Retro Player of the Year 1949-50 — George Mikan

[AEnigma]

General Project Discussion Thread

In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 players and the top 3 offensive and defensive players of 1949-50.

Player of the Year (POY) — most accomplished overall player of that season.
Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY) — most accomplished offensive player of that season.
Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) — most accomplished defensive player of that season.

Voting will close sometime after 00:00 AM EST on Thursday, July 12th.

Valid ballots must provide an explanation for your choices that gives us a window into how you thought and why you came to the decisions you did. You can vote for any of the three awards — although they must be complete votes — but I will only tally votes for an award when there are at least five valid ballots submitted for it.

Remember, your votes must be based on THIS season. This is intended to give wide wiggle room for personal philosophies while still providing a boundary to make sure the award can be said to mean something. You can factor things like degree of difficulty as defined by you, but what you can't do is ignore how the player actually played on the floor this season in favor of what he might have done if only...

You may change your vote, but if you do, edit your original post rather than writing, "hey, ignore my last post, this is my real post until I change my mind again.” I similarly ask that ballots be kept in one post rather than making one post for Player of the Year, one post for Offensive Player of the Year, and/or one post for Defensive Player of the Year. If you want to provide your reasoning that way for the sake of discussion, fine, but please keep the official votes themselves in one aggregated post. Finally, for ease of tallying, I prefer for you to place your votes at the beginning of your balloting post, with some formatting that makes them stand out. I will not discount votes which fail to follow these requests, but I am certainly more likely to overlook them.

Current Voter List

Spoiler:

________________________________________
Layaway Voters
* Bad Gatorade
* MyUnibroDavis
* penbeast0

[AEnigma]

Player of the Year
1. George Mikan
Relatively simple: best player in the league and won the title. I could also point to him being the league’s highest volume scorer, and one of its two most “additive” scorers by efficiency, on top of generally being a top flight rebounder and in-era defender, but for me the first sentence is all we really need for this to be unanimous. Also my Defensive Player of the Year.

2. Dolph Schayes
This one required a bit more thought. The Lakers, Royals, and Nationals were the clear best teams in the regular season, and the Nationals were the runners-up. I think Schayes was the best player on the Royals and strong positive on both ends of the court. Top five in scoring per game, top five in “additive” scoring, top five in assists per game, and almost certainly top five in rebounds per game had they been recorded (would lead the league in 1951 and stay in the top five through 1959). Only real blemish here is he did not crack first-team all-NBA. Mikan is a given. The other two frontcourt spots went to Jim Pollard — Mikan’s teammate — and…
3. Alex Groza
Now, Groza was a good player. He was the league’s other top scorer alongside Mikan (lower volume but higher efficiency) and was likely a top five rebounder based on his 1951 numbers. Any comparative disadvantage in success could certainly be a product of playing on a lesser team. However, I also have no particular indication that he was a better or more valuable player than Schayes — the Olympians would manage fine two years later when replacing Groza with Joe Graboski — and in the absence of such indicators, I prefer to take the best player on the league’s second-best team.

4. Bob Davies
First-team all-NBA and best player on the second-best regular season team. However, without a strong playoff showing I am reluctant to elevate even the best guard of this era over more successful superstar forwards and bigs.

5. Max Zaslofsky
First-team all-NBA scoring guard who performed admirably in a doomed effort against the Lakers. The Knicks and Packers were more relevant teams than Zaslofsky’s Stags were, but I do not think either team had a player on par with Zaslofsky in the postseason. The Pistons with Fred Schaus make for a more interesting debate, but I defer to Zaslofsky’s slightly superior scoring and his star reputation at the time.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. George Mikan
Do not have a clear explanation for this aside from a gesture to common knowledge, his outlier size, and his excellent rebounding numbers. However, I think 1955 is a strong signal of his defensive impact, and to my knowledge no other player has such a signal.

2. Arnie Risen
Backbone defender of an excellent Royals team. Like with Mikan, size and (presumably) high rebounding numbers on a strong defence provide most of the justification here, and the Royals seem to have taken significant defensive strides when he joined the team 1948. However. there are more negative impact indicators than with Mikan — as far as I can tell the Royals won the six or seven games he missed that year — and the first round upset is a sour note for such an otherwise good team.

