Scottie Pippen or Clyde Drexler

[97 bulls]

Pippen is nowhere near as skilled as Bird.

Bird was more skilled offensivly. Pippen was a much more versitle basketball player.

[Bring-Your-Js]

why, he's not

Reading "pippen is the most skilled sf of all time"

[guy]

Drexler has to be most overrated player post retirement ever. Jesus.

Pippen>>>>>>

Actually that label easily belongs to Pippen. At least from that era.

[Bigsmoke]

Pippen

[Bigsmoke]

Bird was more skilled offensivly. Pippen was a much more versitle basketball player.

umm... Bird >>> Pippen > Drexler

[bizil]

Pippen is nowhere near as skilled as Bird.

Let me explain first that Bird is the better player clearly. But skill for skill, I feel Pip is the best SF ever. The defensive aspects and ball handling go to Pippen. Slashing to the hole goes to Pippen. Pip wasn't a Batman, but was a great 2nd option and could get 21-23 points. Pound for pound, Pip was an above average rebounder at SF. Passing wise I will say Bird, but not by much at all. And Bird is the better shooter. Rebounding will go to Bird, but Bird was bigger and played a lot of PF. But it's not a stretch at all to say skill for skill Pip is better then Bird. Or vice versa. But most skilled doesn't always mean the better player. Cause Vlade Divac is more skilled than Shaq. But Shaq is obviously the better player.

[caliman]

Pip

[Bigsmoke]

Let me explain first that Bird is the better player clearly. But skill for skill, I feel Pip is the best SF ever. The defensive aspects and ball handling go to Pippen. Slashing to the hole goes to Pippen. Pip wasn't a Batman, but was a great 2nd option and could get 21-23 points. Pound for pound, Pip was an above average rebounder at SF. Passing wise I will say Bird, but not by much at all. And Bird is the better shooter. Rebounding will go to Bird, but Bird was bigger and played a lot of PF. But it's not a stretch at all to say skill for skill Pip is better then Bird. Or vice versa. But most skilled doesn't always mean the better player. Cause Vlade Divac is more skilled than Shaq. But Shaq is obviously the better player.

so shooting, passing, scoring, efficiency, and rebounding are skills?

If Pippen was more skilled then he would be better.. simple as that. Its not like Bird was more athletic.

[bizil]

Bird was more skilled offensivly. Pippen was a much more versitle basketball player.

Exactly what I was saying! Bird was more skilled offensively. But among SF's Pip is arguably the greatest ball handler and defender ever. He's right up there for passing and he's been known to get 8 boards in a season. Pip was a very good offensive player and an EPIC defender. And Pip was freak athlete in his prime. Once again I feel Bird was the better player and insanely skilled himself. But guys like Pip, Lebron, and Havlicek can do things on defense Bird can't touch. All three had point forward qualities as does Bird. Pip was a very good offensive player AND an EPIC Defender. Bird was an EPIC offensive player and AVERAGE man to man defender. Bird and Magic were very good team defenders. Pip was an awesome defender in every way. But once again, Bird is clearly the better player than Pip.

[bizil]

so shooting, passing, scoring, efficiency, and rebounding are skills?

If Pippen was more skilled then he would be better.. simple as that. Its not like Bird was more athletic.

That's not true at all. When I'm talking skills I'm talking more in terms of versatility. In other words how many things can you do very well to great. There are very few great defensive players at the SF who are ALSO very good to great offensive players scoring wise, have point forward or point guard skills, and are very good to above average rebounders for their position. The only ones I can think of are:

Bron
Pippen
Havlicek
Prime Grant Hill


That's very select company. Most great defenders at the SG or SF aren't as skilled in other areas as as these guys. What makes Bird the best SF of all time is being a true Batman, an all time great shooter, clutch, excellent passing, and excellent rebounding. What made Pip great was being an excellent rebounder pound for pound, excellent passer, excellent defender, excellent ball handler and very good scorer. If Pip was as good as scoring and clutch as Bird, I feel Pip would be better than Bird. Perimeter wise, A great offensive player and great defender all in one is usually better than a great offensive player and average man on man defender. That's the lesson MJ taught Bird and Magic when he eclipsed them back in the day.

[97 bulls]

That's not true at all. When I'm talking skills I'm talking more in terms of versatility. In other words how many things can you do very well to great. There are very few great defensive players at the SF who are ALSO very good to great offensive players scoring wise, have point forward or point guard skills, and are very good to above average rebounders for their position. The only ones I can think of are:

Bron
Pippen
Havlicek
Prime Grant Hill


That's very select company. Most great defenders at the SG or SF aren't as skilled in other areas as as these guys. What makes Bird the best SF of all time is being a true Batman, an all time great shooter, clutch, excellent passing, and excellent rebounding. What made Pip great was being an excellent rebounder pound for pound, excellent passer, excellent defender, excellent ball handler and very good scorer. If Pip was as good as scoring and clutch as Bird, I feel Pip would be better than Bird. Perimeter wise, A great offensive player and great defender all in one is usually better than a great offensive player and average man on man defender. That's the lesson MJ taught Bird and Magic when he eclipsed them back in the day.

They understnd what your trying to explain biz. They just don't want to acknowledge it. The best example you used was the shaq/divac example. That apparently went right over their head.

[NugzHeat3]

I don't consider defense a skill. It's more about effort and intelligence. Of course, if you have other characteristics such as length, lateral quicks ect ect on top of those two things, it's gonna help even more.

guy, Pippen is not as overrated as Drexler was in the 90s.

He may get overrated right now but during the 90s, safe to say, Drexler was more overrated of the two.

Even the coaches picked him as the most overrated player sometime during the 90s.

[bizil]

I don't consider defense a skill. It's more about effort and intelligence. Of course, if you have other characteristics such as length, lateral quicks ect ect on top of those two things, it's gonna help even more.

guy, Pippen is not as overrated as Drexler was in the 90s.

He may get overrated right now but during the 90s, safe to say, Drexler was more overrated of the two.

Even the coaches picked him as the most overrated player sometime during the 90s.

Defense is indeed a skill. Why do u work on it in practice? Why do they keep stats for steals and blocks? Guys like Bruce Bowen and Michael Cooper were highly skilled at defense. Scoring can also be about effort and intelligence. My only complaint about Pip is that he didn't put enough EFFORT into scoring that time MJ was playing baseball. That team needed a bit more scoring to go farther in the playoffs. He still had an MVP caliber season though and was awesome. But if Pip put more EFFORT into scoring, he would be a top 15-20 player of all time point blank. Scoring also takes intelligence. Guys like JR Smith could always be in the top 10 n the L in scoring if he was more INTELLIGENT in his shot selection.

[Smoke117]

Pippen. Drexler was a better scorer but I don't really think by that much. His efficiency was never really grandiose or anything...he just took more shots. Either way better scorer or not, Pippen was a vastly superior defensive player, a game changer. Drexler was good himself but he wasn't a game changer. Both good all around players but I have to give that to Pippen because of his pg instincts. When the Bulls and Blazers met in 92 I've always thought that the Bulls had the two best players on their team: Jordan and Pippen. The whole series was built around the Jordan/Drexler match up, but Drexler wasn't even the 2nd best player on the court.

[eliteballer]

You guys are really underrating what being the second option to Jordan does for Pippen and his game.