I won't look up their team record game-by-game so I will use the all-star break as a proxy since that is around when the trade happened. The Hawks were 34-13 before the ASG, 23-12 after it. That is a negligible difference, especially when you factor in the adjustment period after such a major trade. How dominant could Wilkins be if you could trade him for a two-time all-star and not skip a beat?
How about the Clippers? 16-29 before the ASG, 11-26 afterwards. His "dominance" had little impact on either team, even though he was putting up 29/7/2 on the Clippers.
How many rings did English, Gervin, King, and Wilkins win? Gervin never reached the NBA finals. I think King and I know Wilkins never got out the second round. How could this be if they were "unstoppable", clutch and as dominant as you say they were?
Why are you comparing Pippen to players like Jordan, Kobe, Magic, and Oscar? No one has ever said he was at that level.
That is very biased. You are comparing Wilkins to Carmelo and Durant and Pippen to non-all-stars like those three? Is Odom even averaging 10 points this year?
I understand your argument and it is a legitimate one but where are the results? If Wilkins was the dominant force you are making him out to be why did he never get out the second round? The Jordan card does not work. Pippen in one prime season without Jordan did much better than Wilkins did in his typical season.
Great point. If Wilkins had a bad shooting night he was useless. He averaged 2-3 assists in his prime and was not a great defender. Pippen could put up 10/4/4 and still dominate a game defensively (see Game 3 of the 98' finals). Or how about Game 1 one the 98' ECF when he scored only 4 points?
http://www.nba.com/bulls/history/pippen10_980517.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...jackson/090216
(Funny how all these Dream Team players wanted to be a "mere sidekick" who was never a "superstar."
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Keep in mind Pippen's PER was deflated by being his team's primary playmaker/ballhandler since that resulted in an increased number of turnovers. This is why no PG has ever led the league in PER and no PG is top 10 all-time in PER and only two are top 20.
Pippen made his teammates better. The things that separated him from typical 20 ppg scorers don't show up on the stat sheet: defense, leadership, defense, making his teammates better, defense, playmaking, defense. This is why he tends to be underrated.
You also can't just look at scoring because Pippen was the de facto PG of the Bulls. He was asked to facilitate first, score second. Wilkins' role was to score first so the 7-9 ppg difference can't be viewed at face value.
These are false choices because you are taking extreme cases like Shaq or Carmelo versus Iggy. It would be like saying would you rather have Bill Walton or Patrick Ewing? Prime Baron Davis or prime Jason Kidd? 10' Chris Kaman or 10' Dwight Howard? Danny Granger or Bill Russell? Troy Murphy or Dennis Rodman? Etc. The superior scorer is not always the better player. If you believe that then you have have to select Ewing, Davis, Kaman, Granger, and Murphy in these comparisons since they were/are much better scorers than the other guy.