Yes it was quite the opposite. The league cramed 50 games in to a much shorter time period and reduced the number of rest days between games. That very much hurt veteran teams like Utah and greatly helped deep young teams like Portland and the untalented Orland. Orlando was led by Darrel Armstrong and a cast of scrubs into the playoffs becuase they would play 10 guys 24 minutess a game and run around non-stop. There were back-to-back-to-back games in that season. The Blazers excelled because they had a second unit of Greg Anthony, Jim Jackson, Stacy Augmon, Rasheed, and Jermaine Oneal all playing extensive minutes whereas most teams either had to play tired starters or far less talented bench units.
So no I don't belive a lockout would help this team at all, Roy needs more rest between games not playing 3 nights in a row! Sure if we had our entire roster healthy then we may be a deep team, but I'll believe that when I see it. We've talked about "if" this team was healthy for 4 years now, at a point having a few guys out with injuries becomes the expected norm not an exception.