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Gus Williams

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:26 am
by Mike G
Year after year, Gus Williams was a playoff overachiever.
His first season in Seattle, they went to the Finals, and won it the following year.

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Regular Seasons                          Playoffs
yr    tm    PER    TS%   WS/48  BPM    min    PER    TS%  WS/48   BPM
76   GSW   17.0   .473   .117   1.9    178   11.4   .393  -.019  -4.9
77   GSW   14.2   .497   .088    .0    184   15.8   .555   .130   1.1
78   Sea   18.1   .491   .143   3.1    701   20.4   .518   .155   4.6
79   Sea   21.1   .534   .175   4.9    619   23.8   .518   .210   6.7
80   Sea   20.6   .529   .187   5.0    564   21.7   .552   .173   6.9
81   Sea     Did not play -- holdout                        
82   Sea   21.8   .526   .171   5.1    315   22.3   .498   .166   7.0
83   Sea   20.5   .517   .148   4.2     81   27.1   .606   .223   9.9
84   Sea   18.9   .506   .101   2.7    215   23.0   .546   .159   6.6
85   Was   17.3   .482   .083   2.1    159   11.1   .472  -.002  -1.9
86   Was   15.0   .473   .060   -.3    199   16.8   .523   .108   2.3

11yr tot   18.5   .505   .127   2.9   3215   20.4   .520   .150   4.7
https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... igu01.html
Players typically lose a couple of PER points and about .025 in WS/48 in the greater competition of playoffs.
He regularly led the Sonics in scoring, steals, and sometimes assists.

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playoffs     Gus Williams          best other
year   G    Pts   Ast   Stl      Pts   Ast   Stl
1978  22   18.3   4.0   2.0     17.3   3.3   1.0
1979  17   26.7   3.7   2.0     20.9   5.4   1.6
1980  15   23.7   5.6   2.3     17.1   5.7   1.8
1982   8   26.3   8.1   1.6     20.5   4.9   1.1
1983   2   32.5   4.0   2.5     15.0   5.5   1.0
1984   5   23.4  11.4   1.6     22.0   2.2   1.0
So that's just 6 years in Seattle, starting with a bang and ending less brilliantly, as a team.
He co-starred with Marvin Webster, Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma, and Tom Chambers. John Johnson was a point forward.

There are just 30 players with more career playoff VORP and greater BPM; 21 are in the Hall of Fame, and 9 are currently active.
In playoff VORP, he ranks just behind Iverson, Nash, and Terry Porter; ahead of DJ, Cooper, Payton, Penny, and Moses.
His PO BPM is better than Kidd, Billups, Lillard, Westbrook, Tatum, Embiid, Mitchell; just below Iverson, Ginobili, Barry, Pippen, Reggie.

Gus Williams died last Wednesday.