3. Milo Komenich
For this award, I look to size, rebounding, reputation, discernible impact, and team quality. Mikan and Risen were locked onto my ballot just based on what I already knew of them, but I needed time to think about a third player, and Eminence highlighting Komenich gave me almost exactly what I was trying to find (lack of rebounding knowledge the only real blemish). Biggest player for what I would consider a top five team, and that team had a misleading offensive profile akin to Russell’s Celtics (inefficient offence but #1 in points per game because of high pace of play). As a defensive indicator, I also like to see that the 1948 Packers took a notable defensive leap when he joined the team and then won an NBL title the following year over the Cervi/Schayes Nationals. In the interest of rewarding a semifinalist with a top three to five defence, he earns the final spot here.

[eminence]

The move is going well, I find this project my favorite on the board, mind if I try to keep up AEnigma?

A thoughts by team post prior to a potential voting post.

'50 general thoughts: The talent was stretched this season, with 17 teams, stats are poor, but I have trouble even considering a player for top 5 if they weren't on one of the top 8 teams this season. One exception I'll mention briefly*. Only team I've watched more than a game or two from this era (not '50 in particular) is the Mikan Lakers (along with a bit of practice footage of their squad - shoutout to the U of Minnesota). Generally in these earlier years I'll lean more heavily on surrounding years to get impressions of players/teams.

*Noted exception - Ed Macauley who I can see folks considering due to box score - on the Bombers (38.2%, -2.01 SRS, +64.3 Team TSA, implied below average defense). High volume/efficiency scorer, who doesn't strike me as an unwilling passer on an offense that was likely slightly above average. In his rookie year. Later numbers suggest an average to slightly below average rebounder. Don't see anything to suggest even that high on defense, likely outright bad, but at least below positional average. Overall the Bombers had enough additional professional level talent (Rocha/Smawley) that I can't look past his teams lack of success. Likely improved in poor non box areas as he adjusted to the pros even if he was never particularly good defensively. May get onto the back half of some ballots over the next few years.

2nd Tier Teams

Pistons (58.8%, +1.84 SRS, -289.9 Team TSA, implied strong defense): Schaus got 2nd Team honors, and was the teams leading scorer/assist guy - 14.3/2.6 (very distributed offensive duties). Decent efficiency (104 TS+). But this was a team that certainly won with defense. I don't think that it was primarily attributable to Schaus, I'm not certain who was leading that, though my suspicions and evaluating future/past team success point me towards Bob Carpenter. The Pistons gains some separation from other Tier 2 teams by upsetting the Royals 2-0 in the POs, though it seems more in spite of Schaus than because of him, then in the 0-2 loss to the Lakers Carpenter completely disappears and Schaus plays the best series of his career. I think both guys are worth mentioning in this thread, but it's unlikely either will get a vote from me.

Stags (58.8%, +2.06 SRS, -177.2 Team TSA, implied good defense): Zaslofsky gets 1st team honors (16.4/2.3) and Phillip is seen as a star in the backcourt as well (11.7/5.8), Zaslofsky seen as one of the better shooters in the league and seems to back it up (105 TS+, leads league in FT%). But another squad that seems likely to have won off of their defense (Hermsen their main big, Miasek decent, and Graboski off the bench goes on to some success later replacing Groza). Hermsen the one I'd be most likely to credit here. Unfortunately run into the Lakers in the 1st PO round (0-2 loss). Zaslofsky lights it up (22.5) on strong efficiency, but it's not enough, as Mikan gives them the business and fouls Hermsen out of both games. Zaslofsky seems to have a disproportionate amount of PO success in surrounding seasons. Zaslofsky may make my ballot.

Knicks (58.8%, +2.53 SRS, +232.9 Team TSA, implied below average defense): Nobody got any awards this go around, but all of Braun, Gallatin, McGuire wound up pretty heavily awarded later. Gallatin we know was a strong rebounder from later seasons, lowish volume scoring, but efficient. McGuire a traditional pass first PG, Braun more do it all and lauded for all-around skill. A trio of other worthy pros in Boryla, Simmons, Vandeweghe. Beat a mediocre Capitols team 2-0, but fall to the Nationals 1-2. Gallatin seems to struggle a bit, but has the toughest matchup in Schayes. Would probably lean towards Braun as the top Knick, but I think Lapchick/depth did more for them than star power through the early 50s, not sure any will ever make my top 5.

