Retro POY '62-63 (Voting Complete)

[Doctor MJ]

In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 best player seasons of '62-63.

Schedule will be Mon-Fri, and Thu-Mon. Typically this will be morning to morning.

Some things to start us off:

NBA
Season Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... _1963.html
Playoff Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... _1963.html
Award Voting http://www.basketball-reference.com/awa ... _1963.html
Final Box Score http://webuns.chez-alice.fr/finals/1963.htm

[ThaRegul8r]

Russell averaged 16.8 points, 23.6 rebounds (2nd in the league [to Wilt Chamberlain (24.3)]), 4.5 assists in 44.9 minutes per game (2nd [to Wilt Chamberlain (47.6)]). Led the league in defensive win shares with 12.6—6.8 more than runner-up Bob Pettit. Was First Team All-NBA and NBA Most Valuable Player for the third consecutive season.

January 20, 1963, Russell had “29 points, 43 rebounds, a dozen blocked shots, five intercepted passes, three assists and a full 48 minutes of competition” in a 133-121 win over the Lakers (Park City Daily News, Jan. 21, 1963). February 22, 1963, Russell blocked 10 of Elgin Baylor’s shots (LA Times).

Eastern Division Finals – Boston Celtics (58-22) vs. Cincinnati Royals (42-38):

Cincinnati won Game 1 135-132, led by Oscar Robertson’s 43 points. “Robertson was guilty of some errors and scored only six points in the first quarter as the Celtics, who had a 9-3 season’s record against the Royals, shot out to a 36-27 lead. The Celtics, switching off four different men on Robertson, had held him to 14 at halftime. But from then on, it was a different story as the aroused Oscar got 29 points the rest of the way, including a fall-away jump shot at the start of the final quarter which put the Royals ahead to stay, 107-106” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar. 29, 1963). In the third quarter, Cincinnati outscored Boston 41-32 to cut a 10-point deficit to one—Robertson had 14, Bob Boozer with 8, and Adrian Smith with 7 (St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 29, 1963). Wayne Embry had 22, and Jack Twyman had 20. Sam Jones led Boston with 30 points, Tom Heinson had 27, Bill Russell 17.

Boston won Game 2 125-102. Russell led Boston with a team-high 26 points (6-9 FT) and 24 rebounds, Tom Heinsohn had 22, John Havlicek 17, Sam Jones 16, Frank Ramsey 15. K.C. Jones fouled out. Robertson scored a game-high 28 for Cincinnati, and Jack Twyman had 20. Boston shot 51-for-108 (47.2%) and Cincinnati 36-for-91 (39.6%).

Cincinnati won Game 3 121-116 to take a 2-1 lead. The Royals had nine players with double figures: Oscar Robertson led Cincinnati with 23, Jack Twyman had 18, Adrian Smith and Hub 13 each, Tom Hawkins and Arlen Bockhorn had 12 each, Dave Piontek had 11, and Wayne Embry and Bob Boozer had 10 apiece. Cincinnati’s bench outscored Boston 48-16 (The Day, Apr. 1, 1963). “The problem with my team is that we have a super defensive man in Russell and a super play maker in Bob Cousy, but we don’t have a super star shooter,” Auerbach said. “The super shooters are Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and yes, include Twyman. We’ve never had a super shooter and people don’t realize that.” Tom Heinsohn had 28 to lead Boston, Bob Cousy had 26, Sam Jones 23, and Bill Russell 19.

Boston won Game 4 128-110 to tie the series at 2-2. Russell led Boston with a game-high 26 points and 25 rebounds (Lewiston Evening Journal, Apr. 4, 1963). Bob Cousy and Sam Jones had 20, Tom Heinsohn had 19, Frank Ramsey 17. Oscar Robertson led Cincinnati with 25 points and tied Wayne Embry with 15 rebounds.

Boston won Game 5 125-120 to take a 3-2 lead. Tom Heinsohn led Boston with 34 points, Russell had 24 points, rookie John Havlicek had 23, Bob Cousy 18. Oscar Robertson was held to 11 points and three field goals in the first half, but finished with a game-high 36 points. Wayne Embry had 21, Bob Boozer 16.

