Last Nov. 18 is both so near and so far away. Way back then, the Chicago Bulls were rollicking through the season with an 8-4 record; the 4-3 Houston Rockets looked barely improved under Mike D’Antoni; and Yogi Ferrell was freely available as a street free agent.
Nov. 18th is also the day when I looked back at four (admittedly obscure) single-season NBA records that were, at the time, on pace to be broken. With the regular season wrapping up, it’s time to look back at what’s happened to these record chases over the season. Only one of the four has made it through the year intact:
4. Lowest scoring average, at least 20 minutes per game
Back Then: Boris Diaw was on pace to break.
Now: Andrew Bogut got darn close.
In order to be on this list, you have to be a fundamentally sound defensive stopper — that’s the only way you can receive so much NBA playing time while scoring just 2.1 points per game, as happened to both Jason Collins and Dennis Rodman. At the beginning of this season, though, Diaw was just plain struggling, making only one basket from the field across his first three games, all starts. Although Diaw did not manage to bring all of his phenomenal inventiveness from San Antonio to Salt Lake City, his current marks of 4.5 points in 17.5 minutes per game are far, far away from any mark of futility.
Read More: The #TankRace for the middle of the 2017 NBA Draft lottery
One person who did give Collins a run for his money was Andrew Bogut, who averaged just 2.9 points per game before he experienced the preposterous bad luck of breaking his leg in his first game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I say that Bogut’s apparent contempt for scoring should be admired, and I think he’ll surpass Collins one of these years.
3. Highest field goal percentage, at least 10 minutes per game
Back Then: Lucas Nogueira and Salah Mejri were on pace to break.
Now: DeAndre Jordan got darn close.
Even though both Nogueira and Mejri have regressed, a bit, back towards the mean, they have still put together some of the most efficient seasons in NBA history, shooting 67.3 percent and 63.6 percent on the year, respectively. They’re joined by several members of the most efficient group of centers in league history: Dwight Howard (63.2 percent), Clint Capela (63.8 percent), Dewayne Dedmon (64.8 percent), Rudy Gobert (65.8 percent), Montrezl Harrell (66 percent), and Tyson Chandler (67.1 percent). These are all among the top-50 seasons in field goal accuracy among players with at least ten minutes per game over at least 20 games.
But nobody can keep up with the prince of high accuracy: DeAndre Jordan. At 70.4 percent, Jordan is leading the league in field goal percentage for the fifth straight season. Even though Jordan has not gotten close to Wilt Chamberlain’s unprecedented single-season mark of 72.7 percent, in the final year of The Stilt’s career, Jordan has the highest career accuracy of any player with at least 1,000 total NBA minutes.
2. Lowest career PER, at least 1,000 career minutes
Then: Rashad Vaughn had the “lead” by an inch.
Now: Vaughn is still tied for first.
With a (relatively) strong start to the season, it looked like Vaughn was going to be able to leave mid-aughts draft bust Nikoloz Tskitishvili in the dust at the bottom of the all-time charts. Alas, the surprising emergence of second-round rookie Malcolm Brogdon pretty much ate up all of the minutes Vaughn could have used to escape this swampy corner of the record books. With just 370 total minutes across 34 games on the season, Vaughn has only managed to move his career PER up 0.1, moving him into a tie with Tskitishvili, who currently plays in Bahrain.
1. Most 3-pointers per minute, while qualified for 3PT% leaderboard
Then: Channing Frye was on pace to break.
Now: All fall short of Stephen Curry’s 2015-16 season.
In the same way that this year’s centers have absolutely dominated the all-time field goal accuracy chart, this year’s 3-point shooters have, unsurprisingly, filled it up from deep like we’ve never seen before. Since the arc was painted on the floor in 1979-80, there have been 20 individual seasons when a player has drained at least one 3-pointer every 10 minutes. Seven of those 20 seasons came this year: Klay Thompson, Wayne Ellington, Frye, Nick Young, Eric Gordon, Troy Daniels, and Steph Curry have all drained their deep shots at a historic rate. With one made 3-pointer every 8.5 minutes, Daniels and Curry are this season’s leaders in frequency. This is still well short of Curry’s 2015-16 season, the greatest 3-point shooting season of all-time, which featured one make every 6.6 minutes.
Next: Could Lonzo Ball beat LaVar Ball in a game of one-on-one?
Next week: a look at some of the records that are actually on the verge of being broken this year. Given how analytically intelligent teams are, plus the remarkable class of superstars at the top of the league, it’s pretty hard to find any new low marks for futility. This year’s accomplishments have been bountiful.