Originally Posted by Minstrel

Sorry, I didn't really use your Pippen/Bird/Magic scale. Outside of perhaps Ewing, I'd say all of them were between 9.9 and 9.5 on such a scale and trying to jam 6 players into 4 points of variance doesn't seem to allow for much ability to differentiate players. On the scale I used, Pippen would be a 9.3 or 9.4.

As for Pippen/Barkley, they were rumoured to be traded for each other in their primes (the year Jordan first retired), so at least at the time they were seen as pretty similar. I don't think Barkley was so much more dominant than Pippen offensively that it overwhelms the difference between all-time great defense and legitimately bad defense. Pippen was a better ball-handler and passer, Barkley was a significantly better scorer. Barkley's bigger edge is probably on the boards, where he was great. But Pippen himself was good. All told, I rank Barkley higher, but I don't think they're incomparable.