Olympians (60.9%, +2.59 SRS, +386.9 Team TSA, implied bad defense): 2 All-NBA players, Groza 1st team, Beard 2nd. The early Olympians are one of the more interesting teams to analyze ever imo. I come out notably lower on the All-NBA duo than their contemporaries thought of them, this season (in a weaker league) they're solid, but unremarkable next season and the team actually improves again after the two are banned. Beat the terrible Red Skins 2-1 in the first round, but fall to another Tier 2 team after that, 1-2 vs the Packers. Beard misses a game, likely injured in that series. Groza is a very strong scorer by any measure. Beard a decent guard, but I don't see him as a vote getter. Overall I expect I'll be lower on Groza than most, he looks quite similar to prime Macauley in my analysis (worse passer, better rebounder, similar defender is my guess), somewhat A'mare esque - very good player, but doubtful he had any (and likely negative) impact outside of the core counting stats.
 
Packers (57.8%, +2.42 SRS, -384.6 Team TSA, implied elite defense): Reigning champs (kinda, from the NBL over the Nationals). Frankie Brian gets 2nd team All-NBA doing a carry job of a bad offense (17.8/3.0 on okay efficiency). But another in a line of teams clearly powered by their defense overall - Closs/Komenich seem at the heart of it. Very hard to separate from this distance, but they'll be candidates for my DPOY ballot. Offense seems more balanced in the POs, beat the bad Blackhawks, squeak one out vs the injured Olympians and then got steamrolled by the Lakers. No ballot makers here imo.

2nd tier ballot contenders (imo) - Zaslofsky, Groza

1st Tier Teams

Lakers, Royals, Nationals to add to this post.

[Djoker]

VOTING POST

Just a heads up for people analyzing this season that league average TS% was 41.0%. Thus players hovering at or below 50 %TS which would be atrocious by today's standards is quite excellent for that era. Another thing is that none of rebounds, blocks, steals, or turnovers were tracked.

Seasons when tracking starts:

1950-51 -- rebounds
1973-74 -- blocks, steals, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds
1977-78 -- turnovers

Player of the Year

1. George Mikan. Obvious choice. As said above, he's clearly the best player in the league and won the championship. The man averaged 31.3 ppg on +7.1 rTS in the postseason. That's a pretty damn strong mark historically as well.

2. Dolph Schayes. Very good all-around forward. Could score well, rebounds and pass. His team made the Finals and lost to Mikan's Lakers. 2nd Team All-NBA gives me some pause since people considered some others better. I feel like I may be giving him the benefit of the doubt because of what he accomplished in his career. I can be persuaded to drop him to #3.

3. Alex Groza. Probably the second best C in the league after Mikan. Efficient scorer.

4. Max Zalofsky. 1st Team All-NBA. Very good scoring guard on a good team.

5. Jim Pollard. Laker teammate of Mikan and second best player on the champions along with 1st Team selection.

HM: Bob Davies. He didn't have a very good season individually or collectively so I decided to keep him outside of the top 5.

The top 3 on the POY list are also my top 3 for OPOY. For DPOY I went Mikan first but after that I took the feedback of other posters who know more about this era than I do. I really don't know much about the league prior to around 1957 when Russell came in so I'm all ears for the next couple of threads too.

Offensive Player of the Year

1. George Mikan
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Alex Groza

Defensive Player of the Year

1. George Mikan
2. Arnie Risen
3. Al Cervi

[trex_8063]

Player of the Year

1. George Mikan
This does feel like a straight-forward easy pick. He led the league [comfortably] in scoring on rTS% >+7, while [probably] being the most dominant defensive force in the league simultaneously (note: information is very spotty wrt defense, but he's going to be my pick for DPOY too), leading what was arguably the best team in the league during the rs.
Then in the playoffs his scoring went >31 ppg (which is astronomical for that era), again on >+7% rTS, while the Lakers practically steam-rolled everyone on their way to the title. He averaged >32 ppg in the Finals, and was the game's leading scorer in ALL SIX contests. Hard to go with anyone else, and I expect he'll probably be the unanimous pick.

