Retro Player of the Year 1996-97 UPDATE — Michael Jordan

[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 1996-97.

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 12:30PM PST on Monday, December 16th. 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.

Contrarian votes can be and have been sincere, but they look a lot more sincere when you take the time to fully present your reasoning rather than transparently pretend nothing is amiss.

Vote sincerely. Do not move a player down in your voting to give another player an advantage. I would encourage every voter to give some explanations while they do their voting - but particularly if you have a top 5 that deviates strongly with the norm and you haven't expressed your thoughts on it earlier in the thread. If I'm not satisfied, I may ask you for more of an explanation - and it may come to actually booting people out of the project.

The rules here are that you've got to use the same type of thinking for all 5 votes. I understand putting more thought into #1 than #5, but I don't want PJ Brown votes. Voters do Brown type votes to give a guy an honorable mention. Makes sense if people only care about who finishes 1st, but I've been clear that I want to measure more than that. I've been trying to encourage literal "honorable mentions" to serve that purpose, and I'd ask that people use that as the way they honor guys who did something special but who aren't actually a top 5 guy that year.

There is a significant difference between a properly justified and internally consistent contrarian vote, and a vote whose purpose is to undermine the project itself. Ballots which threaten to do the latter and derail project discussion via blatant vote manipulation are liable to be tossed. If it happens twice, the offending poster will be removed from the project.

Current Voter List

Spoiler:

[One_and_Done]

I do question if Jordan was still the best player at this point, unfortunately the candidates to replace him aren't as strong as they would be several years from now so I may end up putting him #1 anyway. If I had the 2003 candidates to choose from he'd maybe be struggling to stay in the top 5.

[trelos6]

OPOY

1.Michael Jordan. 31.4 pp75 on +3.1 rTS%. Top 10 playmaker in the league. Bulls were a +7.7 on offense.

2.Karl Malone. 30pp75 on +6.4 rTS%. +6.9 on offense. I want to credit Stockton again, he was the playmaker, a terrific passer. But his 16, +12 isn’t enough volume for me. Yes, young Magic was only around the mid teens, and if Stockton was around in the early 80’s he would’ve made a few more of my ballots assuming he drove a top 3 offense.

3.Kevin Johnson. Between KJ and Grant Hill. KJ was 20.5pp75 on +9.5rTS%, with team offense at +2.6 rOrtg. Just about the best playmaker in 1997. Hill was 23pp75, +2rTS%, team at +3.9 rOrtg, top 10 passer and playmaker. I’m going KJ, but it’s close.



DPOY

1.Dikembe Mutombo. Anchors a top 3 D.

2.Alonzo Mourning. Anchors the best D in the league.

3.Patrick Ewing. Beats out Hakeem. Anchors a top 3 defense in the regular season and playoffs.




POY

1.Michael Jordan. Who else but MJ. +5.95 OPIPM, +0.65 DPIPM, +6.61 PIPM. 22.19 Wins Added.

2.Karl Malone. Close second in OPIPM, and was still good defensively. +4.77 OPIPM, +0.57 DPIPM, +5.34 PIPM. 18.88 Wins Added.

3.Hakeem Olajuwon. Got over the Sonics hump in a big way. Was still very good in the playoffs, and his combo of volume scoring and elite D is a wonderful package for those mid 90’s Rockets teams. +1.58 OPIPM, +2.9 DPIPM, +4.48 PIPM. 15.75 Wins Added. 24.9 pp75 on +2.2 rTS% in the regular season. Playoffs saw a slight volume dip with a huge increase in efficiency.

4.Grant Hill. Clears because of his defense. Close to being on the ballot of the OPOY. Ageing Otis Thorpe and Joe Dumars, he carried the Pistons hard to a 57 win season. +3.48 OPIPM, +1.68 DPIPM, +5.16 PIPM. 16.38 Wins Added.

5.Scottie Pippen. +3.64 OPIPM, +1.14 DPIPM, +4.78 PIPM. 17.85 Wins Added. Just a terrific second banana. Does it all, scores, creates, defends.

