What would Wilt's career totals look like if he kept only focusing on scoring

[coastalmarker99]

Before Alex Hannum molded him into a passer and defender Wilt led the NBA in points/ppg all 7 years he played and averaged an insane 39.6 PPG over that seven-year time span in the regular season.

Most Points 1960-1966:

Wilt: 21,486

Baylor: 14,238

Robertson: 13,998

West: 12,028

Pettit: 11,986



Assuming that Wilt averages even 28 PPG for the last seven seasons for his career that would get him to 37 thousand points.


Which would place him currently second on the all-time scoring list despite only playing 14 seasons.




In comparison, most of the players sitting in the top 5 all-time scoring list nowadays outside of Jordan all played 20 seasons each.

[coastalmarker99]

Another thing to take into account is that Wilt personally averaged 32.8 PPG in the Playoffs from 1960-1966.



So as a result of keeping sorely focused on his scoring he would most likely be number 2 behind Jordan all-time when it comes to the highest career scoring average in the playoffs.




Which would help his legacy as most people nowadays sorely focus on Wilt decrease to 22 PPG in the playoffs from 30.1 in the regular season as they completely ignore the context of him changing his playstyle.

[Sulico]

Wilt scored 50.4 PPG in 1961-62 season.

Steph Curry (not like he's the best scorer, just took that season cuz I like it) scored 30.1 in 2015-16 season.

Per 36:
61-62 Wilt - 37.4 points
15-16 Curry - 31.7 points

It's getting closer.

In 2015-16 season pace was just 76% of what it was in 1961-62 season. 95.8 against 126.2

Per 36 adjusted for pace:
61-62 Wilt - 28.4 points
15-16 Curry - 31.7 points

See? Wilts best scoring season wasn't all that impressive. Not to mention his other seasons.

[Psileas]

Wilt scored 50.4 PPG in 1961-62 season.

Steph Curry (not like he's the best scorer, just took that season cuz I like it) scored 30.1 in 2015-16 season.

Per 36:
61-62 Wilt - 37.4 points
15-16 Curry - 31.7 points

It's getting closer.

In 2015-16 season pace was just 76% of what it was in 1961-62 season. 95.8 against 126.2

Per 36 adjusted for pace:
61-62 Wilt - 28.4 points
15-16 Curry - 31.7 points

See? Wilts best scoring season wasn't all that impressive. Not to mention his other seasons.

Αnd, since you want such adjustments, take away 3 pointers (didn't exist in the era to whose standards you want to adjust) and...yeah, Curry's best season wasn't all that impressive either. Not to mention it wasn't standard back then for single superstar players to have whole teams play to to bump their stats. Curry's season wasn't anywhere near as big an outlier as Wilt's was. He only outscored Harden by 3.8% and Durant by 6.7%, while Wilt was blowing away Baylor by 31.6% and Bellamy by almost 60%.
Wilt's scoring record was as impressive as it sounds today. When he was asked by his coach to average 50 ppg, he initially answered that he was crazy and that nobody could average that much, exactly what people would also think nowadays. When Curry was asked to average 30 ppg, probably nobody even blinked.

[jlip]

If he chose to just focus on scoring, his career avg. and totals may have been unreachable.

[000]

Αnd, since you want such adjustments, take away 3 pointers (didn't exist in the era to whose standards you want to adjust) and...yeah, Curry's best season wasn't all that impressive either.
"well if you took away his game, he wouldnt be that good, have you considered that???"

these are the high-quality arguments I come to ISH for

[Stephonit]

Αnd, since you want such adjustments, take away 3 pointers (didn't exist in the era to whose standards you want to adjust) and...yeah, Curry's best season wasn't all that impressive either. Not to mention it wasn't standard back then for single superstar players to have whole teams play to to bump their stats. Curry's season wasn't anywhere near as big an outlier as Wilt's was. He only outscored Harden by 3.8% and Durant by 6.7%, while Wilt was blowing away Baylor by 31.6% and Bellamy by almost 60%.
Wilt's scoring record was as impressive as it sounds today. When he was asked by his coach to average 50 ppg, he initially answered that he was crazy and that nobody could average that much, exactly what people would also think nowadays. When Curry was asked to average 30 ppg, probably nobody even blinked.

Curry was sitting fourth quarters so only averaged 34 minutes while Wilt was playing close to the full 48 minutes.

Of course Wilt's durability and endurance is a marvel too but the scoring rate itself is something we've witnessed recently.

[GrayGoat]

Curry was sitting fourth quarters so only averaged 34 minutes while Wilt was playing close to the full 48 minutes.

