1990 NBA Champion: Detroit Pistons
League Salary Cap: $9,802,000
Championship-Caliber Contract: Bill Laimbeer & Dennis Rodman
The bad boy Pistons tend to be thought of as Isiah Thomas’s team, but the advanced metrics don’t show much love for Isiah. In fact, it views him as being the Pistons fourth-most valuable player behind Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, and Dennis Rodman in 1989-90. Laimbeer and Rodman were both top-20 players in the league in ‘90 and together took up only about 12 percent of the salary cap. Laimbeer made $630,000 and produced 12.7 Win Shares and Rodman made $550,000 and produced 10.7 Win Shares. Their combined production 23.4 Win Shares was valued at $5.5 million, 56.16 percent of the salary cap.
Laimbeer and Rodman would have gotten more press in today’s NBA as there would have been a better understanding of their skill sets. Laimbeer was a stretch 4 or 5 before people figured out that threes were worth more than twos. Rodman was a defensive monster that could switch everything, guard anyone, and grab every rebound.
While we don’t think of the Bad Boys Pistons as being ahead of their time, their two best players were arguably hampered by the era they played in. Laimbeer is probably one of the NBA’s most underrated players. He was the best player on a team that won back to back championships and kept peak Michael Jordan at bay. Not bad for a fat white guy that couldn’t move.
The strength of the late 80s Pistons was their depth. With a roster that went seven or eight players deep, the Pistons never needed to have the best player to have a chance. Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman were viewed as complementary players and were compensated as such. However, they may have been the two best players on the team.
This error in the valuation of their talent allowed the Pistons to hold onto them for pennies on the dollar. The bad boy Pistons were stocked to the brim with championship-caliber contracts it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that they went back to back.