The Best NBA Scorers of All-Time
Recently I broke down the best NBA scorers using “Net Points”. This metric simply views how well a player scores but also factors in misses. The formula is:
[Net Points] = [Points] - [Field Goal Attempts] - 0.44 * [Free Throw Attempts]
Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain destroyed the 60s and Kareem owned the 70s. This wasn’t good enough for Arturo though. The number of possessions an average NBA team has had per game has dwindled over time. The 1970s, when we first had complete data for possessions, the average team got around 125 chances a game to score. This has dropped by almost 20 a game! While I feel this gets into comparing Babe Ruth’s 60 to Roger Marris’ 61 by including season length, it is a valid point.
With that in mind, I redid the leader board adjusting for possessions. I looked at the percentage of a team’s possessions a player likely had access to and normalized it to a 100 possessions scale. Then I multiplied it out by the total possessions to get Pace-Adjusted Net-Points. Complexity abound, I know! For reference, pretend some baseball games went to 9 innings, while others went to 10. I’ve adjusted for this difference and acted like all games are 9 innings. With that, here’s a list of the top pace-adjusted Net Points players. To stick in baseball land, I’ll list all of those above 300!
Player | Season | Pace Adjusted Net Points |
Charles Barkley | 1988 | 448.0 |
Adrian Dantley | 1984 | 425.2 |
Adrian Dantley | 1982 | 416.3 |
Adrian Dantley | 1981 | 415.7 |
Michael Jordan | 1988 | 409.9 |
Kevin Durant | 2013 | 406.6 |
Karl Malone | 1990 | 402.5 |
Michael Jordan | 1989 | 402.4 |
Michael Jordan | 1990 | 388.1 |
Charles Barkley | 1990 | 377.5 |
Charles Barkley | 1989 | 372.7 |
Kevin McHale | 1987 | 367.5 |
Reggie Miller | 1990 | 363.8 |
Kevin Durant | 2010 | 355.2 |
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1980 | 349.1 |
Michael Jordan | 1991 | 343.8 |
Chris Mullin | 1991 | 337.1 |
Shaquille O’Neal | 1994 | 336.6 |
LeBron James | 2013 | 323.2 |
Peja Stojakovic | 2004 | 322.6 |
Adrian Dantley | 1986 | 321.7 |
Amar’e Stoudemire | 2008 | 320.7 |
Reggie Miller | 1991 | 320.4 |
Karl Malone | 1991 | 319.9 |
Karl Malone | 1993 | 318.6 |
Chris Mullin | 1990 | 311.7 |
Glen Rice | 1997 | 311.2 |
Patrick Ewing | 1990 | 310.3 |
Bob McAdoo | 1975 | 307.4 |
Artis Gilmore | 1982 | 307.4 |
Artis Gilmore | 1979 | 306.8 |
David Robinson | 1991 | 306.8 |
Larry Bird | 1988 | 302.6 |
Kiki Vandeweghe | 1984 | 301.5 |
Best of the Best
Only eight players have cracked 400 net points. Barkley, Dantley, Jordan, Durant, and Malone. What should be noted is that Dantley did it three times! What’s more, he’s tied with Jordan being on the list of over 300 net points four times. Dantley was one of the greatest scorers ever. In a league that loves scoring, it took years for him to make it to the hall of fame. I consider that a snub.
One other fun list to note:
- Adrian Dantley – 4
- Michael Jordan – 4
- Charles Barkley – 3
- Karl Malone – 3
- Kevin Durant – 2
- Reggie Miller – 2
- Chris Mullin – 2
- Artis Gilmore – 2
Here’s a list of all players that showed up multiple times. Kevin Durant’s recent scoring performances have been nothing short of amazing. In fact, we haven’t seen scoring close to this level since 1990, over two decades ago.
Asterisks
The NBA didn’t start keeping enough boxscore stats until 1974. As such, we can’t easily calculate possession for older eras, including those with Wilt and Oscar Robertson. There are three pre-1974 records worth noting:
- Kareeem Abdul-Jabbar 1972 – 480.9 Net Points
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1971 – 453.4 Net Points
- Wilt Chamberlain 1967 – 421.0 Net Points
The players likely exceeded 300 pace-adjusted net points. This obviously would put Kareem on the list multiple times as well.
Dantley again
This was a lot of fun to review. It’s hard not to be seriously wowed by Adrian Dantley’s numbers. What’s even more remarkable is that even though he played in the three-point era, he didn’t take threes. Dantley took over 15,000 shots in his career, only 41 of these were threes! This makes Dantley just that much more impressive.
-Dre