Steph Curry: "2017 Warriors would win in 6 against the 96 Bulls"

[toodles23]

I see a lot of people worrying about how the Bulls are gonna guard the splash bros
I'm wondering who the hell is gonna guard Michael Jordan... Klay Thompson with Draymond at the rim? he's either dropping 60 (depending on the pace the game goes) or half the "death lineup" is gonna be on the bench with foul trouble

Good lord the MJ deification is absolutely insane. The last time in his career he scored 60 was in 1993 against a lottery team, but somehow he's going to drop 60 against the most talented team of all time stacked with great defenders and with a far better understanding of how to defend star players than any team he played in his career, and without the illegal defense rules?

In the 1996 Finals MJ averaged 23.7 ppg on 36.7% from the field in the last three games once George Karl finally put Payton on him as the primary defender. He was not some unstoppable god, especially second 3peat MJ who was clearly a couple steps removed from his GOAT level peak around 1991.

You can't even breathe on a player when you're defending him in 2017. If you don't think Mike would've owned everybody now in the present you smoke crack. It isn't about style of play or 3pt shooting.. it's about Mike being way smarter and way tougher mentally than any of them boys on GSW. I have full confidence he would've prepared himself physically and mentally to wax them kids. How do I know this? Because that's what he did when he played. You tell me a team as good as the bad boy pistons that GSW had to face? Cleveland? lol

Old man yelling at clouds.gif.

Was MJ just bored in the 1996 Finals and decide he didn't care if he played poorly? Or the 1997 ECF? Or could it be that he was, in fact, human and could be slowed down like any other great player in history?

As for the supposed physicality, that's not supported at all by the tape. Nothing in this video goes beyond what you see today. It's pure nostalgia goggles. There were a few teams that leaned hard into being super physical, mostly the Pistons and Knicks, but they were the exception rather than the rule and the league cracked down on that hard after 1994 when they banned hand checking.

Watch on YouTube

[Myth]

The traveling question at 2:47 is 100% percent true, it feels like Curry is challenging the refs to call it on every inbound. LeBron does something similar. It's like when Magic would clearly palm the ball dribbling across halfcourt. I guess it doesn't actually affect the play but is annoying to watch.

In hindsight, the crab dribble debate back in the day was one of the smartest thing Lebron ever did. By holding his ground, I believe refs became hesitant to call some of those moves traveling. If he admitted it was traveling, it would have been him giving approval for refs to call it. It probably played greatly into what people accept as legitimate to this day for the league as a whole. You watch that original play now that was so hotly debated, and you’ll see top drivers in the league do this every game.

[The4thHorseman]

I see a lot of people worrying about how the Bulls are gonna guard the splash bros
I'm wondering who the hell is gonna guard Michael Jordan... Klay Thompson with Draymond at the rim? he's either dropping 60 (depending on the pace the game goes) or half the "death lineup" is gonna be on the bench with foul trouble

Good lord the MJ deification is absolutely insane. The last time in his career he scored 60 was in 1993 against a lottery team, but somehow he's going to drop 60 against the most talented team of all time stacked with great defenders and with a far better understanding of how to defend star players than any team he played in his career, and without the illegal defense rules?

In the 1996 Finals MJ averaged 23.7 ppg on 36.7% from the field in the last three games once George Karl finally put Payton on him as the primary defender. He was not some unstoppable god, especially second 3peat MJ who was clearly a couple steps removed from his GOAT level peak around 1991.

You can't even breathe on a player when you're defending him in 2017. If you don't think Mike would've owned everybody now in the present you smoke crack. It isn't about style of play or 3pt shooting.. it's about Mike being way smarter and way tougher mentally than any of them boys on GSW. I have full confidence he would've prepared himself physically and mentally to wax them kids. How do I know this? Because that's what he did when he played. You tell me a team as good as the bad boy pistons that GSW had to face? Cleveland? lol

Put the series in 1996 and GS consistently rains 3's for the entire series with the shortened 3pt line. Curry would probably shoot over 50% from 3 taking 12-13 attempts per game.

[nikster]

The same 2017 Warriors that didn't look so good out there against the Spurs before Leonard got hurt? Yeah..I don't see them winning in 7 games unless Zaza also puts MJ out of action like that. The 1996 Bulls roster has someone and a back up that can challenge all of the 2017 Warriors key players.

Jordan or Pippen can deal with Curry
Harper/Jordan or Pippen can deal with Klay
Rodman or Kukoc can deal with the Durant assignment
and Rodman or Kukoc can also deal with Draymond.

