Zerostatic wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Yeah and a couple of years ago people were saying the Bulls and the Clippers had great young cores and would be the teams of the future. Guess what, you can have 2, 3, 4, 5, hell you can have 10 exciting young players but if one of them isn't an elite MVP calibur player then you don't have much of anything. Other than the pistons a couple of years back, every team that has won a championship since the day I was born had at least one elite hall of fame player on it.
I'd take Lebron James or Chris Paul or Dwight Howard over the entire Atlanta squad.
There was also a time when they said you have to have an elite big man to win a championship. Jordan changed that.
People said the Hawks would have been done in 4 games. They forced a game 7 to stop Boston from being victim of one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.
Those Pistons you mention have been one of the most consistent teams in the league the past 6 seasons. And without a boneheaded play by Rasheed Wallace they could have two titles instead of 1.
There is an evolution in basketball towards longer, athletic teams and the Hawks potentially could have the longest most athletic team in the league once Acie Law takes over the reigns of PG.
5 guys who can push the ball up the floor, create for themselves, and their teammates. rebound, and defend.
That team could easily take the one man team in Cleveland and they already have the number of that team in Orlando. Once those guys in Boston get old, there isn't another current roster that stands in their way in the Eastern Conference.