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2012 Olympic Team v.s. 1992 Dream Team


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Enough with the nostalgia from people. The 92 "dream team" would lose to today's Olympic team if they were matched up during their times.

 

Going off the possible starting five:

 

 

Rose v.s. Magic

Kobe v.s. M.J.

Durant v.s. Bird

James v.s. Barkley

Howard v.s. Ewing

 

 

There's little chance that the 92 "dream team" could hang with today's Olympic team.

 

-Magic would be too slow for Rose and would be easily exposed

 

-Kobe v.s. M.J. would be close, but M.J. was closer to his prime than Kobe.

 

-Durant would be too quick for Bird to handle, and would expose him as well.

 

-James would just decimate Barkley, even in the low post

 

-Howard sucks offensively, but he'd be too athletic for Ewing.

 

 

 

People need to stop their nostalgia and recognize the 92 "dream team" would struggle mightily against today's Olympic team.

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-Magic is an actual point and averaged nearly 10 apg for the dream team, crazy. Rose is an incredibly mediocre defender and Magic would expose him as well (rose would be fine offensively of course). I wouldn't even make Rose the starting PG but that's just me... just seems redundant with LBJ, D-Wade syndrome... then again you can't really start a 6-2 Chris Paul against him... I just don't really know, not a fan of Rose's though for this team.

-92 team has a way deeper group of bigs and guys like Malone, Robinson, Ewing, etc that would give Howard fits. He is still a pretty average man defender IMO. Great anchor though... don't think 2012 team would be wise to go small against them

-MJ would destroy the Kobe we watch today, its not even close, so don't act like it is.

 

I think it'd be a fun series, and I don't think either team is distinctively better. The reason team USA now doesn't dominate like they did in 92 is pretty obvious, so I think it is stupid to discredit current players just because the rest of the world got better.

Edited by Check my Stats
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Rose has a torn ACL so he isn't on the team, but today's team is really damn good. I would be shocked if we didn't win gold.

 

True. I saw this on another forum I'm on, and thought it was an interesting comparison, and these were just the players that were thought of as a possible starting five. I think Rose (if healthy) would cause a lot of trouble for Magic, but I'm not sure if Paul, Rondo, or D-Will would cause him those fits.

 

However, I really think LeBron would tilt the match in the favor of today's team. However, I think the depth of they 92 team would be better for sure though, so I may have to re-tihnk this, but I like the starting five (if Rose were healthy) of today's team over the 92 team.

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True. I saw this on another forum I'm on, and thought it was an interesting comparison, and these were just the players that were thought of as a possible starting five. I think Rose (if healthy) would cause a lot of trouble for Magic, but I'm not sure if Paul, Rondo, or D-Will would cause him those fits.

 

Offensively I'm sure he would since Magic was never really a great defender. Rose's explosiveness would certainly cause Magic a fair amount of trouble.

 

However, as much trouble as Rose would give Magic, I think Magic would return it back double on Rose. Magic's size and strength advantage would be a nightmare for Rose. Rose would have to make up for it with his superior athleticism, but Magic was too smart of a player to get sucked into anything by Rose. His size advantage allowing him to see over the top of Rose would be absolutely huge. He would be able to pick him apart from the high post because of it. It would be a huge mismatch that, in my opinion, would be much, much more significant than the advantage Rose would have on the other end.

 

I really think Williams would pose the biggest matchup problem for Magic. I know he isn't as tall as Magic is, but the guy is a tank yet still have fantastic explosiveness. He would put up much more of a fight when Magic bodied up on him (which you know Magic would look to do a lot against the smaller guards) and while Magic would still have an advantage, it wouldn't be as glaring with Williams on him instead of Rose.

 

Really, the best matchup for Magic would be LeBron, but there is no way that Durant would be able to handle Barkley so that is definitely out of the question.

 

I do agree with your general point in that it wouldn't be domination from the Dream Team by any means. The one thing that makes me think the Dream Team would be able to win is their size advantage. I could see Robinson, Malone, Barkley and Ewing and being wearing down the smaller 2012 team. On the other hand, if the 2012 team could get on the break, they'd definitely be at a huge advantage. It would be very fun to watch.

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didn't we have a thread like this recently? the only positions the 92 team wins is SG and C. It is also important to realize that Magic and Bird weren't exactly young at this time as well

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Ok so last night I was thinking about how [expletive]ing stupid the premise for this thread is and how wrong you are(not a surprise, you're always wrong ecn). you say "looking at the starting lineups", but not just the starting lineups. do you really think the 92 dream team was shallow and couldn't make adjustments? Scottie Pippen, one of the greatest defenders of all time, is a bench player on the dream team. I'm pretty sure he could matchup with LeBron. David Robinson and Karl Malone are bigs that can come off the bench. Do you really think LeBron or Rose are getting to the basket with a lineup of Robinson/ Malone/Pippen/Drexler/Jordan? You could put Jordan on Rose, and he goes nowhere. The 92 dream team consists of hall of famers while the 2012 team has only 2 guaranteed hall of famers. Fact of the matter is if you take the entire roster, the 1992 dream team is far superior, and it isn't even close.

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The Dream Team's size would give them the edge IMO. Ewing and Robinson had the athletcism, strength and size to give Dwight Howard fits defensively, and were arguably both better offensive players (Robinson was easily better on the offensive side of the ball). In fact, at every position the Dream Team has an advantage on the boards, with each player in the starting lineup having at least one NBA season averaging over 8RPG. Their size advantage would make up for any gap in athletcism there might be for the 2012 squad.

 

However, with the 2012 team's edge in 3pt shooting ability, and athletic advantage at the PG, SF and PF positions, it wouldn't surprise me if they won the series or made it extremely close.

