Earvin "Magic" Johnson on whether or not his Lakers of the mid to late 1980's could defeat the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
-Phil Jackson: who coached the 72-10 Chicago Bulls in 1995-96
The Bulls do not have a center that dominates any facet of the game, Luc
Longley, Bill Wennington, the way past his prime James Edwards and John Salley
produce a four headed center that his high on quantity but void of any
quality. Their starting center: Luc Longley is so bad that he has not been
able to hold a starting spot on any other team since leaving Chicago in
1998.
In the middle 1980's the Milwaukee Bucks boasted a similar squad that was as good as anyone in the league, except during the playoffs: The Bucks relied on one of the NBA's best defenses (they scored 25 straight points against San Antonio-a playoff team-in one game). Offensively the Bucks had a 3 pronged attack with Sidney Moncrief, Terry Cummings and point-forward Paul Pressey along with a fine supporting cast including three point specialist Craig Hodges & sixth man & future All-Star Ricky Pierce off the bench: except for the center position where Randy Breuer (imagine Luc Longley being from Minnesota instead of down under,) Paul Mokeski(Like Bill Wennington with curly hair) and Alton Lister (the 1980's version of Ervin Johnson) were adequate during the regular season but were repeatedly buzz-sawed by the first dominant center they faced (Moses Malone 4-0 in 1985 and Robert Parish/Bill Walton 4-0 in 1986) in the playoffs.
Those Bucks have a striking similarity with the 1996 Bulls, who employed Scottie Pippen as a point forward running the offense. Aside from the 2-guard and power forward positions these two teams are virtually the same. While those Bucks were a very good team the distance between them and -for example- the 1986 Celtics was just too great. In the 1986 Eastern Conference Finals the Celtics dominated the Bucks so thoroughly that the Bucks only led during 25 of the 192 game time minutes of the 4 game sweep. The Bucks were the third best team in the 1985-86 NBA but their formula failed miserably against the league powers (0-11 against Boston & the Lakers) and they couldn't win a single game against the Celtics in 9 tries. If the Bucks had 1996 Jordan & Rodman in place of Moncrief and Cummings (who were both All-Stars) they still would not have enough firepower to overcome the donut hole and win a best of 7 series against the Celtics.
During their careers neither Bill Russel nor Wilt Chamberlain's teams lost a playoff series to a team without an all star caliber center & the Bulls' Luc Longley has never even come close to making the All-Star Team. Why is this important? You are turning some of the all time greatest defensive centers into roaming defenders that can cause all kinds of defensive mayhem in the paint: In the 1986 Western Conference Finals Akeem Olajuwon dominated the Lakers as a roaming defender because he did not have to guard any of the offensively weak Laker power forwards. This would be a huge X factor that many of the other great teams can use against the 1996 Bulls. At least the 1992 Bulls had Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant and Stacie King who were all good enough offensively to at worst occupy their defenders when the Bulls had the ball. The top teams in NBA history boast the likes of Bill Russel, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Moses Malone, Robert Parish... and the list goes on.
Furthermore, the fastest way to make a dominant center put up big numbers against you is letting him rest on defense. The 1996 Bulls provide no one who can make the other team's big people have to play hard on the defensive end. This becomes important since many of the other all-time great teams have players good enough to hold their own against Pippen, Rodman, Harper & their backups.
In some cases what it comes down to is the Bulls are going to get outscored by 25 to 30 points (probably more vs. Wilt) at the center position alone. Will Jordan dominate Hall of Fame Guard ____ better than Chaimberlain, Moses Malone or Abdul Jabbar will dominate Luc Longley? I don't think so.
A friend of mine once said "The 1996 Bulls didn't need a low post presence". To defeat the Orlando Magic and Seattle Supersonics he is right. However, both of these teams would be obliterated by a complete team like the 1985-86 Celtics or the 1966-67 76ers.
Bulls fans like to point out that the Bulls version of the Tex Winters triangle offense doesn't need a dominant center. The truth is that even the triangle can not hide the fact that Luc Longley is not a good center. Magnifying this weakness further is the fact that power forward Dennis Rodman is solely a defensive player and rebounder, thus the Bulls have no low post offense from their key big people. To paraphrase a quote once used by former Celtic great Tommy Heinsohn: The Bulls only have a limited number of quality big people, and unless Dennis Rodman can score close to 30 points a game the Bulls are not going to be with us. The lack of an upper echelon center makes the Bulls incredibly vulnerable in the post to a great team with the veteran savvy, and a center to take advantage of it.