Clyde Frazier wrote:Vote 1 - Dwight Howard
Vote 2 - Bob Lanier
Nomination 1 - George Gervin
Nomination 2 - Willis Reed
I feel strongly that Dwight peaked as an MVP level player in 2011. His prime isn't as long as I'd like, but was the centerpiece of some very good teams in Orlando and a deserving multi-time DPOY winner. While not the same player post back surgery, he still had some good years in Houston. Had a small role in the lakers' 2020 title run, but still a positive late career note for him.
Kinda feel like Gervin is slipping through the cracks at this point.
Even though his playoff success leaves something to be desired, he was still an impressive playoff performer, putting up the following from '75-'83 (65 games):
28.8 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 3 APG, 1.2 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 56% TS, 113 ORtg
In '79, the spurs faced the defending champion bullets in the ECF, with a heartbreaking 2 pt game 7 loss. Gervin scored 42 pts in the game, including 24 in the 2nd half. The spurs and bullets ranked 1st and 2nd in SRS respectively that season.
In '82, the spurs made a mid season trade for talented scorer Mike Mitchell. He would only appear in 57 games for the spurs, and gervin still led the spurs to the 7th best SRS in the league. They would fall to the eventual NBA champion lakers (4th in SRS) in the WCF.
In '83, the spurs (6th in SRS) would again fall to the lakers (3rd in SRS) in the WCF. Gervin and Mitchell both had solid performances in the post season that year, but simply weren't enough for a deep lakers roster that featured magic, kareem, nixon, wilkes, mcadoo and cooper.
Had gervin and gilmore had more time together during each other's primes, i'm sure both would have helped each other to further playoff success.
Doesn't necessarily matter to big picture but as before would note in limited minutes Brewer (probably the main piece sent out in acquiring Mitchell) was highly productive in limited minutes.
As before would tend to dispute '83 Gervin (and to a lesser extent Mitchell, to the extent he's being highlighted) as that solid for '83 playoffs (or versus LA, in which Mitchell was - at first glance - better than versus Denver), at least on the production side. Will link Reference as a first glance Reference point for others to decide:
http://bkref.com/pi/shareit/On4Fa
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1983-nba-western-conference-finals-spurs-vs-lakers.html