Retro Player of the Year 1954-55 UPDATE — Dolph Schayes

[AEnigma]

General Project Discussion Thread

Discussion and Results from the 2010 Project

In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 players and the top 3 offensive and defensive players of 1954-55.

Player of the Year (POY)(5) — most accomplished overall player of that season
Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY)(3) — most accomplished offensive player of that season
Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY)(3) — most accomplished defensive player of that season

Voting will close sometime after 12:30 PM PST on Sunday, July 28th. I have no issue keeping it open so long as discussion is strong, but please try to vote within the first three days.

Valid ballots must provide an explanation for your choices that gives us a window into how you thought and why you came to the decisions you did. You can vote for any of the three awards — although they must be complete votes — but I will only tally votes for an award when there are at least five valid ballots submitted for it.

Remember, your votes must be based on THIS season. This is intended to give wide wiggle room for personal philosophies while still providing a boundary to make sure the award can be said to mean something. You can factor things like degree of difficulty as defined by you, but what you can't do is ignore how the player actually played on the floor this season in favor of what he might have done if only...

You may change your vote, but if you do, edit your original post rather than writing, "hey, ignore my last post, this is my real post until I change my mind again.” I similarly ask that ballots be kept in one post rather than making one post for Player of the Year, one post for Offensive Player of the Year, and/or one post for Defensive Player of the Year. If you want to provide your reasoning that way for the sake of discussion, fine, but please keep the official votes themselves in one aggregated post. Finally, for ease of tallying, I prefer for you to place your votes at the beginning of your balloting post, with some formatting that makes them stand out. I will not discount votes which fail to follow these requests, but I am certainly more likely to overlook them.

Current Voter List

Spoiler:

________________________________________
Layaway Voters
* Bad Gatorade
* MyUnibroDavis
* penbeast0

[Djoker]

First year of the shot clock!

Arizin is back and Pettit enters the league and begins what is a very underrated career. As a rookie, the Hawks miss the playoffs so he probably won't make my ballot but he certainly will in future years.

Other early thought is Schayes at #1 because he leads Syracuse to the title. This feels like it's finally his year.

[AEnigma]

Looking forward to comparing these results. This group feels much cooler on Johnston, but to me there is no immediately obvious second-place option this year, so maybe he will hold on to that spot.

I suspect I will end up deciding between Cousy and one of the Pistons for runner-up.

[Dr Positivity]

Good year for Foust, and Pettit seems top 5 caliber already. I will not be considering Lovellette until his St. Louis seasons as he seems like a star talent but out of shape a hole, albeit in impossible situation of following Mikan. Basically patient 0 for THAT big man in the NBA who then bounces around a few times and figures it out on his 3rd team. https://from-way-downtown.com/2022/11/30/second-chance-for-clyde-lovellette-1958/

[eminence]

Switching worst to first to a win% list.

Big year, Mikan gone, shotclock here, down to 8 teams, I believe as close of team spread as we've ever seen. No terrible teams, no great teams.

All NBA teams (1st/2nd)
Cousy/Gallatin
Foust/Martin
Johnston/Mikkelsen
Pettit/Seymour
Schayes/Sharman

My past 'vote':
Schayes
Johnston
Cousy
Pettit
Foust

Hawks (26-46): Led by a pair of rookies in Pettit/Selvy. Struggled on O, very unimpressed with their vets. Harrison gets an AS nod next season, but really? Selvy might've been somebody if not for the military time, but a level below award contention. I'll think about Pettit as I go down the list, certainly a strong rookie season.

Royals (29-43): My man Davies final season, team is really Wanzer/Coleman's at this point. Themselves of decent age. Solid players, I'd lean Wanzer, but not guys I'm thinking of for awards. Lost a relatively close series to the Mikan-less Lakers.

Warriors (33-39): Arizin is back, but still the bottom team in the East. Arizin seems good/helpful, but not up to speed, I'd go pretty strongly with Johnston as the top Warrior this season. Johnston has a good chance at making my ballot again, but 3 seasons as a star and no playoff minutes makes him tough to place.

