Post#15 » by O_6 » Thu May 20, 2021 8:09 pm
Walt Frazier is 1972 is one of my favorite old school seasons ever. With Willis Reed out for the season after 11 games, Frazier was asked to pick up a bigger role as a scorer. He does exactly that by setting career highs in scoring volume (23.2 PPG) and efficiency (.576 TS% -- +7.2% -- 222.3 TS add). He does this while still being one of the best ball-handlers and floor generals in the game, his 5.8 APG rank 9th in the league but are limited to a degree due to Holzman's offense. He is also considered the best perimeter defender in the game during this season, landing a 1st team All-Defense spot (on top of 1st-team All-NBA).
- One of the best ball-handlers/passers in the league
- Versatile offense allowed him to make impact on-ball and off-ball
- Incredibly efficient volume scorer (his +222.3 TS add ranks 4th in the league)
- THE best perimeter defender in the league or atleast in the mix
Alongside DeBusschere, Frazier carries the Knicks to the 2nd best record in the conference and then gets into the playoffs where he puts on an absolute show.
26/7/6 on .556 TS% (+5.4%) vs. the mediocre -1.26 SRS (38 win) Baltimore Bullets led by Unseld
24/6/5 on .605 TS% (+10.3%) vs. the extremely good +4.38 SRS (56 win) Celtics led by Havlicek/Cowens
23/8/8 on .613 TS% (+11.1%) vs. the All-Time Great +11.65 SRS (69 win) Lakers led by Wilt/West
The series against the Celtics is overlooked but was truly a legendary performance. Against an excellent Celtics squad that would win 68 games the following year and the NBA title the year after that, Frazier thoroughly outplayed Havlicek in a battle of the best perimeter players in the game alongside West. I know they played different positions but Frazier getting past Prime 1st team All-NBA Havlicek and Prime Cowens in '72 with the less talented team was unbelievable.
Then he goes to the NBA Finals against the arguable GOAT team and although they lose in 5, Frazier completely outplays Jerry West and is the clear 2nd best player in the series to Wilt. 23/8/8 on absurd efficiency while being a shut down perimeter defender? Frazier showed up bigtime in that series. He was the 3rd best player in the league that year after a Dominant Young Kareem and a Dominant Older defensive oriented Wilt.
Willis Reed was a fantastic player and '69 Reed was a great season. I've always been impressed by his highlights, he was a powerful athlete with a sweet mid-range touch and played both ends of the floor at a high level. But IMO, Frazier peaked as the more impressive player even in that era when Bigs were generally more important. CP3 might have taken the title, but prime Frazier still has an argument as the most complete PG ever considering all the boxes he was able to check. He was just an unbelievable player. The lack of strong MVP voting hurts his legacy a little, but a lot of that was due to off-the-court image related stuff (flashy black man that literally dressed like a pimp in 70s NYC and was a well known ladies man). DeBuscchere and Reed were more respected by the media at the time for being blue-collar guys, but Frazier was the key to those teams imo although all three were important.
1. 1972 Walt Frazier: For the reasons stated above. Just an incredibly complete backcourt player. Ultimately he proved he could carry a team to a Finals without Reed, and we never saw Reed do the same without Frazier. I suspect that Reed wouldn't have been able to do it because Frazier provided a more unique/irreplaceable skillset.
2. 1969 Willis Reed: It was very hard to pick between 1970 and 1969, but the scoring efficiency edge in '69 is hard to ignore. He wasn't as dominant a defensive player as Ewing, but he was very good on that end a smoother more effective offensive player imo. He wasn't as big as Ewing but he was quicker with a better face-up game. Reed was more of a "strong af" PF offensively than a true Center, his offense was more conducive to playing alongside a star PG than Ewing's was (could be reaching here). It's close and ultimately I feel like I'm probably just giving the edge to Reed here because he won and Ewing didn't, but it's also backed up by the advanced stats that Reed was a hair better at his peak.
3. 1990 Patrick Ewing: I went back and forth on this one and '1984 Bernard King. These top 4 seasons are pretty much the consensus and are all fairly close to each other. Like I said above, you could easily argue for Ewing over Reed especially in '90 when he was at his offensive peak. As good as Bernard King was in '84, I think Ewing being a comparable scorer while being the clearly better defender is what gives him the edge. Ewing's series vs. the Celtics (32/11/4 on .597 TS%) basically put the nail in the coffin of the Bird Celtics after a decade of dominance. It's a shame that Ewing's knees didn't allow him to stay at this level for long, '90 Ewing was a beast.
4. 1984 Bernard King: I've mentioned it before, but Bernard King's Peak was really an overlap of the 2nd half of the 1984 season into the injury shortened 1985 season. In 1984 he averaged 23 PPG on .606 TS% in the 1st half of the year over 43 games, but over the 2nd half he averaged 30 PPG on .631 TS% over 34 games and then dropped 35 PPG on .620 TS% over 12 playoff games. He just getting better and better and better and peaked as one of the best scoring forwards ever this year.
His series against an up and coming Detroit team led by Isiah is arguably the best individual Knicks series ever and up there with any series ever in terms of scoring. 43 PPG on .644 TS% including 4 straight 40 point games to win a brutal series (Knicks were outscored by 3 points in the series). King was special and his turn-around jumper was a thing of beauty. The only reason he is #4 on this list is because the 3 players above him were 2-way studs whereas he wasn't a good defender.
5. 2013 Carmelo Anthony: As others have mentioned, there is a pretty significant drop from #4 to #5 on this list. It came down to this season and 1970 Dave DeBusschere for me. Those 70s Knicks teams were one of the first great small-ball teams with an undersized Center in Reed and a true stretch 4 in DeBusschere. I have a lot of respect for DeBusschere as a legendary "glue guy", the spacing and versatile forward defense he provided were basically 40 years ahead of it's time. But all that being said, he was not a very efficient offensive player at all and I think the Knicks having the right pieces around him helped him greatly as well. He was only the 3rd best player on his team during this time.
Carmelo Anthony is a guy I'm not a huge fan of but he had a really impressive 2013 season imo. That team's offense was basically the Felton-Chandler PnR, let JR Smith do his thing and hope he gets hot, give the ball to Melo in the post and let him make the right decision in terms of shoot/pass with the guidance of an ancient Jason Kidd. That was simply a bad offense on paper, especially with Felton being the floor general. Well, that offense ended up 3rd in the league in ORtg and Carmelo was the main reason why imo. He played smarter basketball than ever before, which led the Knicks to getting a ton of good looks from 3 (led the league in 3PAr). They lost to the Pacers in the playoffs and he didn't play great, but the main reason they lost that series is because Hibbert overpowered Chandler especially on the glass. I could see other seasons at #5, but I'll give it to Melo.
