James Harden averaging 36 points a few seasons ago. Booker Devin once scored 70 points in a game.
There are more goalscorers now than when LeBron James my start NBA career 2003-04. Tracy McGrady led the league by 28 points per game that season, a milestone nine players will now surpass.
With a faster match tempo and a large number of 3 points, players have a lot of opportunities to score. But looking at Harden will see how difficult it is for even an elite goalscorer to keep doing it long enough to challenge anywhere scoring when James finally retires.
He averaged 36.1 points in the 2019-20 season and 34.3 the following season. Maintain those numbers for 75 games a season and a player will hit 40,000 points in just 15 years – though that probably still won’t be enough to get to the point where James will set a current record of 38,390.
But then the situation changed. A first transaction to Brooklyn And after that Philadelphia meant sharing shots with his All-Stars teammates, and a serious hamstring injury robbed much of Harden’s outburst. Since then, he hasn’t even averaged 25 and now doesn’t even exceed 20.
Count Booker was among those who thought James would never be arrested.
“You can do it in five or 10 seasons, but 20 seasons with what he’s done, I don’t think it’s going to happen again,” phoenix sun said the star.
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However, perhaps there are still some players who will have a chance. Maybe it’s Luka Dončić, who like James lived up to the hype that followed him to the NBA. Or maybe Victor Wembanyama, who will try to do the same starting next season.
Maybe it’s a player who hasn’t even been born, like James when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set the previous record in 1984.
Here are some possibilities:
— Jayson Tatum, Boston: Tatum went head-to-head with James in the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, when he finished with more points post-season than any other rookie besides Abdul-Jabbar. The All-NBA forward has averaged 26 points better in the previous two seasons, nearly 31 points per game this season and won’t turn 25 until next month. Hold this season’s average for the next 13 games and he could go head-to-head with James.
— Dončić, dalas: Playing professionally in Spain before coming to the US got him ready to quickly make a splash in the NBA, and he has averaged more than 27 points in four of his five seasons. Dončić has already racked up over 8,500 points and he won’t even turn 24 until the end of this month. He’s not just a goalscorer, probably more than capable of passing Russell Westbrookhis career triple doubles record.
— Booker, Phoenix: Booker can become as famous as anyone in the league, as he showed when he scored 70 points in Boston in 2017 at the age of 20, or when he hit three consecutive goals with 40 or more points in October. 12. The Guardian just turned 26 a few months ago and already has 12,000 points. Do a little better than his 27.1 points-per-game this season for another 12 years and he can make things interesting.
— Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee: Perhaps he never really had a chance to set a career scoring record after picking up just 525 points (6.8 points per game) as a rookie. But few players worked harder to improve than Greek Freak, who may have replaced James as the NBA’s most unstoppable sporting force. He just turned 28 and is having his fourth straight season averaging over 28 points. Do it for the next 10 years, and he could get close to the 38,000 mark.
— Victor Wembanyama, France: The 19-year-old striker will arrive in the NBA in June as the player with the most hyped prospect since James 20 years ago. 7 feet-3 tall but with the range and ball handling skills of a much smaller player, he has plenty of ways to score — and he needs to do more to catch James.
Associated Press report.
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