Retro Player of the Year 1958-59 UPDATE — Bill Russell

[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 1958-59.

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 11:30 AM PST on Saturday, August 10th. 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
* B-Mitch 30
* Bad Gatorade
* McBubbles
* MyUnibroDavis

[AEnigma]

Another interesting Offensive Player of the Year race. Top three in the regular season would probably be Cousy, Guerin, and Pettit, but all three underwhelm in the postseason.

For runner-up Defensive Player of the Year, looking at Dukes, Kerr, and Sauldsberry.

I expect one of our more significant deviations from the 2010 project with Schayes this season. Baffling how only Doc and Drza gave him a vote for leading the second best-team to a narrow Game 7 loss (hardly dissimilar from 1957 Pettit).

[One_and_Done]

Assumedly this will be another Russell landslide.

[Dr Positivity]

Guerin's career is interesting in that outside of this year his team results with the Knicks is awful, but I don't think he really fits the bill of good stats bad team, he has a great defensive reputation in addition to being one of the best passers in the league. When he went to Hawks his intangibles must have been good because they made him player coach by the second season.

Another interesting Offensive Player of the Year race. Top three in the regular season would probably be Cousy, Guerin, and Pettit, but all three underwhelm in the postseason.

Cousy at least has his best passing playoffs. I have him as Finals MVP if they gave it out this year, although it would have been aided by sentimental reasons.

[eminence]

Worst to First '59.

Royals (19-53): Lose Stokes and Lovellette, Twyman puts up the stats, but these guys are not good. No contenders.

Pistons (28-44): 19-27 with Yardley (34 win modern pace), 9-17 after trading him for Conlin (28 win modern pace). I believe Yardley had a broken finger at the time of the deal, and was arguing with ownership? A bunch of decent but uninspiring guys at first and second glance. Yardley seems a clear step down from his last season where he snuck onto my ballot. Don't see any other candidates here. A kind of interesting 3 game series against the Lakers, but looking close in short series loss isn't worth much to me.

Warriors (32-40): Missed the playoffs due to playing in the much more difficult conference, but had a decent defense this season. Makes some sense to me, Gola/Graboski are both solid in my view, and I hope Woody was too, otherwise he may have been the worst big minute player in NBA history. Arizin seems to bounce back a bit and scores a bunch, but the offense is bad. I'm hoping to have better options than Arizin as I go down the list, but I'd have him above anyone else so far.

Lakers (33-39): Baylor shows up, and he's an absolute stud (1st Team, 3rd in MVP). Maybe the heaviest total load of any player to date. Bigtime carry job to upset the Hawks, Has a tougher time against the Celtics, but just getting their was a triumph with a squad that won <20 games the prior season. Baylor will certainly be on my ballot, need to think a bit more on spot.

Nationals (35-37): 8-7 in the regular season with Yardley (I believe still battling injury). Costello/Kerr/rookie Greer/Yardley for a bit, the Nats have put a squad back around Schayes, the RS is a bit underwhelming, but they deliver in the playoffs, that was a fair challenge to a great Celtics squad. Schayes will feature again on my ballot.

Knicks (40-32): Solidly ahead of the Nats in the standings, but well behind in point differential. Got fairly easily dispatched by the Nats in a short playoff series. Sears scores absurdly efficiently, but Guerin does more of the playmaking, neither really deliver in the playoffs. Overall unsure to have as their top guy. I'll consider both of them against Arizin if I don't come up with 5 I clearly prefer (just Baylor/Schayes so far).

Hawks (49-23): This one is tough because the Hawks combine arguably their best RS with getting upset in the POs. As is often the case, I've got Pettit pretty solidly for the RS, but the gap narrowing in the playoffs (still lean Pettit this go around in the POs, Hagan as the perimeter guy underwhelmed me with his lack of playmaking missing their lead guard). They seem to miss Slater pretty badly in the upset loss. It's a very small/sudden sample, so I don't want to bury the team for it, but it's hard to envision either of their stars over Baylor with him directly putting them out. Pettit will be on my ballot, and Hagan will be a candidate with some of the other fringe guys (Arizin/Knicks/secondary Celtic maybe?).

Celtics (52-20): Nats gave them a series, but overall an extremely dominant season. 4-3 without Cousy, so a small, but not bad signal for the old guard. 2-4 without Heinsohn. They are the guys I see as the 2/3 of this squad (I'm a fan of Heinsohn on defense), but I think it's tough to see them as top 5 guys, I guess I'll include them when I look at the other guys to consider for #5. Oh, and Russell is an easy #1.