Cincinnati won Game 6 109-99 to tie the series at 3 games apiece. Oscar Robertson scored 36 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and “put on a brilliant display in the third quarter. He tallied 16 of them in that 12 minutes of action” (Lawrence Journal-World, Apr. 8, 1963). Robertson scored 11 straight points and 16 of Cincinnati’s 18 points in the last 6½ minutes of the third quarter to give Cincinnati a 85-76 lead after three (Reading Eagle, Apr. 8, 1963). Cincinnati led 51-48 at the half, and scored 11 straight in the third quarter.

Red Auerbach said the officials took the game away from Boston. “Referees Sid Borgia and Norm Drucker aren’t kidding me. If that game had gotten any rougher they’d have had to put up a boxing ring and let the players slug it out. It would be the highlight of Borgia’s career if he reffed a game in which we lost the world championship.”

In Game 7, Sam Jones scored 47 points on 72.8 percent true shooting (18-27 FG, 11-12 FT) to lead Boston to a 142-131 win. “Give the credit to Bob Cousy,” Jones said. “Cooz kept working the ball in deep and I was able to come off him to score” (Park City Daily News, Apr. 9, 1963). At one point, Jones made seven baskets in seven attempts. Jones’ performance overshadowed Oscar Robertson, who scored 43, but got 21 of them at the foul line (21-22 FT, 11-? FG) and went through the entire first quarter without an actual basket, getting a two-pointer on a goal-tending call against Russell. “This was our toughest series ever,” said Auerbach. “The Royals were really ready and we were ripe to be taken, but they couldn’t quite pluck us.” Tom Heinson had 31 (9-11 FT), Bob Cousy 21 points and 16 assists, and Russell had 20 points (4-6 FT) and 24 rebounds for Boston. Adrian Smith had 19, Wayne Embry 18 and Jack Twyman 17 for Cincinnati. Boston was up 68-64 at the half, but outscored Cincinnati 40-29 in the third quarter to take a 15-point 108-93 lead after three.

NBA Finals – Boston Celtics (58-22) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (53-27): “Ask Tommy Heinsohn why the Celtics want this title so much and he replies: ‘I guess the biggest reason is that everyone jumped off our bandwagon at the beginning of the year. All of a sudden the Lakers were the team—the team of the future. That hurt” (Reading Eagle, Apr. 13, 1963).

Boston won Game 1 of the NBA Finals 117-114. “Heinsohn, held to nine points for the first 40 minutes, blocked an attempted close-range jumper by Red-hot Jerry West, recovered the ball, flipped to Sam Jones and took a return fast-break pass for a layup. There was 1 minute, 10 seconds left.” Sam Jones had 29 points and “a surprising 15 [rebounds]” (Lodi News-Sentinel, Apr. 15, 1963), Bill Russell had 25 points and 29 rebounds, and Satch Sanders had 14. “We were very fortunate to win,” said Auerbach. “First of all, we lose Rookie John Havlicek with an ankle injury. Then Los Angeles started hitting its shots in the third quarter” (The Day, Apr. 12, 1963). Elgin Baylor had a game-high 33 points, and Jerry West and Dick Barnett had 25 each. (Lodi News-Sentinel, Apr. 15, 1963).

Boston won Game 2 113-106. Sam Jones led Boston with 27, Tom Heinsohn had 26. Frank Ramsey scored five of Boston’s final seven points (St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 17, 1963). Elgin Baylor led LA with a game-high 30 points, Jerry West had 28, and Dick Barnett had 20.

LA won Game 3 119-99. Jerry West had a game-high 42 points (17-30 FG) and eight rebounds, and Elgin Baylor had 38 points and “held a 23-19 advantage over Boston’s Bill Russell in the rebound department” (The Telegraph, Apr. 18, 1963). Sam Jones led Boston with 30 points, Bill Russell had 21, Satch Sanders had 16, and Tom Heinsohn 15. “We’re still ahead, and they have to catch us,” said Red Auerbach. “We’ll have John Havlicek back Friday night, I believe. He was injured in the first game at Boston. If Havlicek had been in there, I believe we’d have won. The fact that I held Cousy out in the third quarter may have been a coaching error, too. The Lakers played a good game. Nevertheless, you’ll hear from us.” “Friday’s fourth game will be the key to this series,” said Bob Cousy. “We suffered a natural letdown. But then, we didn’t figure to beat a good club like Los Angeles three straight. If we win Friday, the series won’t go seven games” (The Telegraph, Apr. 18, 1963).

