Tony Parker Wants a 50-40-80 Season: Can He Reach It in 2012-13?
In a USA Today article earlier this week, it was mentioned that San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker had a shooting goal of 50-40-80 for the season. Parker is hoping that he can finish the season with shooting percentages of over .500 in field goals, over .400 in three-point attempts and over .800 in free throws.
Through games of Feb. 21, Parker is on the mark in two of the three categories: He is shooting .539 from the field, .379 from three-point range and .835 from the free-throw line.
Looking at Parker’s career, he has never had a 50-40-80 season; in fact, if you look at the numbers in his career, he has shot over 50 percent from the field in only four of previous 11 seasons.
More importantly, Parker has never been over 40 percent on three-point shots and has never had a season over 80 percent in free throws in any season.
That’s not to say that Parker won’t reach those numbers this season. But Parker is not the only player in the league that falls short of these numbers. Again, through games of Feb. 21, only two players (minimum of 30 games played) have reached 50-40-80 in their shooting percentages this year: Kevin Durant and Steve Nash.
In 2011-12, there was only one player who reached the 50-40-80 mark for the season: Parker’s San Antonio teammate, Manu Ginobili, whose season-ending shooting percentages were .526/.413/.871.
Looking at the history of the NBA, there have been 68 players who have reached these 50-40-80 numbers. Topping the list is the aforementioned Steve Nash. He has had seven such seasons in his career (and appears headed for an eighth).
Following are the players who have had at least two 50-40-80 seasons in their NBA careers:
7: Steve Nash
6: John Stockton
5: Jeff Hornacek
3: Larry Bird, Steve Kerr
2: Brent Barry, Brad Davis, Tim Legler, Reggie Miller, Chris Mullin, Drazen Petrovic, Mark Price
As the season progresses and we watch to see if Parker can reach his goal, there are a couple of other players (in addition to Nash and Durant, who are currently above those numbers) who still have an outside chance at having a 50-40-80 season.
Let’s take the numbers down a bit and look at the list of players who are currently at .475/.375/.775 for this season (there are eight players in this category).
They are: Jose Calderon (Detroit), Darren Collison (Dallas), Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City), Jarrett Jack (Golden State), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio), Tony Parker (San Antonio), Steve Nash (L.A. Lakers), Thabo Sefolosha (Oklahoma City).
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