dude we get it.....mj's the greatest.......but to say that there are no more "match up issues" with mj, scottie, and drexler on lbj durant and kobe.......is a joke....lbj durant and kobe>>>>mj scottie and drexler and its not even close.....

Yes but I agree with him on this one.

Not that MJ isn't better... but just lol...

If I'm 92 Team I start Ewing and DRob and play 2 centers at all times.

oh, it is close boss.

don't make the mistake of thinking the 1992 drexler wasn't better than the 2012 kobe because:

drexler in 92' (23.6 PER on less shots per game, 24.9 ppg, 6.7 assists, 6.5 rebs, 56% ts, 1.8 sts, 0.8 blocks)

is better than what kobe had this past year (21.9 PER on more shots per game which overstates PER, 27.9ppg, 4.6 assists, 5.4 rebs, 52.7 ts%, 1.3 steals, 0.3 blocks).

mj and lbj are a wash for simplicity, although i would go with mj all day because of his vastly superior ability to get that must-have bucket down the stretch on his own.

so with drexler > kobe, and mj and lbj a wash, it comes down to durant vs. pippen.

durant is obviously better offensively and his 26.2 PER shows that, compared to scottie's 21.5. but scottie had his best defensive season in 1992, and his dws was 5.5 in the regular season to durant's 3.7, and in the playoffs the gap was 1.8 to 0.6. so it depends on what you value, or what your team needs more of. i would venture to say that since both teams are all-star teams where everyone can score, defense could be preferred here.

so it is close, because 1992 drexler > this year's iverson, i mean kobe; lbj and mj are a wash; so it comes down to durant's offense vs. scottie's defense.

but perhaps most importantly, is that mj and scottie play so well together and realize synergies, hence the 6 rings. drexler was an all-round player that would play well with those two.

the same can't be said for kobe, lbj and durant. we saw how lebron and wade played together in 2006 international play where they lost, and lbj and kobe barely won in 2008 - and the way they won was hero ball with kobe bailing them out. so the chemistry edge goes to the dream team here for sure.

If the 2012 team had Dwight I would prolly say even money... Dont see how the 2012 team can stop the Dream Team Bigs without him. I mean they having one ****ing PF/C who is a postive defender.

If the 2012 team had Dwight, they'd be a 6.5 point favorite, as they'd have a huge edge at PG, a solid edge on the wings, and a push everywhere else. The edge the Dream Team has at center is their only edge, and it's why a team with no shooters can still be close to a coinflip with FIBA rules.

I've heard this said a bunch and on the surface I can def see the thinking behind it, but I disagree. Lebron is pretty much the only player alive who can not only be 'not exploited' but actually pose problems for the twin tower look.

So I'm assuming you're thinking the main core of the teams would be like:

Ewing-DRob-MJ-x-x

Tyson-Bron-KD-x-x

with the x's shuffling depending on situations/minutes/etc. But mostly they can be countered/"canceled out" by the other team imo.

Lebron at the 4 creates their own mismatch issues. And whats '92 gonna do on the offense to take advantage of their size, post up Ewing/DRob on him as their primary offense with MJ on the floor? Don't think so. Also with the '2 center always' thing, DT voluntarily takes out Chuck/Malone from big mins, 2 of the better players on the team.

Fwiw I still do give the edge to the DT--they have the better balance/depth and cohesion, and '12 not quite enough optimal/specialized talents to surround Lebron(/KD) with. As others have said not having Dwight/Wade/Bosh/LMA is huge, and enough to sway the decision. With those guys I think '12 has a pretty decent edge.

Chuck was pretty close when he said only Lebron, Kobe and Durant would make the DT. Lol at current old man Kobe but with the career achievement angle not worth arguing it. CP3 the only other one who def should make it, but no one else is putting up too strong a case imo.

I would put Jordan on LBJ and Pippen on Durant. Jordan would do whatever it took to win. He would get in LBJ's head for sure.

CP3 has a clear edge over Magic or Stockton.

All this talk about how HGH would change everything but lets not forget David Robinson was basically a taller version of Dwight.

2008>1992>2012

i don't think the 2 center thing is necessary or would even be close to optimal.

the dream team is simply a smarter, more experienced team that simply play way better together and that is more important that any other metric. they know things about the game that have been lost, that simply aren't done anymore in today's game, but that make them more effective on both ends. in the half court, the game has devolved into more dribbling, less passing and weaker post play than ever before, along with a chaotic whoever-touches-the-ball-first fast-break approach as opposed to organized transition approach that is much harder to stop even when you get back. in the style clash, the dream team would win because it is based on more team skill as opposed to just athleticism.

its one thing if 1992 didn't have athleticism. but they had plenty. and after the many losses lbj, wade, melo, paul and HGH incurred together from 2004-2006, im surprised that with this type of empirical evidence, the athleticism argument is still the crutch that is held on to by so many. im also surprised that people forget these many losses when comparing these guys to the dream team, and that they almost lost again in 2008 if it wasn't for kobe's hero ball.

also, the assumption that carmelo, who is not used to guarding power forwards, can all of a sudden guard two hof power forwards in barkley and malone and not get destroyed is a vastly inaccurate perception. the notion that defensive stoppers klove or blake griffin would do any better is equally inaccurate.

not that magic would even spend that much time at the point, but im interested - how would chris paul have an advantage on magic exactly? because he would "blow by" magic? lol, he blows by everybody. so what's the difference with magic?

Finally someone else who gets it!

You guys comparing this player against that player and are even comparing their weight etc. seem to have forgotten how many games team USA as lost to teams that are nowhere close to them on paper for precisely this reason.

