Milwaukee Bucks: 4 burning questions following Malcolm Brogdon’s injury
By Adam McGee
What does this mean for Brogdon’s pursuit of 50-40-90?
One of the big stories following Brogdon in an individual sense as the Bucks approached the end of the regular season was whether he could close out a truly historic shooting campaign.
Shooting 50.5 percent from the field, 42.6 percent from deep and 92.8 percent from the free throw line, Brogdon was tracking to join the NBA’s famed and exclusive 50-40-90 club.
Prior to this season, only seven players had completed a season while surpassing those shooting averages while also hitting the required minimums of 300 field goals, 82 three-pointers and 125 free throws. That group is an illustrious one, comprising of Larry Bird (1986-87, 1987-88), Mark Price (1988-89), Reggie Miller (1993-94), Steve Nash (2005-06, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10), Dirk Nowitzki (2006-07), Kevin Durant (2012-13) and Stephen Curry (2015-16).
With his regular season almost certainly complete, Brogdon has made 378 field goals, 104 three-pointers and 141 free throws, while also surpassing the 56 games required to qualify for NBA league leader stats. In other words, although it didn’t come about in the way he would have hoped, there’s no longer a question mark over his status.
Brogdon will become the eighth player to join the 50-40-90 club.
That marks an incredible accomplishment in its own right, but even more so as it wasn’t something that anyone seemed to be anticipating heading into the year.
The injury means Brogdon will break into the 50-40-90 club having played the fewest games in that given season than anyone has ever played in hitting those marks. Still Brogdon, could also finish in this season’s top-10 in terms of three-point percentage, while he’s almost certain to finish as the league leader in free throw percentage too.
It’s been a truly phenomenal shooting season for the 26-year-old, and both he and the Bucks will be hoping he can return to build on it further in a postseason setting.