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* DPOY Marc Gasol won 55 games and lost in 2nd Round
* Kyle Lowry won 55 with 2nd Round loss
* KJ won 55 and made the WCF in 89' and 90'
So
everyone wins 55 with 2nd Round loss...
The only reason people revere Pippen for doing it is because it was such a shock (a testament to MJ's greatness and carry-jobs).
Ultimately, the triangle was a 55-win offense if run to perfection, but only MJ or his clone (kobe) could win with it.. they literally invented the quick-iso footwork needed to maximize production (average 30) within the offense..
Indeed, the triangle sets up role players on many possessions, but still requires bailouts throughout the game - so the offense was nothing for 50 years until it met the goat bailout artists it required to win (the quick-iso goats MJ/Kobe).. then it won 11 rings in 18 years.
* AD averaged more points than Lebron in the 2020 Playoffs
* Wade averaged more in the 2011 Playoffs
* Kyrie averaged the same in the 2016 Playoffs
But don't be ashamed for Lebron because
everyone in history needed an equal-scoring partner (1b) for half of their rings except the goat, who won 6 rings with a true 2nd option that averaged far less in every playoffs.
Teammate scoring matters because equal-scoring teammates attract equal defensive attention, so only MJ faced "1-man team" defensive attention for his entire career, (thus giving maximum integrity to his stats and rings).. Kenny Smith talks about MJ being the only 1-man show
here.
So rings with 1b's are inferior to rings with 2nd options and Jordan has 4
more rings with 2nd options than anyone else in history - that's his irrefutable goat argument.
Most people don't realize that everyone in history had teammates that led in scoring for entire playoff runs, whereas pippen never got within 10 ppg of Jordan in any SERIES... so no one faced comparable defensive attention or has comparable ring quality to Jordan..
Infact, everyone that won 3 Finals needed a teammate to win FMVP or average 25 ppg for at least 1 of the Finals.. But Pippen is 0/6 in FMVP and peaked at 21 ppg, so only MJ could win 3 or 3-peat with Pippen.
* The Bulls had the #7 defense during the 1st three-peat, including inferior defenses in 2 of 3 Finals and 2 of 3 ECF.
So the poor defense of teammates apparently offset Pippen's good defense, thus resulting in inferior
team defense - this shows that individual defense is less impactful than a 2nd option scoring role (there's only one such role)..
Unfortunately, Pippen's peak of 22 ppg is 6 to 10 points less than elite 1st options like Wade, AD, Kobe, Curry, etc - so he was a true 2nd option, and therefore inferior to the elite 1st option sidekicks that every other top 10 player enjoyed.. Only Jordan lacked an elite 1st option sidekick - he was stuck with Pippen and an inferior team defense.
Otoh, Lebron can't win with pippen because it requires dominating the scoring load (scoring way more than sidekick while beating good teams), which lebron never did.. He never beat a top 5 SRS team with poor scoring and efficiency from a sidekick (zero carry-jobs against good teams in 2 decades of playing).
And why can't Lebron beat good teams via carry-job??... it's because he's poor at the additional contested jumpshooting required of higher volume loads (the stats show he avoids and rarely attempts contested jumpers).. So he needs elite 1st options to play sidekick and therefore can't win with a "pippen" sidekick..
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Last edited by 3balI; 03-09-2021 at 03:28 PM.