2000 Shaq. He also finished 2nd in defensive player of the year voting.
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2000 Shaq. He also finished 2nd in defensive player of the year voting.
[QUOTE]That 2000 Laker team could have been even better had they kept Rodman and had Phil gotten Scottie Pippen like he wanted. Rice was a bad fit and well past his prime. Rice could've been a great asset for the team had he accepted his role as a spot up shooter instead of bitching about not having plays run for him.[/QUOTE]
Webber also wanted to go there when he was traded from Washington in 1998. Imagine C-Webb with Shaq and Kobe (I think that Elden Campbell and Eddie Jones were going to go to Washington in this proposed trade) and Pippen in 1999-00.
Also, there was a fan on You Tube (8301TheJMan) that was upset when they traded for Pippen and Steve Smith:
[QUOTE]Walt was such an underrated player throughout his career, but especially while at Portland. Nowadays he's remembered as a pure outside shooter, but that's just not the case what so ever. Sure his outside shot was his best attribute, but he was deceptively quick and athletic, and seeing as how deadly a shooter he was, he was great at faking the shot and then driving past the defender to the hoop and back then was still athletic enough to finish at the rim over most rotating help-defenders. And cuz of his size, he was also decent in the post. All in al - he was a much more versatile scorer thn he ever got credit for. His PPG had been creeping up towards 20 a game during his time in Sacramento and then Toronto, and though at Portland his numbers dropped considerably, it had to do entirely with the fact that the 98 and then 99 Blazers teams had one of the deepest stable of SG's and SF's in NBA history. Other than Walt, they also had Isaiah Rider, (who certainly was difficult to work with off the court, but regardless was one of the most talented and versatile scoring 2-guards in the league at the time and though he was a headcase - he was much more impactful on the court than Smitty was by the time Portland got him. Then on top of that - they also had Jimmy Jackson, Stacy Augmon, and a young Bonzi Wells.
That 99 team was so damn stacked good to great players at every positions, not just at the wing. I mean, Sheed was, (and still is), one of the most skilled and versatile PF's in NBA history. As deadly of an outside shooter that he was, he was unstoppable in the post - to go with being a phenomenal defender and rebounder. His biggest problem (aside for getting so many tech-fouls of course) was that he simply was never comfortable with being THE Man and was simply far too unselfish. If he had KG's or Duncan's assertiveness and willingness to step up and be that go-to scorer - demanding the ball every time down the court, then he would have been the legit best PF of all time! He had every bit as many unstoppable post moves as either Tim or Kevin, was much quicker and more athletic than Tim also a much better mid-rage and outside jump shot. Then was maybe not quite as athletic and fast and KG, but was much stronger and was a much better overall post defender. After Sheed they had Sabonis (one of the the top five Centers in the league during the late 90's), Brian Grant - who is one of the most underrated PF's in the league back then, and woulda put up much better number while at Portland, but similar Walt - he was having to share a bunch of PT with Sheed and a young Jermaine O'Neal. Then there was Damon, who was easily one of the top 3 or 4 best scoring PG's in the league at the time, though that teams actually needed more of a pass-first floor general, due to them already having plenty of guys who can scorer. Though he became much more of a true PG while in Portland than he ever was anywhere else, they also had the extremely underrated Greg Anthony, who imo the much more of the sort of PG that that team needed, a pass-first flor general who was also a ridiculously good on-ball defender.
That team was way better than the 2000 and then 2001 teams. They traded the troubled Rider along with the highly underrated Jimmy Jackson, who had knee injuries earlier in his career which was why he wasn't nearly the elite SG that he was in Dallas , but was still a great all-around SG/SF, who was - like Rider, a much more complete and versatile player than Steve Smith at that point in each of their careers. Trading just Rider would have been a bad trade by itself, but to give away both Rider and Jimmy, that was a travesty. Smith was never the most versatile player who was a crap defender and a very one-dimensional offensive skill-set - even back when he was in his prime a few years earlier, and by the time Portland got him he was pretty washed up, and was nothing more than a deadly outside shooter. To trade Walt, Stace, Greg Anthony, Cato, and the kitchen sink in order to acquire the even more washed-up Pippen was a compete waste. If they had kept that team together, they without any doubt would have eventually won the title and would have been contenders for at least another three or so seasons. Where as, by bringing in old over-the hill guys who weren't much, (if any at all), improvements on the slue of younger players they dealt away to get these dinosaurs, they pretty much doomed any and all potential longevity. Sorry for the rant, but that team was the Blazers team that I grew up with and made me become the hardcore Blazers fan that I am today, and I was devastated when I found out Portland traded away nearly half their effing team in order to get two over the hill former greats in Pippen and Smith. Watching this vid triggered the intense hatred I had, and still to this day - have towards Whitsitt for ruining a team that obviously was on the previous of becoming a major power in the western conference for a significantly longer period of time than they ended up being as a result of those idiotic trades.
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Pippen made Jordan average 41 ppg to 3-peat and 5 more PPG than everyone in playoff history... If a team needs 41 ppg from the top guy, then it's a BAD cast... 2 + 2 = 4.... And both the Bulls and Suns averaged exactly 106.7 ppg in that series, so all of Jordans 41 was needed... Pippen also shot 47% true shooting, so he couldn't handle additional load.
History shows that Pippen was a Shawn Marion level player... Or Iguodala.. Larry Nance... That type of player... So the idea that he was the perfect sidekick is bs... Shaq would've been a better sidekick.. Or Duncan... Hundreds of guys... Kemp... Marion... Iggy... Hundreds more
I take Jordan '91 just because he can control a game late in the 4th quarter and have the ball in his hands, whereas Shaq could be a liability with his free throws.
But Shaq was a monster that year, I might take 2000 Shaq over any version of LeBron or Kareem.
That said ... if Pippen could make a damn jump shot, Portland should have been in the 2000 Finals. That's where he needed to step up and hit some shots to stem the tide for the Blazers, you're a 6 time champion dude. Make a damn shot and settle your group down.