Post#15 » by Doctor MJ » Sun Dec 4, 2011 6:22 pm
Vote: Bobby Jones once again. Not sure what more to say.
I will say though that I totally understand why others aren't convinced with Bobby. I remain willing to engage for anyone with specific questions.
Didn't get around to nominating anyone last time so I want to make sure I put a name down here, though my mind remains open.
Nominate: Connie Hawkins
Alright, so first anyone not familiar with Connie, needs to do themselves a favor and research him a bit. Watch some video. Look at the man's hands. He palms the ball like Wilt Chamberlain, and actually uses this ability to throw defenders off balance to great effect. And then of course there is the air game. People say that this started with Baylor, but to me it's with Connie that you start seeing an old school Jordan kind of guy, albeit one whose greater height let him play center as needed.
To say a bit analytically:
-Connie has his career derailed with point shaving allegations in college. He dominates the short lived ABL in '61-62 earning the MVP and championship there for the Pittsburgh Rens. Then gets a shot with the ABA in '67-68.
-Connie utterly dominates the ABA. Mega numbers in the regular season, even bigger numbers in the playoffs, earning the MVP and championship there for the Pittsburgh Pipers, who promptly turned terrible without Connie in subsequent years.
Okay, now it's obligatory to point out that the ABA was weaker in those early years. Let's think about what that should mean:
-People are bringing up Mel Daniels and I understand why. Let's remember though that Daniels was in the ABA the same time as Connie, and only a couple years younger, and in his statistical prime.
There was absolutely zero doubt who was better. Connie tore the league apart leading weak talent to the title, Daniels was simply a solid player. For comparison, in Daniels entire career he earned 23.9 offensive Win Shares. In the season and a half Connie played in the ABA, he earned 21.5.
And incidentally, despite the fact Connie's career was a fraction of what it could have been, he still earned more career WS than Daniels. I don't mean to make WS out to be a holy grail, but when we have a comparison where it's simply a question of whether longevity wins out over peak, I kind of taken as a given that a stat like WS should favor the longevity guy, and it doesn't here.
Now, two other players put up obscene big numbers in the early ABA: Spencer Haywood and Rick Barry. But Haywood should also be getting consideration now, and Barry was in a long time ago. More than that, I don't see how you can say either of them ever had an ABA season that matched Connie's debut. In particular if you look at Haywood's advanced stats, you'll see he wasn't actually a very efficient scorer, and he played insane minutes which inflated things a bit more. I wouldn't consider him to be as good as Connie or Barry were.
What about Connie's transition to the NBA? Well, instant All-NBA 1st team scoring 25 PPG more efficiently than Elgin Baylor ever did despite the fact he'd already had some major injury issues by that point.
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