I just saw JJ Reddick on First take talking about Cousy and his shooting percentages, never shot above 40% in a year. And he was right. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/cousybo01.html What do you think, was Cousy overated? He came before me, but his stats look pretty crappy. DD
Probably a little but It can be like asking if the Graham Bell was overrated. . . . his phone compared to the one I am holding . . .. is not even close BUT With out Bell . .. I would not have my phone Rocket River
Not sure you can talk about inventions that have been improved compared to basketball players - maybe your point was different eras? Even then, shooting below 40% is Rafer Alston bad. DD
i don't know but you all you can really do is compare him to his peers. He did lead the league in assists for 8 years and he also won an MVP, not to mention 6 national championships. Spot checking stats from his years, he was routinely in the top 50 of fg%. He was doing something right
I dunno, but let's assume they were all bad - or as poor as Cousy's.......should that be held against him as an All-time great? I would not put him in top 5 PGs of all time - if he can't shoot. 1. CP3 2. Stockton 3. Nash 4. Magic 5. Thomas DD
JJ going after a 93 yrs old to make a point. Cousy's still talked about 60+ years later. Can't say people will know JJ or Stephen A's name after 60 yrs. How many rings do Reddick or cp3 have combined? How many does Cousy have? (hint same as MJ and Kareem)
Cousy may not even make it in the league if he played today. I believe that for a lot of the players that played in past eras. Not a slight against them, him and many others who pioneered the game have given today's players a foundation that gives them a big advantage. That said, most players today would get called for palming the ball if they played in Cousy's era.
Advanced analytics back then consisted of looking at your rebounds per game instead of just scoring averages. Everything back then was "he looks good to me". I doubt at any time in his career anybody ever mentioned his lower field goal percentages to him. It's like the difference between 3 martini lunch Mad Men dashing off ad campaigns on the back of napkins vs the modern focus group analytics that go into breaking down how the message plays against left handed, pregnant women over the age of 60. The way people judged a player was totally different back then. Point guard. Even more so, has transformed. I can still remember when people didn't trust point guards who scored more than about 10 points a game. Mo Cheeks was the "perfect PG", who distributed the ball, played defense and got out of the way and let Dr. J do his job. I never saw him play, but it was a different world with different criteria, with the eyeball test being like 99% of it.
Even in his time he was slightly overrated because the Celtics always disappointed in the playoffs. Now, 50s and 60s players are tough to rate unless they overwhelm with stats, accolades, and/or rings. I think he belongs in that weird NBA purgatory with the Paul Arizin, Bill Sharman, Dolph Schayes types and not with the Jerry West, Oscar Robertson types that came later.
Cousy's career league adjusted FG% (basically 100 is exactly average), is 96, and his league adjusted TS% is 98. So he was slightly below average for his era, but that's also includes all of the big men, not just his position. For historical comparison, Allen Iverson was career FG/TS 95/98, Tracy McGrady was career FG/TS 97/99, and Donovan Mitchell is at career 95/98. So Cousy was not an efficient player, but was also routinely in the top 5 for FGA per game. He also stands out in his era as really being the only scoring PG in a league dominated by big men. Considering the extreme restrictions on ball handlers in the era and the tiny paint, I think he's well earned his historical reputation as being an all-time great. It just seems impossible to compare his era to even the post ABA-merger; the rules and innovations in the game were just too different.
Don't think he's overrated cause no one really cares about him except the Boston dudes. This might be one of the only televised Bob Cousy arguments I've ever seen in my life. ESPN has him ranked 34 after Wade, AI, CP3, Kawhi and others.