The Most Proficient Scorers in NBA History
My attempt to come up with an unbiased method for measuring scoring proficiency.
Who are the most proficient scorers in NBA history? That’s a bit of a loaded question, because what does it actually mean? Who has the most points? The highest scoring average? The most points per minute?
For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on the third item listed above: points per minute. We could simply divide points scored by minutes played and be done with it, but I think there are two things we can all agree on:
League context matters. For example, the average team scored 113.2 points per 48 minutes in 2024-25, but in 2003-04 the corresponding figure was just 92.7 (or 18.1% lower than last season). Points were obviously more difficult to come by in the 2003-04 season.
Team context matters. The Memphis Grizzlies led the NBA with an average of 103.4 true shooting attempts* per 48 minutes last season, while the Phoenix Suns ranked last with a rate of 94.7. More scoring attempts obviously means more opportunities to score points.
* True shooting attempts are equal to field goals attempted plus 0.44 times free throws attempted.
At minimum, any measure of scoring proficiency should take these two things into account. Efficiency might be another factor to consider, but for this post I’m only interested in scoring volume on a per-minute basis (effectiveness be damned).
I’m going to take the approach I normally do with these types of things and start with a fairly simple process. In the modern NBA, a typical starter averages about 15 PPG, so I decided to center my scoring metric (let’s call it PPM) around that value. Here’s how I calculated PPM:
Start with the player’s points per minute.
Divide the value in step one by league points per minute.
Calculate the team adjustment, which is league true shooting attempts per minute divided by team true shooting attempts per minute. Multiply the value in step two by this figure.
Multiply the value in step three by 15.
Let’s go through what’s outlined above using Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 2024-25 season as an example:
SGA’s points per minute is equal to 2,484 divided by 2,598, or 0.9561.
League points per minute is equal to 0.4717. Dividing the value in step one by this figure yields 2.0269.
League true shooting attempts per minute divided by team true shooting attempts per minute is 0.9677 (i.e., the average team did not shoot as often as the Thunder). Multiplying the value in step two by this figure yields 1.9614.
Multiplying the value in step three by 15 yields 29.4.
I should note that Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and PPM have very similar distributions. The means of both measures are scaled to 15, and the standard deviations are almost identical (4.27 for PER and 4.29 for PPM, across all seasons).
Now that the details are out of the way, let’s get to some results. For all single-season lists, I’m going to use a minimum of 50% of team minutes, which is roughly 2,000 minutes in an 82-game season. For the career lists, I’ll use a minimum of 10,000 minutes.
Let’s start with the top five PPM figures in 2024-25:
29.4 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
28.9 — Giannis Antetokounmpo
25.4 — Nikola Jokic
24.6 — Anthony Edwards
24.0 — Kevin Durant
Gilgeous-Alexander’s value ranks 19th in NBA history and second in franchise history, trailing only Kevin Durant’s 29.7 in 2013-14 (his MVP campaign). By the way, 26 of the 93 eligible players last season had a PPM of at least 20, while only five had a figure less than 10. The lowest value belonged to Davion Mitchell (9.3), who split his time between the Toronto Raptors and the Miami Heat.
Here are the top five PPM single-season figures:
32.5 — James Harden, 2018-19
31.8 — Kobe Bryant, 2005-06
31.53 — Joel Embiid, 2022-23
31.46 — Michael Jordan, 1986-87
30.6 — Wilt Chamberlain, 1961-62
In 2018-19, James Harden became just the fifth qualified player in NBA history to average at least 35 PPG in a season, joining Wilt Chamberlain (five times), Michael Jordan (twice), Rick Barry, and Kobe Bryant. Harden is the only of those players to average less than 40 MPG (36.8, to be exact). He was, of course, aided by the 3-point shot, making 378 of his league-record 1,028 attempts.
Wilt Chamberlain averaged an astounding 50.4 PPG in 1961-62, becoming the only qualified player in NBA history to record more points than minutes. The reason he does not come out on top on the list above is the league adjustment. The average player scored 0.4923 points per minute that season, the highest such figure in league history. To put that in perspective, the corresponding rate in Kobe Bryant’s 2005-06 campaign was only 0.4007, almost 19% lower than the 1961-62 season.
The highest PPM recorded by a rookie was Michael Jordan’s 25.1 in 1984-85:
25.1 — Michael Jordan, 1984-85
24.6 — Walter Davis, 1977-78
24.0 — Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-60
23.3 — Walt Bellamy, 1961-62
23.1 — Ben Gordon, 2004-05
Ben Gordon was a bit of a shocker for me, as he averaged 15.1 PPG in 2004-05, a solid but not overly impressive figure. However, he did so despite playing just 24.4 MPG. Because Gordon appeared in all 82 games for the Chicago Bulls, this works out to 50.5% of his team’s minutes, barely meeting the threshold.
Next, here are the top five PPM career figures:
28.6 — Joel Embiid
27.7 — Michael Jordan
26.6 — Luka Doncic
25.8 — Kevin Durant
25.5 — LeBron James
Joel Embiid’s issue has never been his ability to score, it’s his inability to stay healthy, even when his playing time is micromanaged. Since being selected with the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Embiid has appeared in just 452 of a possible 883 regular season games (51.2%) for the Philadelphia 76ers. He sat out the first two seasons after being drafted due to injury, and has missed at least 43 games in three other seasons.
