Scoring is up in today's NBA so it's only fitting that James Harden of the Houston Rockets cracked the top-ten for all-time single season scoring average.
James Harden, aka "The Beard", hop, skipped, and jumped his way to a record-setting season in his seventh season with the Houston Rockets.
Harden, who has a knack for getting to the free throw line and being master of the step-back step-back, shot his way to a league-leading 36.1 points per game in 2018-19. His average now stands as the seventh-best single season average of all-time.
Harden's scoring ability has drawn comparisons -- in some circles -- to that of Michael Jordan, especially in Jordan's early years. While it's true Harden drops points in boatloads (19 games between 40-49 points, seven between 50-59, and two 61-points performances), how each player got their points took some different routes.
That is going to be expected, given the evolution of basketball and the rise -- and eventual love -- of the three-point shot. Harden attempted 1028 threes, connecting on 378. This is 79 more made threes than the entire Chicago Bulls roster attempted in Jordan's highest scoring average season in 1986-87.
And for as much as people talk about how often Harden gets to the line, he shot 114 less free throws than Jordan did during the '86-87 season. Jordan did play in four more games than Harden, however.
Harden hoisted 24.5 field goal attempts per game for a total of 1909 in the the 2018-19 season. The Rockets totaled 7,163 field goal attempts, 3,721 of which were from behind the arc.
That sure seems like a lot of attempts, especially with Harden accounting for 26.7% of his team's shot attempts. How does that compare to other players are on the top-ten list? Let's take a look at three different players, all from different eras, and see how they compare with Harden and the Rockets.
Michael Jordan
Michael 'Air' Jordan appears on the top-ten single scoring list twice, topping off in the fifth spot when he averaged 37.09 points per game in '86-87.
The three-point line was first introduced to the NBA in the 1979-80 season so it was still in its infancy when Jordan hit this scoring mark. The Bulls averaged under four three-point attempts per game in that '86-86 season, while Jordan attempted only 66, connecting on 12.
The Bulls of that season were basically on par with the Rockets in regards to field goal attempts, totaling 7,155. Jordan's was actually higher than Harden's, dropping 27.8 field goal attempts per game (2279 overall), giving him 31.9 percent of his team's shot attempts.
When you have such high-scoring teammates as Charles Oakley, who went on to have a nice career but was known for defense and rebounding and John Paxson, you're bound to toss up a bunch of shots. Jordan, Oakley, and Paxson were the only players to average double figures in points on this team.
Chicago was swept out of the playoffs in the first round by the Boston Celtics that season.
Kobe Bryant
Given that Kobe Bryant's 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors occurred in January of 2006, it's only natural Bryan's '05-06 season was a top-ten performance.
In that season, the Black Mamba averaged 35.4 ppg, a mark that recently got bumped back to ninth-best thanks to Harden's performance this season.
Bryant played in 80 games that season and his field goal attempts (27.2 per game, 2173 total) were similar to Jordan's numbers. The Lakers as a team had a low number of attempts compared to other teams spoken about here, hoisting up only 6607 field goals. This means Bryant attempted 32.8 percent of his team's shot attempts.
Three-point attempts were more common by this point and Bryant went 180-518.
These post-Shaq years were lean for the Lakers as far as talent around Bryant was concerned. Considering that the next two highest scorers on this team were Lamar Odom (14.8 ppg) and Smush Parker (11.5 ppg), Bryant had a lot on his plate.
The Lakers were eliminated in the playoffs in the first round by the Phoenix Suns.
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain -- proving you need a good nickname to get on this list -- appears five times in the top-ten, with the top spot at 50.4 points per game.
He did this in the 1961-62 season, where the Philadelphia Warriors ran up-and-down the court and averaged 125.4 points per game. With no three-point line to rely on, these Warriors put up 8929 field goal attempts, 3159 of which belonged to Chamberlain. Chamberlain's attempts accounted for 35.4% of his team's total.
When you're scoring 50 points per game, it's going to take a lot of shots from the field. Chamberlain averaged 39.5 attempts per game.
This was also the season where Chamberlain dropped his 100-point game on March 2, 1962 against the New York Knicks.
Philadelphia had four other players average double digits in scoring and they eventually made it to the Division Finals in 1962, losing to the Boston Celtics.
What does it all mean for Harden and the Rockets? He has more talent around him than Jordan and Bryant did in the above mentioned seasons. And his share of shots was lower than the others, meaning that despite as much as the Rockets rely on Harden, they do have help to share the load.
Now, it's just time to see how all of that translates to the postseason.
photo credit: en.wikipedia.org
stats found at basketball-reference.com
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