99' Spurs top 10 FINALS team of all-time?

[NewcastleKEG]

What's your point? The fact that their compe ion was weak doesn't mean that they were weak themselves (see 2001 Lakers).

The 1996 Chicago Bulls would have absolutely no answer for the Showtime Lakers. They had nobody who could even dream of stopping Kareem and Jordan/Pippen would have their hands full trying to keep Magic and Worthy in check.

It would be a good series, but ultimately LA would prevail because they just had that much more firepower than any other team ever assembled in NBA history.

All this talk of Offensive. I'll put it this way,

- no one could be able to guard Jordan as evident by the 1991 NBA Finals
- Magic would get slowed down by Pippen was evident by the 1991 NBA Finals

Jordan was 9 x time All Defense 1st Team
Pippen was 8 x time All Defense 1st Team (1 - 2nd team)
Rodman was 7 x time All Defense 1st Team (1 - 2nd team)

The 1996 Chicago Bulls had
2 ALL NBA 1st Team members in Pippen and Jordan and a remarkable 3 players on the ALL NBA Defensive 1st Team members in the trio.

On top of that a 6 '6' Ron Harper at Point Guard. 2 7 footers in Longley and Wennington and then 6 '10' Kukoc to create matchup headache.


Lakers on the other hand
- Magic makes all NBA but has never made a All Defensive Team of any kind in his career. Kareem is the only one on the roster to make a All Defensive Team and it was All Defensive 2nd Team, 3 years before.


Obviously the Lakers would have an edge on offense with there fast break offense but Bulls would have a LARGE advantage on defense. They would have too many athletes like Jordan, Pippen, Harper and Kukoc to slow down Magic. I mean John Paxson and BJ Armstrong were able to slow Magic down, what do you think those vastly improved defenders that I listed would be able to do?

[DrHouse]

All this talk of Offensive. I'll put it this way,

- no one could be able to guard Jordan as evident by the 1991 NBA Finals
- Magic would get slowed down by Pippen was evident by the 1991 NBA Finals

Jordan was 9 x time All Defense 1st Team
Pippen was 8 x time All Defense 1st Team (1 - 2nd team)
Rodman was 7 x time All Defense 1st Team (1 - 2nd team)

The 1996 Chicago Bulls had
2 ALL NBA 1st Team members in Pippen and Jordan and a remarkable 3 players on the ALL NBA Defensive 1st Team members in the trio.

On top of that a 6 '6' Ron Harper at Point Guard. 2 7 footers in Longley and Wennington and then 6 '10' Kukoc to create matchup headache.


Lakers on the other hand
- Magic makes all NBA but has never made a All Defensive Team of any kind in his career. Kareem is the only one on the roster to make a All Defensive Team and it was All Defensive 2nd Team, 3 years before.


Obviously the Lakers would have an edge on offense with there fast break offense but Bulls would have a LARGE advantage on defense. They would have too many athletes like Jordan, Pippen, Harper and Kukoc to slow down Magic. I mean John Paxson and BJ Armstrong were able to slow Magic down, what do you think those vastly improved defenders that I listed would be able to do?

Are you seriously bringing up 1991? Are you a ing dumbass? Magic was literally 50-60% healthy in that series and Kareem was retired. The Showtime Lakers were literally on their last fumes at that point.

PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Byron Scott
SF: James Worthy
PF: A.C. Green
C: Kareem

And you've got Cooper and Thompson coming off the freaking bench. The Bulls would have no answer for Kareem, nobody on their team was capable of defending a legit big man. Lakers dominate the interior and that's all she wrote my friend.

[Lakers999]

the 99 spurs are an excellent team.... despite the shortened season the 99 spurs were the oldest team at that time and they man handled a heavily favored utah jazz team and a mal-coached laker team. there is no asterik in there season (I myself is guilty for spewing asterik hate). we all played 50 games we the top 8 from each conference played in playoffs and they won it fair and square.... so Yes for a rushed season and age the spurs of 99 were a great team and should be remembered for a long time...

[NewcastleKEG]

Are you seriously bringing up 1991? Are you a ing dumbass? Magic was literally 50-60% healthy in that series and Kareem was retired. The Showtime Lakers were literally on their last fumes at that point.

PG: Magic Johnson
SG: Byron Scott
SF: James Worthy
PF: A.C. Green
C: Kareem

And you've got Cooper and Thompson coming off the freaking bench. The Bulls would have no answer for Kareem, nobody on their team was capable of defending a legit big man. Lakers dominate the interior and that's all she wrote my friend.

