Camctrail

It's been a crazy couple years for SGA. He went from putting up empty stats on a bad team, to last year being a first time all star and making all NBA 1st team, to now doing the same thing he did last year but for a winning team. Went from a 0x all star to 1st team all NBA in one year. OKC is 11-4, 2nd place in the loaded West, and SGA is averaging 30-6-6 on elite efficiency all while leading the league in steals as well. OKC is 7th in offense and 5th in defense (shoutout Chet, he's already proven to be a great defensive anchor) and they look like a team ready to compete for a title this year.

My personal MVP ladder as of right now, 11/23/23, would be Shai at 1, Jokic at 2, then Tatum, Ant, and Giannis rounding out the top 5.

We all know about the obvious unbreakable NBA records. John Stockton's career assist and steals totals, LeBron's potential scoring record wherever that ends up, Michael Jordan having 10 scoring titles, ones like that. However, I stumbled across another seemingly unbreakable record currently owned by Derek Fisher, a record that is far less prestigious than the aforementioned ones.

This is a list of the 5 players with the most career games shooting under 30% from the field:

• Derek Fisher, 425

• Jason Kidd, 364

• Robert Horry, 352

• Jamal Crawford, 339

• Brian Shaw, 321

As you can see, the gap between 1st and 2nd place is pretty large, and it's by far the largest gap anywhere on this list. The closest active player to Fisher in this state is PJ Tucker, the 2nd (I think) oldest player in the NBA, currently at 253 games. There's not a single player on a trajectory to even come close to Fisher's mark. The closest that I can find is Marcus Smart, who at 29 years old currently in his 10th season is at 174 games, but he would need to continue playing at his current rate for another like 15+ years in order to reach Fisher's mark.

Combine all that with the fact that the NBA today is more efficient than ever before, and I think it's safe to say that Derek Fisher's NBA record of most career games shooting under 30% from the field will never be broken.

A great 3&D player may be the most valuable archetype in today's NBA outside of your typical superstar player. There have been many great 3&D players even prior to today, and it got me wondering which of those players had the best individual 3&D season in league history.

Now, I didn't really know how to go about figuring that out, but in my head, I didn't think many players had made 1st team all defense while shooting at least 40% from 3 in the same season, so I figured I'd see how many players managed to accomplish that. The list is definitely not very long.

• 2017 Chris Paul

• 2016 Kawhi Leonard

• 2013 LeBron James

• 2005, 06, 08 Bruce Bowen

• 2007 Raja Bell

• 1996 Michael Jordan*

• 1994 Hakeem Olajuwon*

• 1989*, 90*, 92 Joe Dumars

• 1984 Maurice Cheeks*

The asterisks are as follows: Michael Jordan in 1996, while obviously a tenacious defender, had the benefit of playing with a shortened 3 point line that year and had by far his best year from 3 as a result. The others (Hakeem, 1989-90 Dumars, and Mo Cheeks) did not attempt enough 3s to truly qualify.

So, if you remove the asterisks, that leaves just 6 players in NBA history that have made 1st team all defense and shot 40+% from 3 in the same season. Bruce Bowen is the only player to accomplish this multiple times. However, the crown of best individual 3&D season has to go to 2016 Kawhi Leonard and it really isn't close. Out of all the players listed, he had the highest 3 point % at 44%, and he's the only qualifying player to not just make 1st team all defense, but win the DPOY award in the same year. Just goes to show how dominant a healthy Kawhi really is.

Other mentions can obviously go to players that made 2nd team all defense, like Klay Thompson. Also, shout out Raja Bell, he definitely gets lost in the shuffle when talking about the 7SOL Phoenix Suns.