The Bulls would stand a better chance at getting a win in Golden State than the Warriors would at winning a game in the United Center. So that pretty much sums it up right there for me. Bulls in 6 at the most.

The Warriors would likely beat the 98 squad though, but even that wouldn't be easy.

They played one bad half of basketball, Time to ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs. Not like those 96 Bulls ever lost by 20+ in the playoffs, oh wait...

[OdomFan]

The same 2017 Warriors that didn't look so good out there against the Spurs before Leonard got hurt? Yeah..I don't see them winning in 7 games unless Zaza also puts MJ out of action like that. The 1996 Bulls roster has someone and a back up that can challenge all of the 2017 Warriors key players.

Jordan or Pippen can deal with Curry
Harper/Jordan or Pippen can deal with Klay
Rodman or Kukoc can deal with the Durant assignment
and Rodman or Kukoc can also deal with Draymond.

The Bulls would stand a better chance at getting a win in Golden State than the Warriors would at winning a game in the United Center. So that pretty much sums it up right there for me. Bulls in 6 at the most.

The Warriors would likely beat the 98 squad though, but even that wouldn't be easy.

They played one bad half of basketball, Time to ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs. Not like those 96 Bulls ever lost by 20+ in the playoffs, oh wait...

I will ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs because none of that has anything to do with their matchup against the Spurs in that round. Basketball (and especially Playoff Basketball) is about matchups while said match up is on going. So anything that happened before it is completely irrelevant.

Point is the Spurs proved in that half that they had all of the tools to get the job done, but sadly we'll never know what would have happened if Leonard didn't get hurt. They were a damn good defensive team with a great offensive game to match just like the 1996 Bulls team just so happened to also have. So yeah, I'm standing by my point regardless of what you say next. Adios.

[The4thHorseman]

The same 2017 Warriors that didn't look so good out there against the Spurs before Leonard got hurt? Yeah..I don't see them winning in 7 games unless Zaza also puts MJ out of action like that. The 1996 Bulls roster has someone and a back up that can challenge all of the 2017 Warriors key players.

Jordan or Pippen can deal with Curry
Harper/Jordan or Pippen can deal with Klay
Rodman or Kukoc can deal with the Durant assignment
and Rodman or Kukoc can also deal with Draymond.

The Bulls would stand a better chance at getting a win in Golden State than the Warriors would at winning a game in the United Center. So that pretty much sums it up right there for me. Bulls in 6 at the most.

The Warriors would likely beat the 98 squad though, but even that wouldn't be easy.

They played one bad half of basketball, Time to ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs. Not like those 96 Bulls ever lost by 20+ in the playoffs, oh wait...

I will ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs because none of that has anything to do with their matchup against the Spurs in that round. Basketball (and especially Playoff Basketball) is about matchups while said match up is on going. So anything that happened before it is completely irrelevant.

Point is the Spurs proved in that half that they had all of the tools to get the job done, but sadly we'll never know what would have happened if Leonard didn't get hurt. They were a damn good defensive team with a great offensive game to match just like the 1996 Bulls team just so happened to also have. So yeah, I'm standing by my point regardless of what you say next. Adios.

Say for example that after the 2001 Sixers took game 1 of the finals and then AI got injured early in the first of game 2, would you agree with people who'd say that Philly would've won the if AI didn't miss the rest of the series?

[michaelm]

The same 2017 Warriors that didn't look so good out there against the Spurs before Leonard got hurt? Yeah..I don't see them winning in 7 games unless Zaza also puts MJ out of action like that. The 1996 Bulls roster has someone and a back up that can challenge all of the 2017 Warriors key players.

Jordan or Pippen can deal with Curry
Harper/Jordan or Pippen can deal with Klay
Rodman or Kukoc can deal with the Durant assignment
and Rodman or Kukoc can also deal with Draymond.

The Bulls would stand a better chance at getting a win in Golden State than the Warriors would at winning a game in the United Center. So that pretty much sums it up right there for me. Bulls in 6 at the most.

The Warriors would likely beat the 98 squad though, but even that wouldn't be easy.

They played one bad half of basketball, Time to ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs. Not like those 96 Bulls ever lost by 20+ in the playoffs, oh wait...

I will ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs because none of that has anything to do with their matchup against the Spurs in that round. Basketball (and especially Playoff Basketball) is about matchups while said match up is on going. So anything that happened before it is completely irrelevant.