Russell #1, Baylor/Schayes/Pettit 2-4 in some order, a handful of candidates for #5 - Arizin, Guerin/Sears, Hagan, Cousy/Heinsohn

[Dr Positivity]

1. Bill Russell - With his very solid offensive impact combined with the D/rebounding don't see a reason to vote against him here. No center is within miles of him here.

2. Bob Pettit
3. Elgin Baylor

Pettit's scoring numbers are stronger to make up for less passing and while playing with the best floor spacing C in the league Lovellette helped, the latter was only at 22mpg this year. Pettit seems like he might be easier to fit with stars than ball dominant wing.

4. Dolph Schayes - His WS/48 starts to go down a bit this year and the team results aren't amazing until giving the Celtics a great series in the playoffs with a great team after they got Yardley, nevertheless he has a big scoring playoffs has floor spacing impact along with passing and D.

5. Bob Cousy - Cousy has a pretty good season for this late version, including one of the most dominant finals passing series to this day. Hagan puts up a nice resume too with his near 24ppg and great playoffs again but playing with Pettit and Lovellette probably gave him some space and I'm not the biggest fan of him on D while Cousy at least got tons of steals.

Offensive player of the year

1. Elgin Baylor
2. Bob Pettit
3. Cliff Hagan

Defensive player of the year

1. Bill Russell
2. Tom Gola
3. Jim Loscutoff

No idea who to vote 3rd here, I like Costello, Kerr and Schayes on the Nationals but hard to pick one over the other, so I'll give it to a 2nd Celtic even if he was only at 25mpg. If he was guarding Baylor in the finals it looks like he did a good job.

[Owly]

Guerin's career is interesting in that outside of this year his team results with the Knicks is awful, but I don't think he really fits the bill of good stats bad team, he has a great defensive reputation in addition to being one of the best passers in the league. When he went to Hawks his intangibles must have been good because they made him player coach by the second season.

"Must" is strong. It's a positive indicator but teams were cheap, Guerin was a veteran white guard ... fwiw Wilkens gives suggestion in the opposite direction. Seemed not to hold any of his coaches in too great esteem otoh but I recall Gallatin and Guerin in particular not coming out great: looking it up for instance Wilkens says he told players how to vote for RoTY (anyone but Bing so Hudson had a chance) and seemed "steaming" when Wilkens suggested people should "vote your conscience ... vote for the rookie we think is best" ... that Guerin seemingly called him in to a meeting to say Bridges wasn't getting the ball enough/he wasn't passing to Bridges enough with the team at 16-1 ... he, as it appears in the text, seemingly out of nowhere, tells Wilkens that he thinks Wilkens is jealous of Joe Caldwell this at some point after removing his captaincy and accusing him of being jealous of Bridges (there was some tension with Bridges but from how Bridges handled certain things and being out of shape, per Wilkens) ... i.e. we only get one side, long after the fact so we probably shouldn't take it as gospel but chapter eight of Wilkens' book could perhaps be be called "Richie Guerin is a bad man-manger and he and the Hawks pushed me out"

Fwiw, Sears is the pretty clear cut Reference box-composite leader (though less of a playmaker for those that see that as akin to multilicative) and gets more of the limited MVP voting that either enjoyed (though Guerin does get into the all-NBA second team though perhaps with less competition at guard). Sears free throw rate might suggest this wasn't just reliiant on others to create.

On D (otoh and glancing at Tall Tales and the Kalich ratings, so limited scope here) my sense for Guerin is he's combative which could be good but ... not really noteworthy either way (not directly discussed either way).

[trelos6]

Despite his amazing stats, I think Kenny Sears was more of a good stats bad team type of guy. Fringe top 10. And considering he didn't make the ALL NBA teams, it looks like voters of the area weren't too impressed by his jump shooting and foul drawing.

On the offensive end, we have the usual suspects, Pettit, Arizin, Hagan, Schayes, Cousy, and a new entry, Elgin Baylor.

With the number 1 offense, the Hawks were one of the best teams in '59 and Pettit put up some great stats en route to MVP. 29 ppg, pretty good TS% (around +6).

Arizin tried hard, but Johnston had dropped off and Gola is just an amplifier, so his team was pretty bad. Still, some great stats from Paul, with 26 ppg, and similar efficiency to Pettit.

