Well, in fairness those Bulls teams were designed around the way the game was being played back in the 90's. You needed bigger, more physical players back then to compete in some of those grind fests. If the NBA changed the rules back to the way they were in the 90's this Golden State squad would get eviscerated by those Bulls.
The "Everyone in their PRIME join TOGETHER" superteam trend. KG, Ray Allen, Pierce were all in their 30's when they got together. And that was all trades. Lebron bringing Chris Bosh with him both at age 26 to a title-winning superstar led team as FREE AGENTS is pure high school / college powerhouse builder move. Of course 90% of all title winners are SUPER teams, and many win MULTIPLE titles. Yes 80's Lakers & Celtics with 4 Hall of Fame starters were super teams. But even through the 2000's most star players didnt "ring chase" or rig the advantage so much.
I'm not really sure, why do you draw a line between GMs trading for superstar players and players making their own super teams? It's the same result who cares whether that super team was built through the draft, traded for or everybody joined as free agents? There's no fundamental difference they all result in the same thing, a super team. Maybe you forgot but GSW built their super team entirely through the draft, KD just gave everyone a legit "excuse" to complain but even before he signed with them GSW was already wrecking everyone. So does that mean GSW isn't a superteam and it is legit because it was made entirely through draft and trades? KG, Allen and Pierce were all in their 30s but they played together longer than Miami Heat so I don't understand why you draw the line there as well. KG, Allen and Pierce also played with Rondo and Perkins during their "good" years and both were making rookie money and Celtics had a banging bench, that's why nobody considered KG for MVP whereas Lebron had to lead the league in minutes played every year he was in Miami, which is why he won MVP 3 of the 4 years he played there. It's double talk, as long as people prop MJ and his 6 rings up as the GOAT and as long as they put a lot of value on rings over actual play then everybody will ring chase. You can't say nobody can beat MJ and his 6 rings then talk about how players in the 80's didn't ring chase, if you told Karl Malone or Barkley they will be the butt of all jokes for the rest of their post season career because they didn't get a ring you think they won't ring chase? If you told Hakeem his legacy will be tainted by haters who keep saying he only got 2 rings because Jordan retired you think he wouldn't give Drexler a call and tell him come to Houston ASAP? It's basic psychology, people's opinions incentivize ring chasing behavior. When Lebron was in Cleveland he was the only thing between 1st round pick and a Finals berth. Instead of appreciating his greatness and all the stuff he was doing in Cleveland, people were actually criticizing him for being all hype and not doing enough and saying **** like "Lebron called Kobe, he let it ring 5 times!". If Lebron had stayed in Cleveland it is likely he wouldn't have gotten even 1 ring now because there was no way Cleveland would be so bad they get two 1st picks to get Irving and trade for Love. You will still have the same amazing player who is arguably the 2nd best of all time, but people wouldn't consider him as such because he didn't have rings...rings which are more of a team accomplishment than a personal one. If people put more stock on loyalty then you would see less ring chasing behavior. But nobody even mentions people like Elton Brand, Malone and Chris Webber among the greats because they had the misfortune of playing for just 1 team that was mostly crap for most of their careers. They don't even remember KG as a timberwolf and always think of him as a Celtic. From the perspective of a super star player, being drafted by a good team is mostly due to luck, Hakeem is a good example you have one of the best centers ever but he has only 2 rings to his resume despite a historical record of excellence mainly because his team sucked. OTH, Kobe mostly lucked out with the Lakers, sure he is defintiely HOF material but the Lakers also provided him with so much talent starting with Shaq during his rookie years then Gasol/Odom/Bynum/Artest during his prime and latter years. If somebody like Lebron got drafted by a team with horrible mgt, why would he suck it up and then be labeled a loser for all of his career when the only thing that separates him to Kobe is luck? It's like saying one was born to a wealthy family, whereas another dude created his own wealth but everyone is saying you should just pray to be born to a wealthy family otherwise you are can't do it on your own.
What's next for LeBron the GM? There any way to clear Tristan, JR Smith and Shumpert from the books in 1 summer and sign CP3 to a 1 year contract and trade for Melo and sign Dwight and DWade for vet minimum?
Lebron played great. The warriors weren't going to lose though...they're just on another level as crazy as it sounds. Saw this coming a mile away.
Miami probably should have won more championships I also don't think Golden State will win as many as people think They may have Spurs like dominance but . .. . get tripped up on back to back things like the spurs were Rocket River
I dun know about that. If they can keep Durant and he is playing on this level next year, that could be a very easy repeat IMHO. Are the improved Rockets going to stop them.....
I think we need some bully ballers. Depending on the Refs. . . . Let's say New Orleans . . . Anthony Davis and Boogie Cousins could bang KD and Draymond they could hurt the warriors. . . .the issues for them is if their backcourt could keep up Rocket River
the problem with that is now fouls on called on minimum body contact, back in the 90s when the bulls are playing you could literally hack sb on the wrist and get away with it, now if you touch KD on his pull up jumpers it's a foul, with the way it is officiating now, these is no way anybody can stop this warriors team, the rules today are designed to protect people with insane shooting abilities and just-so-so physical abilities LeBron and Cavs played as good as they can and still lost, i foresee a sweep, i though it will at least go 6 games looks like i underestimated this GS team, i just hope next year, Spurs and Cavs can add some super stars like CP, Blake Griffen to their team so that they can compete against GS, everybody else is just irrelevant at this point
Lebron didn't choke this year. He played almost as well as he could. He just ran into a super team and got worn out by the end of games.
Dreaming. No team would come remotely close to the GS except major injuries or somehow Cavs land PG13.
I don't want the Cavs to land PG-13 or for anybody to take like 1/3 of their salary to challenge Golden State. What Golden State did is not repeatable. There were so many coincidences lined up for that team to be assembled. Now if the Cavs were to build a super-super team by getting guys in taking vet min. or a 1/3 of their salary. That sets a precedent for the future. If superteams are formed and stars are taking max or near max salary and they fill their role players via old vets taking min. and using over-the-cap exceptions like the MLE; fine. If teams are getting max level players to come in with 1/3 or 1/2 of their max salary, then that becomes a problem for the future.
Several GS players have left money on the table 15 years ago . . it was ALL NBA PLAYERS CARE ABOUT IT MONEY Now it is. . . . ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS WINNING .. . but not in the GOOD WAY!! Rocket River
