Scottie Trippen

Actually, Scottie has played pretty well in Portland. Man, that team is DEEP, you can knock a few off and it wouldn't matter. Here's hoping for an implosion, c'mon Scottie, don't fail me now...

 

Im lost on this Scottie thing. Did we want him to score more, at the sake of Hakeem's and Chucks averages last year???

If you haven't watched the Blazers yet, you'd have no Idea how well Scottie is actually playing. He did have a miserable game last night, but after watching my 4th Blazers game last night, Ill admit that Scottie is having a great year, offensively and Defensively. On a team of all stars, your scoring average is going to go down. Hell he has to split time with Detlef at the SF position. Shrimpy would start on almost every team in the NBA to include the Rox.

 

Reality Check :

Pippen is averaging 1 point less on a team that has more talent, on a team where he's not the focus, and on a team where he's averaging about 6 minutes less per game. He's also attempting over 1 less FG per game with Portland. His FG %age is up about 5% as of last night. His turnovers are down. About the biggest place you see a drop-off with Pippen is with his steals.

In summary : He is playing better on a much better team...

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Rocket fuel pumps through these veins...

 

Reality Check: Pippen is playing with better players than he was last season.

Translation: Less work for him and more wins for the team.

Way to go Pippen, instead of riding Michael's jock, you've got an entire team to carry your sorry ass.

 

Now wait just a second, Anti...I can understand that you may hate Scottie for the way he left this team...I do too, but let's give credit where it is due. The man is flat-out balling up in Portland, re-defining the term, Defensive Player of the Year. (Hate to see what becomes of Walt after Friday night!). He is making it easier for those guys to do their thing, by doing his own thing and setting picks, creating, spacing the floor, and holding guys in check. You don't have to love the guy, but let's give him dues for a good season.

 

Cab-- I'll give him credit for playing a little better than he did last season, but let's look at the facts.

Opposing defenses have to account for not only the interior threats of Sabonis, Grant, and Wallace, and the slashing of Stoudamire, but also the shooting prescense of Smith.

Pippen's getting better looks this year because people can't focus on him defensively like they could when he was a Rocket. Oh yeah, and Portland's also a hell of a lot better defensive team than we were last year.

Thanks to the friggin' NBA All-Star team, he looks a lot better than last year.

[This message has been edited by AntiSonic (edited November 25, 1999).]

 

Pippen is playing better this season for many different reasons. I don't think the talent level of the Blazers is that much better than our team, they just play much better together.

REASONS:
1. Turnovers -- 3.2 in 98, 2.5 in 99
2. FG% -- 43.2% in 98, 48.2% in 99 (His 1998 percentage was the lowest of his career, and this year is his highest since 1994)
3. MIN -- 40.2 in 98, 34.8 in 99 (Could've been our fault, but he had some say in it)

I was never expecting Pippen to score 20 pts a game for us, but I also wasn't expecting him to shoot the lowest FG% of his entire career either. I was most disappointed with his poor defense, poor ball handling, and poor attitude.

Sure, the team he's playing on is better this year, than last year, but HE had something to do with that!

I'm not trying to say that the Blazers and Rockets are the same, and Pippen just sucks. Pippen definitely has some talent left, I just wish he'd have used some of it last season. Sure the Blazers are obviously better than us right now, but I'm still holding out hope (little as it may be) that we will turn it around, AND that the Blazers will crumble. Oh well, I can hope can't I?


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I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.