Can Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant reach 50-40-90 club?

For both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, a second career 50-40-90 season is within reach. Can either Golden State Warriors’ superstar get there? Can they both?

Stephen Curry stuffed his 2015-16 unanimous MVP season with statistical accomplishments. He won the scoring title, hit 402 3-pointers and led his team to 73 wins. He also became the seventh player in NBA history to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the 3-point line and 90 percent from the free throw stripe.

Though joining that esteemed 50-40-90 club seems minor compared to some of his unprecedented numbers, it was, in a sense, his greatest accomplishment. Given his absurd volume (30.1 points and 11.2 3-point attempts per game), posting those hallowed percentages was the perfect testament to his uniqueness. Curry was able to do what only six other men had ever done, despite taking more than double the number of 3-point shots any of them ever did.

Three years earlier, Kevin Durant became the group’s sixth member. While he did not shoot the 3-ball like Curry, he did become the group’s highest-scoring member (28.2 points per game in 2012-13) since Larry Bird (29.9 per game in 1987-88).

Despite their successes in those seasons, there is something missing from Durant  and Curry’s resumes as all-time great shooters: A follow-up.

Bird was a two-time 50-40-90 member, while club president Steve Nash accomplished the feat four times. With 18 games remaining in the Golden State Warriors‘ season, Curry and Durant have a chance to join that even-more-exclusive group. But will they?

Curry is on track, kind of

After a 12-of-20 masterpiece against the Brooklyn Nets, Curry is shooting 49.5 percent from the field. In that sense, he’s facing an uphill climb to equilibrium.

However, Curry is shooting 51.5 percent since his Dec. 30 return from a sprained ankle. If he maintains that percentage at his current volume, he will end the season exactly at 50 percent. Technically that will leave him without a whole number of shots (he’d end the year 577.65-for-1,155), so he’ll need to make 578 shots, or 51.6 percent.

Field goal percentage is likely the only number he needs to worry about. After shooting an unrecognizably-low 38.1 percent from deep before his injury, Curry has shot 45.8 percent on 4.8 made 3s since Dec. 30. He’s now at 42.4 percent for the season, and would need to go 60-for-181 to fall short of 40 percent.

Curry is enjoying his second-best season ever from the line, shooting 91.8 percent. If he continues to attempt a career-high 6.0 free throws per game, he would have to go 91-for-108 (84.2 percent) to fall below 90 percent on the season. For most players, a month of mid-80s free throw shooting is nowhere close to a given. For Curry, whose worst month from the stripe since 2012 saw him shoot 83.8 percent, it kind of is.

If Curry keeps playing the way he is, this will probably come down to the last game of the season.

Durant has more work, but it’s doable

While field goal percentage is Curry’s chief concern, it is the least of Durant’s worries. He’s shooting a stellar 52.4 percent from the field (the second-best mark of his career), and would have to go 134-for-316 (42.4 percent) to miss more shots than he’s made.

From 3, this has predictably been Durant’s best year. Now used to the open looks that seemed to throw him off during his first season in Golden State (37.5 percent), Durant is up to a career-high 43.1 percent. To drop back below 40 percent, he’d have to go a clean 30-for-100 to close out.

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Free throws are the issue here. At 88.1 percent, Durant would need to go a ridiculous 99-for-103 (96.1 percent) over the final 18 games to crack 90 percent.

At 5.7 attempts per game, Durant is going to the line at the lowest rate of his career. That’s mostly due to an extremely slow start to the season; Durant shot just 4.8 free throws per game through the first two months. Since Dec. 18, he has been at 6.4, a number much more in line with his norm since his 2014 broken foot. Even by bumping his free throw attempts closer to the 7.0 per game range, however, he would still have to shoot in the 95 percent range from here on out.

Durant is as consistent a free throw shooter as they come, but that might end up hurting him. Unlike Curry’s field goal percentage, which could vault above 50 percent with one of his patented month-long flurries, Durant’s foul shooting doesn’t fluctuate.

He’s at 88.2 percent for his career, but his 50-40-90 season was also his only season above 90 percent (he shot exactly 90 in 2009-10). He’s also only dropped below 86 percent on one occasion, but the low end is irrelevant when he has ground to make up.

Will it happen?

Every time Durant steps to the line, you expect him to make the shot. From that perspective, it’s hard to feel like a 96 percent month is impossible. The likelihood, however, is exceedingly low.

Curry’s opportunity is more real. He needs only continue to play like he has since his revitalizing ankle sprain to be right there at season’s end. The field goal percentage aspect of his previous 50-40-90 season hung in the balance entering Game 82, and he closed with a 15-for-24 exclamation point.

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Barring another slump or injury, Curry will have a chance to join Bird and Nash this April. For Durant, something spectacular would need to take place.