Boston won Game 4 108-105 to take a 3-1 series lead. Auerbach called it “a fine team effort, with Tom Sanders doing a good job on the Lakers’ Jerry West and our Tom Heinsohn (35 points) playing his finest game as a pro” (Reading Eagle, Apr. 20, 1963).

LA won Game 5 126-119, behind Elgin Baylor’s 43 points and Jerry West’s 32. “We’re still very much alive,” Laker coach Fred Schaus said. “We knew we had to win one here in Boston and we did it. Now we’ve got the victory and we’re still in this thing” (The Miami News, Apr. 21, 1963). “We won’t need it,” said Auerbach about a possible Game 7. “We’re just going to need the one game to win this.” Sam Jones led Boston with 36 points, Tom Heinsohn had 23, and Bill Russell had 24 points and 27 rebounds (Schenectady Gazette, Apr. 22, 1963). Cousy fouled out with 12 points, and Tom Heinsohn was ejected in the final minute after protesting an official’s decision too vigorously.

Boston won Game 6 112-109. Bob Cousy had 18 points. “That was the greatest game Cousy played in this series,” said Tom Heinsohn (Sarasota Journal, Apr. 24, 1963). Tom Heinsohn led Boston with 22. “The Lakers set their defense on Sam Jones, who had been averaging 28.2 points a game against them. They stopped him all right. He got only five points, but Heinsohn broke through for 22 to share the hero’s role with the big defensive star, Russell” (Sarasota Journal, Apr. 24, 1963). “The hottest shooting streak in the game […] was 12 points without a miss by Boston’s rookie, John Havlicek from Ohio State. It was Havlicek who started the Celtic scoring spree in the second period. He and Heinsohn were doing the scoring, but Russell was making it all possible by some fantastic guarding, rebounding and passing” (Sarasota Journal, Apr. 24, 1963). Jerry West led LA with 32 points. “Baylor had a poor first half, scoring only nine points as Tom Sanders stuck to him step for step. The Lakers star managed to spring loose in the second half and scored a total of 28 points for the night” (The Modesto Bee, Apr. 25, 1963).

“This was a very satisfying win,” Auerbach said. “So many people were saying we were a bunch of old men. But with Bill Russell around … well, he’s simply great, that’s all” (Sarasota Journal, Apr. 24, 1963).

May 06, 1963
Up To Their Old Tricks
Age was supposed to slow Boston, but not even an injury to a famous ankle could keep the champs from another NBA title
William Leggett

Just minutes after the Boston Celtics had earned their fifth consecutive National Basketball Association championship last week, Bill Russell, the goateed Celtic center, made a brief dressing room speech to the claque of reporters, photographers and backslappers surrounding him. "It's nice to be playing with the old pros," he said, "the old, old pros."

For seven months Bill Russell and his Boston playmates had been badgered about being old. Wherever they dragged their gym bags people wanted to know if it was true that the young Los Angeles Lakers were going to beat proud Boston out of the basketball championship of the world. "No," Bill Russell would say. " Los Angeles is not going to do any such thing." And sometimes some of the other Celtics said much stronger things. Perhaps Bob Cousy, 34, and playing his last games, summed up the situation hest back in March. "We are not," he said, "the oldest men alive."

As a matter of fact, when Boston beat Los Angeles in three of the first four games of the NBA playoff and had the further advantage of a fifth game in its own Boston Garden, nobody was looking antiquated except the Lakers. In the fifth game, however, L.A. pulled itself together to win 126-119, thus forcing last week's sixth game in Los Angeles.

The final score of that contest in Boston had no sooner flickered on the scoreboard than the city of Los Angeles began to stew, and in the process showed that its pro basketball enthusiasm is unmatched anywhere, even if its team isn't. An ebullient television announcer at the game in Boston told his L.A. listeners that tickets for the sixth game would go on sale at the Lakers' office at 9 a.m. the next day. There was one slight fault with that—there were no tickets. The Lakers had sold tickets in blocks, just as for the baseball World Series, and the blocks covered three home games. Some single-game tickets also were offered, but the demand was so heavy that they had quickly disappeared.

As soon as the people heard the erroneous announcement they started marching on the Los Angeles Sports Arena. By midnight an army was coming up South Figueroa Street, equipped with sleeping bags, blankets, hand-warmers, Thermos jugs and strategies for destroying the poor Celtics. By 10 a.m. the next morning there were 5,000 angry, unbelieving souls marching, marching, marching. One man forced open a secretary's desk in the Laker office and started scrambling around inside it. "I know there are some tickets here somewhere," he said, "and I'm going to find them." Cecil Cronkhite, the Laker ticket manager, holding the line through his own Longest Day, decided that the time was right to find a publisher for his book, People Who Buy Tickets and Other Maniacs I Have Known.

