POLL If prime Jordan played in today's NBA - would he be the best?

[tlance]

A midget like Dumars gave him trouble, imagine what full sized shooting guard could do or someone like Durant at 7 feet...Jordan wouldn't get a shot off.

I feel the need to point out that Jordan “struggling vs. Dumars” still averaged 29.95 PPG in his playoff career against Dumars and the Pistons.

And let’s not act like that was Dumars guarding MU 1 on 1. It was Dumars with every other Piston defender loaded ball side as much as the rules would allow ready to swarm and maim MJ on every drive attempt.

Dumars locking down MJ was a myth. The Pistons did a better job against him than anybody, but it was a team effort and Jordan still did plenty well. The “struggle” was more in that the Pistons won every matchup before the 1990 Bulls sweep and that Jordan got beat down physically.

 

[tlance]

Do you not watch NBA? You don't have your best players guard the other teams best player unless it's Kawhi or PG and even they won't do it the whole game. Point is, Jordan would have full sized guards to contend with not undersized midgets.

As for Durant, he wouldn't be guarding him much but if he did Jordan wouldn't get off a shot.

That is insane.

KD has turned into a good defender, but his strength is on help side. He is solid on the ball too, but not as good as you make him out to be.

Jordan was significantly faster and stronger. He would have done just fine getting quality shots off against KD. Just like KD would have done just fine getting quality shots off against MJ or Pippen.

 

[tlance]

I think the game continuously evolves.

Each generation is better than the next.

I don't even think a guy like Oscar Robertson could play in today's NBA despite him being one of the best players of all time.

That said, Jordan wasn't that long ago, and he was an amazing athlete.

I think where he would really feel it is defensively. He'd be going from guarding guys like Adrian Dantley to Jason Tatum. Ouch.

That said, today's stars play no defense anyway.

Offensively, I think he'd be OK. I don't think he'd be the top player, but in the Top 20.

This is a good post.

Interestingly, I think Kawhi is actually a really good comp for MJ.

Jordan was better offensively, but in terms of impact on the game that is similar to where I think Jordan would be today.

And Kawhi is believed to be the best player in the NBA currently.

 

[tlance]

He wouldn't be guarding Steph. He'd be guarding Klay. And seeing as Klay is a catch and shoot players, MJ would have no problem guarding him. Klay would never have the space to get a shot off.

He'd also be guarding guys like Harden, DeRozan, Oladipo, Beal and Danny Green all of whom wouldn't be a single problem for Jordan

Not so sure.

I think Jordan on Klay is somewhat of waste. You want Jordan’s menacing defense utilized against someone who spends more time on the ball than Klay does. And it isn’t like guarding Curry requires more energy than guarding Klay either. Both are constantly moving.

Phil liked to play with his matchups. He did not stick to positions for primary matchups because his 3 guards on the ‘96 team were completely interchangeable.

Ideally, MJ would guard Steph, Pippen would guard KD, and Harper would chase Klay.

I would bet that is how Phil would have deployed then.

 

[Myles]

I think Jordon would still be the best player in the league. No way to ever know this for certain. The game is different. Less defense has opened up the scoring, so some could argue that Jordon would average higher than he did during his career. He was great on offense and defense, so I think he still would be.

 

[wingsauce7]

How so? Running the triangle in this day and age wouldn't work to hide his play making inabilities. He would have to face legit elite defenders, not midgets like Dumars and Starks. Guys like PG, Kawhi, and Klay would shut Jordan down. ROFL...it's a new age a basketball. Jordan was good when the league was watered down from expansion and Larry and Magic were washed up. Jordan would be a slightly upgraded version of DeMar DeRozan.

So do you actually know the names of the players from Jordan's era? They would dominate the pussy players of today.

 

[Sparhawk]

Tough question to answer.

You would need to look at player average against league averages from that era to see how far ahead they were from the rest of the pack. Like OPS+ in baseball, which looks at player OPS and compares it against the league average OPS. A score of 120 means that player had an OPS 20% better than the rest of the league. Even then, it's still difficult to measure in basketball because it lacks context.

Obviously, Jordan has played longer than Durant, Kawhi, PG, etc.

I guess I would want to know who the career leader in Win Shares per 48 minutes is, as that is one way to determine how much a particular player contributed to their team winning. Not a perfect formula, but just one way of evaluating talent from different eras.

 

[trojanfan12]

Lol.

