A recent rankings stacked up the top 50 NBA playoff performers in league history, with New York Knicks point guard Walt Frazier coming in at No. 25 overall.
Frazier’s placement on Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report’s rankings made him, by default, New York’s best playoff performer ever, seeing as he’s the only franchise player to have cracked the list (h/t Jeremy Brener of Fan Nation’s All Knicks). This is how Bailey structured his placements, which were heavily predicated on box plus/minus and other advanced metrics:
“Instead, we used win shares, win shares per 48 minutes, player efficiency rating, a simple combination of points, rebounds and assists per game and minutes played to get a baseline. All 1,758 players with at least 100 career playoff minutes were sorted by the average of their ranks in those five categories,” Bailey laid out.
“Clyde” Frazier deserves every bit of recognition for his accomplished postseason career. Bailey acknowledged him for being No. 12 in playoff win shares per 48 minutes. Beyond that, he shares the record for the most championships in team history with two. Having led the Knickerbockers to titles in 1970 and again in 1973, the seven-time All-Star was able to dominate in an era where interior play was the focal point of the game.
Walt “Clyde” Frazier owns multiple Knicks Finals records
The Hall-of-Fame floor general owns the Knicks record for most points in the Finals with 321. That places him at No. 60 in NBA history. It also puts him above his teammates former MVP Willis Reed (220 points) and Dave DeBusscherre (263 points) as well as Patrick Ewing, who is widely considered to be the greatest player in franchise history. Frazier is also No. 20 all-time and first in franchise history with 139 assists in the Finals.
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Frazier could score & distribute when needed to on the biggest stage
When Frazier needed to take a backseat and be more of a distributor, he dished out 10.4 assists while scoring 17.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game on 54.1 percent shooting from the field in the 1970 Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers When he needed to step up and shoulder the offensive burden with Reed injured in 1973, the flamboyant broadcaster put up 23-8-8 in a rematch win over the Lakers.
Frazier embodied the quintessential point guard and do-it-all scoring off guard and proving his dexterity. The Knicks great also did major legwork to get the team to championship heights.
“Clyde” Frazier’s impressive playoff streak exemplified his reliability in the playoffs
His career playoff averages of 20.7 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 6.4 APG prove him to be one of the best rebounding points guards to ever do it. Most impressively is the near-three-year run he had without shooting under 50 percent from the floor in a playoff series, beginning in the 1970 Finals and ending in the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.
The Georgia native’s record speaks for itself. He is deserving of top-25 recognition for his winning acumen and trailblazing at the position. The jewelry on his fingers eliminates doubt about who he was as a winner.