Woody Paige of the Denver Post (yes, that Woody Paige) wrote in today's paper that the Denver Nuggets should sign Scottie Pippen.
My thoughts? The move isn't a "slam dunk" in the basketball vernacular but would probably be a good call. Let's start with the cons, though. First, Pippen is 41 years old and may have nothing left. His last season was 2003-2004-a long time ago by NBA standards-and he put up pretty bad numbers in limited playing time. He was injured much of that year. I assume he's pretty healthy right now, but will that last? And what position would he play with the Nuggets? As a young man, he could play both guard spots and maybe even both forward positions, but I wonder how his speed and lateral quickness have held up. If they haven't, he's stuck at the three, where of course Carmelo Anthony gets the bulk of the minutes. Anthony's not really versatile enough to move to a different position, and Pippen's not enough of an offensive threat now that you can throw both out there and dictate the opposing matchups. Pippen, of course, is a part-timer now, but he might want to go to a team that could conceiveably use him more.
The pros? Plenty of those. (Bros.) Pippen can rebound, pass, defend, and score, and he's an incredibly smart player. He's got no ego-none of the bad kind, anyway-and it would be worth signing him just so Carmelo could watch him work every day. He also seems pretty realistic about this comeback, wanting only to make a contribution, not to be a star. It's possible he'll be one of those old guys who throws a fit if his comeback doesn't work out exactly how he wants it to (call it the Alonzo Mourning Factor), but I don't see that being a problem. Plus, Pippen was part of one of those weird shooting contests early in All-Star weekend, and he still looked right in his uniform. (It helped that it was a Bulls uni-though he needs to ditch the headband.)
Pippen has said he'd like to play for a warm-weather contender which, at least right now, eliminates the Nuggets on both counts. I'm not getting my hopes up. Of course, I felt the same way about Allen Iverson, and look how that turned out. What do you think?
4 comments:
woody paige, what doesn't that guy say. next he'll want the rockies to sign satchell paige, and the broncos to sign bart starr in the event cutler doesn't work out.
he first lost some cred with me for the mormon-olympics thing.
then seeing him on "round the horn" only convinced me that his only worth is providing schaudenfreude-esque amusement for his meth-addict like antics. seeing him in his stretched out bahama ala buffet style shirts with sweat stains in the dead of winter doesn't do anything for his career.
oh, and pippen. why not?
Old players past the prime of their careers, what next? Jerry Rice on the Broncos or Jari Kuri on the Avalanche? That's just absurd!
Don't forget Tony Dorsett...
I agree with both analyses - Woody Paige is an incompetent hack, and we should sign Pippen if we can. I don't expect Pippen will play much, if at all, but he has won a number of rings, and he would bring maturity, leadership, and stability to a team lacking all three. We seem to be playing without any direction, and bringing in a proven winner might help us to refocus.
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