Regular Season? Sounds like a broken record...

[WigNosy]

With some of the new tools available at http://pbsl.ijbl.net/lists.php (remember, the totals and game logs are as of the end of last season) I did a little digging into records and found some fascinating stuff that reminds me that we are watching the twilight years of some future PBSL hall-of-famers. Here's a few things I noticed...

SCORING

When Tracy McGrady went for 21 points against the Bobcats on 4/17/2016 he eclipsed Shawn Kemp's career point total of 35,204 and became the all-time leading scorer in PBSL history; he finished with 35,233 regular-season points. Two months later - on 6/20/2016 - he announced his retirement.

The Timberwolves' Chris Bosh and his career 32,430 points (as of this writing) has been a terror for a dozen seasons and while his scoring has dipped a bit this season to a career-low 21.9 ppg, could conceivably catch McGrady at the end of the 2017-2018 season if he keeps up his current scoring production. It is more likely he tracks down McGrady sometime in the 2018-2019 season (if he doesn't retire).

Other active players in the top-20 in career scoring include the Pelicans' LeBron James (#11 with 26,360; he passed David Robinson during Sim 6), the Grizzlies' Carlos Boozer (#13 with 25,997 pts, passing Dirk Nowitzki earlier this year), the Bulls' Carmelo Anthony (#15 with 25,504, passed Alonzo Mourning and Antawn Jamison), Clippers' own Kevin Durant (#18 at 24,770 and leapfrogged Thomas and Finley as well as such PBSL luminaries as Latrell Sprewell, Stacey Augmon, Gary Payton, and Cedric Ceballos) and the guy he just passed, the Nuggets' Ron Artest (#19 with 24,680 after passing Tim Thomas and Michael Finley). KD has only played in 765 games to this point; every other member of the top 20 has played over 1,000... so he definitely has a shot at retiring the as the career scoring leader many seasons from now.

REBOUNDING

Shaquille O'Neal accounted for a whopping 14,312 rebounds in his sim league career (about 1,000 more than NBA Shaq) and holds the top spot in rebounds. PBSL legend Shawn Kemp is second with 13,985. Third on the list is a guy who has been quietly collecting boards and taking names for 15 seasons... the Suns' Steven Hunter, who has amassed 12,636 regular season boards in his sim league career. He has an outside chance at catching both of them if he continues to get playing time, but I suspect he's reaching the end of his run.

The Knicks' Tyson Chandler checks in on the rebounding list at #9 with 11,034 and Carlos Boozer appears on this list as well; #10 in career boards with 10,801. Zach Randolph, now with the Warriors, has continued toiling away to push his total to 10,524 and sits in the #11 spot. Also appearing on the top 20 list are Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, and Chris Kaman.

BLOCKED SHOTS

Speaking of Steven Hunter, he quietly passed Shaquille O'Neal to take over the career record for regular-season blocks earlier this season. So every time he blocks a shot, he's breaking his own record! Shaq had an impressive 3,912 but Hunter passed him up this season and became the first (and so far, only) member of the 4,000 blocks club in PBSL history. Tyson Chandler and his 2,976 blocks sit at #6 in career blocks and is rapidly closing the gap with Tim Duncan (3,067). Tougher to catch will be Shawn Kemp, who has 3,471 rejections and with Chandler's career winding down, I think Zo's 3,800 on the nose is pretty safe.

ASSISTS

You probably won't be surprised to hear that Deron Williams and his 9,430 assists moved into #3 in career assists. What might surprise you is that he passed PBSL legends Jason Kidd (9,148) and Penny Hardaway (9,093) to get there. It's likely he makes it past the second-best assist man in PBSL history, Gary Payton (who has 10,067 assists) next season, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he is able to catch Nick Van Exel (11,267) eventually given the dearth of point guards in this league. For the last couple of seasons, Deron has been an MVP candidate and top player in the league and the undisputed best point guard currently playing in SLOE. It's now becoming clear he is probably the best point guard in the HISTORY of SLOE.

Chris Paul and his 8,425 assists have passed Baron Davis to move into the #6 spot on the career assists list. Pretty impressive that both Paul and Williams have done all their work with a single team! And I'll bet you can't name the PBSL's #3 active leader in assists (who shows up at #14 with 7,320 assists and will catch David Wesley with just 14 more assists...

Think it over, I'll wait.

No, really.

Okay, fine, it's Jameer Nelson, who hasn't had a hall of fame career but has been pretty darn solid. But he'll probably be caught and passed himself by the guy at #15 with 7,299 assists, Rajon Rondo. At the rate he's going, Rajon may not be able to catch Williams, but he'll be top 10 by the end of next season.

STEALS

The last of the "Big Five" traditional categories, this has traditionally been the "little man's" stat... #13 all-time in steals Tom Gugliotta (1,889) sticks out like a sore thumb. Too bad Rajon Rondo is at 1,884 and is almost surely going to pass him some time during the next sim. The only two active guys who have done more than Rajon are Cleveland's Chris Paul again (2,086 steals, good for 8th place ahead of the likes of Jason Kidd, Mark Macon, and Allen Iverson) and the current active career steals leader, Ron Artest who passed Stephen Jackson for #5 all-time with 2,352 swipes. Robert Pack and Anfernee Hardaway (T3 at 2,482) are definitely candidates for Artest to catch next season and even Baron Davis' 2,569 and Gary Payton's 2,620 mark don't look impossible for Artest to reach if he can find a team to keep giving him minutes. But Artest is running out of steam in his career and I rather suspect 10 years from now that mark will belong to either Paul or Rondo. And trying to predict who will be next to climb the ladder is all but impossible this early, but given how few active players crack even the top 50, I think we're in for a long wait for another top-10 steals guy once these dudes retire. Of all the categories I've seen, this one looks least likely to have guys bumped out of their perches in the career leaderboard.

AFTERWORD:

So there you have it... yes, we had some amazing players in the past... but we are witnessing greatness now, so enjoy watching these guys as the season winds down. Who knows whether they will "pull a McGrady" and retire as soon as they get to the top of the heap?

EDIT 9/11/2017: After writing this article, I noticed that the Regular Season Records script was pulling all-star weekend stats and including them in regular season totals. This has been corrected so the numbers quoted in the article above may be slightly off.

[PaulyP]

Great article. The league will be in good hands with AD, Love, and KD leading the way to the future

[Inner_GI]

you can claim 5 points.