Jeff Van Gundy recently came out stating that the Heat had a real chance to surpass the record of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls which was 72-10. He also said that they could even break the 1971-72 Lakers record of 33 straight games. Personally, I don't think either are real possibilities, but let's take a look, shall we? I don't know enough about the 71-72 Lakers to compare them but will concede that they were one of if not THE best teams ever with Hall of Famers like Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, and NBA Logo Jerry West; not to mention Pat Riley (ironic, huh?) who was a pretty good player as well.
The 95-96 Bulls have their second player being inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend in Scottie Pippen. Michael Jordan (THE BEST EVER) was inducted last year. Will Dennis Rodman ever get in? He was a rebounding and defensive machine, but that was pretty much his whole game so I doubt it.
Anyway, let's layout the starters first:
Bulls:
- Steve Kerr
- Michael Jordan
- Scottie Pippen
- Dennis Rodman
- Luc Longley
- Carlos Arroyo
- Dwyane Wade
- LeBron James
- Chris Bosh
- Joel Anthony
Do I really need to go into this match-up? This really just isn't close folks. Wade is a very good basketball player, but he is NOT, let me repeat, he is NOT Michael Jordan. Michael averaged over 30ppg with NO HAND CHECK rules like they have today! Can you imagine how many points he'd be averaging today? Wade averaged 26.6ppg last year and shot a respectable 48% from the field and 76% from the stripe. Michael shot 50% from the field and 83% from the stripe. Wade shot nearly 50 more FTs than Michael (think the hand check rules helped him at all?). Michael was All-NBA first team as well as All-NBA Defensive first team as well while Wade was All-NBA first team but was second team for D. Does anyone think the shorter Wade would be able to guard Michael in the post? Didn't think so...
Edge Bulls
Scottie Pippen vs. LeBron James
Funny how now people are starting to refer to LeBron as Scottie Pippen referring to his new "second fiddle" status on Wade's team. Both of these guys are fabulous basketball players; no question about it and this would be an AWESOME match-up to watch. Would anyone be better at guarding LeBron than Scottie Pippen? I mean EVER in the NBA? Yes, LeBron is stronger than Scottie ever was, but with ZERO post-game (maybe in his 8th year in the NBA, it might just be time to expand the game a bit), I truly believe Scottie's length and quickness would severely offset LeBron's offensive game. The question then becomes how well would LeBron be able to guard Scottie? I think this would be a virtual stalemate...
Edge Even
Now that the Bulls have negated the best two players from South Beach, where does that leave the match-ups?
Dennis Rodman vs. Chris Bosh
Most people agree that Chris Bosh is a very soft player with limited interest in playing any type of defense. Well Chris, let me introduce you to Mr. Rodman...his job is defense and he LOVES to do nothing more than stop the other team's PF or even C. Did you get a chance to watch any tape of the Bulls vs. Jazz in 1996-97 or 97-98? Rodman drove Karl Malone (NBA's 2nd all-time leading scorer - i.e. MUCH better than you will EVER be!) nuts in those series. What do you think he'll do to you when all he has to do is focus on your offensive game?
Edge Bulls
Steve Kerr vs. Carlos Arroyo or Eddie House or Mario Chalmers
Neither of these guys are big impact guys. Kerr's job on the Bulls was to spread the floor and provide Michael and Scottie an option out at the arc for the "drive and kick". Kerr led the NBA in 3-pt FG% a couple of times including 1994-95 which was the season before. He "slumped" in 1995-96 making "only" 51.5% of his 3s to finish 2nd in the NBA. I'm not exactly sure what Arroyo's job will be on this team because he's a career 31.5% 3-pt shooter so he won't exactly put a lot of fear in defenses. Maybe Arroyo won't be the starter and Eddie House will be the PG instead. I've read articles calling Eddie a "sharpshooter" but let's look at his career numbers and see how well the 6'1" guard shoots before we just agree with that assessment. Eddie's a career 39% 3-pt shooter (Kerr shot 45.4%) and shoots 41% overall (Kerr shot 47.9%) so "sharpshooter" may be a little strong. What about Mario Chalmers? After two years in the league, he's shooting 34.6% from the arc and 41.2% overall - both numbers were down last year compared to his rookie season.
Edge Bulls
Luc Longley vs. Joel Anthony or Zydrunas Ilgauskas
I was never much of a fan of Luc but he was definitely the best offensive center Michael and Scottie played with together on the Bulls. Ilgauskas hasn't played more than 70 games since 2007-08 playing only 64 games last year; starting only 6. He averaged a career low 7.4ppg and his overall production has gone down steadily over the last 3 years. This team needs a defensive minded center and Z is NOT it. Joel Anthony sure is making some money (5-year $18 million) with the Heat, but for what? Just a warm body? He hasn't averaged more than 3.5 ppg and that was his rookie year. He's not exactly a big rebounder either maxing out at 3.9 rpg also during his rookie season. Again, Luc was no stud, but come on...he was better than both of these guys averaging 9.1 ppg and 5.1 rpg during the year. Luc wasn't much on D, but he won't have to do much against the Heat's tandem up front.
