Why did the bulls still win 55 games without jordan?

[QUOTE=SamuraiSWISH]No, I'm being a rational basketball fan. It's called reality. I have rooting interest in both Jordan as my favorite player, and being a fan of the Chicago Bulls.

I have nothing to gain but tell the truth.

A Bulls "fanatic" arguing Chicago would've won a championship that season or got hosed due to a bad foul call on Hubert Davis are delusional. Plain and simple.

I watched those Bulls teams, being you know ... in Chicago. The '94, and '95 Bulls teams weren't even close to being "great". Watching them I knew we weren't going to win a championship w/o Jordan, and they were playing as well as they possibly could in '94 without him.

They are what they are ... that's all I'm saying. A second round playoff team who pushed the Knicks 7 games in a hard fought series. The 2013 Bulls with significantly less talent gave the Heat, a greater team than the mid 90's Knicks, a momentary challenge. I'm not declaring them a great team by any stretch because of it. And I'm a Bulls fan !!!

I'm un-biased.[/QUOTE]
Ive got a question for you. If the 94 Bulls "over achieved", how many less games do you feel they would've won if they weren't playing with a proverbial "chip" on their shoulder?

[QUOTE=jlip]Yes MJ improved the team with his return. He's supposed to, being a legitimate GOAT candidate, but the Bulls had just gone 10-2 over the previous 12 games before MJ returned. They were getting things together before he returned.

[B]Frankly in terms of simple W-L record, MJ's return didn't have any appreciably greater impact in '95 than Pippen's return had in '98 after injury. The Bulls went 26-12 without Pippen which was a pace of ~56 games. With Pippen the team went 36-8 which was a pace of ~67 games. Great players impact winning.[/B]

The biggest difference between the '94 Bulls and the '95 Bulls was the loss of their all star pf, Horace Grant. Grant had easily been their best post defender, and with him gone to the Magic, the Bulls' frontline was pitiful. And it wasn't just Grant's production that was missing. He understood the team's schemes. He was basically replaced in the starting lineup by Kukoc. IMO Grant was the MVP of the '95 ECSF. He had arguably the best playoff series of his career against his former team avg. 18/11 exposing the Bull's weak frontline.[/QUOTE]
Great post. I've been stressing your point in the bold for the longest. But guys like Soundwave and Swish ignore it became it doesn't fall in line with their agenda.

And remember, they didnt just lose Grant, they lost Scott Williams, and Stacy King Cartwright retired, and Longley was hurt.

Pippen effect. Jordan was 1-9 in the playoffs without him.

When Jordan suddenly retired right before the season, the Bulls instantly became the biggest letdown game of all-time.

But once opponents woke up in the playoffs and following season, the Bulls were 2nd Round losers and barely .500 in 95.

Pippen was never considered a franchise player that is tasked with building a lottery team from scratch.. He was simply handed a fully-developed goat dynasty, which he cratered to barely .500 in less than 18 months.

Teams led by Klay or Pippen lack capacity to add talent, since any decent scorer supplants them as 1st option... This is why secondary producers like Klay, Pippen and Middleton aren't considered franchise players...

Ultimately, "franchise player" status is reserved for dominant producers like Love, KAT, or AD, and their obvious dominance allows them to make All-NBA with losing teams... Otoh, 2nd options like Klay or Pippen need winning teams and winning spotlight to make All-NBA.. And no one got more winning spotlight than Pippen - he never played above a Larry Nance or Iguodala caliber, but the winning spotlight inflated him to all-time status and media accolade - he's simply the most overrated player ever.

[QUOTE=Lebron23;15023223]Pippen effect. Jordan was 1-9 in the playoffs without him.[/QUOTE]


These arguments are all you got. Well Lebron was 1-8 vs Durant. Golden State and KD was too mighty and powerful for Lebron and his stars, right?