Reggie Miller vs Scottie Pippen

[Matt15]

Who would you rather build a team around in today’s game?

[falcolombardi]

scottie pippen although is fairly close

both would be at home in the modern, pippen as a great lebron-lite archetype with shooters around him as a point forward

Miller in a kerr like system as a curry-lite player and changing so many long 2's for 3's and having more space to Drive

[Colbinii]

I'd rather start a team in the current era with Pippen. His switch-ability defensively and playmaking offensively makes him an extremely valuable player in today's NBA.

[SHAQ32]

The guy that didn't quit in the closing moments.

[Topofthekey]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

[Max123]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

The sample there with Pippen isn’t very big and shouldn’t we conclude based on that season that Pippen’s performance as the best player on the Bulls was rather impressive looking at the team’s record?


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[Topofthekey]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

The sample there with Pippen isn’t very big and shouldn’t we conclude based on that season that Pippen’s performance as the best player on the Bulls was rather impressive looking at the team’s record?


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Pippen in 93-95 was peak Pippen. It doesn't feel like if given more chances he would eventually drag the Bulls over the hump. Especially if we take into consideration his declining health. The Reggie that went to the finals wasn't peak Reggie either, but wasn't far from it and still was clearly the best player on his team. He averaged 24.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.7 APG in 6 games against prime Shaq and ascendant Kobe

[JulesWinnfield]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

This is just lazy analysis for many reasons, starting with the fact that he only had one full season in that role and they lost in 7 to the team who came within a hair of winning the title themselves, largely on the backs of a wildly controversial foul call. Yea Reggie made a finals, on a team that was as much an ensemble cast at that point in his career as anything (he wasn’t anywhere close to the top 3 mvp finisher pippen was in 94), in a conference that had completely aged out to the point where none of their rivals were left standing and they beat a team led by the corpse of Patrick Ewing, Latrell sprewell playing on a broken foot and Allan Houston on a bum ankle to make it out of the East

[Topofthekey]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

This is just lazy analysis for many reasons, starting with the fact that he only had one full season in that role and they lost in 7 to the team who came within a hair of winning the title themselves, largely on the backs of a wildly controversial foul call. Yea Reggie made a finals, on a team that was as much an ensemble cast at that point in his career as anything (he wasn’t anywhere close to the top 3 mvp finisher pippen was in 94), in a conference that had completely aged out to the point where none of their rivals were left standing and they beat a team led by the corpse of Patrick Ewing, Latrell sprewell playing on a broken foot and Allan Houston on a bum ankle to make it out of the East

Did you forget they also lost to Magic in 6?

[xinxin]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Jalen Rose was actually their best player in the 2000 regular season.

Yes, Reggie was their top scorer in the playoffs. But Jalen still averaged more assists and rebounds.

So not really definitive that Reggie “led” the Pacers to the NBA finals in 2000


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Topofthekey]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Jalen Rose was actually their best player in the 2000 regular season.

Yes, Reggie was their top scorer in the playoffs. But Jalen still averaged more assists and rebounds.

So not really definitive that Reggie “led” the Pacers to the NBA finals in 2000


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Rose regular season winshare: 7.3

Miller regular season winshare: 10.1

Miller literally was their best player and helped them win more regular season games than Rose

[HeartBreakKid]

Past prime Reggie Miller was waaaaay better than Jalen Rose. If you just look at their PPG/AST/REB then yes, it would look like Jalen squeaks by him because he averages 2 more assist and maybe a couple of rebounds more.

Miller gave his team supreme spacing, he counters Jalen's on-ball ability with his all time off ball ability, he is significantly, significantly more efficient than Jalen Rose also.

And this gap got bigger in the playoffs, both in volume and efficiency.

Reggie Miller did not carry his team the traditional way a franchise player would, it was a very good cast - but he was certainly the best player on the 2000 Pacers.

The gap between Reggie and his teammates is bigger than the gap between someone like Chris Webber and the rest of the Kings.


Though to be frank, Scottie Pippen did not "carry" the Bulls either, and they should be seen as an ensemble cast as well. Yes, Pippen got big time MVP love, so did Joakim Noah. There was a narrative that was sold with Pippen in 94 that made him seem better than he was, he was never a real MVP caliber guy.

Reggie Miller, despite being big time news was never shown much love when it came to awards.

[Colbinii]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Jalen Rose was actually their best player in the 2000 regular season.

Yes, Reggie was their top scorer in the playoffs. But Jalen still averaged more assists and rebounds.

So not really definitive that Reggie “led” the Pacers to the NBA finals in 2000


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By this horrific logic, Pippen was the better than Jordan. After all, Pippen routinely had more assists and rebounds than Jordan.

Hell, move over Steph Curry. Draymond Green led the team in rebounds and assists.

Did you even think about this type of reasoning?

[DQuinn1575]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Reggie made the Finals in his maybe 10th try - so I wouldnt use this as the tie breaker.
I think Pippen has a lot of all-around skills, and in building a team checks off all the boxes -some scoring, some passing, some rebounding, good defense - and is ahead of Reggie in all but shooting.
So to start a team, I would pick Scottie, as I think he gives you something in every category -

[frica]

Pippen is a better player and similarly easy to build around.
There are teams where I'd rather see Miller, but this should be Pippen quite clearly.

[HeartBreakKid]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Reggie made the Finals in his maybe 10th try - so I wouldnt use this as the tie breaker.
I think Pippen has a lot of all-around skills, and in building a team checks off all the boxes -some scoring, some passing, some rebounding, good defense - and is ahead of Reggie in all but shooting.
So to start a team, I would pick Scottie, as I think he gives you something in every category -

Reggie is a better scorer than Pippen by a lot.

[wojoaderge]

Neither

[DQuinn1575]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

Reggie made the Finals in his maybe 10th try - so I wouldnt use this as the tie breaker.
I think Pippen has a lot of all-around skills, and in building a team checks off all the boxes -some scoring, some passing, some rebounding, good defense - and is ahead of Reggie in all but shooting.
So to start a team, I would pick Scottie, as I think he gives you something in every category -

Reggie is a better scorer than Pippen by a lot.

I said shooting, and with it scoring. And in some situations I’d rather have Reggie. Blank team I’d rather have Pippen as he gives you a lot in a lot of different areas.
To me, it’s not a no brainer, like why did someone even bother posting it.

[Steven1562]

Give me Pippen all day to start a team. Take this quote from Chuck Daly about Pippen on the 92 dream team.

"You never really know how good a player is until you coach him, but Pippen was the great surprise in Barcelona – the confidence with which he played and the absolutely complete nature of his game on offense and defense. No one else really expected it"

Could you say the same for Reggie on both ends of the court?

[Snakebites]

Bulls with Pippen as their best player couldn't make it past the second round

Pacers with Reggie as their best player went to the NBA finals

I love Reggie but this is a pretty weak analysis that ignores the help said players had and the competition they were up against. It also ignores the length of time Reggie was the best player on his team (IE, the number of opportunities he had to lead a team to the finals) compared to the length of time Scottie had (which wasn't even 2 full seasons).

In other words it ignores context entirely.

As to the question, if you know you can get another great scorer (not necessarily a better player than Scottie overall) then you have to go Scottie. If you know the player you're "building around" is going to be your best overall scorer, then it has to be Reggie.

Given the spirit I'm guessing the question is answered in, my answer is Pippen. Better overall player, and I think both players translate well to the modern NBA.