The 2017 Warriors weren't fair.
Going 16-1 throughout its entire 2017 NBA Finals run, Golden State -- with a starting lineup of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Zaza Pachulia -- forever will be remembered as one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled.
However, Rasheed Wallace, retired four-time NBA All-Star and member of the 2004 title-winning Detroit Pistons, believes he and his old squad would make fools of the Warriors in a hypothetical matchup.
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"We have an NBA record that will never be broken,” Wallace said Thursday on the “Sheed & Tyler show,” presented by Underdog NBA. “We kept six or seven teams under 70 points. In this scoring era, that would never get broken again. We were defense, we hung our hat on defense.
“We would've beat the s–t out of them. I'm gonna address that because … Draymond [Green] said this bulls–t the other day on his and Shaq's podcast. We would have beat the sh–t out of them because of the simple fact that they couldn't match up with us at any position.”
"We would've beat the sh*t out of them because for the simple fact that they couldn't match up with us at any position...Steph [Curry] not a defender. He would've had to guard Rip [Hamilton]...Draymond [Green] is too little..."
— Rasheed Wallace (@UnderdogSheed) May 30, 2024
Sheed says the '04 Pistons SMOKE the '17 Warriors pic.twitter.com/gGAwn7EaIc
“Defense” was Detroit’s pride and joy with its roster led by Chauncey Billups, Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace.
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En route to a 4-1 series victory over retired greats Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals, the Pistons held teams to a mere 84.3 points per game during the 2003-04 regular season -- an unthinkable feat in today’s league.
However, Detroit averaged just 90.1 points per game themselves that season. Golden State, comparatively, averaged a league-leading 115.9 points per game during the 2016-17 NBA regular season and had three players (Curry, Durant and Thompson) averaging north of 20 points a night.
The two teams are from two completely different eras, but the ‘17 Warriors definitely had greater star power than the ‘04 Pistons. Yet, Wallace was adamant about Golden State being outmatched in virtually all areas.
"Steph is not a defender,” Wallace added. “He would've had to guard Rip. How many screens was Rip coming off? Or whoever they would’ve tried to put at point, they would have been too little for Chauncey... I'm saying, back then, KD couldn't guard Tayshaun -- Tayshaun was an underrated scorer...
“They're not used to the physicality. Draymond is too little. [The rules] don’t matter. Under the new rules, they can't f–k with us either because we've got more guys with a greater skill set."
Wallace’s stance doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon, as the likely outcome of the hypothetical Warriors-Pistons matchup.
Golden State would be heavily favored granted Wallace’s dream scenario existed.