But the Lakers apologized profusely and handed out priority stubs to see the game on closed-circuit theater television. That they were in a position to do this was yet another indication of how pro basketball has caught the fancy of Los Angeles. The Lakers, perhaps a little stunned at their ticket demand for the first home game of the playoffs, arranged to televise the second home game in two theaters. They charged $2.50 a seat, and promptly sold out one theater and filled 90% of the other one. It was the first time the backers of a major championship sporting event, other than boxing, had tried theater television and succeeded. The implications, though hardly noticed amid the excitement of the event itself, were not lost on the people who mattered. "We were aware that we were testing the future of pay television," says Lou Mohs, the Laker general manager. (Already the Lakers are talking of setting up 12 theater TV dates for next season.) By the sixth game the Lakers had three theaters in their chain, and 6,000 of 6,200 theater seats were sold.

Thus, the enthusiasm of the Laker fans was in full cry by game time Wednesday night, as 15,521 packed the Sports Arena. Greeting Boston as it took the floor was a big red, while and blue sign that read "Go Lakers! Smash the Smeltics!" Hollywood was out in force. Doris Day, dressed in a green suit, applauded the Lakers continuously. Danny Thomas smoked cigars nervously. Pat Boone, wrapped in a red jacket, blew bubbles and bounced up and down.

But none of this could match the professional type of frenzy taking place on the basketball court. Los Angeles started fast and kept pace nicely until well into the second period when, rather suddenly, it fell on hard times. Laker shots didn't go in, and Bill Russell snatched the rebound every time the Lakers missed. Meanwhile, Boston's rookie, John Havlicek, was banging in 11 straight Celtic points and at the half Boston had a solid 14-point lead. Pro basketball is a little like a footrace. If you fall too far behind you must make an early move to catch up; yet this spurt, successful though it may be, is so tiring that you are likely to fade again in the stretch. So the Lakers were in serious trouble.

From the start of the second half they chopped away at that lead, but it was still Boston by nine with 11 minutes to play. Then Bob Cousy, the man whose very presence seems to make the Celtics function, somehow tripped over his own feet at midcourt. There was a gasp from the crowd—for all their "Smeltics," Laker fans appreciate pro basketball's greatest name—as Cousy lay writhing. Red Auerbach, the Celtic coach, rushed out to peer down in dismay at his fallen warrior. Cousy had sprained his left ankle. Now the Lakers turned tougher. In six minutes Boston's lead was down to a single point. Back came Cousy—thanks to ice packs, adhesive tape and his own adrenaline—and Boston had its leader again.

There was 2:48 left to play and Boston was still ahead, but only 104-102, when Jerry West, the Laker guard, brought the ball upcourt and lofted a soft pass to Rudy LaRusso. Tom Heinsohn of the Celtics had been watching this same gentle pass over and over all night. It had been frequently used to set up the Laker offense. Heinsohn figured the pass was a little too soft, a little too careless, and had waited for the right time to try to intercept it. This was it. He moved in on LaRusso's blind side, stole the ball and drove downcourt for a layup. The Lakers were never to recover from that.
As the final buzzer sounded, it was Bob Cousy who had the ball near mid-court, where he was dribbling it to kill the clock. He threw it as high in the air as he could, then fell into a sweaty, glorious embrace with Red Auerbach, his exit from pro basketball a triumphant one.

"Please," said Auerbach, once he was unwound from Cousy and in the dressing room, "tell me some of these stories about Los Angeles being the basketball capital of the world. The Lakers are a great team, but we beat them."

No booze for Cooz

There was no champagne in the Celtic dressing room. Not even a beer. As Heinsohn happily suggested, that is one of the penalties of winning anything five times in a row. Why celebrate?

In the Los Angeles dressing room, meanwhile, Laker Coach Fred Schaus kept the door closed. He told his team, "I am proud of you. Darn proud. I don't want to hear any gripes about anything. Give Boston credit. They forced us into mistakes and then took advantage of them. When you leave here, go out with your heads up high."

