Quote:
Originally Posted by AssEaterChief
Honestly I would argue it was the Payton Kemp Schrempf Sonics but the whole west was relatively weak when Jordan won his 6 titles.
The best team(s) he could have faced would have been those Houston Rockets from the mid 90s. Unfortunately we'll never see how that would have played out.
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1993 Barkley was better than any other prime player Jordan faced at that time. Better than the Finals versions of Magic, Malone, Kemp, Payton,or Drexler.
Those Rockets teams were good, but after Olajuwon, the next best player was an aging Drexler, who was added halfway through the '94-'95 season and still a nice player, but declining at that point. Aside from that, that team was mostly filled with role players. Mario Elie, green versions of Sam Cassell and Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Otis Thorpe, et. al.
I'd say the prime version of Hakeem would have presented a different challenge for those Bulls teams because he would have been the only true low post force they faced (Malone lived in large part off of the mid-range game from the pick and roll and illegal screens). However, that second Rockets title team wasn't that good (finishing as a fifth seed), and if not for Nick Anderson's implosion at the FT line in Game 1 of the Finals, Orlando might have won that series.
Still, the '93 Suns had Barkley's best year, Kevin Johnson (although Pippen annihilated him in the Finals), Tom Chambers towards the end (who was still an effective role player), Dan Majerle, who was then the one of the best shooters in the league, and still useful versions of Danny Ainge, with Richard Dumas before drugs destroyed him and Cedric Ceballos.