IF's

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

I know..."if's" and "would have's" are stupid because they aren't reality and they never happened.

But I'm just curious...

What are some fun "if's" that come to your mind. Here's what I had in mind...

IF Pete Maravich had been drafted by a better team and had better coaching, discipline, and direction he would have EASILY been one of the top 5 greatest players of all-time - and would probably still be alive today.

IF Scottie Pippen never played with Michael Jordan and James Worthy never played with Magic and Kareem, both (Pippen and Worthy) wouldn't have a single ring, would not have been named to the 50 greatest team and would not be considered great players.

IF Bernard King didn't have knee problems he would have been in the top 10.

IF the ping pong balls went a different way and Boston got Tim Duncan in '97, they would have at least 3 more championship banners.

IF Portland drafted Michael Jordan he STILL would have won at least four championships with the Blazers.

IF Len Bias had more discipline and had people in his life who could keep him away from drugs the Celtics would have remained a finals contender and may have prevented the Bad Boys from winning two, if not a single title.

IF the Bulls and Suns actually made the trade that would have sent Scottie Pippen to Phoenix for Dan Majerle the Bulls still would have won the last three titles.

Do you agree with any of these or am I nuts here?

 

[??? ??????]

What if the Bulls drafted Amare Stoudemire with the 2nd overall pick and Carlos Boozer with the 31st pick?

That one still makes me mad. Not the first part, but the second part. Carlos Boozer was such an obvious pick there. John Paxson would have picked them there. But num nutz Krause went and took Roger Mason Jr., who absolutely sucked...that is up until this year.

What if the Bulls drafted Al Jefferson at #7 instead of Luol Deng, and still did the Eddy Curry trade, and drafted Brandon Roy #4 and Rajon Rondo at #16?

 

[Bullsman24]

well then we wouldn't have derrick rose, and i prefer him to rondo

 

[??? ??????]

bullsman24 wrote:

well then we wouldn't have derrick rose, and i prefer him to rondo

But....

PG-Rajon Rondo/Kirk Hinrich
SG-Ben Gordon/Kirk Hinrich
SF-Brandon Roy/Andres Nocioni
PF-Al Jefferson/Tyson Chandler
C- Ben Wallace/Tyson Chandler

That's a ridiculous amount of talent in the 8 man rotation.

 

[Bullsman24]

??? ?????? wrote:

bullsman24 wrote:

well then we wouldn't have derrick rose, and i prefer him to rondo

But....

PG-Rajon Rondo/Kirk Hinrich
SG-Ben Gordon/Kirk Hinrich
SF-Brandon Roy/Andres Nocioni
PF-Al Jefferson/Tyson Chandler
C- Ben Wallace/Tyson Chandler

That's a ridiculous amount of talent in the 8 man rotation.

but rose is exactly what we could have ever envisioned in a future star player.

also, tyson could never be happy with this lineup, we would have lost him in that trade. roy can't play the SF, he's a pure SG. ben wallace would still have declined.

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

How about this one?

IF the Bulls kept their team together for the lockout-shortened 98-99 season, they would have won FOUR in a row because the season was SO short.

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

IF the tragic death of Michael Jordan's dad never happened, he would have remained with the Bulls and won EIGHT straight championships.

Agree/disagree?

 

[dougthonus]

What if the Bulls drafted Amare Stoudemire with the 2nd overall pick and Carlos Boozer with the 31st pick?

That one still makes me mad. Not the first part, but the second part. Carlos Boozer was such an obvious pick there. John Paxson would have picked them there. But num nutz Krause went and took Roger Mason Jr., who absolutely sucked...that is up until this year.

What if the Bulls drafted Al Jefferson at #7 instead of Luol Deng, and still did the Eddy Curry trade, and drafted Brandon Roy #4 and Rajon Rondo at #16?

I'm not sure how much better off we'd have been with Jefferson than Deng. People are super high on Jefferson, but he's basically never had a full healthy quality season yet and is also locked into this long term deal. He's really good offensively when healthy, but not a good defender, and he's always hurt.

HE's one of those guys where what he could be so vastly exceeds what he's been so far that people are still hopeful. However, I think if we had drafted Jefferson that we'd have had a far worse record in 2004-2006. Maybe those years mean nothing given that we didn't ultimately win a championship though.