Ok, you start those 5.

I start CP3, Melo, Durant, LBJ, Chandler.

How do you d-up now?

Imagine the trash talking in this game, would be epic

We lost for a couple of reasons. We DID not send our best players nor our best coaches or team. We featured guys like AI as our top player when he should have been lucky to come off the bench at the time.

In 2004 if we sent

Shaq
Kobe
KG
Ray Allen
Billups
Kidd


In place of:

AI
Richard Jefferson
Marbury
Odom
Boozer
Marion

There is little doubt in my mind a team starting:

Kidd
Kobe
Lebron
KG
Shaq

Would smoke the rest of the world. Instead Larry Brown played AI, Marbury, Marion, Odom, Boozer, Jefferson way too many minutes and only gave guys like Lebron minimal minutes. I know LBJ was young at the time but LOL at any coach featuring AI and Marbury and expecting to win gold. They finally fixed things in 2008 though. IN 1992, pretty much 11 of the top 15 or so players came from the NBA. In 2004, I'm sure you could argue only 1 of the top 5 players in the NBA came in Duncan at the time. It was more of a roster/coaching issue than anything for the reason why we lost. The guys we sent, sana Duncan, Lebron (who didn't play enough), Wade, Anthony--should have not made the team. It was a bastard team, and the owners of the team finally fixed things in the future.

Grunch...

1992 easy.

Lol at 2012 team guarding or attacking against a Robinson+Ewing lineup...hahahaowow.jpg lol even

I think the international 3 point line really helps out this team. Watching KD hit those chip shots last night was hilarious. I think permitter offense led by KD/Lebron is better than 92's great interior players. If this game is played under NBA rules then 92's edge is larger.

Not Marbury's fault imo. Getting gold is his job imo.

Most people are not going to like what I say because people are always comparing teams of diferent generations, which is funny but you SIMPLY CANNOT...

Before you try and start a ridiculous argument with me ask yourself these questions...

In 20 years have technology gotten better?

In 20 years have talent gotten better?

in 20 years have trainers gotten better(knowing more now they they did then)?

Do you think the officiating is the same in 20 years ago?

After asking yourself these questions (believe me there is alot more questions I can ask) how could you honestly compare teams from 20 years apart? There has never been a player built like Lebron (I hate lebron only respect his talents) in regards to his height/muscle etc. If you look at him closely he looks like a a MMA fighter. Jordan hands down was the best in his prime but think to yourself who was guarding him? Bryan Russel?? No name players that Jordan was so much more atheletic and better than. Can anyone name a player that was taller than jordan that guarded him on the regular(that was good)??
Jordan was 6'5 (have him listed as 6'6) Now they have numerous players playing his position that are 4-5 inches taller which is a big deal in basketball. Not to mention players like Charles Barkley was a beast at PF with his height at 6'4.... do you really think that Barkley could average a double double with the players now a days?

I trully believe it is impossible to compare the 2 teams or anyone from different generations... A little off topic but in baseball back in the day people would pitch 9 inning like it was nothing, now they have a pitch count and you cant pitch more than x amount of pitches in a game.

My conclusion is the talent now is the best we have ever seen and it only is going to keep on getting better. They have resources that are better, training, technology etc. I will say that back in the day officiating motto was "let the players play" and touch fouls were not called like they are called now. It is not possible to compare apples and oranges and not possible to compare a team from 20 years apart.... just my .02

you conveniently left out the 2006 team, which was as follows:

Carmelo Anthony
Shane Battier
Chris Bosh
Elton Brand
Kirk Hinrich
Dwight Howard
LeBron James
Antawn Jamison
Joe Johnson
Brad Miller
Chris Paul
Dwyane Wade

This team didn't even make the gold medal game and got the bronze in 2006, after Team USA had already lost consecutively in 2002 and 2004.

And if it wasn't for kobe's hero ball in 2008 (god bless him), they would have lost in 2008 to spain. Everyone conveniently forgets all this though.

I wonder what Iggymcfly's excuse for this one is..

I'm surprised this is even a discussion at all.

so we have clear-cut empirical evidence, that a team with chris paul, dwayne wade, dwight howard, lebron james, AND chris bosh lost in international competition to Puerto Rico in the qualifying (and then only beat them by 11 in the olympics) AND to Greece in the Olympics.

Why is this even a discussion? forget all the "well, if we had HGH, and bosh, and wade, bs... we've already seen that team. they L-O-S-T, more than once.

and if it wasn't for kobe's hero ball in 2008, tack on another loss to Spain.



remember this dwayne wade?

Every time I stumble across this argument on sports talk radio (especially ESPN, which has been a LOT this week) I feel like I'm listening to two sci-fi dorks arguing over who would win a fight between King Kong and Godzilla.

basketball smarts and TEAM skill matters obviously... my man carlos is doing this to paul, wade, hgh, bosh, and lebron...



but they can beat the dream team? gtfo

This team was definitely missing some pure shooting. This team was still missing some top level components like KG, Duncan, and maybe even Shaq--lol at Joe Johnson, Brad Miller (who I love), Jamison, Hinrich, Brand, and Shane being key players on the team.

2008 is when most top players in the US finally joined the team.

your evidence CONSISTENTLY exists of horrible one game sample sizes and outliers and videos which tell us little to nothing about the context or big picture. we all know the team back in the day was screwed up. what really is your point. in 1992, all the best players went to the Dream Team. in 2004, 2006 they didn't. this year they didn't as well due to injuries.