2. Alex Groza
Really too bad this guy was banned from the league, because I think there's a strong possibility he'd be considered alongside guys like Dolph Schayes all-time if he'd been allowed. 2nd-leading scorer in the rs [behind Mikan], though well ahead of 3rd, and did so while leading the league in FG% and TS% (an astonishing +13.8% rTS); and the team was 2nd in ppg, so I'm assuming this was at the head of a good offense.
He averaged a nearly identical [to his rs] 22.8 ppg in the playoffs, while again leading the league in playoff TS% (a ridonkulous +27.5% rTS [68.5% TS, which would be hyper-elite even in today's league]). Only a 6-game sample, but still awfully impressive.

3. Dolph Schayes
16.8 ppg [which I think was 4th in the league] @ +7% rTS in rs (team was 3rd-highest in ppg), and also a 2nd-on-team 4.0 apg; likely that he was 1st on the team in rpg, with defensive rebounding being of major importance toward ending a possession in this era of low shooting %'s. This team had the best rs record [3rd-best SRS].
Then they went to the Finals, and were the only team to hand the Lakers a playoff loss [2 of them], which Schayes averaging 17.1 ppg on +7.8% rTS in the post-season. He went for 17.3 per game in the Finals, valiantly dropping 23 pts on 58.7% TS [+17.7% rTS] in a losing effort in game 6, while the rest of his team went a COMBINED 37.0% TS [-4.0% rTS].

4. Bobby Wanzer
Maybe I'm overly-rewarding efficiency to this point. But he was 11.8 ppg @ +10.5% rTS in the rs for one of the best rs teams, then upped to 13.5 ppg @ +18.4% rTS in the [brief] playoffs.

5. Max Zaslofsky
16.5 ppg @ +1.9% rTS in rs, then 22.5 ppg @ +15.4% rTS [though in 2-game sample] in playoffs. Not huge in assists, not a huge defensive reputation. Team offense doesn't look too terribly hot (12th in pts/game), too.

EDIT: Top HM (previously had 5th)----Al Cervi
Teammate to Schayes. Arguably a generous placement, as to some degree I'm rewarding him simply for making his FTs well. The rules of the time [which allowed for FTs for backcourt fouls, iirc] favours highish FTAr's for guards. That said, he's rocking a ridiculous .803 FTAr, which most other guards aren't even approaching. So he must be doing something well/right (even if that "right" thing is just NOT taking an abundance of bad shots). Overall 10.2 ppg, though on +8.1% rTS, while also coming up with a 3rd-best [in league] 4.7 apg. His scoring falls off a bit in the playoffs, though efficiency still basically there, also an identical 4.7 apg in the post-season.
I believe I remember reading he was [though small] a scrappy/pesky defender, too.

Other HM's.....
Bob Davies: 14 ppg on decent efficiency while sporting 4th-best 4.6 apg in rs; but his complete playoff collapse is too much to overlook for me.
Arnie Risen: I note the Royals were 1st in the league in pts allowed per game, which likely means they were pretty good defensively (pace being an unknown). Risen has some solid defensive signals later in his career, too, and I suspect he's the biggest piece in their good defense. 10.1 ppg in rs, 11.5 in playoffs (decent efficiency in both), too. Might switch to him for #5 pick, actually.
Ed Macauley: really efficient scorer, though was filling it up for a losing team that missed the playoffs. His defensive reputation is lacking, too (the Amare Stoudemire of his era, perhaps???).
Frankie Brian: scored a lot (I think 3rd-highest ppg in league that year), though efficiency only slightly above average. Don't really know anything about him otherwise, though I believe I previously logged at least one game he was in.
Vern Mikkelsen: worth some consideration, too. Possibly Jim Pollard as well.



Offensive Player of the Year
1. Alex Groza
2. George Mikan
3. Dolph Schayes

See above for all three.


Defensive Player of the Year
1. George Mikan - seeming anchor of the first defensive dynasty (though we won't have some estimate paces for a couple more years; however, they were 2nd-best in pts allowed that year). Always looked good to my eye, with keen timing on block attempts (not afraid to contest outside, too), and always among the league-leaders in defensive rebounding.
2. Arnie Risen - see comments above in HM's. Presumed anchor or co-anchor of league-best pts allowed team.
3. Milo Komenich - eminence has convinced me. He's the only big who played consistently (all season) for the team that looks like [potentially] the best pace-adjusted DRtg in the league this year. I know nothing about him, but hazarding a guess at some major defensive impact [rebounding??] from him.

