallas could have certainly contended for the title as well. Just because things didn’t go their way in a 7-game playoff series doesn’t invalidate their historically great performances over the course of an 82-game season.
1987 Los Angeles Lakers vs. 1989 Detroit Pistons: Who would win a NBA finals series?
Tough question, but im going with the 89 Pistons and here is why. Besides the fact that the Pistons weren't a great offense team, so them exposing a decent Lakers defense won't happen. Isiah Thomas, Dumars, and Vinnie Johnson do pose match-up problems for the Lakers because there small and fast (hence Magic can't guard them), also Detroit had very good interior defense with Edwards, Laimbeer, Saley, Mahorn, and Rodman. They made you earn every point in the paint, and with a 39 year old Abdul-Jabbar I don't think the Lakers pose much threat down low, if this was the 82 or 85 Lakers then yes. Did I also mention Mark Aguirre, who could pack a punch scoring wise, it would be a tough series but im not a big fan of the late 80's Lakers, I think they got off easy with the 76ers and Celtics dying out later in the decade, so I say Pistons in 7.