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umm the 1996 bulls in 5 games
They are having an interesting discussion over on LG about this:
http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=70482
IMHO I think the series could go either way.
Both teams had excellent role players (Pippen, Kerr, Rodman, Horry, Fox, Fisher), played great defense, and were juggernauts offensively. I think Shaq would have been the x-factor. He was so dominant at that point in time, I just don't know of anyone on the Bull's roster that could have stopped him.
What do you guys think?
umm the 1996 bulls in 5 games
5 games? No way does the series go 5 games.
There was a simulated playoff done a few years ago among all the great teams in history. It's probably archived somewhere online...It had an unfair finish. Anyway, it came down to a top four. 1986/7 Lakers vs. Someone, Lakers won. Then it had the 1985/6 Celtics vs. the 1995/6 Bulls. It had the Celtics winning in 7 games. I say, no way! Whoever designed this simply wanted another Laker/Celtic final. Lakers of 1986/7 "won" it all. Sorry, but the 1995/6 Bulls team owns all.
bulls in 5. pretty obvious.
Bulls in 6, Maybe 7 depending how MJ plays
Bulls in a cakewalk. The Lakers team looked dominant but their road to the championship was easy. That Spurs team was horrible and its second leading scorer was injured. The Sixers were even worse and made it to the Finals only because the East was amazingly weak.
Kobe would try to turn it into MJ vs Kobe ... and get embarrassed. Bulls sweep or in 5.
maybe i'll elaborate, the bulls had one of the best defenses ever, their full court press was spectacular. they had 5 centers to make shaq work, while the lakers have no one that can shut down pippen or jordan. kobe at this point was amazing but lets face it, hes not the player he is now. if prince can do a good job on him then 2 of the best perimeter defenders ever shouldnt have a problem esp if they rotate.
bulls also have a better bench, tony kukoc. odom is kukocs clone, except i believe kukoc is a better 3 point shooter. just imagine odom as a consistent 3 pt shooter. thats the player kukoc was and he was coming off the bench behind jordan and pippen. they also had sharp shooter steve kerr and jud buchler, they had defensive ace and super athlete randy brown to back up harper at pg.
shaq was a complete monster, but rodman did a decent job on him in the past. fisher was also a very smart player by then, but lets not forget ron harper. harper was a former allstar who was very capable still, but stuck to his role, his talent alone exceeds the derek fisher we know, even today. in fact wasnt harper the starting PG for that laker team?
in conclusion, the bulls had some of the best defense ever employed by a basketball team and remained offensive juggernauts.
im not gonna say the lakers in 00/01 weree overrated because they were the best team, but they played the sixers in the finals for god sake.
So I take it you don't consider the one man Sixers on par with the 64-18 SuperSonics?
Do we even have to ask???? The Bulls would rape them.
Timvp stupid comments about Kobe trying to turn it into a duel with MJ. It just shows that you're no better than a hater when you say ridiculous like that. Sure Kobe went at MJ, but that was during the regular season and in the All-Star games.....he never pulled that during the championship runs. He knew his role and the value of team basketball, otherwise the Lakers wouldn't have won 3 in a row. They would not have won 3 in a row if Kobe tried to duel everyone on the court.
Anyways I still contend that Shaq in his absolute prime would have been too much for even the Bulls to handle. They played some of the best defense of any team in the full court and half court sets, but they struggled against teams with dominant centers. Jordan has been quoted as saying the Hakeem Rockets were the toughest matchup he ever faced. A prime Shaq would have dominated Rodman, Longley, and Bill Wennington. They simply didn't have the size and strength to slow him down in the post.
The question that remains is how much of an x-factor Shaq would have been. Would it be enough to offset Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman? I just don't know.
I don't think you can call Pippen a role player. He was one of the best defenders in the NBA, and his offensive skills were top notch. When Jordan retired (the first time) Pippen lead the Bulls to 55 wins, and that was before Rodman. Many considered him the second best player in the league that year, after Hakeem Olajuwon.
According to the rules set by many Lakers and Suns fans, the 2000-01 le must have an asterisk, since the best player on the winner the year before was hurt and that team couldn't defend its le at full strength.
what the , who do you think will stop jordan? shaq is a great but hes got weaknesses, shaq would have dominated the bulls centers statistically but he'll have to work for his points. shaq alone isnt going to beat the greatest team ever.
Harper>>fisher
Jordan>>kobe
Pippen>>>fox
rodman>grant
longley<<<shaq
bulls bench>lakers bench
fisher cant handle harper, harpers 6'6, kobe at this age wouldnt handle jordan, fox and pippen... lol, rodman would own grant (unless youve never seen him play or grew up watching the 90s). so yea shaq would dominate, but hes not going to beat the bulls himself. lakers bench also have no answer for kukoc, its like having lamar odom coming off the bench next year for the lakers.
two phil jackson coaches?