When the Lakers did leave, a large crowd was awaiting them, the same people who had paid over SI million to see them this year—the largest gate in pro basketball history. Every one of them knew the Lakers had lost to a better team, but their applause was loud. Maybe theirs wasn't the basketball capital of the world, but they still thought it was. The Laker players held their heads high, just like Fred had told them to.

Bill Russell averaged 20 points, 26 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 47.8 minutes per game, and would have been NBA Finals MVP had the award existed. He also would have been the first player in NBA history to be All-Star Game MVP, regular season MVP and NBA Finals MVP in the same season.

[Dr Positivity]

I'm putting Russell 1st, with that said, this is when his supporting cast starts to be absurdly better than everyone else's. Cousy, Jones, Hondo, Heinsohn + Ramsey, KC Jones, Sanders... that's ridiculous

Also finally Elgin will show up in this project

[semi-sentient]

* = led the league

Regular Season

Code: Select all

Player            GP   MIN    PTS    TS%    REB    AST
=======================================================
Bill Russell      78   44.9   16.8   .464   23.6   4.5
Oscar Robertson   80   44.0   28.3   .588   10.4   9.5
Wilt Chamberlain  80   47.6*  44.8*  .550   24.3*  3.4
Elgin Baylor      80   42.1   34.0   .519   14.3   4.8
Bob Pettit        79   39.1   28.4   .525   15.1   3.1
Jerry West        55   39.3   27.1   .523    7.0   5.6

Post Season

Code: Select all

Player            GP   MIN    PTS    TS%    REB    AST
=======================================================
Bill Russell      13   47.5   20.3   .508   25.1*  5.1
Oscar Robertson   12   47.5*  31.8   .574   13.0   9.0*
Wilt Chamberlain  ------------------------------------
Elgin Baylor      13   43.2   32.6*  .508   13.6   4.5
Bob Pettit        11   42.1   31.8   .543   15.1   3.0
Jerry West        13   41.4   27.8   .548    8.2   4.7

Awards Recognition / Misc

Code: Select all

Player            MVP     All-NBA   Team Record
===============================================
Bill Russell      1st     1st       58-22*
Oscar Robertson   3rd     1st       42-38
Wilt Chamberlain  7th     2nd       31-49
Elgin Baylor      2nd     1st       53-27
Bob Pettit        4th     1st       48-32
Jerry West        5th     1st       53-27

As usual, good post by ThaRegul8r. Can't imagine Russell not being the unanimous #1 this season. Great all around year, and elevated his game in the playoffs and especially the Finals.

Oscar, Baylor, and Pettit are all strong candidates and can fall anywhere from 2-4. I'm favoring Oscar because his all around numbers were sick and he elevated his game big time in the playoffs. It seems to me like he had himself a great series against the Celtics, so despite not having much regular season success he definitely pushed the champs to the brink with consistently great play.

Baylor was awesome as well, and he didn't really fall off in the Finals despite playing a tough defensive team. That, in addition to advancing further (and knocking out the Hawks), leads me to believe he's more deserving than Pettit.

I believe all of them deserve to be ahead of Wilt who IMO gets no higher than 5th. I don't care how bad your teammates are, 31-49 is just pathetic and illustrates just how meaningless his numbers are (but damn, they're pretty jaw-dropping).

Early Rankings:

1) Bill Russell
2) Oscar Robertson
3) Elgin Baylor
4) Bob Pettit
5) Wilt Chamberlain

HM: Jerry West

[Dr Positivity]

Yeah I dunno what to do with Wilt. I'm considering leaving him full off in favor of Russell, Oscar, Baylor, Pettit, West. But then again, dude put up 45/25 on the highest FG% in the league and played all 48 minutes... he's like the video game character you just keep going to every play. It's fascinating that someone could have the best FG%/.eFG scorer in the league, take 35 shots a game, and still anchor a mediocre offense. (and Wilt was probably the league's 1a or 1b offensive rebounder too, no?) Wilt this year had to be the definition of the 'either shoots or holds it long enough to give his teammate a terrible shot' guy. He's the Optimus Prime version of Adrian Dantley this year

[semi-sentient]

Not sure about West. He did miss 27 games so I had a hard time considering him over Wilt. I could change my mind though if the Lakers played poorly while he was out. I'm sure someone will eventually come along to provide some analysis on the Lakers minus West.

Oh, and I updated my stats to include West.

[Dr Positivity]

Oh I didn't see West's GP. Yeah I'm not including him.

