Sonics Advanced Metrics Ratings in 1990s

There's no question that the Sonics of that era on one hand underachieved, but on the other hand also goes to show that there are things that you have to consider outside of the stats.

The '92-'93 team was busy trying to figure out how good they could be. They made a great end of the year trade to get Sam Perkins. You had the young guys in Payton and Kemp making the team their own while some old guys still holding onto their veteran dog status. I wouldn't say that it was the best Sonic team, but probably the deepest and most fun to watch.

The '93-'94 team SHOULD have won a title on paper. They were easily the best team in the league. But they also had a massively combustible locker room that blew up during the Denver series.

The '94-'95 team was still trying to find itself again. They had a great team but the chemistry wasn't right. Kendall Gill was just a terrible fit on that team and they ran against a team in the playoffs that they didn't seem to matchup well with and an all-time irrational confidence guy in Nick Van Exel.

The '95-'96 team was easily the best team that they had during that era that finally looked like a team in swapping Kendall Gill for Hersey Hawkins. This was a team that probably would have won the NBA title most years but had the misfortune of putting it all together the same year that Jordan and Co. authored the greatest year of all time. This was also the last year where the Sonics were a team that had great depth.

The '96-'97 team was still good but was absolutely destroyed in the depth department. If you go back and look at the box scores during the playoffs that year, the only guys that would get off the bench were Cummings/Perkins depending on who started and David Wingate.

The '97-'98 team was still good as you didn't lose too much dropping Kemp for Baker in the regular season ... you noticed it during the playoffs. While the depth was much, much better, the reality was that just about everybody of consequence on the roster was either approaching 30 (Payton was 29) or over 30. Once Baker went completely down hill, the run was over.

Tequilla said:

There's no question that the Sonics of that era on one hand underachieved, but on the other hand also goes to show that there are things that you have to consider outside of the stats.

The '92-'93 team was busy trying to figure out how good they could be. They made a great end of the year trade to get Sam Perkins. You had the young guys in Payton and Kemp making the team their own while some old guys still holding onto their veteran dog status. I wouldn't say that it was the best Sonic team, but probably the deepest and most fun to watch.

The '93-'94 team SHOULD have won a title on paper. They were easily the best team in the league. But they also had a massively combustible locker room that blew up during the Denver series.

The '94-'95 team was still trying to find itself again. They had a great team but the chemistry wasn't right. Kendall Gill was just a terrible fit on that team and they ran against a team in the playoffs that they didn't seem to matchup well with and an all-time irrational confidence guy in Nick Van Exel.

The '95-'96 team was easily the best team that they had during that era that finally looked like a team in swapping Kendall Gill for Hersey Hawkins. This was a team that probably would have won the NBA title most years but had the misfortune of putting it all together the same year that Jordan and Co. authored the greatest year of all time. This was also the last year where the Sonics were a team that had great depth.

The '96-'97 team was still good but was absolutely destroyed in the depth department. If you go back and look at the box scores during the playoffs that year, the only guys that would get off the bench were Cummings/Perkins depending on who started and David Wingate.

The '97-'98 team was still good as you didn't lose too much dropping Kemp for Baker in the regular season ... you noticed it during the playoffs. While the depth was much, much better, the reality was that just about everybody of consequence on the roster was either approaching 30 (Payton was 29) or over 30. Once Baker went completely down hill, the run was over.

"George Karl was their coach" also would have been acceptable analysis.

For some reason I remember the Sonics going 0 of 5? on an East Coast road trip in '93-'94. I was sick as hell with the crud that week so I listened to KJR all day. Anyway, using 20/20 hindsight, it was an ominous sign.