Those Rockets in the late 90s were too old and truth is Pippen was a horrible fit with Barkley and Olajuwon.
If we're talking sports in general, how bout the eagles the past two years? Remember the "Dream team"? Yeah no.
The Lakers have been a colossal disappointment this year, and that's not just because I hate them. I seriously thought they had a perfect set-up for success even if their bench on paper looked bad. But you know what, it seems pretty explainable now.
What made the Lakers great a few years ago was the edge they had with Odom as their sixth man. A lengthy point forward who could run the offense gave other teams a ton of match-up problems. They don't have that edge anymore and I think they should have tried to get Odom back this off-season (It's not like the Mavericks were aching to keep him or anything). He's slowly but surely coming back to form on the Clips and has given them a spark.