A New Comparison

Pippen vs Wade/Bosh

  • Scottie Pippen

    Votes: 12 80.0%

  • Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • Total voters
    15
sportstalent said:
This comparison is skewed because you are going to compare Pippen to Wade or Bosh, both of whom Pippen was a far better player than. As much as it pains me to say this, Pippen is one of the best players to play the game, but he had to play with arguably the best player in the game beside him. Now, do I think that helped Pippen greatly, absolutely, but he also was able to flourish in that role and not crumble when others in similar situations struggled.

There is nothing that Pippen couldn't do, which I can't say that for Wade/Bosh. Wade was a great player until the injuries began to pile up, but the thing is, he is still one of the better players in the game today when healthy, but he is not one of the greats of all-time. Bosh does a lot of little things well, but again, not an all-time great player.

The Laker, Boston, Bulls and Pistons teams of the mid to late 80's through the Bulls run in the 90's would own any team today, including the Laker teams with Shaq/Kobe. Why? They weren't just Shaq/Kobe or Scottie/Micheal or Magic/Kareem or Bird/McHale. The supporting casts on those teams had moments where they were all-start caliber players and also played as teams. I don't think the teams today are anywhere near as deeply talented as they were in that time. Also, those Rocket teams that won were pretty good and the Knicks, Pacers, Suns, Jazz teams had more talent overall than teams today.

The NBA is becoming a better league again and as much as people don't like the one and done, it is separating some of the chumps from going straight to the league and that is a good thing. I would like to see a two and done rule, but for some reason the NBA thinks they need to get these kids earlier. As a basketball fan I would like the two and done far better as it would still continue to separate the kids that just don't belong in the NBA from being there and maybe they get an education that they can actually use and not a year or two that becomes just a time in their life.
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Wade was the best player on a championship team. And, according to Bill Simmons (who I respect) is the 4th best 2 guard in history (behind MJ, Kobe, and Jerry West). That's pretty good. I am not saying he's better than Pippen, but I do think he's an all-time great player at his position.

Here's the snippet that describes Wade, from this link --> http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9261768/nba-trade-value-part-3

He's the fourth-best 2-guard ever behind MJ, Kobe and The Logo. Nice company. Barring an untimely injury or a massive upset, he's seven weeks away from his third ring. If Miami gets through these last three rounds with minimal damage — say, five losses or fewer — Wade will clinch "second-best player on one of the best teams ever" status. (Of course, if he doesn't start playing better soon, they're not winning anything. He might be more banged up than they're letting on.) He was also the 2006 Finals MVP, one of 28 players who won the award since 1969. He has made nine straight All-Star Games and seven All-NBA teams (two firsts, three seconds, two thirds — not counting this season), and he's won an All-Star MVP (in 2010) and a gold medal (in 2008).

Wait, we're not done. He's part of the NBA's "What if?" draft lore (Darko over Melo and Wade), an officiating nadir (the 2006 Finals), WTF history ("The Decision") and meaningful history (Miami's incredible 27-game winning streak). He's the five-time MVP of the "Most Misspelled NBA Name" All-Star team, as well as a five-time member of the John Stockton "I'm Much More Ruthless and Sneaky-Dirty Than People Realize" All-Stars. His 2008-09 season (30.2 PPG, 7.5 APG, 5.0 APG, 49% FG, 30.4 PER) ranks up there with the best statistical seasons by any guard ever. And John Hollinger ranked his 2006 Finals performance (34.8 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 47% FG, 33.8 PER) as THE greatest since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.

Translation: That was a pretty incredible first NBA decade for Dwyane Wade … and we didn't even mention his Machiavellian ploy of convincing his biggest rival to join forces with him.

OK, so what's happening in Decade 2? Why does Wade keep getting banged up? Should we worry that his body is breaking down? Can Wade subtly redefine his offensive game the way Kobe and MJ did? Shouldn't we worry that his per-game free throw attempts dropped over the past five seasons from 9.8 to 6.2? Or what about his perennially lousy 3-point shooting (career: 28.9 percent) atrophying to the point that he's only attempting one a game these days? Doesn't he need to keep adding pieces to his game? If there's a positive sign, it's this.

Player A: 25.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.6 APG, 45.6% FG, 33% 3FG, 19.9 FGA, 6.9 FTA, 21.9 PER.
Player B: 22.0 PPG, 5.3 APG, 5.2 RPG, 52.1% FG, 26% 3FG, 16.5 FGA, 6.4 FTA, 24.0 PER.

Player A? 31-year-old Kobe Bryant's per-36 minute numbers during the 2009-10 season.

