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Rip Hamilton: Our ’04 Pistons Would Beat the 2016 Warriors

In an Interview with CBS, former star shooting guard Rip Hamilton said, that he believes his old Detroit Pistons team would beat today’s Warriors. The 2004 Pistons squad who took home the gold did have an impressive lineup:

Image courtesy of ESPN

Chauncey Billups – Rip Hamilton – Tayshaun Prince – Rasheed Wallace – Ben Wallace 

Hamilton said:

“It would be no comparison. We can guard every position. Every guy from our point guard to our five, can guard any position. We were big. We were long.”

Guarding seems to be the key here, as the Pistons didn’t have as much shooting power on their team (not even close) as the Warriors have now, but were undoubtedly the defensively surperior team. Hamilton’s former teammate Tayshaun Prince seems to agree with him, but only under one condition. He said:

“It depends on what the rules are. Because back when we played, we could play hands-on, physical. As you can see from the Pacers rivalries and all of the rivalries we had back in the day, we were scoring in the high 70s, low 80s. We were physical. So now if you play this style of play, where they’re running and gunning and touch fouls and things like that, all of sudden we would start getting in foul trouble because back when we played, we were very, very aggressive on defense.”

I have to agree with Prince on this one. The league has changed a lot in these last 12 years and teams have stronger offenses and weaker, less aggressive defenses. It will always be one of these unsolvable “what if” myths. There’s one huge advantage the 2004 Pistons already have over the 2016/17 Warriors – being NBA Champions. If the Warriors will be able to even out said thing, will have to be seen in this coming season.