[Dipper 13]

To be fair the Warriors team was different with Arizin retired as well as a new coach Bob Feerick. From The Rivalry:

One reason for the Warriors' poor performance was turnover on the roster. Paul Arizin had retired, Tom Meschery broke his wrist in the season opener, and Tom Gola decided he disliked San Francisco and asked to be traded to an East Coast team. Of the regular starters who had almost beaten the Celtics the previous year, only Al Attles, Guy Rodgers, and Chamberlain were still with the team. The club had seven new members. But the Warriors were also suffering from weak coaching. Bob Feerick, the coach Eddie Gottlieb had hired, had been the highly regarded and successful coach at the University of Santa Clara. But Feerick lacked the shrewdness and force of personality needed to run an NBA club, and by the middle of the season, Gottlieb was regretting his choice.



But then again I hear some harsh criticism as well:

When Hannum arrived for training camp in Santa Cruz, California, he held a scrimmage between the veterans and the rookies trying out for the team. Chamberlain had not yet arrived, and to Hannum's astonishment, the rookies - raw college kids, most of whom wouldn't even make the cut - beat the veterans. The Warriors, he thought, had become so completely dependent on Chamberlain it was as if they had forgotten how to play the game.


From an LA Times article by Jim Murray:

He turns his own team into a congress of butlers whose principal function is to get the ball to him under a basket. Their skills atrophy, their desires wane. Crack players like Willie Naulls get on the Warriors and they start dropping notes out of the window or in bottles which they cast adrift. They contain one word, "help."

[penbeast0]

The Celtics were the best team in the league though the Lakers were very good and the Nats and Hawks hit the 600 mark too (with Cinncinnati also above .500). Wilt and the Warriors finished at .388.

Boston – As always, Bill Russell’s team. Sam Jones was the leading scorer and most efficient (and Red said they didn’t have any shooters!) but at less than 20/game. All the old familiar faces were there except Sharman . . . Heinsohn, Cousy, Sanders, Ramsey, KC plus HOFer Clyde Lovelette having probably the best per minute season on the team (25/11/6) backing up Russell so yes, incredible depth. Cousy was slipping badly by this season with KC Jones getting more minutes but they added rookie John Havlicek as a prime bench threat (with Ramsey) too.

LA -- West is very good (27/7/6 on .523 ts%) but Baylor, this year, is better (34/14/5 on .517) though West again pumps up his efficiency in the playoffs (Baylor is about the same). Barnett and LaRusso are solid, the centers are mediocre at best and there is little bench yet still the second best team in the league with both Baylor and West as top 5 candidates.

Syracuse – Hal Greer and Red Kerr lead a balanced attack (11 players scoring over 8/game for 60 games! none over 20). Greer is the biggest stat (19.5/6/3 on .526) but this is a team of balance, not stars; the opposite of the Lakers. One and out in playoffs.

St Louis is another solid deep team with Lenny Wilkens giving the team the guard strength it never had and 6 players scoring over 10ppg (including Cliff Hagan who plays less than 22 mpg but still racks up 16pts per). Unlike Syracuse who also had a .600 record though, this team has a true star – Bob Pettit (28/15/3/.525 ts%, 32/15/3/.543 in playoffs) but they were beaten out in both regular season and playoffs by LA.

Cincinnati does not yet have Jerry Lucas but gets very solid scoring from Jack Twyman, Wayne Embry, and Bob Boozer to have it’s the same outstanding offense, mediocre defense built around Oscar that they have the next few years, even though they don’t achieve more than a .525 record. Oscar is his normal spectacular self at 28/10/10 on .588 ts% plus a powerful playoff run (32/13/9 on .574) that takes Boston to 7.

Wilt as usual has the best numbers in the league leading the NBA in pts, reb, and is 5th in efficiency. Special shout out to Bailey Howell in Detroit who leads the league in efficiency and is 5th in Win Shares – no wonder Auerbach targets him when Heinsohn retires in a couple of years.

1. Bill Russell – winning is always a great argument
2. Oscar – Better numbers than LA without a Jerry West
3. Elgin Baylor – equal numbers and more team success than Pettit
4. Bob Pettit – could be #2 very easily; these three and Wilt are very close
5. Wilt – can’t leave him off, just too individually dominant

HM – Jerry West – a very tough call, shame it isn’t top 6.