[AEnigma]

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Dikembe Mutombo
2. Patrick Ewing
3. Alonzo Mourning

Deciding between Mourning, Hakeem, and Garnett for third. Garnett’s case vanishes in the postseason — not in the sense that he was individually bad, but more in the sense that he was not so undeniable in the regular season that it excuses the postseason blowout. And then between Mourning and Hakeem, while as always I prefer Hakeem as a defender, I think I need to recognise Mourning as the best defender for a #1 defence conference finalist; while he did play around 500 fewer minutes than Hakeem and Ewing, the Heat were a historically good defence with him, and at this point he is a better rim protector than both — and close enough to Dikembe that I find it plausible he may be the best defender per game this season, even if his missed time keeps him from earning the recognition.

The Knicks were the #2 defence and probably would have returned to the conference finals but for suspensions derailing them up 3-2. Ewing remains their best and most important defender, with defensive impact signals on par with what we see from Mourning on the Heat.

Dikembe is back on a playoff calibre team and is still the league’s most imposing rim protector (although Shawn Bradley manages to top him in various block rate metrics) and one of the league’s best defensive rebounders. His defensive impact over this period is also extremely high, although much like with Eaton or Ben Wallace (to larger degrees) I tend to mark him down a bit for limiting his teams offensively. Ewing could have taken this without the suspensions, and Mourning could have taken this without the missed time, but as is, I think the official DPoY voters make the correct choice for the season.

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan
2. Penny Hardaway
3. Tim Hardaway

Extremely competitive year. I prefer Penny as an offensive player to this version of Jordan, and Penny was better offensively in their one common series, but Penny missed far too much time to consider him over yet another title winning season (especially without the level of play shown last year).

Deciding between Tim Hardaway, Kevin Johnson, and Gary Payton for third place, and can also understand votes for Hill, Malone, Shaq, and Stockton. I have never voted for the latter, but I do want to recognise his efforts in saving the Jazz against the Rockets and keeping the Jazz competitive in the Finals despite Malone’s scoring struggles. This is the first time since 1989 where I do not think Stockton deserves any particular blame for the Jazz’s eventual exit.

With all three fading in the postseason (also true of Hill, Malone, and Shaq to a degree), here I will recognise Tim Hardaway for his efforts on a 60-win conference finalist (including an 11-4 run without Mourning). I suspect the Heat lose their series against the Knicks if not for the slew of suspensions, but Tim did play excellently in the final two games to secure the series comeback and the franchise’s first conference finals.

Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan
2. Hakeem Olajuwon
3. Karl Malone
4. Alonzo Mourning
5. Penny Hardaway

Jordan was the best regular season player and generally the past postseason player. The blemishes are that Hakeem was on balance more impressive against the Jazz in my opinion and that Penny was more impressive against the Heat in my opinion; however, neither is so definite that they give me serious cause to take either one over Jordan after Jordan wins a comfortable title (no 1993 postseason struggles here).

I said Hakeem was on balance more impressive against the Jazz… but he is second here because when the season was on the line, he faltered. It is not explicitly Hakeem’s fault that Stockton suddenly had the best quarter of his postseason career to seal the series for the Jazz; however, I do think it is Hakeem’s fault, at least to a degree, that the Jazz were able to pull off a fourth quarter comeback. 33 points was the second best offensive quarter the Jazz had all series — and the best was when they outscored the Rockets by 10 in a four-minute stretch with Hakeem on the bench. Hakeem was not on the bench this quarter. And even if he individually were not at fault for Stockton going on a heater, as the team’s defensive lead, he does bear a degree of responsibility for the Jazz burning the team. Offensively, the Jazz were not letting him establish good position to score, and Hakeem did a fine job of setting up his teammates… but look, the comparison here is Michael Jordan, and if Hakeem is not establishing a massive defensive advantage, then a 2-point fourth quarter in an elimination game loss is not something easily dismissed. In contrast, Jordan came up clutch in the fourth quarter time and time again. One of the reasons I think SRS analysis undersells players like Hakeem is that there is a real effect to being “clutch” (as opposed to dismissing consistent over-performance as mere luck or variance). But this year, Hakeem did not have anything like 1995 in him, and Jordan was the one who spearheaded tight comebacks in Games 1, 5, and 6 of the Finals. There was no defensive takeover. There was no offensive explosion. The Rockets were leading and gave the game away while their best player could neither stop the bleeding nor match their scoring pace in turn. Season over, window closed.

Malone was a Finals disappointment and needed to be uncharacteristically bailed out by Stockton to avoid a Game 7 against the Rockets. Still a worse player than Hakeem for the most important games, but he was a top two regular season player who made the Finals, so by accomplishment alone he cannot reasonably be lower than third.

