Post by eric on May 4, 2017 15:35:40 GMT -6
Quick heads up:
This goes back to 1957. The stats before then start missing exotic stats like "minutes played", plus it was Russell's first, so it seemed like a good point to stop. They did miss assists in 1959 - that's a minor thing.
The NBA started recording...
-Three point attempts in 1980
-Turnovers in 1978, and
-Steals, blocks, offensive rebounds, and defensive rebounds in 1974.
.
698 players played in these Finals.
.
Here are some leaders in NBA Finals stats:
Bill Russell (G, MP, TRB, PF)
Jerry West (FG, FGA, FT, FTA, PTS, logos)
LeBron James (3P, 3PA)
Tim Duncan (ORB, DRB)
Magic Johnson (AST, STL, TOV)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (BLK)
Pretty good list. Pretty solid. Let's go into some more detail.
.
Exactly fifteen players have 40+ Finals games:
If LeBron reaches the Finals and plays five games he will be in the top ten.
.
The top ten in MP:
In those same five games, LeBron would only need to play 33 per game to reach the top five.
.
Four players have a thousand FGAs:
Before Tom Heinsohn was an incoherent announcer, his player nickname was "Ack-Ack", given to him for the machine gun pace at which he took shots. He shot 40% from the field in the Finals.
.
The top ten three point attempts, with their Finals 3P%:
Scottie's number is especially alarming given that 71 of his attempts came from the short three point line of 96 and 97... from which he shot a robust 29.6%... leaving a 9 for 46 performance from the legit line... that's 19.6%, folks. Klay Thompson you should also feel bad, but woof, Scottie.
.
Nine players with three hundred free throw attempts, and their FT%:
Wilt was obviously always bad at free throws, but his performance in the Finals is just comical. He had exactly as many missed free throws as Bill Russell in exactly half as many games.
.
Four players with a hundred ORBs:
Four with three hundred DRBs:
One TRB to rule them all:
If Bill Russell literally got one out of ten rebounds on the offensive glass, he would lead both ORB/DRB by a wide margin. If he got the league average of 30%, he would have over 500 ORBs... more than any recorded player has DRBs. Pretty good at rebounding, Bill Russell. Pretty... pretty good.
.
The two hundred assist players:
And remember that 1959 forgot to write down assists, so it's possible that Russell (who played in that Finals) should really be ahead of West (who did not), but it was a four game sweep and Russell was a three per game kind of player at that point in his career, so it's not a slam dunk.
.
STL/BLK/TOV are pretty boring. Here's PF:
That's a Tommy point. A lot of this is just games played: every member of the 40 Game club has triple digit fouls (except LeBron #professionalism)
.
Finally, the thousand point players.
Again, if LeBron makes the Finals and it goes five games, you'd expect him to get 20 a game and vault up to #3 on this list... but nobody's ever catching Jerry West.
.
.
Now, some per game stats! Rebounds, all men happened to be 10+ games and 400+ minutes:
Crazy how close Wilt and Bill ended up.
Assists, happened to be the same requirement:
A surprising result in turnovers, this time I had to enforce a requirement of 7+ games or 300+ minutes:
A special shout out to Charlie Scott, who in 1976 recorded 35 fouls in 6 games.
You read that right. He came within one foul of being disqualified in every game of the series.
To be fair, one of those was the famous triple OT thriller.
(To be even more fair, he fouled out of that game in regulation.)
PPG:
And the best TS% of guys with 25+ PPG:
.
.
.
Last but not least, I whipped up a pseudo PER. Instead of using team stats or league stats I just used cross-Finals stats, I gave everyone who didn't record a single stl/blk/tov the per minute average of those who did, and gave everyone who hadn't recorded an ORB a roughly 30% share of their TRBs. This underrates guys who played in Finals post and pre 1978, but screw 'em.
The players with at least 40 Finals minutes played and a negative PER:
Larry Hughes, you the real WOAT.
