Bill Simmons 42 club revisited
So for those who don't know, in Bill Simmons book of basketball, he talks about the 42 club, which is just pts+reb+ast for the playoffs with a minimum of 13 games after 1977. The list is surprisingly short when he made it, and some very important years just missed out, and should have. Robinson in 95 barely missed out which is appropriate because he got violated by Hakeem. Malone made it twice, but missed out 3 close times in 96-98 which is appropriate because he has historically choked in the playoffs. As of now, LeBron has 7 years in the 42 club which is most all time, ahead of Jordan with 6 and Bird/Shaq with 4 each. I decided to look at theses stats in Per 100 possessions and see if there is a similar cut off mark. It happens to be 50. Of the 38 seasons that qualify, only 4 of them dont add up to 50 when you change it to 50 per 100, and two of them are 49.5. So one would think that this is a more accurate representation, to adjust for different paces, and in some ways it is. Here's the list of original 42 club members, then I will put the list of 50 per 100 members.
In Descending Order, original 42 club
LeBron James '06(44.7), '08(43.6), '09(51.7), '12(45.6), '15(49.9), '16(43.4), '17(49.7)
MJ '89(49.4), '90(50.7), '91(45.9), '92(46.5), '93(47.8), '97(43.8)
Shaq '98(43.6), '00(49.2), '01(49), '02(43.9)
Larry Bird '81(42), '84(44.4), '86(43.4), '87(44.2)
Moses Malone '81(43), '83(43.3)
Magic Johnson '86(43.8), '91(42.5)
Karl Malone '92(43), '94(42.9)
Hakeem Olajuwon '94(44.2), '95(47.8)
Russell Westbrook '14(42.1), '16(43.9)
Tim Duncan '01(42.7), '03(45.4)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '80(47.1)
Charles Barkley '93(44.5)
Kobe Bryant '01(43.1)
Allen Iverson '01(43.7)
Kevin Garnett '04(44)
Kevin Durant '14(42.4)
Blake Griffin '15(44.3)
Thats the whole list. It's very good, but..duncan and kobe only have 3 years between them and westbrook has more years than durant, also, wade and curry dont have any years, so it's not quite as perfect as it could be. Dirk is not on there, getting very close in 06, but his underwhelming performance in the finals dropped him down to 41.6, and his 2011 year isnt on there either. Here's the entire list of players including only their 50 per 100 years, again, its 13 games minimum which is actually a perfect cut off after I looked at a large amount of players.
In Descending Order, Per 100
LeBron James '06(53.8), '07(51.5), '08(57.3), '09(69.6!), '12(58.3), '13(53.8), '14(57.2), '15(62.5), '16(58.8), '17(59.9)
MJ '89(61.6), '90(62.3), '91(61.5), '92(59.9), '93(62.9), '96(53.9), '97(58.1), '98(56.3)
Tim Duncan '01(56.4), '03(56.3), '05(56.4), '06(56.9), '07(54.2), '08(52)
Shaq '95(57.4), '98(61.3), '00(60.3), '01(60.6), '02(56.5)
Karl Malone '92(53.4), '94(54.3), '96(57.2), '97(54.7), '98(57.2)
Kobe Bryant '01(51.4), 08(52.1), '09(53), '10(54.2)
Magic Johnson '86(54.4), '87(53.8), '91(51.3)
Hakeem Olajuwon '86(51.4), '94(54.9), '95(58.9)
Kevin Durant '12(50.2), '14(51.5), '17(54.8)
Dwyane Wade '05(52), '06(51.1), '11(50.9)
Stephen Curry '15(51.7), '16(51.9), '17(55.5)
Kevin Garnett '04(54.2), '08(50.4)
Dirk Nowitzki '06(52.4), '11(54.2)
Russell Westbrook '14(56.5), '16(59.1)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '80(53.7)
Charles Barkley '93(53.7)
Allen Iverson ''01(52.2)
Larry Bird '84(51.9)
Moses Malone '(53.2)
Blake Griffin '15(54.2)
Carmelo Anthony '09(50.3)
Derrick Rose '11(53.3)
Steve Nash '05(50.1)
Dwight Howard '09(51.4)
James Harden '15(51)
David Robinson '95(52.2)
John Wall '17(52.4)
Amare Stoudamire '05(53.2)
So the biggest differences are that Duncan and Kobe got a lot more, Bird only has 1 as opposed to 4, and there are a few years that simply shouldnt be on the list. in 2015, Harden quit on his team. Stoudemire was never a true franchise guy imo, and John Wall, I fucking love him, but he doesn't quite yet belong on a list like this. However, the per 100 list does include 3 great years from curry and wade, and signature years from Rose, Carmelo, and Blake, which is important. I found it funny that the original list might be more accurate if you want a very exclusive whos who of great playoff years, but having all of Jordans championship years, as well as lebrons last two years in Miami seems more appropriate. If you want to look at the breakdowns of all the Pts, Reb, Ast, heres the link to a google sheet I made. Wanted to put all the necessary data on here for the mobile users.
