2001 Lakers, 1986 Lakers, 2016 warriors, 2014 spurs, 1995 bulls or 2015 cavs

[sooby]

bulls no doubt.

[lsiberian]

Da real MVP. Except with the Clippers, not even Jerry West can save that pile of chit.

He just started with the Clippers.

[YIAMSOMEBODY]

Wrong. Jordan's D was incredible. It was Kobe that had suspect defense. Did you watch Jordan in his prime or catch clips on YouTube? Serious question because watching clips doesn't tell the entire story of a player. Rodman could defend just about anyone. He would get in someone's head and that would be it. Pippen was probably the best defending small forward out of all those teams.

Suspect defense? Kobe? The fukc? Kobe would literally defend ANYONE and not give a fukc about it. Granted he didn't have to necessarily guard the 4 or 5 positions, if he did, he treated them like anyone else and gave max effort. Jordan had good defense, but he had Brown, Longley, Harper, Pippen and Rodman to handle most of the defensive work while he focused primarily on scoring.

Kobe WAS the best defender on his team.

Suspect D? Do you even basketball?

[GotNext]

Suspect defense? Kobe? The fukc? Kobe would literally defend ANYONE and not give a fukc about it. Granted he didn't have to necessarily guard the 4 or 5 positions, if he did, he treated them like anyone else and gave max effort. Jordan had good defense, but he had Brown, Longley, Harper, Pippen and Rodman to handle most of the defensive work while he focused primarily on scoring.

Kobe WAS the best defender on his team.

Suspect D? Do you even basketball?

RIP Peter Griffin

[tonyparker69]

OP's years are season start years, not championship years


I was 9 when I watched the series and grew up near sac so maybe a little biased, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the kobe/shaq team should have lost that year.

Go watch game 5 again and try telling me the series was rigged for LA. That was the worst officiated game I've ever seen and it was almost entirely favoring Sacramento.

The kings shot like twice the FTs that the Lakers did in that series, and we had fukking Shaq.

I'm pretty sure that Rodman would get into Shaq's head and at least bother him enough to do some stupid chit but even without it, who cares if Shaq can do whatever he wants when nobody else can score cause Pippen/Jordan lock them down?

String bean Shaq destroyed Rodman in Orlando. Prime Shaq would drop 60 every night vs Rodman.

[tekkenbruh]

String bean Shaq destroyed Rodman in Orlando. Prime Shaq would drop 60 every night vs Rodman.

Literally doesn't matter when rest of the team scores combined 30

[tonyparker69]

Literally doesn't matter when rest of the team scores combined 30

A team that went 15-1 in the playoffs is not going to be limited to 30 outside of Shaq.

[lsiberian]

Go watch game 5 again and try telling me the series was rigged for LA. That was the worst officiated game I've ever seen and it was almost entirely favoring Sacramento.

The kings shot like twice the FTs that the Lakers did in that series, and we had fukking Shaq.

String bean Shaq destroyed Rodman in Orlando. Prime Shaq would drop 60 every night vs Rodman.

Why are we talking about the rigged ring Lakers? Yes it sucks that the Kings got robbed in 2002, but that was the Stern NBA. The favored teams always got help.

[tekkenbruh]

A team that went 15-1 in the playoffs is not going to be limited to 30 outside of Shaq.

laughs in Jordan

[Garnett]

As someone old enough to have seen the 87 Lakers as a kid and every other team since all the hype around the 01 Lakers is too much. We are all victims of our prime coming of ages. The majority of you seem to miss context amd nuance to these type of discussions. I am of the belief the Bulls would win against all of those based on Tommys rule aet of 80s-90s.

Rodman would give Shaq more problems than Dikembe bc Rodmans mental craziness would frustrate Shaq. Pippen would be able to guard Kobe to slow him a little. Kobe would be too worn and at that point of his career too inexperienced to guard the closest to prime Jordan we've ever seen.

I've long been of the opinion we never saw Jordan's peak due to his first retirement.