The players with at least 150 minutes played and the highest PER:
Bob GOATss, for those of you who are unfamiliar, was the real MVP of the champion 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, putting up 23 7 5 and 3 steals per 36 minutes on 69% from the field and 86% from the line. To this day, you can ask opposing small forward Julius Erving about Bob Gross and he'll say "who?"
This goes back to 1957. The stats before then start missing exotic stats like "minutes played", plus it was Russell's first, so it seemed like a good point to stop. They did miss assists in 1959 - that's a minor thing.
The NBA started recording...
-Three point attempts in 1980
-Turnovers in 1978, and
-Steals, blocks, offensive rebounds, and defensive rebounds in 1974.
.
698 players played in these Finals.
.
Here are some leaders in NBA Finals stats:
Bill Russell (G, MP, TRB, PF)
Jerry West (FG, FGA, FT, FTA, PTS, logos)
LeBron James (3P, 3PA)
Tim Duncan (ORB, DRB)
Magic Johnson (AST, STL, TOV)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (BLK)
Pretty good list. Pretty solid. Let's go into some more detail.
.
Exactly fifteen players have 40+ Finals games:
70 Bill Russell
64 Sam Jones
56 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
55 Jerry West
52 Tom Heinsohn
50 Magic Johnson
47 John Havlicek
47 Frank Ramsey
46 Michael Cooper
44 Elgin Baylor
44 K.C. Jones
43 Derek Fisher
43 Tom Sanders
42 Bob Cousy
40 LeBron JamesIf LeBron reaches the Finals and plays five games he will be in the top ten.
.
The top ten in MP:
3185 Bill Russell
2374 Jerry West
2082 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2044 Magic Johnson
1872 John Havlicek
1871 Sam Jones
1850 Elgin Baylor
1708 LeBron James
1657 Wilt Chamberlain
1639 Bob CousyIn those same five games, LeBron would only need to play 33 per game to reach the top five.
.
Four players have a thousand FGAs:
1333 Jerry West
1040 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1034 Elgin Baylor
1016 Tom HeinsohnBefore Tom Heinsohn was an incoherent announcer, his player nickname was "Ack-Ack", given to him for the machine gun pace at which he took shots. He shot 40% from the field in the Finals.
.
The top ten three point attempts, with their Finals 3P%:
.337 202 LeBron James
.314 153 Kobe Bryant
.393 145 Stephen Curry
.392 143 Robert Horry
.433 127 Ray Allen
.350 120 Manu Ginobili
.256 117 Scottie Pippen
.417 115 Derek Fisher
.368 114 Michael Jordan
.330 100 Klay ThompsonScottie's number is especially alarming given that 71 of his attempts came from the short three point line of 96 and 97... from which he shot a robust 29.6%... leaving a 9 for 46 performance from the legit line... that's 19.6%, folks. Klay Thompson you should also feel bad, but woof, Scottie.
.
Nine players with three hundred free throw attempts, and their FT%:
.826 551 Jerry West
.610 526 Bill Russell
.484 382 Shaquille O'Neal
.755 367 Elgin Baylor
.377 329 Wilt Chamberlain
.702 326 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
.874 325 Magic Johnson
.806 320 Michael Jordan
.752 302 Bob PettitWilt was obviously always bad at free throws, but his performance in the Finals is just comical. He had exactly as many missed free throws as Bill Russell in exactly half as many games.
.
Four players with a hundred ORBs:
125 Tim Duncan
124 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
119 Shaquille O'Neal
105 Dennis RodmanFour with three hundred DRBs:
327 Tim Duncan
319 LeBron James
309 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
308 Magic JohnsonOne TRB to rule them all:
1718 Bill Russell
862 Wilt Chamberlain
603 Elgin Baylor
507 Kareem Abdul-JabbarIf Bill Russell literally got one out of ten rebounds on the offensive glass, he would lead both ORB/DRB by a wide margin. If he got the league average of 30%, he would have over 500 ORBs... more than any recorded player has DRBs. Pretty good at rebounding, Bill Russell. Pretty... pretty good.
.
