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Everyone is getting buckets this NBA season.
We’re almost halfway through the NBA season, and so far, one thing is for certain. Players are getting buckets. In just the past two weeks, we’ve seen Luka Doncic drop a 60-20-10 triple-double and then score 51 more four nights later. We’ve seen Donovan Mitchell score 71, Klay Thompson score 54, and Giannis Antetokounmpo score 55. That’s all in the span of two weeks!
Naturally, with all the scoring explosions we’ve been privy to recently, one is left wondering: is this going to be the best scoring season in NBA history?
To answer this question, let’s take a quick look at the seasons with the most 30-point, 40-point, 50-point, and 60-point games.
Okay, so now that we have those figures in our mind, let’s look at how many of each of those performances we have so far this season and how many we will have by the end of the year if we maintain our current pace.
As it stands, the league is currently on pace to thrash both the 30-point and 40-point records. However, it would take a massive uptick in production for them to break the 50-point and 60-point records set in the 1961-62 season (you’ll recall that was the season Wilt Chamberlain famously averaged 50.4 PPG for an entire season).
With all this in mind, some people may look at this chart and say that the reason we have so many 30 and 40-point scoring games today is because of the increase in pace and offensive efficiency. Inversely, you could also say that Chamberlain’s bonkers scoring output from 1961-62 was only possible because he played every minute of every game.
To account for the changes in the way the game has been played over time, we will also be looking at Ben Taylor’s Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75 Possessions (which can be found on thinkingbasketball.net).
This measure calculates every player’s scoring average over the course of 75 possessions if the league-wide offensive rating was 110 during that season. So, this accounts for the changes in pace, minutes played, and offensive efficiency.
In 2019-20, there were four players with an Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75 average of 30 points or higher. To date, this is the highest total in NBA history.
(For those wondering, those four players were Antetokounmpo, Doncic, James Harden, and Kawhi Leonard.)
This year, we only have three players over the 30-point mark in the statistic (Joel Embiid, Doncic, and Antetokounmpo). However, there are currently six other players averaging over 29 Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75. If even one of those guys pushes their average to 30, that would tie the all-time record.
And if two of those six candidates were to accomplish this feat, it would give this season a strong case as the greatest scoring season in NBA history.
