by Matt Rooney
Last week we touched on the worst NSL teams ever, so continuing the series, here are the 1 through 6 spots of the best NSL teams of all time (not including Tourney 3 2019 where teams only played 1-2 games).
6. Team Matt '19.2 (5-2)
Tourney 2 2019 Team Matt was a really really good team, winning the last 4 games of the season, as they finished a respectable 5-2. They were the best offensive team in the league - scoring 27 more points than the second best team - and they were the only team with a net rating greater than 1.28 (+7.14).
Rooney's squad was comprised of himself, Erick Heyer-Fogelberg, Zach Goldman, Chris Ng and Aidan Leary. Fogel was away for most of the tournament out in Chi City, but was able to make a huge impact when he was around.
Matt (whose height is cap in the stats below) and Erick were great, but this team was so good because of the elite play of Zach and Chris. They were efficient and impactful on offense, always making the right play, and just flat out dominant on defense.
Matt and Soup had one of the craziest regular season duels in NSL history during this tourney as Matt had 53 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists, going 13-20 from three, and Soup had 63 points and 20 rebounds, going 15-28 from deep. Team Matt ended up winning 80-72 as Zach and Chris had really good games as well and totally dominated Keyur and Charlie.
In round 1 of the NSL playoffs, Team Matt defeated Team Henri (Henri, Pomper, Henry, Samy) in an insane 45-42 comeback win after being down 15 with 5 minutes left in the game. In the second round, they beat a feisty Team Nate (Nate, Eli, Swomley, Willy B, Erik Brown), 51-44. Finally, they beat Team Soup (Soup, Aidan, Keyur, Charlie, Jah'Ray) in the finals, 62-54.
Team Matt will be remembered as an NSL champion and as one of the deepest teams in NSL history.
5. Team Matt '15 (27-8)
There's a 100% chance that this team would be in the first spot on this list if not for an ankle injury suffered by Matt Rooney in the first half of Game 2 of the NSL Finals.
Team Matt started the season with Rooney, Sam Thayer, Aidan Nugent and Kyle Bloom. Then, after a ton of trades - bringing in players such as Ian Harris, Andrew Dorval, Erick HF and Grant Yee - Team Matt ended the season with Rooney, Sam, Aidan and Nathan. So, Matt was essentially able to successfully trade Kyle Bloom for Nathan Greenstein which has to be one of the greatest heists in NSL history. Aidan Nugent was the only non-captain in the entire league not to get traded in 2015.
Team Matt went 27-8 and had wins of 29, 32 and 65 points throughout the season. They were probably the best regular season team in NSL history, and heading into the playoffs, everyone expected them to win the championship. They literally toyed with teams on the court, ran circles around them, and started a bunch of banter (Nate throwing chairs).
They went on to sweep Team Jack in R1, and went up 1-0 in the finals vs Team David. Then, halfway through Game 2, Matt sprained his ankle pretty badly (probably because he wore those red roshes), and missed the rest of the series. Nathan, Sam and Aidan battled, but given that all 3 finals games were played on the same day, they just ran out of gas without a sub. So, Team Matt's incredible year came to an end with no fairytale ending. Shoutout to Team David though - Vood, Chris and Idi were a superteam that year.
Matt won MVP and averaged 24.9 PPG, 9.9 RPG and 9.22 APG on 64/44/66 splits. Sam won DPOY and averaged 10.7 PPG and 4.2 RPG on 50/40/40 splits. Aidan and Nate made the all star game, averaging 15 PPG, 6.8 RPG and 2.5 APG on 60/38/46, and 15 PPG, 8.8 RPG and 2.1 APG on 39/26/45, respectively.
4. Team Matt '21 (13-3)
The most recent NSL champion, 2021 Team Matt comes in at the 4th on the greatest NSL teams of all time. On opening day, the team was made up of Matt Rooney, Hano Garcia, Josh Cooke and Chris Ng. But, Chris and Josh were going to miss the first month of the season, so Team Matt signed Gabo Garcia to a veteran minimum.
Matt, Hano and Gabo got off to a very impressive start to the season, winning their first 8 games. Despite being in some dogfights, they just kept winning. Then, out of nowhere, Matt pulled off one of the biggest trades in recent memory, trading away Hano, Gabo and Chris and bringing in Kenny Brown and Eli AC.
In the first game with the new team together, Matt ended up spraining his wrist in the second half of an already decided loss to Team Yagev, which would up sidelining him for a week. He missed the next 3 games (Zach and some other alts filled in), and Team Matt went 1-2. Suddenly, sitting at 9-3, people all over the league were questioning the trade made by Rooney to break up an 8-0 squad.
But, Team Matt responded well, winning their final 4 games and earning the number one seed. Finishing 13-3, they had the highest PPG and lowest PAPG in the league.
Kenny improved his play a ton since his time on Team Yagev, and became an indispensable member of the team, averaging 7.2 PPG and 5 RPG as a member of Team Matt, and had a 15 point, 5 rebound revenge game against Team Yagev where he hit three threes. Josh became a deadeye three point sniper, averaging 9 PPG, including an 18 point/6 3FGM game vs. Team Yagev in the season finale. Eli did what he always does and got buckets, averaging 25.4 PPG and 8.6 RPG, including an insane 46-14-3 game against Team Dorval and a 30-9-2 game against his old squad, Team Hano. Matt was his usual self, averaging 22.6 PPG, 17.1 RPG and 6 APG en route to winning the MVP award. He had 3 20-20 games and a 16-21-11 triple double against Team Henri.