Point is the Spurs proved in that half that they had all of the tools to get the job done, but sadly we'll never know what would have happened if Leonard didn't get hurt. They were a damn good defensive team with a great offensive game to match just like the 1996 Bulls team just so happened to also have. So yeah, I'm standing by my point regardless of what you say next. Adios.

I don’t know whether GSW would have beaten the Jordan Bulls, might have had a chance.

GSW did come back from a similar deficit to win a regular season game against the Spurs that year though, and many teams have come back from a beat down to win a play-off series anyway, including against the Spurs in 2016 I believe when they won the first game of the conference semi-finals against OKC by 32 points then lost the series 2-4.

Glad to see this was in reply to an interview question, I would prefer him not to volunteer such opinions until his career is over.

[draftnightsuit]

I see a lot of people worrying about how the Bulls are gonna guard the splash bros
I'm wondering who the hell is gonna guard Michael Jordan... Klay Thompson with Draymond at the rim? he's either dropping 60 (depending on the pace the game goes) or half the "death lineup" is gonna be on the bench with foul trouble

Michael Jordan had trouble dealing with Reggie Miller but somehow he’s gonna average 60 against Klay who is better than Reggie in every way.

[nikster]

They played one bad half of basketball, Time to ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs. Not like those 96 Bulls ever lost by 20+ in the playoffs, oh wait...

I will ignore them dominating the rest of those playoffs because none of that has anything to do with their matchup against the Spurs in that round. Basketball (and especially Playoff Basketball) is about matchups while said match up is on going. So anything that happened before it is completely irrelevant.

Point is the Spurs proved in that half that they had all of the tools to get the job done, but sadly we'll never know what would have happened if Leonard didn't get hurt. They were a damn good defensive team with a great offensive game to match just like the 1996 Bulls team just so happened to also have. So yeah, I'm standing by my point regardless of what you say next. Adios.

Say for example that after the 2001 Sixers took game 1 of the finals and then AI got injured early in the first of game 2, would you agree with people who'd say that Philly would've won the if AI didn't miss the rest of the series?

Or if Sonics played in game 1 like they did in game 4 and Payton went down. I didnt see much sustainable about that half from teh Spurs. Kawhi was not gonna keep up that crazy level of play, Aldridge had as much as Curry and Klay combined on 7 less possessions

[og15]

You can make up the difference in 3PT shooting with size, defense and offensive rebounding.

You can make up some difference, sure, but no team taking 30 3's is losing to a team taking 17 over a long series if the competition is competent. You just cant close that gap in offensive efficiency over a 7 game series

What's the gap? We have to determine the gap first before saying it needs to be closed. There isn't an automatic offensive efficiency gap just because of the difference in 3PT attempts.

The 95-96 Bulls had a 115.2 ORtg, the 16-17 Warriors had a 115.6 Ortg. The regular season play of both teams said there was no gap in offensive efficiency. You argument would make more sense if the teams had a large gap in offensive efficiency that the Bulls would have to make up for with defense, rebounding, etc, but they didn't.

In the playoffs, the Warriors had a 119.9 Ortg, but they played a 24th ranked Blazers defense, a good 3rd ranked Utah defense, a 1st ranked, would have been great Spurs defense, but lost Kawhi 23 minutes into the series which becomes a totally different defense, and a below average 21st ranked Cavs defense. They had little defensive resistance during that run. The Bulls had a 111.1 Ortg in the playoffs, they played a 6th Miami defense, 4th Knicks defense, 12th Orlando defense and 2nd Seattle defense. That's quite a lot more defensive resistance. The playoffs with the smaller sample size with unequal opponents is not going to give us an accurate gauge. For example, we can't say, "oh the Bulls would have to make up for 8 pts/100", that's not how it works.

So how can one say that they have to close the gap in offensive efficiency when no gap has been determined? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Warriors can't win, I'm just not understanding a blanket "whomever shoots more three's will win" type argument. It's more complicated than that. Three's have their value because of what they do to offensive efficiency. If a team can match the offensive efficiency of a team shooting three's without shooting as many three's, the three's don't matter. The value of the three's is in being more efficient for the average team than other jump shots. The efficiency is the end goal, not specifically shooting more three's.

[TheLand13]

Also the Warriors were 1 year removed from losing in the Finals to a team that averaged 8 3pm makes per game in that series, 1 more than the Bulls averaged in 96 (too lazy to pace adjust all that so probably closer tbh)
I think everyones imagining Curry Klay and Durant going like 8/14 each from 3 and it just aint like that

That Warriors team had injury issues, would’ve won if Draymond wasn’t suspended in game 5, and they didn’t have Durant yet.

