'84-'87 Boston Celtics vs '11-'14 Miami Heat

[97 bulls]

Lets not dismiss Wade. No one has mentioned him yet. Who's gonna defend him?

If Boshs man leaves him to help on James, hes gonna have a lot of wide open Jumpers.

The Heat best team on the floor would be

James
Wade
Alllen
Bosh
Haslem


Birds gonna have to defend one of them. Perhaps Haslem. And even then, I see Haslem getting a lot of open base line Js due to Birds propensity to gamble.

I remember the games Haslems had vs the Bulls in 2011. They tried that same thing. Haslem had some monter games because of it.

[1987_Lakers]

Lets not dismiss Wade. No one has mentioned him yet. Who's gonna defend him?

If Boshs man leaves him to help on James, hes gonna have a lot of wide open Jumpers.

The Heat best team on the floor would be

James
Wade
Alllen
Bosh
Haslem


Birds gonna have to defend one of them. Perhaps Haslem. And even then, I see Haslem getting a lot of open base line Js due to Birds propensity to gamble.

I remember the games Haslems had vs the Bulls in 2011. They tried that same thing. Haslem had some monter games because of it.

Dennis Johnson the 9x All-Defensive selection

[Micku]

We can talk about bird, mchale, and parish, but there are also dennis johnson and danny ainge. Would take these guys over chalmers and cole.

DJ could post Chalmers up in a few possessions. And Ainge was a very good shooter. Someone the Heat don't want to leave open. They would rather leave DJ open. DJ is solid at the midrange, but not great like Ainge. Ainge also could come off screens and is a very good catch and shoot player. Plus he gets on your nerves. I think ppl compared him to Laimbeer in a way. Just like Laimbeer, Ainge makes ppl want to punch him. It won't do good against guys like Wade and LeBron probably, but Chalmers and Cole maybe.

[SHAQisGOAT]

I was insinuating that they would put Mchale on Lebron, like what they did with Nique back in the 80's giving Bird nowhere to hide since he can't roam off of bosh.

Hide? Hide from what? As if Bird was a liability on defense So, and in fact, he could do a good job on Bosh, better matchup than Lebron for him, he was actually good at guarding the post and could close-out if Bosh was hitting them jumpers.
Bird was close to 30 when McHale moved into the starting 5, he was also more needed for offense and more impactful by roaming on defense, plus more of a PF since the get-go and the Celtics had better options, so during those days he wasn't guarding the opponent's SF when that player was a great scorer... That always happened and will continue to, yea even from players like Bron or MJ, act like the contrary though, or call it hide lmfao. Furthermore if you check some game from the early 80s, you can see Bird guarding Dr J, Marques Johnson, young Nique even, and doing a pretty good job various times.
Oh and McHale was a great defender, very tall with really long arms, good feet, smart, really good shotblocker.. Plus don't forget the Celtics had guys like Parish, Walton, McHale or Bird, to protect the paint, great team defense and perimter pressure from other players too. Bron was just killing the Spurs with Diaw on him and the rest trying to pack the paint, right? And that ain't as good as what the C's could "do", even throwing Bird at him, giving him space, then trying to funnel him into crowded area, or using his smartness and really quick hands. And like I've said, DJ could also be put on him, plenty of times he was guarded by smaller guys who couldn't defend as well as Dennis, and some of them did a good job.

If Bird is even guarding Lebron to begin with, yeah Bird's not quick enough or strong enough to defend Lebron one-on-one. But Bosh roasting McHale? F*ck outta here with that shit.

Quick? No. Strong? Don't underrate Bird's strength.. I've seen Barkley drapped all over him at the end of a game, then actually Charles ending up falling while Larry hit the gamewinner, I've seen Laimbeer getting overpowered in the post then Bird blocking him, Jordan or Rodman getting bullied, Moses and Barkley couldn't take him down (while J was punching him)... Bird was really strong.
And again he was pretty good at guarding the post, there's footage of him blocking Hakeem when guarding in down-low, fronting Sampson, stopping Worthy, so on.... Plus very smart with really quick hands, knew how to funnel players into crowded area, how to let them go then blocking or stealing the ball, knew how to draw charges, didn't get lost on rotations. He could give the space while the C's protect the paint, when guarding Bron.