Is Westbrook Averaging a Triple Double Again
Marc Stein on Basketball
Russell Westbrook Makes Triple-Doubles Look Like shooting fish in a barrel. They're Not.
Westbrook, the Washington Wizards guard, is on runway to average a triple-double for the fourth fourth dimension in 5 seasons, making it seem almost routine. So why doesn't everyone do information technology?
Russell Westbrook and Scott Brooks huddled past telephone tardily Sunday. After the Washington Wizards' eighth consecutive victory, and with the second half of a back-to-dorsum looming Monday night against San Antonio, Westbrook wanted to do some extra strategizing with his passenger vehicle.
It was only a few months earlier that six consecutive Washington games were postponed because the Wizards had been ravaged by a coronavirus outbreak. Their U-turn has been so dramatic, with Westbrook's play reminiscent of his Oklahoma City best, that Brooks couldn't resist interrupting the serious tone by needling his star guard.
"I told him: 'You've got to start rebounding the ball — just five this night?'" Brooks said. "Just busting his chops."
Those v rebounds Westbrook managed in Lord's day's victory over Cleveland, to go with fourteen points and 11 assists in 36 minutes, were indeed an bibelot. In ix of his previous ten games, xiii of the previous 15 and 16 of the previous 20, Westbrook reached double figures in points, assists and rebounds.
In his commencement season as a Sorcerer, at age 32, Westbrook is averaging 21.8 points, eleven rebounds and 11 assists per game — with a league-leading 29 triple-doubles to hike his career total to 175. Denver's Nikola Jokic, with 15 triple-doubles, is his closest pursuer this season. With seven more triple-doubles, Westbrook will pass Oscar Robertson as the N.B.A.'due south career leader.
This is where information technology's important to note that Westbrook, who is on a course to average more than than 10 rebounds per game for the fourth fourth dimension in five seasons, stands half-dozen-pes-iii.
The official stance of this newsletter is that Westbrook'southward forthcoming achievement should be celebrated heartily, at the very to the lowest degree for his relentless rebounding at that size, but it's hard to say how much fanfare awaits him when he eclipses the Big O. This isn't even a record that Robertson knew he fix at the fourth dimension, since the term "triple-double" didn't come up into vogue until the 1980s.
Another tricky variable: In my 28 seasons of total-time N.B.A. reporting, Westbrook is right at that place with Allen Iverson when it comes to the nigh polarizing players I have covered. Because of Westbrook'southward ball-dominant style, fickle jump shot, high turnover rate, occasionally curt demeanor and, most of all, aught championships, it is often easier to discover his critics than his admirers.
Epitome
As Westbrook closes in on Robertson, there is also a rising tendency to dismiss triple-doubles equally empty calories because they happen so frequently in the wide-open modern game. (Example: On March 17, Westbrook was one of six players to record a triple-double that day.) Westbrook's triple-doubles in particular tend to be discounted in a way that others aren't, which he brought upward in a video session with reporters later Monday's overtime loss to the Spurs.
"I think it's very interesting that it'south not useful at present that I'yard doing it," Westbrook said.
As covered in a contempo piece by my colleague Tim Reynolds of The Associated Printing, at that place were just 18 triple-doubles leaguewide as recently every bit the 2011-12 regular season. This season's total has already topped 100, for the fifth season in a row, pointing to the various offensive advantages enjoyed in today's Due north.B.A. The faster footstep of play creates more possessions, and thus more statistical opportunities, and restrictions on defenders have been designed to promote more freedom of movement on offense. Players are also encouraged to shoot three-pointers at record rates, boosting scoring numbers and leading to more long rebounds. Old schoolers resistant to the 3-point revolution, in response, are prone to scoff at some of the gaudy stuff we see in box scores these days.
Yet this is where I feel compelled to echo that role about Westbrook standing merely 6-3. He is the only player in league history at that size or smaller to average at least 10 rebounds a game over a full season.
"Information technology's a lot harder at 6-3," said Lafayette Lever, who went by the nickname Fatty and amassed 43 triple-doubles from 1982-83 through 1993-94.
Lever understands Westbrook's claiming equally well every bit anyone. He was a half-dozen-three, 170-pound guard who rang up a league-leading xvi triple-doubles in 1986-87, ahead of both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and he didn't have Westbrook'south explosion.
"Russell is so much more athletic than I was at any point in fourth dimension," Lever said in a phone interview, "probably from the mean solar day he was built-in."
Lever, though, had an exceptional knack for rebounding, which he credited to playing on a high school team with no one taller than half dozen-three. He even so ranks 10th in career triple-doubles. Information technology wasn't until Johnson joined the Lakers, 5 seasons after Robertson'south retirement, that triple-doubles were seriously tracked and discussed, but among my N.B.A.-obsessed high schoolhouse friends in the 1980s, we associated triple-doubles with Lever equally much as with Magic or Bird, since he seemed like such an unlikely source for them.
