The Warriors Are a Slow Team

-The Phoenix Suns are too.

So after a talk with a personal friend of mine, for the sake of the blog we will refer to him as "The Notorious" from now on. Personal friends of mine will know who I am referring to. He gave me the comment- "Teams like the Warriors, teams like the Suns... back in the 80's they would be just an average paced team, and wouldn't even make the playoffs. I refuted the statement, and we agreed in the end that the Suns would make the playoffs with ridiculous athelticism the 80's couldn't handle, and a team led by Nash, but I did agree with my knowledge on the NBA in the 1980s that the GSW's wouldn't be contenders.

I do believe the NBA in the 80's and even the 90's is better than it is now, but for The Notorious to call the Warriors and Suns slow teams... it made me go to the drawing board.

I decided to conduct research on the GSW's, and the Suns' Offensive PPG and Op PPG, to make it simple, and easy to compare. 2007-2008 season.

-GSW: PPG:108.71 Op PPG: 107.71

-PHX: PPG:110.11 Op PPG:104.23

-TOTAL TEAMS OVER 100 PPG: 10

I took a flashback to the 1980's, specifically 1987-1988. I thought this was a good year to pick. A Lakers over Celts matchup, which incorporated Magic vs Bird. I wanted to see how many teams were around GSW and PHX's point totals, and how many teams were over 100 points per game.

Wow. I was truly astoundished at what I found.

It was no shock that BOS and LAL were at the top of the list with over 112 ppg, but with 23 teams in the NBA that year (1987-1988) 22/23 teams were scoring over 100 ppg. And all 23/23 teams were give up over 100 ppg.

Wow how times have changed. I guess the Notorious was right. I myself love to watch great defense in an NBA game, and consider most players who take defensive possessions off dogs (unless they are really superior). Was the defense in those times that bad, or the offense that good... for the answer to that you be the judge.

These two could fill a stat sheet in their day.