Best rookie seasons all-time

[Marchesk]

1. Wilt Chamberlain - sets the scoring record by 8 points, rebounding by 4 (Russell previous season), most minutes played to that point, wins MVP and his team improves by 17 games. Note: the pace was 15 points higher than previous season.

2. KAJ - 28.8/14.5/4.1 on 51.8%. Th Bucks win 56 games, which is 26 better than previous season. Note: Oscar was also added this season.

3. Oscar/MJ - Oscar nearly averages a triple double (30.5/10.1/9.7) while his team improves by 14 wins. Jordan puts up the best stats for a rookie since the 70s up through today. The Bulls improve by 11 wins.

4. Duncan/Bird - Spurs improve by 36 wins. Duncan's numbers are very good, but they're similar to what Olajuwon and Sampson put up their rookie seasons. Impact is what matters here.

Bird's Celtics improved by 32 wins, with the only major difference in the lineup besides Bird being the addition of Archibald and departure of McAdoo.

5. Shaq/Bellamy - O'Neil recorded 23.4/13.9/1.9 with 3.5 blocks on 56.2%. Magic improve by 20 games.

Walt Bellamy: 31.6/19/2.7 on 51.9%. Led the league in FG%. This was a very high paced season (Wilt's 50/25). His expansion team only won 18 games though.

Honorable Mention: Magic, Sampson, Olajuwon

These guys are close to top 5. Magic wins FMVP and the Lakers improved by 13 games, while winning a title. Sampson and Olajuwon improved the Rockets by 15 and 19 games, while putting up numbers similar to Duncan and Bird.

Also Walton should be mentioned: 17.8/17.7/6.6 with 3.7 blocks on 51.3%. Portland improved by 11 wins.

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Are we gonna pretend like D-Rob coming back had nothing to do with those 36 wins?

[Marchesk]

Are we gonna pretend like D-Rob coming back had nothing to do with those 36 wins?

Ah, I didn't take that into account. That's part of the problem. How to determine impact. We could just go off stats, and then Bellamy is definitely top 5.

[Collie]

DRob himself had a very outstanding rookie season. Improved by 35 wins, Drob averaged 24/12/4blocks (he was even 6th in voting in a year that had prime MJ, Magic and Barkley).

[Milbuck]

KAJ - 28.8/14.5/4.1 on 51.8%. The Bucks win 56 games, which is 26 better than previous season. Note: Oscar was also added this season.

Oscar - Oscar nearly averages a triple double (30.5/10.1/9.7) while his team improves by 14 wins.
:biggums:

[Marchesk]

I also didn't mention Wes Unseld, who was the only other rookie MVP. I couldn't tell why he was, though. His numbers aren't as good as the players I listed, and that was from the late 60s, where the pace was still high.

Must have been an impact deal.

[Marchesk]

DRob himself had a very outstanding rookie season. Improved by 35 wins, Drob averaged 24/12/4blocks (he was even 6th in voting in a year that had prime MJ, Magic and Barkley).

You're right, that looks like a top 5 season.

[JohnFreeman]

Iverson

MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
40.1 .418 .341 .702 4.1 7.5 2.1 .3 23.5

Team record was horrible though

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Some more:

Elvin Hayes: 28/17 team won 22 more games with no other significant addition

Mikan (First official BAA/NBA Season. He had played pro ball before): 28 ppg and won a ring

Interesting fact about Bellamy: despite the fact that his team only won 18 games he had 16.3 win shares in his rookie year

Rick Barry put up 26/11 and his team won 18 more games.

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Iverson

MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
40.1 .418 .341 .702 4.1 7.5 2.1 .3 23.5

Team record was horrible though
I'd take Melo, 'Bron's and Blake over that.

[dubeta]

Blake Griffin and Elton Brand deserve honourable mentions, both were 20/10 as rookies

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

Bill Russell? They won the title easily and Russell led the olympic team to gold after college in dominant fashion. By far the best defensive rookie season ever theyre defense improved ALOT

KAJ
Russell
Bird

are easily the 3 best rookies.

Then DRob, Shaq, MJ, Oscar and Wilt in that order.

[RoundMoundOfReb]

Bill Russell? They won the title easily and Russell led the olympic team to gold after college in dominant fashion. By far the best defensive rookie season ever theyre defense improved ALOT

KAJ
Russell
Bird

are easily the 3 best rookies.

Then DRob, Shaq, MJ, Oscar and Wilt in that order.
Yeah. Russell should be top 2 at least.

[Marchesk]

Bill Russell? They won the title easily and Russell led.

They only won 5 more games though. But okay, they won the title. So did Magic's Lakers.


KAJ
Russell
Bird

are easily the 3 best rookies.

Simply no. Wilt has the best rookie season, period. As far as winning goes, the difference between him and Russell is he didn't get drafted the Celtics.

The difference between him and KAJ is Oscar.