In the first round of the NSL playoffs, Team Matt split the first two games against Team Dorval, 55-52 and 56-59. At the start of Game 3, they got off to a big lead and didn't look back, winning 68-51 behind Matt's 44 points and Eli's 17. Team Matt dropped Game 1 of the NSL finals to Team Yagev, and fell behind by 15 in Game 2, as their season hung in the balance. But, they managed to storm back and win, 55-50. In Game 3, Team Matt got off to a massive 27-12 lead at halftime and coasted to a 48-40 win as Eli had cool 16 points and one fight dub (vs Yagev for breaking Kenny's glasses). 2021 NSL Champions.
3. Team Hano '17 (10-1)
2017 Team Hano was arguably the most dominant NSL team of all time, led by the most dominant NSL offensive player of all time. They scored 46.4 PPG and gave up 36 PPG, which was good for an insane +10.4 net rating. Hano Garcia, David Speidel, Keyur Patel, Charlie Lewis and Aidan Leary made up the squad.
Speidel was unguardable and everything ran through him, as he averaged 33.5 PPG and won MVP. Hano - who had a different play style back in 2017 - averaged a double double and brought leadership, size, strength and shooting. Keyur was a great secondary option offensively and was money from deep. Aidan Leary and Charlie both brought dominant size and had some out-of-nowhere 15-15 games when they were given the opportunity.
They stormed through the league, beating everyone, and in doing so, they became an incredibly hated team. They were the talk of the town, as shouts of "When will Team Hano lose" rang through the hallways of Newton North. Anyways, about halfway through the season, Hano and Yagev had that crazy brawl that you guys have all probably seen.
They finally lost to Team Nate to drop to 10-1, but this was still a season for the ages. The league eventually fizzled out, but if the season continued, nobody would have beaten Team Hano that year.
2. Team Matt '16 (26-3)
In the preseason, Matt Rooney made the tough call of trading away his good friend and previous seasons DPOY, Sam Thayer, in order to get Aidan Nugent. So, by opening day, Team Matt had a lineup of himself, Aidan Nugent, Hano Garcia, Andrew Waterhouse and Kyle Bloom.
Team Matt got off to a great start the first game of the season (Dorval alted for Aidan), beating Team David as Hano Garcia hit an absolutely nuts fadeaway buzzer beater.
They ended up winning 6 of their first 8 games. But, Matt clearly wasn't satisfied, and he traded Waterhouse, Kyle Bloom and Hano Garcia for Sunny and Grant Yee - and a few days later, he shipped Grant and Sunny out for Chris Ng, Jon Han and Charlie Lewis (Chris was his target all along). They Team Matt went on to win 21 of their next 22 games, which was by far the most dominant stretch of games by a team in NSL history. They ended the season with a +12.8 net rating, and had the best offense in the league by over 9 points.
Matt Rooney averaged 21.7 PPG, 11.2 RPG and 7.3 APG on 52/39/76 splits. Aidan Nugent was awesome, averaging 13.5 PPG, 8.1 RPG and 1.6 APG on 55/37/63. Chris Ng went for 9.5 PPG, 5.6 RPG and 1.3 APG on 38/30/49. Charlie and Jon Han combined to average 2 PPG, 1.5 APG and 4.2 RPG, and neither shot better than 19%.
Team Matt ended up sweeping Team Henri in the first round of the playoffs, winning 51-43 and 48-36. But, playing so many regular season games meant that the NSL playoffs were in late August, and as a result, the league never played the finals that year because school started (to this day, I have no idea why). Winning the 2016 championship would have put Team Matt in the top spot on this list.
1. Team David/Idi '15 (24-11)
On Tuesday August 18th, 2015, Team David was crowned first ever NSL Champion. So, it's only right that they get the number one spot on this list. Team David opened the season with David, Cam, Nathan and Grant, and were pretty clearly the 2nd best team in the league. So, in July, Vood took a swing and shipped out Nathan, Grant and Cam for Henri, Fogel and Ian, which seemed like an insane move for David at the time. But, the deal didn't necessarily amount to wins as Team David went 4-6 over the next 10 games. As a result, David shipped out Henri and Fogel in a three way deal and acquired Idi Nsbuga and Chris Ng. The terms of the deal made it so that Vood and Idi would share captainship.
The foursome of Ian, David, Chris and Idi fit together incredibly well, and they ended up finishing 24-11 after a super hot end to the season. Idi, Chris and Vood all made the all star game, and Ian won 4th man of the year.
Vood was basically unstoppable on offense and nobody could handle his blend of skill and power. He pulled down a season record 27 rebounds in a game and had three 20-20 games. Chris was the best shooter in the entire league that year and played elite wing defense. Triple Double King Idi brought a little bit of everything to the table and was a literal Marcus Smart clone. Ian was a great role player who played solid defense and typically was the one who energized the team when they needed it.
David averaged 24.4 PPG, 11.8 RPG and 2.1 APG on 57/37/56 splits. Idi went for 7 PPG, 7.6 RPG and 3.6 APG on 42/0/31 splits, but his main contributions came on defense, and many thought he probably should have won DPOY over Sam Thayer. Chris Ng averaged 15 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 3.4 APG on 49/45/58 splits, and Ian went for 4.7 PPG, 4.4 RPG and 1.1 APG on 45/23/46 splits.
Team David went the distance in both rounds of the playoffs, beating Team Hano (Hano, Erick, Henri) in R1 and Team Matt (Matt, Nathan, Sam, Aidan) in the Finals. The fact that the entire starting lineup made the All Star Game, they won a whopping 24 games and they won the first ever NSL championship is what gives Team David the top spot on this list.
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