One needs only a passing familiarity with the game of former Houston Rockets guard Chris Clemons to know that the guy is a certified bucket. It is how he was able to make the Rockets’ roster, despite a tiny (by basketball standards) 5’9 stature that would have otherwise been disqualifying.
This week, however, Clemons put up numbers that demanded particular attention.
Over the weekend, the Campbell graduate scored 52 points for EWE Baskets Oldenburg during a game in Germanyâs top division, the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). It was the BBL’s best single-game scoring performance of the 21st century, and the highest scoring barrage of any player since 1992. And it was entirely in keeping with the Clemons way; the kind of statistical outburst of high-volume scoring built on speed, shot creation and merciless makes that has gotten him to dip his toe into the game’s very highest waters.
The State Of The German League
The performance came in a 119â104 win over Gladiators Trier, a game in which Clemons shot 18-for-25 from the field, including 9-for-11 from three-point range. He played 37 minutes and was the focal point of nearly every offensive possession in the second half. Aside from former Toronto Raptors signee Michale Kyser, Clemons’s Oldenburg team lacks for size – their leading rebounder, at only 5.4 per game, is 6’4 swingman Brian Fobbs – and they need their best shot creator to carry a sizeable load if they are to survive in a continuously-improving BBL.
Clemons understood the assignment. Oldenburg had lost their first four games of the season, and were in last place in the Bundesliga, while Trier had won their first four and were top. Only the single-handed excellence of Clemons could bridge the gap. So single-handed dominance, he delivered.
Clemons’s performance looks even better in context. While the NBA is in the midst of an all-time scoring surge, the rest of the world’s basketball – for many different reasons, including lower athleticism levels, shorter games and different court dimensions – has not gotten to the same levels. The BB’s record all time scoring record is 65 points, set by a player called Keith Gray – the 150th pick in the 1985 NBA Draft – all the way back in 1989. Between 2003 and 2021, only one player scored more than 40 in a game, a 41-point performance by Chuck Eidson back in April 2006. The BBL just does not have the same type of scoring performances as the NBA does on a nightly basis.
Unless, of course, you are Chris Clemons.
Clemons’s Endless Buckets
Clemons was known for his offense long before arriving in Germany.
At Campbell, he averaged 24.8 points per game across four seasons, peaking at 30.1ppg as a senior, and finished his college career with 3,225 total points, which at the time of his graduation was the third-highest total in NCAA Division I history. [It has since been pushed down to fourth by another small scoring dynamo, Antoine Davis of Detroit Mercy.] He went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft despite this, but quickly signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Rockets, one which was later converted to a two-way deal, and then a full three-year contract.
In his rookie year of 2019-20, Clemons averaged 4.9 points in 8.8 minutes per game in 33 contests, shooting 40.1 percent from the field and 34.6 percent from three-point range. He set his NBA career-high with 19 points against the New Orleans Pelicans in December 2019, and, although particularly small by NBA standards, Clemons nevertheless showed an ability to generate shots quickly against NBA defensive schemes and premium defenders. His rookie year coincided with the Rocketsâ ultra-small-ball phase under Mike DâAntoni and Daryl Morey, a system that suited his profile, and which allowed him to aggressively hunt his shot. Which he promptly did.
It did however end all too briefly. In December 2020, Clemons tore his Achilles tendon during a preseason game, effectively ending his second NBA campaign before it started. The Rockets later waived him to open a roster spot, and he spent the following year recovering and training. By 2022, he resurfaced in the G League with the Maine Celtics, averaging 16.3 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc, but short stints with the Celtics and Atlanta Hawks franchises never turned into any more game time.
After a short stint in Chinaâs CBA and two years in France, Clemons is now in Germany, and has landed with a bang Through the first five games of the 2025â26 BBL season, he is averaging 23.6 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game, shooting 45.1 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from three. His usage rate is among the highest in the league, but Clemons leads the league in scoring by a wide margin. Wherever Clemons plays, he scores.
Whether this kind of production ever earns Clemons another NBA look is uncertain. Players his size face a limited market unless they can shoot at elite levels, and Clemonsâ defensive limitations will forever remain part of his scouting profile. Nevertheless, Clemons is on track to be one of the most productive guards the German league has seen. And there exists a BBL-to-NBA pipeline.
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