Note that four of the five players on the career list above are active, and thus have not had much of a decline phase, if any. Here’s an updated list if we restrict the results to inactive players:
27.7 — Michael Jordan
25.3 — George Gervin
25.2 — Kobe Bryant
24.9 — Shaquille O’Neal
24.7 — Karl Malone
Gervin played 10 seasons in the NBA, playing at least 50% of his team’s minutes in each of those campaigns. Gervin never recorded a PPM lower than 21, with a career high of 28.8 in 1981-82, a season in which he won his fourth scoring title in five seasons and earned his fifth straight All-NBA First Team selection.
Without any adjustments, O’Neal would rank ninth among inactive players in points per minute (0.6822). However, scoring levels were depressed in the mid-to-late 1990s and 2000s, seasons which coincided with O’Neal’s career. After adjusting for league context, O’Neal vaults to fourth place.
Given LeBron James’ sustained excellence, it should come as no surprise that he has the most qualifying seasons with a PPM of at least 20:
18 — LeBron James
17 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
17 — Karl Malone
16 — Kobe Bryant
15 — Tim Duncan
15 — Dirk Nowitzki
Tim Duncan, however, may be a surprise to some, as he was not especially known for his scoring. But Duncan was incredibly consistent and reliable, averaging between 17.1 and 22.6 points per 36 minutes while playing at least 50% of all possible minutes in each of his first 18 seasons.
Michael Jordan led the league in PPM eight times, double that of any other player. Bob Pettit and Jerry West are runners-up with four apiece, followed by six players with three wins each: Chamberlain, Gervin, O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Bryant, and James.
At 22 years and 92 days old* in 1954-55, Pettit is the youngest player to lead the NBA in PPM. Karl Malone is the oldest player to do so, at 36 years and 270 days in 1999-00. He’s also the second-oldest player to pace the league (33 years and 270 days in 1996-97).
* Age as calculated on the final day of the regular season.
The most surprising player to lead the league has to be the San Diego Clippers’ Freeman Williams, who posted a PPM of 26.9 in 1980-81. He averaged a team-leading 19.3 PPG in 82 games despite logging just 24.1 minutes per game. Williams launched 25.2 field goals per 36 minutes that season, the sixth-highest such rate in history among qualified players.
I’ll close this out by listing the league leaders in PPM from 1951-52 (the first season minutes were recorded) through last season:
1951-52 — George Mikan, 25.1
1952-53 — George Mikan, 23.8
1953-54 — Neil Johnston, 24.6
1954-55 — Bob Pettit, 21.9
1955-56 — Bob Pettit, 24.1
1956-57 — Bob Pettit, 26.2
1957-58 — George Yardley, 24.0
1958-59 — Bob Pettit, 25.4
1959-60 — Jack Twyman, 25.2
1960-61 — Elgin Baylor, 25.3
1961-62 — Wilt Chamberlain, 30.6
1962-63 — Wilt Chamberlain, 28.8
1963-64 — Wilt Chamberlain, 26.5
1964-65 — Jerry West, 25.3
1965-66 — Jerry West, 24.2
1966-67 — Rick Barry, 25.7
1967-68 — Oscar Robertson, 22.4
1968-69 — Jerry West, 22.3
1969-70 — Jerry West, 23.7
1970-71 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 26.5
1971-72 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 26.6
1972-73 — Nate Archibald, 26.0
1973-74 — Pete Maravich, 24.4
1974-75 — Bob McAdoo, 27.9
1975-76 — Bob McAdoo, 25.6
1976-77 — Pete Maravich, 25.4
1977-78 — Paul Westphal, 26.4
1978-79 — George Gervin, 26.1
1979-80 — George Gervin, 27.8
1980-81 — Freeman Williams, 26.9
1981-82 — George Gervin, 28.8
1982-83 — Bernard King, 24.1
1983-84 — Mark Aguirre, 26.8
1984-85 — Bernard King, 29.5
1985-86 — Adrian Dantley, 27.4
1986-87 — Michael Jordan, 31.5
1987-88 — Michael Jordan, 30.0
1988-89 — Michael Jordan, 28.3
1989-90 — Michael Jordan, 29.7
1990-91 — Michael Jordan, 29.3
1991-92 — Michael Jordan, 26.8
1992-93 — Michael Jordan, 28.5
1993-94 — David Robinson, 27.1
1994-95 — Shaquille O'Neal, 27.3
1995-96 — Michael Jordan, 28.3
1996-97 — Karl Malone, 28.6
1997-98 — Shaquille O'Neal, 28.7
1998-99 — Shaquille O'Neal, 29.1
1999-00 — Karl Malone, 27.5
2000-01 — Allen Iverson, 28.4
2001-02 — Allen Iverson, 27.7
2002-03 — Tracy McGrady, 30.4
2003-04 — Tracy McGrady, 26.4
2004-05 — Allen Iverson, 26.5
2005-06 — Kobe Bryant, 31.8
2006-07 — Kobe Bryant, 28.1
2007-08 — LeBron James, 26.9
2008-09 — Dwyane Wade, 28.8
2009-10 — LeBron James, 28.3
2010-11 — Kobe Bryant, 26.9
2011-12 — LeBron James, 27.9
2012-13 — Carmelo Anthony, 28.7
2013-14 — Kevin Durant, 29.7
2014-15 — Russell Westbrook, 28.5
2015-16 — Stephen Curry, 30.5
2016-17 — Russell Westbrook, 30.3
2017-18 — James Harden, 29.3
2018-19 — James Harden, 32.5
2019-20 — Giannis Antetokounmpo, 30.5
2020-21 — Stephen Curry, 30.3
2021-22 — Joel Embiid, 30.5
2022-23 — Joel Embiid, 31.5
2023-24 — Luka Doncic, 28.2
2024-25 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 29.4