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I don't remember the last time we saw so many triple-doubles and "almost" triple double in 2 months.
Wesbrook had 10 of them and started the epidemic. Tonight Evan Turner had another triple double. Elfrid Payton had 2 triple-doubles if i'm not wrong. Joakim Noah a 2 "almost" triple-doubles the last 2 weeks. I think Noah had the recipe last year, but didn't have the playing time and enough ball in his hands to do it woth Gasol and Rose on the roster . I think LeBron had at least 2 "almost" triple-doubles the last 2 weeks. Reggie Jackson had one few days ago.
Since the all star break we saw 23 "almost" triple-doubles ( at least 9 pts 9 rbds 9 ast) and 17 triple-doubles.
Russel Westbrook started the plague on february 11. Did he changed the game? Are you still impressed with triple-doubles?
I mean if someone can have a season of triple-doubles it's defintely Russell. I never watched Oscar Robertson, but i guess he was playing the same way. Do you think he would expose the triple-double recipe to the world if he was playing this season in the era of internet? You don't have to watch it live or ask someone to record a VHS tape. You can now download every game anytime and everywhere. When you are in the plane, at hotel or watch highlights on your smartphone.
Hide your kids, hide your wife, it's the beginning of the triple-double epidemic.

The triple double is honestly the most overrated stat in the game and its quite disgusting to watch a player deliberately aim for it every game by trying stat pad every rebound and assist they can get.

A 25/12/5 game with 2 TOs on good efficiency is better than a 35/10/10 game on poor efficiency and with 8 TOs.
WB is playing great but not as great as some people think.

Woodsanity wrote:The triple double is honestly the most overrated stat in the game and its quite disgusting to watch a player deliberately aim for it every game by trying stat pad every rebound and assist they can get.

A 25/12/5 game with 2 TOs on good efficiency is better than a 35/10/10 game on poor efficiency and with 8 TOs.
WB is playing great but not as great as some people think.

Mostly agree, but look at OKC right now. Noone in that lineup can create their own shot other than Russ, Augustin, and Waiters. The TOs are largely b/c he's got to carry a huge load. I agree triple doubles can get overrated though. And again, efficiency hasn't been poor.

OKC's bigs leak out and let Russ grab the board every chance they get. It's why his rebound numbers have been so inflated lately. That's the strategy they're employing.

Rebounds from the PG position aren't particularly valuable, anyway. Triple-doubles are a neat little accomplishment, but they aren't nearly as impressive or affecting as most people seem to think.

Sebastian wrote:OKC's bigs leak out and let Russ grab the board every chance they get. It's why his rebound numbers have been so inflated lately. That's the strategy they're employing.

Rebounds from the PG position aren't particularly valuable, anyway. Triple-doubles are a neat little accomplishment, but they aren't nearly as impressive or affecting as most people seem to think.

I don't think you're noticing the rebound numbers OKC bigs put up, that isn't the strategy.

Holy hell yall are a bunch of haters.

I'm not even a Westbrook fan but as a fan of the game, you have to marvel at what he's doing right now.

Forget about triple-doubles for a second...pretend he rebounds at a regular rate....dude is averaging 32/11 post all-star break. Single handedly keeping Thunder afloat in the West, 7-3 in their last 10 games.

Yeah his usage is high but look at the rest of that starting lineup. Not exactly a murderers row of scorers

Stringcheese wrote:Holy hell yall are a bunch of haters.

I'm not even a Westbrook fan but as a fan of the game, you have to marvel at what he's doing right now.

Forget about triple-doubles for a second...pretend he rebounds at a regular rate....dude is averaging 32/11 post all-star break. Single handedly keeping Thunder afloat in the West, 7-3 in their last 10 games.

Yeah his usage is high but look at the rest of that starting lineup. Not exactly a murderers row of scorers

Just wanted to say thank you!

And he's 7th on the team in reb/36, to the above post. OKC leads the league in rebounding.

Sebastian wrote:OKC's bigs leak out and let Russ grab the board every chance they get. It's why his rebound numbers have been so inflated lately. That's the strategy they're employing.

Rebounds from the PG position aren't particularly valuable, anyway. Triple-doubles are a neat little accomplishment, but they aren't nearly as impressive or affecting as most people seem to think.

Jason Kidd basically made a career our of rebounding the ball and getting a head start on the fast break. The ability to have the ball in your PGs hands before the opposing team's defense is set can lead to a lot of easy points.