Fourth and fifth place were tricky. Penny was the best player in that Heat/Magic series, and was even more impressive against the Heat than Jordan was. Nevertheless, 51 games played and a first round exit caps your ceiling. And while I think Penny was better than Mourning as a player, his regular season was worse and Mourning was the one who made the conference finals.

Ewing would have been here with a conference finals appearance, but that fight is enough of sour note on a fine but unspectacular season to keep him off as a generally irrelevant second round exit.

[Djoker]

I am quoting your post from the other thread because the discussion should have started here anyways!

Since you acknowledged that Hakeem has no case in the RS and a weaker case than you thought in the PS, there is a lot that doesn't need to be responded to. I didn't ignore the rest of your post. I just mostly agree or have no comments about the parts I didn't quote.

Not particularly relevant to how the Rockets did without him but that sample seems pretty useless so whatever. I don't know why I didn't think to look at later years but we have a larger sample with a similar roster for 98 where they're 14-20. Someone can vet how clean that is, but i'll be treating the rockets as an averagish team without Hakeem as opposed to a bad one as things stand. Maybe a little above given Bird's WOWY stuff

The problem with using 1998 is that Barkley and Drexler got worse.

You are correct, I was looking at per 36 minutes. You aren't looking at his offensive load, you're looking at how often he was the last or second last to touch the ball. Very different things.

From Thinking Basketball, in 1997 PS, Jordan has a 53.3 to 36.1 edge in offensive load. And the TB version of the stat is better than B-Ref USG% which doesn't factor in touches of the ball involved in creation. By the way in terms of Box OC which measures creation output, Jordan has a 8.1 to 4.7 edge.

Okay but then they went
+16
+10
and
+5

with Hakeem going from just being their lead scorer to being their most efficient scorer by far

You're disappointed in them for being +5 but then they go

+9 PSRS
+8 PSRS
+6 PSRS

with Hakeem going off while the other two wilted in the most important one.

That being said...

1997 Chicago from +10 went to

+8 PSRS
+13 PSRS
+14 PSRS
+8 PSRS

Considering the issues with the 96 sample, Hakeem having a bad WOWY in 97(not so bad if 98 is reasonable for use but still), the Bulls improving in the playoffs as well, and I think I have to agree Jordan should be POY for 97 or at least over Hakeem even though my eyetest liked Hakeem alot better in the POs, especially the Jazz.

I do think Hakeem was definitely better vs Utah, but I've been pretty consistent about letting the data outweigh my priors for POY purposes and the case Hakeem clearly outplayed Jordan in the playoffs isn't very strong empirically.

Still, the Rockets are very good in the postseason and Hakeem is clearly their best player on both ends so I'd probably put him 2. It's also possible i'm overindexing on how both played vs the Jazz. I didn't end up putting Ewing ahead of MJ for outplaying him in 1993, so it would be wierd to put Hakeem over MJ for winning an indirect comparison for one series. There's also actual full RAPM which i'm pretty sure favors Jordan for 97-98 no matter what.

I don't think Hakeem being better vs. Utah is that straightforward. Like I said, in the four Bulls wins, MJ averaged 36.5/8.8/6.5 on +2.3 rTS with 2.3 turnovers per game. Those are elite numbers. Sure you can say his struggles in Game 3 and Game 4 are the reason Bulls didn't win the other two games but he still led his team to winning the series and had a great Finals overall.

1997 isn't peak MJ for sure but he's still really good.

I asked for RAPM. Not made-up blah blah blah.

Alright.

Here are two different sources of RAPM.

https://basketball-analytics.gitlab.io/rapm-data/season/1996-97/regular-season/

https://thebasketballdatabase.com/1996-97RegularSeasonPlayerOneYearRAPM.html

And MJ is comfortably over Hakeem in both.

By the way they have PS versions as well and although MJ is ahead in those too, they are more noisy and I wouldn't put any stock into playoff RAPM for a single run.

