Supporting Casts of the NBA Finals: Where Heat Teams Ranked All-Time
Ever wonder which teams in NBA Finals history featured the best supporting casts?
FiveThirtyEight calculated just that in an effort to rank LeBron James' teammates (by year) when his squad made it to the championship stage, ranking every team since 1985 by an advanced metric measuring talent.
LeBron's supporting casts in the NBA Finals rank as follows:
10th -- 2011 Heat
21st -- 2012 Heat
39th -- 2013 Heat
55th -- 2014 Heat
60th -- 2015 Cavs
61st -- 2007 Cavs
LeBron's teammates got increasingly worse during his tenure in Miami, with his best crew statistically being in the 2011 season when the Heat lost to the Mavs. Injuries to Kevin Love (out) and Kyrie Irving (gimpy) were factored in with the 2015 Cavs.
As for when Dwyane Wade led the Heat to the Finals in 2006, beating the Mavs in six games, he helped secure the feat with the 45st best supporting cast.
The top five supporting casts of all time, according to 538, are below.
1. 1996 Bulls (Jordan)
2. 2013 Spurs (Duncan)
3. 1996 Sonics (Payton)
4. 2008 Celtics (Garnett)
5. 1998 Bulls (Jordan)
With three Michael Jordan teams in the top six, don't let anyone tell you His Airness did it alone.
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