David Robinson in Olajuwon's place 1993-1996

[migya]

The assertion that the Bulls won championships but not because of Jordan's incredible high level of play establishes zero credibility to the writer. The Bulls barely won all of their titles, at least five of them.

On subject, Robinson performed well early in his career in the playoffs, and against good teams, when his team had more talent, which is a proof of the topic.

[OhayoKD]

The assertion that the Bulls won championships but not because of Jordan's incredible high level of play establishes zero credibility to the writer. The Bulls barely won all of their titles.

The Bulls did not barely win in 1991, their first title, where the Bulls were 15-points up and a quarter away from 2-0 in the conference finals with Jordan sleep-walking in single coverage against a nuetral playoff defense. Congrats on tanking your already non-existent credibility.

The key word was "exactly". By that standard 91, 96, 93, and 97 were up for grabs with a little wiggle room for 92 and 98, Additionally in 94 their loss to the Knicks comes pretty close to "exact" giving another opportunity for a championship.

[lessthanjake]

In the sense that the Bulls had some wiggle room in some of their title years (with 1991 being the one they won most easily), it seems reasonable to conclude that they could’ve potentially won a title if you replaced Jordan with some player who was not as good as Jordan. After all, that’s basically always logically true anytime a team had any leeway. How inferior to Jordan that player could’ve been is a separate question. Hersey Hawkins-level of inferiority seems absurd to me. But if you replaced Jordan with Kobe, do the Bulls win any titles? Perhaps. I definitely don’t think they win 6, but they probably don’t win 0 either. And as you go further down the list of player quality, the chances of winning a title get slimmer and slimmer. I also note that Jordan was so good that his team winning a title with plenty of leeway really doesn’t necessarily mean there were almost any other players good enough to win with that team—you can be a really good player and still be a massive step down from 1991 Jordan, for instance!

Anyways, I think the key thing here that distinguishes this from a discussion about Jordan is that the hypothetical in this thread isn’t necessarily just “How much worse could a player be and still win a title with this team?” David Robinson may well be capable of being as good as Hakeem! He didn’t show that in the playoffs, but he did in the RS, and so I see the question not really as a “Is Robinson close enough to Hakeem that he could’ve still won” and more of a “Could Robinson have played about as well in the playoffs as Hakeem, if he were in this different context?” Which makes it a very different discussion than some question of “How much worse than Jordan could a player have been and still won with the Bulls?”

[migya]

The assertion that the Bulls won championships but not because of Jordan's incredible high level of play establishes zero credibility to the writer. The Bulls barely won all of their titles.

The Bulls did not barely win in 1991, their first title, where the Bulls were 15-points up and a quarter away from 2-0 in the conference finals with Jordan sleep-walking in single coverage against a nuetral playoff defense. Congrats on tanking your already non-existent credibility.

The key word was "exactly". By that standard 91, 96, 93, and 97 were up for grabs with a little wiggle room for 92 and 98, Additionally in 94 their loss to the Knicks comes pretty close to "exact" giving another opportunity for a championship.

You show again you are a joke with the amended quote.

Bulls barely won some of the key games in their finals' series, you can look it up

[70sFan]

On subject, Robinson performed well early in his career in the playoffs, and against good teams, when his team had more talent, which is a proof of the topic.

What series do you have in mind? The only one that comes close is 1993 vs Suns, but Hakeem played definitely better against them in 1994 and it was still a close series. A performance like 1990 vs Blazers wouldn't put the Rockets over good quality teams.