Rockets History: Scottie Pippen

Who cares? He only got to wear the pinstripes. I'd be pissed off if he ever wore rockets red (championship or current).

 

Heres a good article on some of those failed players like Pippen and Barkley here.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/83466-the-10-worst-houston-rockets-of-all-time

 

Not even close...

Question his heart and some of his performances if you want, but Tracy has not come close to living up to Pippen's backstabbery. Plus Tracy gets some benefit of the doubt for his tenure. Pippen was only here one year.

And just look at what he accomplished in that year:

1) Barkley took a pay cut for Pippen
2) Pippen whined all season long about his role and shots, while shooting a poor percentage and looking lethargic and out of sync.
3) Rudy T had to waste his time all season trying to appease Scottie by tweaking the offense, instead of focusing on the good of the team.
4) Pippen lost us a playoff game by dribbling the ball off his foot (I had actually forgotten about that one)
5) Pippen forced a trade that landed us a load of garbage that took years to get rid of.
6) Pippen blamed Barkley and his "fat butt," who had actually been one of the best team players we had.

 

scottie pippen has been erased from my memory

 

He forced his way out of Houston. The good thing about it is that the team did not have to give quality talent to get him. Although they could not also get quality for him. His tenure was just for half a season since the year He joined was the year of the lock out.

 

Very true. Everything was literally down ward after the Pippen Trade to Portland. The team of Francis did make a run once but fell short by 1 game to make the playoffs. They needed drafting Yao to turn the tide. The rest is history.

 

I think it was just frustrating after every call during that series. That team could have went to the next round and I dare say Championship if it weren't for the refs. I think we all know how rigged that series was at the end of it all. That is why the Mavs will forever be on the top of my list of hated teams. Not the Lakers, nor the Jazz anymore. Does anyone have that article or link that shows where that ref openly admits to setting up that series?

 

Heck no. McGrady, for better or for worse, did not set us back years, and played spectacularly up to this last season - with 20/20 hindsight, trading Francis and Mobley for him was a good move. Pippen on the other hand we never should have taken - that jerk set us back for years with the junk he saddled us with.

 

i hate looking back and blame the refs, but the refs cheated us out of at least 2 games in that series (still can't get that finley out of bounds out of my freakin' head). this series + the kings-lakers were among the series talked about that the refs influenced.

and like you said, if we won that round, we WOULD have gone all the way to the championship (don't know about winning) b/c we were HOT to end the season and tracy was on fire in that first round. nobody was playing as well as he did. and yao was emerging too.

****

 

I can only remember a few about Scottie as a Rocket. His nickname is "The Dream". Scottie " The Dream" Pippen.

 

Yes, unlike Mad Max, he successfully forced a trade after his lone season concluded.

Absolutely. CD's fault, as well. He may have been a good players' coach/motivator, but we all collectively wear rose-colored glasses when viewing Tomjanovich's X-&-O's coaching ability, solely because of 94-95. The Rockets offense under Rudy T was terrible. (Years later, the Lakers' offense wasn't much better.) Dump it in to post, wait for shot/double team. If double team, pass to standing three-point shooter/wait for shot. (He modified this in later years when the Rockets had no post-players to "iso-ing" Francis/Mobley on the perimeter, watch them dribble for 20 seconds trying to get past their one-on-one defender, then if double-teamed pass to the three-point shooter on the wing.)

The Rockets offense at that point relied upon the former, alternating Barkley & Dream (who fought over touches with each other) in the post. No offensive imagination whatsoever; either Barkley or Dream always clogged the lane.

They signed to an enormous contract Pippen, one of the best slasher-scorers & passers in the game, who up to that point had at best a mediocre three-point shooting percentage/record, to do what exactly? Oh yeah, pass the ball into the post, then stand around on the three-point line, just like Dickerson & Mobley beside him, and wait (usually in vain) for a pass to shoot a three-pointer. Judged by on-court strategy, they valued Pippen's ability as being indistinguishable from that of Matt Maloney.

Pippen's prodigious strengths, & few weaknesses, were by that point well-known. Why did the Rockets choose to waste all that money, if they had no plans to change their coaching schemes to make the team better / incorporate Pippen's strengths into the gameplan?

Blame Pippen for getting frustrated with the offense & childishly sulking, sure, but blame Rudy T & Dawson for not knowing how to maximize the personnel they employed (and chose to employ). Also, blame CD/Rudy T for not recognizing that Pippen had a history of sulking when he wasn't involved in the offense (see: a certain Kukoc game-winner), signing him anyway to play such a limited role, and not foreseeing the consequences.

He went on to be a serviceable small forward / above-average defender for the Blazers, then graduated to being a broken-down small forward with the Blazers, Bulls & Sundsvall Dragons (had to google that last one). The Blazers were jobbed by the refs in that Lakers series (not quite as badly as the Kings-Lakers later on), and would likely have won the championship w/o that & an unprecedented 4th quarter collapse, but they did indeed lose that year, their best title shot. No, he didn't get another ring, but I believe six is enough for a legacy.

Years later, he claimed he was ripped off by his agents/lawyers and lost most of his fortune, and ended up trying to cash in with the Sundsvall Dragons above.

That was the going rate for his services, so yeah. Even as he was slowed by injury in later years, even with the Rockets & Blazers he regressed from being an elite to an above-average defender. When healthy and in his younger years, he proved himself arguably the greatest defensive small forward in NBA history, and was a skilled slasher/scorer and pre-eminent passer/offensive initiator for his position. But no, he was never a spot-up shooter or 3-point specialist (which everyone but the Rockets front office already knew).

Dawson panicked and traded Pippen for pennies on the dollar, then signed those pennies to multimillion dollar, longterm contracts. Pippen attempted to force the trade by calling out Barkley for being fat/lazy, but shouldn't Dawson share some of that blame for acquiescing to it? He couldn't have gotten a better deal elsewhere? More to the point, is Cato's later contract extension really Scottie Pippen's fault, or Dawson's?

He played poorly.

 

After reading through your strong discussions with theblackknight my opinion of you as a McGrady hater has changed. Your opinion of McGrady is clearly fair and your expectations are not out of reach.

I agree that the what if's are useless as that is all luck we cannot control. Although some slack may be cut for McGrady, being the star that he was he should have ignored it and do the best in what he can control, e.g) effort. Although some may say, why both playing hard defence and diving for loose balls when you teammates are not doing it? That because they see you as the leader and feed off what you do. I know this for a fact as I have played in many different basketball competitions in many different systems. It never really changed. Your team plays the way the leader leads. Many of you will not see McGrady as a leader but I am certain with his "talent" level when he was bought here he had instant respect from his players and they looked up to him as the leader.

You both provide valued arguments in justifing respective beliefs which is superb to read for the garm.

 

I agree with the "leadership" role the McGrady was expected to live up to. The only problem is that McGrady doesnt seem like he ever had the charismatic characteristic in him to be that "leader" like Jordan or Kobe, or even Lebron. And when the effort does show up 110% in all 82 games.. you question is ability to be the "leader".

 

Typo...when effort does NOT show up..

 

Barkley ran him off, as he did Clyde.

 

I don't see how people act like Pippen ruined our future.

We got Pippen as a free agent basically (sign n trade). What did he cost us in the end?

 

They are both Grown @$$ men.... Can't one person run them off...

Barkley sacrficed a lot to come here and gave up a lot to get Pippen...

Weak statement.