Greatest One-Hit Wonder of a Season?

[Rainwater]

Victor Oladipo, he had one season (17-18) with huge outlier stats compared to any other season.

Spoiler:

Victor Oladipo, he had one season (17-18) with huge outlier stats compared to any other season.

That’s what I was going to say. A lot of people might think that season was just about opportunity but it was a lot weirder than that—Oladipo had already been a starter playing big minutes for 5 seasons and was basically the same solid but unspectacular player for at least 3 of those years before his breakout. It’s very strange for someone to make a huge leap in one season in a 5th season as a starter (and with no minutes increase), and his leap was major on both ends.

In the breakout year, he increased his scoring per minute by about 50% (17 to 25 pts per 36), which put him among the superstars in scoring. He greatly increased his efficiency despite upping his volume a ton too—career highs in fg%, 3pt%, and huge increase in FT volume, all of which stayed career highs for rest of his time.

He also legit doubled his steals per minute and led the league in steals per game, and was all defensive 1st team. He never made any all defense team before or after that year.

So he went from meh starter to MVP candidate for one season and one season only, and then went back down right away. Very strange outlier.

Victor Oladipo, he had one season (17-18) with huge outlier stats compared to any other season.

This is it for me, dude had one good season and Magic fans made it seem like they traded away a star, lol.

Victor Oladipo's 2018 season

The main reason for drop-off after that season was quad tear in early 2019 + botched surgery:
https://fadeawayworld.net/nba-media/victor-oladipo-botched-surgery-surgery-90-year-old-woman

I don't see any reason he wouldn't have had a few similar seasons after that, had he not suffered that injury.

I often hear this, "it was the injury". However, the season he got injured, in the early part of the season, he was not trending the right way. His play seemed to have reverted back the mean. Other than this assist and rebounding per game, which increased marginally, his numbers across the board decreased back to what they were in Orlando. From this peak year to the year to the year he got injured (prior to injury), his PGs per game fell from 23 to 18, his FGA fell from .477 to .422, his TS% fell from .577 to .522. The guy wasn't maintaining his play from the year prior even when heathy. Guys don't typically blow up after 5 years in the league.

[Jakay]

Wow wonder what would have happened if Mike James stayed in Toronto

Nothing. It was a wild outlier based on that 3pt shooting, which was never sustainable for him, lol.

So EXACTLY the thread topic.

LETS GO TO THE STATS

2005-06 30 TOR NBA PG 79 79 37.0 7.3 15.5 .469 2.1 4.8 .442 5.2 10.7 .481 .538 3.6 4.3 .837 0.6 2.7 3.3 5.8 0.9 0.0 2.6 2.7 20.3

So that's a blatant copy pasta with no context. (05-06 vs)

PPG: 20.3 (next best 12.4)
3P%: 0.442 (next best 0.386 disregarding an 11 game sample size)
Rebounds/gm: 3.3 (next best 2.9)
Assists: 5.8 (next best 4.2)
FG%: .469 (next best .461)

WHO?

MIKE JAMES

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesmi01.html
Good luck finding a better one year peak, usage and all that nonsense aside.

[benson13]

Flip Murray's stats might not say 1 hit wonder guy exactly but there was definitely one season that he seemed to be on Sportscenter every night/morning. He came out of nowhere and despite staying in the league quite awhile afterwards he want heard from much anymore nationally.

Sent from my moto g - 2025 using RealGM mobile app

My contribution to this thread was going to be Dana Barros in 95, but everyone was all over that. So I wanted to mention Ronald Murray, and you took that from me.

The guy had a super hot start to the 03-04 season because of Ray Allen's absence.

So my third offering to this thread is Michael Adams from the 1990-1991 season. He average over 26 points and 10 assists a night. He also attempted more than eight threes a game. He never averaged 20 a night or double digit assists ever again.

Speaking of three point chucking, George McCloud in 1996 is another good answer. He averaged 18 a game, and the number of threes he was taking was the talk of Sportcenter and newspaper columns. He had a couple decent seasons afterwards, but nobody ever really talked about him again after that year.

A lot of point guards on losing teams are getting mentioned too. I guess when you're the guy who has the ball on a bad team, if your coach gives you the green light and you can get your shot off, you'll have the chance to put up numbers.