We sure miss Brandon Roy though that's for sure, we'd have had to make a ton of moves to make him work in the franchise, but if we could have drafted Roy and dumped Gordon+ Deng for Gasol and then had drafted Rondo, we'd have a pretty sweet core of players even though we wouldn't have gotten Derrick Rose.

If you believe Rose is a tier one elite superstar then really the what ifs are irrelevant since we wouldn't have gotten Rose.

I agree with you on Boozer, I was so pissed when we didn't take him. It would have been really tough to justify Amare over Jay Williams. We desperately needed a PG, and we had two HS big men prospects on the team already who were struggling to develop. To take Amare who had a horrible character background with Tyson and Eddy not doing well and a gaping hole at PG with a guy considered an elite PG prospect on the board would have been crazy.

 

[AirP]

If Krumbs wouldn't have traded Elton Brand for the #2 pick(so damn stupid, Brand was 21 and already had 2 20/10 years in the NBA... STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

If the 2002 draft class hadn't been so weak.

If Paxson would have traded the #7 pick and Donyell Marshal to move up to get D.Wade.

If Chicago never did the desperation trade to get Jalen Rose, Travis Best and Norm Richardson along with a conditional second-round draft choice from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for forward Ron Artest, guard Ron Mercer, center Brad Miller and guard Kevin Ollie.

 

[clonetrooper264]

What if Curry and Chandler actually did become good players?
What if Jay Williams never got injured?

 

[??? ??????]

AirP wrote:

If Krumbs wouldn't have traded Elton Brand for the #2 pick(so damn stupid, Brand was 21 and already had 2 20/10 years in the NBA... STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

If the 2002 draft class hadn't been so weak.

If Paxson would have traded the #7 pick and Donyell Marshal to move up to get D.Wade.

If Chicago never did the desperation trade to get Jalen Rose, Travis Best and Norm Richardson along with a conditional second-round draft choice from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for forward Ron Artest, guard Ron Mercer, center Brad Miller and guard Kevin Ollie.

2002 wasn't weak. We just messed up and passed on Stoudemire.

 

[Diddy1122]

??? ?????? wrote:

What if the Bulls drafted Amare Stoudemire with the 2nd overall pick and Carlos Boozer with the 31st pick?

That one still makes me mad. Not the first part, but the second part. Carlos Boozer was such an obvious pick there. John Paxson would have picked them there. But num nutz Krause went and took Roger Mason Jr., who absolutely sucked...that is up until this year.

What if the Bulls drafted Al Jefferson at #7 instead of Luol Deng, and still did the Eddy Curry trade, and drafted Brandon Roy #4 and Rajon Rondo at #16?

Man that 2002 draft really pissed me off. I was not a Jay Will fan, I wanted Yao, of course, but if not him Butler or Stoudamire. But Krause took Jay Will, who was barely taller than me with no point guard skills whatsoever. But I was more pissed about us passing on Carlos Boozer. I remember watching the draft with my buddy & saying "We're gonna get Boozer. He fell out of the 1st round." He wasn't as high on him, but I knew he was 1st round talent all the way & would be a good NBA player. But then Krause pulls a Krause & takes Roger Mason Jr. Then Lonny Baxter, whos in jail now I think. Overall great draft by Krause & thank God it was his final one.

IF Hue Hollins hadn't made the worst foul call in the history of any professional sport, the Bulls woulda won a title without MJ.

 

[Rose1]

IF: Bulls drafted BJ Mullen 16th in this years' draft

 

[Kush77]

What IF the Bulls drafted Michael Finley instead of Dickey Simpkins. ugh.

Things still worked out okay.

I always wonder what would of happened if Jordan didn't retire in 1993. Would Horace Grant have resigned? Probably. The Bulls never would have got Rodman. The Magic wouldn't have gotten Grant. Would the Bulls have won 8 in a row? who knows.

 

[Dpauley23]

I didn't follow the team since I was young, but I read Sam Smith book Jordan rules and remember how he said he hated Reinsdorf so much he didn't want to come back

 

[Bullsman24]

what would you rather have?

rondo, gasol and brandon roy or rose, deng and BG?