a team that could have been, just a thought

[kingjames23]

i bet Ewing, Barkley, Stockton, Malone, Miller, Wilkins and many, many others saw what LBJ, Wade and Bosh pulled off, looked down at their ring-less fingers and all said to themselves "damn, i wish i would have thought of doing this back in the day"

but here's something a little more "honorable" you might say.

all the veterans who had failed to win one on their own should have teamed up in 1999 and took advantage of that * season and Jordan's retirement. (hell, Jordan might have stuck around just to see if he could win another one against this monster)
imagine if all those guys took the veterans minimum and joined the Jazz. (seemed the easy pick, because Stockton and Malone were already established there and half the other guys played for more than one team or would jump ship eventually anyways)

imagine if the Jazz just traded away players to get the cap space then recruited all the veterans who hadn't gotten a title yet

sign C Ewing
keep PF Malone
sign SF/PF Barkley
sign SG Miller
keep PG Stockton

keep C Foster or whoever... (go cheap, Ostertag was way overpaid)

edit (nix Foster, sign Shawn Kemp lol)

keep SG Hornacek

sign:

SF/SG Mullin
SF/PF Wilkins
PG T Hardaway
PG K Johnson



you cant tell me that wouldn't have been a sick team. even if everyone was old and busted by then!

any way this could have worked? other than in my nba live 1999 season mode? yeah, i did this in the game lol.

[rise]

still think this might be crazier...

Lakers in 2013 computer did it

There are so many things wrong with CPU logic in Live 2003...

But, yeah I think your thing would be pretty beastly too.

[benji]

You're implying any of those guys were free agents when I doubt they were outside of the 39 year old Wilkins.

I'm sure it would have been real great for the league if they just came back from the lockout to have a bunch of star players issue trade demands to a small market team or else they'd continue to sit out not playing.

[kingjames23]

i think it would have been fun to see a bunch old dogs sharing minutes in an abbreviated season for the sole purpose of winning one ring. i could see a bunch of sign and trades for cash, players opting out of contracts for a shot like that. kind of a dream scenario. especially when that season was so short. them old farts could have made a great run at it.

makes me think about now, as this decade ends... all the star players who still haven't got a ring. next thing you know, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Juwan howard, Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway try to sign with miami to piggyback to a title... and Chris Webber comes outta retirement lol

[benji]

You can't just "opt-out" of a contract especially the contracts they would have likely signed under the 1995 CBA.

All I was saying is that it wouldn't be possible since you asked "any way this could have worked?"

[kingjames23]

i didnt research that part of it while coming up with the idea of it. trades could have been possible. however unlikely.

[Sauru]

the point is if bird and magic played together on either the lakers or the much better choice the celtics they would have won about 12 straight and made everyone stop watching the nba(except for me cause it would have been fucking awesome to have magic in boston with bird)

[benji]

And if there was the modern CBA they never would have been able to assemble all that talent without Johnson, Ainge, Cooper, Thompson, etc. playing for peanuts either.

[Sauru]

free agency was not nearly as bad back then as it is now.

[benji]

I don't necessarily think more free agency is bad.

It's better than Magic signing a 25 year contract for $25 million. Bird had a similar ten-year contract IIRC.

It's why Jon Koncak's contract ($13 million over six years lol) pissed off the players so much. They were never going to get the opportunity to make a market share of salary.

[Murat]

still think this might be crazier...

Lakers in 2013 computer did it

There are so many things wrong with CPU logic in Live 2003...

But, yeah I think your thing would be pretty beastly too.

oden 76? BYNUM 75?

[rise]

this is after like 4 years. in case you didn't notice, Stephen Marbury has magically gained 6 overall points and is now like a 16/17 year pro. Also Steve Nash is on the BENCH with an overall of 92