acrossthecourt wrote:
i should double-check and finish the numbers, but I looked at how WS/48 changed with ABA players and NBA players from 1976 to 1977. Both sets of players declined, but the NBA declined more. Given their records in those exhibition games between leagues and more data about players switching teams, it appears the ABA was at lest as strong as the NBA in 1977, though not as big, and got progressively worse as you went backyards. But for like three/four years they were comparable.
Leading to ...
How would you rank Dr. J's 1976 season if it had happened in the NBA? (Given the lack of dominant teams in the NBA then, it's not unreasonable he wins a title there.) And how do you rank his '73 through '75 seasons? How does that compare to West and Kobe?
ABA vs NBA 1976
It's pretty easy to compare the ABA versus NBA in 1976 because the following season the leagues merged. The ABA
had 7 teams for virtually the whole season; the NBA 22.
So let's look at the top 35 players in minutes for ABA teams and the top 110 for NBA teams and see how they did the
following season.
Two of the 35 ABA players (5.7%) and 5 of the 110 NBA players (4.5%) did not play the following season. The percentages
are fairly similar, so I ignored them. I probably should have assumed a reduction for each, but they should balance
each other out.
For the remaining players, I took WS/48 minutes. Win shares are obviously not perfect, but since we are allocatin
wins and taking the players who played most of the minutes in total we shouldn't be too far off. If Doctor J is a
win share too low, most of that win share is assigned to someone else in the sample and it cancels itself out.
For comparison, I also did this for the 130 players (26 teams) from 1977-1978.
1976 ABA .116/.092 - 79.6% retained
1976 NBA .108/.099 - 91.3% retained
1977 NBA .110/.100 - 91.2% retained
The top 7 ABA players in minutes
Don Buse
Artis Gilmore
Julius Erving
Ralph Simpson
James Silas
David Thompson
Billy Paultz
all went down
The ABA had some young players - Gervin, Bobby Jones, Larry Kenon, and Maurice Lucas who got better and
that goup plus GIlmore, Erving,Thompson, Dan Issel, and Billy Knight added some great talent - as well as young
Moses Malone, who didn't crack the top 35 in minutes played for an ABA team.
So, the ABA was 79.6%/91.3% compared to the NBA - 87.2%
So, I weight Doctor J in the ABA at about 90% of the ABA. Behind Jabbar, but probably at a level of Cowens, McAdoo, and Rick Barry - somewhere in the 2-5 best player in basketball.
I think I get Doc with 3 ABA seasons, 74-76 and 4 NBA seasons 80-83 at the top 5 level - to me that is below Kobe and Oscar. I am down to those two, and will write it up to get a vote in.