Celtics (36-36): Still leaning heavily on their offense and ignoring the other end. Sticking with Cousy as the head guy, still pretty solidly efficient, will be on my POY/OPOY ballots. Probably have Sharman as their #2 over Macauley now. Cousy has a tougher series in the loss to the Nationals, but not terrible and looks very strong in the upset of the Knicks. I can see Sharman votes too.

Knicks (38-34): They've moved to a shorter ~6 man rotation now, fairly balanced, each with their roles. Braun/Baechtold/Gallatin/Clifton, not that easy to separate. I think I lean Gallatin, but very up in the air. Really still love Lapchicks work, I don't think a Knick will be getting my vote.

Lakers (40-32): No Mikan, but a respectable replacement in Lovellette. Martin/Mikkelsen/Lovellette fairly balanced in the regular season, but in the POs they go away from the two bigs (foul problems?) towards old man Pollard. On the whole I'd go Slater as the top Laker this season, but similarly to the Knicks I don't see a clear top guy.

Pistons (43-29): Another pretty balanced squad, but a step up in quality overall. Oh so close to the title. Bit of a tricky one, with Foust looking like a clear top RS guy (Phillip/Yardley/Hutchins strong support), but not the most impressive PO run despite getting so close to the title. Would still take Foust as the overall top Piston, minutes in the POs not great, but strong production in them.

Nationals (43-29): Red x2 give the Nats a solid amount more size upfront than in past seasons. Schayes #1/Seymour #2 once again in the RS, this season with Schayes finishing healthy and without Mikan waiting in the Finals. Schayes will be my #1 guy. Deciding if Seymour gets onto the ballot again, despite Mikan leaving I see a bit more competition this go around.

[trelos6]

Best offensive teams in the league were the Celtics, Pistons, Royals.

Best defensive teams were Nationals, Lakers, Pistons.

OPOY shortlist includes Cousy, Johnston, Arizin, Pettit, Phillip, McGuire, Seymour, Froust, Macauley, Sharman, Martin and Mikkelsen.

Cousy was fantastic, leading the league in assists, and scoring 21.2 ppg on +2.5 rTS%.
Johnston was at 22.7 ppg on +8.1 rTS% and also led the league in rebounds. I think OPOY comes down to one of those 2.

Johnston again missed the playoffs, despite having his running mate Arizin back on board. Cousy was his typical self, 21.7 ppg, upped his assists and efficiency was around the same.

Other candidates, like Pettit were a year away from consideration, IMO, so I'm tossing up between Schayes with his 18.5 +3.5% in RS, and similar numbers in the playoffs, or one of the high assist guards. I don't think Phillip did enough, especially at his advanced age, so Schayes gets it. Froust also was +11.5 rTS% on 17 ppg, but his numbers dipped heavily in the playoffs, to +1 rTS% on 15.6 ppg.

OPOY

1. Bob Cousy
2. Neil Johnston
3. Dolph Schayes

Onto DPOY. Mikan is finally gone, so we have some fresh candidates. Mel Hutchins gets some serious consideration here, as does Dolph Schayes. Of Course Seymour is in consideration also, as the Nationals were a well rounded team. Despite Mikan's departure, MIkkelson, Lovellette and Pollard were still there to provide great defense.

DPOY

1. Dolph Schayes
2. Mel Hutchins
3. Paul Seymour

Finally, POY, Schayes takes it with his strong 2 way game. Cousy and Johnston are up there for their offensive contributions, and Seymour and Pettit deserves their spots with their strong 2 way game also. Froust was a tough omission.

POY

1. Dolph Schayes
2. Bob Cousy
3. Neil Johnston
4. Bob Pettit
5. Paul Seymour

[One_and_Done]

Starting to get to a period where I can make more thoughtful commentary. Shot clock time.

[AEnigma]

Tricky year for awards. Gap year between Mikan and Stokes for DPoY plus postseason absences of several notable players.