[Tim Lehrbach]

I am so embarrassed I cannot remember the name of the outstanding contributor who always shares the highest-quality old NBA footage. (Sorry, my appearances here are just too intermittent anymore.) Anyway, I assume there is none going back this far?

[eminence]

You can get a halfway decent estimate of 'Drtg' using Team TSA as a proxy for Ortg and SRS or Win% for Net. Team TSA is a good approximation of two of the offensive 4 factors combined (eFG% and FT/FGA)

The Lakers, Nationals, Packers, Stags, Pistons were probably the top 5 RS defenses in some order.

Royals likely were the best offense (by Ortg). Strong lead in TSA and Davies rep as the best guard in the league makes the team being notably turnover prone unlikely. Olympians strongly likely the #2.

[Owly]

I am so embarrassed I cannot remember the name of the outstanding contributor who always shares the highest-quality old NBA footage. (Sorry, my appearances here are just too intermittent anymore.) Anyway, I assume there is none going back this far?

For this particular season I know of one game. Google suggests there's three postings of a Knicks Pistons game with videos of about 33-34 minutes (assume same footage just different intro/ad/channel branding bits) think one attempts to add color.

[Djoker]

I am so embarrassed I cannot remember the name of the outstanding contributor who always shares the highest-quality old NBA footage. (Sorry, my appearances here are just too intermittent anymore.) Anyway, I assume there is none going back this far?

You're probably thinking of 70sFan...

[trex_8063]

I am so embarrassed I cannot remember the name of the outstanding contributor who always shares the highest-quality old NBA footage. (Sorry, my appearances here are just too intermittent anymore.) Anyway, I assume there is none going back this far?

There actually is at least one.

Watch on YouTube

I logged this one years ago when I was doing that game-log project (which I hope to get back to someday). This was the earliest game that had been pointed out or made available to me, and is part of this season in question (played on January 7, 1950). The game is ~85% complete (video not too long, as clock stoppages or occasionally the guard dribbling the ball across the half-court line edited out).

EDIT: iirc, just turn the audio off.......the guy doing commentary is an idiot.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Alright, look y'all, I'm just going to go ahead and reveal exactly how ignorant I am to the earliest NBA years. The obvious noob question: how come players had shooting mechanics that yielded 70-75% free throw shooting, but offenses couldn't generate shots at anything resembling the efficiency teams would eventually reach leading up to 1980? (For reference, league-wide shooting efficiency was .397 eFG/.410 TS in 1949-50 vs. .485 eFG/.530 TS in 1978-79, the last year before the three point line was introduced.)

What was the typical shot distance? What types of attempts were taken? Catch-and-shoot... floater... off-the-scoreboard-off-Grimace-nothing-but-net? Were layups and dunks rare? To the uninitiated like myself, this era of basketball seems so different from even ten years later (for reference, .410 eFG/.463 TS in 1959-60), when stats start to look a little more familiar and we have at least enough film to begin to explain the differences between that and contemporary ball. Just what were they doing out there in 1950?

I feel dumb to even have to ask. Would a primer of the game of basketball as it was played in this time be helpful? I assume this would require study of the NBA but also other contests, training "manuals" or whatever circulated in those times for skills and strategy instruction, etc.

Where does one begin understanding the game in its proto-professional days and whatever improvements the upstart NBA represented, so as to give its titans their due respect for their achievements? Looking at numbers alone just doesn't give me much of a picture. I can see how Mikan is a major outlier, which obviously commands immediate attention, but without video or at least a vivid description I have a really hard time evaluating a game I clearly do not understand.

EDIT: lol while I typed this a video got posted... I'll get to watching it!

EDIT2: I know not everybody needs such a primer, but I feel like there could be more, and richer participation, on these earliest threads if more of us knew where to even start. So, to the extent that y'all have some of this knowledge and can explain some basics to the rest of us, we might at least have a language for beginning to talk about these guys, if not confidently analyze them.

[eminence]

Running hook shots were a tad more popular than a modern coach might be comfortable with.

