1996 Bulls vs 2017 Warriors

[Clark]

Lol. If this GS goes undefeated in this year's playoffs, they'll show they are a damn good team, and with the talent they have, I'd take them over that Bulls team.. It's not that hard.

This years playoffs were full of bad teams or injured teams. It was a playoffs full of suck, which is why both teams had a combined 1 loss coming in.

Cleveland is a good team, they have good players but as the regular season showed, they're a very flawed team.

 

[rholtgraves]

In the playoffs the 96 team held opponents to about 88 points a game. The 96 Bulls have the best adjusted defensive rating of any top-40 offense in NBA history.

And you can't just take defensive efficiency stats because they are flawed for measuring how good a defense is. One measure that would drop the Bulls down is they didn't have a ton of blocks. But they didn't need it. If you don't recognize how great that team was on defense you are just being a troll. Now, of course you can't say they were the best ever, but you can certainly say they were one of the best ever. It was one reason their offense was so good. They also had one of the best offenses of all time.

Jack Ramsay described the Bulls defense as “the kind of defense that defies a period of time.” You also have to remember. Much like the Warriors of this year, when your average margin of victory is so high, you are naturally going to have ends of games where all bench guys are out there and it hurts your defensive efficiency stats. Again, very hard to compare defenses but if you talk to experts they will tell you how good those Bulls defenses were especially on the perimeter.

 

[bringmagicback]

you act like Jordan, Rodman or Pippen can't defend the rim or provide help defense. I don't think Durant could drive on Pippen, I think he'd have more success just shooting over him.

When they provide help defense Golden State will just start hitting open threes. And Durrant most certainly could drive on Pippen, he's one of the most talented offenseive players The NBA has ever seen. Golden State just has too much firepower. You can brag up the bulls defense all you want it's not going to matter with Golden State's ability to make shots, somebody is going to be open. Their bench is deep and they are able to rest players while still putting out extremely effective lineups. Look how Gast LeBron was in game two in the third quarter. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say LeBron is in amazing shape and even he wasn't able to keep up with them.

 

[rholtgraves]

This years playoffs were full of bad teams or injured teams. It was a playoffs full of suck, which is why both teams had a combined 1 loss coming in.

Cleveland is a good team, they have good players but as the regular season showed, they're a very flawed team.

I think with a healthy Spurs team they would have at least made the series go 6 games with the Warriors.

 

[rholtgraves]

When they provide help defense Golden State will just start hitting open threes. And Durrant most certainly could drive on Pippen, he's one of the most talented offenseive players The NBA has ever seen. Golden State just has too much firepower. You can brag up the bulls defense all you want it's not going to matter with Golden State's ability to make shots, somebody is going to be open. Their bench is deep and they are able to rest players while still putting out extremely effective lineups. Look how Gast LeBron was in game two in the third quarter. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say LeBron is in amazing shape and even he wasn't able to keep up with them.

I do think no matter who the team is, it would be difficult to guard Golden State. But pointing to Lebron being gassed doesn't indicate anything other than Lebron has to try and do too much on the defensive end by himself because of the Cavs lack of good defenders.

 

[Sigmapolis]

This is one of the most fun threads I've seen on here in awhile.

 

[CyJack13]

The '96 Bulls were a great defensive team and could matchup against the Warriors as well as anyone. I think the Bulls would struggle on offense against the Warriors defense. The '96 Bulls had games of 92, 86, 87 and 78 points against Seattle in the Finals. The Warriors have a ton of good wing defenders, Durant, Klay, Draymond, Livingston, Iguodola. If it was with today's rules it be even more of a grind for Chicago, Harper would basically be ignored any time he was on the floor, same with any of the Bulls bigs or backup guards besides Kerr. A lineup of Rodman-Kukoc-Pippen-Jordan-Kerr would help their offense but now Kukoc and Kerr would be liabilities on defense.

 

[Sigmapolis]

The '96 Bulls were a great defensive team and could matchup against the Warriors as well as anyone. I think the Bulls would struggle on offense against the Warriors defense. The '96 Bulls had games of 92, 86, 87 and 78 points against Seattle in the Finals. The Warriors have a ton of good wing defenders, Durant, Klay, Draymond, Livingston, Iguodola. If it was with today's rules it be even more of a grind for Chicago, Harper would basically be ignored any time he was on the floor, same with any of the Bulls bigs or backup guards besides Kerr. A lineup of Rodman-Kukoc-Pippen-Jordan-Kerr would help their offense but now Kukoc and Kerr would be liabilities on defense.

Harper would be a very helpful defender for the Bulls on the perimeter, but he would have been the perfect place to hide Curry on defense. That would hurt them some.

Klay, Durant, and Draymond would have as good of a chance of slowing down MJ as anybody out there -- and having options for fatigue/switches really would help.

 

[Clark]

When they provide help defense Golden State will just start hitting open threes. And Durrant most certainly could drive on Pippen, he's one of the most talented offenseive players The NBA has ever seen. Golden State just has too much firepower. You can brag up the bulls defense all you want it's not going to matter with Golden State's ability to make shots, somebody is going to be open. Their bench is deep and they are able to rest players while still putting out extremely effective lineups. Look how Gast LeBron was in game two in the third quarter. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say LeBron is in amazing shape and even he wasn't able to keep up with them.

