Feb 7, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Nash (10) shoots baskets during warmups prior to playing the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Freelance Friday is a project that lets us share our platform with the multitude of talented writers and basketball analysts who aren’t part of our regular staff of contributors. As part of that series we’re proud to present this guest post from Chris Reichert. In the past Chris has written for Hoops Habit and Crabdribbles. You can also find him regularly at Ridiculous Upside and follow him on Twitter at @Chris_Reichert.
The feat of finishing a season in the NBA while shooting at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line and 90 percent from the free throw line is one that shows efficiency and consistency through the rigors of an 82-game marathon. In the modern era of the NBA (widely considered to have started with the advent of the 3-point line in 1979-80) this has only been accomplished 10 times, by six different players — two of them have done it multiple times.
With that said, I wanted to investigate the 50/40/90 seasons out there and bring them to light. You know they exist, but do you know if it’s ever been done in the playoffs? Do you know how many players have come close, only to fall short of the minimum requirements? That’s what this article intends to bring to light, along with some other tidbits.
Requirements
Having a qualified 50/40/90 season is sometimes more difficult than even the raw numbers would suggest. Namely, there are minimums for field goals made (FGM), 3-pointers made (3PM) and free throws made (FTM) to qualify: 300 FGM, 55 3PM and 125 FTM in addition to actually hitting the benchmark percentages.
Close, but no Cigar
Knowing the minimum requirements to get into this exclusive club, here are some of the players who have gotten very close but have fallen just short in one way or another:
- Larry Bird 1985-86
- Jeff Hornacek 1990-91
- Steve Kerr 1995-96
- Mario Elie 1996-97
- Steve Nash 2006-07
- Jose Calderon 2007-08, 2008-09
- Steve Nash 2012-13
- Dirk Nowitzki 2013-14
*Nash not featured here, but will be seen later.
**Disclaimer: In the graphic above Kerr has .506/.515/.929 which would have made him the first 50/50/90 person however he did not meet NBA minimums FGM (224) or FTM (78). He would have also been the first reserve in NBA history to post 50/40/90.
You might think that the hardest category to meet is the 50 percent from the field but surprisingly the data I collected shows that the toughest requirement is the 90 percent from the free throw line. Consider this: in the 2013-14 season there was only ONE player who made the minimum free throws of 125 and shot 90 percent or more — Brian Roberts.
Jose Calderon had a tough go of it in back-to-back years. In 2007-08 he met all requirements except one — he only had 109 FTM, just 16 short of the minimum. In 2008-09 he finished shooting 49.7 percent from the field — just 0.3 percent short!
You might even find some longer lists of people who have accomplished 50/40/90 due to rounding, but I wanted to keep things black and white and while harsh, either you met the requirements or you did not.
The closest of them all was Nash in 2006-07 when he finished with a free throw percentage of 89.9, just barely missing the minimum — Nash turned out alright, though more on that later. One thing that should be pretty apparent to you so far is that the majority of these players will be guards, but there are outliers like Bird, Nowitzki and Durant who show us just how skilled they are in the art of shooting efficiently.
The Elitist Shooting Club – Regular Season
Here we are, the best of the best when it comes to overall shooting efficiency. Notice there have been plenty of spectacular shooters in the Association and yet only six have been extraordinary enough to make this list.
- Larry Bird 1986-87, 1987-88
- Mark Price 1988-89
- Reggie Miller 1993-94
- Steve Nash 2005-06, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10
- Dirk Nowitzki 2006-07
- Kevin Durant 2012-13
Bird was the trendsetter here, catapulting 50/40/90 into existence and giving all others a bar to strive for regarding shooting efficiency. Bird’s numbers were the most impressive by sheer volume until they were matched and overtaken by Kevin Durant in 2012-13.
Here is Bird’s 1986-87 season as well. Note: He averaged a career high in assists this year.
The difficulty for this feat is extremely high. Take into consideration the shooting averages for the entire league in the modern era: 46.4 FG%, 33.0 3P% and 75.3 FT%. Therefore, an above average season would work out to be along the lines of 47/34/76, which I’m sure many, many players accomplish year in and year out. However, considering the heightened percentage each player must shoot, along with the required volumes at each spot, the number who have met those figures dwindles to single digits — over 34 seasons!
When you take a look at the breakdown of the seasons these six players had merely in terms of the 50/40/90 requirements we find another interesting factor. Bird and Nash dominate the overall best at five out of six spots — which makes sense since they are the only people who have had multiple 50/40/90 seasons in their careers. One thing to note — Durant’s 679 FTM are 181 better than the next best player had — Dirk 498 in his one season. Here are the highs in each category, among 50/40/90 seasons:
FGM – 786 Larry Bird 1986-87 3P% – 47.0 Steve Nash 2007-08
FG% – 52.7 Larry Bird 1987-88 FTM – 679 Kevin Durant 2012-13
3PM – 179 Steve Nash 2007-08 FT% – 93.8 Steve Nash 2009-10
When It Matters Most – Playoffs
The playoffs are clearly a much shorter span during the NBA season, but I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone had ever accomplished the 50/40/90 during a single postseason. Larry Bird is the only player to have done it in both the regular and post-season.
Again, we need to outline requirements and as there are no NBA minimum for playoff leaders I simply weighted the regular season minimums and created a couple of caveats as well. So here are your minimum requirements:
GP – 7 MPG – 20 FGM – 26 3PM – 5 FTM – 11
Coincidentally, only six players have ever met these requirements for the post-season and all of them are new except Bird.
- Sidney Moncrief 1984-85
- Larry Bird 1985-86
- Sleepy Floyd 1986-87
- B.J. Armstrong 1992-93
- Ray Allen 2010-11
- Stephen Jackson 2011-12
The playoffs are certainly a different animal in terms of level of difficulty and the types of shots guys will get, but considering the shorter time span, I thought there would be many more than simply six. It just speaks to how difficult it is to make this list.
Of course there were those close calls just like with the regular season and here is that list:
- Danny Ainge 1994-95
- Howard Eisley 1996-97
- James Jones 2008-09
- Kirk Hinrich 2010-11
Most of these guys came short regarding FGM or FTM, however Howard Eisley met all requirements except that he only averaged 10.9 MPG during the 1997 post-season which took him out of the running.
Da Gawd
Most people who follow the NBA know that Steve Nash is one of the best shooters this game has ever seen, maybe even the overall best in terms of efficiency. Some have more volume but none has had the consistency of Nash — at least over the period of time you are about to see from him.
From the 2003-04 season through the 2010-11 season Nash averaged 50/40/90. Wait…*GO BACK AND READ IT AGAIN!!*
Here are his four official 50/40/90 seasons. For the last one, Nash was 35-years-old.
Consider that six players have done this over the last 34 years, then consider that only two have done it multiple times (Bird and Nash) and that statistic is one that you will never forget. The man AVERAGED one of the game’s hardest shooting feats for eight seasons — eight! Here are his shooting charts for those seasons…
Over those eight seasons Nash averaged 16.4 points and 10.7 assists with shooting splits of .503/.433/.914. The league average for those years was .454/.358/.757. Oh, by the way, Nash led the league in assists five of those seasons, FT% for two, was a five-time all-star and earned himself back-to-back MVP trophies — all over an eight season span!
I also ran data for the NBA D-League regarding 50/40/90, however, since the 2001-02 season they have not had one player who met the minimum requirements. There have been players who met the average requirement but not with the adjusted FGM, 3PM and FTM based on the NBA’s minimum requirements.
These obscure statistics are what the NBA offseason is all about. I hope you now know all you will ever need to know about 50/40/90, but if not, you know where to find me!