The NBA today released an article detailing what milestones current players like Kevin Durant are on the verge of cracking this year.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!For Durant, he has a chance to do something very significant in his 17th year in the league. He can can move into the top-10 all-time scoring leaders in NBA history.
Last season, Durant jumped from 21st to 13th all-time in terms of the NBA’s all-time scoring leaders. He did this only playing 47 games and scoring 1,366 points in those games. For his career, he currently has 26,892 points.
He should easily move into the 12th spot very early on. This would mean surpassing Hakeem Olajuwon, as Durant only needs 55 more points to do so. To get into the top 10, Durant only needs 518 points, so if he stays healthy, this should be very achievable.
Even more to the matter of staying healthy, Durant could also pass Carmelo Anthony (1,398 points away) and Shaquille O’Neal (1,705 points away) to move up to eighth place on this all-time list.
The last time he scored over 1,700 points was his 2018-19 season with the Warriors. He had 2,027 points in this season, as he played in 78 games and averaged 26 points per game. This was the last time Durant played over 55 games in a season.
His highest point total came in his MVP 2013-14 season when he had 2,593 total points. He played 81 games this season and averaged 32 points. This being said, it is very unlikely he can reach this level again.
Even if he did, Wilt Chamberlin is seventh all-time in scoring and nearly 3,000 points ahead of Shaq, so this amount of points wouldn’t bring much of a dent to this list.
via NBA
The article also detailed what Devin Booker has to do to achieve franchise history this season:
“All-NBA guard Devin Booker is entering his ninth season with Phoenix and is already the team’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made and attempted. This season, he can move to No. 2 in scoring and No. 3 field goals made in team history. At 12,688 points, Booker is No. 4 in scoring in team annals and needs to score 1,233 points in 2023-24 to surpass No. 2 Alvan Adams (13,910). Booker is also just 60 points from passing No. 2 Kevin Johnson (12,747). Last season, Booker scored 1,471 points, which marked his first season with less than 1,700 points since 2017-18.
In terms of field goals made, Booker has 4,453 in his career and ranks No. 4. He needs 427 or more to pass Shawn Marion for the No. 3 spot. Booker has made at least 525 field goals in five straight seasons and six of his last seven seasons, so getting ahead of Marion seems like a near-given.”
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
