Kobe thinks 2012 Olympic squad could beat "The Dream Team"

Hmmmm, so you are gonna give prime versions of the duo that won 6 titles (MJ and Pip) HOF bigs like Robinson, Ewing, Malone & Barkley.....and the other teams best big is Love and Chandler? Oh, and they get Stockton, Magic and Drexler too?

Ok....

 

Well, lets say you were right, and Magic completely dominates that matchup. Why wouldn't they just go with LeBron at the point? Problem solved.

But I don't think the 92 Magic would be that problematic, too flawed on defense.

IMO, if the 92 Magic is the one guarding guys like CP3 and Westbrook, they'd be running circles around him and blowing by.
His hope would be that Robinson protects the rim and mitigates the damage, but that's a different question.

IMO they'd be better off letting Jordan guard CP3/Westbrook. Let Magic guard someone bigger.
But considering the 2012 team is built to play small ball, it will still cause a ton of problems. Lets say it's CP3/Harden/LeBron/Durant. Jordan/Pippen would probably defend the quicker smaller guys.
That leaves LeBron/Durant for...Magic and Malone? That seems like significant advantage for the 2012 team.

A lot seem to rest on Robinson/Ewing here. That's the strength of that team, in comparison with this one.

 

Sure Durant/Lebron could score on Barkley and Malone, but they would have to do it from the outside. I think Barkley/Malone would absolutely destroy those guys in paint. Barkley/Malone scoring in the paint >>>>>> Lebron/Durant scoring from the outside.

 

In that scenario, it doesn't matter since CP3 would be incapable of guarding anyone on the Dream Team. Jordan, Pippen, Magic, and Barkley would all score at will against him.

 

No, to the opposite. I think Stockton's overall prime was a bit later, when he was in his early 30s. ~94-96.
Either way, not trash by any means, comparable with anyone.
But when you combine with 92 Magic, then I don't know how I could take that over CP3/Deron/Westbrook.

 

well to be honest the dream team could also come up with a line up of pippen at the pg with jordan and drexler on the wings along wiith barkley/ewing/robinson/malone.

which 2012 team could match up with that lineup? IMO that dream team was damn fast as well. i would even argue that that line up of pippen, jordan, drexler, malone and robinson is probably the most athletic line up the basketball world has ever seen

 

Bryant is certifiable.

 

I kind of agree, because Robinson/Ewing is there. It would be extremely tough vs. that kind of help defense.

But if we are talking purely those matchups and ignore Robinson/Ewing, why outside. It would be important. But they'd mix things. They have advantages.
Speed, range, LeBron's passing, Durant's length. Malone would have to chase and react. Or would the plan be to just allow open jumpers?
Even more so re Barkley, he defended like Carmelo defends.

On defense, I don't know that LeBron would get "destroyed". Durant, sure, but he wouldn't guard them. I assume only one of them would play at a time.

Anyway, Robinson being the help defender would have the deciding impact on those matchups, IMO.

 

CP3 wouldn't play. LeBron would be the PG.

 

Sure. I was replying to a post that said that the 92 Magic would be unsolvable problem the 2012 team. I disagree.

There are certainly many ways to match up here and a lot of versatility at both sides. The way I see it, the problems here are (A) the quickness or explosiveness of the 2012 little guys, (B) the 7 footers of 1992.
I think that the 1992 team has ways to mitigate (A), and the current team would have a much harder time with (B), especially Robinson.
I think the '92 team would probably win.

But I don't think that Magic would be much of a factor here. That's all.

 

I realize CP3, DWill and Westbrook are all fast and quick. That's great and all but if you put prime Jordan or Pippen on any one of those guys they would lock **** down on the perimeter. Drexler and Stockton were no slouches on defense either and they'd give those 3 fits as well.

If on the rare occasions they do get beat... Patrick Ewing and David Robinson were beasts when it came to locking down the paint and blocking shots. D. Rob averaged 4.5 blocks in 91-92 and Ewing was at 3 per game.

 

Is that really called for?

 

Like it or not bball is still a big man's game. Wings and pgs are debatable, but the undeniable fact is that Barkley/Malone and Robinson/Ewing would absolutely destroy Chandler and whoever they have manning the PF slot. All I know is MJ and Pippen are two of the best wing defenders in history, they will shut down all the perimeter players and the Dream team bigs will go to town on the 2012 big man scrubs.

 

Team of HOFers ..... needless to say

 

Spoken like a true narcissist

 

TRUTH SPOKEN!

 

Really? B/c of Magic, you have Lebron playing point guard and Williams/Paul/Westbrook are on the bench.

In other words, Magic renders Williams/Paul/Westbrook useless. That's a pretty big factor.

 

What's your 5 man lineup? In your earlier example, you had Paul playing.

 

lebron isnt gonna be a layup king on the 92 squad.