Retro POY '83-84 (Voting Complete)

[semi-sentient]

Site updated: www.dolem.com/poy

Bird moves up 2 spots as expected and is just behind Hakeem and Malone. Magic is just behind Shaq and Duncan for 2nd place.

Code: Select all

1.  Michael Jordan      9.578
2.  Tim Duncan          6.153
3.  Shaquille O'Neal    5.910
4.  Magic Johnson       5.907
5.  Karl Malone         4.649
6.  Hakeem Olajuwon     4.380
7.  Larry Bird          4.104
8.  Kobe Bryant         3.658
9.  Kevin Garnett       3.388
10. David Robinson      2.431

[Optimism Prime]

1. Bird. Clear #1 in my book.
2. King. Three words: “Unstoppable Offensive Force.” The Knicks/Pistons post-season series was pure joy. King averaged about 40 a game; he pretty much single-handedly gave New York the series. The Celtics held him to around 32-33 a game, and counted themselves lucky.
3. Magic. Had some boneheaded plays in the playoffs. I'm kind of torn between Magic and Kareem here. What I remember from the post-season—and the times when the Lakers were in trouble, in general--is that the perimeter game would sometimes be a little sloppy or out of control. And that's Magic department. Great [plays, but also some meltdowns. Having the best halfcourt offenvie move in history as a backup was a fortuitous thing for the Lakers this year...
4. Ruland. Yep. Jeff Ruland. One of those guys who was such an oddball in terms of skills, you had to see it to believe it. (He shared that with Charles Barkley...except not as many people saw Ruland.) Ruland turned the ball over a lot. That being said, his assiast/turnover ratio was around 1 to 1 because he was an excellent passer. There's not much else bad to say about him. He used his size well to keep opposing big men out of the lane; he didn't block shots, but he was a good, physical man defender. And—this is the kicker—he was close to unstoppable on offense. Seriously. He had a great midrange shot, one of the best first step spin moves you've ever seen on a big man (especially a 250 pound big man), good court vision...he was just a force out there. In the Bullets playoff series against the Celtics, it was not a mystery that Ruland would be running the offense. And the Celtics had Parish and McHale and Maxwell and Bird on the front line...the usual cast. They “held” Ruland to 52% shooting...which sounds like Ruland still shot very well. Which he did...for anyone not named Jeff Ruland. Ruland shot 58% during the season. Ruland did compensate for his “off”shooting against the Celtics by pulling down about 13 rebounds and averaging about 8 assists a game. So, to make that clear, in the playoffs, against a great defensive team with a historically great frontline that essentially was keying on him, Jeff Ruland averaged

24.0 ppg, 12.8 rpg, 7.8 apg.

So, yeah, he's my #4 guy.
5. Kareem. Was still near his peak defensively, but it was kind of an off-year on the offensive end...if you can call 21.5-7.3-2.6 with two blocks on 58% shooting in only 33 minutes a game an “off year.” But the Celtics just smacked the Lakers around on the boards, and Kareem didn't step up there (although, to be honest, neither did the rest of the Lakers that year).

Thing is, as people are nothing, there are a lot of people here who could make it on. Isiah deserves some respect. So deos Dr. J (we are now moving into a long period of Dr. J-ness). Moncrief.

Seems like as good a place as any to post this: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball ... land102910

Despite never hearing of Ruland before your post, when I saw his name pop up in my twitter feed, I clicked it immediately.

[ElGee]

Unfortunately, I wasn't really around for the 84 thread, but I wanted to expand on Bernard King. In 1985, playing at a similar level to his 1984 play, he missed 27 games. I wasn't able to find 3 of the games he missed (I'm lazy), but if we include the two games he injured his ankle and groin in the 1st quarter, I've got 26 games King missed that year.

w/out King: -10.0 (4-22)
w/King: -2.1 (20-36)

That's +7.9 with Bernard the following year.

That's a large impact on a poor basketball team. It's arguable he was playing better at the end of 1984 and in the postseason that year (statistically he certainly was). It was disappointing more wasn't discussed about the Knicks little run that year and none of those games -- available on youtube -- were discussed with much detail. The guy was an absolute scoring machine.

And no, I don't think he was poor defensively. Not a great playmaker, but I'd describe what he did that year as George Gervin on steroids. A lot of scoring within the offense, off of rubs (and deep in the post). He just abused people and carried New York pretty far (3rd best SRS in NBA, G7 v Celtics).