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Bob Cousy
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Bill Sharman

Not thrilled with this ballot, but this season I think it is the fairest I can be. Cousy has maybe his peak regular season and is still far ahead of the pack. Schayes is a willing passer, a good spacer, and one of the most efficient scorers in the league — and unlike with Foust, Pettit, or Johnston, he shows as much in the postseason (and directly outperforms both Foust and postseason-riser Yardley). While there are scenarios where efficient post scoring alone can drive a strong offence, I do not think that applied this year for Johnston or Pettit, and then the Pistons just seem like a slightly boosted Knicks in how they have strong pieces throughout the roster leading to overall strong offensive results. So I finish with Sharman, who seems a step ahead offensively of any other shooting guard and even had a nice little impact signal in the games he missed. I heavily considered Seymour, who might have qualified as the second-best playmaker in the regular season, but his scoring declined in the postseason, and the Celtics are clearly more deserving of two representatives in this category.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Mel Hutchins
Some inertia on this, but I do not think anyone else truly stood out as a defensive talent.

As a tangential note, he finishes fourth in MVP voting the following year, and no one else on the Pistons receives any recognition. Now that is just one voting body; he is fully excluded from all-NBA teams, so hardly consensus that he may have been the fourth-best player, and given what we know about how teams were assessed throughout the 20th century, he probably received inordinate credit for the Pistons being slow and consequently being a significant outlier in opposing points per game. Still, worth keeping in mind that something convinced 9/80 voters that he was the most valuable player in the league, and I doubt it was his twelve points a game.

2. Nat Clifton
Compelled by the Knick’s defensive movement based on his role. Peaked two years ago, where he was a commanding second place in this award to Mikan. Had a down year and the team slipped dramatically. This year he plays more minutes (although not as many as in 1953) and the team rebounds to their second best defensive rating of the era. Speaking of rebounding, while Clifton’s individual numbers are down from 1952 and 1953, the team regains the status as the league’s #1 rebounding team, which it lost in 1954, so seems excessive to penalise him there. And then in 1956 the team’s defence will again plummet as Clifton slides into a bench role… and will again lose their status as the #1 rebounding team. Final year he deserves to be on the ballot.

3. Joe Graboski
Again, call it inertia, but I really do not think anyone else is enough of a stand-out to dislodge a guy I have semi-consistently assessed as a top three defender and the definite best defender on his team.

Willing to consider alternatives, but it would take a pretty convincing case for me to change my assessments here.

Player of the Year

1. Dolph Schayes
Best player on title winner, best postseason performer, and in my opinion likely the best player in the regular season too. Only other note is on Doc’s criticism of his defence. I understand Seymour’s reputation, but Schayes has been the consistent defensive presence on this team. Seymour misses a third of the season next year and the team is barely affected. The team was a bigger defensive outlier before adding the Reds. They were also a bigger defensive outlier before adding Lloyd back in 1953. This is a good defensive roster generally, and bulk of the credit absolutely goes to Al Cervi’s coaching, but seems wholly unsubstantiated to act like Schayes was “the weakest defender” in any meaningful way when he is consistently the team’s top rebounder on what has been something of a defensive dynasty since he joined the team.

2. Larry Foust
Faded in the postseason but was Schayes’s primary regular season competitor and was the best performer in the painfully narrow Game 7 loss. Trust his defence more than Johnston’s and Pettit’s. Was tempted to list Cousy here but truth of the matter is Cousy has yet to seriously compete even with decent rosters, whereas at least I know Foust could go the distance against a champion; lest we forget, he did so in 1953 as well.

3. Bob Cousy
In the same sense that I know Foust could push a title team, I also know Cousy can lead a team to the postseason. Continues to be a significant blemish that Johnston cannot even come close despite his production and now having serious talent on the team.

4. Neil Johnston
That said, I recognise the Warriors were disadvantaged by their conference — they had more wins and a better SRS than the Royals. Johnston has developed as both a passer and as a rebounder, and I am going to include him on the ballot next year without a significant improvement in overall play. I hate including someone this high when they missed the postseason. Hate it. 1963 Wilt, 1961/68/69 Oscar, 1976 Kareem, 2005 Garnett, and maybe 1992 Hakeem are the only other postseason-less inclusions on my RPoY ballots. Johnston is much worse than all those players. However, all these players, including Johnston, are outright better players than any alternative selections, and 1963 Wilt is the only one who would not have made the postseason if they were placed in the other conference. An extreme exception, but this year it is an annoyingly justified one.

5. Mel Hutchins
I think the Pistons merit two representatives this year, and while Yardley was the offensive leader in the postseason, Mel was still the defensive leader. As I noted above, he is also the demonstrably more respected player next year.

