Replace Pippen with Curry in Bulls

[durantbird]

Instead of Scottie Pippen, Jordan gets prime Steph Curry. Does Chicago get better?

[No-more-rings]

Well, they get clearly worse on defense so i think it's interesting. Curry makes their offense even better, but they weren't short on offense, they already were ranked 1st 4/6 of their title years. They definitely still win a lot of rings, but i can't imagine they get better especially with Curry's shaky postseason health.

[limbo]

Yes... Easily.

Especially from '96-'98, because Chicago also had Kukoc on the roster who was an All-Star caliber player...

Pippen missed almost half of the 1998 regular season and the Bulls still won 62 games... That's how deep that team was and how capable Kukoc was at just slotting in Scottie's spot and producing. Now add Curry on top of that and it's a ridiculous team...

Scottie's absence would effect the Bulls much more in 1991-1993 because they were kind of weak in the wing department, but it doesn't matter, because with Curry on the roster, all the Bulls would need to do is sign another small forward/wing that is capable of playing defense... The offense will take care of itself with MJ and Curry... Not to mention there's still Ho Grant, BJ Armstrong and shooters on the team.

[freethedevil]

Curry's value skyrockets if you put him in the 90's and with the rules of the time allowing jordan to simulate lebron inside, curry gets all the time in the planet on the bulls. They're pretty instantly the best offense ever. Defensively they lose a lot, but they'd still have positive defenders at every position except for sf so it's not like they'd struggle too much on that end.

For a single season the combination of talent paired with(still) strong fit gets you a team that you can't realistically beat in a 7 game series(whih is what the best versions of the bulls were). For a single season they'd probably be signifcantly better.

The question here is health and longetivty. As far as winning is concerned, with the bulls there's not that much value to be derived from making the cieling signficantly higher since they were already good enough to win. There is however alot to be lost if you lower the floor on --some of those years-- with curry missing games like in 2016 and 2018. On the flip side the bulls probably pick up a title in 94 if you get the right curry season.

[Shot Clock]

The Bulls were built on the triangle offense and an aggressive trapping and pressing defense.

Pippen was perfect for both of those roles. Phil wasn’t abandoning the triangle so what is the point of Curry?

They didn’t need more offense and Curry wasn’t going to be given free reign to bomb away during the 90’s.

Pippen was also their floor general on offense and defense. He was a perfect fit for the Bulls. Curry isn’t