Are the 2016-17 Warriors the Greatest NBA Playoff Team of All Time?

With a 129-115 win over the Spurs in San Antonio last night, the Golden State Warriors have become the first team ever in NBA history to start the playoffs 12-0.  Sweeping the first three rounds of the playoffs, which included eliminating two of the three contenders for regular season MVP, it’s obvious that this 2016-17 Golden State team is one of the best we’ve ever seen take the court in the NBA Playoffs, but are they greatest?  For a team about to play in their third straight NBA Finals after barely struggling to reach this final round of the NBA Playoffs, it might seem pretty evident that this Warriors squad is the greatest to contend for the championship, but after comparing this impressive roster to the widely acclaimed legendary teams of past NBA Playoffs, it appears the Warriors still might be short of a few impressive accolades.

On paper, the 2016-17 Warriors definitely appear to be one of the greats, if not the greatest.  Their starting lineup features 4 2017 NBA All Stars (Curry, Thompson, Green, and Durant), they are the 3rd team ever in NBA history to enter the NBA Finals unbeaten under the current playoff format, and they have the single highest average scoring margin entering the NBA Finals at +16.3.  Their sweeps of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum’s Trailblazers, a promising Utah Jazz squad currently led by Gordon Hayward, and coach Greg Popovich’s consistently threatening Spurs (even thought they were missing Kawhi for pretty much the entire series) are very impressive to say the least, but how do these successful series for the Warriors compare to the other great playoff runs of the past?

Off the top of my head, the teams that instantly come to mind as the greatest NBA Playoff teams of all time are the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, the 1996 Chicago Bulls, and the 1986 Boston Celtics.  Starting with Shaq and Kobe’s 2000-01 Lakers roster that eliminated Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals, this Los Angeles team has frequently been recognized as quite possibly the greatest team to ever make a playoff run in the NBA.  Shaq and Kobe’s 29.4 ppg and 7.4 rpg and 30.4 ppg and 15.4 rpg respectively gave LA the ability to sweep not only a significant Portland Trailblazers squad, but also the 1 and 3 seed Western Conference teams of possibly the greatest Sacramento Kings roster the league has ever seen (made up of superstars like Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic, and Jason Williams) and David Robinson and Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs.  These two teams finished the regular season with records in close proximity to the Lakers, making these series sweeps extremely impressive for the Lakers. In fact, the only loss this 2001 Lakers squad would record would be in game 1 of the NBA Finals, where the 76ers would win 107-101 in overtime.  Despite this loss, the Lakers still completely dominated any competition they faced in the 2001 postseason and finished only 1 game shy being the first team to ever sweep the entire NBA Playoffs.

Arguably, the greatest overall NBA team ever, both during the regular season and postseason, was the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.  Despite last year’s debate about whether or not the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors should have this title of the greatest NBA team ever, after beating the Bulls’ greatest regular season record only to then lose in game 7 of the NBA Finals, the 1996 Chicago Bulls are still highly debated as one of the greatest NBA Playoff teams we’ve ever seen.  Their road to the NBA Finals was much harder than that of the 2016-17 Warriors or the 2000-01 Lakers.  In the first round, the Bulls took on a solid Miami Heat team, which they swept in 3 games.  However, in only the second round, the Bulls had to then face rivals, the New York Knicks, who featured a prominent Patrick Ewing leading the Knicks to force the Bulls to lose 1 of the only 3 games they would lose that postseason.  After defeating this difficult Knicks squad, the Bulls then had to face the reigning Eastern Conference Champions, Shaq’s Orlando Magic, who ended up losing the in the NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets in the previous season.  Jordan’s fantastic performance on offense helped the Bulls sweep past a very impressive Magic lineup and finishing the first 3 rounds of the NBA Playoffs with a +13.9 scoring margin, only to then face probably their hardest competition throughout the entire postseason, the Seattle SuperSonics.  The SuperSonics finished the regular season with their greatest record in franchise history, and after the Bulls took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Finals, the SuperSonics quickly bounced back with 2 consecutive wins to give Chicago their toughest matchup of the postseason.  However, Chicago went on to win game 6 and secure themselves as probably the greatest NBA team in history.

In a practically identical playoff run to the 1996 Bulls, the 1986 Celtics swept the first round of the playoffs, by first knocking out Jordan’s Bulls, lost 1 game in the second round, losing game 4 of this series to the Dominique Wilkins led Atlanta Hawks, swept the Eastern Conference series against the Milwaukee Bucks, and only dropped 2 games to Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets in the NBA Finals to win the Celtics’ 17th NBA title.  The Celtics, whose lineup featured Hall of Famers like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Bill Walton, who personally redefined what it meant to be a key bench player with his stunning assists and play making abilities, solidified this 1985-86 Celtics team as not only one of the greatest NBA Playoff teams, with their impressive defeat of some of the greatest NBA players and teams in league history, bust also as one of the greatest NBA teams ever.

The 2016-17 Warriors are definitely making a strong case as to why they could be the greatest NBA Playoff team, but as of right now, they still do not have enough accolades to surpass the likes of the 2001 Lakers, 1996 Chicago Bulls, or the 1986 Celtics.  The Warriors are playing fantastic basketball, with the both their stellar starting lineup and key bench players making it challenging for their competition to keep up with their unrelenting style of play, but it is still lacking notable aspects that have helped solidify the great NBA Playoff teams of the past.  The Lakers’ 11-0 start to the postseason in 2001, combined with their +15.5 scoring margin entering the NBA Finals (now second highest after the Warriors beat their record last night) and the fact that the 2001 championship was the second of three consecutive Lakers NBA titles just adds to the list of accolades that still puts their playoff run ahead of the Warriors’ as the greatest playoff run in NBA history.  However, if the Warriors can find a way to sweep the Cavs or the Celtics and maintain their dominance on the court, it would be hard to deny the Warriors as the greatest NBA team to ever play in the postseason.  

Written by Erik Clark