[Djoker]

On second thought, I think Pettit makes my ballot. Schayes, Johnston, Cousy, Pettit and maybe Foust.

[trelos6]

On second thought, I think Pettit makes my ballot. Schayes, Johnston, Cousy, Pettit and maybe Foust.

I thought I was going to leave him off. I was wrong.

[ShaqAttac]

Imma vote

SCHYAES

led his team to chip, led in scoring and rebounding, probably the best d and won alot in reg szn and finished high in MVP vote in a bunch of seasons after. seems pretty ez tbh.

FOUST

almost won chip. led team in points and rebounds and won the most games in the reg szn.

COUSY
Won a playoff series. led league in assists and leds team in points and led team in points and has an MVP.

CLIFTON

Prob best defender and also p close to leading team in scoring. Won more games than they lost too. Cant put over Cousy when he lose to Cousy with better team even tho Clifton scored the most points for his team.

LOVELETTEE

Lakers Lost 2nd best player ever and not that much worse in reg season with love-boi replacing him. He also tied for leading scorer and led team in rebounds so im guessing he was their best player. They also won a playoff series tho they lost to a team that almost won.

I know Petit peaks higher but theres way too much stuff we dont know for me to be taking rookies who dont even make the playoffs and are on bad teams.

[Dutchball97]

Player of the Year
1. Dolph Schayes - After multiple years of coming up just short behind Mikan, it's finally time for Schayes to get the top spot. Guys like Johnston, Pettit and Arizin missed the play-offs and with that practically eliminate themselves from consideration for the ballot altogether but definitely for the top spot. Foust was making a good case in the regular season but didn't manage to put a convincing stamp on his season in the play-offs. Cousy is the biggest challenger to Schayes here as he's still leading the best offense in the league, overall I preferred Schayes 2-way impact and more convincing stats.

2. Bob Cousy - Well, if someone is the main challenger to the top spot it's only logical they end up as #2. He has very similar advanced stats as the year prior in the regular season but has a noticably better post-season largely due to being much more efficient this time around.

3. Larry Foust - Very strong regular season and went to 7 games in the finals by impacting the game on both ends of the floor. He was a pretty serious candidate to pass Cousy for the runner-up spot but like I said before, Foust's post-season wasn't particularly great. It wasn't bad either though, just decent and definitely a bit back down to earth again compared to his regular season. Cousy mainly gets the benefit of the doubt here as the stats seem to pretty consistently underrate him compared to both his reputation at the time as well as his team's performance on offense. Foust playing rather limited minutes compared to Cousy is another important factor in my order of them.

4. Harry Gallatin - Lot of ways to go here and I don't blame people in the slightest for picking big name regular season guys who missed the play-offs but that's just not my method for this project. I went with the leader of a decent Knicks squad who also impacts the game on both offense and defense. I don't see Seymour or Rocha as top 5 players this season for different reasons, the Lakers are very hard to pinpoint who was the most impactful as on the surface it definitely looks like Mikkelsen and Lovellette but with Martin leading the way in minutes and Pollard still being featured so prominently I'm not sure it's fair for any of them to get the lion's share of the credit. Wanzer is in a similar position again as Gallatin but had a so-so regular season that his short, but strong, post-season can't overcome in my eyes. Yardley and Sharman both have another guy on their team already on the list and I'm not even 100% sure you could even confidently pick them as the 2nd best guys on their team with Hutchins and Macauley respectively providing some competition there. Just in general a bit of a trend this season of not too many standout 1st options and lots of pretty deep teams.

5. Bill Sharman - I considered Wanzer as he had a similar season to Gallatin but it's hard to stand by that when I believe Sharman was just straight up better at this point and backed it up with his play against the eventual champions in the second round, outscoring both Schayes and Cousy.

