Wade alone would be a HOFer, not sure I can say that about Scottie or Rodman. I am trying to be an objective Bulls fan here but IMO a lot of HOFers are in there because of titles. But taking titles out of it, Scottie is a 16 PPG, 6 RPG, 5 APG player for a career (in his prime...20 PPG, 7 RPG, 5 APG). Yes he played locked down defense with his length so thats what made him a special player...but Wade on his own, offensively and defensively, stands above his generation higher than Scottie during his generation IMO.
Again the argument...take Rodman, Scottie, etc off the team do they win? Its a silly argument because who do you replace them with...if you replace him with Anthony Mason, I think they still win the title...you replace him with Ervin Johnson, I dont think so.
Point is Lebron at 25 left a Cleveland team that was on the up and basically gave him the keys to the city...and he bolted to join another MVP caliber player. Wade is NOT just a good player, he is one of the best - a top 5 guard (non-big) in the league.
I don't remember ever comparing Scottie to DWade? During the late 80s - late 90s, Scottie and Rodman were among the top 20 players in the game, DWade is among the top 20 players of his era (and a probable HOFer). Scottie and Rodman
ARE HOFers as determined by a lot of people who know much more about basketball (and the history of basketball) than either you or I.
The only point I am trying to make is that at the very least it takes either 2 elite HOF caliber + above average players at most other positions or 3 elite HOF caliber players and a decent, average to above average supporting cast to win more than 1 NBA title.
Just from the recent past:
Pistons: (Rodman/Isaiah/Dumars)
Bulls (Jordan/Grant/Pippen or Jordan/Rodman/Pippen/Kukoc)
Lakers: (Magic/Worthy/Kareem or Kobe/Shaq)
Spurs: (Duncan/Ginobli/Parker)
Celtics: (Bird/McHale/Parrish)
and now potentially the Heat with Lebron/DWade/Bosh
Outside of the Heat, most of those dynasties were created via the draft and/or shrewd trades by top-notch GMs. Lebron was NEVER going to get have that in Cleveland and the Cavs were not on the up and up, they were like the 2010-11 Bulls with a bunch of one way (flawed) players outside of Lebron, ditto for Bosh in Toronto, and likely ditto for DWade in Miami. They
CHOSE to join forces with the hope of winning multiple championships and becoming a dynasty. I don't have a problem with that, I don't like the way they did it and that's why I hope the Mavs destroy them, but given the current CBA, it was within their power to do it.
And I think it is "silly" that you think the Bulls would have won 3 titles in a row with Anthony Mason playing power forward over Dennis Rodman.
Defense wins championships. Last I checked Anthony Mason was never an all NBA defensive player of the year or rebounding champion like Rodman was multiple times in his career. Mason was a good player an above-average 4th option on an NBA championship caliber team (kinda like Deng, Noah, and unfortunately Boozer as well).
And for that matter, while you're trivializing Scottie Pippen's achievements, Pippen was an 8x all NBA defensive 1st team player, DWade has never been on the 1st team.
Jordan/Pippen/Rodman >> DWade/Lebron/Bosh.
Pippen would put the lock down D on DWade, Jordan and Lebron cancel each other out, And Rodman would get into Bosh's head Karl Malone style and make him look like a little b****!
From the SRO section at the UC, I'm out. GO BULLS in 2011-12!