Edge Bulls
Here are a few other items:
- the Bulls were rated #1 in the NBA in both offense and defense (http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1996_games.html)
- the Bulls were #1 in scoring with 105.2 ppg and #3 in points allowed giving up a mere 92.9 ppg
- the Bulls finished the season 18-3 in their final 21 games losing all 3 games by one point each
- Michael Jordan played all 82 games in each season of their second 3-peat including the 95-96 season; sorry LeBron, no games off at the end of the season if you want to win 70+
- Michael, Scottie and Dennis Rodman each made the All-Defensive First Team while Michael and Scottie also added All-NBA First Team
- LeBron made the All-Defensive First Team last year, Wade made All-Defensive Second Team, and both made All-NBA First Team; Bosh wasn't on any of these lists
I think I've made my point - the 1995-96 Bulls team would beat the 2009-10 Heat, but again I know this really wasn't the question and doesn't really argue Jeff Van Gundy's point that this year's Heat can win more than 72 games in this year's NBA. Here's what I do know...the Heat have to play the Bulls 4 times, the Lakers twice, OKC twice, the Celtics 4 times, a well-coached Jazz team twice, and Orlando 4 times. Scott Skiles' Milwaukee Bucks won't exactly back down and neither will Joe Johnson's Atlanta Hawks and the Heat play them 4 times each too. So let's assume they lose only 9 games out of this bunch and win all the rest of their games; that's what they would need to do in order to outdo the Bulls giving them a 73-9 record...what does that mean their record has to be? Well, adding up all those games comes to 26 games which means they would need to go 17-9 against the rest of the best teams in the league and 56-0 against the rest and "the rest" includes San Antonio, Portland and Dallas with 2 games each against the Heat.
I just don't see it...these guys have ONE championship TOTAL between them over 21 combined seasons! They never won anything at the college level either...do they even know how to win the big game? Are they going to deal well with the pressure? History says NO! LeBron's teams have gone backwards - since getting swept in the Finals by San Antonio, LeBron's teams have not only still not won a championship, but haven't even made it back to the Finals. I already mentioned Bosh's 3-8 overall playoff record in 7 seasons so I don't need to further elaborate there as this "star" can't even get his team TO the playoffs, let alone win in the playoffs. What has Wade done? He won the championship with Shaq in 2005-06 but were swept in the first round by the Bulls in 06-07, won all of 15 games (Wade was hurt, but still played in 51 games) in 07-08 (many people believe they were sand-bagging to get the top pick - so sorry, you get #2 instead and end up with Michael Beasley who they gave away this off-season instead of Derrick Rose - sort of a "cheaters proof"), and then lost in the first round each of the last two years...not exactly inspiring.
And what about LeBron's comments about his "mental notes of everyone taking shots at me". It was the "me" part of the comment that caught my attention most...while a lot of attention has been focused specifically on LeBron, I think it would have been MUCH better for him to address his comments on the shots taken at his new team rather than focus solely on himself...again, this just confirms my The Three Am-EGOS name. Of course, the fact that this knucklehead is doing anything "mental" is laughable anyway. This guy has NO CLUE and really should just focus on basketball rather than worry about doing anything "mental". For example, who's brainiac idea was it for LeBron to head to Cedar Point just over an hour outside of Cleveland a month after he tore the hearts out of everyone from his hometown? Keep your "talent" in South Beach LeBron!
The way I see it, the team from South Beach makes a pretty good fantasy team, but these guys are NOT winners and don't play much D and they don't have enough of a bench regardless of Jeff Van Gundy's comments - "they have put together a much better roster than anyone could ever have expected". Look, Jeff works for ABC who also owns ESPN which obviously has a vested interest in maintaining the hype of this team after "The Decision" fiasco. Jeff's also an emotional guy (remember the picture of him holding onto Alonzo Mourning during the Heat (more irony) vs. Knicks brawl way back when?); maybe he's got a fantasy basketball team too. There's a LOT of intangibles that go into an ultra-special season he's predicting for these guys. What if ANY of these three guys get hurt for any length of time? In 7 NBA seasons, Dwyane Wade has played 471 regular season games which works out to just over 67 games per season which means he's averaging missing 15 games per season. If Wade misses 15 games next season, they may lose ALL of those games with their total lack of depth. Who steps in for Wade during those 15 games? They'll need to start two of the three guys I listed above as PGs (Chalmers, Arroyo, or Eddie House) which would NOT be too good for them. Bosh has never played a full 82-game season averaging 72.7 games. LeBron is the best of the three, but sill has never played all 82 games either averaging 78 games.
And then, what's the goal this season? Is it to win a ring or beat the Bulls record? I'm not sure that these goals will work together. Again, look at what the C's did this year...they were struggling down the stretch but they were laying low and resting up for a deep playoff run. Granted these three guys are young and maybe they can make it through a full 82-game season without letting up AND maintain their intensity and focus throughout to minimize the number of losses AND handle all the ridiculous pressure and microscope that will be on them all season AND be able to deal with each team's best effort with the giant target they put on their own backs with that ridiculous "coming out" party they through for themselves...NAH...don't think so; not these guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment