Retro Player of the Year 1954-55 UPDATE — Dolph Schayes

[Doctor MJ]

This is the second to last year pre russel right? It feels like the beginning of the end for that era of basketball before the leap forward that would come with the late 50's drafts

Correct, and certainly we're about to transition.

I mentioned before about the difference between the first wave of Black NBA players - primarily used as role players, defenders & enforcers - and the second wave - where some were drafted with the expectation of them as stars.

The first of this second wave arrives next year in Maurice Stokes, who is then follow by Bill Russell the year after.

[LA Bird]

Player of the Year
1. Dolph Schayes
2. Bob Cousy
3. Neil Johnston
4. Larry Foust
5. Jim Pollard

Oops, forgot I hadn't voted.

More or less the same top guys as the years before. Schayes continues his run as the best non-Mikan player and finally winning the championship. Cousy with another 1st in assists, 2nd in scoring season while leading the #1 offensive team. Johnston leads the league in both scoring, rebounding, and TS Add but the team is still somewhat underwhelming even with the return of Arizin.

Foust with a massive jump in scoring efficiency this regular season but loses it in the playoffs where he sank to below his team average. Yardley also takes over as the superior postseason performer as we see in subsequent years. Still, a #1 SRS team that came within 1 point of winning the title and Foust had a strong showing in game 7 with 24 points. I'm not picking any one of Martin/Mikkelsen/Lovellette when there is a 40 game sample of that trio together being -4 SRS without Pollard or old Mikan. Not totally convinced on Pollard here either but he was a top well-rounded #2 for years and never got a vote from me so I'll give him a consolation spot in his final season.

[Djoker]

VOTING POST

Player of the Year

1. Dolph Schayes - Led the team to a championship finally getting over the mark after many great all-around seasons. 1st Team All-NBA. Averaged 18.5/12.3/3.0 on 49.0 %TS (+3.5 rTS) and then 19.0/12.8/3.6 on 48.9 %TS (+3.4 rTS) in the playoffs. May or may not have been the best individual player in the NBA but he got the job done.

2. Bob Cousy - Once again captained the #1 offense in the league. 1st Team All-NBA. Averaged 21.2/6.0/7.8 on 48.0 %TS (+2.5 rTS) followed by 21.7/6.1/9.3 on 47.5 %TS (+2.0 rTS) in the postseason. Boston yet again lost in the Division Finals for a third consecutive year but not because of Cous who balled out.

3. Neil Johnston - Led the league in both scoring and rebounding on great efficiency. 1st Team All-NBA. Averaged 22.7/15.1/3.0 on 53.6 %TS (+8.1 rTS). What holds him back from going up further is his team yet again missed the playoffs.

4. Bob Pettit - Numbers almost as good as Johnson. Rookie Pettit was already a force and there were signs of greatness to come but his team also unfortunately missed the postseason. 1st Team All-NBA. Averaged 20.4/13.8/3.2 on 48.0 %TS (+2.5 rTS).

5. Larry Foust - Two-way star on a Finalist but not close to the individual force that the four guys in front of him are. I was pondering to have him higher up but I think this is ultimately a fair ranking. 1st Team All-NBA. Averaged 17.0/10.0/1.7 on a hyper efficient 57.0 %TS (+11.5 rTS) in the regular season. In the postseason he averaged 15.6/9.7/2.5 on 46.7 %TS (+1.2 rTS) so there was a very noticeable drop in efficiency. With a bit better playoff run, I think he would jump all the way to #2.

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Bob Cousy
2. Neil Johnston
3. Dolph Schayes

Cousy first which should be obvious and then the two 20/10 big men. Johnston ahead of Schayes because of the unreal efficiency.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Dolph Schayes
2. Larry Foust
3. Vern Mikkelsen

Foust led the #3 defense that barely lost in the Finals. Lakers still managed a #2 defense after Mikan left and Mikkelsen and Martin were big reasons why. Ended up going with Mikkelsen as he's a bigger body so probably had more impact on D overall.

[AEnigma]

Have ballots tallied, but realistically I am not going to close the next thread until the morning after the 72 hour “deadline”, so my thought is to wait until tomorrow morning and give trex (or anyone else) a final opportunity to post their ballot.

In the interim, will look back at the prior project. The two “doctors” here (MJ and Positivity) were the sole carryover votes. Doc MJ replaced Johnston with Seymour and Pettit with Martin, and Dr. Positivity dropped Foust from first to fifth (kicking out Pettit), moved Schayes from second to first, and elevated Mikkelsen to second.

There is one other poster from the 2010 project who is still reasonably active…

Due today and don't have time for a writeup now . . . will try to get one up. Though I often convince myself differently during the writeups, going into it with a top 5 of . . .

1. Schayes -- Best player on best team. Strong defensive rep and great free throw shooting make up for low percentages from the floor
2. Foust -- Star of the other top team, very efficient scorer.
3. Johnston -- League statistical leader in both scoring and rebounding while also quite efficient
4. Cousy -- Unique playmaking ability; more efficient this year
5. Vern Mikkelsen -- 2nd team all-NBA to Pettit but best player on 3rd best team and good defensive rep
Can't see Pettit having the worst record and being a legit MVP candidate as a rookie.

Penbeast, regardless of whether you care to submit an “official” ballot here, do you feel you would change any of the above today?

[penbeast0]

Maybe Mikkelsen. Since this vote, I've read a few posters that have Pollard as the more impactful defender and player on those Laker teams. As I didn't see either of them, it's hard to make strong judgements about defense so might switch up that pick to someone else.