These arguments claiming the bulls would win are laughable. The bulls wouldn’t stand a chance. Warriors sweeping is a more likely outcome than the bulls winning.

[Son Goku 25]

Curry had a pretty great interview in GQ where he talked about a lot of things, see video below. Asked upon, he mentioned Tony Allen and Avery Bradley were/are his toughest defenders. Another interesting one was whether the 2017 KD Warriors would win against the 73 Bulls. Obviously, he picked his own team as he should, but also called it in 6 which I thought was rather cocky but funny nonetheless. It's at the 0:53 mark. I'll add in a poll cause why not.

Watch on YouTube

Currys toughest defender is Fred Vanvleet, its time Curry finally let's it go and accept it.

[DonaldSanders]

The Bulls don't have 2 superstars is the issue. Scottie is not up to KD or Curry's level and Draymond provides similar defense. Draymond can spend a lot of energy on defense saving Curry/KD a little while MJ & Pippin have to cover the 2 best players on GS.

The other issue is if we're talking 90s rules or modern rules. Each team is built/setup for the rules of their time but the Bulls don't have any bigs to punish the Warriors so that might be closer than people think, I'd put the Warriors at like 95% for a 7 game series on modern rules and say 60/40 (Warriors winning) on a 7 game series on 90s rules.

Come on man.. how old are you?

39. MJ is the GOAT, I watched every chip, there is just more talent on the 2017 Warriors w/ KD.

[Plossum]

Voted for the Warriors. Teams are very close talent wise, but the Warriors have the benefit of 25 years of basketball meta evolution on their side. They play a smarter, more efficient brand of basketball.

[Ballerhogger]

Be fun but the warriors don’t have enough big men to out rebound the bulls

[ibraheim718]

The Bulls don't have 2 superstars is the issue. Scottie is not up to KD or Curry's level and Draymond provides similar defense. Draymond can spend a lot of energy on defense saving Curry/KD a little while MJ & Pippin have to cover the 2 best players on GS.

The other issue is if we're talking 90s rules or modern rules. Each team is built/setup for the rules of their time but the Bulls don't have any bigs to punish the Warriors so that might be closer than people think, I'd put the Warriors at like 95% for a 7 game series on modern rules and say 60/40 (Warriors winning) on a 7 game series on 90s rules.

Come on man.. how old are you?

39. MJ is the GOAT, I watched every chip, there is just more talent on the 2017 Warriors w/ KD.

In a vacuum maybe but that's too simplistic an argument to make for them beating Chicago in a seven game series.

[bmurph128]

100%

The Warriors had 2x top-5 players and 2x top-20 players. The Bulls would be badly outclassed.

Bulls have the best player of all time though. MJ is equivalent in value to KD plus Steph. So it comes down to the rest of the roster which is close

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That's a comical take. Jordan wasn't some god. Curry and KD together ran circles around Lebron. The gap between MJ/Lebron and Curry/KD isn't large. We're talking top-2 all-time player vs. top-10 all-time player. They're in the same tier of impact.

Well, I remember in game one the following year when LeBron made Curry and KD look like college players compared to him.

With George Hill, JR Smith, Clarkson.

So if MJ is at least as good as LeBron - or better - and you add Pippen and Rodman. And best of all - Phil? Yea I'll take the Bulls.

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[FreeThrowLine]

Warriors lead the series 2-1
Someone tells MJ that Steph said they would win in 6
Bulls take the next 3 games and win in 6

But seriously I think this one would go to 7 games and it would come down to KD vs MJ in game 7 (Curry would be MIA) and it could really go either way as the Warriors have more depth and the 3 point advantage, but the Bulls have a defensive advantage and neither team would have faced an opponent that was similar to the other in the past

In this thread someone wrote that the Bulls would get pummelled by the 2017 Cavs

[DonaldSanders]

Come on man.. how old are you?

39. MJ is the GOAT, I watched every chip, there is just more talent on the 2017 Warriors w/ KD.

In a vacuum maybe but that's too simplistic an argument to make for them beating Chicago in a seven game series.

I've already made a longer argument. You've made ZERO argument to back yourself, none. How old are you?

[moderndarwin]

There’s no chance that Bulls team could slow down the Warriors offense with both Steph and KD on it.

The level of three point shooting is not something they understood or could guard against.

Check the tape. Mahmoud Abdul Rauf aka Chris Jackson routinely gave Jordan the business end of the stick. Steph Klay Durant - come on guys this is getting silly.