Post by eric on Apr 23, 2019 19:48:08 GMT
since reggie miller brought up the possibility of giannis antetokounmpo winning MVP DPOY and scoring title in the same year (which is not a triple crown and no one has ever called it a triple crown but it's still pretty good) i thought i'd take a gander at the best nba regular season ever.
the season michael jordan did it was 1988, which also happens to be one of six 30+ PER .30+ WS/48 seasons ever, so that's a pretty good claim already, but the Bulls only won 50 games that year and he only got 59% of the first place MVP votes and for that matter 46% of the first place DPOY votes. meh. (he threw in an all-star MVP for good measure though.)
we also have jordan's 1991 season, when he was seventh in DPOY and surprisingly still only got 80% of the first place MVP votes. this time the Bulls won 61 games which is a grown man number but his teammates had also started to round into form - scottie "scottie" pippen was a year away from his first all-nba (a second) and was already on the all-defensive 2nd team.
remarkably the only wilt chamberlain season was 1964, not the 50 ppg year or the first championship year or even the lead the league in assists year, and it was the only year in the wilt-russell era where neither won MVP (wilt finished a distant second to oscar), and his san francisco warriors won a crummy 48 games. other than that it was great.
speaking of san "fran", steph curry's 2016 is the most recent 30/.30 year. obviously he doesn't have the defensive chops of anyone else on this list (or anyone else on this forum heyoooooooooo) (lmbo ROASTED) but the all time wins record and only unanimous MVP ever ain't bad and he threw in scoring and steals titles besides (only jordan and allen iverson ever managed those in the same year before). with all that said even more than jordan 1991 his supporting cast is robust - klay thompson made all-nba 3rd, draymond green made all-nba 2nd and all-defensive 1st, lebron james made the greatest finals comeback of all time oops he was on the other team (LMBOOOOOO ROASTED)
speaking of that lebron fellow, 2013! he fell one vote short of unanimous MVP (because someone voted carmelo anthony #1 which will never not be hilarious) and came in a close second in DPOY in an admittedly fractured year for the electorate (even the winner only managed 25% of the firsts) and the HEAT put up 66 wins. dwayne wade and chris bosh are big names and both made all-star but only wade was all-nba and 3rd team at that.
so it's 2009 lebron. he was MVP (90%) and second in DPOY (3%
) but still all-defensive first team, the Cavs managed 66 wins with no all-nba or even all-defensive teammates, and the closest chronologically was a 34 year old ben wallace stumbling around for 56 games, averaging 3 points a night, hadn't been all-nba since 2006. arguably their second best player was all-star mo williams (who only made it as an injury replacement for chris bosh of all people) whose biggest contribution to the Cavs was probably being traded for baron davis and the first that would turn into kyrie irving. there's also a bit of a coaching disparity: erik spoelstra is well-regarded even post-lebron, winning a coach of the month as recently as last year, and is currently tied with rick carlisle for the second longest HC tenure in the NBA at eleven years, trailing only pop's twenty-three. meanwhile mike brown starting in 2009 went...
coach of the year
fired
unemployed
hired (LAL)
fired
hired (CLE)
fired
unemployed and assistant since
...so what i'm getting at is the coaching wasn't ideal.
.
to my mind the only competitors are jordan or lebron since they're the only ones that played defense. 88 jordan got the dpoy but 91 jordan was still all-defensive first team and how bad the bulls were in 88 is an easy dq for my money, then it's a question of 66 > 61 and mo williams << scottie pippen and mike brown <<<< phil jackson, and even if we look at level of competition, the second best teams in the EC both years were Celtics (62 wins for ubuntu and 56 for the penultimate gasp of the big three) so it's 2009 lebron.
it's 2009 lebron.
the season michael jordan did it was 1988, which also happens to be one of six 30+ PER .30+ WS/48 seasons ever, so that's a pretty good claim already, but the Bulls only won 50 games that year and he only got 59% of the first place MVP votes and for that matter 46% of the first place DPOY votes. meh. (he threw in an all-star MVP for good measure though.)
we also have jordan's 1991 season, when he was seventh in DPOY and surprisingly still only got 80% of the first place MVP votes. this time the Bulls won 61 games which is a grown man number but his teammates had also started to round into form - scottie "scottie" pippen was a year away from his first all-nba (a second) and was already on the all-defensive 2nd team.
remarkably the only wilt chamberlain season was 1964, not the 50 ppg year or the first championship year or even the lead the league in assists year, and it was the only year in the wilt-russell era where neither won MVP (wilt finished a distant second to oscar), and his san francisco warriors won a crummy 48 games. other than that it was great.
speaking of san "fran", steph curry's 2016 is the most recent 30/.30 year. obviously he doesn't have the defensive chops of anyone else on this list (or anyone else on this forum heyoooooooooo) (lmbo ROASTED) but the all time wins record and only unanimous MVP ever ain't bad and he threw in scoring and steals titles besides (only jordan and allen iverson ever managed those in the same year before). with all that said even more than jordan 1991 his supporting cast is robust - klay thompson made all-nba 3rd, draymond green made all-nba 2nd and all-defensive 1st, lebron james made the greatest finals comeback of all time oops he was on the other team (LMBOOOOOO ROASTED)
speaking of that lebron fellow, 2013! he fell one vote short of unanimous MVP (because someone voted carmelo anthony #1 which will never not be hilarious) and came in a close second in DPOY in an admittedly fractured year for the electorate (even the winner only managed 25% of the firsts) and the HEAT put up 66 wins. dwayne wade and chris bosh are big names and both made all-star but only wade was all-nba and 3rd team at that.
so it's 2009 lebron. he was MVP (90%) and second in DPOY (3%
) but still all-defensive first team, the Cavs managed 66 wins with no all-nba or even all-defensive teammates, and the closest chronologically was a 34 year old ben wallace stumbling around for 56 games, averaging 3 points a night, hadn't been all-nba since 2006. arguably their second best player was all-star mo williams (who only made it as an injury replacement for chris bosh of all people) whose biggest contribution to the Cavs was probably being traded for baron davis and the first that would turn into kyrie irving. there's also a bit of a coaching disparity: erik spoelstra is well-regarded even post-lebron, winning a coach of the month as recently as last year, and is currently tied with rick carlisle for the second longest HC tenure in the NBA at eleven years, trailing only pop's twenty-three. meanwhile mike brown starting in 2009 went...coach of the year
fired
unemployed
hired (LAL)
fired
hired (CLE)
fired
unemployed and assistant since
...so what i'm getting at is the coaching wasn't ideal.
.
to my mind the only competitors are jordan or lebron since they're the only ones that played defense. 88 jordan got the dpoy but 91 jordan was still all-defensive first team and how bad the bulls were in 88 is an easy dq for my money, then it's a question of 66 > 61 and mo williams << scottie pippen and mike brown <<<< phil jackson, and even if we look at level of competition, the second best teams in the EC both years were Celtics (62 wins for ubuntu and 56 for the penultimate gasp of the big three) so it's 2009 lebron.
it's 2009 lebron.
