Guarded Optimism

What's the best "young" backcourt duo in NBA history?

Tuesday’s post on the best “old” guards inspired this thought: What’s the best “young” backcourt duo in NBA history? In order to answer that question, I decided to focus on single seasons, with “young” being defined as any guard age 23 years* or younger.

* Based on the player’s age on February 1 of the given season.

The pairs were ranked based on the harmonic mean of their regular season individual wins (my replacement for win shares). Why use the harmonic mean rather than the standard arithmetic mean?  Because the arithmetic mean will not properly account for vast differences in the two individual win totals.

For example, Michal Jordan recorded 21.2 individual wins in 1986-87, the fourth-highest such figure in NBA history by a player age 23 years or younger. Thanks to Jordan’s dominance, he and Pete Myers — a backup who averaged 5.3 MPG in 23 games — would rank as the best young backcourt duo of all time using the arithmetic mean. The harmonic mean mitigates the influence of Jordan’s contribution and increases the influence of Myers’ contribution, pushing the combo way down the list.

With that said, below are the top five young backcourt duos in NBA history based on this method.

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#5 Kevin Porter & Phil Chenier, 1973-74

Statistics:

• Porter: 81 GP, 14.0 PPG, 5.8 APG, 1.2 SPG, 47.8 FG%

• Chenier: 76 GP, 21.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.0 SPG, 82.0 FT%

Porter (23 years old) and Chenier (23) manned the backcourt for the 1973-74 Central Division champion Capital Bullets. Porter finished eighth in the NBA in assists (despite averaging less than 29 MPG), while Chenier ranked 12th in scoring average and earned the first of three career All-Star selections.

After a 47-35 record in the regular season, the Bullets faced the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, where the Knicks prevailed in seven games despite being outscored in the series by eight points.

Porter and Chenier spent just one more season as a duo with the Bullets, a campaign in which Porter led the league in assists and Chenier averaged 21.8 PPG while securing his only All-NBA selection. The Bullets tied the Boston Celtics for the league’s best record at 60-22 and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they were swept by the Golden State Warriors. In the offseason, Porter was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Dave Bing and a future first-round draft pick.