1995-96 Bulls vs. 2010-11 Heat (part 2)

Corrections 

I messed up a few things in my post last night (I guess that's what happens when you're up typing at 1am) so I'll start with those and then finish up some other thoughts I have on this.

Point Guard comparison should be Ron Harper vs. Mike Miller

These guys are the starters as opposed to the guys I compared in last night's post (oops!) who all get added to their team's bench. Even though Steve Kerr actually played more minutes than Ron Harper, Harper was the starter for 80 of 82 games and Kerr never started. This is an interesting match-up as Mike Miller is a pretty decent offensive player although his numbers the last two seasons weren't as good as they were earlier in his career and Ron Harper is a pretty good defensive player. Maybe it is simply a matter of aging but that makes the match-up even more interesting as Ron Harper was also aging by the time the 1995-96 season rolled around. Just strictly looking at the numbers makes them nearly identical - 11.3/10.9 ppg, 4.0/3.9 apg, and 4.1/6.2 rpg (the difference here is probably because Miller plays more SF that Harper). I would argue Harper was a much better defender but Miller is a much better shooter. As I really don't think Miami is going to use Miller much for offense (Harper actually scored a little more than Miller anyway) with The Three Am-EGOS handling the ball 95% of the time, I'm going to call this a wash.

Edge Even

Heat Game Schedule

Since the Heat and Bulls are NOT in the same division, they only face off 3 times instead of the 4 I mentioned yesterday although 2 of the 3 are in the United Center (i.e. tougher road games for Heat). They still play the Bucks 4 times although the Bucks are in the same division as the Bulls. Interestingly, the Bulls are the only Central Division team not to play the Heat four times which does make it a little easier for the Heat overall as they get to play two pretty bad teams in Detroit and decimated Cleveland 4 times each. That means they "only" have to go 16-9 in those tough games I mentioned yesterday but 57-0 in the rest in order outdo the 1995-96 Bulls...I still think they will NOT be able to do it.

NBA Expansion

The Bulls also had the advantage of facing a somewhat weaker NBA in 1995-96 as expansion added two teams north of the border in Vancouver (Grizzlies - now in Memphis) and Toronto (Raptors). When teams are added, they do start from scratch, but not totally...there was an expansion draft where the new teams could draft players from other NBA teams. The Raptors picked 14 players while the Grizzlies picked 13 from current NBA teams. It's not like the new teams could pick the top players from the current teams as the teams were allowed to protect a certain number of players, but what an expansion draft tends to do is weaken the benches of all the teams. Ironically, the first player selected in that expansion draft was BJ Armstrong from the Bulls which certainly hurt their depth a bit, but apparently not too much as they went on to decimate the league to the tune of 72-10 during the regular season. With no expansion happening this year, that further hurts the Heat from exceeding that 72-win total as predicted by Jeff Van Gundy.
Edge Bulls

====================================================



I meant to also discuss coaching as well as bench comparisons...

Phil Jackson vs. Erik Spoelstra or Pat Riley
This isn't much of a contest, but that's why I want to bring it up...Let's just count rings to start with - Phil has 11, Erik has ZERO (should work well combined with LeBron and Bosh also with ZERO), and Riley has 5 plus both Phil and Riley each won a ring as NBA players as well (Phil - Knicks and Riley - Lakers and they beat each other in the Finals back-to-back years). I'm not sure how long Erik will last as head coach which is why I added Pat Riley to this discussion as most everyone believes he will be coaching this team before the end of the season. So let's just play it Phil vs. Riley...they have faced off against each other in the playoffs on several occasions. Riley's Knicks "beat" Phil's Bulls in 1994 on the infamous phantom foul call on Scottie Pippen that sent Hubert Davis to the foul line in Game 5 of that series. Other than that, Phil has gotten the better of Riley each of the other times they faced each other in the playoffs - 1991 Finals (Bulls beat Lakers 4-1), 1992 EC Second Round (Bulls beat Knicks 4-3), 1993 EC Finals (Bulls beat Knicks 4-2), and 1996 EC First Round (Bulls beat Heat 3-0), 1997 EC Finals (Bulls beat Heat 4-1). That makes Phil 5-1 against Riley in the playoffs. Of course, Riley would LOVE to change that this year by taking over the Heat and keeping Phil from achieving his unbelievable 4th threepeat (more irony...I believe Riley is the one that coined the term threepeat although NONE of his teams have ever achieved it).
Edge Bulls

Bulls Bench vs. Heat Bench
This may be the biggest difference in the two teams. The Bulls bench featured the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in Toni Kukoc along with several important role players. The Heat bench features Udonis Haslem and whoever isn't starting from my previous post. Kukoc alone is enough to give the Bulls the edge here, but let's talk a bit more on the rest of the bench. The Bulls had defensive players like Randy Brown and John Salley as well as a few other role players that would run through a wall for this team like Jud Buechler and Bill Wennington. But in addition to Kukoc, the Bulls also had sharp-shooting Steve Kerr on the bench. The Heat have Jamaal Magloire who hasn't done much of anything since leaving the Bucks following the 2005-06 season (that's 5 years ago!), Juwan Howard who is on his 9th team and also hasn't done much in 5 years, Carlos Arroyo, Eddie House, and Mario Chalmers who I discussed in yesterday's post. This one just isn't close folks...

Edge Bulls


It's the age old story...wouldn't it be cool to see how this team from this era would fair against this other team in this other era? As much as I'd love to see how these Bulls would stack up against that 1971-72 Lakers team, I'd REALLY love to see how they match-up with this year's Heat! Heck, I can't wait to see how this year's Bulls match-up with this year's Heat! At least I know that match-up IS going to happen (although not until Jan 15th) where the others will most certainly NOT happen without a time machine and I'm still working out the kinks there.


GO BULLS!!!

1995-96 Bulls vs. 2010-11 Heat

I rarely even refer to the team from South Beach by their actual team name, but since I want to compare the entire team rosters between the 72-10 Bulls and this year's Heat, I had to use their team name.

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:

1. Steve Kerr
2. Michael Jordan
3. Scottie Pippen
4. Dennis Rodman
5. Luc Longley

Heat:

1. Carlos Arroyo
   
2. Dwyane Wade
3. LeBron James
4. Chris Bosh
5. Joel Anthony

Michael Jordan vs. Dwyane Wade
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.