Reply With Quote
Mavs and Suns fans:
"don't you mean PlodTMT?"
Not to be confused with RunTMC(Tim, Mitch and Chris).
I was just looking at the team stats and I noticed that the boring defense oriented Spurs have an outside shot at an offensive statistical feat accomplished only a handful of times in NBA history, all by great offensive teams.
The feat?
Three 20 PPG scorers on one team in the same season.
Manu Ginobili is scoring 20.5 PPG
Tim Duncan is scoring 20.4 PPG
and Tony Parker is scoring 18.4 PPG
Tony's stats make it a long shot for the Spurs to achieve this feat, but there is an outside chance it could happen. Tony is the one that has been most hampered by injuries this season up this point, and being the youngest he's also the one with the most room to improve.
IF Tim, Manu and Tony are able to score 20 PPG, it'll only have been accomplished 5 other times in NBA history(or at least since the merger).
The teams and players that have done it are:
The 1981 Denver Nuggets
David Thompson 25.5 PPG
Alex English 23.8 PPG
Dan Issel 21.9 PPG
The 1982 Denver Nuggets
Alex English 25.4 PPG
Dan Issel 22.9 PPG
Kiki Vandeweghe 21.5 PPG
The 1983 Denver Nuggets
Alex English 28.4 PPG
Kiki Vandeweghe 26.7 PPG
Dan Issel 21.6
The 1984 Philladelphia 76'ers
Moses Malone 22.7 PPG
Julius Erving 22.4 PPG
Andrew Toney 20.4 PPG
And finally...
The 1991 Golden State Warriors(the abovementioned RunTMC)
Chris Mullin: 25.7
Mitch Richmond: 23.9
Tim Hardaway: 22.9
That is impressive offensive company for various reasons...
The 1982 Denver Nuggets for instance are the highest scoring team in NBA history.
The 1984 Sixers are the core of what many consider to the most dominant offensive team in NBA history.
And the 1991 Warriors, well, let's just say at least one time Nellyball was a nightmare for Spurfans.
20 PPG is just an arbritrary number, but not entirely because it's generally considered the benchmark for great NBA scoring. And while there have been quite a few teams that have come close to having three 20 PPG scorers(including the Golden State Warriors this season), and several that have done it with one of the three players playing an extremly limited number of games, it's still only truly been done 5 times in NBA history.
What that achievement really would mean is that the Spurs inarguably have three dominant scorers, and lots of teams can make the claim of having three dominant scorers(that didn't all score 20 PPG in the same season), but if the Spurs do it, they'll definitely be the only defense oriented team to have ever accomplished that feat. And anyone claiming the Spurs are a boring plodding team is going to look awfully foolish once that knowledge is brought to light.
Something cool to keep your eye on as this season winds down...
I wouldn't get too excited about the feat though, because none of the other teams that have accomplished it have won a championship.
Mavs and Suns fans:
"don't you mean PlodTMT?"
Good stuff. Pierce (20.3), Allen (18.8), and Garnett (18.4) are close also but the Celts and Spurs are two defensive-oriented teams. Those Doug Moe-led Nuggets teams were offensive-oriented, as was Run TMC under Nellie.
So, the Spurs will be the first...sweet!
Another to add to the list:
1987-88 Seattle SuperSonics:
Dale Ellis 25.8 ppg
Xavier McDaniel 21.4 ppg
Tom Chambers 20.4 ppg
...And they didn't win the championship either!
Tim/Tony/Manu were all averaging 20 pts during this season, earlier before Tony had to sit out games due to the ankle problem. I remember that because I thought it was really impressive how all three were averaging the same number...
Thanks for the find...I didn't think about checking that era of the Sonics.
It's also possible teams did it before the merger...but I wasn't going to search the histories of every team going back to 1948.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