Offensive Player of the Year
1. Bob Cousy
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Bill Sharman

Cousy is still the best offensive player here with his combination of scoring and playmaking, while leading the clear best offensive team in the league. Schayes gets on the ballot due to being so consistent in a deep run where others are all over the place. Sharman deserves some recognition as well for the success of the Celtics on the offensive end, Macauley too for that matter but I do think Sharman is establishing himself as the right hand man of Cousy in terms of who has the most impact on the quality of their offense.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Dolph Schayes
2. Mel Hutchins
3. Slater Martin

What do you mean I can't auto-pick Mikan here anymore? I'll give Schayes the most credit on defense for the Nationals although Seymour and Rocha should be taken into account too though but with the Nationals being the best defense in the league I'm okay with putting Schayes first here. Hutchins gets the benefit of the doubt over Foust on this side of the ball due to his reputation and a consistently strong defensive effort by the Pistons. Slater Martin is an odd pick maybe but I'm impressed by how the Lakers' defense holds up without Mikan and it should be noted that while my initial instinct was to go with Lovellette or Mikkelsen here, it's clear the defense in the play-offs holds up as well in the regular season and arguably performs even better with the latter 2 having reduced minutes, while Martin plays 45 MPG.

[Djoker]

I would love to hear a bit about Larry Foust and especially his defense because I don't know much about him. I wonder how his defense compared to Schayes. I can see at least one of the Lakers maybe Martin making my DPOY list because Lakers are still #2 in DRtg even with Mikan gone. Although the bigger guys MIkkelsen and Lovelette are probably pulling some serious weight on D.

[Dr Positivity]

Vote

1. Dolph Schayes - His numbers are still good not great, but I don't see any other perfect candidates here so it may as well be him, seems his combination of spacing, defense and passing is all impactful in addition to the scoring/rebounding. The Nationals complete run despite how Seymour's scoring declines in regular season and playoffs but has a good passing year.

2. Vern Mikkelson - His 94 Pippen season? His stats are not as eye popping as Cousy and Johnston at efficient 19ppg but he is a better defender. The Lakers do pretty well despite how I'm really low on this version of Lovellette.

3. Neil Johnston - Huge stats and maybe the Sixers not jumping more says something about Arizin.

4. Bob Cousy - Like Johnston I find his team results disappointing playing with Sharman and Macauley and he isn't totally lapping the field in assists. I preferred the former's statline a bit more.

5. Larry Foust - He has a low passing rate and I believe is big slow guy which could hurt him on D, but has huge stats year and you can't argue with the results although he had a good all around supporting cast.

Offensive player of the year

1. Bob Cousy
2. Neil Johnston
3. Dolph Schayes

Defensive player of the year

1. Mel Hutchins
2. Earl Lloyd
3. Vern Mikkelson

I was gonna vote for Clifton but I feel like putting up his best offensive stats at 32 on a below average D version of the Knicks signals that they didn't have to play as hard on that end. I will guess Lloyd as the Nationals defensive MVP with Seymour aging.

[eminence]

I would love to hear a bit about Larry Foust and especially his defense because I don't know much about him. I wonder how his defense compared to Schayes. I can see at least one of the Lakers maybe Martin making my DPOY list because Lakers are still #2 in DRtg even with Mikan gone. Although the bigger guys MIkkelsen and Lovelette are probably pulling some serious weight on D.

I'm generally fine with Foust on D, in the realm of above average, but Hutchins was likely the Pistons best defender. Foust was a bit of a plodder and imo Schayes read the game better on both ends. Foust seemed to have a strength edge on most guys, his size was legit for the era.

[eminence]

Player of the Year
1. Dolph Schayes
Similar level to last season, this season he's healthy to close it out and there's no Mikan. One of the most skilled offensive bigs in the game, and in my estimation in contention for the best defender between Mikan/Russell as well. Seymour was a strong #2 and they had a decent cast after that, but they don't stand out a level above casts like the Pistons/Knicks for me. Seymour laid a bit of an offensive egg in the finals.

2. Bob Cousy
Didn't get the Celtics that close to the Nationals, but the Celtics had themselves a decent overall season. I'm generally underwhelmed with Macauley (really just on D) and their depth, so I'm happy enough with Cousy leading a squad a step below the best. Still the clear leader on offense and reasonably efficient.

3. Neil Johnston
Last time I did this I had Neil at #2, but not quite this time. We still haven't seen Neil in the POs and with Arizin back the cast is getting into respectable territory. Generally view him as a below average defender. Strongly in the discussion for being the best offensive big in the league (and best non-Cousy offensive player).

