Sacramento Kings: How Would Peja Stojakovic Perform In Today’s NBA?

Some NBA players are simply born in the wrong generation. Former Sacramento Kings player Peja Stojakovic is certainly one of them.

Peja Stojakovic is long removed from his playing days, and is now the director of player personnel and development for the Sacramento Kings. He has been out of the game for nearly nine years, and it seems like a lifetime ago when he played for the Kings and was the most feared sharpshooter in the league.

A wild fact that came across our media feed recently was that Peja Stojakovic is actually younger than Vince Carter, who recently became the first player in NBA history to take the court in four different calendar decades. Carter was born on January 26th, 1977 and Stojakovic six months later.

That got us thinking. Which NBA players of recent memory would fare the best in today’s NBA? Who was born in to the wrong generation, ten to fifteen years too early? Stojakovic is one of the first players that comes to mind. He was a dead-eye shooter before dead-eye shooting took over the league. He shot better than 40 percent from beyond the three-point line for the entirety of his career, including a blistering 43 percent rate during the 2003-’04 season.

An MVP-Caliber Season

Speaking of 2003-’04, it is apparent that some people forget just how good Stojakovic was that year. He played in 81 games and averaged 24.2 points on 48/43/92 shooting splits, leading the league in free throw accuracy. He appeared in his third All-Star Game and finished fourth in the MVP voting that season, ahead of guys like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jason Kidd. He was the best player on a team that finished with 55 wins.

So how would those numbers translate in today’s game? Our formula is not perfect, and there is no accurate way to know the answer to these hypothetical thoughts and questions. But here is what we will do: we’ll find out where Stojakovic ranked that year in attempts and accuracy, and transpose those numbers on the player that finished in the same spots in 2018-’19.

In 2004, Stojakovic attempted 554 three-pointers, good enough for the second most in the league behind Baron Davis. The second-most three pointers shot in 2018-’19 were by Stephen Curry, who put up 810 long balls. Curry made his shots at a 43.7 percent clip, nearly identical to Stojakovic’s accuracy in 2003-’04. So if Stojakovic shot as many threes per game as Curry did and maintained the same accuracy, he would have averaged nearly 30 points per game. Curry averaged 27.

While his shooting was certainly his strongest skill, Stojakovic excelled in many aspects on the court. His 6’10” height allowed him to average nearly 6 rebounds per game in his All-Star seasons with Sacramento, and he had excellent court vision that suited those early-2000s Kings teams to a t. He is the distributor of one of the most impressive passes in documented history of the league.

Final Thoughts

What team today couldn’t use a 6’10” wing who can pass with the best of them, shoots 40+ percent from deep, and has the firepower to finish with a few MVP votes?

While there may be other players whose game translates better to today’s game than it did when they played (Andrei Kirilenko, Rasheed Wallace), Peja Stojakovic is arguably the most interesting case when comparing eras. Describing Stojakovic’s playing strengths sounds a lot like what someone would say if they were asked to build the perfect basketball player in 2020.

Sure, he’d be missing a few attributes like high-flying athleticism or lock down defense. But the historical shooting numbers and offensive prowess that Stojakovic displayed would make him one of the most valuable players in today’s NBA.