The Slovenian has eleven triple-doubles this year, two more than the Lakers. In recent years the total triple-doubles achieved in one season has not stopped increasing.
Doncic, during a Mavericks game.
The fight for triple-double in the NBA it is a recent, modern battle, enhanced by the consumerism of highlights and overreaction to any statistic no matter how cow it may be. A fight in which the players have been fully involved and that continually leaves us situations sometimes somewhat embarrassing, like somerobbery of a bounce, a angry about a mistake after performing an assist or a mosque because the coach takes the player off the track when he had few catches or passes to complete the precious feat.
Before the triple-double was seen as a milestone, not as a constant. Something that very few manage to reach. His king was Oscar Robertson, the first player who averaged said statistics for a full season: 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists in the 61-62 course. Something unique and incomparable until more than fifty years later he arrived Russell Westbrook: averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 catches and 10.4 passes to the basket in campaign 16-17.
The base of the Thunder took the MVP although his team only managed to be sixth in the Western Conference. It was considered, as with Robertson, that it was going to be something unique and almost unrepeatable.
They were wrong. Not only with Westbrook, who again averaged a triple-double in the next two seasons, but with the entire league.
Evolution of triple-doubles in the NBA
In the last ten years the total triple-doubles made by the NBA players has increased exponentially in each season. Being that Russell Westbrook MVP the turning point for one surreal war and without barracks. 23 on 09-10, 37 on 10-11, 18 on 11-12, 42 on 12-13, 46 on 13-14, 46 on 14-15, 75 on 15-16, 117 in 16-17, 108 in 17-18 and 127 in 18-19. This year we have not yet reached the equator of the regular league and more than fifty games of more than ten points, ten rebounds and ten assists have already been achieved.
Together with Westbrook we have Lebron James, which used to perform some every year but now is untied: He has achieved a triple-double against all the teams in the league in his career and has been nine this season, beating all eight of last season and two of whom seems to be the new king of this discipline: Luka Doncic. The Slovenian already has eleven, improving the age records of any player in history, above the eight he added in his rookie year and now reaching the best figures for Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd, Dominators of this facet.
Triple-double leaders per season
Kidd got 13 on 07-08, and the twilight of his career coincided with several years in which no one exceeded the ten triple-doubles. Until Westbrook's eleven on 14-15. Since that time, a exponential madness: Doncic now has eleven and LeBron nine, but it is that Nikola Jokic add seven, Westbrook six and they follow behind Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons with three.
The fight for statistics has generated a critical rain a lot of players, accused of looking too interesting that 10-10-10 ignoring the needs of their team. Westbrook was accused of 'steal 'bounces from the thunder pvots and he had to go out to defend himself: “I have learned that if I am the one who captures the rebound and launches the transition, it is better for our team”, despite the jokes of some of his teammates, who also depend on the numbers to win their next contract : “Sometimes he steals some bounce,” he joked Carmelo Anthony. And that fierce fight for the leadership that Doncic and LeBron maintain this year leaves details as strange as the Slovenian has more rebounds (9.7 per night) than pvots as good in this section as Anthony Davis (9.4) or Serge Ibaka (8.4). Westbrook Y LeBron, meanwhile, average 7.8. Both next to Doncic, among the 30 best rebounders in the league.
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