Except for Drexler and Hakeem, not one of these teams is a case of superstars teaming up. And the third best player on that Rockets team was, who? Rookie Robert Horry? Clyde and Hakeem were both in their 30s, too.
The 86/87 Lakers, possibly the greatest team in history, drafted 3 out of 5 members of their starting lineup. They traded for Kareem, but that was 11 years earlier. Scott was essentially selected for the Lakers by the Clippers and traded before he ever played an NBA game. First two guys off the bench, Rambis and Cooper, were drafted in the 3rd round.
Robert Parish and the pick used to select McHale were traded to the Celtics by the Warriors. Parish had averaged 25 minutes a game for the Warriors and put up 14 and 9 over his 4 years there. McHale put up exactly 10 points a game in his rookie season.
The Bad Boy Pistons drafted Thomas, Dumars, and Rodman. They got the rest of their players in trades, and not one of them was anything resembling a star beforehand except Mark Aguirre. And they gave up our very own legend AD for him.
The Bulls drafted 3 of those players and swapped rookies on draft day to get Pippen. They got Kerr for free, after Orlando simply let him go. He averaged 2.6 PPG that year, so you can kind of see why Orlando would do it. And you and I should both be old enough to remember how old Rodman was in 1995 and how low his stock was.
Not one of these cases is anything like what just happened. If David Robinson had joined the Jazz back in 1996, that would've been something like this, maybe. But that just didn't happen back then.
