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Nylon Calculus: The Almost Stat Line All-Stars

By Senthil Natarajan

HOUSTON, TX - MAY 7: Dejounte Murray #5 of the San Antonio Spurs handles the ball during the game against Patrick Beverley #2 of the Houston Rockets during Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2017 Playoffs on May 7, 2017 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - MAY 7: Dejounte Murray #5 of the San Antonio Spurs handles the ball during the game against Patrick Beverley #2 of the Houston Rockets during Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2017 Playoffs on May 7, 2017 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The NBA has always been about the individual players, in a way that sets it uniquely apart from most other team sports. It’s always been about the individual players’ style, their expressiveness, their talent, their brilliance. There are many things we use to celebrate and recognize their greatness, from awards and honors to arbitrarily constructed records and milestones.

As the years have gone by, some of those milestones have become entrenched, like the triple double or the 50/40/90. But most of them have gotten increasingly absurd and arbitrary (i.e. average at least 17 points per 100 possessions while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range with 1 block and 1 steal). Fellow Nylon Calculus writer Nathan Walker presented a great rule about such milestones: if your statistical cutoffs don’t end in a 0 or 5, you’re doing it wrong.

But we also must be careful not to focus too heavily on our triple doubles or our 50/40/90 seasons that we fail to properly recognize greatness that doesn’t come in neatly digestible numerical increments. So that’s what I’m going to do today. Let’s celebrate the Almost Stat Line All Stars, a wondrous mix of performances that just missed those arbitrarily constructed cutoffs for historical enshrinement in the record books. They deserve some love too. 

The 50/40/90 club

We can start with the mythical 50/40/90 club, a hallowed space for the players who shoot at least 50 percent on all field goals, 40 percent on 3s, and 90 percent on free throws across an entire season, a trifecta of efficiency. It’s a club that’s basically owned by Steve Nash, but there are many other NBA players just outside the door. I compiled a list of every player season in the 3-point era who shot at least 48/38/88 without actually hitting 50/40/90 using Basketball-Reference’s season finder tool, and got back a list of 42 seasons, several of them excruciatingly close to being memorialized.

Steve Nash (no surprise) came within 0.1 percentage points on free throws in his famous 2006-07 campaign with the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, putting together net-scorching 53.2/45.5/89.9 splits. CJ McCollum came incredibly close last season, as he put up 48/42.1/91.2 while averaging 23 points a game. It shouldn’t go understated that McCollum created a Dame vs. CJ debate with how well he played for large stretches last year. He’s undoubtedly one of the NBA’s best scorers, with a versatile skill set and cutthroat efficiency to match. Just ask poor Yogi Ferrell:

The 2014-15 season three years ago was a good one for the Almost All Stars, with three players — Kyle Korver, Steph Curry, and Chris Paul — all submitting 50/40/90 bids. This was the year of the 60-win Hawks and the Warriors’ first Curry-era title. In less upbeat terms, it was also the year of the Clippers’ second round playoff meltdown as they blew a 3-1 lead to the Houston Rockets. And while it will stand as a blot on Chris Paul’s record, it shouldn’t take away from another season in which he set the standard for efficiency at the point guard position. Due to his relatively low volume of perimeter shooting and his mentality as a “traditional” point guard, fans still tend to lose track of just how lethal of a shooter Chris Paul is from all areas of the court. He doesn’t quite go on the same scoring binges as Steph Curry might, but the Point God is an incredible floor spacer in his own right.

Dirk Nowitzki’s unexpected conquest in 2010-11 as he won his only ring made the list as well. As one of the sweetest shooting big men of all time, it’s no surprise to see multiple seasons from Dirk, and it’s only fitting that his title-winning season should be recognized, a season in which he posted 23 points a game on 51.7/39.3/89.2 splits, one-legged fadeaway by one-legged fadeaway. Rick Carlisle has teased that he may start Dirk at center this coming season, which may actually give us a chance to witness a 50/40/90 season by a center. Even in his twilight years, Nowitzki maintains an almost unparalleled level of gravity for an elite big man, one of the defining traits of an illustrious career which should see him ultimately recognized as one of the top 25 players in NBA history.