Hagan had a year almost as good as '58, and was very efficient in the playoffs again. Despite the best offense, and 2 headed monster of Pettit and Hagan, the Hawks lost to the Elgin Baylor led Lakers. Rookie Elgin was stellar, 25 ppg, around +3 TS%, and will feature in my POY.

Schayes was 21 ppg in the regular season, but ramped it up to 28 ppg in the playoffs, while boosting his efficiency from a +3 to a +6 TS%.

Finally Cousy, the best creator in the league, his efficiency let him down in the post season, but it was enough for the Celtics to cruise to a title after a tough series vs the Nationals.

This project has thus far reminded me of why in my all time rankings, I have Pettit at 37 and Schayes at 42. They are putting up top 5 POY seasons year after year.

Defensively, there is only one. Bill Russell. The Celtics were so good as a team, I would consider giving Cousy some shout for his ball hawking. I can give a shout out to Tom Gola for the Warriors, who was also one of the leagues best role players. Between Kerr and Schayes again for the Nationals.

Ok, enough preamble, here we go.

OPOY
1. Bob Pettit
2. Elgin Baylor
3. Dolph Schayes

HM: Bob Cousy / Cliff Hagan

DPOY
1. Bill Russell
2. Red Kerr
3. Tom Gola

HM: Dolph Schayes

POY
1. Bill Russell
2. Bob Pettit
3. Dolph Schayes
4. Elgin Baylor
5. Bob Cousy

HM: Cliff Hagan

[LA Bird]

Dolph Schayes - His WS/48 starts to go down a bit this year

Schayes still had a higher WS/48 than rookie Baylor in both the regular season and playoffs.

and the team results aren't amazing until giving the Celtics a great series in the playoffs with a great team after they got Yardley

If we are going by just W/L record then yeah, they did lose a stupid number of one possession games in the regular season (3-13). But by point differential, the Nationals were the only non-Boston 3+ SRS team from 1957 to 1963 and they were also the only team that could compete with the Celtics H2H in the regular season:

1959 Celtics MOV by opponent
-3.83 Nationals
+4.44 Hawks
+6.17 Knicks
+8.33 Warriors
+10.0 Pistons
+10.7 Royals
+12.6 Lakers

No other team within the next 5 years outscored Boston H2H and 3.83 is the best point differential any team from 57-67 had against Russell's Celtics. Yardley only appeared in 4 of the 12 RS games against the Celtics and he was a non-factor while playing with an arm cast (8.8 ppg on 26.3% TS with FGA data missing for one game).

[Owly]

Despite his amazing stats, I think Kenny Sears was more of a good stats bad team type of guy. Fringe top 10. And considering he didn't make the ALL NBA teams, it looks like voters of the area weren't too impressed by his jump shooting and foul drawing.

Regarding All-NBA as somewhat implied above ... check the field.
Pettit, Schayes (All NBA Silver Anniversary, All NBA 50, 75) - ages 26 and 30 both in prime
rookie Baylor putting up the counting stats and flashing what was on the way (would be all the above but didn't retire in time for silver)
Arizin at 30 (all the above accolades) bounces back to production as good as any season since his military return ...

Hagan ... gets the 2nd team nod, Sears above him in MVP (MVP you get less input from voting - although we do get the benefit of seeing how the votes went ... razor thin margin here 1-1-4 to 1-3-0).

As far as good stats on a bad team ... in terms of impact and overall I think we're all fumbling about in the dark to a fair extent in this era. Limited info available. But fwiw, it's not like Sears' strengths (TS%, offense) don't manifest at a team level. He's fighting mostly bigger star names (though fwiw I think Sears might have been the first SI basketball cover) in terms of accolades and efficiency was probably undervalued. And WS stuff which does love his efficiency is punishing him for the bad team D (I can't say if he should be punished more) and he's still first in WS/48 and second in WS overall (first in OWS and fwiw 4th in PER with Pettit the runaway leader, Baylor and Hagan with narrower advantages).

