JohnVancouver wrote:I saw those teams play, also the West/Wilt Lakers and Detroit with Laimbeer, Isiah etc.
All of them would take this squad and the Bird Celtics and Showtime lakers would embarass them.
I wouldn't go that far, "embarrass" is a large word.
The West/Wilt Lakers would be an interesting matchup, to be sure, as would the Bird/Magic teams of the 80s.
The 70s Lakers would be interesting; are we talking with or without Baylor?
As to the 80s teams... what year? After 85, I don't think the Lakers matchup against Kobe's boys as well as you'd think. Kareem's rebounding and defense were tailing off pretty sharply by that point, and I doubt very strongly that Michael Cooper would have a lot of success against Kobe in isolation defense. He was a great defender, but great defense does not always trump great offense, especially now that Kobe's making use of the post more. Coop wasn't a hot post defender.
Who do they put on Worthy? Artest, probably. So who guards Gasol? One of Gasol/Bynum at least is going to go off on them. You put Kareem on Gasol, Bynum cleans up and vice versa. The showtime PF was AC Green for the peak period of Magic's career. And the Nixon/Silk/Kupchak Lakers were a lot more vulnerable to the current Lakers (balanced by the better editions of a younger Kareem).
I think the Showtime boys would win a 7-game series, but "embarrass" is the wrong choice of words.
The Celtics were set up to handle them a lot better; the Chief and McHale would be a lot more effective against Gasol and Bynum. Bird vs. Artest wouldn't be an issue because Bird was taller, a great shooter and awesome at off-ball movement and using screens (and also posting up defenders of any size).
DJ/Ainge wouldn't be able to contain Kobe, but who could? The rotational help of the bigs would be a lot better than any individual backcourt defender, any how. I'd expect the Celtics to win a series against Kobe's Lakers. I'd expect Boston to go 4-2. I'd expect the Showtime Lakers to maybe go 4-2 but more likely 4-3, health pending on both sides.
Detroit would get totally screwed.
Their defense would be considerably undermined in the modern era, but if you flip the switch and play them in the 80s, Kobe in the post wouldn't mind that so much. He's accustomed to multiple coverage and it would actually be easier for him to post because of the differing rules regarding multiple coverage. Meantime, Laimbeer isn't going to do enough to stop Bynum or Gasol (and neither are Rodman or Mahorn; Rodman's wasted on either player because they aren't iso scorers nor primary options). The Pistons would not win a series against these Lakers, bench issues or no, as long as the current Lakers were healthy.