Lots of guys in these days didn't have modern standardized FT form either (either set shots or granny shots), so it may not have translated quite as well to floor shots.

[trex_8063]

Defensive Player of the Year

1. George Mikan
2. Alex Groza
3. Ed Macauley

If just going with the bigs, why not Arnie Risen over Ed Macauley?

Though the bombers were 4th [of 17] in pts allowed, it's likely this is a mirage because there is evidence suggesting they played at one of the slowest [if not THE slowest] paces (EDIT: I just checked, they do indeed average the fewest TSA per game that year):
*They took 30 fewer FTA's and 398 fewer FGA's than the league average, despite playing 2 games MORE THAN the league average: that translates to 8.9 fewer TSA/game than the league average.
**They were 15th of 17 in pts/game, despite shooting +0.5% rTS as a team.

Macauley's defensive reputation [and impact signal] later in his career is........frankly pretty poor.

Meanwhile Arnie Risen's signal [later in his career] is good, and the Royals were best in the league in terms of pts/allowed. While it appears they may have played a little slower, it's not near to the degree of St. Louis. And he's a big.

[Owly]

Defensive Player of the Year

1. George Mikan
2. Alex Groza
3. Ed Macauley

If just going with the bigs, why not Arnie Risen over Ed Macauley?

Though the bombers were 4th [of 17] in pts allowed, it's likely this is a mirage because there is evidence suggesting they played at one of the slowest [if not THE slowest] paces (EDIT: I just checked, they do indeed average the fewest TSA per game that year):
*They took 30 fewer FTA's and 398 fewer FGA's than the league average, despite playing 2 games MORE THAN the league average: that translates to 8.9 fewer TSA/game than the league average.
**They were 15th of 17 in pts/game, despite shooting +0.5% rTS as a team.

Macauley's defensive reputation [and impact signal] later in his career is........frankly pretty poor.

Meanwhile Arnie Risen's signal [later in his career] is good, and the Royals were best in the league in terms of pts/allowed. While it appears they may have played a little slower, it's not near to the degree of St. Louis. And he's a big.

Groza too ...

Huge offensive box but the team from '52 with Grabowski as the name in and Beard and Groza out ... they're better on D (and overall than '51) and overall about as good as the average of '50 and '51 and probably better on D.

Limited info (and noisy), especially for Groza but I'd struggle to support Groza or Macauley as good defensive players.

[eminence]

I'd strongly advocate for one of the Pistons/Stags/Packers bigs over any of Groza/Macauley/Risen (though Risen seems decent). Schayes likely belongs in the discussion with the 1st group as well.

[AEnigma]

I'd strongly advocate for one of the Pistons/Stags/Packers bigs over any of Groza/Macauley/Risen (though Risen seems decent). Schayes likely belongs in the discussion with the 1st group as well.

I appreciate you highlighting the Packers, and I edited my ballot accordingly.

What would be the case for Hermsen and/or Carpenter over Risen? Risen certainly seems to have a rebounding advantage over both, as well as a size advantage over Carpenter, and I am not seeing much to confidently judge either’s defensive impact outside of recognising they were significant contributors to some of the two best defences that year.

[trex_8063]

I'd strongly advocate for one of the Pistons/Stags/Packers bigs over any of Groza/Macauley/Risen (though Risen seems decent). Schayes likely belongs in the discussion with the 1st group as well.

The only Packers big who actually played a significant portion of the season was Milo Komenich, whom we don't have ANY other information for (because this was his only season). The Packers were 13th of 17 in pts allowed, but this definitely looks like a mirage, as they're a whopping +16.2 TSA/game above league average (and led the league in ppg despite being an awful -2.6% rTS as a team); so it's pretty clear they were playing at a ridiculous pace compared to the league average, and their actual DRtg must have been pretty good. Still.....Komenich is a bit of an unknown, unless you're holding something back.

Pistons look probably decent defensively [pace adjusted], though I logged later games of guys like Bob Carpenter and Bob Harris, and neither looked notable defensively to me (Carpenter only 6'5", too, fwiw). And Bill Henry missed a third of the season.

Grabowski [Stags], I'd consider.

[eminence]

Decided to make a new post for my 'Tier 1 Teams'

Groza a sure thing from the tier 2 teams, Zaslofsky seems reasonably likely, could see an argument for a few others, but not particularly strong cases imo.

