Dream Team vs. Redeem Team

It may be the most entertaining water-cooler talk two basketball fans could imagine. What would happen if what most consider the greatest basketball team ever constructed - the 1992 Dream Team - took the hardwood against the most impressive international basketball team the world has seen in the last 12 years - years in which the caliber of play abroad has skyrocketed and blowing out a squad as good as the 2008 National Spanish team by more than 30 points (as the Redeem Team did) did not seem possible?

The question has been debated online over the days following the USA's 118-107 gold-medal victory. Per my friend's request (that's right, Sean), I've decided to chime in.

The following italicized passages are reasons that Jack McCullum believes the Dream Team would beat the Redeem Team and my counterarguments in

The best all-around player on the '08 team was LeBron James, with Kobe a close second. (During the NBA season, I reverse that order.) The best all-around player on the '92 team was Jordan. And Jordan, at that time, was a better player than either James or Bryant, offensively and defensively. To a large extent, teams draw their identity and their strength from their best player.

But I feel that James and Bryant could beat any two players that the Dream Team could have put together, like Jordan and Pippen, Jordan and Magic or Jordan and Bird (especially the older, hobbled '92 version of Bird). Cumulatively, the top two players from this year's team are better than the top two players from the Dream Team.

The '08 team could not begin to match the Dreamers on the interior. Not only did the '92-ers have two classic centers in Patrick Ewing and David Robinson -- that's two more classic centers than the '08 team had -- but Barkley and Karl Malone could also supply post-ups and rebounding. Dwight Howard was a force at times in Beijing, but against the Dream Team, he'd have three fouls before Coach K could look around for a replacement. Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer would play their tails off, but they would get pounded inside.

This was the same supposed downfall that pundits felt would afflict the Redeem Teamers. Yet Boozer hardly played and the team still won gold undefeated with only Bosh and Howard as center-types. What happened?

Thick-as-hell small forwards in the NBA who made the conversion to FIBA power forwards happened.

For the Redeem Team, James and Caremlo, who weigh in the 240-260 range, were athletic , powerful and versatile enough to man both the wings and interior for the Redeem Team. Against the '92ers, LeBron would be strong enough to guard Karl Malone - both are 6-8ish and 260 pounds - and cause all types of problems for the more slow-footed man on the offensive side. Carmelo has the bulk to guard Barkley. True, Robinson and Ewing are together bigger than Howard and Bosh and would give the Dream Teamers a slight advantage at center, but I don't believe the '08er are deficient in the paint as pundits make them out to be, given Carmelo and James' ability to contribute there. '92 wings Mullin and Pippen were physically no where near as ready to bang inside.

The '08 team is deeper at the point with a combination of Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, particularly since John Stockton was limited by a leg injury in Barcelona and could provide only minor backup help for Magic. But that's irrelevant. Any number of players besides Johnson (Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin and Clyde Drexler) could initiate the U.S. offense, which was more versatile than the Beijing team's.

Stockton's injury would have given the Redeem Teamers the decisive edge on the perimeter, primarily because of'08ers' superior defensive versatility. Players in 2008 tend to be stronger and more athletic than players in 1992 because of more effective training regimes.

Who would guarded Paul/Deron Williams from the '92 team? An older Magic would not have looked very spry running after the two speed-demons. So Jordan or Pippen would have been put on them. So Magic has to switch off to guarding a Wade - who is just as quick - or Kobe or LeBron, all of whom would have spelled trouble. Meanwhile, Jordan/Pippen would be using valuable energy running around trying to keep up with Paul/Williams that they could have allocated to the offensive end.

Given, the Dream Teamers backcourt would have been taller, but I don't think the points from a few post-up fade-aways could trump the havoc raised by the Redeem Teamers' speed. Johnson, Bird, and Mullin are all significantly slower than Wade, Paul/Williams, Kobe, LeBron and Carmelo and I think that in the end this would spell foul trouble for the '92 perimeter players. It would be a fascinating game of attrition, as Coach Daly would have to judiciously apportion the time that Jordan and Pippen spent chasing down the point guard speedsters.

P.S. ESPN.com interviewed the Dream Team Coach Chuck Daly and Daly, as would be expected, declared Magic would have his way with the smaller guards. When asked how Magic would do defensively, he said Magic would use the same spacing techniques that he had against the Lithuanian guard Sarunas Marciulionis.

Sarunas was quick, yes, but his microwaved maple syrup doesn't compare to Paul's molten lava.

I imagine Drexler would see a lot of Wade, some Kidd and a little Kobe.

I would favor the Redeem Team by 1 point in an actual match-up because of the above reasons and also because you cannot the discount the possibility that the 12th men would play a role in game between two extremely deep teams. Prince/Boozer are much, much better 12th men than the circa '92 inexperienced Laettner, who earned his roster spot by dint of his college performance. Booz, Carmelo, Howard and Bosh would eat poor Christian alive whereas everybody on the Redeem Team could be a contributor in crunch-time and wouldn't embarrass themselves on the defensive end as Christian would do. Redd could guard Mullin and Prince could guard Bird or Magic in a crunch.

Stockton's injury and Mullin's and Laettner's relative slow-footedness give the Redeem Team a quicker, and defensively more versatile, team.

Finally, as Chris Mannix argues, let's not forget that the Redeem Team has practiced and played in tournaments for 3 years under international rules and would understand the nuances much better than the Dream Team, which first practiced together the summer of 1992.

The actual numbers, as taken from Chris Sheridan's article, favor the Dream Team but this is to be expected - their competition was so much inferior.

Dream Team vs. Redeem Team
1992 2008
W-L 8-0 8-0
PPG 117.3 106.3
Opponent PPG 73.5 78.4
PPG differential +43.8 +27.9
FG pct 57.8 55.0
Opponent FG pct 36.5 40.3
3-pt FG pct 40.0 37.7
Opponent 3-pt pct 30.5 29.9
FT pct 72.6 68.0
RPG differential +13.5 +5.6
Assists per game 29.9 18.8
Steals per game 22.1 12.5
Blocks per game 5.9 3.9

Wonder how a best-of-7 series would turn out? Go here to find out from the number-crunchers at whatifsports.com.