Mr Puddles wrote:

Sebastian wrote:OKC's bigs leak out and let Russ grab the board every chance they get. It's why his rebound numbers have been so inflated lately. That's the strategy they're employing.

Rebounds from the PG position aren't particularly valuable, anyway. Triple-doubles are a neat little accomplishment, but they aren't nearly as impressive or affecting as most people seem to think.

Jason Kidd basically made a career our of rebounding the ball and getting a head start on the fast break. The ability to have the ball in your PGs hands before the opposing team's defense is set can lead to a lot of easy points.

I like your username.

ardee wrote:

Mr Puddles wrote:

Sebastian wrote:OKC's bigs leak out and let Russ grab the board every chance they get. It's why his rebound numbers have been so inflated lately. That's the strategy they're employing.

Rebounds from the PG position aren't particularly valuable, anyway. Triple-doubles are a neat little accomplishment, but they aren't nearly as impressive or affecting as most people seem to think.

Jason Kidd basically made a career our of rebounding the ball and getting a head start on the fast break. The ability to have the ball in your PGs hands before the opposing team's defense is set can lead to a lot of easy points.

I like your username.

Thank you, I was mulling for a long time between this name and Martin Scorsese eats a cookie. I kind of regret not taking the latter in the end actually.

Mr Puddles wrote:

ardee wrote:

Mr Puddles wrote:
Jason Kidd basically made a career our of rebounding the ball and getting a head start on the fast break. The ability to have the ball in your PGs hands before the opposing team's defense is set can lead to a lot of easy points.

I like your username.

Thank you, I was mulling for a long time between this name and Martin Scorsese eats a cookie. I kind of regret not taking the latter in the end actually.

You could change if you like, but I'd be disappointed

triple doubles are massively overrated by way too many people. 30/10/10 leads SC, but 30/9/8 is just another stat line. Makes no sense to me.

It's not much of a recipe:

1) Dominate the ball in order to get the points.
2) Only pass when a teammate is wide open and in shooting position to get assists.
3) Go hard after EVERY rebound.

Wow people are reaching.

When your PG has 10+ rebounds every other game......that means you need to reevaluate your Center position.

Who cares about triple-doubles?

I care about winning. And we are doing it.

bmann626 wrote:When your PG has 10+ rebounds every other game......that means you need to reevaluate your Center position.

Why? OKC's rebounding rate is second in the league. They are first in rebounds per game and rebounds differential. Seems to me they are totally fine in this area.

Also, rebounds by players like the likes of Westbrook and LeBron actually are quite valuable in terms of getting them momentum for a fastbreak. Of course outlet passes from bigs are also great, but having a quick, strong player grab the rebound and go all the way is also very difficult to stop.

bmann626 wrote:When your PG has 10+ rebounds every other game......that means you need to reevaluate your Center position.

When your top three bigs average 25 a game, no you don't.

I don't know about "recipe" here. Obviously he gets the triple doubles by getting rebounds, which he gets by crashing the boards. Generally speaking I don't like point guards crashing the boards - or rather I tend to think it's largely a non-accomplishment that people make into a big deal. Consider Jason Kidd, the last triple double machine at point guard. He basically fed on defensive rebounds, which are often uncontested, and which you don't want the whole team crashing the boards on when they are contested. There's thus every reason to think the team would do fine rebounding-wise without Kidd out there.

Now that we have FFRAPM we can talk a look at Kidd's effect on defensive rebounding in terms of regression, here's how Kidd comes out in the glamour years of Jersey that led up to his peak in '07:

'03-05: 27
'04-06: 12
'05-07: 26

Understand that 50 is average. So the numbers appear to be telling us that Kidd was hurting his team's rebounding in the very place where he racked up the numbers.

Let's look at Westbrook's current defensive rebounding numbers by the stat:

'13-15: 12

So yeah, in the place where Westbrook is getting most of his rebounds, the team would probably be better off rebounding-wise if he just got the hell out to he way.

However, the thing about super athletic guys who crash the boards without conscious is that they can have a positive impact on offensive rebounding, and Westbrook tends to get way more of his boards on offense than Kidd did - even if he still mostly gets his boards on defense. Let's see what Westbrook's offensive rebounding number looks like:

'13-15: 89

That's outstanding. As always, there may be a defensive cost to his actions here, and the defensive board crashing strategy may outweigh the benefits of the offensive work, but there's every reason to think that those 2.1 offensive rebounds he gets per game are actually worth something.

But of course, 2 boards is a far cry from 10. The number people are excited about, including Westbrook I think, is basically meaningless.