Bird's numbers are good, and the Celtics improved a ton, but it doesn't equal what Wilt did. Or MJ. They didn't get drafted to teams that were a piece or two away from contending. Bird, Russell, Magic were fortunate. Oscar, Wilt and MJ were not.

Ask yourself this, what if Wilt had Cousy as a rookie? What if Oscar had prime Kareem? What if Mike had a great organization to start with? Right, it would be different.

[Inferno]

Tyrell Evans

[sbw19]

24/18/3/5 60FG% ROY ABA MVP

Gilmore deserves a spot on that list if you aren't strictly talking NBA.

[Marchesk]

Gilmore deserves a spot on that list if you aren't strictly talking NBA.

Then so does Dr J.

[BlazerRed]

Oscar Robinson - 30/10/9.5 :confusedshrug:

[SHAQisGOAT]

Bird's numbers are good, and the Celtics improved a ton, but it doesn't equal what Wilt did. Or MJ. They didn't get drafted to teams that were a piece or two away from contending. Bird, Russell, Magic were fortunate. Oscar, Wilt and MJ were not.


Celtics had the 2nd worst record in the league before Bird got there (already drafted too) and then with him they improved by 32 wins, having the best record and making the ECF... Plus, they had basically the same core roster (apart from Bird), with McAdoo and Jo Jo gone, even. BTW, Tiny was already there the year before, unlike what you've said in the op.
"A piece or two away from contending"? I guess that one piece was ONLY Bird, lmfao. Or was it Pete Maravich, as a complete shell of his former self, playing 26?? ML Carr maybe?? :rolleyes:
Not to mention that the Celtics' franchise was in a hot mess... Turmoil switching of owners, Red almost left, attendances at an all-time low, team playing like shit with a really bad record... Plenty of people had lots of doubts about Larry as well, others had hope that he managed to help them some... Dude just took over and did remarkable 'things', way over what was expected.
"Bird was fortunate" :oldlol:

[Marchesk]

Fine, Bird saved the Celtics. But Wilt did something as a rookie most players never do in their careers. He set the scoring and rebounding records while winning an MVP. Bird didn't win an MVP, or set any records.

Yeah, Wilt's team "only" improved by 17 games. I don't know why Bird had so much more impact (winning 15 more games), if he in fact was the sole difference. Two different situations, in different leagues (eras). I guess people will argue that Bird just makes everyone that much better, like Russell or Magic. Russell's Celtics only improved by 5 games, but then they win the title. It's hard to say. We can't swap Wilt and see if they still win, but with a better regular season record.

There's too many variables to compare how much better a player makes a team. It's not like the Warriors didn't improve significantly, so I'm sticking with Wilt's godly numbers and MVP over Bird's good but not out of this world rookie season. Don't forget that Wilt won his MVP over Russell and Pettit.

[magic chiongson]

Tyrell Evans

this, not even close


far 2nd: magic rookie fmvp

[SHAQisGOAT]

Fine, Bird saved the Celtics. But Wilt did something as a rookie most players never do in their careers. He set the scoring and rebounding records while winning an MVP. Bird didn't win an MVP, or set any records.

Yeah, Wilt's team "only" improved by 17 games. I don't know why Bird had so much more impact (winning 15 more games), if he in fact was the sole difference. Two different situations, in different leagues (eras). I guess people will argue that Bird just makes everyone that much better, like Russell or Magic. Russell's Celtics only improved by 5 games, but then they win the title. It's hard to say. We can't swap Wilt and see if they still win, but with a better regular season record.

There's too many variables to compare how much better a player makes a team. It's not like the Warriors didn't improve significantly, so I'm sticking with Wilt's godly numbers and MVP over Bird's good but not out of this world rookie season. Don't forget that Wilt won his MVP over Russell and Pettit.

Didn't even say he had a better rookie season than Wilt... Just saying that describing his rookie "situation" as fortunate, couldn't be further from the truth.

[Marchesk]

Didn't even say he had a better rookie season than Wilt... Just saying that describing his rookie "situation" as fortunate, couldn't be further from the truth.

You're right. I was thinking of the pieces the Celtics added to the roster after Bird was there.

[Ne 1]

Oscar wasn't on the team during Kareem's rookie season OP. But yeah, to be drafted to an expansion team that had won just 27 games the season before and turn them into a 56 win team is unheard of.

[Roundball_Rock]

Oscar wasn't on the team during Kareem's rookie season OP. But yeah, to be drafted to an expansion team that had won just 27 games the season before and turn them into a 56 win team is unheard of.

This. Oscar was not on the team. It was KAJ having the GOAT rookie season that was the main reason in elevating that expansion team from 27 wins to 56 wins and the conference finals. :bowdown: (They added a rookie Dandrige, but he was a 13/8/4 player that year.)

As a note on Oscar, here are his numbers as a Buck:

19/6/8
17/5/8
15.5/5/7.5
13/4/6

People act as if the Bucks had prime Oscar...

Prior to joining KAJ, Oscar had only one 50+ win season, had 4 losing seasons and one .500 season and had missed the playoffs each of the previous 3 years.