Post#43 » by ElGee » Thu Aug 4, 2011 7:34 pm
Scottie Pippen peak play
First, Pippen did us a favor by missing 10 games in his Lone Wolf year, 1994. For those under the impression that Chicago wasn't a good defensive team, they would be wrong (All the Bulls teams of the 90s were well built defensively by that point, and in 1994 they replaced Jordan with defensively inclined Pete Myers and had role players like Will Perdue providing really strong interior defense.) In the 10 games Pippen missed early in the year, a time when defenses are typically a little ahead of offenses, Chicago played teams with an average Ortg of 105.8 and gave up 104.3 per 100 (-1.5). With Pippen, against the rest of the league (LA of 106.3) they gave up 102.6 (-3.7). In other words, if we buy that as some ballpark value, Pip's defense was worth about 2.2 SRS points, or roughly 6 wins, on a good defensive team with solid defensive bigs. That's with someone like Purdue out for half the year too. That's impressive to me, and I don't see much a difference between replacing Grant with an elite defensive player and adding Pippen. Yes, he was certainly the greatest perimeter defender I've ever seen and his impact encroaches on most bigs to me.
Digging deeper into Pippen's 1994 season as The Man, he increased his scoring role slightly. Not too much, as this was not Pip's forte, and he continued to play an unselfish facilitation (I think the parallels to KG there are good). For eg, Pip never went over 40 that season. He attempted over 27 shots once, in an overtime game no less. With Myers, Grant and Armstrong in the starting lineup with Pippen, Chicago went 44-14 (62-win pace) with a +4.7 MOV. Think about that.
His rebounding was incredible from the small forward position, posting a 13.3 TRB%, which is in the territory of a big man and 4.5% ahead of the average SF (according to a TrueLA study), which means Pippen accounted for an estimated 212 extra rebounds than expected. The 94 Bulls rocked a +309 rebounding differential (fantastic, for those unfamiliar with rebounding differentials).
The Playoffs
In the postseason, Chicago breezed through Cleveland, with Pippen playing the role of Mr. Everything. Signs of forcing it? 14 turnovers combined in G1 and G3. But this was a guy who had great floor balance in his game and decision-making and with a good coach/scheme like he had could be the focal point of a good/solid offense without a bipolar partner. In Pip's 72 games in 94, the Bulls offense was 106.5 (just above average) and 2.9 points/100 better than when he was out.
Then the famous Knicks series. The Hubert Davis series. The Hugh Hollins series. Call it what you will, but against an historically defense, Pippen struggled in the first few games. Not having Will Perdue literally could have been the difference too, I thought the series was that close (Chicago outscored New York by 8 pts in the 7 games). Some of this series is on youtube, so I caution people who forget the series or who weren't around at the time to avoid box score whoring here. Pip's defense was fantastic as usual and he was setting up teammates regularly from what I recall. In G1 in NY, he was 7-19, but I don't recall a sense of great struggle or anything – he just took a few extra shots because of how good the Knick D was and because Chicago really didn't have another player, outside of maybe Kukoc (18 min) who could get his own. Cartwright couldn't work against Ewing, and Armstrong needed picks or usually Pippen kick out. Chi still mustered 1.07 pts/pos. (Knicks gave up 0.98 during the year.)
In G2, foul trouble and a bad game for Pip. He fouled out, and the Bulls blew a 4th quarter lead, with Pip struggling down the stretch. Ewing had 26-9 on 84% TS. One thing I look for in players is bounce-back games – how they adjust to a strategy or defense or poor approach. In G3, Pip was quite good, with 20-7-4 59% TS helping catapult the Bulls to 1.27 pts/pos! (This was the Kukoc buzzer-beater game.) Pippen responded with an even bigger G4, flying all over the court and basically dominating the Knicks historic defense, a D that help Michael Jordan in serious check in the opening 3 games of the 93 ECF. Pip finished with 25-8-6 56% TS in 35 minutes and Chicago scored 1.12 pts/pos.
G5 was the Hubert Davis game, also on youtube, and was another beyond the box game from Pippen (23-4-4). The Knicks jumped out to a 15-4 run. Only Pippen answered with play after play - he knocked down back to back 3s and scored 12 points to spark a 15-3 counter-run, setting up 5 open scoring opportunities for teammates in the run. It was that type of leadership -- basically running a club, anchoring a defense and providing a veteran presence -- that seemed to be present year-round.
G6 was sort of a classic Pippen game. Only 5-16, but he was again flying all over the place on defense and the glass and finished with 4 steals, 2 blocks, 11 boards and 5 assists. Again, the Bulls score 1.04 pts/100. G7 the Knicks team proved to be too much, as Oakley and Ewing combined for 35 pts 37 reb and 10 ast. Pippen was creating, being active, finishing with 20 pts and 16 rebounds. One NYT piece described him as “sparkling in defeat,” although his offensive limitations were on display to a degree. I don't mean the 8-22, totally understandable in a game like that looking at the defense, his team and shot selection. I mean that he didn't score for the first 8+ minutes of the 4th as the Knicks slowly fortified their lead. That was Scottie in a nutshell: GOAT perimeter defender, could hugely impact a game outside the box, was a very good offensive player, but couldn't ramp up the scoring when needed. Of course, let's keep perspective here, he scored 26% of his team's points against a GOAT-level D without a No. 2 offensive thread.
And for the record, I think I'll take Payton's peak over Pippen's in a vacuum, but it's awfully close.