[bastillon]

1.Russ
2.Oscar
3.Baylor
4.Pettit
5.Hal Greer/West

Greer was leading a 3+ SRS team (2nd in the league) with decent stats and was great in the playoffs.

[Deus_DJ]

Yeah I dunno what to do with Wilt. I'm considering leaving him full off in favor of Russell, Oscar, Baylor, Pettit, West. But then again, dude put up 45/25 on the highest FG% in the league and played all 48 minutes... he's like the video game character you just keep going to every play. It's fascinating that someone could have the best FG%/.eFG scorer in the league, take 35 shots a game, and still anchor a mediocre offense. (and Wilt was probably the league's 1a or 1b offensive rebounder too, no?) Wilt this year had to be the definition of the 'either shoots or holds it long enough to give his teammate a terrible shot' guy. He's the Optimus Prime version of Adrian Dantley this year

Well said, especially considering the following that Dipper13 so kindly posted for us..

When Hannum arrived for training camp in Santa Cruz, California, he held a scrimmage between the veterans and the rookies trying out for the team. Chamberlain had not yet arrived, and to Hannum's astonishment, the rookies - raw college kids, most of whom wouldn't even make the cut - beat the veterans. The Warriors, he thought, had become so completely dependent on Chamberlain it was as if they had forgotten how to play the game.

And the astonishing thing is that this happened before the start of the 1963-1964 season...so if anyone wants to doubt how bad Wilt's team was, here you go. I personally wouldn't penalize Chamberlain for having to carry the load, even if his shooting did make his teammates worse on the offensive end...but as we all know, this definitely caused them to relax on the defensive end as well. So the fact that Wilt stopped shooting the next season definitely changed the entire complexion of the team on both sides of the court.

[ElGee]

Estimated Pace-Adjusted Numbers 1963

ORtg

Code: Select all

1.  Cincinnati    100.0
2.  Syracuse      98.6
3.  Chicago       97.9
4.  Los Angeles   97.4
LEAGUE AVG.       96.0
5.  San Francisco 95.4
6.  St. Louis     94.7
7.  Detroit       94.0
8.  New York      93.3
9.  Boston        92.6


DRtg

Code: Select all

1.  Boston        87.0
2.  St. Louis     93.1
3.  Los Angeles   94.8
4.  Syracuse      95.5
LEAGUE AVG.       94.5
5.  Detroit       97.0
6.  San Francisco 97.1
7.  Cincinnati    98.9
8.  New York      99.6
9.  Chicago       101.6

Individuals numbers placed here later...

[Jimmy76]

Its amazing how bad these Celtics offensive ratings are

[Dr Positivity]

Damn at Boston having the lowest ORTG and still a way better record than anyone else

[mopper8]

This IMO is one of Wilt's least impressive years.

[ElGee]

Its amazing how bad these Celtics offensive ratings are

Look at the team's percentages. They had too many gunners. Outside of 67, Hondo wasn't really efficient until the 70s. I mentioned this in a post about Sam Jones a few threads back, who, for a number of years, was always one of (or the only) rotational player with a decent shooting percentage.

Look at this year and the 8 guys in the rotation using FGA's + .44 FTA's:

Code: Select all

          TS%    "Shots" per game
Heinsohn .487%   19.5
S. Jones .518%   19.1
Russell  .464%   18.1
Havlicek .479%   14.9
Cousy    .448%   14.7
Ramsey   .472%   11.5
Sanders  .505%   10.7
KC Jones .428%   8.5

League average was .492 TS%. Besides Jones, the 7th most used Celtic is the only player above that mark. In a balanced attack, that will produce below average results. (63 was also Russ's worst TS% year between 57 and 65.) The problem with this, from what I can tell, is that the high paced play inflated their ppg and the defense ensured that they won, so no one thought twice about really changing the offensive approach.

Hey Heinsohn, shooting 5 running hooks from 20 feet a game might not be a good idea. And, hey Cousy, this isn't 1955 anymore. And, hey KC, just NEVER shoot.

There is little more entertaining than listening to Heinsohn rip modern players for their shot selection.

It should also illustrate how a number of these players ended up in the Hall of Fame because they played on winning teams (thanks in large part to Russell) and had opportunities for famous games/moments. Satch Sanders was probably the 3rd or 4th best player on a lot of these teams because of his defensive contributions. And he's not a Hall of Famer but Tommy Gunner is.

