12 days of X-Mas – Obscure stats in Suns history Day 5
By Adam Maynes
Imagine Devin Booker shooting 8-16 from the field. His shooting percentage would be 50.0% for the game, right?
Correct, and that statline is nothing special. Players shoot 50.0% from the field all the time.
2-4 from beyond the arc? That’s a good shooting night.
4-8 from the free throw line? That must have been Shaq.
But how impressive is it when one team, over the course of 82 games, shoots an even 50% from the field?
I’ll say this: while that stat itself isn’t about to get many ooh’s or aah’s, it is quite the unintentional feat that after every game played, in a season from a combination of every player to attempt a field goal that year, that a team would shoot an even 50% on the year.
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns have done it once in their franchise’s history.
Well, sort of.
In elementary school math, you’re generally told to round up or down based on a decibel. If you have a mathematical equation where the answer is required to use digits to the hundredths place, it is generally safe to say that that the number is rounded to that base whole.
According to official statistics, found here on basketball-reference.com, the 2007-08 Phoenix Suns shot an even .500 for the field, or 50.0%, good for first in the NBA, the third of five consecutive seasons that Phoenix would lead the league in field goal percentage.
However, that 50.0% number is not entirely accurate.
Phoenix shot a total 3392-6782, or .5001%.
Pretty doggone close though, right?
In the last 31 years the 2007-08 Suns are the only team to have come that close to .500% from the field Is season, although they are not the only NBA team to have such an anomaly in their single season shooting percentage.
Prior to 2007-08, the most recent team to even get close to an even 50.0% from the field was the 1984-85 Chicago Bulls who had to round up to have their official stats recorded as .500% because their 3453-6909 actually equals .4997, missing three too many field goals to reach the positively pure 50.0%.
Through my research, no team in NBA history has ever shot a true and pure .500 field goal percentage, the equivalent of 1 for 2 from the field. Every team with the official “.500” field goal percentage was actually off by a couple of shots here or there.
The 2007-08 Suns were off by two missed baskets, needing to actually miss two more on the season to reach the pure .500.
The closest team ever was the 1983-84 Dallas Mavericks who came a measly one single missed bucket away from the so far unachiavable, shooting 3618-7235 from the field, or .500069.
The 2007-08 Suns’ razor-close-to-.500 season currently ranks as the 5th best field goal percentage in franchise history, the 1978-79 Suns holding the honor at number one with a 51.2%, the second best field goal percentage that season behind only the Los Angeles Lakers who shot 51.7%.
Next: 12 Days of Christmas: Obscure and Lost Stats In Suns History Day 4
To put that into perspective for this, the 2017-18 season, as of December 23rd – prior to the Suns v Timberwolves game – the Suns are shooting 44.2% from the field, currently 24th in the league, and on pace for the 5th worst shooting percentage in franchise history.