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Sorry,

The 2004-5 "Spurs"

Jax, Thanks for the reply.

The highest regular season output of a 3rd option on the title winner in the last 10 seasons was Ray Allen at 17.4 pts per game in 2007-8. It fell to 15.6 in the playoffs.

The 2004-5 got 16 pts per game from 3rd option Ginobili in the regular season and 17 pts in the playoffs.

15-17 pts / g appears to be the upper reach for 3rd options recently.

@Crow

I've had this balanced scoring discussion with friends before - sort of. We were talking about High School ball, and how all the teams that tend to win state championships have one dominant scorer that accounts for half of the team's points.

But you rarely see that succeed in college or in the pros.

I think that if Harden can get his average points per game towards 20, you could have KD+Russ+James accounting for roughly 70 points per game on average. I don't know if that is balanced enough, but it would be interesting to see if that distribution is balanced enough to match previous championship teams.

Another thing about taking option B for me personally is I sort of already budgeted that amount towards entertainment expense. If I couldn't go to the Thunder games I would at least like to use that money for movie tickets or maybe to check out the minor league hockey team.

Ozarkhick :I’ve been checking out espn’s player rankings and just noticed that Bargnani is a 7 foot 250 pound center picked number one overall, who takes 18 shots a game, averages just over 20 points per game, gets 5 rebounds and one assist. I’d rather have Oden the gimp. What a waster.Also a question for season ticket holders. I took the NBA sanctioned plan “B” for lockout reimbursement. My agent was pushing very hard for the Thunder-favored plan “A” – what do you guys think?

I took B also. It was pretty clear they were really wanting to hang onto to my cash. I think it is a small amount of direct pressure to apply in hopes of pushing the sides to settle.

Of course more balance in scoring means less impressive scoring stats for Westbrook and / or Durant. Team success is what is most important. There is debate about how much more balance this team is capable of having successfully. I tend to "think' / guess there is room for more balance and reason to think at least some more would help. But you have to try it enough to prove or disprove that theory. If you want to know which is better. If you've already made up your mind, then you don't have to test it much. The answer is simply what you choose. Some game to game analysis of how greater than average scoring balance fared compared to the normal would be appropriate. Maybe later or next season.

More balance in scoring next season seems like a better idea to me than running it exactly the same as last season.. or possibly letting it get more imbalanced.

Mohammed is very unlikely to be a 10 pt scorer but he's probably one of the next options after Jackson. It could take a radical shift in strategy. It isn't going to happen in a sustained way but there might be some teams and situations where he could get and they maybe should at least make some initial effort to get him 10 pts. The way they should have tried to do that for Krstic more often. But certain other scoring priorities took precedence and where allowed to do so and in fact were "the design".

Harden- Durant- Collison- Mohammed was very good with Westbrook or Maynor. Used 3 minutes per game in the regular season, just a bit over 1 in the playoffs (always with Maynor). A small shift but still another case of less minutes given to very productive lineups. Used less than 1 minute against Dallas. (Never in the regular season and basically stuck with that decision or happenstance.) That doesn't make sense given this data. I would have thought Dirk-Tyson was a great time to use them. with Maynor was the 2nd best lineup on raw +/-, 3rd best on estimate Adjusted +/- of all playoff lineups. If they would have given that weight / consideration. The fact that it worked well regular season and playoffs strengthens the case, as that doesn't always happen. They probably gave more weight to Nazr's individual stats and his somewhat down shooting than these team based stats, as that it what the NBA typically does. Will they play these lineups more next season and particularly in a tough playoff series? Probably not. Should they? Next time, it depends on the new numbers. Last time the better answer looked more like yes than no to me, based on this data. Oh well.

Oops. "Imbalanced" is kinda vague. It can mean different things with different data cuts.

Durant=Westbrook can look imbalanced as a heavy twosome vs rest of team but actually the Thunder had ended the season almost have 4 over 10 pts per game. That was ok, maybe could be a bit better, a bit more balanced. Mor eshots for Harden and Ibakka, A 5th 10 pt scorer doesn't seem immediately likely but maybe Jackson becomes that soon enough (2nd or 3rd season?).

