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Originally Posted by Najee
I would like to know, because I didn't see a game where Clyde Drexler was supposedly stymied by Scottie Pippen.
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Pippen did an excellent job on Drexler in the 1992 Finals. In Game 1, Drexler shot 36% with 4 TOs and Pippen was one rebound short of a triple double (24-10-9). In Game 2, Drexler shot 40% but defended Jordan for much of the game. You can’t blame him for struggling slightly offensively, especially since he did get the win. Pippen was 2 rebounds short of a triple double (16-10-8). In Game 3, Drexler has his best game of the series. He finished with 32, 9, and 8. He shot 12 for 12 from the free throw line. Both he and Pippen had 5 turnovers. Pippen actually did do most of the defensive work on Drexler in that game. Clyde just had it going.
In Games 4, 5, and 6, Drexler shot a combined 38% from the field with 10 turnovers. Jordan defended Pippen for stretches in Game 4 and 6, but Pippen had the assignment almost exclusively in Game 5. In that crucial game, Drexler fouled out. Three of those fouls were offensive fouls. Two of them were actually drawn by Pippen. The other was forced by Pippen’s defensive pressure. Pippen was one assist from a triple double (24-9-10). I’m not saying Scottie was a Drexler-stopper. I’m just saying Pippen did a very good job of limiting his open looks and preventing him from living in the lane.
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In fact, Drexler is an overall better player than Pippen, who seems to be even more overrated on this board than he was during his career.
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That one Finals series notwithstanding, I agree that Drexler was a better overall player. His offensive advantage over Scottie outweighed Pippen’s defensive advantage over the course of their careers. I don’t know how overrated or underrated his is on these boards, but Pippen was a legitimate hall-of-fame caliber player in his prime.
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The Class of '87 is being overrated a bit here (the group has two eventual hall of famers in Pippen and David Robinson and likely a third -- though somewhat borderline -- in Reggie Miller).
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Pippen, D Rob, and Reggie are stone cold locks. Kevin Johnson’s case is borderline, but I think he’ll eventually get in. Mark Jackson has an outside shot given his gaudy career assist total, and Horace Grant is even a distant possibility (HOF Monitor score 121).
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I would say a young Ralph Sampson is not a big dropoff (if any) from David Robinson
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I would say there’s a pretty big difference between young Ralph Sampson and prime-level David Robinson. Sampson might have been a slightly better rebounder, but Robinson was clearly the superior offensive player of the two in production and efficiency. But if you ignore that all together, D Rob’s defensive skills far outweigh anything Sampson produced in his short career.
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The '83 group actually seems to have a better group of scorers. The '87 group was three good to exceptional defenders (Robinson, Pippen and Horace Grant) but that's it. Not to mention there seems to be some garbage near the end of the '87 bench (at least, what you posted seems to be garbage -- Dennis Hopson? Reggie Williams?). I'll have to give a review later.
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You’re right about the scorers on the 1983 team. Also, the bench for the 1987 team is actually what kept them from being #1-caliber in this tournament. I actually wouldn’t include Dennis Hopson in my bench, incidentally. I went with Ken Norman and Olden Polynice over him.