Giannis cementing himself as a good time by becoming the 6th youngest player ever to join the exclusive 20,000 point club

Stacy Revere. Getty Images.

The other day it was a big thing when LeBron officially started 50,000 point club. Just a crazy number that we probably won’t see anyone else attending a very, very long time. It is a testimony to his skill, lifetime, consistency and overall dominance in the last 2 decades.

But we are also talking about a club that maybe 1% of NBA players will ever join.

Before you get to this level, of course, there are former benchmarks that definitely deserve their recognition and it starts with 20,000 points club. Throughout the NBA story, it has always been considered the boundary line in terms of what separates legends/courters from the smaller players. For example, there have been only 56 players in the entire NBA story to crack the 20,000 point club, and of these 56 only 3 are not Hofers (Joe Johnson, Tom Chambers, Antawn Jamison). On the way into last night there are 8 current players in this group, all of whom go to court.

After last night we can now add a 9. Current player (and locks to court) in Giannis

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Look, it’s not the 50K club, but the 20K club is still very much a big thing, especially for a good time Giannis is on the way to be. Even if you think this was more of a formality, there is something to say about being the 6th youngest person in the NBA story to break through and join this group. Given where Giannis started, I’m not sure how someone couldn’t find it impressive like hell.

Believing that he broke this group all together while not really shooting 3s and being a bad FT shooter is partly what makes this stand out more to me. It’s lots of buckets.

As you saw, Giannis is determined to break out of this club and get to the next exclusive group of 30K Club. Once you’ve done that, you’ll instantly become a top 10 scorer over time. Currently, Moses is Malone 10. All the time with 29,580. We just saw KD do this not so long ago and he is now 8. with 30,240. The next closest we have right now is Harden (27.186) and Westbrook (25,921). Harden may have a shot considering that he just fell 50 and still gets it, but he needed about 2-3 years more, I believe in this current level to get there. Not impossible, but an uphill increase with certainty.

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So how realistically is Giannis find another 10,000 points before hanging it up? This is his age 30 season, so say he continues to play around 60ish games about the season for the next few years. Obviously, with something like this you have to assume decent health, so let’s say that Giannis’ damage things remain at the level we are currently seeing. Giannis plays 60-65 games a year and has proven to be a lock for about 1,800-2,000 points about the season (regular season).

His last 4 seasons:

– 67 games / 2,002 points

– 63 games / 1,959 points

– 73 games / 2,222 points

– 49 games / 1,508 points (this season)

Bucks have 21 games left in their season, then Giannis says in 15 of them, on his current average, that’s another 450 points, so it’s fair to assume he ends the season in the 1,800-2,000 point interval.

Is it crazy to assume that Giannis can give you 5 years at this current pace as long as he has normal health and plays about 60 games about the season? I certainly don’t think so. We are right in the middle of Giannis’ primary NBA year, he shoots well over 60% off the floor and has 3 even seasons on average at least 30 one game.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that Giannis could get close to 10,000 points over the next 5 seasons, and at that time he is only 35-36. Given these ages, he is likely to be in the midst of another extension, I think it is fair to suggest that Giannis is likely to be around his age 37-38 seasons, so you could really make the argument that he needs 10,000 points in the next 7-8 years, which definitely seems to be feasible.

Now that Giannis is in who can be next time? Anthony Davis is next time at 18,824, followed by Paul George (18,697) and Kyrie (18,433) and you would be crazy to think they won’t get it. After they break through, however, it will be a while with Jokic Next at 15,753. He is about 4-5 years away considering his current scoring pace, which would lead him to the mid-30s. After him, things get dicey, maybe cat has a chance (14,442), but after him you have guys like Tatum/Mitchell/Luka, etc., which is still almost a decade away.

So congratulations to Giannis on the historic performance and the race to 30K is officially underway.