Scottie Pippen Hopes to Be Traded to Suns (1995)

[SamuraiSWISH]

Pippen was always crying, pouting, and moaning. Damn.

[andgar923]

Dat leadership from day 1

[mehyaM24]

thankfully chicago came to their senses. jordan would have never came back without pippen (the bulls would have no captain, creator, lead defender or offensive conductor)

i dont think they miss the playoffs with just jordan, but it would be like the 80s, where he was 1-9 without pippen.

[Soundwave]

Jordan probably would've come back anyway, he just would've signed elsewhere, like with the Knicks or (gulp) Lakers or something. Phil probably would've bounced too.

Scottie was on the "verge" of being traded every year or demanding a trade like every year from 1994 onwards, lol.

This wasn't anything rare in the 90s.

[Poetry]

Pippen was always crying, pouting, and moaning. Damn.

To be fair, there were points when management considered Grant and then Kukoc to be more of a priority than Pip. They had a knack for making him feel like he was expendable.

[andgar923]

To be fair, there were points when management considered Grant and then Kukoc to be more of a priority than Pip. They had a knack for making him feel like he was expendable.

And perhaps he was

There was other small forwards that could've complimented MJ and taken over Pip's sidekick role.

Would they have won? who knows.

But put a small forward that was a good defender, and could handle the ball a bit and he may excel under the triangle next to MJ.

[Roundball_Rock]

To be fair, there were points when management considered Grant and then Kukoc to be more of a priority than Pip. They had a knack for making him feel like he was expendable.

It is amazing that team won 6 rings despite the war between management (read: Krause) and the players. It is hilarious Krause thought Kukoc would be a superstar.

[Soundwave]

Krause was a moron.

He was lucky enough to draft the greatest player of all time because Portland had a brain fart.

Then he gambled on the Pippen pick and that paid off so that in time Jordan had a good no.2 to play with.

But really otherwise he was a moron GM who antagonized all his players and Phil.

Oakley for Cartwright IMO was a mistake, they should've kept Oakley, they would've been even better in time, Cartwright wasn't doing anything special by the time the Bulls started winning titles that most average 7 foot stiffs couldn't do.

I think he also passed on Danny Ainge just to spite MJ. Ainge was a good player.

[DJ Leon Smith]

Krause was a moron.

He was lucky enough to draft the greatest player of all time because Portland had a brain fart.

Then he gambled on the Pippen pick and that paid off so that in time Jordan had a good no.2 to play with.

Actually Krause didn't draft Jordan, Rod Thorn did. The Pippen trade was a huge risk (and was clowned a lot at the time) so Krause can take credit for that though.

[Soundwave]

Actually Krause didn't draft Jordan, Rod Thorn did. The Pippen trade was a huge risk (and was clowned a lot at the time) so Krause can take credit for that though.

Yeah I'll correct that, he was lucky enough to inherit the best player ever.

You should be expected to bring home multiple titles in that scenario.

[Roundball_Rock]

Krause was good as a GM in the sense of assembling teams but bad in terms of managing players, contracts, egos, etc. Jackson used Krause as a foil to motivate the players.

Every player on those championship teams outside of MJ got there under Krause's watch. Krause was able to constantly re-tool the Bulls to keep them at the top--Pippen and Jordan were the only players to be on all the championship teams. The Cartwright-Oakley trade was because Grant made Oakley expendable and Cartwright gave them a center to defend Ewing and Daughtery. He drafted Kukoc at a time when it was not common to draft foreign players. He acquired Kerr when Kerr was the 12th man on Orlando the previous year. He pulled off the Rodman trade, remedying the Bulls' biggest weakness with the best possible player to fill it--and got Rodman for backup center Will Perdue.

Krause sucked at drafting after the Bulls kept getting high picks, though (he did pretty well with high picks, getting Pippen and Grant in the same year). Kukoc is the only low pick who produced. Krause also likely cost the Bulls a championship in 94' but failing to pull the trigger on the Hornacek trade, preferring to keep the Bulls' first round pick (which turned out to be Dickey Simpkins ). Keep in mind the context in which that happened: New York's starting PG, Doc Rivers, had just went down and Chicago was in a close race with New York and Atlanta for the #1 seed. New York got Derek Harper to replace Rivers while the Bulls did nothing to fill their gaping hole at SG.

How good was Krause? 6 rings and perennial contention for a decade speaks for itself but he did benefit from inheriting Jordan and luck. He was badly exposed after Jordan, Jackson, Pippen left Chicago.

Then he gambled on the Pippen pick and that paid off so that in time Jordan had a good no.2 to play with.

In effect they took Pippen with the 8th pick (Seattle picked Pippen at 5th on behalf of Chicago and Seattle got Polynice from the 8th pick). He was a player other teams wanted. If Krause did not engineer the Seattle trade Sacramento would have taken him at #6. Detroit was trying to trade up to get him too--imagine Pippen hitting his prime while Isiah declined (do the Pistons win in 91' and perhaps 92' as well?). Saying Pippen was a gamble is like saying Grant was at 10th or Stacey King was at 6th. A player picked where Pippen was is projected to be an all-star. He turned out to be a superstar (which is what Detroit projected him as). If he didn't pan out it wouldn't have been a big loss like with a #1 pick. There was no major risk they were taking. He had more upside than the players taken after him. In effect, Krause swung for the fences and succeeded.

[Soundwave]

Krause had one really good draft with Pippen + Grant ... thankfully really that's all he needed.

His other draft picks stank up the joint.

[Roundball_Rock]

Krause had one really good draft with Pippen + Grant ... thankfully really that's all he needed.

His other draft picks stank up the joint.

Well I will give him credit for Kukoc and Armstrong too, who were key contributors on multiple championship teams (although Kukoc was a free roll as a late 2nd round pick--who cared if he sucked). at taking King at #6 and Perdue at #11, though. After the Bulls stopped having high picks he could not draft even a legitimate rotation player. Corie Blount, Dickey Simpkins, Jason Coffey, etc.? The Bulls' bench rotation consisted of players from elsewhere like Kukoc, Kerr, Wennington.

[Poetry]

And perhaps he was

There was other small forwards that could've complimented MJ and taken over Pip's sidekick role.

Would they have won? who knows.

But put a small forward that was a good defender, and could handle the ball a bit and he may excel under the triangle next to MJ.

They definitely could have retooled around MJ. I don't doubt that.

But Pip should never have been making less than Kukoc.

Come to think of it, I think Kukoc was even making more than MJ had made in years prior.

[Beastmode88]

So, Jordan almost ended his career with 3 rings. He was damn lucky that Pippen didn't change team.

MJ crossing fingers during that interview.

Dragic talking to himself again?