Comment by philwelch
8 years ago
Fascinating counterexample about Dennis Rodman, though: Gregg Popovich famously decided Rodman was too much trouble and got rid of him after only one season, vowed that he would never tolerate a player like that again, and ended up winning five championships and counting, while building a team that remained a serious contender almost continuously from 1999 to, frankly, the moment Kawhi Leonard got injured last year.
If the Bulls kept their roster, they would highly likely get one or two more championships. The Bulls roster was more diversified and hard to froster from a builder's point's of view.
That is a huge if. By 1998, the big three basically couldn't stand each other anymore and only kept showing up because they wanted to finish out the second threepeat. If they managed to keep the wheels from coming off in the 98-99 season, they possibly could have beaten the Spurs, even though Rodman was definitely declining by then and the Spurs had two Hall-of-Fame big men and the Bulls had Luc Longley. In 2000, they'd run into Shaq and Kobe, and by then, Shaq was unstoppable.
Spurs is always a very well engineered team. It's a beautifully crafted team. That's why they last long as a team. Personally, I'd put Barkley and Malone above Tim due to their options to create space and finish. Bulls core members are all very unique and top specialized in their own domains while all held very high bball iq and passing skills. Your words let me notice how diversified that Bulls was both in terms of basketball ability and their personalities. That's beyond engineering. I can't believe I'm talking about bball on HN and found out a new angle.
Thank you. That is definitely a huge if. And shaq vs MJ's Bulls in 2000 could've been a must watch. Bulls would definitely make some adjustment to get some fresher blood. But just as they went through big man's era, their answer would probably not get one or two big men to go head to head against shaq. They played in their own way and took advantage of opponent's weakness.