Retro Player of the Year 1968-69 UPDATE — Bill Russell

[eminence]

Don't get that description of West's POs at all. Lakers were carried by Wilt/defense in the playoffs (especially against Atlanta where West was into outright mediocre territory).

[Djoker]

Don't get that description of West's POs at all. Lakers were carried by Wilt/defense in the playoffs (especially against Atlanta where West was into outright mediocre territory).

The Lakers were +2.5 rORtg and -3.5 rDRtg in the PS but that offensive number is credit to West considering how poor Baylor was all PS. Wilt was also passive on offense. When teams play fewer rounds in the playoffs, I feel that Finals become even more important so West's domination there is pretty huge for his case.

[eminence]

Player of the Year
1. Bill Russell
Vive le roi

2. Nate Thurmond
I can reasonably see a lot of names here this season, a bunch of decent competition all not having their best seasons. Nate only misses a bit of time, shows high impact again, and then puts up a decently competitive series against a much more talented opponent.

3. Oscar Robertson
Has the health edge on Nate, but it's small enough I prefer Nate going out and showing us an impressive PO outing. I have guards in spots 4/5 as well, it's hard for me to look at this version of late prime Oscar and not imagine he leads either the Lakers or Knicks to better/equal results.

4. Jerry West
Misses more time than Nate, generally a half step behind Nate impact wise later in his career. If he'd dominated all through the playoffs I'd have him up at #2, but the team #s aren't there, and he was rough by this standard vs Atlanta.

5. Walt Frazier
I tend to go with Walt in the Frazier/Reed split, don't think there's enough evidence either way to go strongly, but I prefer Walt and appreciate that the team really took off when he moved into the starting lineup (shoutout DeBusschere). Him not starting the first portion of the season is still more valuable than West outright missing a similar stretch. Once he moved into the starting lineup I have him at a similar level as the two above guards. Bit less faith in his PO experience and playing poorly in a loss vs a win has him behind West.

My top HM this season would probably go to Reed. Then probably Wilt - strong playoffs, but I'm not one to highly reward mailing in a RS if you don't actually win the prize at the end, no matter how close you get. Unseld I don't think was that crazy of an MVP pick, but wasn't quite ready for the playoffs, the Knicks lit them up. Very promising rookie season. Zelmo/Cunningham/Hondo/Hayes all got a passing thought.

[Narigo]

1. Bill Russell - Choosing the number 1 spot was difficult but Russell's defensive impact is hard to ignore as the celtics was the best defensive team by big margin.

2. Jerry West- Has a case for number 1 despite missing quite a few games. Excellent ps run and carried the Lakers to 7 games

3.Willis Reed- Arguably his peak year

4. Oscar Robertson- Leads team to best offense in the league with weak support

5. Walt Frazier-

[AEnigma]

Votes are tallied. I recorded 13 voters: Djoker, AEnigma, Dutchball97, Dr. Positivity, eminence, ShaqAttac, Penbeast, OhayoKD, IlikeShaiGuys, One_and_Done, Falcolombardi, Narigo, and trelos. Penbeast, OhayoKD, Eminence, Narigo, One_and_Done, and ShaqAttac abstained from voting for Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year. Please let me know if I seem to have missed or otherwise improperly recorded a vote.

1968-69 Results

(Retro) Offensive Player of the Year — Oscar Robertson (9) and Jerry West (2)

Code: Select all

Player       1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1a. Oscar Robertson    4   2   1    27     0.771
1b. Jerry West   3    4    0    27    0.771
3. Walt Frazier   0   1   2    5    0.143
4. Warren Jabali   0   0   2    2    0.057
5. Hal Greer   0   0   1    1    0.029
5. Willis Reed   0   0   1    1    0.029

(Retro) Defensive Player of the Year — Bill Russell (13) (Unanimous)

Code: Select all

Player         1st   2nd   3rd   Points  Shares
1. Bill Russell   7   0   0     35    1.000
2. Nate Thurmond    0   6   1    19    0.543
3. Wes Unseld    0   1   4    7    0.200
4. Wilt Chamberlain    0   0   2    2    0.057

Retro Player of the Year — Bill Russell (9)

Code: Select all

Player      1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Bill Russell 10  3  0  0  0   121   0.931
2. Jerry West  2  2  3  1  2   54   0.415
3. Willis Reed   1  1  4  3  0   46   0.354
4. Nate Thurmond  0  5  0  1  0   38   0.292
5. Oscar Robertson  0  0  2  6  3   31   0.238
6. Wes Unseld    0  1  2  0  2   19    0.146
7. Walt Frazier    0  0  2  2  2   18    0.138
8. Wilt Chamberlain   0  1  0  0  1   8    0.062
9. Zelmo Beaty    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.008
9. Warren Jabali    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.008
9. Elvin Hayes    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.008

In the prior project, there were 18 votes, with Dr. Positivity and penbeast overlapping. With their prior ballots removed, these are the aggregated results of the two projects across 29 total ballots:

Spoiler:

Code: Select all

Player   1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts  POY Shares
1. Bill Russell 19  9  0  0  0.5   253.5   0.874
2. Jerry West  9  8  5  1  3   177   0.610
3. Willis Reed   1  2  10  5  1   90   0.310
4. Oscar Robertson  0  3  4  10  5   76   0.262
5. Wes Unseld    0  1  5  5  5   52    0.179
6. Nate Thurmond  0  5  0  1  0   38   0.131
7. Wilt Chamberlain   0  1  1  4  4   28    0.097
8. Walt Frazier    0  0  2  2  5   21    0.072
9. John Havlicek    0  0  2  1  1   14    0.048
10. Zelmo Beaty    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.003
10. Warren Jabali    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.003
10. Elvin Hayes    0  0  0  0  1   1    0.003
10. Billy Cunningham   0  0  0  0  1   1    0.003
14. Elgin Baylor    0  0  0  0  0.5   0.5    0.002

1970 thread will open shortly.

[Djoker]

Interesting that for 1968-69 the original project was way more pro-West and this one more pro-Russell.

[AEnigma]

Yep, that is the point of an update — although here the result stays the same.

No one even voted for Thurmond last project.