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List of rookies who have led their teams to the playoffs

colton

colton

All Around Nice Guy
Contributor
I tried googling this info but struck out. It seems like the list of rookies who have (a) led their team in scoring, and (b) whose team made the playoffs has got to be pretty short. Assuming Donovan does that with the Jazz, he'll be in rare company.

I've had to think of players and manually look up the info about them and their teams, but I'm out of time now so I'm turning to crowd-sourcing via Jazzfanz. Here are the ones I have found so far; if you can add to the list, please copy and paste the whole list into your post and insert your player(s) chronologically. Feel free to add any interesting info I may have missed about other notable accomplishments.

Interestingly, some players I looked up who DIDN'T make the list were:
* Oscar Robertson, Cincinatti Royals - won ROY after averaging a crazy 30.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg, and 9.7 apg in 1960-1961, but team didn't make playoffs.
* Wes Unseld, Bullets - won both ROY and MVP in 1968-1969 (crazy!) but only finished 5th on his team in ppg
* Magic Johnson (team made playoffs, but third on team in ppg behind Kareem and Jamaal Wilkes; named all star game starter but didn't win ROY due to Bird)
* Hakeem Olajuwan (won ROY, Rockets made playoffs, but finished 2nd in ppg behind Ralph Sampson)
* Allen Iverson (won ROY, led team with 23.5 ppg, but 76ers didn't make playoffs)
* Shaq (led team in points with 23.4 ppg, won ROY, but Magic finished 41-41 and didn't make the playoffs)
* Tim Duncan (won ROY, team finished 56-26, but was second in ppg behind David Robinson)
* Damon Stoudamire (won ROY, led team in ppg, but Raptors didn't make playoffs)
* Blake Griffin (led team in ppg, won ROY, but Clippers didn't make playoffs)
* LeBron James (won ROY, led team in ppg, but Cavs didn't make playoffs)


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The (probably incomplete) list:

1959-1960 - Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Warriors - won both ROY and MVP (crazy!), averaged 37.6 ppg and 27 rpg (crazy!). Warriors finished 49-26.

1968-1969 - Elvin Hayes, Rockets - not only led team but also led entire league in scoring with 28.4 ppg, team finished only 37-45 but still made playoffs. Interestingly, didn't win ROY because of Wes Unseld, see above.

1969-1970 - Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem), Bucks - led team (and was second in the NBA) in scoring with 28.8 ppg. Bucks finished 56-26. Made all star game and won ROY.

1979-1980 - Larry Bird, Celtics - led team in points with 21.3 ppg; Celtics finished 61-21. Won ROY and made the all-star game.

1984-1985 - Michael Jordan, Bulls - led team in points with 28.2 ppg; Bulls finished only 38-44 but still made playoffs. Jordan won ROY, and also made all-NBA second team.

1989-1990 - David Robinson, Spurs - led team in points with 24.3 ppg; Spurs finished 56-26. Won ROY.
 
colton said:
I tried googling this info but struck out. It seems like the list of rookies who have (a) led their team in scoring, and (b) whose team made the playoffs has got to be pretty short. Assuming Donovan does that with the Jazz, he'll be in rare company.

I've had to think of players and manually look up the info about them and their teams, but I'm out of time now so I'm turning to crowd-sourcing via Jazzfanz. Here are the ones I have found so far; if you can add to the list, please copy and paste the whole list into your post and insert your player(s) chronologically. Feel free to add any interesting info I may have missed about other notable accomplishments.

Interestingly, some players I looked up who DIDN'T make the list were:
* Oscar Robertson, Cincinatti Royals - won ROY after averaging a crazy 30.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg, and 9.7 apg in 1960-1961, but team didn't make playoffs.
* Wes Unseld, Bullets - won both ROY and MVP in 1968-1969 (crazy!) but only finished 5th on his team in ppg
* Magic Johnson (team made playoffs, but third on team in ppg behind Kareem and Jamaal Wilkes; named all star game starter but didn't win ROY due to Bird)
* Hakeem Olajuwan (won ROY, Rockets made playoffs, but finished 2nd in ppg behind Ralph Sampson)
* Allen Iverson (won ROY, led team with 23.5 ppg, but 76ers didn't make playoffs)
* Shaq (led team in points with 23.4 ppg, won ROY, but Magic finished 41-41 and didn't make the playoffs)
* Tim Duncan (won ROY, team finished 56-26, but was second in ppg behind David Robinson)
* Damon Stoudamire (won ROY, led team in ppg, but Raptors didn't make playoffs)
* Blake Griffin (led team in ppg, won ROY, but Clippers didn't make playoffs)
* LeBron James (won ROY, led team in ppg, but Cavs didn't make playoffs)


---
The (probably incomplete) list:

1959-1960 - Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Warriors - won both ROY and MVP (crazy!), averaged 37.6 ppg and 27 rpg (crazy!). Warriors finished 49-26.

