Wilt Chamberlin - The Incredible Defensive Force

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Originally Posted by robert0629

Well I can’t argue with Wilt’s total points versus Wade’s, but I can point out a few things. I know you Wilt fans hate to hear this, but stats from his era are inflated. There were simply more opportunities for points and rebounds due to more missed shots. There were 24 times in which a player averaged more than 20 rebounds in a single season in NBA history. But not once has this happened after 1970. Elgin Baylor, a 6-5 Small Forward once averaged 19.8 rebounds in a single season, and 13.5 for his career. The most rebounds Hakeem, who was a 7-0 Center, averaged in a single season is 14.0. His career average was 11.1. Does anyone believe that Baylor was a better rebounder than Hakeem? Oscar Robertson a 6-5 Guard once averaged 12.5 rebounds in a single season. Patrick Ewing a 7-0 Center’s best rebounding season was 12.1.

The more missed shots obviously gave Wilt more opportunities to score and rebound. Also, Wilt played more minutes than pretty much everybody. This inflated his stats as well. If you look at their 36 minute averages, Wilt averaged 23.6 points per game, and Wade averaged 23.3 points per game. So on a per minute basis, the two players are basically the same level scorer. While it’s impressive that Wilt was able to play almost every minute in every game in some seasons, I don’t quite understand why the team would have wanted him to do that. I don’t like today’s load management, but it seems like Wilt would have benefited from resting a bit. This might explain why his numbers drop off in the playoffs. Perhaps he was worn down. It’s great to have the ability to play at a high level for an entire game when the team needs you to do so, but what about games where the winner has already been decided long before the final buzzer? I took a look at Wilt’s 1961-62 season in which he averaged 48.5 minutes per game. I went through the game logs and found some games where there was clearly no doubt about who the winner was going to be. For example, a game where Wilt’s Warriors beat the Nationals 151-108, and another where the Celtics defeated the Warriors 153-102. What’s he doing out there late in the 4th quarter of these games? Why would he need to be playing the whole game? How many other seasons where he played significant minutes did he hang around to the end in blowout games?

The playoff comparison is basically dead even. Wilt comes in at 22.5 points per game, with Wade at 22.3. However, Wilt averaged nearly 10 minutes more per game. Their 36 minute playoff averages for points are - Wade 21.3, and Wilt 17.2. So looking at these numbers, do you think that Wilt is really that much more dominant a scorer than Wade was?

The top two all time ppg scoring leaders are of course Jordan and Wilt in a virtual tie at 30.1. However, Jordan’s 36 minute ppg average is an impressive 28.3, and as I mentioned Wilt’s is 23.6. That’s a pretty big gap. In the playoffs it’s even bigger. Jordan's playoff 36 minute ppg is 28.8, and Wilt’s is 17.2. That’s a huge gap. Jordan was clearly the superior scorer.

Here are three players from Wilt’s era that have higher 36 minute career ppg averages than Wilt’s 23.6 - Jerry West 24.8, Elgin Baylor 24.6, and Bob Pettit 24.5.

Here are Wilt’s 36 minute career averages for three major stat categories versus Bob Pettit:

Wilt - 23.6 ppg, 18.0 rpg, 3.5 apg

Pettit - 24.5 ppg, 15.1 rpg, 2.8 apg

When you look at Wilt’s 36 minute averages versus other players, it brings him back down to Earth and strips away that mystique that some Wilt fans want to surround him with. You realize that some of his ridiculous numbers were due to the fact that he was playing way more minutes than everybody else.

That is like using a relief pitcher vs a starter. If the reliever had gone 9 innings, we’ll there is a thing called stamina and if you are unable to stay equally productive then it’s not Wilt’s fault that he played nearly every minute of every game. When a player can give his team a full game and another is unable, then which player adds more value if they can still produce at a higher rate by staying in the game and giving his team the BEST Defensive production where nobody discusses that with Petit.

Fortunately, Blocked shots and I believe steals were not a stat otherwise on the defensive side, this 3 quarters of if basketball were 36 minutes long would be ugly. There is a reason that assist’s were not included ! There was a stat that wasn’t official by the Lakers in which Wilt averaged 8 blocked shots per game with LA. That is juggxrnaught !!