The play above—what looks like an afterthought in LeBron James's 61-point outburst against the Bobcats—represents the sole meaningful play of #14 DeAndre Liggins's season. Spending most of the year in D-League, Liggins was signed by Miami late in February and released in mid-March, appearing in just one game. He finished with an official 2013-14 stat line of one rebound and two points (on 1-1 shooting) in one minute played.
Everything that proceeds from here should be considered Fun With Extremely Small Sample Sizes™:
- Liggins's PER—129.1—is the highest single-season mark in NBA history.
- His wins shares per 48 minutes—2.123—is the highest mark of all time, and almost 50 percent higher than the second-highest mark (Chad Gallagher, playing three minutes in 1994).
- Extrapolating from that figure, a season of off-the-bench 2013-14 Liggins (20 min. per game) would be worth approximately 72.5 wins, enough to top the 95-96 Bulls.
Some would say that Liggins's season is a pointless statistical absurdity, soon to be forgotten. These cynics are wrong: It will forever live on in the hearts of Basketball Reference users who forget to set qualification thresholds in the Play Index.
Here's a video of Liggins's full season: