Pippen Frustrated With Lack Of Involvement In Houston's Offense

Jet, April 5, 1999

Scottie Pippen is averaging a lot of minutes with the Houston Rockets, but he's not scoring a lot of points, and he's frustrated.

Pippen is averaging 40.3 minutes per game-the fourth-highest in the NBA- and 15 points. That's a career high in playing time and his lowest scoring average since his second season with the Chicago Bulls in 1988-89.

"I'm pretty frustrated," Pippen told the Houston Chronicle. "Playing the minutes I'm playing, I'm not involved in the offense. It makes the game not any fun anymore. My next step is to find out why this organization wanted me."

The Rockets star forward made the comments after he took five shots-the fewest of any Rocket- and scored four points in 35 minutes in a loss to the Phoenix Suns.

The Rockets' offense mostly pounds the ball inside to Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. Pippen prefers a running-type offense.

"I haven't found my comfort zone in the system here," he said. "It's frustrating to be playing the kind of minutes I'm playing and not be involved in the offense. To go out and lose, I realize I could have made a difference."