[VIDEO] Keep Me In, Coach! NBA Players Who Received the Fewest Minutes Per Game
These guys returned to the bench in record time.
Check out this video on my YouTube channel! Alternatively, there is a written version below.
Can we talk about Sindarius Thornwell? At one point in my article on the 1961–62 NBA MVP race, I loosely defined a rotation player as someone who played at least 500 minutes in a season, figuring that anyone who played in most of their team’s games would have no trouble hitting that mark. I mean, last season, 361 guys played 500 minutes. That has to include everyone who appeared in at least 60 games, right? Well…not exactly.
Somehow, despite playing in 64 games for the Clippers last season, Sindarius Thornwell totaled just 313 minutes. That’s good for an average of fewer than five minutes per game and a total fewer than players with less than half as many appearances.
Let’s put this into perspective. Of the 239 players who saw action in at least 60 NBA games last season, everyone else averaged double-digit minutes per game, more than twice as much playtime as Thornwell. The next lowest average, 10.1 minutes per game, belonged to Thornwell’s teammate, Tyrone Wallace.
A look at Thornwell’s game log shows that outside of a single start where he played 29 minutes, he was never on the floor for more than 13 minutes and change in a game. He had 18 appearances of less than one minute, and, amazingly, five of fewer than 10 seconds. At that point, why even bother subbing him into the game?
Thornwell’s season of frequently appearing in games but hardly playing in them got me wondering about the other players who struggled to stay on the court even when they got a chance to play. So here they are, the NBA players who received the fewest minutes per game.
We’re going to separate this video into two parts — fewest minutes per game in a season and for an entire career, each with varying minimum requirements for games played.
To start out, let’s see how significant Sindarius Thornwell’s season really was by taking a look at the single-season leaders for fewest minutes per game with at least 60 games played. As it turns out, Thornwell really was exceptional. His 2018–19 campaign was one of only four times in NBA history that a player appeared in 60 games and averaged less than five minutes per game.
However, the leader in this category, with a paltry 4.2 minutes per game in 64 appearances for the 2007–08 Hawks is Mario West. West was the king of short appearances, with 10 games in which he played fewer than 10 seconds. His median appearance? Just two minutes and 14 seconds. We’re going to move on for now, but there’ll be more on West later.
For players who participated in all 82 games of a season, the leader for the fewest minutes played is Adonal Foyle, who totaled just 774, or 9.4 per game, seven fewer than Jim Les, who comes in second place.
Interestingly, while Foyle was never much of a scorer, he is actually one of the great shot blockers in NBA history. Of players with at least 500 career games, Foyle ranks in the top 10 all-time for blocks per 36 minutes played with 3.3, just ahead of Hall of Famers like Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Hakeem Olajuwon, and David Robinson. And while we’re here, let’s admire Manute Bol, who sits a remarkable two blocks ahead of the entire field.
9.4 minutes per game might not be a ton, but since few players actually appear in all 82 games, it’s not that remarkable overall. Nazr Mohammed averaged just seven minutes per game in 80 appearances, and for more than 70 games played, Hank Finkel holds the record with 6.5 minutes per game for the 1972–73 Celtics.
The 50 and 60-game minimum records belong to Mario West, but below that, things start to get crazy. For players with at least 40 games played in a season, our champion is Eddie Gill, with 122 minutes played in 41 games. That’s one minute shy of three minutes per game. A few fun facts here: Gill shot 7/23 from three on the season but just 3 of 22, or 13.6%, on two-point shots. At 22.2% overall, Gill’s shooting was so cold that he spent the following season in Russia.
When Gill played, it almost never mattered. Despite playing in half of the Pacers games in the ‘05–06 season, Gill only saw time in 11 of the team’s 42 games that were decided by fewer than 10 points. In these games, he averaged just 2 minutes and 41 seconds of court time, or less than 30 minutes of important action for the entire season.
Lowering our minimum to 30 games, we find Fennis Dembo, who somehow only played 2.4 minutes per game in 31 appearances for 1988–89 Detroit Pistons. But hey, at least he won a ring. This was Dembo’s only year in the NBA, and he never clocked more than seven minutes in a game, while nearly half of his appearances were for just one minute. It’s a shame, because he was great in college for Wyoming, leading the team to two NCAA Tournament appearances and averaging the most points per game in the 1987 tournament, where the 12-seed Cowboys made a run to the Sweet Sixteen. He was even on the cover of Sports Illustrated!
Rounding out our group are Cole Aldrich and Ira Bowman, with the fewest minutes per game with 20 and 10 game minimums, respectively.
It’s one thing to struggle to find playing time in a single season. It’s another to do so for an entire career because it takes a unique blend of surviving in the league for several years without ever really carving out a major role.
For players with a minimum of 100 career games, no one did that better than Mario West, who averaged 4.9 minutes per game in 162 contests. We’ve already looked at West’s 2007–08 season, but it goes beyond that. In none of his first three seasons did West average more than 5.1 minutes per game. He finally enjoyed some significant playing time in a brief 2011 stint with the Nets, where he came somewhat close to playing as many minutes in six games as he did in 39 games the year prior. Following that, West spent some time overseas and even played in the Big3 League.
Coming in right behind West is Bruno Šundov, with 5.1 minutes per game across 102 appearances in seven different seasons. The 7’2” Šundov entered the league at just 18 years old and never found his rhythm, shooting just 35.6% for his career. But hey, at least he hung around for a while.
At the 250 game minimum, our biggest benchwarmer is Greg Dreiling, who actually almost qualifies for our next category with 474 games played and an average of 8.9 minutes per game. Taken with the pick before Dennis Rodman in the 1986 NBA Draft, Dreiling spent his first seven seasons with the Pacers before two stints with the Mavericks and one with the Cavaliers at the tail end of his career.
Of those who played at least 500 NBA games, Scott Hastings takes the cake with 10.4 minutes per game. Obscure stat fans will be happy to know that he holds the record for most consecutive games without a steal, with 65. Also in the top 10, we’ll find two teammates of Michael Jordan, Jud Buechler and Bill Wennington, and the legend himself, Brian Scalabrine.
And finally, with a minimum of 1,000 games, we once again have Nazr Mohammed, but at this point, who really cares? Mohammed played for 18 seasons, started well over 300 games, and a career average of 15.8 minutes per game isn’t even that low.
So, there you have it — the NBA players who averaged the fewest minutes per game. Be on the lookout for more statistical deep dives in the future.
Connor Groel is a writer with a Bachelor’s degree in sport management from the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as editor of the Top Level Sports publication on Medium. His book, “Sports, Technology, and Madness,” is available now. You can follow Connor on Medium, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and view his archives at toplevelsports.net.