[durden_tyler]

i nominate the Oklahoma City Thunder of 2025.

[Long2_noD]

Not the greatest but Bobby Simmons comes to mind.

I was going to mention Bobby but he actually had a decent follow-up season to his MIP campaign. Then had injury and fell off h a r d.

[JM00n69]

Tyreke Evans' rookie season. Dude was one of the best looking rooks we've had in a while, but fell off year by year. It's rare we see a rookie peak that high.

Only the third rookie at the time to average over 20/5/5 (MJ/LBJ)

[JXL]

Bubble TJ Warren.

IYKYK.

Also, Linsanity obviously.

Best 2 weeks for the NBA, and jumped me back to religiously watch and absorb NBA content.

[JXL]

Jeremy Lin at peak of insanity was a top 6-10 player in the league. Dude was held back real quick by coach mchale in houston pandering to harden.

Was he?

In 2012, who was better than Jeremy Lin for 14 games in February? Well, Lebron, KD, Dwight, Westbrook, Kevin Love, Dirk, Deron, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul at a minimum. Nash was still better, as well.

Paul Pierce was at worst comparable. That was also Andrew Bynum's 19/12, AS, All-NBA season.

Lin was good, but like, it's been over a dozen years, we can pump the brakes on the hyperbole.

Lin won Player of the Month in February, Averaging 22/4/9 on 47% shooting and 32% from 3. His 2 weeks helped the NBA globally rake it in.

[bonita_the_frog]

Tyreke Evans 2009-10 = 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 3.0 turnovers, .458 field, .255 three, 37.2 minutes, 72 games
Tyreke Evans 2017-18 = 19.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.3 turnovers, .452 field, .399 three, 30.9 minutes, 52 games

[tsherkin]

So EXACTLY the thread topic.

Oh, he's a perfect example for this thread, absolutely.

Lin won Player of the Month in February, Averaging 22/4/9 on 47% shooting and 32% from 3. His 2 weeks helped the NBA globally rake it in.

Yeah, he had a decent month. The NBA raking it in is irrelevant. He still wasn't better than the guys I mentioned in that month. Very definitely not a top-10 guy in the league, even at the time.

[JXL]

So EXACTLY the thread topic.

Oh, he's a perfect example for this thread, absolutely.

Lin won Player of the Month in February, Averaging 22/4/9 on 47% shooting and 32% from 3. His 2 weeks helped the NBA globally rake it in.

Yeah, he had a decent month. The NBA raking it in is irrelevant. He still wasn't better than the guys I mentioned in that month. Very definitely not a top-10 guy in the league, even at the time.

It wasn't a matter of him being better than those players, and it definitely wasn't about advocating for him being a top-10 player. I was just pointing out his short run as a one-hit wonder (like the thread says).

[tsherkin]

It wasn't a matter of him being better than those players, and it definitely wasn't about advocating for him being a top-10 player. I was just pointing out his short run as a one-hit wonder (like the thread says).

Yes, but you quoted my response to Chokic, and my response was specifically a pushback against his remark that Lin was 6-10 in the league at the time.



He definitely had a good month, that's not a point of contention. He ended up being a pretty decent player for most of a decade.

[bwgood77]

Richard Dumas - 92-93 Phoenix Suns

Dumas was suspended for what would have actually been his rookie season (91-92) for substance issues which followed him from his time at OK State.

After getting himself right, he then stormed into the NBA as a second year rookie and solidified himself as a key contributor on a team that fell just short of winning the NBA title. Dumas was elected to the All Rookie 2nd team that season, having averaged 15.8 PPG.

Unfortunately, he couldn't shake his substance issues and found himself suspended for the 93-94 season. While he returned for the 94-95 season, he wasn't the same player from that Finals team and found himself on the outs, being waved after 15 games. He wasn't picked up for the remainder of the season but signed as a free agent with PHI for the 95-96 season. His problems with substances continued as did his subpar play, which led to him being cut for a final time after 39 games. He didn't play in the NBA again.

While it might not be seen as the "greatest" in the eyes of many, it certainly was a one hit wonder season for us Suns fans. It also became a cautionary tale of how easily and quickly a promising career can be derailed by drugs and demons that can't be shaken.

