Okay, that sure seemed like a lot of work Ziggy and it is cool. Personally, I don't think the Blazers beat the 1992 Dream Team -- MJ would have played heavy minutes and IMO, he wills them to win the game. Also, I don't think Mullins would have ever seen the light of day against a team like that (same with Laettner). Read an article the other day trying the make the point that the only reason Mullins was chosen was because he was white. I don't know whether to agree with that or not but he sure wasn't a good choice. A good shooter from outside but that's about it and there were better shooters in the league who could actually contribute in other areas too. Bottom line, IMO, is that MJ might play 48 minutes but he wouldn't let the 92 Dream Team lose. And the rebounding margin wouldn't even be close either.
I also don't know about the Lakers Dream Team vs. the current Dream Team. At some point, you could just put Wilt in and lob it to the top of the backboard for a dunk, lol. I think the lack of size of this current team would have negated their quickness. It's neat to see it all on paper but it does miss the intangibles. I don't think most teams have that big a line-up to challenge the current Dream Team. Spain does but that team is pretty decimated by injuries at this point. If they were a healthy team, I think that would be a pretty good game. I think Brazil showed that a team with some real bigs could hurt the USA team but I think in the end the intangibles of players like LeBron, Durant and Kobe -- they are just too much and would always make the play that won the game.
And we didn't even get into coaching. Coack K vs. PJ or Riley (I think I would take PJ over Riley).
I would have loved to see Sabonis play for the Blazers when he was healthy -- you just didn't get enough chance to see him play internationally when he was young.
Certainly the Blazers Dream Team wouldn't have beaten either the 1992 Dream Teams in a one game do or die, but the 2012 that is much closer. In a 7 game series then I think the Blazers could have easily won a game against the 1992 team, probably two.
Sabonis and Walton at their NBA peak would have clearly negated any great Dream team advantage in the middle.
Porter, Buck Williams and Drexler were contemporaries of the 1992 Dream Team, and they were the core of the team that went to the finals twice and had the best regular season record in between. They played Malone, Stockton, Jordan, Barkley, Magic, Bird et al, regularly and did well against them.
Vandeweghe was top 10 in the NBA in win shares for 4 of his 5 peak seasons, his career offensive rating is 5th all-time (Chris Paul, Reggie Miller, Magic Johnson, and John Stockton are the top 4). During his 4 years with the Blazers he was the 5th best offensive player in the league.
Roy was an all-star for all three of his peak years, was 2nd and 3rd team all-nba, and would in all probability be playing on this Dream team if he hadn't broken down. LaMarcus was an all-star and was selected to play for this years Olympic team, but didn't because of injuries.
Rasheed's defense was excellent, he is 26th all-time in defensive win shares, and with his ability to shoot deep he would have given Malone, Barkley, and Bird serious fits.
Strickland would be the weakest member of the team, but his 4 Blazers season were his peak years. For his career he is 9th all-time in assists, 37th all-time in steals, 13th all-time in assist %, so he was a very good NBA player
If I were to add 2 more players to make the Blazers a 12 team roster I would probably add Steve Smith (2 seasons) and Maurice Lucas (3 seasons). Steve Smith when he was a Blazer was an excellent NBA player. Those teams were so deep because of that he gets forgotten.
Mo Lucas in his 3 full seasons in Portland was a tremendous player. He won a title, and the next season they probably would have won a second if not for injuries.
As far as the minutes played, obviously Jordan would have played as many minutes as necessary to win, but I think it is important to realize that in a 7 game series against any of these teams, it would have been very difficult for anyone to play much more than 36 minutes a night. Take Jordan vs your Lakers. He would have 27 minutes vs Kobe at his peak, 15 minutes vs West at his peak and 6 minutes vs Cooper at his peak. Playing defense at the high level necessary to contain Kobe and West, and then have to score against Cooper and Kobe would have forced him to the bench. This is especially true in a 7 game series. Why have Jordan's productivity drop over those last 12-18 minutes, when you can bring in Clyde Drexler and not have much of a drop in production?
As far as Mullin, I will defend his choice some. Mullin is a HoFer and he was all-NBA first team that year, was third in the league in points, and was clearly at his peak. For the role he played on that team, the only players who weren't selected that were eligible that perhaps should have been considered I would say are Jeff Hornacek, or Terry Porter. Mullin was a HoFer and neither of those two were.
I agree that the 2012 Dream team would struggle against the Laker bigs. Jabbar/Shaq/Wilt vs Chandler/Love is not close. I would love to watch Magic vs Chris Paul, that would have been tremendous. The strength of this years Dream Team is it's wings. LeBron, Durant, Harden, Kobe, Iguodala is really tremendous. In a 7 game series, it would go 7 games.
