Memphis Grizzlies: Can Brandon Clarke join the 50/40/90 club?

Memphis Grizzlies rookie Brandon Clarke was 11 made free throws short of the 50/40/90 club this season, is this a mark that he can achieve in his career.

The 50/40/90 club is an illustrious group of players, all of whom are either in the Hall of Fame, or are clearly bound for the Hall of Fame (except for, oddly, Malcolm Brogdon).

However, Brandon Clarke had an opportunity to make history during his first season with the Memphis Grizzlies; he could’ve been the first player in NBA history to join the 50/40/90 club in his rookie season.

Still, he was 12 percent lower than 90 percent from the line, needing to have made 11 more free throws than he did. Even without the season suspension, Clarke making the club would have been difficult to pull off.

Assuming he’d keep shooting at his 1.9 attempted free throws per game, he would have needed to make almost twice as many shots as he would’ve attempted (he would’ve only attempted 37, and he needed to make 75). So, Clarke would need to drastically increase his attempted free throws AND made free throws; meaning it’s probably unlikely that he would’ve achieved the mark by the end of the season.

But when you look over what will hopefully be a long and prosperous career, and judging by his rookie numbers that’s incredible likely, is there going to be a season where Clarke will accomplish this high bar?

Well, after looking over the list of former players to have achieved this mark, they were all (and again we’re excluding the incredibly odd appearance of Malcolm Brogdon…for now) leaders on their team. And not just in the sense that most of them were point guards, but most of them were the best player on their team during the season they achieved the mark. And considering it looks like Ja Morant is in for the long haul, it’s unlikely that Clarke could assume that role, at least on the Grizzlies.

So now let’s make all the Milwaukee Bucks fans out there happy, let’s not ignore Malcolm Brogdon.

Brogdon joined the 50/40/90 club for his outstanding play in the 2018-19 season. The weird thing was though, Brogdon wasn’t the best player on that team. That position belongs to Giannis Antetokounmpo. And he arguably wasn’t the second best player on that team either, depending on how you thought Eric Bledsoe‘s season went. What’s more, you think that a player who had a season like that would find himself on the same team next year, but Brogdon was almost unceremoniously traded to the Indiana Pacers (For what it’s worth, he didn’t even come close to a 50/40/90 mark this year).

So, what does it take?

Well the biggest thing that it takes is, unsurprisingly, a lot of trips to the free throw line. Brogdon had 2.4 attempts per game in his 50/40/90 season, and that’s the lowest mark for any of the players on that list. The highest? Kevin Durant in 2012-13 when he averaged 9.3 attempts per game. Meaning, basically, he was getting sent to the line four to five times a game.

Currently, Clarke averages 1.9 free throw attempts per game. While it’s perfectly plausible to think that attempts per game wouldn’t factor in, they do. The more attempts you get, the less your misses really matter. Think about it like this: if you had to make 90 percent of your free throws, you’d want to shoot 1,000 free throws, as then you could miss 100 shots, than 10 free throws, because then you could only miss one.

So does Clarke have it in him to make that high FTA mark? Currently, probably not. Clarke struggles in the paint, and he prefers jump shots to layups. While that’s good for the system the Grizzlies have, as Clarke is often the recipient of a well-placed kickout, it’s not great for free throw attempts. Sure, there are great shooters on there (I mean, yeah, the best shooters are on the list), but a lot of those players had a significant drive game. Stephen Curry, Steve Nash, Durant, all these guys are people who were intimidating in the triple threat position. Right now, Clarke just isn’t.

It’s not unlikely that Clarke could add a driving aspect to his game, having Morant as a teammate bodes well for that, and having Jonas Valanciunas around to help him grow his low post game should also be encouraging; but if we’re going to see Clarke make the 50/40/90 club, chances are that it will still be a few years down the road.