Dre (@nerdnumbers) is Co-Editor for the Wages of Wins Network. He also leads up the stats collection department. Dre loves to scour the data for interesting facts and you lucky readers get regular doses of trivia as a result.
Congrats to Beasel32, Anthony Franco and Nathan Verney for taking this one down before the end of the weekend! Highlight below to see the answer if you don’t feel like guessing.
- In 1978 Walter Davis scored 1959 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.129 on Phoenix
- In 1980 Dave Greenwood hit 1334 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.142 for Chicago
- In 1983 Clark Kellogg hit 1625 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.230 for Indiana
- In 1989 Willie Anderson hit 1508 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.129 for San Antonio
- In 1991 Lionel Simmons hit 1421 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.149 for Sacramento
- In 1992 Dikembe Mutombo his 1177 Points to go along with a WP48 of 0.193 for Denver
Today’s trivia question started with simple retweet I received from the best Colorado fan out there @Smooth_Operatah (paraphrased)
- @Suga_Shane: Which Defensive Center would you rather have: Ben Wallace or Dikembe Mutombo?
Dikembe Mutombo had offense!
This question merits a post on its own, but for today it inspired a trivia question. My reply to this was that I’d prefer Dikembe due to his status as the greatest Nugget center and also the fact that in his earlier days he actually did have a pretty solid offense. Looking over the history of Dikembe’s offensive game using the simplest stat of Points Per Game, a funny thing about Dikembe stood out. It put him in rare company which leads to today’s trivia question:
Since 1978 only six players have managed to
- Have a WP48 > 0.100 in their rookie season
- Score 1000+ points in their rookie year
- Played at least five seasons in the NBA
- Had their best scoring season as a rookie
As per my usual routine I’ve named one of them for you. Think you can get the other five?
-Dre
Wages of Wins Journal 
beasel32
July 23, 2011
Dre, Love your work. Here’s my guess after a little research:
Terry Cummings
Clark Kellogg
Emeka Okafor
Bill Cartwright
Dave Greenwood
Dre
July 23, 2011
Beasel,
Good start. Clark Kellogg and Bill Cartwright are spot on! Close on the other three but no cigar. Three left.
Evan Shrubsole
July 23, 2011
Sabonis
Glenn Robinson
Shane Battier
Dre
July 23, 2011
Evan,
Good guesses. No on Sabonis. Robinson and Battier did have their best scoring their rookie season but they weren’t above average in terms of WP48. Keep looking!
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
Here are a few more guesses with absolutely no research:
Lionel Simmons
Waymon Tisdale
Travis Mays
Dennis Scott
Travis Knight
Nick Van Exell
Todd Lichti
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
Just researched all my answers and they are all wrong except maybe Simmons (can’t find his WP48). Travis Knight qualified for everything except 1000 pts (and he wasn’t close) oh well.
Dre
July 23, 2011
Anthony,
Add Simmons to the list! Good tries on the others but as you mentioned none qualify. Keep it up.
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
How about Walter Davis? Did a lot of research for that one.
So list is Mutombo, Cartwright, Kellog, Simmons, and Walter Davis with one more to find.
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
Pretty sure the last one is Kelly Tripucka although “Had their best scoring season as a rookie” is misleading since he scored the most points as a rookie but had a higher average in his 2nd season.
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
May have found another in Jay Vincent although not sure about his WP48.
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
And what about Ron Harper? Okay I will stop now!
Dre
July 23, 2011
Anthony,
Excellent guesses. Cross Walter Davis off the list. Some good guesses but still one left.
anthony franco
July 23, 2011
Kerry Kittles?
Dre
July 23, 2011
Anthony,
Oh wow Kittles is so freaking close but according to my numbers he was slightly below average his rookie season! Win Shares, which has slightly different weights and a larger team adjustment does have him in this category. That said there’s still another name that fulfills this answer.
Nathan Verney
July 24, 2011
Shane Battier?
Nathan Verney
July 24, 2011
Sorry ignore the Battier suggestion. How about Dave Greenwood (if not Walt Williams)?
anthony franco
July 24, 2011
This may be a stupid question Dre, but where can I find WP48 numbers. There used to be a links on this site where I could find at least the current WP48 numbers but the redesign of the site has me clueless.
Nathan Verney
July 24, 2011
Sorry about the excessive posts – tried to edit them before posting but had computer difficulties.
Ignore all previous ones – my final two guesses are a couple of swingmen: Walt WIlliams and Willie Anderson.
Dre
July 24, 2011
Anthony,
Sorry about that and thanks for bringing that up. We’re working on organizing our content and getting many of our old links back available. Here’s the classical WP48 – http://wagesofwins.net/nba-team-reviews-2008-09/ and http://wagesofwins.net/2011/04/21/the-handcrafted-wins-produced-numbers-for-2010-11/ is for the last two years.
Nathan,
Ding ding ding! Way to close this one out! Willie Anderson is the last name I was looking for. Awesome work everyone.