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Sonics Advanced Metrics Ratings in 1990s
HeretoBeatmyChest
Member Posts: 4,295
SRS which I often mention for college football also uses the same rating system for all sports. I was curious what the Sonics were ranked during some of their best seasons in the 1990s. Interestingly, they were #1 for three straight seasons and then #2 when they lost to the Bulls. The Sonics were obviously a great regular season team but these metrics argue that their playoff performance was worse than it appears on the surface, which is already poor.
1992-1993- 1
1993-1994- 1
1994-1995- 1
1995-1996- 2
1996-1997- 3
1997-1998- 3
1992-1993- 1
1993-1994- 1
1994-1995- 1
1995-1996- 2
1996-1997- 3
1997-1998- 3
Comments
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.
I worked with a guy who was a "huge sonics fan" (until he wasn't). They day they lost to the nuggets was one of the greatest days ever and was the day I realized I was a huge gaping asshole. I mocked this bandwagon fucker relentlessly until I quit that place a year or so later.
However they did have a road trip where they went 1-4. Tough road trip given they defeated the Knick(Eastern Conference champs), lost to Atlanta(best record in the east) and lost to Indiana(ECF finalist).
Tequilla was spot on with his post.
You can't expect much when you're playing home games at the Tacoma Dome - helluva commute
Now, the funny thing about all of that is that the Sonics were able to trade away Dana Barros and an aging Eddie Johnson to get Kendall Gill. So on one hand, the trade was probably worth the risk given what you gave up to get him. And the problem for Kendall Gill was that if you're a star in the NBA, you aren't getting traded for Dana Barros and Eddie Johnson.
The only part that I didn't add into my original post was how FS the management of that team was at various times. They always seemed to leave at least one hole on the team that left it at risk.
But in the end, it was a team that had a great 6 year run that just happened to come at the same time period that Chicago won 4 titles with the greatest player to ever play the game and the NBA at arguably one of its best periods in the history of the league.
You would have liked to have seen another Finals appearance out of this group and maybe a title, but the run was pretty damn good.