My rankings would be: Bulls, 87 Lakers then 01 Lakers (bc of rule period). I can see the 01 Lakers beating the 87 team if Shaq was fed early to put Kareem in foul trouble. I do believe Shaq is a tid bit overrated bc his power game became a slow game as he got fat. From centers I've seen and/or studied play, Olajuwon and Kareem at their best were better than Shaq.

[Sikhveins]

As someone old enough to have seen the 87 Lakers as a kid and every other team since all the hype around the 01 Lakers is too much. We are all victims of our prime coming of ages. The majority of you seem to miss context amd nuance to these type of discussions. I am of the belief the Bulls would win against all of those based on Tommys rule aet of 80s-90s.

Rodman would give Shaq more problems than Dikembe bc Rodmans mental craziness would frustrate Shaq. Pippen would be able to guard Kobe to slow him a little. Kobe would be too worn and at that point of his career too inexperienced to guard the closest to prime Jordan we've ever seen.

I've long been of the opinion we never saw Jordan's peak due to his first retirement.

My rankings would be: Bulls, 87 Lakers then 01 Lakers (bc of rule period). I can see the 01 Lakers beating the 87 team if Shaq was fed early to put Kareem in foul trouble. I do believe Shaq is a tid bit overrated bc his power game became a slow game as he got fat. From centers I've seen and/or studied play, Olajuwon and Kareem at their best were better than Shaq.

Nice post.
That's exact same list I posted on page 2 but I added 2012 Heat as 4th team. I could see Kareem giving Shaq trouble even though he was not as powerful down low, Kareem possessed a lot of intangibles. Shaq's free throw shooting hinders him and it caused one sided Finals against the Rockets.

[tonyparker69]

As someone old enough to have seen the 87 Lakers as a kid and every other team since all the hype around the 01 Lakers is too much. We are all victims of our prime coming of ages. The majority of you seem to miss context amd nuance to these type of discussions. I am of the belief the Bulls would win against all of those based on Tommys rule aet of 80s-90s.

Rodman would give Shaq more problems than Dikembe bc Rodmans mental craziness would frustrate Shaq. Pippen would be able to guard Kobe to slow him a little. Kobe would be too worn and at that point of his career too inexperienced to guard the closest to prime Jordan we've ever seen.

I've long been of the opinion we never saw Jordan's peak due to his first retirement.

My rankings would be: Bulls, 87 Lakers then 01 Lakers (bc of rule period). I can see the 01 Lakers beating the 87 team if Shaq was fed early to put Kareem in foul trouble. I do believe Shaq is a tid bit overrated bc his power game became a slow game as he got fat. From centers I've seen and/or studied play, Olajuwon and Kareem at their best were better than Shaq.

Shaq destroyed Rodman in 96 as a 23 year old that weighed 50lb less than what he weighed in LA. The narrative that Rodman would stop prime Shaq because muh mental game is so ridiculous, Rodman couldn't even stop Shaq as a kid. LA Shaq would shoot 75% against 96 Rodman.

[wifestealer]

2017 warriors getting very little love ITT and i'm a warriors hater. average scoring margin over an entire season of 12 points (+16 at home, +8 on the road which is unreal). the NBA literally wasn't ready for that team. they are cruising through this regular season and still have a higher scoring margin than any of lebron's heat teams (higher than ANY of lebron's teams actually, other than his 09 cleveland team)

[Sikhveins]

Shaq destroyed Rodman in 96 as a 23 year old that weighed 50lb less than what he weighed in LA. The narrative that Rodman would stop prime Shaq because muh mental game is so ridiculous, Rodman couldn't even stop Shaq as a kid. LA Shaq would shoot 75% against 96 Rodman.

As a power forward and his overall toughness and lack of awareness fighting for the ball he would do just enough along side MJ and Pippen.

[SpartacusNYC]

I've long been of the opinion we never saw Jordan's peak due to his first retirement.

I tend to agree, I see those '93 and '96 bookend seasons as his most complete form, with the former being more explosive and the latter seeming to essentially master the game. It's entirely possible his true peak, mentally and physically, was '94 to '95.

