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Depending on which years your refering to roster wise, Kobe's supporting cast should have the rebounding edge because of there size with Bynum, Gasol, & Odom. However, Jordans, supporting team had exceptionally talented players that were considered the best in rebounds during there day in players such as Horace Grant & Dennis Rodman. People tend to forget how much talent Jordan had on his team during his championship years. Tony Kukoc, B.J Armstrong, Steve Kerr, Craig Hodges, John Paxson and of course Scottie Pippen were all solid consistent top notch players that played crucial roles during those championship years. I would say the year that the bulls dominated winning 72 games in the regular season had a better consistent supporting cast than kobe's team mates of the past 2 seasons. This Lakers roster suffers from having an inconsistent bench and not to mention Lamar Odom's shifty energy level and injury prone Bynum.
Because of injury, Bynum has not been able to develop into his own yet. I say having a healthy bynum thoughout a whole season would make this new Era for the Lakers just as dominant as the Chicago Bulls with a slight edge still going to the bulls because Jordan had a deeper bench with 3 point specialists in his arsenal that he could kick out to with players like Craig Hodges, John Paxon & Steve Kerr that had higher 3 point percentages than any Laker 3 point shooter (not including kobe of course) . That Bulls team was reallly effective going against teams with dominating centers (Olajuan, Ewing, Robinson, & even Shaq in his younger days).
If I were to put my money on either team it would be Jordan's supporting cast for consistency. Kobe's supporting guys have the talent & potential but are not as consistent.
The Bulls with Jordan had the better outside shooters(Kerr,Hodges, Paxon, Armstong), but the Lakers with Kobe had the better big men(Shaq, Bynum, Gasol).
One key difference between Jordan and Kobe: Kobe has always needed an offensive bigman to contend for a championship, and this is in an era where the dominant bigman is becoming more and more a rarity. Jordan dominated the league from the guard position, with defensive roleplayers as power forwards( Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman) and marginally talented bigmen( Cartwright, Longley, Perdue, Wennington, etc). And the following centers were in their prime during Jordan's run: Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille Oneal, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutumbo. Statistically, the league was at its biggest( tallest) during Jordan's career. Which makes the fact that he dominated as a 6'6 guard even more impressive.
One key difference between Jordan and Kobe: Kobe has always needed an offensive bigman to contend for a championship, and this is in an era where the dominant bigman is becoming more and more a rarity. Jordan dominated the league from the guard position, with defensive roleplayers as power forwards( Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman) and marginally talented bigmen( Cartwright, Longley, Perdue, Wennington, etc). And the following centers were in their prime during Jordan's run: Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille Oneal, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutumbo. Statistically, the league was at its biggest( tallest) during Jordan's career. Which makes the fact that he dominated as a 6'6 guard even more impressive.
Agreed, those were definitely the days of dominant bigmen. Since we are comparing supporting casts, The truth of the matter is Scottie Pippen's was so versatile and effective at both forward and guard position that the combo of both MJ and himself as well as having so many deadly accurate 3 point shooters on that bulls team not to mention top rebounders as well was more effective than any guard/big man combo in the nba at the time and most would even argue that they would dominate today as well.
Kobe after the shaq era was unable to win a ring until the acquisition of Gasol another developing all-star talent in his own right. To say that kobe can ony win with a dominating center is debatable being that neither Gasol or bynum actually command 30 point performances like the way Shaq did. We have yet to see an injury free bynum dominate and Gasol does not even put up more than 18 points a game. So for the most part in my opinion, Kobe has proven that he can win championships without a dominating center however he did need help from another all-star calibur player just as Jordan did with Pippen.
During the bulls championship run, Pippen at his best averaged 22 ppg, Averaged just shy of 3 steals a game not to mention his ability to run the open floor, rebound and pass the ball, he also had 17 career triple-doubles, Pippen earned 10 NBA All-Defensive Team nods, including 8 on the first team and did everyone forget he was on the 1992 Olympic Dream team? He actually brought more to the table stat wise than Gasol Brings.
It's True Kobe could not bring back the Championship to L.A without the addition of another all-star caliber player but neither could Jordan until Pippen came into his own as a dominating defensive offensive all-star athlete. Because of Pippen's versatility at forward and guard along with his defense I still give the edge to Jordan having a better supporting cast than this new Kobe era of Lakers.