Cheers
So for those who don't know, in Bill Simmons book of basketball, he talks about the 42 club, which is just pts+reb+ast for the playoffs with a minimum of 13 games after 1977. The list is surprisingly short when he made it, and some very important years just missed out, and should have. Robinson in 95 barely missed out which is appropriate because he got violated by Hakeem. Malone made it twice, but missed out 3 close times in 96-98 which is appropriate because he has historically choked in the playoffs. As of now, LeBron has 7 years in the 42 club which is most all time, ahead of Jordan with 6 and Bird/Shaq with 4 each. I decided to look at theses stats in Per 100 possessions and see if there is a similar cut off mark. It happens to be 50. Of the 38 seasons that qualify, only 4 of them dont add up to 50 when you change it to 50 per 100, and two of them are 49.5. So one would think that this is a more accurate representation, to adjust for different paces, and in some ways it is. Here's the list of original 42 club members, then I will put the list of 50 per 100 members.
In Descending Order, original 42 club
LeBron James '06(44.7), '08(43.6), '09(51.7), '12(45.6), '15(49.9), '16(43.4), '17(49.7)
MJ '89(49.4), '90(50.7), '91(45.9), '92(46.5), '93(47.8), '97(43.8)
Shaq '98(43.6), '00(49.2), '01(49), '02(43.9)
Larry Bird '81(42), '84(44.4), '86(43.4), '87(44.2)
Moses Malone '81(43), '83(43.3)
Magic Johnson '86(43.8), '91(42.5)
Karl Malone '92(43), '94(42.9)
Hakeem Olajuwon '94(44.2), '95(47.8)
Russell Westbrook '14(42.1), '16(43.9)
Tim Duncan '01(42.7), '03(45.4)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '80(47.1)
Charles Barkley '93(44.5)
Kobe Bryant '01(43.1)
Allen Iverson '01(43.7)
Kevin Garnett '04(44)
Kevin Durant '14(42.4)
Blake Griffin '15(44.3)
Thats the whole list. It's very good, but..duncan and kobe only have 3 years between them and westbrook has more years than durant, also, wade and curry dont have any years, so it's not quite as perfect as it could be. Dirk is not on there, getting very close in 06, but his underwhelming performance in the finals dropped him down to 41.6, and his 2011 year isnt on there either. Here's the entire list of players including only their 50 per 100 years, again, its 13 games minimum which is actually a perfect cut off after I looked at a large amount of players.
In Descending Order, Per 100
LeBron James '06(53.8), '07(51.5), '08(57.3), '09(69.6!), '12(58.3), '13(53.8), '14(57.2), '15(62.5), '16(58.8), '17(59.9)
MJ '89(61.6), '90(62.3), '91(61.5), '92(59.9), '93(62.9), '96(53.9), '97(58.1), '98(56.3)
Tim Duncan '01(56.4), '03(56.3), '05(56.4), '06(56.9), '07(54.2), '08(52)
Shaq '95(57.4), '98(61.3), '00(60.3), '01(60.6), '02(56.5)
Karl Malone '92(53.4), '94(54.3), '96(57.2), '97(54.7), '98(57.2)
Kobe Bryant '01(51.4), 08(52.1), '09(53), '10(54.2)
Magic Johnson '86(54.4), '87(53.8), '91(51.3)
Hakeem Olajuwon '86(51.4), '94(54.9), '95(58.9)
Kevin Durant '12(50.2), '14(51.5), '17(54.8)
Dwyane Wade '05(52), '06(51.1), '11(50.9)
Stephen Curry '15(51.7), '16(51.9), '17(55.5)
Kevin Garnett '04(54.2), '08(50.4)
Dirk Nowitzki '06(52.4), '11(54.2)
Russell Westbrook '14(56.5), '16(59.1)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '80(53.7)
Charles Barkley '93(53.7)
Allen Iverson ''01(52.2)
Larry Bird '84(51.9)
Moses Malone '(53.2)
Blake Griffin '15(54.2)
Carmelo Anthony '09(50.3)
Derrick Rose '11(53.3)
Steve Nash '05(50.1)
Dwight Howard '09(51.4)
James Harden '15(51)
David Robinson '95(52.2)
John Wall '17(52.4)
Amare Stoudamire '05(53.2)
So the biggest differences are that Duncan and Kobe got a lot more, Bird only has 1 as opposed to 4, and there are a few years that simply shouldnt be on the list. in 2015, Harden quit on his team. Stoudemire was never a true franchise guy imo, and John Wall, I fucking love him, but he doesn't quite yet belong on a list like this. However, the per 100 list does include 3 great years from curry and wade, and signature years from Rose, Carmelo, and Blake, which is important. I found it funny that the original list might be more accurate if you want a very exclusive whos who of great playoff years, but having all of Jordans championship years, as well as lebrons last two years in Miami seems more appropriate. If you want to look at the breakdowns of all the Pts, Reb, Ast, heres the link to a google sheet I made. Wanted to put all the necessary data on here for the mobile users.
Cheers
