>Pippen was all-world defensively (10-time all defensive team)
>- and could score with super versatility. He was an original
>all-purpose swiss-knife wing superstar - and it enabled Jordan
>to be able to focus on volume scoring - knowing that Pip would
>be there to do everything else. That's a luxury LeBron has
>never had. Wade never defended at an elite-level during
>Bron's Miami years. And Irving was more of a liability than
>an asset defensively.
on the flip side....because Jordan demanded so much attention from teams on the defensive end, how about Pippen having a much easier time getting his buckets and focusing on other things since he didn't HAVE to score a lot of points?

>Could Jordan have carried a heavier load? Perhaps - but how
>heavy? He didn't fare well at all early in his career against
>competent playoff teams. We know how LeBron has performed
>when tasked to carry a heavy load. Nobody has carried a
>heavier one than he did in 2017-2018 - and he achieved with
>GOAT productivity/results.

A Milwaukee Bucks team that almost won 60 games and the Boston Celtics of the 80s. Those were not competent, they were SUPERIOR teams. It's convenient to act like he just shot the ball but he was also getting steady rebounds and assists. The scoring load that MJ took on with respect to his rebounds and assists was MUCH higher proportionally than the "everything else" that Pippen took on with lower scoring numbers.

LeBron stat hounding/productivity comes from having the ball in his hands almost all of the time. It also comes at the expense of having more teammates who are ready when the moment comes for them. Paxson and Kerr were very solid role players/specialists who stepped up when the moment called for them, but let's not act like they were EVER anything more than that. The big shift was in Jordan starting to trust more of his teammates and letting everyone work within the system, not just giving them the ball when he chose to and expecting them to be in a rhythm regardless.