1968-1969 - Elvin Hayes, Rockets - not only led team but also led entire league in scoring with 28.4 ppg, team finished only 37-45 but still made playoffs. Interestingly, didn't win ROY because of Wes Unseld, see above.

1969-1970 - Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem), Bucks - led team (and was second in the NBA) in scoring with 28.8 ppg. Bucks finished 56-26. Made all star game and won ROY.

1979-1980 - Larry Bird, Celtics - led team in points with 21.3 ppg; Celtics finished 61-21. Won ROY and made the all-star game.

1984-1985 - Michael Jordan, Bulls - led team in points with 28.2 ppg; Bulls finished only 38-44 but still made playoffs. Jordan won ROY, and also made all-NBA second team.

1989-1990 - David Robinson, Spurs - led team in points with 24.3 ppg; Spurs finished 56-26. Won ROY.
Click to expand...


So what you are saying is that the only players that have done this in the modern draft era (pre-territorial draft) were two #1 picks (Kareem and Robinson), a #3 pick (Jordan) a #6 pick (Bird). So only some of the top talent to ever play the game were able to lead their cellar dwelling team from a season before to the playoffs while leading in scoring. Another way to view this is the Jazz, after losing their top scorer after a successful season, completely lucked out that Mitchell fell into their laps due to a great trade and a lot of luck.
 
JAZZGASM said:
So what you are saying is that the only players that have done this in the modern draft era (pre-territorial draft) were two #1 picks (Kareem and Robinson), a #3 pick (Jordan) a #6 pick (Bird). So only some of the top talent to ever play the game were able to lead their cellar dwelling team from a season before to the playoffs while leading in scoring. Another way to view this is the Jazz, after losing their top scorer after a successful season, completely lucked out that Mitchell fell into their laps due to a great trade and a lot of luck.
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Those probably aren't the ONLY players, hence my crowd-sourcing appeal. But yes, a large part of this is that the best players are nearly always drafted by the worst teams. And when a great player is drafted by a good team, there are other good players that typically shoulder the scoring load. So the combination of factors is apparently quite rare.
 
And in this case it was only made possible by out top scorer (by a good margin) leaving as a free agent just as the rookie came aboard...
 
JazzFever said:
And in this case it was only made possible by out top scorer (by a good margin) leaving as a free agent just as the rookie came aboard...
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Top two scorers. Hayward and Hill. That played a part in it. Also, the fact that Rubio, Favors, Gobert and Ingles aren’t exactly volume scorers. The only one who had that potential was Rodney Hood - and we all saw how that worked out.
 
I looked up some more players, so here's an update.

New ones who didn't make the list

* Alonzo Mourning - Hornets made playoffs, but he was second in team in scoring to Larry Johnson.
* Ralph Sampson - he led team in scoring, but Rockets were only 29-53 and missed the playoffs.
* Bob Pettit (1954-55) - he led team in scoring, but Milwaukee Hawks were only 26-46 and missed the playoffs.
* Walt Bellamy (1961-62) - he led Chicago Packers in scoring with 31.6 ppg, but team finished 18-62 and missed the playoffs.

New addition to the list: Elgin Baylor

The (still probably incomplete) list of players who qualify:

1958-1959 - Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers - won ROY while averaging 24.9 ppg, 4th in the league. Also averaged 15 rpg, and led the Lakers from last place in NBA previous year to the NBA finals (albeit still with a losing record).

1959-1960 - Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Warriors - won both ROY and MVP (crazy!), averaged 37.6 ppg and 27 rpg (crazy!). Warriors finished 49-26.

1968-1969 - Elvin Hayes, Rockets - not only led team but also led entire league in scoring with 28.4 ppg, team finished only 37-45 but still made playoffs. Interestingly, didn't win ROY because of Wes Unseld, see above.

1969-1970 - Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem), Bucks - led team (and was second in the NBA) in scoring with 28.8 ppg. Bucks finished 56-26. Made all star game and won ROY.

1979-1980 - Larry Bird, Celtics - led team in points with 21.3 ppg; Celtics finished 61-21. Won ROY and made the all-star game.

1984-1985 - Michael Jordan, Bulls - led team in points with 28.2 ppg; Bulls finished only 38-44 but still made playoffs. Jordan won ROY, and also made all-NBA second team.

