One of the most common points of conversation that regularly materializes in this “embrace debate” era of sports media is the hypothetical matchup between players and teams of different eras. Who is the better player, LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Who would you want quarterbacking your team for one drive to win a game, Joe Montana or Tom Brady? You get the idea. Well, perhaps the least surprising version of this came as a result of two of the most boisterous NBA stars of the 21st century having immense pride in their respective championship seasons… Rasheed Wallace and the 2004 Detroit Pistons, and Draymond Green and the 2017 Golden State Warriors.
Rasheed Wallace and Draymond Green started trading barbs back in June after Wallace claimed that the in a matchup between the '04 Pistons and the '17 Warriors, the Pistons “would've beat the s*** out of them.” Of course, not to be outdone, Draymond Green responded, saying, “Sheed we would’ve smacked y'all. Y'all was scoring 72 points per game. That’s not winning a half.”
Now, well over a month later, former Pistons point guard and 2004 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups decided to weigh in during an appearance on the 7 PM in Brooklyn show, and his response might upset fans in Detroit.
“I love Sheed bro, I love Dray too, we raised him by the way, but I think that team with KD, it would have been tough for us with KD. KD would've been tough,” Billups said, confirming what most basketball fans believe already. “He’s the outlier. Even though I trust and believe in Tayshaun all day, but KD’s a different beast man, he’s a different dude. So that team would’ve been tough for us to beat.”
How would the 2004 Pistons have fared versus the 2015 Warriors?
Chin up, Pistons fans! Chauncey Billups did give his '04 Detroit Pistons squad the edge over the 2015 Warriors team that won the NBA Title a full year prior to Kevin Durant's arrival with the Warriors, telling Carmelo Anthony and Kid Mero, “That other team they won with, we would’ve rocked them.”
Apologies to all of the folks in the 313, but I'm still dubious. There's nothing we can take away from those mid-00s Pistons teams. They were without question the class of the Eastern Conference for a half-decade stretch. But the game has changed a great deal, and for as “big” and “tough” as we remember those Pistons teams being, the 2015 Warriors hold their own just fine. Just take a look at the heights and weights of the top seven players in each team's postseason rotation, provided by Basketball-Reference:
Chauncey Billups (6'3″, 202 lbs.) | Stephen Curry (6'2″, 185 lbs.)
Richard Hamilton (6'6″, 185 lbs.) | Klay Thompson (6'6″, 215 lbs.)
Tayshaun Prince (6'9″, 212 lbs.) | Harrison Barnes (6'8″, 225 lbs.)
Rasheed Wallace (6'11”, 225 lbs.) | Draymond Green (6'7″, 230 lbs.)
Ben Wallace (6'9″, 240 lbs.) | Andrew Bogut (7'0″, 260 lbs.)
Corliss Williamson (6'7, 245 lbs.) | Andre Iguodala (6'6″, 215 lbs.)
Lindsey Hunter (6'2″, 170 lbs.) | Shaun Livingston (6'7″, 192 lbs.)
AVERAGE: 6'6″, 211.3 lbs. | AVERAGE: 6'6″, 217.4 lbs.
Now average height and weight by no means provides a direct correlation to on-court physicality. The Pistons did play a more physical brand of basketball than the Warriors… because they had to, and because the officials allowed it. But this revisionist history where teams from the past were bigger and stronger is just flatly untrue. Detroit Basketball may have run roughshod over the league in 2004, but it wouldn't fly like that in 2015.
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