How Would the 93-94 Championship Team Fair In Today's NBA

i understand there have been rule changes since then. but that team had the talent and heart. i'd say the chances would be just as good.

 

You'd probably have to move Horry to the PF, bring Thorpe off the bench as a backup PF/C, and start Elie. That would be a better configuration for today's league -- similar to the Orlando Magic model.

 

Houston would fare well, like alot of teams from that era before and a few after. Alot of them didn't even win titles.


There are teams, like the 93-94 Knicks, 00-99 Trailblazers, 88-89 Cavs, post-championship 76ers in the 80s, Jazz 96-99, 94-95 Magic, and the 90s Supersonics. That would do pretty well today and probably be instant championship contender.

I even think most of them could beat the Lakers, right now. I'm just not sold on this Lakers team, again I don't care how many championships they win, if they struggled to beat us without Yao, T-Mac, and Mutombo and got spanked the year before last against the Celtics. Also, to say we have pretty defensive squad, they couldn't beat half of those teams I mentioned. I'm dissing our team or our heart, I'm just saying if they are supposed to be this great team with this all time great player aren't supposed to be putting teams like that away more quickly.

A team, like the Knicks and Pistons would batter them physically and bring a defensive intensity. As skilled as Pau is, he'd strictly be a jumpshooter against those teams.


Bynum already can't stop Yao, so I doubt he'd be much better against Dream, David Robinson, or Ewing. Most of all, a younger Shaq.

I believe the Jazz would simply outshoot the Lakers, and play them very physical, while they would go to Malone often. The Lakers really don't have anyone stop powerful power forward.

I will say that most teams now lack the big man, quality jump shooters, and tough as nails defensive players to win.

 

so you have Otis Thorpe and Herrera coming off the bench. That's still awesome.

Plus Matt Bullard.

Don't forget about Bullard!

 

If hand checking is not allowed during the 93-94, I really wonder how good will Mad Max defense be, expecially when he will be giving up at least 2 inch in today's game. Sure Mad Max can go on fire on the 3p line, but as a .320 6-2 shooter?

Hakeem for me however will just dominate todays game. If DH can do it now with no post moves, I just can't see how hakeem cannot dominate every single game.

 

Players on that team you can trust taking a clutch shot or clutch block:

Kenny Smith
Vernon Maxwell
Mario Elie
Robert Horry
Sam Cassell
Dream

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Maxwell drove to the hoop plenty of times, he was just well known for his game winning 3s.

This is a product of the offense scheme by Rudy.

In the games where the low post game was slow or on the break, Maxwell drove the ball to the hoop.

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Max was fearless... and how can you say Max was too short to hold the guards of this era... If i'm not mistaken MJ was 6'6 and he gave him pure HELLL... Jordan did not like Maxwell because Max gave him no respect.... NONE....

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Probably not, because Houston would have a lot more time (the whole season) to adjust to zone defenses - not just a 7 game series.

 

It'd all depend on the 3 point shot. If they shoot good over the course of 7 games they can beat anyone. But, if they're off for like 3 games in a row then the team would be in trouble.

No one would allow Olajuwon to dominate, they'd put 2 guys on him, 1 front and 1 back, and just dare the other guys on the team to beat them.

 

Let's not forget the year Dream was out for along period, the Rockets won a ton of games with Larry Smith grabbing a million boards.

The offense was based on Kenny Smith and Otis Thorpe running the Pick-N-Roll and nobody could stop them.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1991_763132
Rockets week in review/Akeem-less victories become habit
Staff
SUN 02/10/1991 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section Sports, Page 12, 2 STAR Edition

Sunday, Feb. 3

Rockets 143, Golden State 135

Larry Smith had an NBA season-high 25 rebounds, and five players had 20 or more points, only the second time in club history that has happened. And, when it was done, the Rockets had proved that five big guns can beat three, but just barely.

Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Richmond combined for 99 Golden State points. But Johnson, Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell, Kenny Smith and Floyd had 125 among them for the Rockets.

But without Winchester, this might have been a loss.

"The tables are turned," said Maxwell, who tied Floyd for high-point honors with 30. "We were losing these one-pointers and overtime games earlier. Now, we're winning them."

Saturday, Feb. 2

Rockets 100, Spurs 94
And finally, the Rockets delivered the knockout blow to the Spurs, winning at HemisFair Arena for their fourth victory in their last five games.

Otis Thorpe's 30 points and 17 rebounds, including eight of the Rockets' 11 points in OT, supplied the haymaker.