Royals (75.0%, +7.72 SRS, +462.9 Team TSA, implied average defense): Davies gets the 1st team Honors - Wanzer/Risen picked up honors at other points. Davies (14.0/4.6) had the highest perimeter offensive burden in the league as best I can tell (Cousy soon to surpass that, further pioneering the perimeter helio), and was recognized as the best guard in the league for it. Risen's volume and efficiency were both down this season, don't see him as close to a top 5 threat this year. Wanzer the first top off-guard and someone I'll think about for top 5, but I don't see getting there. Lose a tight tiebreaker to the Lakers to start the postseason (https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1950-nba-central-division-first-place-tiebreaker-lakers-vs-royals.html), with Mikan rolling Risen and Davies playing great to keep it close (stats not included in their PO stats pages on BBref). Then get upset 0-2 by a balanced effort from the Pistons, with Davies laying an egg in those two games. Wanzer at about his usual level. I think overall you'd need a much higher weight on scoring efficiency or on those 2 PO games vs the Pistons than I'll have to not have Davies as the top guard for the season (he looked better against the Lakers than Zaslofsky did - who himself played very well). Davies is a lock for my top 5.

Nationals (79.7%, +6.48 SRS, +238.2 Team TSA, implied good defense): Schayes and Cervi both for 2nd team, a deserved #1 seed. Schayes is more perimeter oriented than most bigs of the day, but produces as a high volume/efficiency scorer, also shoulders more playmaking than most bigs (16.8/4.0). Cervi scores efficiently by getting to the line a ton (202 FTR+), while carrying ballhandling duties (10.2/4.7). Cervi has a very strong defensive rep, but was a 5'11 guard. I find the Nationals of the 50s situation a bit similar to the recent Celtics - they each have good lead guard who really gets after it on defense (Cervi/Seymour and Smart/Jrue) and gets a lot of the defensive limelight, but a forward is probably their best defensive player (Schayes/Tatum) and certainlyy their best player overall. In the POs they're one of two teams (Lakers) with a half decent sample size, and things look fairly consistent with the RS. Advance to the Finals without too much difficulty, but are a half step below a locked in Lakers squad. The end of a long line of teams that couldn't stand up to Mikan. Schayes a lock for top 5, Cervi worth considering.

Lakers (75.0%, +8.25 SRS, +233.8 Team TSA, implied good defense): Mikan and Pollard both 1st teamers, Mikan seen as a clear step up on the rest of the league (deservedly imo). Mikkelsen has a very productive rookie season, though overshadowed by Mikan on his own team, and other strong rookies with their own teams (Groza/Macauley). Prior to the lane widening Mikan is an absolute unstoppable offensive force if it gets to him. Scoring at absurd volume and great efficiency. I do think he's a little bit worse defensively with the narrow lane, but still arguably the best in the league on that end as well. I don't really need to say more on Mikan, he's #1 and it might be the most clear decision in this entire project. Mikkelsen was probably a bit short of top 5 consideration this early in his career, but very good. Pollard deserves some chatter, he was the final 1st teamer with a 14.7/3.8 statline (strong rebounder from later data) on poor efficiency. He was the Lakers bailout guy more often than not. On very limited tape (not sure any I've seen is actually from '50) he athletically pops far more than any other wing in the era imo. It's been a decade gone, but I've seen practice tape of the Lakers screwing around sometime in this period where he's dunking it from reasonably close to the FT line (film at the University of Minnesota). I think of him as the proto-Pippen (lower level). Not really a player who will ever truly stand out in the basic box score, but you know he's good. Lakers absolutely roll through the POs, with Mikan in particular taking it to an even higher level. Mikan a #1 lock, Pollard up for consideration.

So my rough tiers:

1: Mikan

2: Schayes, Groza, Davies (I think in that order)

3: Zaslofsky, Wanzer, Cervi, Pollard (in ??? order, can see cases for a few others as well, but that's who I'm considering)

[Tim Lehrbach]

Spoiler:

I am so embarrassed I cannot remember the name of the outstanding contributor who always shares the highest-quality old NBA footage. (Sorry, my appearances here are just too intermittent anymore.) Anyway, I assume there is none going back this far?

