A 35-year-old record is on the line as Booker and Durant chase Chambers’ scoring mark

Can Devin Booker or Kevin Durant break Tom Chambers’ 27.17 scoring record before the Suns’ season ends?

The Phoenix Suns’ season is winding down, and with 17 games left, their fate remains a mystery. Play In team? Playoff survivor? The script is unwritten. But as we watch their push for the postseason, there’s another race worth tracking. One that pertains to a record that has been untouched for 35 years.

Tom Chambers’ franchise record for scoring average in a season — 27.2 points per game — has stood since 1989-90. Officially listed as 27.2, the real number is 27.17 when you dig into the decimals. Chambers put up those numbers as part of a 54-win squad that made the Western Conference Finals.

This record has been in the crosshairs plenty. Devin Booker technically surpassed it in 2022-23 with 27.76 PPG, but he fell two games short of the 55-game minimum for qualification. So no dice there.

Last season, both Booker (27.03) and Kevin Durant (27.09) came within striking distance. Had either scored just 10 more points, Chambers would have been dethroned. But they didn’t. So the record stands. Chambers remains the benchmark.

The question is: will anyone finally clear it this season?

Once again, both Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have a shot at rewriting Suns’ history. Booker has already cleared the 55-game eligibility hurdle, while Durant needs just three more games to qualify. So, barring anything unforeseen, step one is essentially in the bag.

The next step? Seeing where they stand and just how much ground they need to cover. As of now, both are flirting with that magic number, but history doesn’t just roll over. It takes sustained excellence, a few high-scoring explosions, and zero off nights down the stretch. And availability is paramount. Every game missed adds pressure, increasing the points per game needed to hit that mark.

Devin Booker

• Current Points Per Game: 25.97
• Needed Points Per Game Remaining: 31.16

Devin has totaled 1,532 points across 59 games this season, averaging a solid 26.0 points per game. If that pace holds, it would mark his eighth-best scoring average in a season and his lowest since putting up 25.0 per game in 2016-17. Not his best year.

To surpass TC’s 27.17, Booker would need to score 534 points over Phoenix’s final 17 games, an average of 31.16 per night, assuming he plays in all of them.

It’s a tough challenge, but not an impossible one. Booker has averaged more than 31.16 points per game over a 17-game stretch 12 times in his career, with his highest mark coming between February 23 and March 30, 2019, when he put up 32.71 per game.

Kevin Durant

• Current Points Per Game: 26.94
• Needed Points Per Game Remaining: 27.91

For Durant, the path to surpassing Chambers is much clearer. KD needs to average 27.91 points over the final 17 games, something he’s done for an entire season seven times in his career. Just 494 points are needed to etch his name in the record books.

What’s fascinating is that if he does, he’d join only Wilt Chamberlain as a player to hold the single-season scoring title in two different cities. Wilt holds the record at 50.4 PPG with the Golden State Warriors in 1961-62, and 33.5 PPG with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1965-66. Durant would claim the record in both Phoenix and Oklahoma City, though Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (averaging 32.7 points) looks poised to surpass Durant’s 32.0 from 2009-10.

---

I know, I know. Many of you don’t give a damn about some dusty old Suns’ record. You’d rather see wins piling up, playoff aspirations rising, and team success taking center stage. Individual accolades? Nah, that’s for the history books.

Well, guess what? I don’t care that you don’t care. Oooo. Spicy Voita. 10,000 on the Scoville scale.

This number, this glorious 27.2, has been etched in my brain since I was eight years old. I remember watching Jordan carry the Bulls with 37.1 and thinking, “Damn, that’s a monster number.” Then I look at Phoenix, sitting on 27.2 like a lonely, forgotten relic. Respect to Tom Chambers, but given the modern NBA, I’m shocked it still stands.

27.2? That’s the fourth-lowest total among all teams. And the only franchises below them — Charlotte, Minnesota, and Memphis — were all established in 1988 or later. Even Minnesota’s mark won’t last, with Anthony Edwards set to surpass Kevin Love’s 26.1 this season. Oh, the Suns…

Maybe this is the year we finally see a new name etched atop the list. And maybe you don’t care. But I do. Clearly. And it’s something to monitor as the Suns’ season fades into the annals of history.

Oh, and Bradley Beal? If he suited up for every game from here on out, he’d need to drop a mind-boggling 52.77 points a night to surpass Tom Chambers. Yes, you read that right. Fifty-two. Seven-seven. At this point, Beal would need a cape and maybe a few magic tricks to pull off anything close to that. But hey, it’s always fun to dream.

---

Listen to the latest podcast episode of the Suns JAM Session Podcast below. Stay up to date on every episode, subscribe to the pod on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Podcasts, Amazon Music, Podbean, Castbox.

Please subscribe, rate, and review.