The Tape
Was Scottie Pippen better than Joel Embiid?
Scottie Pippen, 1987-2004, against Joel Embiid, 2016-present. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Joel Embiid is the bigger scorer: 32.9 a game in 2022-23 against 24.7 for Scottie Pippen in 1993-94. That is a real gap of 8.2 points, not an era illusion — Joel Embiid's league averaged 114.7 and Scottie Pippen's averaged 101.5.
Away from scoring they are nearly the same player on paper: 8.7 and 10.2 rebounds, 5.6 and 4.2 assists. The separation is in what their teams asked of them, not what they could do.
Scottie Pippen: The template for the modern do-everything forward, and the best perimeter defender of his decade. Joel Embiid: The highest scoring average by a center since Chamberlain, attached to the shortest availability of any MVP.
The numbers are free. The verdict is in the Vault.
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