Triple-doubles in the 2016-17 Season

Last season was one that was defined by the explosions of stunning offensive performances, which is why it makes all the sense in the world that when we look back on it ten years from now, we’ll remember it as the season when Russell Westbrook did the thing and averaged a triple-double. Triple-doubles are all the rage these days, but last season featured a glut of games that just missed the cutoff but still do deserve to be recognized.

I used Basketball-Reference’s invaluable tools again and compiled a list of all games last season where players recorded at least 8 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds, with a game score* of at least 20 (so as to make sure we get the truly impactful performances), yet did not record a triple-double. To no one’s surprise, this is still a list dominated by Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and LeBron James, three of last year’s MVP duelists. But we already know they’re awesome. Let’s talk about some of the other guys.

I won’t lie — I was thoroughly unprepared to see Tyler Ulis’ name on the list. He was a rookie who averaged an utterly nondescript 7.3 points, 3.7 assists, and 1.6 rebounds per game in limited minutes last season. That he would have posted a heroic 34/9/9 effort in the 78th game of the season which would have probably been more memorable had it not come in the 78th game of the season almost warmed my heart. Almost. Because warming my heart is a status reserved for Mr. 94 Feet, who put up 26/9/8 in that same game (and actually got the win).

The Almost Triple-Double club also got a multitude of appearances from two of the league’s ascendant stars, Giannis Antetokounpo and Nikola Jokic. April 2, was a prolific day for the Almost All Stars, because Giannis joined Beverley and Ulis in putting together an outstanding performance, only his was expected, given that he led the Milwaukee Bucks in every major statistical category last season. Giannis’ game on that day was simply the second half of a monstrous back to back for the Greek Freak as he put up 28/9/14 in Detroit then turned around and posted 31/9/15 against Dallas. Nikola Jokic, Denver’s smooth-passing center, meanwhile was busy with some thoroughly outstanding stat lines of his own, headlined by a trio of games where he put up 27/9/17 (against the Mavericks on Dec. 19), 29/8/14 (against the Suns on Jan. 26), and 29/8/16 (against the Thunder in the last game of the regular season).

But for what it’s worth, my favorite Almost All-Star game last season may have come from Jokic’s former frontcourt mate, the Bosnian Beast, Jusuf Nurkic, as he loudly announced his arrival in Portland with a 28/8/20 career game that I could not take my eyes away from, and the only 20/20 game on my entire list. And that’s without even considering that he blocked six shots on the night as well, in one of the most devastatingly effective big man performances of the entire season. Like Terry Stotts said on that night, “Nurkic Fever? Why not?”

Next: Highly Plausible Win Projections for the 2017-18 NBA season

As we stand at the brink of the new NBA season, an 82-game march that ebbs and flows, it’s things like Nurkic Fever that keep everyone fixated until the end. The triple doubles will be there, the 50/40/90’s will be there, but so will the 50/40/89’s and the 20/20’s. And that’s what makes the NBA the most exciting sports league in the world. That no matter when you tune in, there’s a chance you could be watching an unbelievably dominant display by the league’s elites or a career-defining game or a historic scoring bonanza. And the myopic lenses of arbitrary statistical milestones shouldn’t detract from that element. Don’t be afraid to celebrate the Almost Stat Line All Stars. After all, they too are an integral part of making amazing happen.

*Note: All stats provided by Basketball-Reference. Game Score is defined as  PTS + 0.4 * FG – 0.7 * FGA – 0.4*(FTA – FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK – 0.4 * PF – TOV and was created by John Hollinger. Video provided courtesy of 3Ball.io and DawkinsMTA on Youtube.

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