The end of the NBA season is also a good opportunity to look at some of the statistical leaders around the association from the following season, as Carmelo Anthony led the race to the NBA scoring title; Dwight Howard continued his dominance when it came to rebounding despite the slightly disappointing season and Chris Paul led the NBA in both assists and steals.
This season also provided us with the statistical emergence of Stephen Curry, by far the best sharpshooter in the NBA who led the way in both volume and accuracy. The other less prolific man to make a name for himself when it comes to numbers is Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks, playing less minutes than more prominent big men in the NBA, but putting up excellent blocking and rebounding numbers.
Scoring Title – Carmelo Anthony
For the first time in his career, Caremlo Anthony is an NBA scoring champion, averaging 28.7 points per game, which is lower than his career best of 28.9 ppg in the 2006-2007 season. When it came to total points, Anthony finished fifth in the NBA with 1920, missing 15 games this NBA season.
He’s followed in the scoring race by former three-time champion Kevin Durant (28.1); Kobe Bryant with 27.3, although if it wasn’t for his injury and the amount of minutes he was playing late in the season, maybe he’d have taken back the lead and title; LeBron James was fourth with 26.8 and fifth came James Harden with 25.9 points per game, improving by 9.1 points from last season.
Rebounding King – Dwight Howard
Howard finished on top of the rebounding charts for the fifth time in his NBA career, although his average of 12.4 per game is his lowest since the 2006-2007 season, when he averaged 12.3 for the Orlando Magic. Howard finished second in total rebounds, 11 behind Omer Asik of the Houston Rockets.
Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic came in second averaging 11.9; Asik was next with 11.7, followed by Zach Randolph with 11.2 and David Lee of the Golden State Warriors with 11.2 as well. Reggie Evans was the best offensive rebounders in the NBA this season because he grabbed 15.5% of the available offensive rebounds while he was on the floor, good enough for 3.3 per game and 4.8 per 36 minutes.
Assists & Steals Master – Chris Paul
Rajon Rondo averaged more assists than anyone else this season, finishing with 11.1 per game before the injury that ended his season occurred. He had 420 assists in 38 games, not even good enough for the top 20 eventually, giving the title to Chris Paul, averaging 9.7 assists per game, taking the crown for the third time in his career, although he did finish second in total assists.
Greivis Vasquez of the Hornets led the league with a total of 704 assists, good enough to average nine per game. They were followed by Jrue Holiday of Philadelphia with 8, Deron Williams of the Nets with 7.7 and Tony Parker of the Spurs with 7.6. Paul led the NBA in assist percentage, assisting on 46.5% of his teammates field goals while he was on the floor.
Paul also led the league in steals, averaging 2.414, winning the steals crown for the fifth time in his NBA career and the second season in a row. Mike Conley Junior led the NBA in total steals with 174, good enough for an average of 2.2. Monta Ellis follows with 2.1 and Kemba Walker is the final player with an average of more than two assists per game. Ricky Rubio averaged 2.4, good enough for second in the league, but he played in only 57 games this season.
Blocking General – Serge Ibaka
For the second consecutive season Serge Ibaka leads the NBA in blocks per game with an average of 3, dropping from the 3.7 of last season. It’s also the third consecutive season in which he’s led the total blocks category as well. He’s followed by Larry Sanders of the Bucks with 2.8 per game, and after him come Tim Duncan with 2.7, Roy Hibbert with 2.6 and Dwight Howard with 2.4. Sanders has the best blocking percentage in the NBA (an estimate of blocks out of an opponents field goal attempts while he was on the floor) and in blocks per 36 minutes.
Shooter of the Year – Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry finished the season with a new record for three point field goals, making 272 out of 600 attempts, hitting 45.3% of them, good enough for third in the NBA. Jose Calderon led the NBA with 46.1%, but he took only 3.9 shots per game, while Curry, who was also outdone percentage-wise by Kyle Korver, averaged 7.7 attempts per game. Curry also finished second in the NBA with 90% from the line, trailing only Kevin Durant with 90.5%. Durant got to the line more than nine time a game, while Curry averaged 3.7 attempts.