Diop wrote:was stupid enough to join a conversation on the general board about GSW and if they would beat the MJ Bulls.
I mentioned how the Bulls faced versatile offence with Indiana who with Mullen, Reggie, Rose, Jackson and co, who could probably give GSW a run.
Was automatically hit with disbelief and hate. That was a great team, am I totally off?
Bird did a masterful job with them. Reading his book "Bird Watching" which focuses on his years as a coach allowed me to appreciate his post playing career a lot more.
Golden State's a team for the ages so it's hard to put up anyone against them, however, it's definitely a fair choice. Those Bird teams are basically the only Reggie Miller Pacers squads that got the best out of both worlds. They were probably too bad on offense in the early 90s to seriously contend for a title.
Moreover, you can definitely match the Warriors playing style with those Pacers squads, even with them playing two decades ago. Some funky and long lineups can be created there like:
Jackson/Miller/Rose/Mullin/Antonio Davis
You might have to rely too much on a declining Derrick McKey since none of Miller, Mullin or Rose can be put on Durant, however, they at least won't be run out of town just because some big is stuck on a perimeter player. When the Death Lineup is in, you can put the adept long distance runner in Miller on Klay, the older Mullin can take Iggy and hang around for his signature reads and deflections and that leaves the longer Rose on Durant (though, McKey should get some of these minutes as well).
Given Jackson's age (and actually the whole team's age), him on Curry might be a headache. Perhaps, you could even out-Golden State them and go with Rose/Miller/Mullin/McKey/Davis so Jalen could use his size against Curry. If they try to run him off screens (since Rose wasn't the most attentive defender), you could basically switch everything.
So despite them being in their early 30s, there's actually a surprising lot of versatility there for a late 90s squad.
Rik Smits minutes would have to be lined up exactly with Pachulia's and I'm not certain whether Dale Davis has a place in the series (I guess, you could match him up against McGee so he wouldn't get totally DNP'd).
But, all in all, yeah, you're not totally off. They are one of the better teams ever not to reach the Finals and there are some decent lineup options to go to. Indiana being a slow team would probably help as well. We just saw that it's possible to slow the tempo down against Golden State. While they failed at certain other things, Utah managed the pace quite well.