[Owly]

Dolph Schayes - His WS/48 starts to go down a bit this year

Schayes still had a higher WS/48 than rookie Baylor in both the regular season and playoffs.

and the team results aren't amazing until giving the Celtics a great series in the playoffs with a great team after they got Yardley

If we are going by just W/L record then yeah, they did lose a stupid number of one possession games in the regular season (3-13). But by point differential, the Nationals were the only non-Boston 3+ SRS team from 1957 to 1963 and they were also the only team that could compete with the Celtics H2H in the regular season:

1959 Celtics MOV by opponent
-3.83 Nationals
+4.44 Hawks
+6.17 Knicks
+8.33 Warriors
+10.0 Pistons
+10.7 Royals
+12.6 Lakers

No other team within the next 5 years outscored Boston H2H and 3.83 is the best point differential any team from 57-67 had against Russell's Celtics. Yardley only appeared in 4 of the 12 RS games against the Celtics and he was a non-factor while playing with an arm cast (8.8 ppg on 26.3% TS with FGA data missing for one game).

For me overall is much more important but interesting that Syracuse were so competitive.

Is '67 the back end because other teams did better in the last two Celtic dynasty years or just when you happened to cut off looking?

[LA Bird]

Spoiler:

Dolph Schayes - His WS/48 starts to go down a bit this year

Schayes still had a higher WS/48 than rookie Baylor in both the regular season and playoffs.

and the team results aren't amazing until giving the Celtics a great series in the playoffs with a great team after they got Yardley

If we are going by just W/L record then yeah, they did lose a stupid number of one possession games in the regular season (3-13). But by point differential, the Nationals were the only non-Boston 3+ SRS team from 1957 to 1963 and they were also the only team that could compete with the Celtics H2H in the regular season:

1959 Celtics MOV by opponent
-3.83 Nationals
+4.44 Hawks
+6.17 Knicks
+8.33 Warriors
+10.0 Pistons
+10.7 Royals
+12.6 Lakers

No other team within the next 5 years outscored Boston H2H and 3.83 is the best point differential any team from 57-67 had against Russell's Celtics. Yardley only appeared in 4 of the 12 RS games against the Celtics and he was a non-factor while playing with an arm cast (8.8 ppg on 26.3% TS with FGA data missing for one game).

For me overall is much more important but interesting that Syracuse were so competitive.

Is '67 the back end because other teams did better in the last two Celtic dynasty years or just when you happened to cut off looking?

Including the last two years, 69 Knicks, 69 Lakers, 68 Lakers had higher point differentials against the Celtics than the 59 Nationals. But I am making the case for Schayes here so it looks more impressive if the cutoff was at 67 . Seriously though, the Celtics weren't the #1 SRS team the last few Russell seasons so it is kind of expected for other teams to do better against them in the regular season. Also, with league expansion from 8 to 14 teams, the number of H2Hs against each team in a season almost halved in those later years which naturally means a potentially wider range of performance from just pure variance too.

[Owly]

Spoiler:

Schayes still had a higher WS/48 than rookie Baylor in both the regular season and playoffs.


If we are going by just W/L record then yeah, they did lose a stupid number of one possession games in the regular season (3-13). But by point differential, the Nationals were the only non-Boston 3+ SRS team from 1957 to 1963 and they were also the only team that could compete with the Celtics H2H in the regular season:

1959 Celtics MOV by opponent
-3.83 Nationals
+4.44 Hawks
+6.17 Knicks
+8.33 Warriors
+10.0 Pistons
+10.7 Royals
+12.6 Lakers

No other team within the next 5 years outscored Boston H2H and 3.83 is the best point differential any team from 57-67 had against Russell's Celtics. Yardley only appeared in 4 of the 12 RS games against the Celtics and he was a non-factor while playing with an arm cast (8.8 ppg on 26.3% TS with FGA data missing for one game).

For me overall is much more important but interesting that Syracuse were so competitive.

Is '67 the back end because other teams did better in the last two Celtic dynasty years or just when you happened to cut off looking?

Including the last two years, 69 Knicks, 69 Lakers, 68 Lakers had higher point differentials against the Celtics than the 59 Nationals. But I am making the case for Schayes here so it looks more impressive if the cutoff was at 67 . Seriously though, the Celtics weren't the #1 SRS team the last few Russell seasons so it is kind of expected for other teams to do better against them in the regular season. Also, with league expansion from 8 to 14 teams, the number of H2Hs against each team in a season almost halved in those later years which naturally means a potentially wider range of performance from just pure variance too.

Thanks for the reply.

I had considered expansion meaning more teams and smaller samples having an impact. I had considered Boston's reduced RS dominance as a reason to call it off (though they cede their RS SRS lead in '67 and given they didn't win the title, someone not seeking to maximize the range could end there) and it's [imo] entirely viable (and it's not like it's a short span) ... Russell's RS minutes load also ticks down in '67 and then again in '68 (before jumping back up in '69!?).