[B-Mitch 30]

Before I post my vote, I'd like to take some time to talk about stats, now that we've reached seasons with full play-by-play data. This is such an obvious point that I hate to even mention it, but arguably the biggest focus of basketball statistics over the past decade has been which kinds of shots are the most valuable. Hence eFG and true shooting overtaking raw field goal percentage, as well as team's emphasizing three-point shooting and trying various ways to get easy looks at the rim. However, these approaches mostly focus on location. Since we're trying to find the most valuable player for each season, another thing to look at is what shots were the most valuable based on time. Ben Taylor talked a little about this in his book, but for how much we fans fixate on end of the 4th quarter or overtime shots, field goals at the end of the other 3 quarters are just as valuable. They're basically shots teams can't "make up" by changing their strategy or anything, as the end of the quarter essentially "resets" the game, besides the score and player fatigue. Making a shot at the end of the first 3 quarters also tends to rob the other team of a chance to score. In addition, unlike end of the game shots, the sample size for the other quarters is much larger. So, without further ado, using Stathead, here were the players who took the most shots in the regular season with 24 seconds or less left in the first three quarters of games and their field goal percentages:

Spoiler:

Tim Hardaway 101 Attempts 39.6%
Gary Payton 91 Attempts 36.3%
Allen Iverson 77 Attempts 27.3%
Michael Jordan 75 Attempts 40%
Terrell Brandon 69 Attempts 37.7%
Latrell Sprewell 67 Attempts 28.4%
Kenny Anderson 66 Attempts 30.3%
Mookie Blaylock 64 Attempts 32.8%
Steve Smith 60 Attempts 35%
Kendall Gill 58 Attempts 43.1%
Mitch Richmond 58 Attempts 34.5%
Lindsey Hunter 57 Attempts 26.3%
Damon Stoudamire 56 Attempts 41.1%
Nick Van Exel 55 Attempts 27.3%
Penny Hardaway 52 Attempts 28.8%
Mark Jackson 52 Attempts 26.9%
Charles Barkley 51 Attempts 39.2%
Shareef Abdur-Rahim 51 Attempts 33.3%
Rod Strickland 50 Attempts 30%
Vin Baker 49 Attempts 36.7%

Since I'm going to bring up these numbers in all the following seasons, I've decided to call this stat/criteria "last opportunity shots".

[lessthanjake]

I asked for RAPM. Not made-up blah blah blah.

Alright.

Here are two different sources of RAPM.

https://basketball-analytics.gitlab.io/rapm-data/season/1996-97/regular-season/

https://thebasketballdatabase.com/1996-97RegularSeasonPlayerOneYearRAPM.html

And MJ is comfortably over Hakeem in both.

By the way they have PS versions as well and although MJ is ahead in those too, they are more noisy and I wouldn't put any stock into playoff RAPM for a single run.

I will add that, having looked at the links posted in this discussion, I don’t think there’s much of a reason to need to parse exactly what impact metric is best here. Whether it’s pure RAPM, a version of RAPM with a relatively simple prior, or a RAPM-based metric with a complex box prior, Jordan is *way* ahead of Hakeem in 1996-97. More generally, Jordan is also far ahead of anyone that could in any way reasonably be considered a candidate for POY (i.e. something like Laettner being ahead of Jordan in JE’s PI RAPM doesn’t actually bolster a realistic POY candidacy for a non-Jordan player).

I do also want to note that it’s worth taking a step back and appreciating how well the 1996-97 Bulls did. This gets overshadowed a bit because the 1995-96 Bulls were even better, but the 1996-97 Bulls won 69 games and had a 10.70 SRS. They also only lost 4 playoff games, despite playing against a 56-win team, a 61-win team, and a 64-win team (yes, there was a bit of recent-league-expansion inflation at play there, but it was definitely a genuinely tough set of playoff opponents—which included the teams with the 2nd, 4th, and 5th best SRS’s in the NBA that season). It’s one of the top few best years a team has ever had, but isn’t really appreciated as such because they did even better the year before so the 1996-97 Bulls team isn’t the best iteration of that group. Of course, the Bulls’ success wasn’t only Jordan—it’s a team game—but Jordan led a historically great team and it’s definitely no surprise that no one has a serious case against Jordan in this season in terms of impact metrics. And I think it’s pretty obvious that a guy should be POY when he leads a 69-win/10.70 SRS team to a title while being the league’s clear star-player standout in impact metrics and leading the league in box metrics like BPM and win shares. Not that anyone is really suggesting otherwise, so I’m not really arguing with anyone here.

[jjgp111292]

It is crazy how the preceding season just makes the '97 Bulls the most overlooked GOAT team ever, because any other 69-win/+12 net rating team is getting put in the pantheon. That's why I tend to just consolidate 95-97 as just one team.

