Elgin Baylor's prime is seriously underrated

[Marchesk]

Ages 26-28:

34.8/19.8/5.1
38.3/18.6/4.6
34.0/14.3/4.8

He was second leading scorer to Wilt in all three seasons (61/62 was only 48 games though). He was a top 5 rebounder in all three. And he likely led SFs in assists over that time period.

His playoff performances:

38.1/15.3/4.6
38.6/17.7/3.6
32.6/13.6/4.5

All three years he was the leading playoff scorer. Also averaged 33.4 in the 1960 playoffs, leading the league (that makes it four straight playoffs).

[SOD 21]

It doesn't help his legacy that the Lakers finally won a championship in 1972 after he retired a couple weeks into that season.

[kennethgriffin]

hes in my top 15

#1 Jordan
#2 Kareem
#3 Russell
#4 Kobe
#5 Magic
#6 Duncan
#7 Shaq
#8 Bird
#9 Hakeem
#10 Wilt
#11 Lebron
#12 Oscar
#13 West
#14 Moses
#15 Baylor

he and west get a bit of a pass due to playing in the rigged celtics era

[Marchesk]

hes in my top 15

#1 Jordan
#2 Kareem
#3 Russell
#4 Kobe
#5 Magic
#6 Duncan
#7 Shaq
#8 Bird
#9 Hakeem
#10 Wilt
#11 Lebron
#12 Oscar
#13 West
#14 Moses
#15 Baylor

he and west get a bit of a pass due to playing in the rigged celtics era

Switch Wilt and Kobe and put Dr J in for Baylor.

[kennethgriffin]

Switch Wilt and Kobe and put Dr J in for Baylor.




man sit the f*ck down



kobe is probably 1000 times better a playoff performer


nobody cares that wilt dropped 100 in a fake game .. hes a choker


hes been exposed countless times on ISH

are you mental bradley?


i told you to SIT ..DOWN


http://www.milwaukeeadmirals.com/media/image/01/1113





and dr J is right behind baylor... allot of nba greats have baylor over not just erving. but over bird aswell


how is tagging along with moses gonna put dr J over baylor... and if wilt/russell played in the 80s.. i doubt dr J would have an mvp award either


gotta look at context bro.. competition. baylor had it stacked against him. he deserves a break

[Gotterdammerung]

Baylor would've a higher ceiling had he not dislocated bus knee patella in the 1964 playoffs. By next year he began to suffer knee injuries. He was never the same afterwards, although still a scoring machine and stout rebounder with career averages of 27 and 14.

[kennethgriffin]

ervings best NBA average = 27/7/4 ( won MVP )

baylors best NBA average = 38/19/5 ( lost MVP to 20/24/5 bill russell )

this is why you cant compare mvp counts

[Vaniiiia]

ervings best NBA average = 27/7/4 ( won MVP )

baylors best NBA average = 38/19/5 ( lost MVP to 20/24/5 bill russell )

this is why you cant compare mvp counts


Kobe in his prime was losing to Nash and Dirk, no defense playing white dudes. :oldlol:

And don't give me the his teams weren't good enough bullshit. We saw what LeBron did with the Cavs and Durant did without Westbrook.

The true greats can carry a team by themselves in the regular season. Kobe never could.

[dubeta]

Yet another player who had a better prime than Kobe :sleeping

[feyki]

I think he's prime best of forward's in nba history. But he can healthy only 5-6 years in him prime (59-64) . Elgin was sidekick of Jerry West after 65 injury at between 66-71 . He's 17th ranked my all time list.

There is top 20 ;

Bill
Kareem
Jordan
Wilt
Mikan
Bird
Duncan
Magic
Hakeem
Kobe
Shaquille
Lebron
West
Doctor
Pettit
Oscar
Elgin
Moses
Havlicek
Dirk/Rick Barry

[CavaliersFTW]

Why the hell are Kobe and Lebron stans fighting about Elgin Baylor?

:biggums:

Either way I'm always glad to see Baylor get brought up. I've beeen a fan of him not just as a player but as a person since connecting with his family on facebook after I found out he'd shared my videos on a low key page he had a while ago.

FWIW and I know this means pretty much nothing to most posters but there are two players/significant figures in basketball history that think Elgin is the "best" player that ever played.

Oscar Robertson (who thinks LeBron is better than MJ and is the best player right now). And Satch Sanders. And I know at least 5 more that put Elgin in their "five" as one of the starting forwards all-time. Chick Hearn, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Julius Erving all have/had up until their deaths Elgin in their top 5. Chick used to say Elgin was the greatest Laker ever. Again, all just opinions. But it goes to show Elgin commanded a heck of a lot of respect for his all around abilities. His abilities were so good that there are at least that handful of people who outright ignore other players who've won a lot more titles or w/e and put Baylor over top of them.

Listen to Satch talk about him:
https://youtu.be/cXofPsdFm2w?t=38m42s

[4 Inches]

Elgin the homie for sure. I might make a NBA 2K16 mix for him. What do you think CavsFTW ?

[bizil]

I don't think Baylor is underrated. Peak wise, he's regarded as a top 3 SF. GOAT wise, he's widely considered a top 15-20 caliber player. And for GOAT SF, he's always in the top 3-5. He's also regarded as the original dominant high flyer. In many ways, I think he was more ahead of his time than ANY perimeter player in NBA history.

[L.Kizzle]

It doesn't help his legacy that the Lakers finally won a championship in 1972 after he retired a couple weeks into that season.
Not sure if serious. It's not like it was a peak Baylor that retired and they went off on a streak. He was like 37-38 on shattered knee's.