[Garnett]

Shaq destroyed Rodman in 96 as a 23 year old that weighed 50lb less than what he weighed in LA. The narrative that Rodman would stop prime Shaq because muh mental game is so ridiculous, Rodman couldn't even stop Shaq as a kid. LA Shaq would shoot 75% against 96 Rodman.

No, Shaq beat out an older Rodman in overall numbers but it wasn't obliteration in any sense. This series was a blowout. Rodman averaged 15 rbs per game and Shaq 10. If you catch one of the NBA reflection series you'll see Shaq being interviewed about how easy his team was swept. If you watched it live like I did then you'd remember it.

[TommyRO]

No, Shaq beat out an older Rodman in overall numbers but it wasn't obliteration in any sense. This series was a blowout. Rodman averaged 15 rbs per game and Shaq 10. If you catch one of the NBA reflection series you'll see Shaq being interviewed about how easy his team was swept. If you watched it live like I did then you'd remember it.

Lmao 01 shaq would demolish him

[GotNext]

Everyone caught up in their memories and opinions - stats say the 01 Lakers had the toughest schedule and were the strongest team, only second to the 95 Rockets. The difference being, the 01 Lakers were also dominant as fuk, putting up their 15-1 playoff record.

[theparttimenerd]

Lmao if Jordan wasn't playing baseball he'd chit on those teams

Boyo 2004 Pistons would chit on Jordan any day. They chit on the Lakers, BAD.

[GotNext]

Boyo 2004 Pistons would chit on Jordan any day. They chit on the Lakers, BAD.

40 year old Malone, 35 year old Payton and Shaq leaving his prime. Malones bum knees meant we played a guy called Medvedenko (ever heard of him? he warmed our bench for a few years, never meant to play significant minutes) ... in the NBA Finals. Shaq and Kobe already had a bad relationship and Kobe had off-court distractions in the case built on rape allegations.

The 2003 Lakers would have annihilated the Pistons, the 2004 ones could not.

[Garnett]

Lmao 01 shaq would demolish him

01 Shaq was in his prime but wouldn't dominate Rodman due to Rodman having a higher bball IQ over Shaq by miles. Shaq would win the matchup no doubt but Rodmans craftiness of positioning, getting into Shaqs head mentally (this would happen), and his superior rebounding due to better ability reading balls off the rim, would reduce (to an extent) Shaqs interior presence off the ball. That gives Pippen and Jordan less need to double down making a then inexperienced Kobe facing a far superior defensive wing set.

Everyone should go back to watching prime Rodman with the Pistons back in the day and pay attention to how he used his body against bigger guys. With 80s rules, Shaq isn't going to get as many calls as he did back in 01 against Dikembe.

[GotNext]

Alex, I'll take "Things that don't go together" for 400, please.

Rodman [...] IQ

[Garnett]

Alex, I'll take "Things that don't go together" for 400, please.

Bball IQ, not life IQ. Rodman was a genius defensively and with rebounding position. Look up old Chuck Daily interviews on him or Phil Jackson. The nuances of the game seems so lost on guys around here.

[tekkenbruh]

Alex, I'll take "Things that don't go together" for 400, please.

If you don't think Rodman had high BBIQ then you shouldn't even post. The guy studied other players' shots to know when and where to jump for the rebound ffs. You don't become the player he was, playing at the position he did without being smart about the game.

[aleeboy]

Lmao 01 shaq would demolish him

Ain't no stopping a Shaq Attack.

The Lakers with the 1-2 combo of Shaq and Kobe, plus a very deep bench, were just the greatest team ever. Pure domination.

[GotNext]

If you don't think Rodman had high BBIQ then you shouldn't even post. The guy studied other players' shots to know when and where to jump for the rebound ffs. You don't become the player he was, playing at the position he did without being smart about the game.

Maybe, just maybe, it was a lighthearted comment? Why did I remove the bball from "bball IQ" out of the original post? Damn, people get their knickers in a bunch around here over meaningless crap, lol.