Peaks Project #36

[Dr Positivity]

Pettit has great stats and a good combination of physical tools and skill, but from a skillset perspective I am concerned about whether he's closer to Carlos Boozer than Kevin Love. I do not know if either his physical tools or skill would be elite in modern day

[trex_8063]

Alright, I'm gonna go with Pettit in the run-off.
As I indicated earlier, I see him as a high potential to be like a slightly better version of Paul Millsap in the modern context while on the court....also with the endurance to be on the court at that level for ~5 extra (relative to Millsap) mpg. That's an All-NBA player already. Smaller potential that he's even better than that offensively; no Dirk, but maybe like peak Kevin Love level offensively.

And no question he did have better in-era dominance, and honestly I think he probably had a higher degree of dominance or "elite-ness" in the 50's/60's than Penny would have managed.

Overall it puts him pretty near a dead-heat with Penny for me. But I'm gonna side with Pettit as means of countering what I see as modern era bias (not entirely just interpretation either: one voter has openly admittedly he's not considering anyone pre-merger).

[eminence]

Has anybody done a write up on Pettit's defense? For now I'm leaning Penny. I'm not a big fan of the non-great defending bigs as a building block for a team.

[Clyde Frazier]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFTY-6sk3iA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

[trex_8063]

Has anybody done a write up on Pettit's defense? For now I'm leaning Penny. I'm not a big fan of the non-great defending bigs as a building block for a team.

Generally speaking, he appears to have a "good but not great" defensive reputation. Though that's mostly based on heresay and anecdotal stuff from his peers and such.

However, I'll point out the following.....
Looking at the Hawks' team DRtg relative to league before and after Pettit is suggestive:

'54 Hawks (year before Pettit arrives): +1.7 rDRTG (6th of 9)
'55 Hawks (rookie Pettit): -0.4 rDRTG (4th of 8)

There were a few other pretty minor changes in the team make-up, but Pettit was by far the most relevant change; and we see their defense improve by magnitude of 2.1 (which is even more relevant than a change of 2.1 today, as the league avg ORtg/DRtg's then were only around 89).

'65 Hawks (Pettit's final season): -1.8 rDRTG (2nd of 9)
'66 Hawks: +1.2 rDRTG (6th of 9)

And there were NO other relevant roster changes other than Pettit retiring.....and the defense fell off by 3.0.

So idk, obviously a lot of fuzzy "connecting the dots" to link this directly to Pettit, but take it fwiw. It's certainly suggestive.

[trex_8063]

btw, I put this thing into 24-hour run-off like 21 hours ago, so....

[Quotatious]

Vote: Bob Pettit

I'm a big fan of Penny's game, I think he was awesome, and I wasn't quite sure who to vote for, but I think Pettit had heavier responsibilities for his team, overall, and playing in the late 50s/early 60s (by the way,I'd probably go with '63 as his peak), he had to endure a lot of physical punishment without a really good medical care (to put it nicely). Still a great scorer, fairly efficient for his era, great in terms of drawing fouls, awesome offensive rebounder, good range on his jump shot (shot 16-18 footers easily), great competitor who apparently gave 100% every time he stepped foot on the court. Great rebounder. Probably above average defensively, based on everything I've ever heard (realistically, I see him on the level of Dirk Nowitzki in Dirk's best defensive seasons, so definitely a solid defender). Best/greatest power forward in NBA history until Karl Malone and Charles Barkley came around. Also seems like a really classy person. Respect for Bob.

Penny will get my vote pretty soon, but for now, I'll vote for Mr Pettit (as NBA refs referred to him - now, THAT's a sign of respect...).

[theonlyclutch]

Voting for Pettit here, just seems like the more dominant player in-era.

[trex_8063]

OK, calling it for Pettit in a surprise come-out-of-nowhere win.

Will have #37 up shortly.