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

tinman · Dec 9, 2009

Zboy said:

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.
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Hands down, the best post of the year.

Zboy shows that he understands the game of today and of yesterday.
he understands every player of all eras, and he has his facts straight without compromising his love for the Rockets of all eras.

this is Clutchfans poetry.

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

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