There actually is at least one.

Watch on YouTube

I logged this one years ago when I was doing that game-log project (which I hope to get back to someday). This was the earliest game that had been pointed out or made available to me, and is part of this season in question (played on January 7, 1950). The game is ~85% complete (video not too long, as clock stoppages or occasionally the guard dribbling the ball across the half-court line edited out).

EDIT: iirc, just turn the audio off.......the guy doing commentary is an idiot.

Thanks so much for sharing. I watched it.

Here are my GenZ-sees-olde-tyme-basketball-reels-for-the-first-time-and-reacts style thoughts:

1. Lots of no-look passes, dribble hand-offs, skip passes, fluidity with the ball, and so on -- there's some sophistication here, which is to be expected. They hadn't invented basketball yesterday, after all, and the more familiar 60s are only ten years away (but more on that below). The amount of movement, contact, missed shots, and turnovers aligns with the crazy paces recorded. This looks like an exhausting game to play, and that's without being able to appreciate exactly how good the athletes are!
2. I forgot about underhand free throws, tbh, which is silly of me. That is a good reason why shooting efficiency would differ so wildly between the free throw line and the field...
3. ...also, to answer one of my previous questions, it does indeed appear that layups are rare, since a foul occurs virtually every time somebody gets near the rim with the ball (most of them not whistled), so the lack of easy buckets shaves a bunch more points off the overall percentages...
4. ...but, my god, the shot selection. This is where I come at it with exasperated lack of understanding. Clearly the players demonstrate an ability to hit an open jump shot or set shot. Clearly they can pass and dribble and, especially, move without the ball (again, the game is impressively kinetic, like the late 50s games I've seen, so I'll give it that). There is no shot clock rushing offenses. Why is it acceptable to take a 20-foot turnaround J or an imbalanced, underhanded floater in heavy traffic when nothing is forcing those attempts? Why do wild shots seem commonplace? Why not just keep doing DHOs until the defense gets tired or somebody trips or whatever, lol? By the late 50s, (oddly enough, since the shot clock has been introduced to speed up the game overall), you see offenses slowing down a bit and looking more intentional with and protective of the rock. More static jump shots. More (for better or worse) backdowns/drop-steps/baby hooks/etc. More dunks. A lot more (legal) picks. More hard cuts and less zipping pointlessly around the top of the key. This is an impossibly limited sample, of course, but the leap from 1950 to 1960, just in terms of resemblance to basketball as we know it, could be pretty vast?

Obviously, this project is the ultimate in era-relativity, so we are not judging the players from 1949-50 by any standards but their peers in their own day. Sorry if I'm a little OT here. I am just trying to contextualize what it meant to be a good basketball player in 1950.

I also don't mean to bog down the thread in beginner-level discussion altogether, but I appreciate any education. I have been googling all morning/early afternoon but finding little helpful out there.

In one of the projects, I feel like Doctor MJ shared quite a bit of wisdom about the advent of professional leagues and the leap forward for basketball that occurred from the "proto-professional" era, as I guess I'd call it. ("Barnstorming," I guess it was?) Does anybody remember those discussions?

[eminence]

I'd strongly advocate for one of the Pistons/Stags/Packers bigs over any of Groza/Macauley/Risen (though Risen seems decent). Schayes likely belongs in the discussion with the 1st group as well.

I appreciate you highlighting the Packers, and I edited my ballot accordingly.

What would be the case for Hermsen and/or Carpenter over Risen? Risen certainly seems to have a rebounding advantage over both, as well as a size advantage over Carpenter, and I am not seeing much to confidently judge either’s defensive impact outside of recognising they were significant contributors to some of the two best defences that year.

Strongly may have been too strong (it was), but I don't see much to judge players off of defensively other than estimating roles on good defensive teams at this point in time. I'll lump in Hermsen with the above two in that all 3 had spent time on other good defenses/teams prior to this (though all were on the way out after '50 - making rebounding comparisons a bit tricky). While it was kind of the high water mark of the Royals defense (and not all that high).

To Risen's credit, the Royals at this point were still often playing 3 guard (and small ones at that) lineups, so maybe I should weight that more. So I can see Risen in that tier of defender overall, I probably shouldn't have included him with Groza/Macauley.