Best Team Never to Win and NBA Championship

[alajet]

  Drexler's Blazers teams were very good as well.

That team's sole fault was to run into the primes of Bird, Magic, MJ, Isiah, altogether. But with Porter, Kersey, Duckworth and Williams alongside Drexler, that was one of the most complete basketball teams ever to play.

[StarzNBarz]

2002 Kings that got robbed.

[Who]

The Suns during 2007.

They would've torched the Jazz and faced that weaksauce Cavs team and demolished them.

I thought their 2005 team with Joe Johnson was their best team.

[Who]

Here are my candidates:

Indiana Pacers of the mid to late 90's
Phoenix Suns (Charles Barkley years)
New York Knicks of the mid 90's
Utah Jazz of the mid to late 90's
Seattle Supersonics of the mid 90's
Orlando Magic of the mid 90's
Sacramento Kings of the early 2000's
Boston Celtics (2002)... Just kidding 

Out of those teams, I think the Sonics, Kings and Jazz were the three best teams.

I think the Knicks and Magic teams are the two weakest there on the list. Neither was really Championship caliber. Actually, the Pacers too, add them to this group.

The (Barkley) Suns in the middle.

[Who]

  Drexler's Blazers teams were very good as well.

That team's sole fault was to run into the primes of Bird, Magic, MJ, Isiah, altogether. But with Porter, Kersey, Duckworth and Williams alongside Drexler, that was one of the most complete basketball teams ever to play.

Oh, the Blazers is a great choice. They'd be my pick for the best team of the squads mentioned so far.

[jay]

1. 97 Jazz 64 wins.  Malone MVP 27 and 10. Stockton, Hornacek, and Russell all averaged double figures. Stockton 10+ assists. Lost 4-2 in Finals to Jordan Bulls.

2. 91 Blazers.  Lost 4-2 in WCF to Lakers.  Won 6 more games than the 92 team that went to the finals. 7 players averaged double figures: Drexler, Porter, Buck, Duckworth, Kersey, Cliff, and Ainge.

3. 1993 Suns.  62 wins.  Lost to Jordans Bulls 4-2. 7 players in double figures.  Barkley, KJ, Chambers, Majerle, Dumas, Ceballos, Ainge.

4. 1996 Sonics.  64 wins.  Lost to Jordans Bulls 4-2.  Payon, Kemp, Shrempf, Perkins, Askew, Hersey hawkins.

5. 2002 Kings.  62 wins.  Lost to Lakers in WCF 4-3.  

6. 1993 Knicks.  Lost to Jordan in the ECF 4-2.  60 wins.  Ewing 24 and 12.  Starks 17.5  Oakley, Mason, Doc, Blackmon, Charles Smith, Greg Anthony.

7.  1998 Pacers.  58 wins.  Lost to Jordans Bulls in ECF 4-3.   Miller .429 3pt%, 19.5ppg.  Mullin .440 3pt%.  Smits, Davises, Rose, Best, Croshere, Mark Jackson, Hoiberg, McKey.

8. 96 Magic. 60 wins. Lost to Jordan

9. 2003 Mavs

10. 2002 Nets

Others: 89 Cavs (Lost in 1st round to Bulls), 88 Nuggets (Lost in 2nd round). 07 Mavs (Lost in 1st round)

[Tough Juice]

Seattle Supersonics and that's not even close

[2short]

I'd give my vote to the kings.  Good complete team who were ultimate robbed by the refs.  Utah was a good one as well.
As far as the Bucks back in the 80's.  That was a good solid team but no way could they come close to the celtics or sixers or many upper teams of that era.  Funny thing is when I think of the starters and especially marquis johnson and sidney moncrief I have to think how that team would fair in today's nba.  Kind of shows how watered down the league is now.

[dark_lord]

a lot of good suggestions here:

blazers, sonics, pacers, kings, jazz all good choices

i cant speak of teams before the 80s tho

[Yoki_IsTheName]

2002 Kings IMO.

But I believe that it wasn't their fault they did not win. But they did not win it none the less.

[Eddie20]

2 that nobody has mentioned. Both ran into the Shaq/Kobe teams.

Portland (not the Drexler one):

Pippen
Sheed
Grant
Sabonis
Schrempf
Stoudamie
Smith

Pacers (Bird as coach)

Miller
Mullin
Smits
Davis
Rose
Jackson
Harrington

[Celtics18]

Seattle Supersonics and that's not even close

I'm not going to say who was best, but those guys were definitely my favorites.  Man, did I want them to beat the Bulls.

[esel1000]

Stockton and Malone's Jazz easy, that was a contender for years. Jordan made sure they never won though haha

[LarBrd33]

Seattle Supersonics and that's not even close

I agree... they had that 6 year period of 55+ wins... peaking with 63 in 1994 and 64 in 1996 when they lost to the Bulls in 6.  For whatever reason, they choked twice in the 1st round during that era.  At the time a lot of people blamed George Karl.  But that team was sick... Gary Payton was probably the most talented point guard of his generation... grossy underrated nationally.  Shawn Kemp in his prime was a total beast of a human.  At his best he was arguably the best PF in the game... could give you 20 and 11 every night with a couple steals and blocks... shot 55% and knocked down his fee throws.  And Detlef Schrempf was an otherworldly shooter.  In 1995 he averaged 19 points while shooting 52%... 51% from three... 84% from the line.  Just an incredible shooter.  I use to watch him warm up before games and I don't think I ever saw him miss a shot during his routine.  Hersey Hawkins was a very solid and underrated player (1 time all-star).  Sam Perkins was an outstanding role player.  Nate McMillan made the all-defense team twice as the 6th man.  SOlid all around.  

Of course, I'm pretty bias.  I moved to Seattle during their peak and it happened to be a pre-internet era where the Celtics stunk and I had no good way to follow them.  We got the internet Pitino's first year and were able to listen to all of the games via online radio.  But prior to that, there was a stretch there where I loved the Sonics.  My dad and I went to about 15 games during the 1996 Finals run.  Loved that team.  Fans were incredible.  Best arena in sports.  My favorite non-Celtic team of all-time without question.  Gary Payton is my favorite non-Celtic player of all-time.  He was incredible (although technically I guess I can't call him a non-Celtic since he eventually played here when he was over the hill).

[Redz]

The 80's Milwaukee Bucks teams were darn good (the one's that swept the Celts in `83).  They won between 50 and 60 games for a 7 year stretch. They lost in the EC Finals 3 times.  They just had the bad luck of having awesome Celtics and Sixers teams at the same time.