Mr.Prince

Me and a friend just talked about a combo of Kobe and Mcgrady, and thought that Kobe and McGrady would be something like Jordan and Pippen which lead us to a more specific comparison between T-Mac and Pippen.

What do guys think about McGrady being like Scottie Pippen

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CubanLaker

McGrady is definitely the better offensive threat of the two but Mac doesnt have anywhere near the same defensive mindset as Pippen.

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BadBaronRudigor

That and McGrady seems to do much better as the primary offensive player. He didn't start picking up his intensity and game the last two years until Yao was out, then he really seemed to have more energy and focus as the primary offensive player. (This is based on a pretty small sample of games watched and box scores so anyone that watches Houston regularly please feel free to correct me).

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Carbo04

I like this comparion and think T-Mac would be a great Pippen to Kobe if they played together. T-Mac adjusts well to what he needs to do. Whether it is being a defensive stopper like in Toronto, a 30 PPG scorer like in Orlando, or a playmaker like in Houston. There really isn't anything T-Mac can't do well if he needs to do it. I think he'd adjust to a role as a Pippen with Kobe too and be damn good at it.

Dornado

When Scottie Pippen played he was both:

1. The best perimeter defender in the game
2. Quite possibly the best passing forward in the game.

There's a difference between being a "point forward" because you have a decent handle, and being a "point forward" because you can run an offense, and Scottie could. T-Mac has obviously proven to be a more potent scoring threat... though Scottie played with the scoring champion (8 in a row?) so its a bit hard to tell where he would have ended up sans-Jordan. Overall, offensively, I think they bring different skill sets so its hard to compare.

Defensively, there is no comparison... and that's not T-Mac's fault... few players are worth mentioning in the same sentence as Scottie Pippen in regards to perimeter defense.

T-Mac is the better scorer, Pippen was the better player.

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kflo

pippen averaged more apg than mcgrady did this year once in his career. pippen also played point forward primarily in the context of the triangle, which is different than the classic pg role. tmac is more than a better scorer. he's a better offensive player, by a reasonable margin. he can play the pippen playmaker role, and he can be a dynamic scorer. he's done both.

i'd also call pippen arguably the best perimeter defender, with payton (and jordan if we limit the discussion to early 90s). that said, clearly a much better defender than tmac.

Dornado

This year is also T-Mac's career high in assists... you have to admit looking at the numbers that while T-Mac has decent assist numbers Pippens are consistently better... even after a decline in his late years. Not saying T-Mac is a bad passer, just that I think Pippen was better.

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kflo

pippen's were consistently better because in part he was consistently in a position to be the facilitator. note that the 2 years he had to be more of a scorer were the years his apg dropped. but while tmac has shown the ability to be the facilitator pippen was, pippen never came close to showing he could be the scorer tmac was/is.

my biggest gripe with tmac offensively has been his scoring inefficiency. but he's still clearly superior on that side of the ball to pippen, imo.

arhie

Tmac and Vince would have seen many eastern conference final appearances. If VC never got hurt in 2001-2003 and if they played together since 2000 to now, that would be something. Its 2007 now, they probably would have won at least won ring toghether.