1989-1990 - David Robinson, Spurs - led team in points with 24.3 ppg; Spurs finished 56-26. Won ROY.
 
James Worthy joined a Lakers team that just won the championship. He obviously didn't lead the team.
Rookie Tony Parker won a chip with the Spurs. He became a starter, but obviously not their leading player.
Grant Hill led his team to the POs in his second year, but not his rookie year.
Patrick Ewing led his team to the POs in his second year, but not his rookie year.
Charles Barkley averaged 14/9 as a rookie and made the playoffs, but Dr. J led the team in scoring.

This isn't easy to find.
 
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Spencer Haywood (30.0 ppg, 19.5 rpg), Denver Rockets (69-70 ABA, 51-33 record).

Haywood averaged over 45 minutes per game over the 84-game ABA season and didn't miss a game!
 
gandalfe said:
Find rookies who led their team in scoring, then see which of those teams went to the playoffs.
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Yeah, that's basically what I've been doing. Unfortunately there's not a list of rookies who led their teams in scoring that I've been able to find, so it's slow.
 
Charlie Scott (27.1 ppg), Virginia Squires (70-71 ABA, 55-29 record).

Led them in scoring the following year as well, which was Julius Erving's rookie season.
 
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Adding in Carmello Anthony

The (still probably incomplete) list of players who qualify:

1958-1959 - Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers - won ROY while averaging 24.9 ppg, 4th in the league. Also averaged 15 rpg, and led the Lakers from last place in NBA previous year to the NBA finals (albeit still with a losing record).

1959-1960 - Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Warriors - won both ROY and MVP (crazy!), averaged 37.6 ppg and 27 rpg (crazy!). Warriors finished 49-26.

1968-1969 - Elvin Hayes, Rockets - not only led team but also led entire league in scoring with 28.4 ppg, team finished only 37-45 but still made playoffs. Interestingly, didn't win ROY because of Wes Unseld, see above.

1969-1970 - Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem), Bucks - led team (and was second in the NBA) in scoring with 28.8 ppg. Bucks finished 56-26. Made all star game and won ROY.

1979-1980 - Larry Bird, Celtics - led team in points with 21.3 ppg; Celtics finished 61-21. Won ROY and made the all-star game.

1984-1985 - Michael Jordan, Bulls - led team in points with 28.2 ppg; Bulls finished only 38-44 but still made playoffs. Jordan won ROY, and also made all-NBA second team.

1989-1990 - David Robinson, Spurs - led team in points with 24.3 ppg; Spurs finished 56-26. Won ROY.

2003-2004 - Carmello Anthony, Nuggets - led team in points with 21.0 ppg; Nuggets finished 43-39 and lost in first round of playoffs. Lost ROY to Lebron.
 
colton said:
Adding in Carmello Anthony

2003-2004 - Carmello Anthony, Nuggets - led team in points with 21.0 ppg; Nuggets finished 43-39 and lost in first round of playoffs. Lost ROY to Lebron.
Click to expand...

Carmelo gets an asterisk....

1- His team shamelessly tanked the 2002-03 season so they can enter the LeBron sweepstakes.
2- they made the playoffs by one game beating out a Utah team for the 8 seed that was projected by some to win less than 10 games.
3- He didn't make the all-star team as a rookie and publicly whined about it proclaiming he was a better player than Andrei Kirilenko - who presumably got the last spot.
4- As still a teenager, lobbied the FO to get his coach fired (Jeff Bzdelik) which he did after a 26 win improvement from the previous season.
5- Had a ridiculously bad hairdo his first couple years in the league
6 - He's a jerkoff.
 
It is kind of a perfect storm scenario. Generally rookies with that kind of talent are going to be drafted top-5. And teams with bottom-5 records generally arent going to jump into the playoffs by adding just one player.

Exceptions would be a team like Boston, who traded for a pick from a very dumb GM, or a team like Philadelphia, who had been bad year after year and was stockpiling lottery picks by taking huge risks on injured draftees.

But then there's the added requirement to lead the team in scoring. So the prior alpha(s) needs to have been just average or have left and no one else stepped up.

Not sure he'll be in the company of the all-time greats listed above, but Mitchell certainly seized the opportunity when he was given the chance.

And not to be overlooked is the willingness of Snyder and Lindsey to give him that chance. Not sure Sloan would have done the same. I think Deron was almost as exciting a rookie as Donovan. Williams was a leader; He had 20/10 potential from Day 1. But Sloan sat him on the bench behind scrubs for half the year until Larry H intervened. Had Deron gotten more minutes earlier, Jazz would have had a much better record. What would Sloan have done with Donovan after (or during) that 3-21 game?
 
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