I appreciate the transparency on this.

[Djoker]

Elgin Baylor has a bit of a reputation as a chucker but he was quite efficient scoring the ball even as a rookie before the Finals.

The Celtics kind of killed him though and if he shot better maybe the Lakers could have done better! I originally expected to have him at #3 behind Russell and Pettit but maybe Schayes and/or Arizin were better. Then again at least from a very quick glance, Elgin arriving did improve the Lakers from a -5.78 SRS team to a -1.42 SRS team.

Elgin Baylor

Regular Season: 24.9/15.0/4.1 on 48.8 %TS (+3.1 rTS)
R1 vs. Pistons: 23.3/16.0/? on 44.4 %TS (-1.3 rTS)
WDF vs. Hawks: 28.3/11.6/? on 54.3 %TS (+8.6 rTS)
F vs. Celtics: 22.8/11.8/? on 38.8 %TS (-6.9 rTS)

[Dutchball97]

Player of the Year
1. Bill Russell - Let's get the easy one out of the way first. Russell once again led the Celtics to be the the best team in the regular season as the top defense by a mile (84.5 DRTG, which was significantly better than even #2 Syracuse with 89.2 DRTG). This difference only increased in the play-offs. While the Nationals, who had a pretty strong starting 5 as well, took them to 7, the Celtics then swept the Lakers on the way to a dominant title win. It should be acknowledged the Celtics had a really deep team at this point with Cousy and Sharman also making 1st team All-NBA and also featuring the strongest 4-7 in the league with Heinsohn, Ramsey, Loscutuff and Sam Jones. Schayes had a strong team around him in his own right though, Baylor came up well short at the finish line and Pettit and Hagan had the benefit of playing next to each other as well and disappointed in the play-offs in terms of team results. Overall I think Russell establishes himself as the premier player in the league this season and there is a good chance I won't move him from this top spot until 1966.

2. Dolph Schayes - After the 1958 vote, Schayes has overtaken Mikan as the current #1 POY Shares and it looks like he'll be adding even more to that lead. The Nationals had a really well constructed team that was the 3rd best offense and 2nd best defense in the regular season and then beat the higher seeded Knicks convincingly before making it really close for the Celtics. Schayes of course plays the central part with his impact on both sides of the court. In terms of the regular season Schayes would be on the outside looking in to the top 5 but he stepped up in a way that nobody else but Russell did this season.

3. Bob Pettit - I think he was the deserving MVP, although you could make a good case for Russell as well. I just think Pettit achieved almost as much in the regular season with a lot less support. The play-offs saw strong individual outings from both of the Hawks stars but it didn't matter much when they lost to a Lakers squad that wasn't much of a serious contender themselves. I think Schayes did enough to bridge the difference in regular season performance but he just manages to hold off Baylor here for me as Baylor's finals performance left some to be desired though he shouldn't be just too harshly either for how he did against such a strong defense with the help he had.

4. Elgin Baylor - A very strong rookie outing from Baylor but he just loses out to Schayes and Pettit, who you could probably put in any order depending on what you value more. Maybe it's that bit of experience the others do have that gets them the benefit of the doubt here as well but Baylor should be in this conversation consistently for the next couple of seasons as he continues to grow before slowly declining kind of early.

5. Cliff Hagan - Close one between Hagan and Cousy. Both were co-stars to guys higher up the list but while Cousy had a big minutes load that kept increasing as the post-season rolled around, I see Hagan's role on the Hawks as more significant at this point. Cousy had a pretty solid play-off showing but he did have a lot of help on the offensive end with Heinsohn, Sharman and Ramsey. Hagan stepped up once again individually even though it didn't lead to the best team result so I can't justify him any higher but he does just hold off Cousy for me. I also considered Sears but his play-offs were short and not particularly sweet, while Arizin missed the post-season entirely.