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-Magic would be too slow for Rose and would be easily exposed

Implying Magic's size and strength advantage wouldn't expose Rose

 

-Kobe v.s. M.J. would be close, but M.J. was closer to his prime than Kobe.

Implying '92 Jordan and '12 Kobe are close

 

-Durant would be too quick for Bird to handle, and would expose him as well.

Implying Bird wouldn't take Durant to school on offense

 

-James would just decimate Barkley, even in the low post

Implying James would push Barkley around in the post

 

-Howard sucks offensively, but he'd be too athletic for Ewing.

Implying Ewing wouldn't take Howard to school with his back to the basket

 

 

Much of the outcome of this game would come down to the refereeing. Two completely different games.

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Implying Magic's size and strength advantage wouldn't expose Rose

 

 

Implying '92 Jordan and '12 Kobe are close

 

 

Implying Bird wouldn't take Durant to school on offense

 

 

Implying James would push Barkley around in the post

 

 

Implying Ewing wouldn't take Howard to school with his back to the basket

 

 

Much of the outcome of this game would come down to the refereeing. Two completely different games.

 

 

I'm strictly talking about the advantages the 2012 team would have. I'm not focused on the 92' team advantages (which they have as well) as I believe the advantages of the 2012 team are much greater than the advantages of the 92' team.

Edited by EastCoastNiner
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I'm strictly talking about the advantages the 2012 team would have. I'm not focused on the 92' team advantages (which they have as well) as I believe the advantages of the 2012 team are much greater than the advantages of the 92' team.

Top to bottom on the roster, the 12 team has no advantages. Rose isn't even on the 12 team. Some players on the 2012 team aren't even the current best at their position in the league, while EVERY MEMBER of the '92 team is a hall of famer. You point out a few advantages that the 12 team has athletically in comparison to the '92 team, which started two men that were at the tail ends of their careers. Do you really think that if the 92 team was put in a position where they had ANY competition whatsoever, that the all-time NBA assist leader would remain on the bench? Do you really think Charles Barkley wouldn't produce offense on LeBron? Let's also remember that if we are comparing international teams, it should be subject to international rules, in which the 12 team would be embarrassed in the paint. Wade isn't going to get calls by crying after not getting hit. LeBron would be expected to have to take punishment in the paint, and Barkley, Malone, Ewing, and Robinson would take a giant shit on them. Factor in Pippen defending him on the perimeter and LeBron would look like Smush Parker out there against this team.

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I'm strictly talking about the advantages the 2012 team would have. I'm not focused on the 92' team advantages (which they have as well) as I believe the advantages of the 2012 team are much greater than the advantages of the 92' team.

you called 28 year old Jordan and 33 year old Kobe close tho

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IF the 2012 team win the game, it would be because LeBron, Durant, and Kobe went off...and I don't see that happening against Pippen, Jordan, and Bird on the court, helped by legitimate defensive anchors (and some of the best defensive big men ever) in Ewing, Robinson, and Malone.

 

As pointed out already, the biggest advantage is coming from the Dream Team, and it's their size. If you think Chandler and the Mavericks shut down the paint against LeBron and the Heat last year (and they did), imagine what the Dream Team's trio of defensive-minded bigs would do, plus the addition of two of the greatest perimeter defenders in the 90's.

 

Also, as big of a Kobe guy I am...it's 2012 Kobe, not 2004. If there was one guard that could hang with prime Mike, it would be prime Kobe, the one that had all 10 fingers and two good knees, that could play 48 minutes and never get tired.

 

I could only imagine what Magic would do to the 2012 PG's in the post, by the way. It would be hell.

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While the Dream Team was probably the most talented group ever assembled in basketball, they weren't playing against the stiffest of competition, and were never really challenged during their Gold Medal run. If the games were even remotely close, four of those members of the dream team wouldn't have received major minutes. Bird and Magic weren't in very good condition, Stockton was hurt at the time, and Laettner hadn't even played an NBA game yet. I'd venture to guess that there were about 3 or 4 NBA caliber players outside the US at the time (Petrovic, Kukoc - who again, hadn't even played an NBA game at the time, and Sabonis).

 

Let's not forget, they had one legitimate floor spacer at the time in Chris Mullin, and no real active point guard.

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Wasn't there another thread like this one before? I'm pretty sure there was and I was all but lynched since I picked the dream team.....

 

Let's be honest though, hypothetically if this game happened it would come down to officiating. For anyone that remembers the 90's era of basketball was officiated completely different than today's NBA. If the game was officiated the way it was in '92, the 2012 team would be at a huge disadvantage IMO. Most of the 2012 team isn't used to that hardnosed defense where hand checking was acceptable. Now if they played with '12 off iron I think a SLIGHt advantage goes to the 2012 team. Yes the dream teams defense would suffer some, but I honestly think the DT's offense would be better. I just think the DT could make enough adjustments defensively to get enough stops, I just can't see 2012 being able to stop the far superior low post scoring.

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Just a quick point: hand-checking is easier to play against than a tight zone defense put into play to stop you. The shooters don't mind it, but superstars would rather play in the 90's, no matter how physical.

 

I've read about many players saying this (even Kobe pointed this out), and as a player myself, I've had to deal with both, and I absolutely HATE zone defenses.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dream Team would kill no comparison

 

no one could stop Jordan than NO ONE

he'd single handidly will himself to a win

 

and ya'll think anyone could check the Mailman lmao HELL NOO

their is a reason that man is 2nd all time in points scored

 

 

and um Rose is too fast for Magic..............................................Magic played against plenty of faster point guards and never got outplayed

 

they wish they had Bird's shooting

Magic's passing

and Jordan's sheer determination

 

90's represented the last of the hard workers who played with sheer aggression this prima donna AAU generation of self entitled And1 mixtape cats would be lucky to even get within 10 points of the dream team

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