Wade-James-Bosh is very top heavy vs rest of team but as a 3some it was fairly balanced.

Only 5 of the last 10 champs have had 3 over 15 pts per game.

Just 3 had 5 over 10 pts (or almost). Interestingly it was the last 3 straight seasons. The 2010-11 Mavs were one of them because of Caron Butler. He may or may not return for them. 2009-10 lakers did it. 2008-9 Lakers were within 0.1 of doing it so I'll count them as the other. Is 3 straight super balanced scoring teams just a coincidence or is it the right way to go these days? The Thunder are close to the top at being imbalanced. Miami is probably the only one more imbalanced. They got close but didn't quite get it done.

Correction: For all the talk about big 3s on the net only 7 of the last "21" champs even have had 2 guys over 20 pts per game. And only 1 in the last 9 years. Kobe/Shaq went for 3, MJ/Pip 2, Houston 1, Miami 1.

90% of 30+ pt scorers did not win the title in those seasons.

Only 2 of the last 21 champs had 2 over 25 pts per game.
FWIW to the Thunder.

For all the talk about big 3s on the net only 7 of the last 7 champs even have had 2 guys over 20 pts per game. No champ ever had 3 in this period.

Crow :Ozark, If you haven’t already seem it, Thomas commented on that issue in the Thursday Bolts thread.

Thanks, Crow and Thomas. I guess my gut instinct to never buy the product that is being pushed suspiciously hard on me was the right decision...

If Durant or James end up playing 15 seasons they probably get to 30-32,000 points. 5 over 30.000 so far (including ABA). The top 2 got there by playing 19 and 20 years respectively. Kobe will play that long. James probably won't. I don't think Durant will but he probably goes longer than LeBron.

Ozark, If you haven't already seem it, Thomas commented on that issue in the Thursday Bolts thread.

I've been checking out espn's player rankings and just noticed that Bargnani is a 7 foot 250 pound center picked number one overall, who takes 18 shots a game, averages just over 20 points per game, gets 5 rebounds and one assist. I'd rather have Oden the gimp. What a waster.

Also a question for season ticket holders. I took the NBA sanctioned plan "B" for lockout reimbursement. My agent was pushing very hard for the Thunder-favored plan "A" - what do you guys think?

Wilt, Kobe, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, etc, never did both the same season.

Only 6 times has a player ever scored 30+ per game in the regular season and gone on to win the title that time. Kareem 1, Rick Barry 1, Jordan 4.

Jordan was the oldest to go over 30 pts per game at age 32.
85% of such seasons come by age 28.

Only 6 players have had more than 3 seasons of 30+ points per game. The only ones to do it since the early 80s are Jordan (8 in 15 seasons) and Iverson (4 in 14 seasons). Kobe at 3 in 15 seasons, LeBron at 2 in 8 seasons. Wade, 1 in 8 seasons. Durant 1 (barely) in 4 seasons.

Will Durant be another exception or follow the general trend? So far his 3rd season was his highest.

Of the 8 players who scored the most thru the season which they started out being 25, 5 scored their highest points per game by their 3rd season, 2 were close to that (a 4th year high and a 3rd year that was just barely superseded later) and only one was notably later (Adrian Dantley).

justin :I don’t think Durant has a realistic shot to pass Kareem if he remains strictly a wing player. And that’s not a slight against Durant’s talent, it’s just that Kareem had abnormal durability and longevity. Same with Karl Malone. Durant’s missed more games in his first four seasons than Malone missed in his entire Utah Jazz career.

I agree.

I don't think Durant has a realistic shot to pass Kareem if he remains strictly a wing player. And that's not a slight against Durant's talent, it's just that Kareem had abnormal durability and longevity. Same with Karl Malone. Durant's missed more games in his first four seasons than Malone missed in his entire Utah Jazz career.

"The real question is, if he did all that before 23, what comes after?"

A lockout.

@ holeydonut
Couldn't help it.

Lol you just had to stick another Oden-Jab in there.