how good was julius erving peak?

[falcolombardi]

How good was the doctor and which player recently is more comparable to him on a pure impact perspective?

[Cavsfansince84]

If I did a top 25 peaks I'd have it ahead of Kobe and just below Giannis I think.

[No-more-rings]

I imagine he’s like a bigger more athletic Wade but with weaker passing and ball handling skills.

[falcolombardi]

I imagine he’s like a bigger more athletic Wade but with weaker passing and ball handling skills.

i am far from a expert on julius. penbeast, doc, 70'sfan and others are the more knoledgeable posters in 70's players

but i have been watching some 76 nets julius footage (still dont get to the sixers era) to get a feel for him beyond numbers, since is usually seen as his peak

i have not seen a weak handle, he actually does a lot of quick spin moves posting up where he spins while dribbling, catches the ball at the end of the spin (his big hands must help there) and takes a sort of floater/hook/one handed jumper close to the basket

doing that takes a ton of skill imo, not somethingh a player with weak handles could do in that era, at that speed, without struggling with traveling calls or turnovers imo

i think his passing is solid, he seems to genefally recognize when there is a good passing option to make amd pass the ball, nothingh otherwordly but still solid. is clear however that his natural insting is to drive or post up

he does a lot of good rebounding off amd def (like wade) and seems to have a soft touch on putbacks

does a lot of cool stuff in the air when contested like up and unders mid air that look oddly smooth but rarely went in, saw a couple nice layup passes mid air

he leaks for the fastbreak often after a rival shoy hits the rim (risky) and is really fast in a straight line, doesnt dominate the ball too much, gets a lot of points by sealing deep position in post ups

in defense he deflects and steals a lot of balls but clearly takes risks doing so, good rim protection for a wing, lebron-lite at times with the contests and chasedown blocks

somewhat slow to recognize cuts or realizing when to go back to his man wheb he is doubling which costs a few open mid range jumpers and shots inside

overall great athlete, full court players, willing and decent passer but looks to score first posts up a lot but mostly spin moves amd trying to bully his way inside

[SickMother]

I've got him 9th on my single season peaks list...

09 Erving 75-76: 28.7 PER | .569 TS% | 110 TS+ | 17.7 WS | .262 WS/48
09 Erving 75-76 Playoffs?!?: 32.0 PER | .610 TS% | 3.7 WS | .321 WS/48

To post 17.7 Win Shares in the regular season, then put up a monster efficiency jump (+3.7 PER | +.041 TS% | +.059 WS/48) in the playoffs is pretty insane.

I can see why the NBA was willing to absorb the entire ABA to get the Doctor into their league.

[HeartBreakKid]

I have him as a top 15 guy. A bit ahead of Bryant, Wade, Nowitzki

[kcktiny]

Peak NBA Erving is as good as any SF peak.

Looking at say the best 3 seasons of SFs statistically, and compare him to say Bird, LBJ, Durant, and Kawhi Leonard (you can haggle about which 3 seasons for each), you'll see Erving had better rates for offensive rebounding, steals, and blocked shots. All three categories.

Yet on a per minute basis he was just as good a scorer as those four.

And anyone that does not think Erving was a better than average to good defender overall clearly did not watch him play.

This doesn't even consider his ABA career. The last 1-2 seasons of that league the talent level was as good as the NBA, and he dominated that league.

[Heej]

From what I understand he was Proto-Lebron. Do it all wing that functioned as a legit defensive anchor.

[JordansBulls]

How good was the doctor and which player recently is more comparable to him on a pure impact perspective?

I'd say if in the league today probably best player. If peaks of the guys in the league probably behind Lebron/KD/Giannis

Jokic has the stats but I'm not sure he was actually better than Dr J.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Pretty sure his peak happened in the ABA which complicates things

[LukaTheGOAT]

It is difficult, but depending on how you adjust for competition and look at his pure dominance relative to the ABA, I think it has an argument as the 2nd greatest SF peak ever.