I was just about to say most that I'd think of have been mentioned, but bring up Dumas. Man he was awesome that year and could have been a star if not for the drug stuff.

[Karate Diop]

I debated putting him on the opening, but the numbers don't really pop as much - but Mikki Moore qas another guy who "randomly" popped one year after being a 3rd/4th string bit player for much of his career.

Granted him popping only amounted to averages of 9 and 5 but Jason Kidd directly made Moore good money off that one season together.

[dhsilv2]

Talk about going down the rabbit hole.
did you just remember these advanced stats or did some research?

Knew the players and the seasons. Pulled the stats to provide context and you know...make sure I wasn't remembering BS cause...sometimes our memories suck.

I remember Armstrong playing good enough defense though and that '99 Orlando team might be Doc Rivers' greatest coaching job guiding a bunch of role players to a pretty good 41 wins.
Some decent players like Wahad, Mercer, Gatling, didn't play many games either, it was freaking Bo Outlaw with no offense, John Amaeche, Monty Williams, Atkins
and both Wallace and Maggette weren't good yet.

Doc was always good with weak/young rosters. He did a great job that year with the clippers post CP3 and Blake. Sadly the league somehow sees him as a vet coach which is where he's the worst.

[bonita_the_frog]

I was just about to say most that I'd think of have been mentioned, but bring up Dumas. Man he was awesome that year and could have been a star if not for the drug stuff.

I love watching videos of the 1993 Finals, the most entertaining finals series eVer.

1992-93 Dumas averaged 15.8 points, .524 shooting, 1.8 steals, 0.8 blocks, and he also averaged exactly 15.8 points in the 1993 NBA Finals and shot .571 !

On his profile it says he was suspended in 1991-92 and 1993-94 i guess for drugs, and his entire career he only played 102 regular season games ! (and 26 playoff games)

[tsherkin]

Knew the players and the seasons. Pulled the stats to provide context and you know...make sure I wasn't remembering BS cause...sometimes our memories suck.

I remember Armstrong playing good enough defense though and that '99 Orlando team might be Doc Rivers' greatest coaching job guiding a bunch of role players to a pretty good 41 wins.
Some decent players like Wahad, Mercer, Gatling, didn't play many games either, it was freaking Bo Outlaw with no offense, John Amaeche, Monty Williams, Atkins
and both Wallace and Maggette weren't good yet.

Doc was always good with weak/young rosters. He did a great job that year with the clippers post CP3 and Blake. Sadly the league somehow sees him as a vet coach which is where he's the worst.

I think his real problem is that he isn't an Xs and Os coach, and doesn't have a good set of assistants (or perhaps the ability to defer to them). He's a good people guy, and he did just fine with the 08 Celtics. But he needs to develop a set of assistants who can cover for his deficiencies, which is common enough.

[bonita_the_frog]

I think his real problem is that he isn't an Xs and Os coach, and doesn't have a good set of assistants (or perhaps the ability to defer to them). He's a good people guy, and he did just fine with the 08 Celtics. But he needs to develop a set of assistants who can cover for his deficiencies, which is common enough.

That's probably why even when Boston won a championship they got pushed to 7 games by Atlanta and Cleveland, and Thib was Doc's assistant but Thib is known for defense and not offense. So they needed a better offensive assistant to help Doc.

[tsherkin]

That's probably why even when Boston won a championship they got pushed to 7 games by Atlanta and Cleveland, and Thib was Doc's assistant but Thib is known for defense and not offense. So they needed a better offensive assistant to help Doc.

Exactly.

Doc manages ego well, keeps motivation going, but the strategic underpinnings aren't his jam. Thibs was huge, but they could have used more tactical support from an offensive Xs and Os guy. It worked out in 08. Would have been quite useful in 09 and 10, though.

[JXL]

It wasn't a matter of him being better than those players, and it definitely wasn't about advocating for him being a top-10 player. I was just pointing out his short run as a one-hit wonder (like the thread says).

Yes, but you quoted my response to Chokic, and my response was specifically a pushback against his remark that Lin was 6-10 in the league at the time.



He definitely had a good month, that's not a point of contention. He ended up being a pretty decent player for most of a decade.

Oh, ok. Didn't look at it that way