Ranking the Biggest Threats to Win 2014-15 NBA Scoring Crown
There are a million reasons to love basketball. From deft needle-threading passes to the precise pitch and arc of a corner three, the hardwood abounds with feats both fantastic and infinitesimal.
Mostly, though, we love buckets, and lots of them. More specifically, we love the players best imbued with bucket-getting moxie. The Michael Jordans and Allen Iversons, George Gervins and Tracy McGradys—these are the basketball behemoths we watch with widest eyes and jaws most agape.
In honor of the NBA’s foremost fillers of the bucket, we’re running down the eight candidates with the best chance to capture the 2014-15 scoring title.
How did we come up with the rankings? A complex metric which takes into account past performance, career trajectory and the role the specific player stands to have on his particular team. It's mostly subjective, in other words.
Some of the names will be obvious—their first roundball rodeo, this is not. Others, meanwhile, are looking to take their legends to levels as yet unmet.
All of them, however, are surefire locks to don their conference colors come All-Star Weekend. Even if only one can boast the banner of World’s Best Bucket-Getter.
8. Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
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On the surface, ceilings aren’t a particularly exciting concept. You hang fans and lights on them and hope they keep the roof from collapsing on your head. That’s pretty much it. Ceilings are utilitarian, not poetic.
Anthony Davis, on the other hand—now that boy has a ceiling!
At 21 years old, the New Orleans Pelicans forward already has one statistical mega-leap under his belt. And while he’s likely years away from full-fledged planet-eater status, there’s reason to believe this could be the year Davis takes the NBA—and the scoring ranks—by storm.
Granted, a few things would have to fall neatly into place for Davis to reel in the buckets crown. Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony authoring off years and LeBron James taking a bit of a scoring backseat on the revamped Cleveland Cavaliers, for instance.
Moreover, Davis’ offensive repertoire—good and growing but by no means devastating—could stand some real on-the-job improvement.
Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson: These guys need their touches. Now it’s up to Davis to assert himself as an offensive beast in need of the biggest feeding.
7. Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
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We in the NBA media—including this writer—spent quite a bit of time poopooing Derrick Rose’s performance at the 2014 FIBA World Cup as a clear indication that the onetime MVP was still far from full-fledged form.
And then Monday’s preseason showdown with the Cleveland Cavaliers happened. Rose’s final line: 30 points (on 12-of-18 shooting), five rebounds and three assists in a 107-98 loss.
Rose looked spectacular, slicing and dicing Cleveland’s porous perimeter defense and generally looking every bit the explosive scorer of seasons past. That’s great news for the Chicago Bulls and terrible news for the league’s would-be scoring champions.
The additions of All-Star forward Pau Gasol, European sharpshooter Nikola Mirotic and rookie sensation Doug McDermott were supposed to relieve Rose of the beastly burden of carrying Chicago’s infamously anemic offense.
But consider it from the opposite direction: With so many more options at Tom Thibodeau’s disposal, Rose stands to have even more open looks and angles through which to exploit the defense.
To use one preseason game as evidence of Rose being back to full tilt would be a flagrant overstatement. Still, he’s close enough to make an assault on the scoring title far less than a mission impossible.
6. Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers
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Blake Griffin finished sixth in the NBA in scoring for 2013-14, which is why we’re giving him the sixth-best chance of winning the title this season.
You don’t want to see the formula for that one; it’s beyond your feeble brains.
As a key cog in last year’s most efficient offense, Griffin unleashed a level of versatility theretofore unseen from the Los Angeles Clippers' super-stud forward—the result being a career year (in PER and true shooting percentage, among other categories) for the 25-year-old former No. 1 pick.
Scarier still, the onetime jump-shooting liability appears to have turned a mechanical corner of sorts on his form (per SB Nation’s Mike Prada)—a prospect that should help the formerly paint-bound Griffin improve his overall efficiency.
The reason is simple: By proving himself more of a mid-range threat, Griffin will keep defenders honest, giving him more opportunities to use his lightning-quick first step and deceptively savvy dribbling skills to slash his way to the basket.
The question now becomes whether second-year head coach Doc Rivers can figure out a way to turn Griffin into an even more devastating offensive weapon. With the help of a certain, all-universe point guard, of course.
5. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
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Just because the mighty have slipped doesn’t mean they’ve fallen.
Underestimating LeBron James isn’t exactly a growth industry—never has been, never will be. Still, tempering the King’s chances of snagging the scoring crown isn’t about underestimation as it is a fresh redefinition of James’ basketball genius.
In Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, James boasts arguably his best pair of scoring sidekicks to date—Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh included. As such, James’ abilities as a facilitator and playmaker could be even more pronounced—especially if David Blatt’s famously pass-happy offensive system proves as potent as some envision.
Still, there’s something to be said for a rising tide lifting all boats, and James—a singular talent you can’t help but think is always holding a little something back—is as tempest-weathering a vessel as they come. On the off chance that Cleveland’s attack rewrites the modern offensive record books, it’ll be James reaping the lion’s share of the residual rewards.
4. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
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For as spectacular a shooter (and scorer) as Stephen Curry has been in his five seasons with the Golden State Warriors, there’s long been a lingering sense that the team’s offense—underachieving given the talent at hand—could’ve afforded the sharpshooting guard a few more favors.
Enter Steve Kerr, the former executive and color commentator whose triangle-hybrid offense might be just the strategic ticket to help put the Warriors over the top.
Indeed, the Warriors have failed to crest the century mark just once in six preseason games—a 90-83 loss to the Houston Rockets in which Curry and fellow marksman Klay Thompson both were late scratches.
By emphasizing better spacing and more decisive ball movement, Kerr hopes to ease the burden Curry bore as Golden State’s primary scorer. Here’s Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes expanding on this very point:
"The beauty of Kerr's proposed system is that it draws as much from the Triangle as it does the San Antonio Spurs' "motion weak" offense—which features nonstop movement, attacks and counters—all designed to get defenders on their heels in space. That means a play stymied on the strong side won't kill a Warriors possession this year…
…It would take hours to hit on all of the ways Curry stands to benefit from this kind of style, but two stand out as most significant: He won't be forced to create all of the offense for the Dubs, and he should see more opportunities as a shooter off screens and on spot-ups.
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Curry is deadly enough when the degree of difficulty is off the charts. In a system tailor-made for his brand of basketball ballistics, he’s downright evil.
3. James Harden, Houston Rockets
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There are few more helpless positions in which an NBA player can find himself than backpedaling down the floor on defense with James Harden barreling down, body trained through unrivaled repetition to splay in whatever direction will yield him a trip to the charity stripe.
The NBA’s second-biggest free-throw recipient a season ago, Harden’s ability to pad his stats at the line is one of many reasons why the Houston Rockets gunner is a not-so-sneaky favorite to capture the 2014-15 scoring title.
Key to Harden’s prospects will be his three-point shooting, which—owing to his now being his team’s undisputed No. 1 option—hasn’t been quite as reliable as it was during his days as the Oklahoma City Thunder’s third banana.
The loss of Chandler Parsons (and his unique playmaking) will likely mean a greater degree of difficulty for Houston’s bearded bellwether. But like any gunslinger worth his salt, Harden wouldn’t have it any other way.
2. Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks
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"I don't think I'll be the scoring champ,” Carmelo Anthony recently told ESPN.com's Ian Begley. “Especially with this system, the way we're playing—the way that it's going to be well-balanced, the style of play we're going to have, I don't think I'll have to lead the league in scoring this year.”
Coming from a guy only a year and change removed from winning the 2012-13 scoring title, such pessimism sounds severely out of place.
Still, Anthony’s remarks don’t want for logic: Under first-year head coach Derek Fisher’s triangle offense, Anthony will be expected to shy away from the isolation-heavy brand of ball typified by Mike Woodson’s tumultuous tenure—until crunch time, that is.
At the same time, a heightened emphasis on spacing and movement should give Anthony the kind of clean looks that have lately been a luxury. That, coupled with his ability to find and exploit the triangle’s myriad nooks and crannies, is formula enough to make the New York Knicks cornerstone a more than formidable challenger to the buckets throne.
1. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
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Kevin Durant won last year’s scoring crown by nearly five full points. Foot fracture, soot smacture—this guy’s the favorite no matter what the specs or stakes.
If Durant somehow misses a full two months of action, that would put him below the minimum threshold for total games played. However, Durant can still be eligible for the scoring title if he scores a minimum of 1,400 points. Even assuming KD misses a quarter of the season, he would only need to average 22.5 points in order to qualify.
Let’s just say we’re taking the over on that.
After two years of deep playoff runs and gold-medal chases, wear and tear was bound to happen. Luckily for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Durant’s injury was spotted early enough that the resulting recovery time shouldn’t be painfully prohibitive.
Durant won’t enjoy near the statistical cushion he cleaved open a season ago. For our money, though, even an improved field won’t be enough to fell this favorite.
