I have a question for loyal fans from the late 80s and early 90s:
How did it feel to have Michael Jordan destroy what little you guys had left in your heart demoralizing defeat (88), after demoralizing defeat (the Shot), and again and again (92 and 93)?
My guess would be it was 100 times worse (at the very least) than the 2003 Michael Jordan who hit his final game-winning shot against us as a goddamn silver Bullet...
With that question (hopefully answered), I wonder how it would feel to have that same issue put on the opposite foot?
In the early part of the rising Bulls dynasty, the match ups were intense, and mostly in the Bulls favor.
At center, an older yet wise Bill Cartwright pushed around the good-yet-not-tough Brad Daugherty. And Horace Grant was able to negate Larry Nance. That left Hot Rod against guys like Brad Sellers (pre-title) and Stacy King. Ron Harper, Sanders, Ehlo, and Price were somewhat decent, but no match for Pippen, Jordan, Hodges, Paxson, and Armstrong. What was worse was that was all we had to starve off the Bulls. One Mahorn elbow to the Pricey head revealed our true colors, right?
Let's exercise some match up crunchers:
The center position seems clear. Joakim Noah is the better, tougher guy in the series. I don't think Andy or Tristan have anything on him or Taj Gibson. The biggest thing is not the offense. But rather stopping penetration from guys like Kyrie, Rose, and LeBron.
Actually, a big key to the series will be the match up between Pau Gasol and Kevin Love. Can Gasol still be the effective player he was in the last decade with the Lakers? Kevin may have difficulty guarding him, so there might be cross match ups. On the other hand, I think Love's shooting is THE X-factor. On the other hand, how will Doug McDermott and Mirotic look at the end of the season? Hmmm...
The big men are where the comparisons end. We will have our traditional silver bullet of our own who had already terrorized a lackluster team in the early part of the decade. LeBron is too much (especially when on from the outside) against Dunleavy, Randolph, Butler, Snell, and Brewer or whoever the hell they have. We also have Dion to boot who has some actual talent, toughness, and "AYE!"
At point guard, that is where the difference lies.
They once against have Kirk, but we have Kyrie. Maybe we should ask Mark Jackson (run-of-the-mill above average PG) how it would have felt to guard a fusion between Isiah Thomas/Rod Strickland and Mark Price who happens to be much taller. What will possibly change the tide will be if Derrick Rose will have Mark Price's health or actually show some resiliency. He needs to show much more skill if he doesn't want to end up like Steve Francis.
It's a pretty important debate that might show up later, but showing bias now may not help.