Houston Rockets: Creating the all-time, one-year starting five

Houston Rockets Starting SF – Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen has been getting beaten up left and right recently after his portrayal in The Last Dance painted him in a fairly negative light. Since then, we’ve tackled the failed experiment of the Rockets acquiring the six-time NBA champion from every angle, highlighting both the good and bad aspects of the attempted superteam gone wrong.

With all that being said, there’s no denying Pippen’s résumé. Not only was Scottie a six-time champion and seven-time All-Star before even reaching Houston, but he was also already established as one of the best defenders the NBA has ever seen.

Although Charles Barkley took a pay cut to make room for Pippen, the two had a highly-publicized feud throughout the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season that certainly didn’t help the team’s chemistry.

At age 33, Scottie certainly had plenty left in the tank when he signed with the Rockets, but the aging nucleus around him wasn’t quite enough to get it done, as Houston fell to the Lakers in four games in the first round.

While Houston gave Scottie the contract he should’ve gotten years before in Chicago, there’s still a debate about whether he ever lived up to that to this day.

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