Durant is extremely talented and would get his points no matter who guards him, but he's not going to be very efficient trying to drive on Pippen, who is quicker than he is. Pippen is a good 3 inches shorter than Durant, so I think Durant can shoot over him if given even a little space.

The difference between LeBron and Pippen in this scenario is Lebron is flanked by multiple other 1st team all nba defenders, so he's asked to carry a much larger burden on both sides of the floor.

 

[WalkingCY]

Player Steve Kerr and Coach Steve Kerr talking to each other at the same time would blow people's minds.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Anybody want to talk about how the Bulls would score on GS...?

Not like the Warriors are slackers on defense. Quite the opposite...

Points given up per 100 possessions (2016-2017 in reverse order)



They were the second best defensive team in the league, only 0.5 points after the Spurs.

 

[WalkingCY]

[QUOTEI think another thing is the Jordan factor. Meaning he would take the challenge against Curry and Durant very, very personally and would do anything it takes to prove his dominance.

="bringmagicback, post: 5718105, member: 9024"]See this is why you can't argue with Bulls fans. Well Jordan would win because he would want to show his dominance so he'd score 1000 points just to prove it he was better. Delusion.[/QUOTE]

It is kinda like the Superman vs. Batman debate. Batman peeps always go to The Dark Knight's desire being better than anyone, therefore finding a way to win. Which I agree, he would. I mean, he has billions of dollars, and he's a scientist. Batman would find some kyptonite.

Still though, the '86 Celtics would dominate either of these teams, you know, because Larry Legend's desire is through the roof. Not to mention they only lost 1 game in the Garden that year, I believe that record still is tops in the NBA.

Wait, I went way off topic.

 

[tzjung]

Look, I HATE the Bulls. I grew up a Sonics fan.... But, that Bulls team defense was phenomenal. Check this out:

3 FIRST TEAM ALL NBA DEFENDERS

1995-96
First Team
Michael Jordan
Dennis Rodman
David Robinson
Gary Payton
Scottie Pippen

Ron Harper was considered one of the best defenders in the league in '96 and probably SHOULD have made at least 2nd team all defense:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/..._1_all-defensive-bulls-assistant-harper-first

So..you have the equivalent of 4 of the top10 -12 defenders in the NBA. I think they could D up the Warriors pretty well, ESPECIALLY if they play with '96 rules and can be more physical.

Now..you match that up with arguably the best Batman / Robin tandem in history with Jordan / Pippen with Jordan being the best ever, I'd take the Bulls in 6.

 

[Clark]

Harper would be a very helpful defender for the Bulls on the perimeter, but he would have been the perfect place to hide Curry on defense. That would hurt them some.

Klay, Durant, and Draymond would have as good of a chance of slowing down MJ as anybody out there -- and having options for fatigue/switches really would help.

Yep, Harper would absolutely be a hiding spot. The Bulls could use Kerr, but I don't think he'd want any part of guarding Steph. The Bulls could have MJ guard Steph for a few minutes I suppose.

Durant and Draymond could help on Jordan, they'd have no prayer if they got switched onto him (other than dare him to shoot a 3.) Klay is probably their best shot, but like Durant, nobody is stopping him from getting his.

The key to the series for me is Steph. Steph feasts on a league that doesn't really have a lot of good perimiter defense guards. If you run down the list of great point guards or shooting guards in the NBA right now, I'm not sure you count on one hand the number of great defenders among them.

Harper is that guard. Now Golden State would obviously try to run him through a series of pick & rolls to get switched onto a weaker defender. The problem of course is that the only real option to do this with is whoever is playing center for them as the other three positions are guarded by all-time great defenders. In that case, they'd just force Steph to pass to the center and live with whatever happens after that.

 

[tzjung]

Also...I hope Kerr writes a book comparing these teams one day. Like..just talk about the daily grind and being a part of 2 teams that are historic. That would be an awesome book.

 

[rholtgraves]

Also...I hope Kerr writes a book comparing these teams one day. Like..just talk about the daily grind and being a part of 2 teams that are historic. That would be an awesome book.

He has had a pretty amazing career. Bulls, Spurs and now the Warriors.

 

[Clark]

Anybody want to talk about how the Bulls would score on GS...?

Not like the Warriors are slackers on defense. Quite the opposite...

Points given up per 100 possessions (2016-2017 in reverse order)

View attachment 48203

They were the second best defensive team in the league, only 0.5 points after the Spurs.

They'd feast on the offensive boards but that alone probably won't be enough. They don't have a ton of outside shooting which means Golden State would be free to help from multiple spots. However, that also leaves that player open to crash the boards.

Where the game would be decided would be on Golden State's ability to limit the Bulls transition offense. Golden State can be a little sloppy with the ball at times which would be death against that Bulls team.

Just about everyone the Bulls would bring off the bench in this series is a good shooter.

 

[Doc]

You as kidding right? The best rebounder of all time is a role player?

Maybe I'm being overly pedantic, but Rodman was the quintessential role player. His role was to rebound and defend and he did it very well.

 

[bringmagicback]

Durant is extremely talented and would get his points no matter who guards him, but he's not going to be very efficient trying to drive on Pippen, who is quicker than he is.

Okthumbsup.gif

 

[Sigmapolis]

This is for last year's Warriors without Durant, but I found it interesting anyways...





Nobody gives Harrison the ball.