What would it take for Tatum to join Durant in NBA’s 30K-point club?

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What would it take for Tatum to join Durant in NBA’s 30K-point club? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Kevin Durant entered rare NBA air last week, becoming the eighth player in league history to score at least 30,000 career points. Durant has been an incredible model of sustained high-level production, averaging more than 25 points per game in 16 of his 17 NBA seasons to date.

But that achievement got us thinking: If Durant can reach 30,000 points despite multiple injuries that have caused him to miss significant time, what are the chances that Jayson Tatum — one of the league’s most durable and available superstars — eventually joins him?

First, a disclaimer: We realize this conversation is very premature, as Tatum is just 26 years old in his eighth NBA season. As you’ll see below, he’d need to keep up his current pace for an additional decade (or more) to have a realistic shot at hitting the 30,000-point club. It’s impossible to project that far ahead in the future.

But let’s suspend reality for a moment to provide a hypothetical answer to this question: What would Tatum need to do to hit 30,000 career points?

We’ll start with a look at the eight current members of the 30,000-point club with their total games played, total seasons played and career scoring average included:

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The NBA’s eight all-time leading scorers averaged 1,337 career games played over 19 seasons while scoring an average of 25.8 points per game. Tatum is currently averaging 23.5 points over 655 games (seven-plus seasons) for a total of 13,258 points.

Tatum’s career average is brought down a bit by his first two seasons, during which he averaged 13.9 and 15.7 points per game, respectively. In fact, he’s averaged 26.8 points per game over his past six seasons, which would put him right on par with the other members of the 30K club.

But let’s assume Tatum stays at that 23.5 point-per-game mark…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tatum-join-durant-nbas-30k-113058859.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2025-02-17 11:30:00

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