Both teams had plenty of offensive weapons, with Shaq being the biggest one on either team. But the Bulls were more versatile, had the better D, and had the better role players.
It's all about matchups. Shaq was a complete monster, but Rodman, as people have pointed out, had done some good work on him in the past. In any case, Shaq's FT shooting would prove to be a thorn in the Lakers' side.
Harper/MJ/Pippen was the best starting 1/2/3 rotation in recent memory. Fisher/Kobe/Fox would be outmatched. The Bulls backcourt was bigger, stronger, more experienced. While the Bulls had Pippen to throw at Kobe, the Lakers had nobody to contain either Jordan or Pippen.
2008 Kobe (arguably in his prime) couldn't guard Pierce, and has trouble with stronger guards who can post him up and hit the mid-range shot. Jordan was the best non-big-man post player in history, and 2001 Kobe was just not strong enough to handle Jordan on the block. On the other end, Pippen would harrass Kobe just like Prince did in 2004 or how Pippen handled Magic in 1991.
The Bulls were great at pressure defense, mixing in hard double-teams and weak-side steals with more conventional man-to-man. They would make the Lakers work for every possession. The role-player scenario is the deal clincher. The 2001 Lakers went 15-1 because Fisher, Fox, Shaw and Horry were overachieving. They would find it 10x difficult against the Bulls, with the likes of Rodman, Harper, Kukoc, Kerr, Longley.
Noone knows for certain, and noone will. But my money is on the Bulls in 6.
One team got very hot at playoff time, to their credit, for 16 games; the other team played basically at that very level for 100 games. Game, set, match, 96 Bulls.
Bulls in 6. A better question is who would win between that 01 Lakers team and the Bulls opponent, the 96 Sonics.
Derek Fisher 48.4% FG 515% 3PT 13.4ppg 4pg 3apg
Fisher was the ex-factor, how would he handle shooting over big guards I believe is make or break for this series, since Fisher was one of 4 guys averaging 7ppg or over and the next best player was Horace Grant (32% FG, 6ppg). The Bulls had 7 guys who put up 7ppg or more, you could shut a few down and others would cover the scoring.
Rodman always guarded Shaq well. Pippen and Jordan don't have a chance in of stopping Kobe.
The Bulls could never contain superstar guards since they had no true perimeter one-on-one defender so their strategy was to disrupt the passing lanes (Jordan and Pippen), put a hand on shooters (usually Harper), and stop post scoring (Rodman). Penny Hardaway averaged about 32ppg against the Bulls but Shaq and the rest of the team always got shut down.
It entirely depends on if Kobe can replace Fisher's production. Kobe was already playing at an incredible level (29.7ppg) I'd say the Lakers win or lose would almost entirely depend on Kobe's production--could he make up Fisher's loss of production? He might have to average 35-40ppg in that series.
Would that even be a series, the lake show would smoke them.
lol tell that to paul pierce moron, if pippen can contain magic he can contain kobe, if jordan can contain drexler he can contain kobe, your theories about bulls playing the passing lane is ridiculous, they played the best man to man defense, and team defense in the league, the bulls will win in 6 no worst, a sweep on a good day, go check up youtube of shaq trying to guard jordan, if i can remember i seen jordan dish out 2 facials on shaq, and scored 50+ on his ass, fact is shaq no matter how dominant he was, could not match jordan's offensive output, and kobe will not be able to contain anyone.
Shaq in 2001 was >> than Shaq in 1995.
I believe Jordan would have been easier to contain for the Lakers than Shaq for the Bulls. The Lakers could actually rotate several good perimeter defenders onto Jordan (Kobe, Fox, etc.), whereas the Bulls had NOBODY that could even come close to containing Shaq. He'd foul out their entire frontcourt.
Like I said Rodman, Bill Wennington, and Luc Longley are going to contain Shaq?
How bout telling that to the knicks, pistons, jazz who did just that, the jordan rules and all that dumbass, pistons tried triple teaming and got burned, you dont just throw out theories like that boy, there's something about double teaming and leaving men open and jordan thrives on just that, what with the superior supporting cast bulls had over the lakers, there's no such thing as trying to contain someone senselessly without getting burned, it's your homerism speaking just admit it, bulls in 5, jordan runs the offense and makes it flow, shaq just park his fatass under the post cherry picking. when it comes down to a matchup of jordan vs shaq, i take jordan every other day, you cant bluff ur way out of it.
just answer this, whose is going to contain pippen? kukoc? harper? also you cant shut down jordan, lets be realistic. the best perimeter defenders couldnt do it and that was their only job, do you really expect rick fox to?
lol at Lakers ground, 56-22 in favor of the Lakers.
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