Dutchball97 wrote:OhayoKD wrote:rk2023 wrote:
I think the Princeton offense enabled West to have his best season on a /poss. basis in 1968, I like 1966 all in all considering he's playing more. I think he's the best player in the league that season as well
Now that's a fascinating claim. Would like to hear his case against Russell and Wilt
I think this mostly comes down to Russell and Wilt not having particular standout seasons in 1966. West meanwhile was really getting into his own around this time and the 66 season is even regarded as his best or at least one of his best seasons. For reference in the POY project West was pretty universally ranked 3rd, while being the only one besides Russell and Wilt to receive a first place vote. Even though I'd probably also put him behind Russell and Wilt, when considering the level of help West had that season I don't think it's that out there to have him in the mix.
Agreed, I think 66 is a step down or so from Russell's prime of 62-65 - and a step up for West / "full passing of the torch" from Elgin in terms of controlling the offense.
Note that it's tough to break away in terms of standings and the Lakers were 45-35, but they still posted a top 3 SRS that season at 2.76 - catalyzed by West engining the league's best offense (98.3). IIRC, that team wasn't quite sized well compared to others anchored by a big-man, and their defense was flirting around league average.
In the regular season, West averaged 31.3, 7.1, 6.1 on 57.3%TS (8.6% above league average / 118 TS+). I'm not the biggest advocate for this stat, but .256 WS/48 - 2nd in the league - is quite impressive too.
For the "/75 possessions deflates this value" crowd, the devils' advocate to that would be that it is harder to stay efficient across a larger sample of possessions / simply playing and scoring more - and with a lower league average for base, such efficiency could be argued to be more valuable marginally (seen in TS+). FWIW, Rudy LaRusso and Bob Boozer were the only other Laker players considerably above league avg. efficiency and they were big-men with much less an offensive load or scoring responsibility. All in all, a pretty underrated floor raising effort.
Always known as a remarkable playoff scorer, West this year averaged 34.2/6.3/5.6 and saw his TS% uptick to 58.1 even with drawing the Celtics (still a great defense, to say the least) for half of the run. A ~3 point SRS underdog Hawks team took LA 7 games, but LA also went 7 games as a ~2 point SRS underdog to the 66 Celtics.
In the case of the latter, 5 games were within 5 points - including three LA wins and a game 7 that came down to a 2 point loss. West had 36 in this elimination game with being the only reliable scoring option for LA in a 95-93 slugfest.
West's Playoff WS/48 of .237 led the league as well.
Overall, I think the combination of RS + PS catapults him over Russell and Wilt that given season for me.