As of Thursday night, LeBron James is the NBA’s all-time leader in playoff points. But that’s not the first all-time playoff stat that the Cleveland Cavaliers star is the, well, king of.
On top of points, he’s already No. 1 in the following categories: Win Shares (44.4), 3PA (971) and, though it’s a dubious distinction, TOV (751).
Thanks to both his versatile game and his impressive number of playoff reps for a guy who’s still just 32, he’s also currently top five in the following: games started, minutes played, FG, FGA, 3P, FT, FTA, DREB, AST and STL.
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It sounds crazy, but it’s possible we one day see LeBron at the top of nearly every playoff-counting-stat leaderboard — not just the ones he’s known best for contributing in. Today, let’s look at some of the stats above in the post-season record books to see when or if LeBron will be taking them over.
GAMES STARTED
1. Tim Duncan: 251
4. LeBron: 212
For this exercise, we need to estimate how many games LeBron will be playing in playoffs to come and then how many of each stat he’ll accumulate in those games. So we’ll be both assuming his continued dominance (because, really, there’s no reason to doubt it) and taking career averages of everything.
Since first making the playoffs in 2006, LeBron has played an average of 18 games per post-season (not counting the one in progress) and started every one of those games. At that pace and given the fact that he’ll get at least four more games this season, he’ll pass Tim Duncan for first in all-time starts towards the end of the playoffs in 2019.
(He’ll also pass Nos. 2 and 3 in this category, Shaquille O’Neal and Tony Parker, by Game 3 of the coming Warriors series.)
MINUTES PLAYED
1. Duncan: 9,370
2. LeBron: 8,915
At LeBron’s career rate of 41 minutes per playoff game, he’ll need 11 games to make up the 455 minutes between him and Duncan. So he’ll take the lead likely in the second round next year.
FIELD GOALS
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 2,356
3. LeBron: 2,116
LeBron averages a nice, round 10 of these per game. He needs 24 games to topple Kareem, so the numbers say he’ll do it either at the end of the 2018 post-season or the very beginning of the 2019 one.
THREE-POINTERS
1. Ray Allen: 385
3. LeBron: 319
LeBron’s taken more of these as the years have gone on, but rules are rules and he’s averaging 1.5 per game over his career. He’ll need 44 games at that rate, which by our calculations would be sometime early in the 2020 post-season.
But this one’s probably moot as Steph Curry already has 295 and is averaging 4.2 per game for his playoff career. That means he needs only 21 games to beat Allen.
Sorry, LeBron. You almost had it all. (Silver lining: You’re only one made three behind Reggie Miller for second on this list, so you’ll pass him in Game 1.)
FREE THROWS
1. Michael Jordan: 1,463
2. LeBron: 1,444
Nineteen free throws? LeBron will have that done by June 7 (ie. Game 3).
DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS
1. Duncan: 2,081
4. LeBron: 1,531
Finally, an actual challenge for LeBron. That’s 550 defensive rebounds he needs to make up, which — at 7.2 DREB per game for his career — he’ll need 76 games to accumulate. If it happens, he’ll potentially get there by the end of the 2021 post-season.
But by then he’ll be 36 and could be crumbling under the weight of all the sponsorship patches attached to his jersey. Or SkyNet could have taken over.
Either way, it doesn’t look even remotely possible that anyone coming up behind him will get there first, so there’s that.
ASSISTS
1. Magic Johnson: 2,346
3. LeBron: 1,439
Okay, now we’re coming up against the limits of what even LeBron can do. He’s 907 assists behind the leader and at his current career AST/G average (6.8) he’ll need 133 games to get this done.
Does LeBron have 133 more playoff games in him? And, if so, when he’s 40, will he still be netting nearly seven assists per game? If yes (and yes), then he’ll pass Magic in 2025. You heard it here first.
STEALS
1. Scottie Pippen: 395
2. LeBron: 382
At LeBron’s current rate of 1.8 per game, this could be done by the end of a seven-game game Cavs-Warriors series. Which LeBron, if he’s watching this sort of thing (you know he’s watching this sort of thing), might relish given Scottie’s recent comments about how he hasn’t yet “surpassed” Kobe Bryant.
In terms of career playoff leaderboards, LeBron’s already surpassed Kobe in every counting-stat category aside from total games, field-goal attempts and personal fouls.
But will he ever reach or pass Kobe’s total of five rings? We’ll learn a lot about the answer to that one in the next three weeks.