Former Atlanta Hawks teammates Jeff Teague and Shelvin Mack reunited in the latest episode of the Club 520 Podcast and reminisced about their time together in the NBA. Almost half an hour into the show, they recalled the Hawks’ dominant run to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2015 playoffs. While they were on the topic, Teague was asked an interesting question.
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Podcast co-host Brandon Hendricks asked the former Hawks guard if they could’ve won the NBA title that year if LeBron James didn’t play in the Eastern Conference. Teague didn’t hesitate even for a second before saying ‘Yes’. He seemed to believe that the 2014-15 Hawks team had the potential to beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
“Hell yeah [we would have won the title]. Golden State…they weren’t like that yet…that’s the first year they won it,” Teague insisted. Mack agreed with his former teammate, saying, “If LeBron wasn’t there we would have [definitely won the NBA title]. We beat everybody else.”
However, co-hosts DJ Wells and Brandon Hendricks didn’t seem to buy the ATL duo’s bold claim. Hendricks started laughing immediately after Teague claimed that they would have beaten Golden State in the Finals. “You’ll beating that team? F**k no…What makes you think you’ll was gonna win!” he said.
Teague claimed that the Warriors still didn’t have their Championship pedigree at the time and Cleveland only lost in the NBA Finals because both Kyrie Irving and LeBron James were hurt. But Hendricks still didn’t seem to buy it.
He laid out the possible matchups in a Hawks-Warriors series and then concluded that the Dubs would have won 4-1 because Atlanta just didn’t have enough firepower to stop Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala.
However, Teague still defended his claim by pointing out that they went 1-1 that year against Golden State in the season series. So the Finals wouldn’t have been as lopsided as people might think.
In the end, the crew reached an impasse and decided to move on. But does Teague’s claim really has any merit to it?
A closer look at Teague’s claim
The Hawks topped the Eastern Conference in the 2014-15 season with a 60-22 record, finishing ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, they were swept in the Conference Finals by the Cavs. Teague admitted that LeBron James was just too dominant in the series and they didn’t have anyone to contain him.
However, it’s quite surprising that the 2021 NBA Champion claims in the same vein that the Hawks would have beaten Golden State, a side that won the NBA Finals 4-2 despite LeBron averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 8.8 assists in the series. On the other hand, the Hawks were swept by the Cavs with LBJ averaging just 30 points.
Teague also claimed that they could switch 1 through 5 when it came to Golden State, which they couldn’t do with LBJ. Moreover, the Hawks had already started shooting threes, something that Golden State relied on so much throughout the playoffs.
However, Teague’s claims simply seem delusional at best. There’s no way a side led by Jeff Teague could have beaten the Warriors, even if they were not fully there yet. Iguodala was a seasoned vet at the time, and he would have bottled JT throughout the series.
The Dubs also had elite defenders in Klay and Draymond to clean up the rest of the offense. On the other hand, the Hawks didn’t have the defensive resistance to neutralize the swift ball movement and scoring potential of the Splash brothers. Besides the usual suspects, the team also had Shaun Livingston in the mix.
So there’s no way the Hawks could have gone past a healthy Golden State. We must remember that this is the team that would go 73-9 the very next year. On the other hand, the Hawks would be swept by the Cavs once again the 2016 playoffs.
