Teams with talent and ball movement have always had more success. This wasn't invented with zone and hand checking rules. There was always the strong side trap and weak side zone, know as hedging.
Hedging is a defensive attack against the PNR. You couldn't play a weakside zone before 2004 without getting an illegal defense call. That meant when you doubled the ball you HAD to leave a guy open, hence much fewer double teams. Even then the double had to come after the ball's arrival.
This is no small point. It completely changes the game and the way it is played. I watch so many games during the offseason, though not quite as many as during the season. Watching the games from the 90s is only marginally better than watching college hoops. It is just so vanilla that it hurts.
I'm not sure what motivates your marginalization of Jordan and his years vs. current years/rules/players, other than apparent ignorance of his years. He also used to take much more of an @ss-kicking physically, while today it's a flagrant 2 on lebron if you make him pay for a layup, as he wipes the tears, of course.
Watch some of the old Bulls games. I do. I ADORE Dennis Rodman. He is one of my all time favorites and a man with no peers when it comes to the things he did well. During those games, and I noticed this being an NBA junkie back then, Jordan gets more preferential treatment from the refs than anybody. They won't dare T him up when he gets in their face over a call, but have no problem T'ing up other guys.
The Jordan Rules were used to successfully corral him as the Pistons won a couple titles. That is the closest thing you will see to a modern defense, but the help is always waaaaaaaaaay late compared to today's game. Because the help comes so late there are Bulls players wide open all the time, but Jordan being Jordan wasn't really going to pass.
Lebron is a great player, and perhaps 'the greatest' in bringing a package that he brings, but no where should that suggest he's automatically on par with Jordan on offense, which is beyond laughable.
If you mean scoring to be offense, then you are probably right. Jordan was one of the best scorers the game has seen. There is more to being an offensive player than scoring points, ask Steve Nash. Jordan was an elite defender too, though more often than not Pippen was guarding the best wing opponent. From an efficiency standpoint Jordan isn't even in the same room. Scoring two more points a game on 5 to 6 more shots doesn't impress me. Shooting below 30% on threes doesn't impress me.
Again, maybe in this era he would have adapted his game, but given Jordan's stubborness I would find it just as likely that he wouldn't and that his game was just perfectly suited for his era. No different than Lebron's game being perfectly suited for this era.