Peak Julius Erving from 1974-76 (Inflation Adjusted per 75 poss.):

•) 25.6 points
•) 9.9 rebounds (3.2 off.)
•) 4.7 assists
•) 2.1 steals
•) 1.9 blocks
•) +5.0 relative TS%
•) Plus a great defender on a -4.27 relative defense from ‘74-‘76

His title run in the ‘76 postseason is particularly otherworldly.

Doc J was on another level (IA per 75 poss.):

•) 30.0 points
•) 10.9 rebounds (4.3 off.)
•) 4.2 assists
•) 1.7 steals
•) 1.8 blocks
•) +10.3 relative TS%

You look at these outrageous numbers, and I think they look comparable to Bird's, while being a better defender during his peak. However, Bird was lightyears ahead as a passer and gave a lot of spacing for others with his shooting. Bird probably could mesh a bit easier with other higher level guys a bit easier because of everything he could do without the ball.

[LukaTheGOAT]

It is difficult, but if we look at his pure dominance relative to the ABA, I think it has an argument as the 2nd greatest SF peak ever.

Peak Julius Erving from 1974-76 (Inflation Adjusted per 75 poss.):

•) 25.6 points
•) 9.9 rebounds (3.2 off.)
•) 4.7 assists
•) 2.1 steals
•) 1.9 blocks
•) +5.0 relative TS%
•) Plus a great defender on a -4.27 relative defense from ‘74-‘76

His title run in the ‘76 postseason is particularly otherworldly.

Doc J was on another level (IA per 75 poss.):

•) 30.0 points
•) 10.9 rebounds (4.3 off.)
•) 4.2 assists
•) 1.7 steals
•) 1.8 blocks
•) +10.3 relative TS%

-0.6 rDrtg faced

Compare that to Bird.

1984-86 Larry Bird in the playoffs (IA per 75):

•) 23.8 points (+5.1 rTS%)
•) 8.9 rebounds
•) 5.9 assists
•) 1.9 steals
•) 0.9 blocks

Bird's peak is often put as 86. His title run numbers were the following

Playoffs:
Inflation Adjusted

•22.8 Pts/75,+7.6 rTS%
•7.1 ast/75
•8 reb/75
•1.7 stl/75
•0.5 blk/75

-0.4 rDrtg faced

You look at these outrageous numbers, and I think they look comparable to Bird's, while being a better defender during his peak. However, Bird was lightyears ahead as a passer and gave a lot of spacing for others with his shooting. Bird probably could mesh a bit easier with other higher level guys a bit easier because of everything he could do without the ball. To Bird's credit, he probably had more offensive talent to work with and therefore being so willing to have less touches is admirable...and those Celtics teams were better offenses than Erving's teams. Still, I get the appeal of Dr. J.

[Ginoboleee]

Peak Erving was phenomenal.
Post-Peak Erving was pretty great too.

Since so many contributors here at RGM are deeply informed about professional basketball, I can assume that there is a general board consensus that Of Course ABA Stats should be used, because, actually, the ABA Was Just As Good as the NBA, and Maybe Even Better.

Thus our ABA stars should certainly have their NBA records boosted.

And perhaps Kareem and others who beasted in the NBA 70s should have the historic significance of the dominance tempered JUST A BIT in our collective evaluations.

In my mind, looking back at all those dynamic years, I imagine that the "NBA" basically expanded by approximately 10 extra teams (ABA) - it's just the two halves did not play a final matchup (though exhibitions were even as I recall). It was all pretty much the same in terms of competition, almost the same in terms of talent overall (with the high end quite even), and much more modern/impactful in terms of style.

[Doctor MJ]

How good was the doctor and which player recently is more comparable to him on a pure impact perspective?

I think his impact in '75-76 was something that on the GOAT level.

I think he showed that if you gave him decent spacing on offense, and on defense you had solid defenders working together to plug the holds, and then just led Dr. J improvise on both sides of the ball, you could take a supporting cast with utterly unremarkable talent and make a championship team out of them.

I also think that Erving wasn't someone with the kind of basketball brain to be able to know what the right move in any given moment was, and as a result you could get quite meh impact from if you weren't careful.