Hell 97 might be even more impressive when you consider all of the injuries/suspensions they had. 9 less games of Rodman, Kukoc misses nearly a third of the season and they barely miss a beat. And the East was loaded in '97, too. I remember the Bulls '97 VHS tape had to manufacture drama out of them winning only 16 of their last 20 regular season games

[penbeast0]

Chicago the best team in the RS and wins the ring. Utah the second best team in the RS and plays them in the finals. Fairly straightforward top to the team rankings. Pippen had a very good year as 2nd banana; Stockton as well though Jordan and RS MVP Karl Malone were the primary scorers as always.

Heat were the #3 RS team led by Mourning and Tim Hardaway, they lost to Chicago in the ECF so still going according to RS form. The other contenders were Seattle with Payton and Kemp, the Knicks where Ewing had less offensive help than any of the other top players, Houston where the rapidly aging Rockets had Hakeem, Barkley, and Drexler, Atlanta where Mutombo had landed, LA with Shaq and Eddie Jones, Detroit where Grant Hill showed out, and Charlotte where Glen Rice had a big offensive year with Anthony Mason playing point forward.

Jordan led in scoring, Rodman in rebounding, Mark Jackson took the assist title from Stockton, and Mutombo was named DPOY. The compilation stats favor Jordan though actual MVP Karl Malone led in PER.

POY
1. Michael Jordan
2. Karl Malone
3. Patrick Ewing
4. Scottie Pippen
5. Hakeem Olujawon
HM: John Stockton, Grant Hill

[LA Bird]

Making the case for Penny because it seems most people jumped on the Grant Hill hype train instead this season.

- Ridiculous 28 win WOWY signal which further goes up to 30 wins (24 -> 54 win pace) if we exclude the final game of the regular season where Penny only played 5 minutes before resting.
- Against the #1 defense, Penny had a poor first game in a blowout but then went on to average 36/7/4 on 60% TS with 3.5 stocks the rest of the series. This same Miami defense held Jordan to 30/8/3 on 47% TS in the ECF with only one game over 52% TS.
- Orlando was missing Horace Grant in the postseason and the starting C Seikaly was injured halfway through the series too. A frontcourt of Derek Strong and almost 38 year old Danny Schayes is absolutely not playoffs caliber and yet Penny almost carried them to victory over a 6 SRS team. Jordan in Penny's place would have lost too.

Grant Hill had much weaker impact signals than Penny at +1.6 on/off and got outplayed by Mutombo in the first round.

[trelos6]

Playmaking

Grant Hill ≥ Anfernee Hardaway

Scoring

Hill > Hardaway

Close. Hill is slightly better at the rim, Penny takes way more 3’s and makes them at 31%. Hill was .498 from 16’-3pt, which is very good. All up, both guys are around +2 rTS%. Hill scores one more point per 75 possessions.

Defense

Hill > Hardaway

Durability

Hill > Hardaway

80 games vs 59 games

Playoffs (5 game sample)

Hardaway > Hill

[Djoker]

I always thought MJ and Malone should have swapped MVP's. MJ deserved it in 1997 as the Bulls were the significantly better team and Malone deserved it in 1998; although Pippen missed a big chunk of 1998, so did Stockton plus Jordan declined a bit more by 1998.

Also worth pointing out that the 1997 Jazz were really good, definitely among the best teams not to win a title. I seem to recall colts18 posted that their starting lineup of Stockton/Russell/Hornacek/Malone/Ostertag was the best lineup since PBP data started. And the 1996-1998 Jazz have one of the top 10 best three-year PS stretches.

Read on Twitter

[B-Mitch 30]

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan

As absurd as the 1995-1996 Bulls were, I think this iteration of them was better offensively, if not as defensively strong (still one of the best in the league though). In addition to MJ and Scottie putting up their usual stats, the team’s arguably third most important starter, Ron Harper, had an efficient scoring season, unlike last year. Jordan was obviously the Bulls best player, and showed up in the postseason, scoring a very efficient 55 points against the Wizards, hitting his first game winner over Bryon Russell, and of course, beating Utah at home while suffering from food poisoning (supposedly). Even on the decline, many players would kill to have a season as good as MJ this year.

2. Isaiah Rider

I will level that Karl Malone should probably be on here, but I refuse to put him this high. In addition, I think too much of his success was dependent on Stockton. Instead, let’s look at the Trail Blazers this season. They were in the top 10 of eFG, offensive rebounding percentage, and free throws per field goal attempt. Of the team’s three starters who played in more than 69 games, Rider was the only one with a positive eFG and the best offensive rebounder.