Lever accrued all 43 of his triple-doubles in a six-season span with the Denver Nuggets from 1984-85 to 1989-xc equally one of the driving forces on a team that, similar Westbrook, wasn't ever appreciated. Detractors at the time took issue with the freewheeling style those Nuggets played under Coach Doug Moe — and the wild scores and stats their games produced.
Prototype
Turbocharged statistical lines are a staple now in a league where xiii teams out of 30, entering Tuesday's play, were attempting at least 40 pct of their shots from 3-point range. Cries of stat padding became commonplace in Westbrook's afterwards years with the Thunder, and the hyper-awareness of triple-doubles — and a corresponding urge to hunt them — is another perceived advantage for the Westbrook generation. But Lever insisted that achieving the consistency of Westbrook'southward board piece of work is far harder than it looks.
"It's still a big deal," Lever said, "because not everyone is able to do it."
Westbrook made similar statements afterward the Wizards' winning streak was snapped by the 146-143 loss to the Spurs. Asked about his latest triple-double, which included 22 points, 13 rebounds and xiv assists — albeit on 9-for-26 shooting — Westbrook said: "I honestly believe in that location is no player like myself. And if people want to take information technology for granted, deplorable for them. But I'm pretty sure if everybody could do it, they would exercise information technology."
Information technology's difficult to argue with that logic, although many endeavour. In 2016-17, Westbrook became the outset player since the 6-5 Robertson in 1961-62 to average a triple-double for an entire flavor. That feat helped Westbrook, starring for the 47-win Thunder, get the N.B.A.'s kickoff Virtually Valuable Player Award winner from a sub-50-win team since Moses Malone in 1981-82.
With a heave from his recent surge, Westbrook is on a course to average a triple-double for the fourth time in 5 seasons, which in theory should position him every bit an K.VP. candidate. The reality is much colder: Westbrook has seemingly normalized averaging a triple-double and has been traded twice during that run, suggesting to some that triple-doubles aren't specially valuable. Or, worse, that he is not a histrion to build around.
Washington caused him from Houston on Dec. 2 in a bandy of disgruntled backcourt stars that sent John Wall to the Rockets. In January and Feb, Westbrook'due south play was alarmingly inefficient and turnover-laden, with noticeably fewer rushes to the rim. Since the All-Star break, Westbrook has consistently played at a top-30 level, and Washington has a net rating of plus-4.four points per 100 possessions with both Westbrook and Bradley Aggravate on the floor.
Concern persists over Westbrook's five turnovers per game, and his curious slippage at the free-throw line to a career-low 62.8 percent from 76.3 percent final season, only the constant thrust Westbrook plays with has made the Wizards difficult to guard. His presence has not hindered Aggravate's scoring, every bit some surmised when the trade went down; Beal is locked in an almighty battle with Gilt State's Stephen Back-scratch for the league's scoring title.
In March and April, Westbrook became the first player to register at least 300 points, 150 assists and 150 rebounds in consecutive calendar months since Wilt Chamberlain in Feb and March of 1968, according to research from the statistician Justin Kubatko. Westbrook will never be for everybody, especially without a ring, only Brooks couldn't take lobbied harder for the Wizards to reunite them when the trade opportunity arose. He coached him through nearly all of Westbrook's first seven seasons in Oklahoma Urban center,
"The rebounding is the most incredible affair," Brooks said. "He goes and gets them. He just has that knack. Information technology doesn't matter who's in front end of him; he always has 1 more step on his ladder. The will, the athleticism the competitive drive — I knew what our team needed.
"Xi rebounds a game for guy half dozen-3? We'll never encounter a player like him always again, non in my generation or my kids' generation."
Corner Three
Paradigm
You enquire; I reply. Every week in this space, I'll field 3 questions posed via e-mail at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com . Please include your first and last proper noun, likewise as the city you're writing in from, and make certain "Corner Three" is in the bailiwick line.
(Questions may be condensed or lightly edited for clarity.)
Q: The Knicks have overperformed this season. The front end office did not make any splashes at the trade deadline. Jeff Van Gundy recently mentioned on television that the Knicks were "still incredibly limited" talent-wise. Their best histrion is Julius Randle , simply the North.B.A. has been a perimeter-based league for some fourth dimension. How will Leon Rose address this? — Wallace Leeth (Paterson, N.J.)
Stein: April has been a month for Knicks fans to savour. Genuine optimism and joy are tangible at Madison Foursquare Garden for the offset time in years. I suppose it was inevitable that someone would inject a sober dose of pragmatism into the conversation, just information technology'southward also difficult to quibble with the patient approach — so far.
The Knicks are ahead of schedule and well positioned to pursue signings and trades to bolster an offensively challenged roster, with considerable salary-cap space and 2 first-round picks forthcoming in the off-season. Team officials know they still have plenty of work to do to upgrade the overall talent, but that wasn't imperative at the merchandise deadline in March. It's not like in that location was a difference-maker they missed out on.
