Steph averaged 32 pts/75 in 124 TS+ (Meaning his efficiency was 24% better than the league average that season), pretty bonkers numbers. And if I yelled from the mountain tops that it was the greatest scoring season of all time the echo from the valley below would say that it's way easier to score now than it was in the 90's. To that I would respond yes, but how much easier?
That's where Adjusted Big Time Scoring comes in. Me and a friend made an app a while back that compares the top-scoring seasons going back to 1974. Its aim was to sort out the most impressive scoring seasons of all time.
The way it works is by finding the average pts/75 of the top 25 scorers in a season and then seeing how a player in that season's pts/75 stacks up against that average. Then repeat that for every season going back to 1974. This helps adjust for era by comparing Michael Jordan's scoring volume relative to his peers and not the raw higher scoring environment of 2016. Then we grab the player's TS+ which looks at a player's scoring efficiency relative to their season. We combine the two and place a slightly higher weighting on volume over efficiency and out pops Adjusted Big Time Scoring.
Here's how Curry's 2016 stacks up against other notable big time scoring seasons.
2016 Stephen Curry
Pts/75 - 31.9
Season Avg Top 25 Scoring Volume -24.9
Points Above Avg - 7.0
TS+ - 124
Adjusted Big Time Scoring Z score - 2.99
2019 James Harden
Pts/75 - 36.2
Season Avg Top 25 Scoring Volume - 26.6
Points Above Avg - 9.6
TS+ - 110
Adjusted Big Time Scoring Z score - 2.61
1987 Michael Jordan
Pts/75 - 34.8
Season Avg Top 25 Scoring Volume - 23.9
Points Above Avg - 10.9
TS+ - 104
Adjusted Big Time Scoring Z score - 2.43
2006 Kobe Bryant
Pts/75 - 34.2
Season Avg Top 25 Scoring Volume - 25.5
Points Above Avg - 8.7
TS+ - 104
Adjusted Big Time Scoring Z score - 1.94
wilt averaged 50 ppg
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