From 1996-1998 the Bulls defeated in the playoffs
Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Kemp, Chris Webber, Dikembe Mutombo, Karl Malone, and Rik Smits all in the playoffs. How can you say they weren't able to defend a legit big man?

The complete lack of offensive game by AC Green would play right into the hands of the Bulls. They would be able to easily double Kareem with Rodman and either of the 7 footers.

If the Lakers were indeed so great then why didn't they win the le the season before? Bulls added Jordan and ran off 3 straight.

[Lakers999]

From 1996-1998 the Bulls defeated in the playoffs
Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Kemp, Chris Webber, Dikembe Mutombo, Karl Malone, and Rik Smits all in the playoffs. How can you say they weren't able to defend a legit big man?

The complete lack of offensive game by AC Green would play right into the hands of the Bulls. They would be able to easily double Kareem with Rodman and either of the 7 footers.

If the Lakers were indeed so great then why didn't they win the le the season before? Bulls added Jordan and ran off 3 straight.

i agree...even with kareem the lakers would still have lost... its like the 2004 finals without all the drama.... and besides Kareem at 44 would barely have averaged double doubles and his transition defense would have been horrendous. divac was the best fit at that time... HOWEVER if the lakers had Hakeem playing center that year than the bulls would have been ed

[Ditty]

the 99 spurs are an excellent team.... despite the shortened season the 99 spurs were the oldest team at that time and they man handled a heavily favored utah jazz team and a mal-coached laker team. there is no asterik in there season (I myself is guilty for spewing asterik hate). we all played 50 games we the top 8 from each conference played in playoffs and they won it fair and square.... so Yes for a rushed season and age the spurs of 99 were a great team and should be remembered for a long time...

exactly the playoffs werent shortned so why an asterick

because the knicks didn't give us a challenge?

please

[YellowFever]

From 1996-1998 the Bulls defeated in the playoffs
Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Kemp, Chris Webber, Dikembe Mutombo, Karl Malone, and Rik Smits all in the playoffs. How can you say they weren't able to defend a legit big man?

Well I guess I can name all the nice SG from the 80's that the Lakers beat but that wouldn't prove a thing now would it? You name players like Kukoc, Armstrong, longley but you don't mention names like Worthy, Scott, Cooper. Thompson...etc...etc.

It's a team game. The names aren't important, it's who they had surrounding them that is.

The complete lack of offensive game by AC Green would play right into the hands of the Bulls. They would be able to easily double Kareem with Rodman and either of the 7 footers.

And what would Worthy (the guy most likely to be guarded by Rodman) would be doing at this point? Kareem was also an excellent passer. He was routinely getting double teamed and more often than not found the open man.
And your post goes either way.
We could just double off Rodman.
Green at least had a shakey jumper.
Rodamn had no offensive game.

If the Lakers were indeed so great then why didn't they win the le the season before? Bulls added Jordan and ran off 3 straight.

Wrong.
Bulls added Jordan and struggle for a few years before finally winning and going on a streak. They lost to a Celtic teams that the Lakers beat in the finals.
They had to wait until the Celtics ran their course and than had to wait some more until Detroit gave them a couple of good kicks to their behinds before over coming Detroit.

You make it sound as if the Bulls would have steamrolled every and all teams but the fact is they were a bit lucky with the timing of their championships also.
Name one memorable team they beat?

Other than the Lakers team that was clearly showing their age, I can't remember one memorable team the Bulls defeated.

Celtics and the Lakers (not to mention a Sixers team earlier in the decade that is rated as one of the greatest of all times) killed each other in the playoffs...not to mention a hungry up and coming Pistons team.

Listen, I know you're pretty sure of your assesment when you say the Bulls would've slaughters the '87 Lakers.

Just as I'm sure of MY assesment when I say the 87 Lakers proably would've beaten the Bulls in 6 max.

The point is you can't throw out names without looking at the other side as well. Sure, Jordan was an all time top player.....so was Pippen.

But so was Magic, Kareem and Worthy. And if you go down the list, the Lakers had better role players.

Oh well..one of those debates we can argue till the cows come home but one that will never get resolved.

[VivaPopovich]

You can't go by stats alone. And if we're going to use the terms, "of all time" you're going to have to count the Red Auerbach championships. As it is, I don't even see the Wilt Chamberlain ones there.