4. Bob Pettit
Same spot as last go around, clearly very good from the jump, truly underwhelmed with his cast, so very impressed with the carry job from a rookie. Not what he'd fully become, and unproven in the playoffs, but we can see the talent.

5. Larry Foust
I'll give Larry the top secondary star billing this go around. I'm impressed with the squad around him and he underwhelmed in the playoffs (particularly the Finals), but I couldn't quite bring any particular player past him. Going forward I'll probably see Yardley as the top Piston, but not quite yet this season.

[falcolombardi]

This is the second to last year pre russel right? It feels like the beginning of the end for that era of basketball before the leap forward that would come with the late 50's drafts

[LA Bird]

55 Lakers WOWY
Pollard IN (63G): +1.89 MOV
Pollard OUT (9G): -3.89 MOV

56 Lakers WOWY
Mikan IN (37G): +2.22 MOV
Mikan OUT (35G): -4.17 MOV
(Note: Mikan comes out of retirement mid-season and plays 20 mpg)

Considering the worst teams in the league in both seasons were around -2.6 SRS, not sure any one of Mikkelsen/Lovellette/Martin should be going top 5 even in a weak MVP year. Pollard despite the box scores likely will be my pick if I am going with a Laker. Rookie Pettit smokes him in the box scores but the non box stuff seems to suggest the opposite and I am not that impressed with the Hawks being last in the league and even worse than the previous season after Holzman became coach.

[ZeppelinPage]

The Sam Davis Memorial Award was given to Bob Cousy this season, making him the unofficial 1955 MVP.

Player of the Year
1. Dolph Schayes
2. Bob Cousy
3. Neil Johnston
4. Mel Hutchins
5. Harry Gallatin

Offensive Player of the Year
1. Bob Cousy
2. Neil Johnston
3. Dolph Schayes

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Mel Hutchins
2. Vern Mikkelsen
3. Paul Seymour

Schayes gets his ring, and his play throughout the season and in the Finals (likely FMVP) gets him th #1 spot. Cousy had a fantastic season, and Auerbach had mentioned this was when he started to put Cousy among the greatest players ever. He played a tough Nationals team and averaged 10.5 APG, the most ever in a playoff series. Johnston gets the #3 spot with his incredible offensive year and rebounding that gave him the most votes on the All-NBA team. Hutchins was the best defensive player in the league and a key part of the Pistons going to the finals. Finally, Gallatin gets the last spot due to his increased scoring and overall abilitity to score and rebound.

OPOY wasn't difficult this year, as Cousy/Johnston/Schayes were all key scoring options for their team and had a lot of responsibility to their team.

Hutchins was in his prime now and is the de facto lockdown defender in the league. Mikkelsen finally gets a top 3 spot for me with Mikan now gone. He was regularly regarded as a top 5 defender throughout his career. Seymour rounds it out with a heavy playoff load and a tough series against Cousy that had him working harder to score. I gave him that 3rd spot as he was a key player on the defensive side for the Nationals.

[Doctor MJ]

POY

1. Dolph Schayes (Syr)
2. Larry Foust (FtW)
3. Paul Seymour (Syr)
4. Bob Cousy (Bos)
5. Slater Martin (Mpl)

I've agonized over this one. Probably the weakest POY competition in the history of the NBA with no one in the league really being an MVP/POY level player.

Previously I put Seymour up at #1 over teammate Schayes, but I'm backing off of that with this iteration. While this was a team that won with bad offense and elite defense, and I believe Schayes was the weakest defender out of the major Nats, and I think Seymour is the clear cut defensive MVP of the team, it's clearly not a Russell Celtic situation. The Nats made their defense elite by stocking the team with defensive focus at all positions except Schayes, and a defensively obsessed Napoleon at coach pushing them forward at every step along the way.

While it's important to ask whether the defensive MVP of a team winning with defense is the team's MVP, I don't feel comfortable claiming to think that Seymour was the more indispensable piece to the puzzle that the Nats built than Schayes was.

From there the top spot for me comes down to Schayes, Foust & Cousy.

With Foust we're talking about the obvious offensive stand out on a team winning primarily with offense which came a basket away from winning the title in a Game 7 were he dramatically outplayed Schayes from what I can see. Further, I would say that aside from the specific Nats-Pistons matchup, the Pistons were the best team in the league.

