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Statistically speaking at least, Nicolas Batum has been having a pretty special season for the Portland Trail Blazers. He may have missed a large chunk of the season to injury -- and who hasn't on the Blazers this season, it's par for the course -- but when he has been on court, he has done some things to make people stand up and take notice.
Towards the end of February I wrote about Batum's historic statistical night, where he managed to put up a line which was unprecedented in some respects and famously-linked in others:
Batum put up 31 points (11/16 FG, 5/8 3PT, 4/4 FT), seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and zero turnovers in 29 minutes -- no other player in NBA history has ever put up those numbers or better across all of those statistical categories in one game.
Well in terms of his shooting so far in this short season, there is a new statistical development to report. So far this season, in 21 games, the Frenchman is shooting 55.4% on field goals, 91.7% on free throws and 42.9% on three-pointers. Hefty percentages by anyone's estimation.
Where do those numbers put Batum in historical context?
Basically, there is no comparison. No other player has managed to shoot those percentages across the board on a decent number of attempts or minutes (Batum has played 479 minutes so far this season). These are the comparisons over the decades:
#1 Kyle Weaver (Oklahoma City Thunder) -- 2009/10: Weaver has only played 30 minutes this season and has put up a total of 11 shots across all types -- not worth consideration.
#2 Amir Johnson (Detroit Pistons) -- 2005/06: The lanky forward only played 39 minutes for the Pistons that season, once again making the comparison useless.
#3 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix Suns) -- 1999/00: KJ managed to shoot .571 from the field whilst not missing a trey or free throw in 113 minutes across 6 games for the Suns before retiring that season. Again, too small a sample size.
#4 Scott Hastings (Detroit Pistons) -- 1990/91: Hastings put up some very nice percentages across a total of only 113 minutes that season; perhaps that is what made him such a gun player on the following season's Tecmo Super NBA Basketball on the Super Nintendo!
Don't believe me on these statistics? Check them for yourself at basketball-reference.com. Now, obviously Batum's numbers themselves are coming from a small enough sample size to allay too much excitement for all but the most ardent of Blazers fans, but they show how quickly he has spun into action since coming back from injury.
A better historical context
A better comparison is to look at players who have managed the feat of shooting over .500/.400/.900 for an entire season in heavy minutes. This has only been achieved in eleven seasons by seven players, with most of them being the usual suspects:
#1 Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) -- 1986/87, 1987/88: Remarkably with the pressure placed on Larry Legend and the heavy minutes he played (around 3000 minutes in both of those seasons) he has managed to pull this triple off twice.
#2 Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) -- 2005/06, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10: This is what makes Nash such a freak and an MVP candidate. At his size, to pull off those shooting percentages in four separate seasons is amazing.
#3 Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) -- 2006/07: No wonder the Larry Bird comparisons have been made, but the fact remains that Dirk Diggler is an entity all to his own.
#4 Mark Price (Cleveland Cavaliers) -- 1988/89: Price was always known as a pure shooter, thus this is no surprise.
#5 Reggie Miller (Indiana Pacers) -- 1993/94: Spike Lee, cop that!
#6 Jose Calderon (Toronto Raptors) -- 2007/08: I'm sure not many people picked this guy to be on the list.
#7 Steve Kerr (Chicago Bulls) -- 1995/96: Playing off Michael Jordan sure helps.
One player I was surprised not to see on that list was John Stockton. Delving into his numbers however shows that he just didn't shoot well enough from the stripe, never breaking .900 in a season -- a tougher task than many would imagine.
Conclusion: no pressure, young Nicolas. No one is expecting you to keep these percentages up the rest of the way through the season -- but it definitely is promising to see.
You can also read more of my writing at A Stern Warning and follow me on twitter @ASternWarning.
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