Im Still Ballin
11-13-2021, 06:23 PM
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/0b/18/65/0b1865df26c3f5935e80cfc85d3264d3.jpg
A scoring machine in the post, McHale was a jukebox of herky-jerky moves. In his first three seasons, he was more of a defensive specialist before really ramping up his offense in 1984. McHale hit another gear in 1987 on offense (see chart below), showcasing a midrange game, good offensive rebounding and his arsenal of up-fakes in the low post. His high release made his shot extremely difficult to disrupt, and he could toss quality high-low passes, although he rarely distributed relative to his scoring volume. His black hole profile wasn’t because he kept finishing Larry Bird passes either, because in 1989 without Bird, McHale’s assists didn’t budge.
Defensively, he was a Gumby-like creature, often guarding small forwards when Boston went big because of his ability to use length to contain and bother perimeter players.6 He was long enough to protect the rim — posting elite block rates when younger (4-5 percent) and then strong ones throughout his prime (closer to 3 percent) — and of course, at 6-foot-10 he could switch onto bigs. He was a decent defensive rebounder, although he never stood out there statistically, possibly because he shared the court with Bird and Parish (good boarders) and was busy guarding wings at times.
https://backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McHale-seasonal-scaled-Big-3.png
As you can see, McHale exploded in 1987, upping his scoring efficiency to all-time levels on strong volume. His WOWY runs were good too after hitting his peak; in 1988, he missed 14 games and the otherwise full-strength Celtics improved from a 51-win clip (3.4 SRS) to a 62-win mark (7.9 SRS) with him, and in 1991, a “healthy” team moved from a 47-win pace (1.9 SRS) in 13 games without him to a 63-win pace with him (8.1 SRS).7 This gives him the 27th-best WOWY score in my database (+3.9) and a comparable WOWYR value (+3.3), painting him as an impact player who is a level or so removed from the MVPs.
Bird likely helped his numbers a bit — McHale’s efficiency fell a decent amount without Larry in 1989. McHale’s feet were also degrading — he broke a bone in his foot in 1987 — yet he still finished 7 percent above league average in true shooting and played solid old-man defense after Bird’s back injury. Boston fell off without Bird in ’89, but they were still a 45-win team when healthy, a respectable result, all things considered, and an indicator of a solid peak.8 He still packed some punch as a more traditional big in 1990 and ’91 before falling off in 1992, but that was enough to tally 10 All-Star seasons by my count.
https://backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McHale-seasonal-valuations.png
https://backpicks.com/2018/03/08/goat-36-40/
A scoring machine in the post, McHale was a jukebox of herky-jerky moves. In his first three seasons, he was more of a defensive specialist before really ramping up his offense in 1984. McHale hit another gear in 1987 on offense (see chart below), showcasing a midrange game, good offensive rebounding and his arsenal of up-fakes in the low post. His high release made his shot extremely difficult to disrupt, and he could toss quality high-low passes, although he rarely distributed relative to his scoring volume. His black hole profile wasn’t because he kept finishing Larry Bird passes either, because in 1989 without Bird, McHale’s assists didn’t budge.
Defensively, he was a Gumby-like creature, often guarding small forwards when Boston went big because of his ability to use length to contain and bother perimeter players.6 He was long enough to protect the rim — posting elite block rates when younger (4-5 percent) and then strong ones throughout his prime (closer to 3 percent) — and of course, at 6-foot-10 he could switch onto bigs. He was a decent defensive rebounder, although he never stood out there statistically, possibly because he shared the court with Bird and Parish (good boarders) and was busy guarding wings at times.
https://backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McHale-seasonal-scaled-Big-3.png
As you can see, McHale exploded in 1987, upping his scoring efficiency to all-time levels on strong volume. His WOWY runs were good too after hitting his peak; in 1988, he missed 14 games and the otherwise full-strength Celtics improved from a 51-win clip (3.4 SRS) to a 62-win mark (7.9 SRS) with him, and in 1991, a “healthy” team moved from a 47-win pace (1.9 SRS) in 13 games without him to a 63-win pace with him (8.1 SRS).7 This gives him the 27th-best WOWY score in my database (+3.9) and a comparable WOWYR value (+3.3), painting him as an impact player who is a level or so removed from the MVPs.
Bird likely helped his numbers a bit — McHale’s efficiency fell a decent amount without Larry in 1989. McHale’s feet were also degrading — he broke a bone in his foot in 1987 — yet he still finished 7 percent above league average in true shooting and played solid old-man defense after Bird’s back injury. Boston fell off without Bird in ’89, but they were still a 45-win team when healthy, a respectable result, all things considered, and an indicator of a solid peak.8 He still packed some punch as a more traditional big in 1990 and ’91 before falling off in 1992, but that was enough to tally 10 All-Star seasons by my count.
https://backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McHale-seasonal-valuations.png
https://backpicks.com/2018/03/08/goat-36-40/