Wednesday, Feb. 6

Rockets 111, Bucks 109
Against the Bucks (30-19), they had to reach into their bag of tricks for the play they always reach for - the pick-and-roll - to come out with a win.

Otis Thorpe, who had a monster game with 35 points and 11 rebounds, and Smith (30 points) worked the play to perfection.

 

You mean like rashard lewis?

 

I can see why that would be the prevalent thinking - to get the weakside corner 3 pointer open up with today's Defenses.

But I think Thorpe would work at PF and Elie off the bench too - people forget that with today hand-check rules a guy like Sam Cassell would be penetrating like crazy. Plus you would have Drexler penetrating.

Both of those guys played against different perimeter rules.

I think Thorpe would help grab a lot more offensive boards and get a lot of easy lay-ups off of penetrations - also those short jump shots.

 

soo what you are saying is... resign hakeem. im down for that lol

 

BS. Bigs that can score do just fine against the zone. The avg big just sucks today. Howard is dropping 20+ with no post moves or jumper. Bynum is scoring big. Yao was 20+ with limited mobility. Dream can post, is quicker than all 3 and he has a jumper. Folks really overrate the zone....

 

Couple of points....

1) It is a myth that Hakeem was ineffective against Sonics.

Sonic's illegal zone defense did not stop Hakeem. Hakeem's FG% was just fine against the Sonics. His ppg were down because Sonics would double/triple team him with 20 seconds on the shot clock. The idea was to make someone else other than Hakeem shoot. This wasn't really a problem for Rockets offense since it was designed for this very purpose;Hakeem draws double teams and kicks the ball out for an open shot for his teammates. Problem was that Rockets were hesistant to take that first open shot with 20 seconds still left on the clock. Rockets did not take the first good shot available and insisted on passing back on a double/triple teamed Hakeem.

As has already been said, Howard who is very limited on offense when compared to Hakeem, and Yao who is not as fast as Hakeem, are getting 20+ today. You would have to be delusional to think that Hakeem cant surpass them.

2) Back in the 90s you could use both hands to dislodge a post player. Anthony Mason and the rest of the Knicks used both hands and their kneees/thighs to uproot hakeem from the post (to no avail). In today's game, whistle will be blown 90% of the time as soon as a ref sees both hands on the back of other player.

3) Orlando magic went to finals with Howard and bunch of role players. Howard is nowhere close the player the 93-94 Hakeem was, and Rockets role players were better than Magic role players. Rockets team defense was also superior to Magic defense. 94-95 Orlando Magic team with Shaq and Penny would have crushed last year's Orlando Magic team and that team got swept by the Rockets in 94-95. Not very hard to figure this one out.

4) The way to beat the Lakers is to pound the ball inside and expose their soft bigs. Hakeem and Thorpe would have obliterated the Lakers inside game. Hakeem would have also closed down the lane reducing Kobe to be a jump shooter. Twice in the finals Kobe has been reduced to a jump shooter and both times he has come out empty handed. Rockets would have played similar defense on the Lakers as 2 years ago. Similar outcome.

5) Celtics would be a worth adversary. Celtics play good man to man defense and good inside defense. I would still expect the Rokcets to come out on top simply because, in order to stop that Rockets team, you had to prove that you could stop Hakeem one on oe and I dont think anyone on Celtics can do that. Garnet is too light for Hakeem. He would not be able to push Hakeem out and the rest of thebigs are not fast enough. Either Hakeem scores a lot or other Rockets get open shots because of double teams.

6) Spurs would have been the best competition to the 93-94 Rockets team IF Spurs are healthy. Great big man. Two other offensive players. Great team defense. Hakeem was better offensively than Duncan but Duncan would have more help on offense. While Hakeem would have to create 90% of Rockets offense, Duncan could rely on Manu and Parker to create a fair share of Spurs offense. However, the current Spurs look old and are injured.

 

dream had too many shots in his arsenal. the only player who might match or surpass him is a 7' kobe.

 

An incredibly versatile big man like Dream would dominate in ANY era.

 

It doesn't really affect DH very much. Despite not having a legit postup move he still puts up 20-20 games. Hakeem is as athletic and I believe much stronger than DH. He's also world's better offensively. I think you'll be seeing stats that would dwarf LBJ's. Somthing like 24 pts, 20 rebs, 4 blocks and 62% FG.

 

They'd definitely be Championship contenders. Champions? Not necessarily...I think it takes alot of variables to come together for any team to win a championship.