Player B? Dwyane Wade's per-36 minute numbers this season.

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I agree on Bosh - really good player, but not an all-timer.
 
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Agree with Woody. Pippen is a terrific side kick but Wade was a little better in his prime. He won a title as a go to guy, won a Finals MVP, which gives him a slight edge over Pippen for me. They have very similar All NBA team selections, both have been First or Second Team All-NBA team guys five times. Pippen was a better defender, Wade a better scorer. Also, even though it's a very small sample size, Pippen did not have a great post season in his one season with the Bulls as "the guy". I just think he's the type of guy who's better off as a second option unlike Wade.

As a sidekick Pippen had a huge advantage of developing with Jordan and being able to tailor his game to play off his. Wade has had to adopt to playing alongside LeBron after being an All-NBA go to guy for many years. If Wade had been able to come into the league playing with LeBron and developing together, I think he would have went down as possibly the greatest second option in league history.

Bosh is a very good, but not Hall of Fame level player.
 
hawkfan33 said:
Agree with Woody. Pippen is a terrific side kick but Wade was a little better in his prime. He won a title as a go to guy, won a Finals MVP, which gives him a slight edge over Pippen for me. They have very similar All NBA team selections, both have been First or Second Team All-NBA team guys five times. Pippen was a better defender, Wade a better scorer. Also, even though it's a very small sample size, Pippen did not have a great post season in his one season with the Bulls as "the guy". I just think he's the type of guy who's better off as a second option unlike Wade.

As a sidekick Pippen had a huge advantage of developing with Jordan and being able to tailor his game to play off his. Wade has had to adopt to playing alongside LeBron after being an All-NBA go to guy for many years. If Wade had been able to come into the league playing with LeBron and developing together, I think he would have went down as possibly the greatest second option in league history.

Bosh is a very good, but not Hall of Fame level player.
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And Pippen's side kick was...Toni Kukoc?
 
hawkfan33 said:
Kukoc, plus All-stars in Horace Grant and BJ Armstrong. Even without Jordan there was a real solid core on those Bulls teams.
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Because those guys could replace everything that Jordan could do.

It took Chicago to have Jordan come back and bring in Rodman and guys like Ron Harper.
 
sportstalent said:
Because those guys could replace everything that Jordan could do.

It took Chicago to have Jordan come back and bring in Rodman and guys like Ron Harper.
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Not sure where you're going with this, your second sentence doesn't even make sense. The Bulls without Jordan did win 57 games though so they were a solid squad. Pippen was a great player especially in a sidekick role, Wade was a great player as a lead dog which is why I would put him in his prime as being better than Pippen.
 
hawkfan33 said:
Agree with Woody. Pippen is a terrific side kick but Wade was a little better in his prime. He won a title as a go to guy, won a Finals MVP, which gives him a slight edge over Pippen for me. They have very similar All NBA team selections, both have been First or Second Team All-NBA team guys five times. Pippen was a better defender, Wade a better scorer. Also, even though it's a very small sample size, Pippen did not have a great post season in his one season with the Bulls as "the guy". I just think he's the type of guy who's better off as a second option unlike Wade.

As a sidekick Pippen had a huge advantage of developing with Jordan and being able to tailor his game to play off his. Wade has had to adopt to playing alongside LeBron after being an All-NBA go to guy for many years. If Wade had been able to come into the league playing with LeBron and developing together, I think he would have went down as possibly the greatest second option in league history.

Bosh is a very good, but not Hall of Fame level player.
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So Chauncey Billups is the 4th best pg in league history because he did lead the Pistons to title, oh wait, Rip Hamilton led the team in scoring that year, so he is like the 5th best 2 guard ever.:) I kid, I kid. Seriously, I am having difficulty wrapping my head around Wade being the 4th best 2 guard ever. Simmons/Grantland is like information overload I literally have to think about what he is saying. so i gotta think about this one a bit. i have to admit at age 31 I didn't realize Kobe/Wade's numbers were so close.
 
hawkfan33 said:
Not sure where you're going with this, your second sentence doesn't even make sense. The Bulls without Jordan did win 57 games though so they were a solid squad. Pippen was a great player especially in a sidekick role, Wade was a great player as a lead dog which is why I would put him in his prime as being better than Pippen.
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My whole point is you can't win in the NBA with an incomplete team and you have to have more than one elite player to win. Otherwise, OKC would be in the finals.

Jordan is arguably the greatest player ever, but you can't substitute his production with a couple of guys that look a heck of a lot better when he was there. I still feel Pippen is the better player than Wade...he did everything very well.
 
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