I mean seriously, how far do you want to take this?

At what point in his life do we bring Jordan in from the time machine? As a 8 year old? Then yes, he'd be the greatest player to ever live ... no contest.

As a generality, they start kids earlier, tons of good players these days are kids of former pros, and they're pitted against the best comp from such an early age (AAU). So, they've been around the game at the highest level their whole lives.

I think it would be enough to knock him off his perch, but he'd still be really, really good.

Some other players from that era would fare far worse. But I'm not going there...

I want to take it farther than your "hot tub time machine" version of taking a player from the past and just dropping him into today's game. Or taking today's players and dropping them as they are now into the past.

In order to have anything close to a real comparison, you have to operate under the assumption that the player played in that era for his entire life.

Take Lebron of today and drop him into the past and of course he's going to be far greater than even the very best back then. But what if he grows up and in that era and doesn't have those advances that we have today?

 

[trojanfan12]

Clearly you're a mildly retarded Lebron homer who isn't old enough to have seen Jordan play. Sit the fuck down.

mildly?

 

[dtgold88]

How so? Running the triangle in this day and age wouldn't work to hide his play making inabilities. He would have to face legit elite defenders, not midgets like Dumars and Starks. Guys like PG, Kawhi, and Klay would shut Jordan down. ROFL...it's a new age a basketball. Jordan was good when the league was watered down from expansion and Larry and Magic were washed up. Jordan would be a slightly upgraded version of DeMar DeRozan.

I originally said yes but these are excellent points. Other than the last one.

 

[dtgold88]

You're a ding-bat. Stop trolling. Dumars was 6-3.

Steph is 6-3.
Damian Lillard is 6-3
CJ McCollum is 6-3
Kyle Lowry is 6-1
Kyrie Irving is 6-3

while I agree the notion he'd be shut down is out there, this doesn't change his comments. Other than CJ the guys you named our PGs and would not be guarding MJ.

Not sure he ever had guys like Kawhi, PG or KD on him regularly. Rodman maybe (when a Piston)?

 

[dtgold88]

What's with this undersized midgets nonsense? You mentioned Dumars, who's 6-3. I already listed several all star caliber guards that play right now that are 6-3 & you said none of them would be guarding MJ. Then who exactly would be guarding MJ for the majority of a game if it's not another guard? Like I said, this is a good laugh.

other than McCollum your list was PGs (not Paul George). You think a PG would be on MJ?

 

[dtgold88]

View attachment 213959

On this I agree.....the Derozan comparison is kooky talk.

 

[dtgold88]

You know who would be a really good NBAer? Superman.

Hell yeah, and he's from Cleveland!! Hopefully Gilbert doesn't burn a bridge with him. No nasty letters.

 

[dtgold88]

Ever see him play baseball? He could be a hall of famer in both sports.

but the reason the comparison to MJ is silly.

 

[dtgold88]

You are denouncing the notion of MJ being anything less than the GOAT by mocking my thread and trying to derail it.

How it goes with 100%ers. Never an in between on topic or posters.

I did think the Derozan talk was out there and do think MJ could still be the GOAT now, but also think you had some good points when it came to the defenders who might cover him today as opposed to the 80s and 90s.

 

[Wamu]

while I agree the notion he'd be shut down is out there, this doesn't change his comments. Other than CJ the guys you named our PGs and would not be guarding MJ.

Not sure he ever had guys like Kawhi, PG or KD on him regularly. Rodman maybe (when a Piston)?

I don't think MJ would be shutdown in todays game. And the reason I mentioned those players is Bart said MJ played against a bunch of midgets during his career.

Dumars wasn't a midget. Drexler wasn't a midget. Reggie Miller wasn't a midget. Byron Russell wasn't a midget. Bruce Bowen wasn't a midget. Can't think of any other players off hand during MJ's career right now.

 

[trojanfan12]

but the reason the comparison to MJ is silly.

Exactly. They were pretty equal in basketball. But Bugs was a far better baseball player than MJ.

 

[dtgold88]

Exactly. They were pretty equal in basketball. But Bugs was a far better baseball player than MJ.

I think Bugs was talented enough to pitch AND hit the ball he pitched....probably even make a HR saving catch on the same pitch.

 

[Black Adam]

Exactly. They were pretty equal in basketball. But Bugs was a far better baseball player than MJ.

meh, he was juicing...