The 72-10 Bulls vs This years Heat; no battle

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
A friend of mine is convinced this Heat team is better than that Bulls team.

Sorry, not buying it.

The 95-96 Bulls went 72-10. They started 10-2, then won 31 of 32 including an undefeated January. They won their first 37 games at home that year.

Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Harper, Kukoc, Kerr, Longley.

Pippen could guard Lebron..Lebron would get his, but Pippen is one of the best defensive players in the history of the game. Same for Jordan, on Wade. Rodman would make Bosch cry like a baby. Kukoc is better than any option Miami has outside of the Big Three...Kerr is one of the best shooters the game has ever seen and Longley is better than any pivot player Miami has (he nearly averaged 10 a game that year.

Sorry Heat fans, I just don't think its a contest.
 
I don't think the Heat will come near the record the bulls posted, and I don't know why anyone thought they would. That team had been playing well together for years and added a few key peices that year that put them over the top. This years Heat team is going to need a bit to get a feel for how they play together.
 
Miller is good and can make his own shot, but Toni was 6'11" and could play any position. Also, Miller just had thumb surgery so we will see if it affects his scoring.
 
JonDMiller said:
A friend of mine is convinced this Heat team is better than that Bulls team.

Sorry, not buying it.

The 95-96 Bulls went 72-10. They started 10-2, then won 31 of 32 including an undefeated January. They won their first 37 games at home that year.

Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Harper, Kukoc, Kerr, Longley.

Pippen could guard Lebron..Lebron would get his, but Pippen is one of the best defensive players in the history of the game. Same for Jordan, on Wade. Rodman would make Bosch cry like a baby. Kukoc is better than any option Miami has outside of the Big Three...Kerr is one of the best shooters the game has ever seen and Longley is better than any pivot player Miami has (he nearly averaged 10 a game that year.

Sorry Heat fans, I just don't think its a contest.
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I don't think this is the year the Heat would be at their best. If they manage to keep the core together for a few years, that's when they would develop the cohesiveness to make a run at a better record. That said, I think 72 wins is a record that is going to be hard to match by anyone. No team had Michael Jordan who was so competitive and so motivated after coming back from baseball but losing in the playoffs to Orlando in the 94-95 season. He would not let that Bulls team take nights off at any point in that season. That scenario will be hard for any team to recreate.
 
DuffMan said:
I don't think the Heat will come near the record the bulls posted, and I don't know why anyone thought they would. That team had been playing well together for years and added a few key peices that year that put them over the top. This years Heat team is going to need a bit to get a feel for how they play together.
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I agree. They're good this year but they'll be better next year when they get to add a piece or two and would have playedtogether for a full season.

I think the Bulls would probably win a series against the Heat but to say it's no battle is insane. Spoken like someone who watches about 4 NBA games a year:D
 
bhawk326 said:
Miller is good and can make his own shot, but Toni was 6'11" and could play any position. Also, Miller just had thumb surgery so we will see if it affects his scoring.
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Miller is about the only spot up shooter the Heat have and he isn't even on the court now. That was my point.
 
imported_ankle23 said:
Clark - is that your argument for the reason that the Heat won't lose any more than 8 games for the rest of the season, or did I not undestand your point?
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Jon's original point wasn't that the Heat wouldn't win 72 games. It was that the Bulls team who won 72 would beat the heat with "no battle"

My point was that the Heat don't even have all their players healthy yet.(and I wanted to see if Jon could name anyone on the Heat outside the big 3)
 
Clark said:
Jon's original point wasn't that the Heat wouldn't win 72 games. It was that the Bulls team who won 72 would beat the heat with "no battle"

My point was that the Heat don't even have all their players healthy yet.(and I wanted to see if Jon could name anyone on the Heat outside the big 3)
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point taken.
 
JonDMiller said:
A friend of mine is convinced this Heat team is better than that Bulls team.

Sorry, not buying it.

The 95-96 Bulls went 72-10. They started 10-2, then won 31 of 32 including an undefeated January. They won their first 37 games at home that year.

Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Harper, Kukoc, Kerr, Longley.

Pippen could guard Lebron..Lebron would get his, but Pippen is one of the best defensive players in the history of the game. Same for Jordan, on Wade. Rodman would make Bosch cry like a baby. Kukoc is better than any option Miami has outside of the Big Three...Kerr is one of the best shooters the game has ever seen and Longley is better than any pivot player Miami has (he nearly averaged 10 a game that year.

Sorry Heat fans, I just don't think its a contest.
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Pips wasn't even the best defensive player on his own team.
 
Miami and Lebron fell into the same trap as Cleveland.

Lebron kind of floats around for 3 Quarters, then in the 4th he plays 1v1 while the rest of the team stands around.

Against a great TEAM as the Celtics, it won't work. They move the ball around, and they play very good defense.

It's still way early, but Miami has to figure out to play a real system of offense, not just giving one guy the ball and getting out of the way. while they're talented enough to do just fine in the regular season, once they reach the playoffs and go against better defenses and the game slows down to half court offense.....i think they will struggle.

It's really about putting aside their egos and playing as a team. right now you have two guys who are used to having the ball in their hands, neither one of them are great off the ball. I wonder if they don't buy into a team game, will Pat Riley be coaching them soon???

So it'll be interesting to see how things turn out. Personally i can't stand lebron so i hope they go down in flames.
 
DBAHawkFan said:
Miami and Lebron fell into the same trap as Cleveland.

Lebron kind of floats around for 3 Quarters, then in the 4th he plays 1v1 while the rest of the team stands around.

Against a great TEAM as the Celtics, it won't work. They move the ball around, and they play very good defense.

It's still way early, but Miami has to figure out to play a real system of offense, not just giving one guy the ball and getting out of the way. while they're talented enough to do just fine in the regular season, once they reach the playoffs and go against better defenses and the game slows down to half court offense.....i think they will struggle.

It's really about putting aside their egos and playing as a team. right now you have two guys who are used to having the ball in their hands, neither one of them are great off the ball. I wonder if they don't buy into a team game, will Pat Riley be coaching them soon???

So it'll be interesting to see how things turn out. Personally i can't stand lebron so i hope they go down in flames.
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It was really the first game Wade and Lebron have played together since Wade missed the entire preseason. Once they get used to playing with each other, and Bosh, they will get rolling, probably around January when Miller comes back. Not having Mike Miller really hirts this team though, he spreads the floor and opens things up for Wade and Lebron, something Arroyo or James Jones can't do.
 
DBAHawkFan said:
It's really about putting aside their egos and playing as a team. right now you have two guys who are used to having the ball in their hands, neither one of them are great off the ball. I wonder if they don't buy into a team game, will Pat Riley be coaching them soon???

So it'll be interesting to see how things turn out. Personally i can't stand lebron so i hope they go down in flames.
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This is going to be Miami's problem, and the reason why that great Bulls team would shred them. Let's say Dwayne Wade decides he is content to be a complementary player to LeBron, setting him up for easy buckets and taking open jumpers when LeBron penetrates and dishes. That's great... except that there are about 50 other players in the league that can do that pretty well. At that point he won't be Dwayne Wade, he'll be Mo Williams. Which is fine, but then the Heat seem a lot like LeBron's Cavaliers teams, don't they?

The paradox for Miami is that there is only one basketball and they have three marquee scorers. I think Bosh will adjust well to a complementary Scottie Pippen-type role. But that still leaves you with Wade and LeBron playing the same role on the team. I know Wade is injured right now, but when the Heat had all three guys on the court yesterday it was one of their worst lineups. Contrast with the Celtics' Big Three, where all three guys have a different skill that complements each other. The Bulls' best players fit together in a similarly tight way and that's why they won 6 titles.
 
JonDMiller said:
I think Pippen could guard forwards and guards. Jordan was a great guard defender. But Pippen's length with wingspan and affecting passing lanes was phenomenal
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Wasn't Jordan guarding Malone in the 1998 finals? Or was it just on the game deciding play?
 
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