The two hundred assist players:
584 Magic Johnson
349 Bob Cousy
306 Jerry West
297 Bill Russell
289 LeBron James
228 Dennis Johnson
209 Michael Jordan
207 Scottie PippenAnd remember that 1959 forgot to write down assists, so it's possible that Russell (who played in that Finals) should really be ahead of West (who did not), but it was a four game sweep and Russell was a three per game kind of player at that point in his career, so it's not a slam dunk.
.
STL/BLK/TOV are pretty boring. Here's PF:
225 Bill Russell
209 Tom Heinsohn
194 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
179 Tom Sanders
178 Frank Ramsey
159 Michael Cooper
159 Jerry West
154 John Havlicek
151 Sam JonesThat's a Tommy point. A lot of this is just games played: every member of the 40 Game club has triple digit fouls (except LeBron #professionalism)
.
Finally, the thousand point players.
1679 Jerry West
1317 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1176 Michael Jordan
1161 Elgin Baylor
1151 Bill Russell
1143 Sam Jones
1079 LeBron James
1037 Tom Heinsohn
1018 John HavlicekAgain, if LeBron makes the Finals and it goes five games, you'd expect him to get 20 a game and vault up to #3 on this list... but nobody's ever catching Jerry West.
.
.
Now, some per game stats! Rebounds, all men happened to be 10+ games and 400+ minutes:
24.6 Wilt Chamberlain
24.5 Bill Russell
20.5 Nate Thurmond
17.0 Moses Malone
16.6 Bob PettitCrazy how close Wilt and Bill ended up.
Assists, happened to be the same requirement:
11.7 Magic Johnson
8.8 John Stockton
8.7 Oscar Robertson
8.3 Bob Cousy
8.1 Walt FrazierA surprising result in turnovers, this time I had to enforce a requirement of 7+ games or 300+ minutes:
4.5 Stephen Curry
3.9 LeBron James
3.8 Isiah Thomas
3.8 Magic JohnsonA special shout out to Charlie Scott, who in 1976 recorded 35 fouls in 6 games.
You read that right. He came within one foul of being disqualified in every game of the series.
To be fair, one of those was the famous triple OT thriller.
(To be even more fair, he fouled out of that game in regulation.)
PPG:
36.3 Rick Barry
35.6 Allen Iverson
33.6 Michael Jordan
30.6 Kevin Durant
30.5 Jerry WestAnd the best TS% of guys with 25+ PPG:
MP TS% PTS Name
213 .650 30.6 Kevin Durant
172 .637 25.5 Anfernee Hardaway
1268 .590 28.8 Shaquille O'Neal
875 .579 25.5 Julius Erving
1506 .559 33.6 Michael Jordan
317 .558 26.6 Kyrie Irving
277 .544 27.3 Charles Barkley
722 .534 27.5 Hakeem Olajuwon
1708 .534 27.0 LeBron James
2374 .533 30.5 Jerry West.
.
.
Last but not least, I whipped up a pseudo PER. Instead of using team stats or league stats I just used cross-Finals stats, I gave everyone who didn't record a single stl/blk/tov the per minute average of those who did, and gave everyone who hadn't recorded an ORB a roughly 30% share of their TRBs. This underrates guys who played in Finals post and pre 1978, but screw 'em.
The players with at least 40 Finals minutes played and a negative PER:
53 -0.3 John Richter
105 -1.0 Chris Childs
68 -1.7 Frank Brickowski
62 -2.8 Vincent Askew
44 -4.1 Larry HughesLarry Hughes, you the real WOAT.
The players with at least 150 minutes played and the highest PER:
166 30.9 Bob Gross
1506 28.3 Michael Jordan
1268 28.3 Shaquille O'Neal
875 28.1 Julius Erving
367 26.7 Bill Walton
722 25.7 Hakeem Olajuwon
2044 25.6 Magic Johnson
277 25.6 Charles Barkley
426 24.8 Moses Malone
1708 24.7 LeBron JamesBob GOATss, for those of you who are unfamiliar, was the real MVP of the champion 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, putting up 23 7 5 and 3 steals per 36 minutes on 69% from the field and 86% from the line. To this day, you can ask opposing small forward Julius Erving about Bob Gross and he'll say "who?"
