1996 Seattle Supersonics vs. 2021 Utah Jazz

[Lebron23]

Who wins in a best of 7 series?

[Kiddlovesnets]

The 1996 Supersonics were an underrated team, they could beat the 2018 Warriors(not 2017 but 2018 surely). They lost to the Bulls so many people dont remember how good they were, while the 2018 Warriors defeated the Cavs so they were remembered as one of the best teams in the league history.

[Reggie43]

Sonics shutdown/contained Jordan. Do you think they would be scared of somebody like Donovan Mitchell? With Payton and Kemp plus great depth that is a team that could have adapted against any style of play.

[Xiao Yao You]

what rules are they playing with?

[Lebron23]

what rules are they playing with?

Current rules

[Axe]

The one that doesn't come from the watered-down era.

[Xiao Yao You]

Current rules

Jazz

[HoopsNY]

Jazz

Perkins, Payton, Schrempf, Hawkins, and McMillan could all shoot the 3. Why would would Utah win under the current rules, especially when Payton can neutralize Mitchell and Kemp on Gobert?

[HoopsNY]

The 1996 Supersonics were an underrated team, they could beat the 2018 Warriors(not 2017 but 2018 surely). They lost to the Bulls so many people dont remember how good they were, while the 2018 Warriors defeated the Cavs so they were remembered as one of the best teams in the league history.

I don't think there's any difference between the 2017 and 2018 Warriors, really. The difference in reality is that the 2018 Warriors faced a better team in the Rockets, but that's about it.

[Manny98]

Kemp and Payton will be the two best players on the court so I'd go with them

[72-10]

The Sonics' third (or maybe fourth) best player outscored Michael in one of the Finals games.

[Xiao Yao You]

Perkins, Payton, Schrempf, Hawkins, and McMillan could all shoot the 3. Why would would Utah win under the current rules, especially when Payton can neutralize Mitchell and Kemp on Gobert?

Payton won't be able to touch anyone like he used to. He can bark at them all he wants. Payton and Kemp will be left open. They'd have to make Utah pay

[HoopsNY]

Payton won't be able to touch anyone like he used to. He can bark at them all he wants. Payton and Kemp will be left open. They'd have to make Utah pay

It's interesting you mention that. I remember Chris Carter having a debate with Nick Wright about MJs defense, hand checking, and LeBron. Nick Wright proceeded to claim that "LeBron would have been allowed to hand check, too!!!" CC responded by saying that MJ was a great defender because he was great defensively, not because of hand checking.

The same with GP. GP had great instincts and an overall defensive IQ. A guy like Derek Harper was great defensively because of hand checking. Harper used to squeeze the waist of those he was defending at times and was really annoying to have to deal with. I remember Matt Guokas talking about it in the 1994 finals where he identified Harper as one of those guys who had David Stern and the league talking about eliminating hand checking.

Harper was a great defender by being allowed to touch his opponents, but probably just a good defender without it. GP was just great, period.

[light]

The Sonics would get buried under endless threes.

They would have never seen anything like what the Jazz would do against them in terms of taking 43 threes per game and making 40% of them.

I think they would be literally stunned and get blown out. They would need more time than a series offers in order to figure out how to defeat that.

They would need to advance through the league's 25 years of evolution over 7 games and I don't see that happening.

[Gudo]

The sonics had 3pt shooters themselves but I am sure if you just let them timetravel with no practice, no preparation, no background and the rules explained during the last minute, the Jazz will obliterate the Sonics.