Is this going to be the very best scoring season in NBA historical past?

We’re nearly midway via the NBA season, and thus far, one factor is for sure. Players are getting buckets. In simply the previous two weeks, we’ve seen Luka Doncic drop a 60-20-10 triple-double after which rating 51 extra 4 nights later. We’ve seen Donovan Mitchell rating 71, Klay Thompson rating 54, and Giannis Antetokounmpo rating 55. That’s all within the span of two weeks!

Naturally, with all of the scoring explosions we’ve been aware of lately, one is left questioning: is that this going to be the very best scoring season in NBA historical past?

To reply this query, let’s take a fast take a look at the seasons with essentially the most 30-point, 40-point, 50-point, and 60-point video games.

Okay, so now that now we have these figures in our thoughts, let’s take a look at what number of of every of these performances now we have thus far this season and what number of we could have by the tip of the yr if we keep our present tempo.

As it stands, the league is at present on tempo to thrash each the 30-point and 40-point data. However, it will take an enormous uptick in manufacturing for them to interrupt the 50-point and 60-point data set within the 1961-62 season (you’ll recall that was the season Wilt Chamberlain famously averaged 50.4 PPG for a complete season).

With all this in thoughts, some individuals might take a look at this chart and say that the explanation now we have so many 30 and 40-point scoring video games as we speak is due to the rise in tempo and offensive effectivity. Inversely, you can additionally say that Chamberlain’s bonkers scoring output from 1961-62 was solely attainable as a result of he performed each minute of each sport.

To account for the modifications in the best way the sport has been performed over time, we will even be Ben Taylor’s Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75 Possessions (which might be discovered on thinkingbasketball.net).

This measure calculates each participant’s scoring common over the course of 75 possessions if the league-wide offensive ranking was 110 throughout that season. So, this accounts for the modifications in tempo, minutes performed, and offensive effectivity.

In 2019-20, there have been 4 gamers with an Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75 common of 30 factors or greater. To date, that is the very best complete in NBA historical past.

(For these questioning, these 4 gamers had been Antetokounmpo, Doncic, James Harden, and Kawhi Leonard.)

This yr, we solely have three gamers over the 30-point mark within the statistic (Joel Embiid, Doncic, and Antetokounmpo). However, there are at present six different gamers averaging over 29 Inflation-Adjusted Points per 75. If even a type of guys pushes their common to 30, that will tie the all-time report.

And if two of these six candidates had been to perform this feat, it will give this season a robust case as the best scoring season in NBA historical past.