But oh that matchup with the Nats. Sure the Finals was super close, but the Nats owned the regular season series 7-2, including losing 3 games at the end of the regular season to the Nats which allowed the Nats to take HCA in the Finals, which I'd say proved critical.

And then we get into the whole thing where Foust playing in limited minutes. When you're the most valuable player on the court when you play, and your team wins it all, it's hard for me to knock you much for playing less minutes. But when you come up short, hard not to look at the time when the team had to play with you on the bench. For this reason, easy to see arguments to put Foust lower, and even lower than teammates, but the dude was the guy singled out for All-NBA over those teammates and I'm inclined to go with that unless I have a really strong reason to disagree.

Cousy continues to have a case all the way up to #1, but these Celtic teams always came up short, and Seymour's defense against Cousy was considered to be a major reason why.

Giving Martin the 5th spot. No Mikan, and this was still the 3rd best team in the league, now with Martin playing considerably more minutes than his teammates. This focus on minutes is something that is helping both Martin & Seymour for me, and I understand some skepticism that just because they played the most minutes doesn't mean these guys were most important...but I think in general you really need to ask yourself why, if a team is successful and playing Player X the most, the coach was so smart to make the team work and also so dumb to rely upon X.

I saw some love for Pollard based on WOWY here and I get it in general: I would rank Pollard as the better peak, prime & career relative to Martin, but at this point in time Pollard - a man known for playing HUGE minutes at his best - is playing about 2/3rds the minutes of Martin in the RS, and while he gets closer in the playoffs, you're still talking about Martin playing 45.0 MPG while Pollard (2nd on the team) is playing 36.7.

Regarding fellow Laker Mikkelsen, I think quite honestly people thought Mikkelsen was a defensive force who would help carry the Laker defense forward in the years to come post-Mikan...but realistically after this season the Lakers would be an outright bad, with their absolute worst performance as a relative defense prior to Kobe coming when trying to use Mikkelsen as their star player.

While it's understandable to look at the box score and think that Mikkelsen was better than Pollard or Martin, and I think many at the time were thinking it too, from what I can see, Pollard & Martin along with Mikan were the guys who really seemed to be the difference makers.

OPOY

1. Bob Cousy (Bos)
2. Larry Foust (FtW)
3. Bill Sharman (Bos)

Cousy remains a pretty easy call at #1 for me. Foust has an argument, but I do think his impact was more spread across the two sides of the ball.

For the 3rd spot I strongly considered Neil Johnston, but I do think that the Warrior performance this year represents a less-than-sum-of-parts performance from the team, and I don't think there's a lot of room to say that that Johnston's team being below average by ORtg being due to him playing with horrible talent around him. Not saying it's Johnston's fault specifically - note that I don't have Arizin or any other teammates of his listed here - but in terms of achievement, I think what Sharman was doing was really paying dividends.

DPOY

1. Paul Seymour (Syr)
2. Slater Martin (Mpl)
3. Mel Hutchins (FtW)

Representatives from the top 3 DRtgs here. I'd note in all 3 cases, you're talking about the biggest minutes guys on their teams playing in an era without any players we'd describe to day as "defensive anchors". Very hard to know how these guys should stack up because none play defense in a way that would lead to the best defense unless they had some solid defensive teammates.

In the case of Seymour in particular, the Nats were a team built with defense-first guys at almost all positions, so it's very possible I'm overrating him here, but what cannot be denied is that he was a) the big minute guy, b) the coach-on-the-floor-soon-to-be-player/coach guy, c) known for being the best defender against the best offensive player of the time (Cousy), and d) called an "enforcer" and "dangerous" for his physicality, which is not what you'd expect just by looking at a picture of him.

unofficial COY

1. Al Cervi (Syr)
2. Charles Eckman (FtW)
3. John Kundla (Mpl)

Giving nods to the coaches from the 3 best teams here.

For both Cervi & Eckman, this would be the peak of their coaching careers.

For Kundla, this would perhaps be the time when he was highest rated by contemporaries. "3rd best team in the league without Mikan? Maybe it was the coach all along!" But no, the team would soon fall apart demonstrating that whie the team was about more than Mikan, that "more" was mostly about the two other critical pieces - Pollard & Martin.