I tracked every Michael Jordan playoff game for a decade
We tracked 129 Michael Jordan playoff games to help compare him to some of the all-time greats that have played since. How good were the Bulls when Jordan was on the court? How good were they when he went to the bench? What happened to his supporting cast during the Phil Jackson years? And how does MJ compare to to LeBron, Shaq, Curry and others in plus-minus stats that we've had since 1997?
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Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
Stats courtesy:
www.pbpstats.com @bballport
www.basketball-reference.com
stats.nba.com
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.
Music by Nemesis and Hair Fairlight
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That Quote by Jordan about him not wanting to excel as a 3p shooter and why, SHOULD be talked about more instead of this ridiculous notion that he couldn't shoot threes.
One thing that amazes me is how MJ escaped these games without ever (if rarely) twisting an ankle. All that shooting in the key and close to opponents jumping out to contest a shot. I know he taped his ankles every game, but still. So many feet to possibly step on.
Lil known fact: Sixers statistician Harvey Pollack invented plus/minus stat. I was his intern in 02-03. He was with the nba since day 1 in 1947/49 with Syracuse Nationals. We did plus minus for the whole league and he released it in his book yearly. He would take interns out to dinner if we got a perfect sheet doing a game. He passed in 2015 in his 80s. NBA hall of Famer. RIP
the man was and still is to this date the most amazing player ever who could do whatever he wanted on the floor and get everyone involved to win.
I watched Jordan and to this day, I haven't seen a more consistently dominant player than MJ in the playoffs. It was ridiculous to watch someone play 80+ games a season and still play every game in the playoffs with an even greater intensity than he did in the regular season - each and every year. As he aged, I watched teams creep even closer to the Bulls where it looked like someone would overtake the Bulls, and although the Magic beat the Bulls in 1995, it didn't feel as convincing as Jordan only played the last 17 games that season. Despite that, I was surprised at how good they looked in the playoffs - especially against the Magic since the Bulls were struggling during the season.
I loved Jordan's quote at
You don't need numbers to see that Jordan was and still is best player ever. Just watch him play. Truly poetry in motion.
Jordan's main contribution to his teammates was how demanding he was in practice, forcing them to practice at a high level and his high expectations for focus and intensity during actual games. He didn't have to work at getting them involved in a game, the were already there from the beginning.
Jordan was a way better passer/ playmaker than I thought and gets credit for. You showed many amazing passes he made that I never seen or heard people talk about
Brilliant video, MJ is just ridiculous af
one thing you didn't mention, but also is something you can't quantify is what his team mates said about how MJ pushed them in practices. All his teams talk about how much better they became as players because of how hard MJ was in practice.
The 2nd season of MJ first retirement the bulls was 34-31 and finished 47-35 after his return. People always bring up the first year where they almost make the finals but never bring up the 2nd year where they almost missed the playoffs without Jordan.
The thing is, Doug Collins' tactics were too reliant on MJ to carry the Bulls on his back, while Phil Jackson's triangle offense gave room for other players to grow.
Every video this channel has made is an absolute statistical and analytical masterclass, I enjoy every single one this channel uploads. Whether it be a recap of a game, a conversation of who was the best at their best, a regular analysis, every single video is entertaining, informative, and just down right amazing.
The thing about +/- across eras (comparing Jordan to LeBron/Steph/etc) is how much +/- gets affected by the pace of the game.
Man! He drew double and triple coverage all the time. His passing options where limitless.
MJ didn’t learn how to be unselfish under Jackson, he just had a coach who came up with a system beyond “give Michael the ball and get out of the damn way.” That was Doug collins through and through.
It's staggering the impact the illegal defense rules had. Those doubles are so ineffective because the defense can't zone up to handle the lack of numbers.
Yeah you can see it on film as well as the stats 91,92&96 were his best Championship seasons. Athletically his peak was undoubtedly 86-89 his speed, agility & explosiveness were otherworldly 👽
It's noteworthy when evaluating plus-minus to consider how much of an impact the player - in this case, MJ - made to the team's playing ability behind the scenes, like in training. I'm sure just having MJ on your team would improve your own standards and make you rev the tank just a but more while on the court.