[Warspite]

Actualy If anyone can talk about shot selection it should be Tommy. He after all is an expert on the subject.

I have always been against having the lone superstar and 11 role players and the Warriors are the prime example. None of us ever liked playing with the Chucker and even though Wilt would have covered my a$$ on defense and he led the league in FG% theres no doubt I would hated to play with him. At some point even if your the best FG% your hurting your team by not sharing the ball. It makes sense that the Warriors fall down in teh playoffs when Wilt gets doubled and these role players who never shoot simply arent prepared to step up. I know personaly I rarely shot as well my 1st 5 FGAs as my last 5. I had to get 2 or 3 misses out of my system before I settled down. I made 8 3pt FGAs in a row in a 2nd half once but Ill bet I went 1-6 in the 1st half. If I played with Wilt I would still be getting warmed up with 3 mins left in the game.

This of course seems elementary today but in the infancy of modern basketball it was still a revelation.

[mopper8]

^^Against teams like that, I've always thought it was a great strategy to let the star "get his" through 3 quarters, limit him as a play-maker for others but let him score...then in the 4th, you come at him with hard doubles and traps and ball denial, and all the role players are totally cold and out-of-sync and not really prepared to step up.

[ThaRegul8r]

Its amazing how bad these Celtics offensive ratings are

Look at the team's percentages. They had too many gunners. Outside of 67, Hondo wasn't really efficient until the 70s. I mentioned this in a post about Sam Jones a few threads back, who, for a number of years, was always one of (or the only) rotational player with a decent shooting percentage.

Look at this year and the 8 guys in the rotation using FGA's + .44 FTA's:

Code: Select all

          TS%    "Shots" per game
Heinsohn .487%   19.5
S. Jones .518%   19.1
Russell  .464%   18.1
Havlicek .479%   14.9
Cousy    .448%   14.7
Ramsey   .472%   11.5
Sanders  .505%   10.7
KC Jones .428%   8.5

League average was .492 TS%. Besides Jones, the 7th most used Celtic is the only player above that mark. In a balanced attack, that will produce below average results. (63 was also Russ's worst TS% year between 57 and 65.) The problem with this, from what I can tell, is that the high paced play inflated their ppg and the defense ensured that they won, so no one thought twice about really changing the offensive approach.

We had a very simple objective at the start of every game: We were going to take more shots than the other team, as many more as we could. So the less time we wasted bringing the ball upcourt, the more shots we’d get, and the easier those shots would probably be because the defense would be caught unprepared.

We were trained to play at a pace other teams didn’t like, to extend ourselves 100 percent every minute we were out there. Other coaches preferred to slow the pace so that their players would still be strong at the end of the game if they had to go the full forty-eight minutes. Red’s approach was just the opposite: Turn the contest into a physical test of wills!

Even if other teams were able to match us shot for shot, they weren’t getting as many good shots as the game wore on because they were being forced to think quicker, shoot quicker, and make decisions quicker, invariably leading to more turnovers than they were accustomed to committing.

We didn’t waste a lot of time looking for the perfect shots, the way other teams did. Our idea was to overwhelm the opposition by the number of shots we took; the emphasis was clearly on quantity.

The mathematics of that approach were obvious. If we took 100 shots and made only 40 percent, we’d still have as many points as a team that took 80 shots and made 50 percent. The meant if the other team was trying to limit its number of shots by playing a slower game, it was going to have to shoot a much higher percentage than we did in order to beat us.

We weren’t worried about percentages. People look back at those Celtics today and say, “Hey, Cousy shot only 38 percent,” but that’s a misunderstanding of the way we played.

The constant battle was to find ways to upbeat the tempo and to never allow the other team to slow us down; more important, to never allow them time to catch their breath or to think. […] With Cousy and Russell perfecting what they knew at opposite ends of the floor, allowing us to become more and more assertive all the time, we were simply too much for most teams to withstand. We were the marines, baby! Charge! That was us: the leathernecks of the NBA, charging up Pork Chop Hill every night.
(Tommy Heinsohn and Joe Fitzgerald, Give ’em the Hook [New York: Prentice Hall, 1988], pp. 81-82)

[Warspite]

^^Against teams like that, I've always thought it was a great strategy to let the star "get his" through 3 quarters, limit him as a play-maker for others but let him score...then in the 4th, you come at him with hard doubles and traps and ball denial, and all the role players are totally cold and out-of-sync and not really prepared to step up.

+1