It's true that this forepart function volition ultimately be judged on its ability to sign or trade for at least one certifiable star to pair with Randle, which means persuading an established player to embrace the challenge of playing in New York as heartily every bit Randle did. Rose and his management team likewise have to brace for ongoing second-guessing virtually their first draft pick if the rookie baby-sit Tyrese Haliburton continues to blossom in Sacramento, since they could have drafted Haliburton at No. 8 rather than Obi Toppin.
The Rose regime, though, has done many good things in its first year. The Knicks appear to have hired the right coach in Tom Thibodeau, helped usher Randle to All-Star status and can indicate to promising development from RJ Barrett and the rookie Immanuel Quickley to offset the injuries that have derailed Mitchell Robinson's third season.
At that place have been whispers for weeks that the Knicks' flirtation with the East's No. 4 seed has helped restore their reputation to the point that star players are finally prepared to consider them a destination franchise again. If that proves true, they volition have multiple pathways to address the concerns you raised, whether it'due south past trying to sign a savvy former All-Star similar Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan on a short-term deal as a bridge to free-agent classes more star-laden than this summer's, or by using time to come draft picks (perhaps packaged with Toppin) to construct a meaningful merchandise.
Things could e'er go beveled if the Knicks blitz into the wrong deal, as they accept been known to practice over the years, or if the team's possessor, James L. Dolan, decides he needs to get involved later constant by the system'south plan to let Thibodeau and on-court results do all the talking. Only I would say that the Knicks have certainly earned a grace period through the end of this surprising season. This is a time for Knicks fans, surely, to revel in what'due south going right.
Q: Do they really get the Oscar itself? Kobe Bryant was very involved in co-creating his flick, which is why he was given an Oscar . Executive producers frequently provide financing and aren't involved as hands-on producers. In whatever case, good for them. — @FromMeadows from Twitter
Stein: In my exuberance Sunday dark, I tweeted that Kevin Durant, Mike Conley Jr. and Rich Kleiman, Durant'south business director, joined Bryant every bit Oscar winners from the North.B.A. because they were listed as executive producers for "Two Distant Strangers," which won the best live action curt film category at Sunday'due south University Awards. That's incorrect.
They were function of an Oscar-winning film, simply did not get awards themselves. Kobe took home an Oscar trophy in 2018 for the animated short motion picture "Love Basketball," which was based on a verse form Bryant wrote in 2015 to announce his retirement at the finish of the 2015-sixteen season.
Q: I've never seen so many tweets and stories about a team signing a guy to a 10-day contract. Nosotros've seen posts well-nigh Mike James about fifty times over the past calendar week. — @MrWright1218 from Twitter
Stein: There are some good reasons for that.
It's partially a function of where nosotros are on the regular-season calendar. There just aren't as many roster moves happening this shut to the postseason, especially involving title contenders, and then the ones that do happen generate extra coverage.
Withal information technology'south as well a byproduct of the circumstances. James was ane of the most prominent Americans playing abroad, with a high-profile European social club (CSKA Moscow), and he had a complicated contractual situation to negotiate — as well equally half dozen days' worth of wellness and rubber protocols to complete — before he could actually join the Nets on Friday. The fluidity of James's status led to more frequent updates.
Numbers Game
Image
50
Recording 50 wins in an 82-game season is a traditional marker for N.B.A. excellence. Winning 50 games in a 72-game season is obviously harder, but 6 teams even so accept a chance to do so with nineteen days remaining in the regular season: Utah (44-17), Phoenix (43-18), the Los Angeles Clippers (43-20), the Nets (42-20), Philadelphia (40-21) and Denver (40-21). Of those six, only the Jazz (52) and the Suns (51) are currently on a pace to exercise then.
61
Nikola Jokic'south Chiliad.V.P. instance volition undoubtedly be bolstered by his immovability in this pandemic flavour. Jokic has played in all 61 of Denver'due south games and has led the Nuggets to a six-1 record since Jamal Murray's flavor-ending knee joint injury on Apr 12. Philadelphia'southward Joel Embiid, widely regarded as Jokic'south closest pursuer in the K.V.P. race, has played in 42 of the 76ers' 61 games.
9
Monday'due south home loss to the Suns, the No. 2 seed in the West, brought a halt to the Knicks' nine-game winning streak. The Knicks have had merely i longer unbeaten run in the 21st century, winning thirteen consecutive games late in the 2012-13 season, which featured the social club's last playoff berth.
37.v
The Knicks' Julius Randle leads the league at 37.5 minutes per game. Coach Tom Thibodeau has faced criticism for years near overplaying his all-time players; Thibodeau nearly likely would counter that Randle, at 26, is young enough to handle the workload.
xiii
This is Seattle's 13th season without an North.B.A. team. The W.N.B.A.'s Seattle Storm take won 3 championships in that time, merely the wait for a new franchise to supersede the SuperSonics volition soon take on a new dynamic when the Seattle Kraken bring together the N.H.Fifty. next season. Nosotros're less than iii months abroad from the Kraken's expansion draft on July 21.
Hit me upward someday on Twitter ( @TheSteinLine ) or Facebook ( @MarcSteinNBA ) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Transport any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com .
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/sports/basketball/russell-westbrook-triple-double.html
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