The problem with answering this question is the large amount of variables you have to take into account. You can try and make a cut-n-dry answer but it wouldn't be a very educated guess. With the amount of injuries this 2012 team has endured, would you say that the "real" 2012 Olympic team includes Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and a healthy Blake Griffin, or would you just judge the situation as is? In terms of the Dream Team, would you add the snub, Isiah Thomas, would you add Hakeem Olajuwon, who later would become an American citizen, and also, would you include Shaquille O'Neal instead of Christian Laettner? And that's just the variables of the two rosters.
In terms of the game, are you thinking just the best 5-on-5 or are you including bench play? Are you saying its each player in their primes, or each player in their current state of the team? 20 years ago the rules were slightly different, which set of rules and regulations are you going with? Also, are you factoring in the tendencies of Chuck Daly and Coach K?
In my mind I'm going to with the current rosters, in the state they were during the period of time these teams played, and the 2012 set of rules since I know them best.
For starting line-ups I'm going with:
Dream Team: 2012 Team:
G - Michael Jordan G - Russell Westbrook
G - Clyde Drexler G - Kobe Bryant
F - Scottie Pippen F - LeBron James
F - Charles Barkley F - Carmelo Anthony
C - David Robinson C - Tyson Chandler
While the Dream Team is on offense I'd switch the match-ups a little, I'd have LeBron on Jordan (Wow), Westbrook on Drexler, and Kobe on Pippen. While the 2012 team is on offense I'd have Pippen on LeBron, Jordan on Westbrook and Drexler on Kobe. I would definitely give the advantage to the Dream Team in terms of starting 5 but bench play is where I think 2012 could put up some points against the Dream Team. You have CP3, Durant, Deron Williams, Harden, Iggy, and more off the bench but all the players I named would attack the Dream Team's biggest weakness: youth and athleticism, which is what Kobe Bryant was referring to when he started this whole thing.
Off the bench, the Dream Team would have to play Magic, always had trouble with quick guards and hadn't played competitive basketball in a year and a half, Bird, who's back was basically broken and had no business really playing(Sorry Larry, I love you), Stockton, let's face it white folk, not the most athletic person out there, and then Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone. The thing that would be interesting to me is to see how the no-hand-checking rule in today's NBA would effect the Dream Team. During the early '90s and beyond, MJ, and even Drexler, were unstoppable even with hand-checking allowed. I went with the 2012 rules because I thought it would be easier to simulate how players would have played without hand-checking then with hand-checking allowed.
The 2012 Olympians would have the advantage off the bench in a way. If they could get out on the break then yes they have the advantage all day but if not, the Dream Team would kill them inside in their half-court sets. However if the Dream Team tried to press today's team, they would get eaten alive by LeBron and Co. The style of basketball was simply different back then. The Dream Team could score 9 out of 10 times in half-court sets, I think the 2012 team could only do that if Durant or someone has a game like KD did last night. Today the NBA is very much a transition, 3 pt., and isolation driven league in terms of offense while in the successful early 90s teams thrived on ball movement and execution in the half-court.
There are a lot of what if's you could throw into this potential match-up. The problem I have with computer simulations is the fact that the computer can't factor in competitiveness, drive, toughness, and attitude. I think the Dream team destroys the 2012 team in all four of those categories. That's why, and because they have Jordan, I choose the Dream Team to beat this year's Olympians. I do think it would be a close game, not the 25-point shellacking that Scottie Pippen thinks it would be.
Look there's too many variables, so many that it's even hard to write about who would win in a match-up. To be completely honest, and I know I'm contradicting myself, but I tried the best I could to discount as many of the variables as I could, even though you simply have to take into account some to pick a winner. Both teams are loaded with talent, but still have weaknesses the other could exploit, I simply decided that I think the Dream Team's weaknesses could be exploited less than the 2012 team's could. I actually think this year's squad could run into some trouble if they don't bring it every night, and I didn't factor that into my decision because you would have to be completely and utterly naive to think that the countries the 1992 team played had the same caliber players this years team will face.
My thoughts and predictions are obviously my own and I don't think you're right or wrong for what you believe, it's all opinion, and it's all it will ever be......until we get time machines.
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