How would the 1993-1994 Rockets fare against the 2014-15 Warriors in a 7 game series matching 2 NBA Champions? Lets say that we are talking about the Rockets players as their younger selves, not in their 40s and 50s, and the game is played under current rules.
Rockets in 5, with touch fouls being called, Olajuwon goes even more crazy on Bogut than on any center he ever faced. With not being able to touch Maxwell, Kenny, Sam, Elie and Horry, they will have a field day getting into the paint and kick it out for three. Thorpe would single handedly kill Green and any other PF they have. Olajuwon would block the **** out of Iggy, Barnes or anyone else who tried that stuff they get away with against current weak centers. Curry would make Kenny his b****, but Max due to his style could get away with some things and no way Klay beats him. Elie vs. Iggy is a wash, Iggy may be a bit better on offense and obviously stronger. Sam would kill Shaun, Elie would kill Barbosa and Herrera vs. Speights would've been a nice battle that I don't really know who would win. Horry vs. Barnes would've the same, a great battle between big SFs who can dunk and shoot threes. All in all, it would be pretty easy.
Hakeem Olajuwon would have blown apart the current GSW team along with the rest of our team. OT would be too strong and experienced for Green. Max and Elie would put Curry in a tight vice, and Thompson would struggle too. Curry has had trouble with Delly, Max and Elie were fabulous defenders and clutch shooters. Horry would rain 3 pointers all night long, and Sam would strengthen the 1 spot. No stopping Kenny off the bench. Nuff said. Clutch City would win 4-2, maybe even 4-1.
Not sure if the Warriors could beat NY, Seattle, PHO or Utah that year either. Too many HOFers in their prime to go through.
i answered rockets in 4. maybe a bit homerish? lol. but it will depend on which set of rules they're playing under. also, there isnt such a thing called maxwell's rockets team...
With the 1994 rules, it's no contest. No illegal defense, handchecking is allowed, and that Rockets team had the best player on the planet at the time not named Michael Jordan. And to add insult to injury, he was a center who was unstoppable in the post and would shut down anything the Warriors tried to do in the paint. Rockets in 5 Under current rules, I'd go Rockets in 6.
I'd say Rockets if they could immediately understand how to play today's defense. No touching and all the charging. Today's game has become like soccer...Now I know offensively we would be good, but I think we would need a full season to relearn today's defensive approach.
Why more difficult under current rules? Bogut would've been more succesful under old rules and I don't see us having trouble with zone or no handchecking.
What's up with the resurgence of Maxwell threads recently? Generally speaking, I would choose any contender from the 90's over a contender from 2001+.
Rockets in 3 during the handcheck era. Green is the only player on that team prepared to compete. The rest of the bunch would be shell shocked. Yes, even Bogut who's never seen anything like Hakeem in his prime.
Because the early-to-mid 90's Rockets had a really difficult time handling the Sonics who got away with playing a zone on Dream. I think they'd still be able to beat the 2015 Warriors though cuz there's no one on Golden State who compares to Kemp and they can't trap and force turnovers as well as those 90's Sonics teams did.
Refs call like 10 times more charges now...our guys would still play real basketball and real defense and get called for fouls. They would not know to take the charge or "anticipated" charge and follow it up with accentuated contact. I think it would take a few games to get it but they would struggle with today's "poopoo" rules. Vernon on Curry would be interesting.
Our role players can shoot unlike Cleveland. Also Robert horry is better than draymond green. Sam cassell would destroy curry.
That's not why Seattle beat us. And NY played the same way against us. It wasn't some secret that you can challenge the refs to call that. Besides, we took SEA 7 games in '93 then in '94 we added Cassell and Elie, enough to beat them. Hakeem didn't really have trouble with Seattle playing illegal defensive double teams. They just aggressively doubled and made him pass. IT went 7 games without Cassell and Elie. I don't understand why people say Rockets and Knicks would have trouble with the eradication of illegal defenses. That just makes those defenses so much better. It's GSW who would have trouble with Dream and Ewing. You thought NY could clog the lane with illegal defense rules; it would be much worse now.
