2016 NBA champion Richard Jefferson recently chimed in on the hypothetical matchup between the 2004 Detroit Pistons and the 2017 Golden State Warriors bolstered by Kevin Durant.
RJ picked the '17 Warriors to beat the Pistons via a gentleman's sweep. However, while driving home his point, RJ also matched up the '04 Pistons against the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers team, which he won with his championship ring, and boasted that Detroit wouldn't stand a chance against them.
"The best team I was ever on was '16, the most talented team I was ever on was our '17 team," Jefferson said during an episode of the Road Trippin' podcast. "And I'll say this with all respect to Rip (Richard Hamilton) and them, our '17 team would've beat you, our '16 team would've beat you. We were starting with LeBron James, best player in the world. We saw what he did to their team in their prime when he wasn't in his prime, so LeBron was going to be the best player on the court, then you had Kyrie [Irving] and then we had the depth."
RJ played for the Cavs from 2015 to 2017
Jefferson played for eight different teams in 17 NBA seasons. But his notable stop was undoubtedly Cleveland, where he made back-to-back Finals appearances, including a title win in 2016. That Cavs team is the only team to have returned from a 1-3 NBA Finals deficit to win the series.
In 2017, they added the likes of Kyle Korver, Deron Williams, and Derrick Williams to their championship core of LBJ , Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, and Jefferson. However, with Golden State adding Kevin Durant, they lost to the Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals.
A decade earlier, in 2007, during his first stint with Cleveland, a 22-year-old LeBron, playing in his fourth NBA season, took down a Pistons team making its fourth straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance. That '07 Pistons team still had the core of their 2004 title team except Ben Wallace, who left that year to play for the Bulls. Jefferson argues that if Big Shot's Pistons could not beat a young Bron, what more for a peak version in 2016?
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Hamilton knew LeBron was going to be a threat
Jefferson may have a point. Back in 2017, Hamilton said that while his Pistons were the best defensive team in the NBA during that era , it was only a matter of time before LeBron got good enough to topple them.
"We thought we were the best defensive team in the NBA," said Hamilton. "I can remember when we played against LeBron James his rookie year, me and Tayshaun said to ourselves, 'When LeBron James figures it out, we're going to be in trouble.'"
You can't deny that the 2004 Pistons were a defensive juggernaut, and Ben Wallace was no longer on the team in 2007 when Bron had his coming-out party at their expense. However, that 2016 Cleveland team was special because they took down the 73-9 Warriors team in the Finals. With King James at the peak of his powers, even Detroit's 2004 title team wouldn't have been able to beat LeBron's Cavs title team.
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