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Is it even debatable? I think 1992 wins by 20pts on avg.

I agree that the 1992 Dream Team was significantly more dominant in their era. But their competition in 1992 was much much worse than the international competition in 2012, so you can't really make comparisons based on that. Also, overall athlete conditioning is better now than it was 20 years ago, and offensive and defensive scheming is more sophisticated. Do we allow the 2012 team that advantage or does the 1992 team get to use this new knowledge in their hypothetical rematch?

Overall, the 1992 Dream Team was stocked and had a better distribution of talent. The lack of depth at the center position hurts the 2012 team. Put a healthy Dwight Howard on the roster, though, and then you have an interesting matchup. (A healthy Derrick Rose wouldn't hurt either.)

Until the 2012 team wins gold, there is no debate.

Yeah I think Tyson Chandler vs. Ewing and Robinson wouldn't be fair at all.

I agree that the 1992 Dream Team was significantly more dominant in their era. But their competition in 1992 was much much worse than the international competition in 2012, so you can't really make comparisons based on that. Also, overall athlete conditioning is better now than it was 20 years ago, and offensive and defensive scheming is more sophisticated. Do we allow the 2012 team that advantage or does the 1992 team get to use this new knowledge in their hypothetical rematch?

Overall, the 1992 Dream Team was stocked and had a better distribution of talent. The lack of depth at the center position hurts the 2012 team. Put a healthy Dwight Howard on the roster, though, and then you have an interesting matchup. (A healthy Derrick Rose wouldn't hurt either.)

This is the and 1 era of basketball so I don't think the offensive scheming is more sophisticated. Conditioning might be better now due to science and technology. I think the 1992 players as a whole are far more mentally tougher than this group 2012. Look at how players are trying to form super teams now a days. Those 1992 players wanted to compete against each other.

Until the 2012 team wins gold, there is no debate.

Lol.

No I really don't think they can touch the 92 team, but I grew up watching Jordan so I'm partial.

There's a huge difference in scheming just from the relaxation of the man-to-man defense rules. The old rules allowed for a lot of one-on-one isolation play, which made star players more effective. Nowadays, star players routinely face quick doubles and triples, and ball movement is much more key. Of course, players on both teams could eventually adjust to changes in the rules, but it would take some time. For example, there's no way the 1992 Dream Team would (initially) be as crisp on rotations to shooters if they tried any type of modern defense, simply because they wouldn't have practiced that back then. Similarly, the 2012 Dream Team would have a hard time guarding the 1992 Dream Teamers one-on-one, because they have learned to try to send the ballhandler into the help defense that might not be available under the old rules.

I'd give the 1992 Team about a 5-7 point edge, but it'd be about even if the 2012 team had Howard. If the games were played entirely with 2012 rules and no significant amount of time was given to the 1992 team to adjust (say they just had a month of practice beforehand with 1 or 2 exhibition games sprinkled in), then I'd lean to making the 2012 Team a favorite.

Check out sites like NBA Playbook if you want to see how sophisticated NBA scheming is these days. The stats geek revolution has really started to make a difference in the NBA in a similar scale as in baseball (even though less talked about).

Edit: As a stat comparison, Miami beat Charlotte last year in 3 games (two in Miami, one in Charlotte) by an average of 21 ppg. Charlotte may have been the worst NBA team ever, while Miami, well they're pretty good. So saying the 1992 Dream Team versus the 2012 Dream Team is akin to Miami playing Charlotte just seems patently absurd to me. A 20 ppg margin over the long term is a HUGE skill edge in professional basketball. Similarly, Miami obliterated a depleted Knicks team (no Lin, no Shumpert, no Amare for part of the series) in the first round of the playoffs, but the average margin of victory was only 14 ppg.

I can see arguments that it would be close, but Jordan doesn't lose big games.

I don't think it would be that close. The only match up problem I could see would be who guards Kevin Durant size wise at the two guard. I think Pippen and Barkley take care of Lebron. At the point guard position I think 1992 team has a huge edge with Magic and Stockton vs. Paul and Williams both size wise and skill wise. Center position is a no brainier 1992 has the edge. Nobody on the 2012 team can guard MJ. And Clyde Drexler was still jumping over people in 1992.

Then mix in the chemistry with MJ/Pippen, Malone/Stockton, Magic/Bird. Al tho Bird was injured most of the time in 1992.

The 1992 Teams players were already hall of fame bound except Christain Lattner. Adding Howard would help a little. In 1992 teams would have to gear up their defensive packages just so MJ wouldn't score 50 on them. 2012 would be in a lot of trouble as soon as they had to double team someone because the ball is being kicked out to 4 different hall of famers.

I don't think there is really a debate to be had here. It'd be a lot more interesting if D-Wade was on the 2012 team.
The rules would matter because as sweetjazz alluded to, they used to play defense in '92. And that would be defense that would draw a whistle now.