What year did the NBA have the most legit title contenders?

[feyki]

Mavs weren't title contender until last 5 minutes in the game 6 of nba finals .

[Riks]

I don't care what they were "considered". The thread title says "legit title contenders". Should I not mention Dallas, the team that outperformed everybody and won the championship?

Seriously

[Young X]

its a big difference between winning a title and being a title contender...don't be stupid......just because you a contender doesnt mean you gonna win it right? ok so just because you win it doesn't mean you were a contender. Its not rocket science

How does that make ANY sense?

So if I brought 2004, I should mention the Lakers, Pacers, Spurs, Timberwolves and NOT bring up the Pistons as legit title contenders?

[miggyme1]

How does that make ANY sense?

So if I brought 2004, I should mention the Lakers, Pacers, Spurs, Timberwolves and NOT bring up the Pistons as legit title contenders?

why would you not bring up the pistons??? damn its a lot of idiots on here....if my knowledge serves me correct I believe that's the year they got Wallace from the trailblazers or whatever right before the deadline...after they got him they became...........yes.......you guessed it........TITLE contenders....at this time of the year....12 years ago......anymore concerns????

[Spurs m8]

Someone said Rockets were a contender last year LMAO

[Bosnian Sajo]

2015

Rockets
Spuds
Dubs
Clippers
Cavaliers

Yea, but the Warriors were the clear favorites. I'm thinking op meant years where we really couldn't predict who would win.

[Bosnian Sajo]

Someone said Rockets were a contender last year LMAO

Conf finals, one of only 4 teams that made it....yea, I think that's enough to be considered a contender for that year. You and I probably both knew they had no chance, but the fact that they made the conf finals, you gotta respect that at least as a "contender".

[Spurs m8]

Conf finals, one of only 4 teams that made it....yea, I think that's enough to be considered a contender for that year. You and I probably both knew they had no chance, but the fact that they made the conf finals, you gotta respect that at least as a "contender".

I honestly didn't see them as a contender, there's no way they had a team that could win a championship....zero chance...they were never going to make it to the Finals.

They got as far as they did due to other teams doing the work for them....basically fluked it then got exposed like they were always going to.

[FKAri]

And?

That's the correct time to consider whether a team really has a chance or not. Not during the regular season or before the season starts.

Mavs were tied with the Lakers with 57 wins and that's with Dirk sitting out 9 games. They weren't expected by most to beat the Lakers though.

What a year that was. Dirk's legacy did a 180 all the while shitting on Kobe and Lebron in emphatic fashion

Lebron's choke job made many forget the Lakers series. Especially that last game which almost everybody was certain the Lakers would atleast win and show some heart only to get trounced even worse than before. It was an embarrassing end to Phil's great coaching career.

[Chadwin]

1995
Spurs
Suns
Jazz
Rockets
Magic
Knicks
Pacers
Bulls

Spurs and Jazz were 60+ win teams, while the Suns were a 59 win team. Magic were a 57 win team and no. 1 seed in the East. The Rockets were defending champs with Hakeem and Drexler. Knicks were the EC finalist the previous year and won 55 games. The Pacers were in the ECF the year before and pushed the Knicks to 7 games, and won 52 games. The Bulls got a returning Jordan, who hadn't lost a series in 5 years.

This is the correct answer. As you go into the later 90s the east went to crap (Shaq going to LA, MJ retiring, etc).

[ShackEelOKneel]

I think guy nailed it.

[Papaya Petee]

I don't care what they were "considered". The thread title says "legit title contenders". Should I not mention Dallas, the team that outperformed everybody and won the championship?

Don't worry, he's probably a Hillary supporter

[Bigsmoke]

Imma say 1995 since a 5th seed took the trophy.