Throughout the history of the league, we have seen debates rage on how good some players actually are when they are putting up big numbers while their team fails to win. One side of the argument is always that the guy in question is just putting up empty numbers as they hog the ball while others point to the lack of help around them as the reason for the team’s failures.
Someone like Devin Booker is a great example of the latter, as he has now shown that he can lead a team to some success with a better supporting cast. There are many though who can be accused of just being average players who pile up stats in those situations and when u/Zechirs on Reddit asked ‘Which player in NBA history is considered to be a good stats on a bad team guy, but is actually just an average/bad player?’, Redditors offered up quite a few names in response.
“Antoine Walker. Averaged 20+ points per game six times in his career, usually on bad teams, but only once managed a 50% true shooting percentage. His career average was 17.5ppg on .484 true shooting. And his defense was poor.”
“Drummond. Had some impressive stats on bad teams bu always came with low efficiency, high turnovers and no defense. When within his role he is average starting center at best.”
“Al Jefferson was putting players in the torture chamber while playing on some god awful teams”
“To me the ultimate answer to this is 05/06 Mike James for the Raptors.
He averaged 20.3 points.
His best season other than that was 12.4 ppg and his average is 9.9.”
“Rookie Jahlil Okafor further supports this argument”
“I would argue any one of the “star players” from the Bobcats era fall into this category with the exception of Kemba.”
“Kevin Martin. Dude could get you a bucket but that’s pretty much it.”
“Ricky Davis is a terrific example of this.”
“Whiteside”
“Jerry Stackhouse. The guy averaged 30 in 2000-2001 on 40% shooting! In reality he was an average player. He is the definition of an inefficient chucker on a bad team.”
“shareef abdur rahim and Antawn Jamison”
“02-03 Juwan Howard. Technically their best player but in reality an excellent tank commander to get Melo.”
“How has no one mentioned Randle?”
“Rookie MCW”
“Sadly Monta Ellis. There is a reason why they picked Curry over Monta”
“Jerami Grant, as a #1/2 option, he’s one of the least efficient high-volume scorers in the league, not a good playmaker, and not a good rebounder for his size.”
“Elton Brand. Quietly put up 20 and 10 for a long time on the Sterling-era Clippers. Nobody ever talks about him as a great player or anything”
“Corey Magette. Dude lacked above average defensive skill to go with his raw athleticism, and any consistent shooting skill to go with his driving ability. Dude ended up being just a magnet for fouls and led the league in FTAs like he was Harden, without being an actual star player.”
“Recently, gotta throw Kevin Porter Jr in there.”
“Larry Hughes on those Wizard teams”
“Tyreke Evans and Michael Carter Williams in their rookie seasons.”
“Al Harrington, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, to go along with the others all Named here already”
“Michael Adams when he played for Denver. 26 points per game shooting like 37% from the field.”
“He was slightly better than average but Monta Ellis looked like an all star on those awful warrior teams. In reality he was a ballhog that took too many shots he wasnt able to make. His ppg made him look better than he was”
“Isaiah Rider back in the day.”
“Chandler Parsons
Though now he’s just bad stats”
Andre Drummond and Antoine Walker were two names who popped up often in the debate. Both ended up becoming All-Stars during their careers but were flawed players, with Walker being somewhat of an inefficient shot chucker, while we have seen how Drummond struggles on the court, despite the numbers he puts up.
Those raw numbers are exactly why teams keep being interested in him, with the Bulls signing him this offseason. They became his 6th team in the last 3 seasons which should tell you that teams realize soon enough, that his flaws far outweigh whatever numbers he puts up on the court.