Offensive Player of the Year
1. Bob Pettit
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Cliff Hagan

The best offenses in the regular season were the Hawks, Knicks and Nationals. Like I just mentioned, Sears deserves a mention but didn't impress in the play-offs. Baylor and Cousy could definitely be up there as well but them leading worse offenses than the Hawks and Nationals makes me slightly colder on them on that side. Hagan and Schayes both stepped up their scoring considerably in the post-season but Pettit kept pace, while scoring at that level in the regular season as well.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Bill Russell
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Walter Dukes

Bit of a weird year for defense with no clear standout defenses besides Boston but I'm also not sure how much to credit Russell's teammates for their defense as it does seem to me like the majority of their defensive impact comes from Russell. Schayes impresses with his 2-way impact and while Walter Dukes might be a bit of a swing here, the Pistons were one of the better defenses and that's more likely due to a 7 ft center with a good defensive reputation than the other big minute players on the team, 6'2 Shue and 6'0 McGuire.

[AEnigma]

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Bob Cousy
2. Larry Costello
3. Richie Guerin

The Hawks’ struggles in Martin’s absence further affirmed my stance on the offensive essentiality of playmaking, so going with the top three playmakers this year. Costello’s postseason excellence gives him the edge over Guerin, but Cousy’s volume in his last superstar season secures the top spot.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Bill Russell
2. Woody Sauldsberry
3. Red Kerr

Russell will be enshrined in this top position every year of his career save one (stay tuned!). I decided to exclude Dukes because the Pistons were the worst team here and because the team did not seem to suffer from his eight-game absence in 1960. I am not too impressed by Kerr, but this is probably his peak season, and the Nationals were impressive enough defensively and overall to merit some benefit of doubt. By this point I take him over Schayes on that end. Similarly, Sauldsberry seems to have overtaken Graboski as the team’s most important defender, but more to his credit is that there is a notable defensive swing two ways when he changes teams in 1961.

Player of the Year

1. Bill Russell
2. Dolph Schayes
3. Elgin Baylor
4. Bob Pettit
5. Bob Cousy

Agree this year has a clear #1 and then a clear #2-4 in some order. Baylor comfortably outplays Pettit head-to-head and upsets him with a worse roster. Pettit has been benefitting from overall team success the past two years, so no issues penalising him when that stops being true, just as I have no issues rewarding Schayes for leading the second-best team in both the regular season and postseason — and especially not when he performs so well in the postseason. Then for the final spot, while I am sympathetic to Arizin being a better talent, this is not a case where I think he outpaced the competition to such a degree to excuse the weak record and missed postseason. Said it when I reluctantly voted for Johnston in 1955, but I need to have no real contrary argument against a player to forgive a missed postseason, and Arizin continues to be a non-playmaker who scores less efficiently than positional rivals like Sears or Hagan — and I think Guerin was the more important figure on those Knicks than Sears was anyway. Ultimately I cannot talk myself into Guerin being a truly better playmaker than Cousy this season, so Cousy makes his final top five appearance.

[Djoker]

If Pettit was outplayed by Baylor, it appears very marginal as opposed to comfortable. Pettit probably had more impact on the defensive end too so I wouldn't be sure in even claiming that he was outplayed. He may have been but we could probably use some newspaper sources on that series. Apart from knowing that Slater Martin got hurt for St. Louis which appears as a major loss, I admittedly don't know much else about what actually transpired in the series.

1959 WDF Series

Pettit: 27.8/12.5/2.3 on 50.4 %TS (+4.7 rTS)
Baylor: 28.3/11.6/? on 54.3 %TS (+8.6 rTS)

Pettit was much better in the RS. I don't think Baylor did enough especially considering his poor Finals to overcome Pettit.

Regular Season

Pettit: 29.2/16.4/3.1 on 51.9 %TS (+6.2 rTS)
Baylor: 24.9/15.0/4.1 on 48.8 %TS (+3.1 rTS)

[AEnigma]

^ That is extremely clear for Baylor in my eyes, yes. To whatever extent Pettit is a better defender, it did not matter in that series. And I never will hold it against a player when their postseason overachievement leads to lessened averages against a better team. 2022 Tatum versus Butler all over again.

[Djoker]

Less than 4% rTS difference is extremely clear? And defense doesn't matter. Why not?

Pettit played four series against the Celtics from 1957-1961 and all of them infinitely better than how Baylor played against them in 1959.

[eminence]

Averages are less useful in smaller samples, Pettit emphatically outplayed Baylor in the Game 3 blowout, but you could argue for Baylor in the other 5 games (some of them pretty clearly). Overall I also have Baylor fairly clearly outplaying Pettit (and Hagan for that matter) in the series.

Sorta similar, but I'm reluctant to call the Nats the 2nd best team this season even if I find them the 2nd most impressive. Point differential is nice, but the idea is to win games.