The Bulls would likely not have won les those years without Jordan...just look at the two years MJ was away from the game.
I wouldn't agree with that. They had a lot more than MJ/Pip. Rodman snagged 15 RPG and the rebounding le that year. Kukoc was the sixth man. Harper was better than anything we had in the '99 backcourt. Kerr shot a sick 52% from 3-point range. They had the complete package.
In fact if anything, it was the Spurs who were weak outside of TD/DRob/Elliott. Avery, Elie, Jaren, Rose, Daniels and Kersey would have been overmatched.
99 team
That team played GREAT D
99 team. You just simply were not going to score against that team in the post.
So, you had to shoot jumpshots. Jordan and Pippen would have had a tough time at the rim.
Bulls could turn you over though.
96 Bulls were one of the very best teams the NBA had ever seen.
72-10 is unbelievable.
Still, I think that it is tough to win if you are too dependent upon your guards and can't score in the post.
So, 99 Spurs would have given them a run for their money. In a 7 game series, it is not impossible to see how the 99 Spurs could have beat them.
Anyone of our championship teams would sweep their soft asses.
Some of you talk about how good our frontline is/was, but this Bulls team played in the hayday of great centers, with prime versions of O'Neal, Olajuwon, Ewing, Mutombo, Mourning. Even the second rate centers of that time would be making a ton of money right now, guys like Smits, Sabonis, Divac, etc...
Scottie and Michael were two of the best finishers this game has ever seen, and even without Michael the Bulls were a fifty win team...
I'm pretty sure if the Rockets would have had a frontline that read something like Patrick and Hakeem, the Bulls wouldn't have found them so easy to beat. Jordan beat some of the best center. Note the lack of the "s".
That's what the Spurs had, and that's what people keep forgetting. Not one but TWO of the best big men. Ever. On the floor. At the same time. And as good as Jordan was, he was most definitely not invincible. A series of going into the lane to find two of the best defenders in the league would have been difficult for even him and Pippen to overcome.
The Spurs frontline when both were in their prime was the best the league had ever seen. Inarguably, no questions asked. Duncan and Robinson, people will look back on that in 20 years and say, "That team would dominate today with no problems."
05 horry and Barry > 96 Kukoc and kerr.
Seriously, kukoc is not god, and can't defend like horry can.
well said my thoughts exactly
'99 team. I don't buy that their guards would be posting up AJ all day. Nobody was scoring on us in the paint, period. TD and DRob warmed the paint when anybody set foot in there. They'd have to hit 3s, and you recall, our rotations were never better than that year. How about TD posting up all night long and DRob getting volleyball passes for dunks? Don't know if we win, but that's the team I'd send to give it a crack.
I don't think so, the 98 team was good but the Bulls beat them both times they played them and you can't really say the 99 team was that much better, Tim's numbers stayed about the same and David's actually dropped.
Exactly! Spurs '03! I would like to have seen the Bulls try and stop Tim and have to deal with David down low. Not to mention Stephen Jackson, Speedy Claxton, Manu and Tony! What about Bowen? Come on ! Those Bulls teams were good , but they weren't untoucha-bull....... !
If I have to pick one I pick the 99 team. It's the only one with big enough balls to knock off those Bulls teams. The 03 and 05 teams were more talented...but I don't think they had the killer instinct of the 99 team.
The '99 team would give Chi a of a series, but I don't think any team since the '96 Bulls could beat that '96 team.
That's crazy. The 98 team ran a tri-towers lineup with Will Perdue starting, since Sean was hurt. Even worse, they had Vinny Del Negro's soft ass starting instead of Mario Elie. Malik had no game at the time, and JJ wasn't getting the shots he got on the '99 team.
None. You would get worked.
i think the best one would be the '03 team since that had some depth on the perimeter. I'd trust Jack/Manu/Bowen more than I would Manu/Barry/Bowen against MJ and Jordan. Also the 5 spot was considerably weaker with the '05 team. The X variable is, of course, Horry. But man, that '03 was fairly deep across the board, especially in the frontcourt. And having a pretty good backup point wasn't bad either. '99 might've played some tough D, but that team was limited offensively.
You know what, I was struggling to find the words, but's that's exactly what I thought.
There was something about that '99 team that was amazing, 15-2 in the playoffs, they knew when to step on the throat and not give up the lead.
The '03 let the Nets take them to 6... they let the suns to take them to '6
the '05 team was soft, like it was a better team then we have now, but they were prone to going through prolonged streaks of inep ude...and TD was on one ankle
ummmmm nooooooo
Yeah, I know what you mean. David and Duncan were only both 20+ PPG players (don't talk about David only getting 15+ per game, he could have scored a lot more against the Bulls). Elliott, Elie, Jackson, Kerr could all bring rain from outside. All but 3 guys on that team averaged +10 minutes a game, and we could constantly throw guys at the Bulls. Double Jordan and let Pippen try to score 1 on 1 with our post defense waiting.
And don't forget about Malik Rose. He was a guy that could come off the bench and light a fire under the team, someone who would have been able to match up on Rodman relatively well.
I'd really like to see Rodman avg. 10 rbs. a game over Duncan & David. Not happening. No one would ever have a shot at running against the 99 Spurs. No way.
Really, you'd like to see it?
How bout in 97-98 when Rodman had sixteen and twenty two boards in their two games and the Bulls out rebounded the Spurs?
The 99 team was not limited offensively in the slightest. Duncan, Tim, Malik, Sean, JJ and even Avery were all capable of 15+ a night.
Everyone seems to forget just how much JJ, Sean, and Elie were GIANT Killers that year. Those three were unstoppable in the clutch, like no team I had seen before.
Elie and Sean were both very tough capable defenders to throw at Jordan, and Popovich's funneling system was at its very best that year. Guarding Pippen would have caused us some grief, but I am one of those that consider him overrated.
I say Spurs in 6.
This is misleading.
Of the Centers you name, only 2 are truly, truly dominant and top 10-15 ever NBA players. Hakeem and Shaq. Tim's right up there with these 2 as far as overall skill/talent/impact.
The Bulls were 1-1 against Shaq in the playoffs. Everyone wants to say "MJ wasn't the same, etc" but the fact is Shaq is the one superstar who led a team to a series win over that dynasty before the Pistons used to beat Chi-town.
As for Hakeem, the Bulls did not ever face him in the Finals and in fact in the regular season had a losing record against Houston in the Jordan era. So I dont see how that helps your argument.
Ewing, Mourning, etc are just in a different tier of player. Very good, but not great players like Hakeem, Shaq, Tim.
As for the subject at hand, I think all would be good series because SA has a dominant big in #21 unlike anything MJ ever had to go through to win an NBA le. The one thing that might tilt it in the Bulls favor is that MJ was the type of player who actually played better against greater compe ion. He would have been so fired up to school Bowen that he'd probably play the best ball of his NBA career.
Still, I think if you look at any of the post Jordan le teams named LA, Houston, or SA, they'd have great matchups against Chi and give them much tougher comp than the teams Chitown actually played because of the difficulty in guarding and finishing against dominant (on both ends of court, unlike the Malone's, Barkley's, Kemp's Chitown faced) bigs.
I mean prime Shaq vs. Bulls C's is just a massively bigger mismatch than Kobe vs. MJ.
WHat about Bowens D on Jordan....I think the 03 Team could take em to 7 and possibly beat them.
Shut up and go have sex with Colorado ho's.
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