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Forum nameOkay Sports
Topic subjectok, real answer.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2193536&mesg_id=2454252
2454252, ok, real answer.
Posted by dula dibiasi, Tue Jun-09-15 05:49 PM
assuming jordan never leaves in 93, i definitely think they could've won 94. they return the entire core of the b2b2b chip team: prime jordan, a better bj armstrong, better pippen, better grant. they still bring in kukoc and kerr in the offseason to fortify the bench, and still move stacey king in february for longley (who was essentially the mozgov of the 2nd 3peat squad)

remember they won 55 (!) games in 94 w/o mj. his presence easily pushes that to 60+ so they enjoy HCA over the knicks (57-25) in the ECF and the rockets (58-24) in the finals. remember the 93 squad won w/o home court in either of the last 2 rounds.

so yeah, i think they 4peat. beyond that it's really impossible to say for sure. too many what ifs re: roster construction. does grant leave a 4x champion for orlando? maybe, but prolly not. so prolly no rodman. which tbh would've been an upgrade, 95-98 grant was a better player than rodman. do they still lose bj in the expansion draft? is harper still signed or does a different, maybe younger player fill that role? jordan never leaving means different win totals, so different draft positions and team needs. maybe they take person in 94 or finley in 95. etc etc.

also, there's prolly no way jordan handles as many minutes as he played from 96-98 without the 2 yr sabbatical.

so again, way too many variables to really say. but regardless of roster, i can't imagine a healthy jordan and pippen in their primes _not_ fielding teams that were competitive in the title race every year. they were just too good.