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Jordan had Pippen, LeBron had Mo Williams. End of story.
I thought this was a pretty interesting article. Although the writer imtimates that Jordan thinks his teammates were the same as Lebron's last year and I must have missed where Jordan said or implied that.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7010
Jordan had Pippen, LeBron had Mo Williams. End of story.
Basically the writer attributes their record to Pippen really stepping up his defense (he says he had one of the best defensive seasons by a 6'8 or under player), the team's overall defense stepping up, strong defensive rebounding, and Jackson's coaching. Solid article imo.
first of all you have to compare their times in the league which is LeBron's and Mike's first seven years ..... people always say Mike played with Scottie and Horace Grant. Scottie wasn't always Scottie Pippen. Within those first six years when they constantly lost to the Celtics and Pistons, Scottie (1987-1990) wasn't the Scottie (1991-1998) we knew from the 90s; Scottie was Mo Williams. And like LeBron, Mike and the Bulls were often eliminated.
Last edited by Ashy Larry; 07-21-2010 at 08:17 PM.
He also throws in a nice little acknowledgment to some forgotten role players:
"Also, not to be forgotten was Pete Myers' ability to vaguely approximate Jordan's defense at SG, Scott Williams' strong post D, better play from Stacey King, and solid interior performances from Wennington, Blount, and Longley (a major improvement over what Cartwright & King delivered in '93)."
The guy (Neil Payne) also states that they had the point differential of a 50 win team while the previous years team had one of a 58 win team so some of it was luck. Although Pippen did miss ten games so they might have won even more games. Pippen's numbers were pretty awesome that year: 22 ppg., 49% fg, 8.7 rpg, 5.6 apg, and 2.9 spg. He was all over the court. Plus they added Kukoc who was pretty good as a rookie iirc. It really is likely that they would have won four in a row if Jordan returned.
You mean 7 in a row ^^
You mean 8 in a row.
The thing is Mo Williams is never going to become any more than what he is now. I don't see any upside with him on either end of the floor. He's undersized, can't do anything other than score at an average rate and on top of that he's a defensive liability.
I agree but I was just making the point about Mike's first six years and LeBron's first six years. Mike could have said, this, I'm out. Dude was playing with freakin' Granville Waiters. He could have bolted and we damn sure didn't see Scottie as one of the best 50 of all time i the late 80s. Unlike LeBron, Mike stayed and it was definitely a great move.
While Jordan in the 1st few years of his career (after his 3rd year) had a young Pippen, budding star, another young workhorse like Horace Grant. Both had a bunch of potential. LeBron comes to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2004, their team was depleted of draft picks and had 0 young talented players. They got Larry Hughes who was atrocious, a bunch of old guys. LeBron leaving that team was a correct decision basketball-wise. The Cavs kept trading for old guys who played no defense and expected to win a championship with zero chance of improving the team.
Sure the Cavs have J.J Hickson now, but how much time does he need to blossom?
There are a lot of ways to look at it, but I wonder how Jordan would have answered if asked if he'd liked to have teamed up with Sir Charles? He was clearly one of if not his best friend in the league. I think at least in part that's what was going on with Lebron, not only did it afford him the opportunity to win, but he could play with guys he considered good friends. Magic and Bird weren't on the same level as Isiah Thomas, but they weren't Charles Barkley either.
At the end of the day Jordan was such a compe or that anything that would have taken the compe ion out of the game wouldn't have been something he'd liked to do. I'm sure he enjoyed beating Charles and rubbing it in his face, he certainly never took it easy on him (41 PPG in that series, highest ever in the NBA Finals).
Last edited by PM5K; 07-22-2010 at 03:25 AM.
The biggest mistake the Cavs made was not trading that Sczerbiak contract at the deadline in 09 and instead just letting it expire.
Where is that guy anyways is he on any team?
lol that the year pip wanted to take the last shot right in a playoff game, but phil wanted to shoot it instead?
nice jam from pippen over ewing in the playoffs, even though there was no need for him to shove him when he was falling to the ground already...then the started, good ol days
Basketball Reference: " How the Bulls didn't win a championship without Jordan "
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