The 2023-24 NBA season opens in just two weeks, with the defending champion Denver Nuggets hosting the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors welcoming the new-look Phoenix Suns. Here are some career milestones to be on the lookout for when the new campaign tips off.
25,000 Points
James Harden (needs 307)
Russell Westbrook (543)
Harden’s status is, of course, somewhat up in the air, but assuming he plays (and tries) he will likely reach this mark in late November. Harden has scored at least 1,000 points and averaged 20 PPG for 11 consecutive seasons. The only guards in NBA history with a longer such streak are Kobe Bryant (14), Jerry West (12), and Allen Iverson (12).
With good health, Westbrook will probably reach this milestone in late January or early February. Westbrook has scored at least 1,000 points in each of his last 15 seasons, the longest such streak in NBA history by a guard.
20,000 Points
Dwight Howard (needs 515)
Damian Lillard (624)
Howard’s status for the 2023-24 season is still uncertain, as he spent last season with the TaiwanBeer Leopards of Taiwan’s T1 League. Howard averaged 6.9 PPG over his last three NBA seasons. If we use that as an (optimistic) estimate for 2023-24, Howard would need to play in 75 games, a mark he hasn’t reached since 2017-18.
Lillard averaged 24.0 PPG in his injury-riddled 2021-22 campaign and a career-high 32.2 PPG last season. Lillard’s new pairing with Giannis Antetokounmpo will obviously have an effect on his scoring average, but my bet is he reaches the mark sometime in January 2024.
15,000 Rebounds
Dwight Howard (needs 373)
As noted above, Howard is still looking for a place to play in 2023-24. If Howard lands with a team that makes him a rotation player, 373 rebounds is a strong possibility. If he’s able to pull it off, Howard would become just the seventh player in NBA to reach 15,000 career boards. The six who have already done so are Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, and Tim Duncan.
10,000 Rebounds
Andre Drummond (needs 37)
Kevin Love (935)
Drummond averaged 6.6 RPG for the Chicago Bulls in 2022-23 despite averaging less than 13 MPG. Drummond exercised his 2023-24 option with the Bulls back in June, so he should continue to serve as Chicago’s backup center. Look for Drummond to reach the 10,000-rebound milestone in early November.
Love has grabbed at least 935 rebounds in a season twice, but the last occurrence was the 2013-14 season. Suffice it to say, this won’t be happening in 2023-24. The better question is, will it happen next season? Love’s total over his last two seasons is 935 rebounds, so he may not even reach this goal in 2024-25.
10,000 Assists
Russell Westbrook (needs 838)
Westbrook’s career high for assists is 840 in his 2016-17 MVP season. He won’t be able to get to 10,000 assists this season, but should do so in 2024-25. If/when that happens, Westbrook will join LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to record at least 25,000 points and 10,000 assists.
10,000 Field Goals Made
Kevin Durant (needs 801)
Durant has only made at least 801 field goals in a season once, his 2013-14 MVP campaign (849). Durant won’t play nearly enough games to get close to this, and even if he did there are shots to share with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. Look for this to happen in 2024-25.
5,000 Turnovers
LeBron James (needs 34)
This is obviously not a milestone James wants to add to his resume, but it’s really more a reflection of his sustained brilliance than anything else. James would become the first player to reach 5,000 turnovers since the NBA began tracking the statistic in 1977-78. It will likely occur in mid-November.
3,000 3-Pointers Made
James Harden (needs 246)
Harden hasn’t made at least 246 3-pointers in a season since 2019-20 (299). Over the last three seasons, he’s made an average of 2.6 threes per game. Given Harden would need to average 3.0 3-pointers made per game over 82 games to reach 3,000, I don’t expect him to threaten the mark in 2023-24.
2,000 3-Pointers Made
Eric Gordon (needs 122)
Kevin Durant (137)
Wesley Matthews (179)
Buddy Hield (295)
Gordon made 124 3-pointers in 2021-22 and 132 in 2022-23, so 122 is definitely in range for this season. That said, Gordon has a tendency to miss a lot of games (he’s missed at least 13 contests in 13 of his 15 seasons), so there’s no guarantee he’ll reach the milestone this season.
The issue for Durant, like Gordon, is how many games he’ll appear in. If Durant plays in 65 games — a figure he last reached in 2018-19 with the Golden State Warriors — he’ll probably get the 137 bombs he needs.
Matthews has made 158 3-pointers in 159 games over the last three seasons. I don’t see it happening for him this season.
Hield made a career-high 288 threes last season, so 295 is not out of the realm of possibility. He appeared in 80 of a possible 82 games in 2022-23, so it will take another season of good health for him to even get close.
By the way, at the beginning of the 2014-15 season only two players had reached this mark:
Reggie Miller (2000-01)
Ray Allen (2007-08)
But over the last nine seasons, 12 more players have joined them:
Paul Pierce (2014-15)
Jason Terry (2014-15)
Vince Carter (2016-17)
Jamal Crawford (2016-17)
Kyle Korver (2016-17)
Stephen Curry (2017-18)
James Harden (2018-19)
Damian Lillard (2020-21)
LeBron James (2021-22)
Paul George (2022-23)
Kyle Lowry (2022-23)
Klay Thompson (2022-23)
1,500 Games Played
LeBron James (needs 79)
James hasn’t appeared in at least 79 games in a season since 2017-18. Over the last three seasons, he’s missed 80 of a possible 236 games. Long story short, James won’t attain this goal in 2023-24. If James plays and reaches the mark in 2024-25, he’ll become just the sixth player in NBA history to do so, joining Robert Parish, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, and John Stockton.
500 Double-Doubles
Nikola Vucevic (needs 31)
Only three players on an active roster* have reached this mark: LeBron James (546), Chris Paul (522), and Russell Westbrook (502). Vucevic seems likely to join them, as he’s recorded at least 40 double-doubles in each of the last five seasons. The only other players to do this are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
* Dwight Howard has 748 career double-doubles, but is still unsigned.
200 Triple-Doubles
Russell Westbrook (needs 2)
Already the NBA’s all-time leader in this category, Westbrook needs just two more to become the first player in NBA history to reach 200 triple-doubles. He recorded four triple-doubles last season, but none after being signed by the L.A. Clippers in late February.