Jiminy Glick wrote:FJS wrote:C'mon, 98 lakers were a better roster than 00 to 02, but the main difference was Kobe passing to superstar and the coach.
O'Neal, Campbell, Fox, Jones, Van Exel, Bryant (a 15 ppg for the time), Horry, Fisher or even Jon Barry who showed to be a nice role player in other teams.
Jackson made the difference between champs and those lakers, altough they played with less talented players. Still they were a 61-21 team. Bulls and Jazz were 62-20 that year, so you can't say they were much worse than them.
And altough Duncan was a rookie in 98, his numbers were pretty similar than in 99 in regular season and slitghy better in playoffs. Duncan was 1st all nba team his 1st year, allstar, so it's not like he was the usual rookie. And you are forgeting that David Robinson was much better in 98 than in 99, in RS and PO.
Robinson wasn't good in that series though except for defense, neither were Drexler and Olajuwon. In the Lakers series everyone sucked except Shaq. Per 36 numbers compared to Garnett are pretty similar except Malone took more shots.
And maybe that Robinson and Lakers were destroyed by the jazz was due Jazz and Malone played amazing Team Basketball.
