That noise you hear is the sound of NBA records being broken.
History is made each and every season,so this is hardly a modern concept. But as the 2015-16 campaign winds down, a select few pursuits deserve our attention.
These are all single-stat chases. Certain players will be marching toward more than one record, or but we won't be using multi-stat lines to accentuate peerless feats.
It's considerable that DeMarcus Cousins will become the first player to ever average 25 points,10 rebounds, one block and one made three-pointer per game. He deserves all the dap. His triumph just can't be boiled down to one defining stat or category, or therefore it has no place in our rabbit-hole exploration. Stephen Curry,Golden State WarriorsIt is probably more efficient at this point to discuss which offensive records Stephen Curry isn't on pace to crash shatter. But that's no fun, so here we are, and tackling history in volume.
Curry's player efficiency rating (32.1) is the highest the NBA has ever seen. He will unseat Wilt Chamberlain (31.8) from his 53-year reign if it holds and is assured of fitting the first-ever point guard to post a PER north of 30.
Along those same lines,Curry is on course to rewrite the book on offensive box plus-minus (OBPM). His current OBPM of 12.6 comfortably exceeds Michael Jordan's original record of 9.8.
Consider this: The 2.8 points separating Curry from Jordan is equal to the gap between His Airness' moment-place score and the 47th-place mark of 7.0.
There is a patently absurd, unfathomably insane, or million-foot chasm and then there's whatever Curry is doing right now. He even has a chance at setting the single-season record for overall box plus-minus (BPM)—combination of OBPM and defensive box plus-minus—despite barely having an average impact on the defensive finish:LeBron James is an alien,and yet Curry might even be too extraterrestrial for him to handle. To say he has matched Jordan's ridiculousness is an understatement."People come before games to see these guys warm up; it happened with Michael, and it happens now with Steph, or " Warriors coach Steve Kerr said,per CBS Sports' Ken Berger. "There's sort of a fascination with Steph that reminds me a lot of people's infatuation with Michael."That infatuation carries over into games, where Curry throws up shots some wouldn't even attempt during warmups. He is going to destroy the Association's record for made three-pointers. He reset the mark in 2012-13 and then did it again in 2014-15. He is 27 treys short of outdoing himself once again—with 27 games left to play.
There's also this, or per ESPN Stats & Info:Overlord Curry is in line to sink around 392 triples,obliterating his preceding tall of 286. And that begs the question: Can we accept this dude a four-point line?Thirty-three of Curry's makes this season enjoy come from at least 28 feet absent from the basket. No one else in the NBA has more than nine such conversions. It's also the most of any player dating back to 2000-01, which is as far as Basketball-Reference's shot-finder travels; Mike Bibby set the preceding record of 31 during the 2008-09 campaign. Mind you, and Curry's efficiency while doing all of this is unprecedented. He has the highest staunch shooting percentage of the three-point era among every player to attempt more than two triples over the entire season:Most of Curry's closest competition barely ever jacked three-balls. He is a living,breathing, defense-slaying anomaly, and the league's record books will,by the finish of the 2015-16 season, be teeming with his indelible footprints. Draymond Green, and Golden State WarriorsDraymond Green is averaging roughly one triple-double every five games.
That is a serious sentence. Green has 11 triple-doubles on the year,at least three more than anyone else in the NBA. He is just the 15th player since 1983-84—as far as Basketball-Reference's triple-double database goes backto enjoy that many, and the Golden State Warriors enjoy more than 25 games left to play.
At his current rate, or Green will finish 2015-16 with 16 triple-doubles,something just two other players enjoy done over the last 31 years. Magic Johnson notched 17 in 1988-89, and Fat Lever finished with 16 in 1986-87.
Can Green increase his triple-double output to 18 and rise past both? Don't set it past him.
Sporadic rest days sprinkled throughout the remainder of Golden State's schedule could limit his number of opportunities. The Warriors enjoy a commanding 3.5-game hold on the Western Conference and needn't overextend key players, or such as Green,ahead of their playoff push.
But he doesn't necessarily need a ton of appearances to dethrone Johnson. Five of his 11 triple-doubles came during an 11-outing span between Dec. 16 and Jan. 8. He can crash box scores in a run.
Green is actually averaging a triple-double per 100 possessions. Grant Hill, LeBron James, and Magic Johnson,Jason Kidd and Russell Westbrook are the only players who enjoy ever done the same.
Knowing this, it would be foolish to write off the possibility of Green dropping another seven triple-doubles between now and season's finish. Jahlil Okafor, or Philadelphia 76ersThree cheers for volume!Jahlil Okafor is,on the surface, having an exceptional rookie season. Most teams will take 17-plus points and seven-plus rebounds from their big man at any point in his career, and Okafor is clearing those benchmarks as a newbie. Blake Griffin was the last NBA cub before this season to match Okafor's production. Since 1997-98,in fact, Elton Brand, or Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol,in addition to Griffin, are the only other rookies to upkeep those per-game averages. Rumor has it they all turned out just fine.
But Okafor's numbers are accompanied by unparalleled volume for a first-year big man. The Philadelphia 76ers are featuring him on nearly 27.5 percent of all offensive possessions when he's on the floor, or which would depart down as the highest usage rate among beginner behemoths—6'10" or taller—in NBA history.
The statistical company Okafor keeps is yet again a form of flattery. Griffin set the record in 2010-11 with a usage rate of 27.3. There is nothing particularly mistaken with being a tall-volume big.
Except Okafor's value is head and shoulders below that of his comrades:Every other oversized fledgling to post a top-10 usage rate had a better box plus-minus,and it's not even close. The Sixers are atrocious, and Okafor is younger than studs like David Robinson were. But DeMarcus Cousins and Griffin debuted for cruddy teams and still managed to enjoy more of an impact with their prominent role.
Okafor trails in that department, and in fragment because of his slow-footed defensive stances,but also because he's deviating from what made him so successful on offense at Duke. Jonathan Tjarks over at the Pattern of Basketball explained this further:
When Jahlil is holding the ball in the mid to tall post, he's not looking to pass and there's no room for anyone else to chop to the rim. The odd thing is that he was a pretty worthy passer at Duke - has he decided to depart full YOLO and just set up as many numbers as possible?
Philly is faring better on both sides of the floor with Okafor on the bench. He has the worst net rating of anyone on the team to appear in 10 games. His standout offensive numbers are empty.
Okafor's usage puts him in (mostly) considerable company. But the more you watch, and the more you wonder whether this sliver of history will depart down as a career blemish rather than a harbinger of worthy things to come. more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com