[Project] Top 5 single season peaks by franchises: The Trail Blazers

[Jaivl]

I would rank Pippen over both Rasheed and Drexler - just a clearly better offensive player than Sheed.

[Dutchball97]

If I was building a team from the ground up I'd prefer Sheed over Drexler. Sheed is just a perfect 4 in pretty much every era. He brings great defense, versatile shooting, toughness and leadership. I'm just a bit apprehensive on his impact because of the role he played. Drexler wasn't a perfect alpha but he was still a very good #1 option. Drexler was also very effective as the second guy on the Rockets. Even though Sheed fits better on most teams I still think Drexler's peak impact provided a bigger lift.

On Sheed vs Pippen I have Sheed ahead of Pippen here because Pippen's regular seasons for the Blazers weren't super impressive. If we're talking about peak Pippen I quite easily have him over Sheed though. I think Pippen was a better defender even though it's a close comparison on that end but offensively Pippen was quite a bit better. As a scorer but especially as a playmaker.

I'd lean towards peak Pippen over peak Drexler as well although I think this is closer than either of them compared to peak Sheed.

[Odinn21]

3 hours and 40 minutes left on the clock for this one.

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I have an important errand to run. I think I'll get to start the next one on time but will post the results for this one several hours later.

[HeartBreakKid]

I could see Pippen over Wallace because of playmaking for sure.

But scoring? Wallace scored on similar volume and efficiency but in a more defensive era. Their numbers are nearly identical, and considering most seasons Pippen played with Jordan and he played in a more friendly era (even a shorter 3 point line), if I had to pick one it would seem like Wallace was better. They seem nearly even, if Wallace was MJ's #2 in the 90s I don't think anything would change about their history.

Maybe I'm overlooking something because I haven't done the comparison a while, but what's the argument behind Pippen being a better scorer than Wallace?

[Dutchball97]

I could see Pippen over Wallace because of playmaking for sure.

But scoring? Wallace scored on similar volume and efficiency but in a more defensive era. Their numbers are nearly identical, and considering most seasons Pippen played with Jordan and he played in a more friendly era (even a shorter 3 point line), if I had to pick one it would seem like Wallace was better. They seem nearly even, if Wallace was MJ's #2 in the 90s I don't think anything would change about their history.

Maybe I'm overlooking something because I haven't done the comparison a while, but what's the argument behind Pippen being a better scorer than Wallace?

They're comparable, you could probably make an argument for Sheed as a scorer over Pippen. Either way I don't think scoring moves the needle much in this comparison. I meant that Pippen was a clearly better offensive player due to a slight edge in scoring imo (I see Pippen as more consistent over the years and better adapted to higher volumes) and a significant edge in playmaking. I think how I worded it made it seem like I was implying Pippen was a vastly better scorer than Sheed and I agree that wouldn't be accurate.

[Odinn21]

I would rank Pippen over both Rasheed and Drexler - just a clearly better offensive player than Sheed.

Do I need to remind this is franchise specific? Or maybe you're just too high on Pippen, I don't know. It's very arguable that Pippen was better than Drexler in 1992 when both were at their peaks, and you'll prefer 34 yo 2000 Pippen over Drexler (also peak Sheed)?..

[70sFan]

1. 1976/77 Bill Walton - clear GOAT peak of this franchise.

2. 1991/92 Clyde Drexler - very tough choice, but I decided to go with Drexler. I think that he's underrated on both sides on the floor by most posters here, even though he used to be overrated.

3. 1999/00 Rasheed Wallace - excellent two-way player, monstrous post defender (could contain any top tier post player of his era except Shaq). The only problem I have with him is that his offense, although good, isn't really special in all-time sense.

4. 2019/20 Damian Lillard - could be as high as 2nd, but I punish him for his bad defense. I wanted to to go with 2021 season, as he played brilliant in the playoffs and it was at worst his 2nd best RS but it's not available for the project. Decided to go with 2020 then.

5. 1989/90 Terry Porter - very hard choice between him, Roy and Buck. I decided with all-around excellent PG who upped his production in postseason.

[Odinn21]

4. 2020/21 Damian Lillard

Still ineligible.

[70sFan]

4. 2020/21 Damian Lillard

Still ineligible.

Completely forgot about it! Thank you, I'll change it for 2020 then.

[Jaivl]

I would rank Pippen over both Rasheed and Drexler - just a clearly better offensive player than Sheed.

Do I need to remind this is franchise specific? Or maybe you're just too high on Pippen, I don't know. It's very arguable that Pippen was better than Drexler in 1992 when both were at their peaks, and you'll prefer 34 yo 2000 Pippen over Drexler (also peak Sheed)?..

Speaking about the earlier conversation over Sheed's impact. Of course I would not take Blazers Pippen over either of them.

[Odinn21]

Updated for Doctor MJ's vote. It's final.

The Trail Blazers results;

Code: Select all

1. 7-0-0-0-0 / 70 points / 1.000 share / '77 Bill Walton
2. 0-4-1-2-0 / 39 points / 0.557 share / '92 Clyde Drexler
3. 0-2-3-0-1 / 30 points / 0.429 share / '00 Rasheed Wallace
4. 0-1-2-3-0 / 26 points / 0.371 share / '20 Damian Lillard
5. 0-0-1-1-3 / 11 points / 0.157 share / '91 Terry Porter

6. 0-0-0-1-3 /  6 points / 0.086 share / '09 Brandon Roy

Results on Google Sheet

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, gotta commit:

1. '76-77 Bill Walton - by a mile

2. '19-20 Damian Lillard - by far the best offensive player the franchise has had

3. '99-00 Rasheed Wallace - yeah, those impact stats mean something to me, I've got faith in him on contenders

4. '91-92 Clyde Drexler - I'll give it to him here because he was the official star on serious teams

5. '08-09 Brandon Roy - never really led to contenders, hard to give him the benefit of the doubt over Drexler

HM. Porter & Buck - tempted to pick one of them, Aldridge is a clear Top 10 guy, shout out to Smith, Sabonis & Pippen.

[Dr Positivity]

I kind of scale back to another scenario - is Rasheed Wallace really that much worse than Scottie Pippen? I wouldn't say Scottie Pippen is really a "DPOY" kind of guy, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me if he could come close to being the DPOY (obviously there have been worse defenders than him who have won the title). Like Wallace, I don't look at Scottie Pippen as a sure fire top ten guy, yet in it seems like Pippen is often ranked over many volume scorers for respect of his well rounded play and dominant defense. So it it that Scottie really is way better than someone like Wallace, or is it more along he gets a lot of benefit of the doubt from being on the most publicized team of all time?

I could be off base, but wouldn't Scottie Pippen often get ranked above Clyde Drexler? Maybe, he wouldn't.

And I want to clarify, I'm not saying Wallace and Pippen are the same player, or even exact equals. But I feel like we are naturally not comfortably ranking someone who doesn't really have sexy numbers like Rasheed over boxscore stuffers. We already know Rasheed does play a brand of winning basketball, so what would it take for us to be sold on him? Would he have to be #1 in RAPM? Is top 25 not enough?

I consider prime Pippen to be better offensively hands down than Sheed. Sheed doesn't really have a better offensive career than players like Horford or Lopez to me (somewhat similar arcs of PPG seasons in their first act - 3pt shooter in their 2nd). More talent probably, but more of an enigma as well.

[GeorgeMarcus]

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Not sure if it's too late but I added brief reasoning