3. Hersey Hawkins

Besides the Bulls, the Supersonics had the NBA’s best offense, a lot of the credit for this deservedly goes to Gary Payton, but Hawkins is a bit overlooked. As some fellow posters recall, I made this list of the best three-point shooters in the league before the line was shorted in 1994:

Spoiler:

1992-1993
Dan Majerle 438 Attempts 38.1%
Reggie Miller 419 Attempts 39.9%
Danny Ainge 372 Attempts 40.3%
Hersey Hawkins 307 Attempts 39.7%
Dale Ellis 297 Attempts 40.1%
Mark Price 293 Attempts 41.6%
Craig Ehlo 244 Attempts 38.1%
Scott Skiles 235 Attempts 34%
Brad Lohaus 230 Attempts 37%
Kenny Smith 219 Attempts 43.8%
John Stockton 187 Attempts 38.5%
Dana Barros 169 Attempts 37.9%
B.J. Armstrong 139 Attempts 45.3%
Kevin Gamble 139 Attempts 37.4%
Chris Mullin 133 Attempts 45.1%
Mitch Richmond 130 Attempts 36.9%
Mario Elie 129 Attempts 34.9%
Rex Chapman 116 Attempts 37.1%
Ricky Pierce 113 Attempts 37.2%
Derrick McKey 112 Attempts 35.7%
Blue Edwards 106 Attempts 34.9%
Sean Elliott 104 Attempts 35.6%

1993-1994
Dana Barros 354 Attempts 38.1%
Glen Rice 346 Attempts 38.2%
Dale Ellis 332 Attempts 39.5%
Mark Price 297 Attempts 39.7%
Reggie Miller 292 Attempts 42.1%
Steve Smith 262 Attempts 34.7%
Craig Ehlo 221 Attempts 34.8%
Kenny Smith 220 Attempts 40.5%
Jeff Hornacek 208 Attempts 33.7%
Mario Elie 167 Attempts 33.5%
Rex Chapman 165 Attempts 38.8%
Spud Webb 164 Attempts 33.5%
Chris Mullin 151 Attempts 36.4%
Isaiah Rider 150 Attempts 36%
Chris Morris 147 Attempts 36.1%
Hubert Davis 132 Attempts 40.2%
Steve Kerr 124 Attempts 41.9%
Blue Edwards 106 Attempts 35.8%

Hawkins appears rather prominently on the 1992-1993 list, and was a missed three from making the 1993-1994 list (235 Attempts on 33.2% shooting). Because Reggie Miller regressed severely this season, Hawkins was probably the NBA’s best shooter in general this year (the only 10+ points per game scorer who attempted over 300 threes and was efficient from both the line and two). Hawkins also raised his volume and efficiency in the playoffs, as the Supersonics lost a close second round to the Rockets.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Dikembe Mutombo

I’m a big fan of this Hawks team, and while I think Mookie Blaylock was a key reason for their defense being so good, Dikembe was clearly the heart of it. The interesting thing is besides fouls committed per field goal attempt, the Hawks were more of a jack of all trades team in the other defensive stats.

2. Dale Davis

The Pacers were also a well rounded defensive team, though bad when it came to committing fouls, albeit not rock bottom. Like last season, Davis led their starters in blocks and defensive rebounds.

3. Shaquille O’Neal

Shaq did miss a lot of games again, but the Lakers defense also became very well rounded this year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence this improvement occurred when one of the most prolific rebounders and shot blockers in NBA history joined the team.

Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan

1995-1996 MJ was probably Jordan at his best during the second threepeat, but this was probably his best playoff run during that time. He showed the ability to both dominate and persevere against tough teams.

2. Shaquille O’Neal

Despite all his missed time, Shaq was available for the playoffs, and was very good, though the Jazz were just too much for the Lakers to beat with Eddie Jones as their second best player.

3. Dikembe Mutombo

In addition to carrying the defensive load for the Hawks, Dikembe was a capable post scorer and improved his free throw shooting.

4. Isaiah Rider

Despite his demons, Rider had a good season for one of the best offenses in the league. I’m glad he was eventually able to win a title with the Lakers and seems to have overcome his personal issues.