Of course Wilt's durability and endurance is a marvel too but the scoring rate itself is something we've witnessed recently.
Yeah but it’s sustained scoring rate. Wilt did that for an entire season.

[Stephonit]

Yeah but it’s sustained scoring rate. Wilt did that for an entire season.

Yes but that makes it more a feat of endurance and less a scoring feat.

If a basketball game is more of a marathon then it's a more valuable skill. But if a basketball game is more of a relay then the ability to score in bursts is more important.

[GrayGoat]

Yes but that makes it more a feat of endurance and less a scoring feat.

If a basketball game is more of a marathon then it's a more valuable skill. But if a basketball game is more of a relay then the ability to score in bursts is more important.
No it’s a feat. By your logic Payton Pritchard has the same scoring rate as Curry in his 5 minutes of play. You can’t negate all that time lol

[Stephonit]

No it’s a feat. By your logic Payton Pritchard has the same scoring rate as Curry in his 5 minutes of play. You can’t negate all that time lol

Maybe it would be a feat for Pritchard if a basketball game was 10 minutes long.

[GrayGoat]

Maybe it would be a feat for Pritchard if a basketball game was 10 minutes long.

So we going to ignore that wilt scored at a better rate for 14minutes longer?

[coastalmarker99]

So we going to ignore that wilt scored at a better rate for 14minutes longer?

If Curry with his history of ankle injuries had to play 48 minutes a night in Chuck Taylor's and play 4 games in 4 nights his body would have broken down by the halfway point of the season.

[coastalmarker99]

Αnd, since you want such adjustments, take away 3 pointers (didn't exist in the era to whose standards you want to adjust) and...yeah, Curry's best season wasn't all that impressive either. Not to mention it wasn't standard back then for single superstar players to have whole teams play to to bump their stats. Curry's season wasn't anywhere near as big an outlier as Wilt's was. He only outscored Harden by 3.8% and Durant by 6.7%, while Wilt was blowing away Baylor by 31.6% and Bellamy by almost 60%.
Wilt's scoring record was as impressive as it sounds today. When he was asked by his coach to average 50 ppg, he initially answered that he was crazy and that nobody could average that much, exactly what people would also think nowadays. When Curry was asked to average 30 ppg, probably nobody even blinked.

Before the start of the 1962 season Chamberlain wanted to believe McGuire but he thought Boston was unbeatable. It simply had too many good players.

McGuire said it was true that Boston was better than Philadelphia when Chamberlain was scoring thirty-seven or thirty-eight points a game.

But if he scored fifty points a game, McGuire said, the Warriors could beat Boston.

“Fifty?” Chamberlain protested. “Nobody can average fifty a game in this league.”

McGuire told Chamberlain he could do it.

The other players wouldn’t be happy, he said, and he, McGuire, was going to have to put up with a lot of bitching, but that was his problem.

He would have to convince them that the only way they could win was with Chamberlain shooting constantly.

In McGuire’s view, Chamberlain wasn’t being selfish in taking so many shots.

He just had the highest shooting percentage on the team.

It made more sense to have your 50-percent shooter taking the shot than it did your 40-percent shooter, which meant that if one of Wilt’s teammates with a poorer shooting percentage did not pass to Wilt, that man was not acting in the team’s interest.

“I have two goals,” McGuire told Chamberlain. “I hope we win the championship. And I hope you break every record in the book.”

Source:

https://www.amazon.com/Rivalry-Russell-Chamberlain-Golden-Basketball-ebook/dp/B000FCKGSY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=wilt+russell+rivalry&qid=1630955531&sr=8-1

[Psileas]

"well if you took away his game, he wouldnt be that good, have you considered that???"

these are the high-quality arguments I come to ISH for

To each person's own mental ability, if that's all you understood. I'm not losing my valuable seconds explaining the obvious. I'll just give you a hint: There's a reason a player (and a game/career) like Curry exists today and not in the 60's or even in the 80's or 90's for that matter.


Curry was sitting fourth quarters so only averaged 34 minutes while Wilt was playing close to the full 48 minutes.

Of course Wilt's durability and endurance is a marvel too but the scoring rate itself is something we've witnessed recently.

Superstars nowadays routinely sit in 4th quarters and routinely post humongous per-minute scoring stats that allow them to keep averages close to 30 ppg and that make even prime Jordan's ratios look just like "one of them" and other high scorers like prime Bird, Shaq, Malone, even latter ones like Kobe or early LeBron look inferior. Again, it's very impressive, but, given the era, it's hardly something that looks untouchable today.

[iamgine]

I guess this is assuming no injury and playing all 82 games but in reality there will be a lot of injuries. Especially if he's scoring a lot way into his mid 30s.