Ending the Myth put out by Ben Taylor that Wilt couldn't combine volume scoring and playmaking at the same time.

coastalmarker99 · Post #1 » by **coastalmarker99** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:23 am

Before Hannum came along.

'63 Wilt was already blending scoring and passing.

Not only was he top 3 among centers on the year--but towards the end of the season he significantly increased his assist rate while still scoring at a high volume:

Last 2 months of '63 Wilt was putting up 32 FGA on 42 PPG/4.4 APG averages.

During Feb/March alone he was averaging 32 FGA on 42 PPG/5.3 APG.

Furthermore

Wilt Chamberlain to end off the 1964 Season

7 Games
5-2 W/L Record

38.6 PPG
20.3 RPG
9.4 APG*

57.1 FG% (29.0 FGA)
52.8 FT% (10.3 FTA)
57.6 TS%
+9.1 rTS%

Let's move on to 1966--this year, Wilt averaged 5.2 assists, at the time a career-high while averaging over 30 PPG.

It was good for 7th in the league and top for the center position.

It is clear that Wilt was blending scoring and passing at this point.

One final point to hopefully end this unfound argument that Ben Taylor has put up in his videos of Wilt Is a example from the '68 season:

Towards the end of November, the 76ers were a solid but slightly disappointing 15-7. The media was discussing how Wilt could no longer score, how he had lost his ability to put up points and was being forced to pass because of it.

Well, Wilt decided to change his playstyle to prove the media wrong--that he could still score.

He reverted back to his old scoring self, putting up 30.5 PPG and lowering his assists to 5.2, while taking 20.5 FGA per game.

This is pretty comparable to his '64 and '66 season where he averaged similar points/efficiency.

The 76ers went 15-2, their best month of the season.

Their only losses? A close OT game vs the Lakers and a 1-point loss at Boston.

Also interesting is that in

March 1968:

Wilt averaged
27 PPG
23 RPG
12 APG
64 TS%

+14.1 rTS%

13 Games, 11 Triple Doubles
10-3 Record

70sFan · Post #2 » by **70sFan** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:40 am

Ben has watched a lot of new Wilt material recently and I'm sure he'll touch this subject in his recent series in podcast with Codey Houdack. I would wait for his update before judging his conclusions.

coastalmarker99 · Post #3 » by **coastalmarker99** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:48 am

70sFan wrote:Ben has watched a lot of new Wilt material recently and I'm sure he'll touch this subject in his recent series in podcast with Codey Houdack. I would wait for his update before judging his conclusions.

It would have been interesting if he gave us the list of Wilt games that he had watched when he released that Wilt video.

As I know from a couple of contacts inside the archives some Wilt games they have on their site.

One of them watched a couple of Wilt's 1964-1965 games with the Warriors and said that he looked mentally checked out and lazy compared to his prior seasons in which his activity was much more noticeable.

Another one was praising West after watching footage of him vs the Warriors in 1969 basically said outside of dribbling that he looked as if he was a modern-day player

Watch on YouTube

At the 2.45 mark you will see the game they were able to watch

70sFan · Post #4 » by **70sFan** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:05 pm

coastalmarker99 wrote:It would have been interesting if he gave us the list of Wilt games that he had watched when he released that Wilt video.

Ben doesn't have the access to the NBA archives, he works mostly with what I can find. So he didn't really watch more Wilt footage than you, but definitely more than in 2017, when he made his top 40 list.

As I know from a couple of contacts inside the archives some Wilt games they have on their site.

One of them watched a couple of Wilt's 1964-1965 games with the Warriors and said that he looked mentally checked out and lazy compared to his prior seasons in which his activity was much more noticeable.

Another one was praising West after watching footage of him vs the Warriors in 1969 basically said outside of dribbling that he looked as if he was a modern-day player

Watch on YouTube

At the 2.45 mark you will see the game they were able to watch

Can you give me the contact to these people?

FuShengTHEGreat · Post #5 » by **FuShengTHEGreat** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:35 pm

I only wish he could've done it in a high volume scoring role on a title team.

Post #6 » by **tsherkin** » Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:09 pm

coastalmarker99 wrote:Before Hannum came along.

'63 Wilt was already blending scoring and passing.

Not only was he top 3 among centers on the year--but towards the end of the season he significantly increased his assist rate while still scoring at a high volume:

So, some perspective here. The issue most people who make this claim about Wilt have is one of consistency... not ability. You're essentially arguing against a strawman here. Wilt's 67 season sort of made the point loud and clearly that he COULD be a 20+ ppg scorer and a very effective playmaker. He just... seemed to miss the point and lose focus after that one run, focusing more on numbers and such in subsequent seasons, as he often did, be it PPG or FG% or what have you. Wilt's biggest problem, FT% aside, was that he had a somewhat ephemeral approach to the game very easily influenced by external commentary and criticism, not that he lacked given skills or capacities.