Definitely have to say Kobe if you go for most of each of their careers. At the end of Jordan's career it was definitely better than it was in the earlier years. It became like the current Lakers team where people were signing there for less to win a championship.
Kobe after the shaq era was unable to win a ring until the acquisition of Gasol another developing all-star talent in his own right. To say that kobe can ony win with a dominating center is debatable being that neither Gasol or bynum actually command 30 point performances like the way Shaq did. We have yet to see an injury free bynum dominate and Gasol does not even put up more than 18 points a game. So for the most part in my opinion, Kobe has proven that he can win championships without a dominating center however he did need help from another all-star calibur player just as Jordan did with Pippen.
During the bulls championship run, Pippen at his best averaged 22 ppg, Averaged just shy of 3 steals a game not to mention his ability to run the open floor, rebound and pass the ball, he also had 17 career triple-doubles, Pippen earned 10 NBA All-Defensive Team nods, including 8 on the first team and did everyone forget he was on the 1992 Olympic Dream team? He actually brought more to the table stat wise than Gasol Brings.
I'm not saying that Kobe can't win without a dominating center, only that the blueprint for most championship teams has been a strong offensive bigman anchoring your offense. Lakers with Kareem and Shaq, Rockets with Hakeem, Spurs with Duncan, Celtics with Parish and Mchale. These are some of your more notable multi-win championship teams, and they all share one common theme: a dominant post threat. While Gasol is 'only' an 18 point per game guy, in this particular era that's good enough to get it done. The days of the dominant big man are waning. At the least we have very few classic back to the basket centers anymore. The game has become more perimeter-oriented. But it's still an advantage having a reliable post scorer. Again Gasol is no Duncan, but in this era with few great centers and most of the great power forwards of the past decade past their primes (Duncan, Garnett, Webber retired) Gasol and his 18 points, 10 rebounds is one of today's top bigs.
Pippen was one hell of a player, but I'd argue that it's much more difficult to dominate with a perimeter based duo than a classic bigman/guard combo.Particularly since as I said, that era was the largest in NBA history in terms of player heights. That the Bulls dominated is a testament to a number of things: great role players, great coaching, and chiefly the greatness of Jordan( with Pippen as his right hand).
Agreed, those were definitely the days of dominant bigmen. Since we are comparing supporting casts, The truth of the matter is Scottie Pippen's was so versatile and effective at both forward and guard position that the combo of both MJ and himself as well as having so many deadly accurate 3 point shooters on that bulls team not to mention top rebounders as well was more effective than any guard/big man combo in the nba at the time and most would even argue that they would dominate today as well.
Kobe after the shaq era was unable to win a ring until the acquisition of Gasol another developing all-star talent in his own right. To say that kobe can ony win with a dominating center is debatable being that neither Gasol or bynum actually command 30 point performances like the way Shaq did. We have yet to see an injury free bynum dominate and Gasol does not even put up more than 18 points a game. So for the most part in my opinion, Kobe has proven that he can win championships without a dominating center however he did need help from another all-star calibur player just as Jordan did with Pippen.
During the bulls championship run, Pippen at his best averaged 22 ppg, Averaged just shy of 3 steals a game not to mention his ability to run the open floor, rebound and pass the ball, he also had 17 career triple-doubles, Pippen earned 10 NBA All-Defensive Team nods, including 8 on the first team and did everyone forget he was on the 1992 Olympic Dream team? He actually brought more to the table stat wise than Gasol Brings.
It's True Kobe could not bring back the Championship to L.A without the addition of another all-star caliber player but neither could Jordan until Pippen came into his own as a dominating defensive offensive all-star athlete. Because of Pippen's versatility at forward and guard along with his defense I still give the edge to Jordan having a better supporting cast than this new Kobe era of Lakers.
Correct me if I'm wrong but Gasol was already an all-star prior to joining the Lakers. They stole him for virtually nothing after he had a falling out with memphis.
Jordan's supporting cast when Rodman was there along with Kukoc is consider one of the best rosters of all time. 72-10 anyone? However, he won a number of championships where there were only 2 all-stars and the rest of the cast were mediocre NBA players or strictly role-players...with Horace Grant being maybe the 8th-10th best PF but not a threat to win an all-star appearance.
So, you need to get really specific when discussing this.
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