4. Karl Malone

Despite my issues with Malone, I've included him on my ballot before, and he was clearly one of the best offensive players this year, and a nice positive on defense. I've questioned how much of his success was dependent on Stockton, but the Jazz do well next season despite the latter missing the only significant time in his career, so I do think he deserves this spot at least.

5. Hersey Hawkins

The best shooter in the NBA, Hawkins was 9th in steals and kept up his accuracy in the playoffs.

[One_and_Done]

Offensive Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan

As absurd as the 1995-1996 Bulls were, I think this iteration of them was better offensively, if not as defensively strong (still one of the best in the league though). In addition to MJ and Scottie putting up their usual stats, the team’s arguably third most important starter, Ron Harper, had an efficient scoring season, unlike last year. Jordan was obviously the Bulls best player, and showed up in the postseason, scoring a very efficient 55 points against the Wizards, hitting his first game winner over Bryon Russell, and of course, beating Utah at home while suffering from food poisoning (supposedly). Even on the decline, many players would kill to have a season as good as MJ this year.

2. Isaiah Rider

I will level that Karl Malone should probably be on here, but I refuse to put him this high. In addition, I think too much of his success was dependent on Stockton. Instead, let’s look at the Trail Blazers this season. They were in the top 10 of eFG, offensive rebounding percentage, and free throws per field goal attempt. Of the team’s three starters who played in more than 69 games, Rider was the only one with a positive eFG and the best offensive rebounder.

3. Hersey Hawkins

Besides the Bulls, the Supersonics had the NBA’s best offense, a lot of the credit for this deservedly goes to Gary Payton, but Hawkins is a bit overlooked. As some fellow posters recall, I made this list of the best three-point shooters in the league before the line was shorted in 1994:

Spoiler:

1992-1993
Dan Majerle 438 Attempts 38.1%
Reggie Miller 419 Attempts 39.9%
Danny Ainge 372 Attempts 40.3%
Hersey Hawkins 307 Attempts 39.7%
Dale Ellis 297 Attempts 40.1%
Mark Price 293 Attempts 41.6%
Craig Ehlo 244 Attempts 38.1%
Scott Skiles 235 Attempts 34%
Brad Lohaus 230 Attempts 37%
Kenny Smith 219 Attempts 43.8%
John Stockton 187 Attempts 38.5%
Dana Barros 169 Attempts 37.9%
B.J. Armstrong 139 Attempts 45.3%
Kevin Gamble 139 Attempts 37.4%
Chris Mullin 133 Attempts 45.1%
Mitch Richmond 130 Attempts 36.9%
Mario Elie 129 Attempts 34.9%
Rex Chapman 116 Attempts 37.1%
Ricky Pierce 113 Attempts 37.2%
Derrick McKey 112 Attempts 35.7%
Blue Edwards 106 Attempts 34.9%
Sean Elliott 104 Attempts 35.6%

1993-1994
Dana Barros 354 Attempts 38.1%
Glen Rice 346 Attempts 38.2%
Dale Ellis 332 Attempts 39.5%
Mark Price 297 Attempts 39.7%
Reggie Miller 292 Attempts 42.1%
Steve Smith 262 Attempts 34.7%
Craig Ehlo 221 Attempts 34.8%
Kenny Smith 220 Attempts 40.5%
Jeff Hornacek 208 Attempts 33.7%
Mario Elie 167 Attempts 33.5%
Rex Chapman 165 Attempts 38.8%
Spud Webb 164 Attempts 33.5%
Chris Mullin 151 Attempts 36.4%
Isaiah Rider 150 Attempts 36%
Chris Morris 147 Attempts 36.1%
Hubert Davis 132 Attempts 40.2%
Steve Kerr 124 Attempts 41.9%
Blue Edwards 106 Attempts 35.8%

Hawkins appears rather prominently on the 1992-1993 list, and was a missed three from making the 1993-1994 list (235 Attempts on 33.2% shooting). Because Reggie Miller regressed severely this season, Hawkins was probably the NBA’s best shooter in general this year (the only 10+ points per game scorer who attempted over 300 threes and was efficient from both the line and two). Hawkins also raised his volume and efficiency in the playoffs, as the Supersonics lost a close second round to the Rockets.

Defensive Player of the Year

1. Dikembe Mutombo

I’m a big fan of this Hawks team, and while I think Mookie Blaylock was a key reason for their defense being so good, Dikembe was clearly the heart of it. The interesting thing is besides fouls committed per field goal attempt, the Hawks were more of a jack of all trades team in the other defensive stats.