[Dr Positivity]

I think we were probably mailing it in by the end of the 2010 project having done 50+ years and getting to the guys we knew the least at the end

[AEnigma]

Votes are tallied. I recorded 10 voters: Djoker, ShaqAttac, AEnigma, Eminence, Dutchball97, Dr. Positivity, Doctor MJ, LA Bird, ZeppelinPage, and trelos. LA Bird, ShaqAttac, and eminence abstained from both OPoY and DPoY. Please let me know if I seem to have missed or otherwise improperly recorded a vote.

1954-55 Results

(Retro) Offensive Player of the Year — Bob Cousy (4*) (Unanimous)

Code: Select all

Player         1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1. Bob Cousy    7   0   0    35     1.000
2. Neil Johnston    0   4   0    12     0.343
3. Dolph Schayes   0    2    4     10    0.286
4a. Bill Sharman   0    0    3      3     0.086
4b. Larry Foust   0    1    0      3     0.086

(Retro) Defensive Player of the Year — Mel Hutchins

Code: Select all

Player         1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1. Mel Hutchins   3    2    1     22     0.629
2. Dolph Schayes    3    0    0     15     0.429
3. Paul Seymour    1    0    2      7    0.200
4. Vern Mikkelsen    0    1    2      5    0.153
5. Slater Martin    0    1    1      4    0.114
6. Nat Clifton    0    1    0      3    0.086
6. Larry Foust    0    1    0      3    0.086
6. Earl Lloyd    0    1    0      3    0.086
9. Joe Graboski    0    0    1      1    0.029

Retro Player of the Year — Dolph Schayes (Unanimous)

Code: Select all

Player       1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Dolph Schayes  10  0  0  0  0   100    1.000
2. Bob Cousy   0  6  2  2  0   58    0.580
3. Neil Johnston   0  0  6  1  0   33    0.330
4. Larry Foust   0  3  1  1  3   32    0.320
5. Bob Pettit   0  0  0  3  0   9   0.090
6. Vern Mikkelsen   0  1  0  0  0   7    0.070
7. Paul Seymour   0  0  1  0  1   6    0.060
8a. Mel Hutchins   0  0  0  1  1   4    0.040
8b. Harry Gallatin   0  0  0  1  1   4    0.040
10. Nat Clifton   0  0  0  1  0   3    0.030
11. Clyde Lovellette   0  0  0  0  1   1   0.010
11. Slater Martin   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010
11. Jim Pollard   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010
11. Bill Sharman   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.010

In the prior project, there were 12 votes, with Doctor MJ and Dr. Positivity overlapping. With those two prior ballots removed, these are the aggregated results of the two projects across 20 total ballots:

Spoiler:

Code: Select all

Player       1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Dolph Schayes  18  2  0  0  0   194    0.970
2. Bob Cousy   0  10  3  6  1   104    0.520
3. Neil Johnston   2  0  13  2  0   91    0.455
4. Larry Foust   0  7  3  3  5   78    0.390
5. Bob Pettit   0  0  0  6  6   24   0.120
6. Vern Mikkelsen   0  1  0  0  1   8    0.040
7. Paul Seymour   0  0  1  0  1   6    0.030
8a. Mel Hutchins   0  0  0  1  1   4    0.020
8b. Harry Gallatin   0  0  0  1  1   4    0.020
10. Nat Clifton   0  0  0  1  0   3    0.015
11. Clyde Lovellette   0  0  0  0  1   1   0.005
11. Slater Martin   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.005
11. Jim Pollard   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.005
11. Bill Sharman   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.005

1956 thread will open shortly.

[trex_8063]

Have ballots tallied, but realistically I am not going to close the next thread until the morning after the 72 hour “deadline”, so my thought is to wait until tomorrow morning and give trex (or anyone else) a final opportunity to post their ballot.

Sorry, I was off-grid for a couple days; maybe I should have given you a heads up. I meant to get my ballot in early before I left, but didn't get a chance.
In the future, I'll try to give warning if I'm not going to make it by the deadline. But if I don't give a heads up, please don't delay the entire project on my account (edit: it's kinda like Dr Positivity said, if we're taking ~4 days per thread, we'll be running on fumes by the time we get to the 2010s). It's my responsibility to get my vote in by the deadline; if I miss it, that's on me.

From the looks of things, my vote wouldn't have changed a lot. Schayes seemed like the obvious pick for #1; I'm glad to see Johnston got more cred this year.

[AEnigma]

Have ballots tallied, but realistically I am not going to close the next thread until the morning after the 72 hour “deadline”, so my thought is to wait until tomorrow morning and give trex (or anyone else) a final opportunity to post their ballot.

Sorry, I was off-grid for a couple days; maybe I should have given you a heads up. I meant to get my ballot in early before I left, but didn't get a chance.
In the future, I'll try to give warning if I'm not going to make it by the deadline. But if I don't give a heads up, please don't delay the entire project on my account (edit: it's kinda like Dr Positivity said, if we're taking ~4 days per thread, we'll be running on fumes by the time we get to the 2010s). It's my responsibility to get my vote in by the deadline; if I miss it, that's on me.

It was more that by the time I was ready to tally votes (which was a few hours past the 72 hour mark), I knew that either this thread would go long or the next thread would go long, because my priority on a week-night is not to tally votes before going to bed.

That said, I appreciate the affirmative note that you will not be annoyed if a ballot is ever closed before you would have posted. As for burnout, my personal feeling is that rushing posts can just as easily create burnout, but more formally for the state of the project, I think I have already said that if the third day (+) starts being especially dry, I will adjust the schedule accordingly.

From the looks of things, my vote wouldn't have changed a lot. Schayes seemed like the obvious pick for #1; I'm glad to see Johnston got more cred this year.

Well, more credit relative to what he had been receiving the prior two years. Less relative to the 2010 project.