Considering the mileage and resumés of the future Hall of Famers on the 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers roster, there's going to be some statistical benchmark passed nearly every game by somebody wearing purple-and-gold.
“Yeah, the support is there. I try to give people their flowers, you have to,” Carmelo Anthony said after practice on Sunday, when asked about how the Lakers plan on acknowledging the sure-to-come milestones achieved by their teammates. “Any accomplishment. Especially the things that guys on this team will accomplish or can accomplish or have the opportunity to accomplish. You want to celebrate them. You want to not overlook those moments and take those moments for granted.
“This is a very unique situation,” he continued. “You've got LeBron who has his own things that he can catch and he can pass. Russ has his own lane. I have my own lane of things that I can do. AD. We just have so much on this team. We just want to celebrate each other and just be there for one another.”
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said the Lakers don't have an official process for acknowledging individual accomplishments. He said the Lakers PR team will usually alert the locker room when a player is approaching a milestone or set to move up an all-time list. Sometimes, they simply learn about it on social media.
“When it happens, you congratulate him on it,” Vogel said, specifically talking about LeBron. “He's very in the moment. More than thinking about those big picture things, I think it's more of a reflect-after-the-fact type of thing. When you cross those milestones, you feel good about it, but you either won a game last night or you lost a game…He really stays in the moment.”
As those words indicate, the Lakers are more focused on the most important milestone of all — an 18th championship, which would put them one ahead of the Boston Celtics for most titles in NBA history.
But, for the time being, one of the most fun aspects of the season — a season that will celebrate the 75-year history of the NBA — will be the regular chyrons on your telecasts pointing out which all-time great was just passed on a list by a member of the 2021-22 Lakers, or which significant round number was just reached by a Lakers veteran.
Without getting too obscure, let's highlight a few major milestones to watch this season before the Lakers' highly-anticipated season gets underway on Tuesday at Staples Center — against another team with multiple future Hall of Famers: the Golden State Warriors.
LeBron James
James can surpass Karl Malone for No. 2 on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
LeBron (35,367 points) is 1,561 points away from the Mailman. Since he's joined the Lakers, he's averaged 25.9 points per game. If he continues his record streak of 17 consecutive 25.0 PPG seasons, he could get there in 62-65 games.
James would need to produce couple more seasons at a similar pace to pass Lakers icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).
LeBron can also reach Malone on the all-time field goals made list, but 625 is asking a lot for this season. LeBron has averaged 9.5 baskets per game over the past two seasons. He would need to do that 65 times in 2021-22 to reach Malone.
James (50,055 minutes) can also climb from 6th to 3rd on the all-time minutes played list. If he averaged 34 minutes over 70 games (the “script” this season, per Vogel), LeBron would eclipse Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki.
In other categories, James is 304 assists away from becoming the seventh player in history to reach 10,000 assists. 249 rebounds will also see him reach the 10,000 mark. Both should be eminently reachable. If he gets there, he'll become the first player in NBA history to top 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists.
Dwight Howard
Howard is 193 rebounds behind Nate Thurmond for No. 10 on the NBA's all-time rebounding list. He grabbed 580 in 2020-21. Garnett sits 392 above Dwight, at No. 9.
Russell Westbrook
Westbrook has already set the record that will define his career and legacy: he's the all-time triple-double king (184), remarkably surpassing Oscar Robertson (181) in 2020-21.
This season, though, Westbrook will have a chance to approach the top 10 in assists.
Russ currently sits at No. 12, 463 behind The Professor, Andre Miller (No. 11), and 905 behind The Glove, Gary Payton (No. 10). Westbrook's career-high for assists in a season is 820, so a move into the Top 10 will probably have to wait until 2022-23. He'd have to average 11.0 assists over 82 games to get there this season.
Rajon Rondo, by the way, sits No. 14 on the all-time dime list, though will probably remain there this season unless he's thrust into a larger-than-expected role.
Carmelo Anthony
Speaking of Top 10s, Carmelo is within distant earshot of Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal for 9th on the all-time scoring list. Anthony, 37, has 27,370 career regular-season points — 1,226 behind The Big Aristotle.
Melo would need to put up 17.5 PPG in 70 games this season to eclipse Shaq. That's not going to happen, barring an injury to LeBron and AD or he stumbles upon the Fountain of Youth.
Either way, expect plenty of flowers to be figuratively given out this season in Los Angeles, and expect to see Melo, LeBron, Russ, Dwight, and Anthony Davis included in the NBA's Top 75 Team, which will be announced alphabetically this week.
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