2. Dale Davis

The Pacers were also a well rounded defensive team, though bad when it came to committing fouls, albeit not rock bottom. Like last season, Davis led their starters in blocks and defensive rebounds.

3. Shaquille O’Neal

Shaq did miss a lot of games again, but the Lakers defense also became very well rounded this year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence this improvement occurred when one of the most prolific rebounders and shot blockers in NBA history joined the team.

Player of the Year

1. Michael Jordan

1995-1996 MJ was probably Jordan at his best during the second threepeat, but this was probably his best playoff run during that time. He showed the ability to both dominate and persevere against tough teams.

2. Shaquille O’Neal

Despite all his missed time, Shaq was available for the playoffs, and was very good, though the Jazz were just too much for the Lakers to beat with Eddie Jones as their second best player.

3. Dikembe Mutombo

In addition to carrying the defensive load for the Hawks, Dikembe was a capable post scorer and improved his free throw shooting.

4. Isaiah Rider

Despite his demons, Rider had a good season for one of the best offenses in the league. I’m glad he was eventually able to win a title with the Lakers and seems to have overcome his personal issues.

5. Hersey Hawkins

The best shooter in the NBA, Hawkins was 9th in steals and kept up his accuracy in the playoffs.

I'm sorry, what? Isiah Rider? Hervey Hawkins? The former is an outright bad player with empty numbers, the other isn't even an all-star. How on earth are you ranking these guys over the likes of Hakeem, K.Malone, and Pippen?

[B-Mitch 30]

I'm sorry, what? Isiah Rider? Hervey Hawkins? The former is an outright bad player with empty numbers, the other isn't even an all-star.

Perhaps my bias against Malone is too egregious here, but I'd hardly call being the best scorer on a playoff team "empty numbers". The case I laid out for Hawkins was one I was planning to make well before the project reached the 80's.

[Cavsfansince84]

I'm sorry, what? Isiah Rider? Hervey Hawkins? The former is an outright bad player with empty numbers, the other isn't even an all-star.

Perhaps my bias against Malone is too egregious here, but I'd hardly call being the best scorer on a playoff team "empty numbers". The case I laid out for Hawkins was one I was planning to make well before the project reached the 80's.

I think you need to examine why exactly you're so biased against Malone to the point you would leave him off a ballot like this(guessing its more off court based than on court). If you can't bring yourself to even place him maybe just not vote in the 97-99 projects in the name of objectivity.

[B-Mitch 30]

I think you need to examine why exactly you're so biased against Malone to the point you would leave him off a ballot like this(guessing its more off court based than on court). If you can't bring yourself to even place him maybe just not vote in the 97-99 projects in the name of objectivity.

It is mostly off court stuff, but I do genuinely believe Stockton was very critical for his success. I'll probably have him on my ballot next year just because of the former's knee injury. If you check my previous ballots, you'll also see I've voted for him a few times.

[One_and_Done]

I think you need to examine why exactly you're so biased against Malone to the point you would leave him off a ballot like this(guessing its more off court based than on court). If you can't bring yourself to even place him maybe just not vote in the 97-99 projects in the name of objectivity.

It is mostly off court stuff, but I do genuinely believe Stockton was very critical for his success. I'll probably have him on my ballot next year just because of the former's knee injury. If you check my previous ballots, you'll also see I've voted for him a few times.

There's absolutely no evidence Malone's off court stuff (from age 20) affected on court performance.

[B-Mitch 30]

There's absolutely no evidence Malone's off court stuff (from age 20) affected on court performance.

I agree, it just makes me disinclined to vote for him.

[Cavsfansince84]

I think you need to examine why exactly you're so biased against Malone to the point you would leave him off a ballot like this(guessing its more off court based than on court). If you can't bring yourself to even place him maybe just not vote in the 97-99 projects in the name of objectivity.

It is mostly off court stuff, but I do genuinely believe Stockton was very critical for his success. I'll probably have him on my ballot next year just because of the former's knee injury. If you check my previous ballots, you'll also see I've voted for him a few times.

Ok though I'd also echo that Rider and Hawkins for top 5 in this year or any year seems really out there. Almost to where I'd wonder what is even going on with this ballot(even with 97 being a pretty weak year for individual seasons so it does sort of open the door for lesser known guys to make ballots).