1st vote: Tony ParkerPiggy-backing on my comments from post #8 itt, here's the gist why I think he belongs at this point (somewhat a longevity-aided pick).....
Accolades: 6-Time NBA All-Star, 4-time All-NBA (3x 2nd Team, 1x 3rd Team). Figured into the MVP vote SEVEN seasons, as high as 5th, four times in the top 10.
Narrative: Core piece of a dynasty, with 5 trips to the NBA finals, 4 rings, 1 FMVP.
Statistical/style: A quick as hell penetrator who finishes well at the rim, and from a longevity standpoint, he starts looking pretty good statistically.....
Over the
10-year span of '05-'14---which covers 706 rs games (sticking with rTS% and per 100 possession numbers, for better cross-era comps):
29.7 pts, 4.9 reb, 10.2 ast, 4.2 tov @ +2.07% rTS in 32.7 mpg. (20.5 PER, .160 WS/48, +1.8 BPM, +6 efficiency differential).......again, that's over a solid decade. He's got at least 2-3 other better than average seasons besides. Is 65th in NBA/ABA history in rs WS, 51st in playoff WS, fwiw.
Traction is imminent, no?
2nd vote: Paul ArizinLet’s start with ‘52. Yeah, it’s ‘52, and the league was relatively soft, infantile compared to many other eras. Otoh, what would you expect a legitimately great player to do to a soft era? You’d expect him to destroy it, which is more or less what Paul Arizin did that year:
*He led the league in both ppg and FG% (with a FG% that even some modern players----Lonzo Ball, some recent years of Derrick Rose, etc----would envy; also 82% from the FT-line, which is good in any era), while also averaging 11.3 rpg.
**He had the league’s 2nd-best PER (behind only Mikan), and the 3rd-best WS/48 (behind only Vern Mikkelsen and Mikan)--->close to them on both metrics, and while playing significantly more minutes than either (a monstrous league-leading 44.5 mpg). Was arguably the most
statistically dominant player in the league that year (at least for what stats they tracked at the time).
***In pace-adjusted era-relative terms, he was averaging 28.6 pts, 12.7 reb, and 2.9 ast per 100 possessions @ +10.76% rTS (again: in 44.5 mpg).
****Was a 29.5 PER, .198 WS/48 in the playoffs, too (while avg 40.0 mpg): 57% TS in the playoffs (which is good even by modern standards).
So he was crushing the league in ‘52, no question.
In ‘53 Arizin is gone (a forced retirement of sorts, as he’s in military service---in Korea for some of it---over the next two years; which incidentally, I’m inclined to give him a partial pass on his longevity for this, as this most likely took two years of his prime away from him); they also got rid of PG Andy Phillip for much of the season. Otoh, Neil Johnston blooms into a superstar this year.
And yet the win% falls from .500 to .174, SRS falls from -1.08 to -7.75; the offense falls from a very nice +2.6 rORTG to an abysmal -4.1 rORTG…….to me this is all indication that Arizin wasn’t just empty stats.
The team stablizes a little in ‘54 (manages a 29-43 record with Johnston at the helm).
In ‘55, Arizin returns from military service with likely a fair bit of rust on him, and returning to a league that is a bit different and more competitive than the one he left (skillsets improving at a startling rate thru the 1950’s based on the difference seen between games of the early 50’s and those of circa-1960, the shotclock has been added, and the league somewhat more concentrated [reduced in size somewhat])......they improve by 4 games and +1.70 SRS, even with rusty and adjusting Paul Arizin (who---per 100 possessions---went for 23.9 pts, 10.7 reb, 3.3 ast @ +2.25 rTS in another league-leading 41.0 mpg).
By ‘56 he’s sharpened up again (28.3 pts, 8.75 reb, 3.1 ast per 100 possessions @ +6.86% rTS), as he and Neil Johnston lead a +4.6 rORTG (#1 in league) team to an NBA title. In the playoffs on that title run, Arizin avg 28.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.9 apg @ 53% TS (which would have been above average as recently as circa-2000.....was +7.2% rTS at the time); had the league-best playoff WS/48 (.262, along with 24.2 PER in 40.9 mpg).
Arizin would post similar numbers in ‘57 on another winning team.
His numbers take a dip in ‘58, not sure of the reason why. Nagging injuries? The addition of the chucking Woody Sauldsberry taking too many of his shots? I don’t know. His numbers pop back up a bit in ‘59 (in what is an ever more competitive league) before age begins to take its toll.
But even in his final season (which he would turn 34 years old by the end of), in a much more competitive league than the one he started in----due to a rapidly expanding player pool (league still only 9 teams this year), rapidly evolving skillsets, and increasing integration (nearly 30% black by this point)----Arizin was still producing (per 100 possessions) 22.4 pts, 6.9 reb, 2.6 ast @ +0.75 rTS while still playing nearly 36 mpg.
Arizin was one of the popularizers of the jump-shot, good form (especially relative to era standards), and appears to have had range out to 20+ feet. In those respects he seems like a player that translates reasonably well to a more modern context. Seems like a reasonably decent build (for an era that actively
discouraged weight training), and at 6’4” (in socks) and 190 lbs, he’s more or less got the body of a relatively modern NBA wing. His elevation on those jump-shots (again: prior to training for strength, leaping, or explosiveness) is decent, and I actually really like his quickness given this video is mostly old post-prime Arizin and that the floors of the time period were utter trash (dusty, slick, poorly kept) and the “athletic shoes” of the time period were little better than the slippers I wear around the house in winter.
Not that era-portability plays any large role in my personal criteria, fwiw. Merely pointing out I think this is a great player, certainly has the statistical backing, has the accolades (10 All-Stars, 3x All-NBA 1st Team, 1x All-NBA 2nd, four top 10 finishes in the MVP vote [three in top 5, twice in top 3]--->and this excludes his ‘52 season because the MVP was not yet a thing), as well as other career narrative things (like being at worst 1b on a title team in the shotclock era). He’s a rock-solid candidate here, imo.
EDIT: Just by way of mentions, the other players I'd be content to see get this spot include Grant Hill, Chris Bosh, Shawn Marion, Dan Issel (I'll be lobbying for him soon; I see him kinda like Amar'e Stoudemire, but with better longevity), or perhaps Ben Wallace.
"Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience." -George Carlin
"The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it." -Edward Rutherfurd
