Home Sports Nikola Jokić and the triple-double boom: Will the NBA have to temper scoring again?

Nikola Jokić and the triple-double boom: Will the NBA have to temper scoring again?

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(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

We are just a few days after the NBA trade deadline on February 6, which has understandably diverted our collective approach in the factories of rumors of transaction and spicy issues of the court (thank you, Jimmy Butler and De’aaron Fox !) But there is something that happens on the court that deserves all our attention.

Statistics inflation has returned.

Last January, individual players’ score actions left the lists. Seventy was the new 40. Joel Embiid scored 70 points and Karl-Anthony Towns poured 62 the same night. Four days later, Luka Dončić put 73 points the same night that Devin Booker scored 62. When the teams scored 150 points, we did not put into account.

The score had been outlined so much that, in the middle of the season, the League office instructed its officials, without the teams with which I spoke last year, to allow more physicality and make it more difficult for offenses for offenses To put the ball in the basket. And at this rate, we can go again.

The score has been uploading lately (you have seen The point points of the New York Knicks lately?), But this year the inflation of the statistics has been revealed in a more subtle way: the triple-double that was once elusive is now common.

Nikola Jokić has been the face of the statistical increase. The three -time MVP has recently been in a tear, with six triples elves in its last seven games, including an absurd masterpiece of 35 points, 22 rebounds and 17 assistants against Sacramento. But it’s not just Jokić. In total, 27 players have registered a triple double this season, some apparently out of nowhere. On Saturday, Amen Thompson de Houston achieved the feat after not counting more than five assists in any previous game this season.

We are in a historical rhythm here, friends. We are not even in the All-Star Break and there have been 86 triples elves this season, putting the league on the road to 155 triples elves, which would break the record of 142 triple elves established in 2020-21. To put 86 triples elves in perspective, the NBA had not seen so many in a full season until 2016-17, and we still have approximately half of the season. Actually, there have been more triples elves This month that the entire board of 82 games in 2009-10. Based even more, Josh Hart has more triple elves this half season than Dwyane Wade in all her career.

So what is happening? Let’s explore the increase in a trend that does not show signs of deceleration. Especially with the big man in Denver.


In his first season playing next to Russell Westbrook, Jokić is averaging 30.0 points, 13.1 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game, which puts him on his way to become the first big man to achieve the triple-double feat.

At this rhythm, Jokić will threaten Westbrook’s triple-double record for a season. In his MVP campaign in 2016-17, Westbrook broke the Triple-Sacred Docu of Oscar Robertson of 41 games with at least two digits in points, rebounds and assists (Westbrook finished with 42).

Jokić has already counted 21 triples in his 40 games played this season, which is equivalent to 52.5 percent of his games. If you play in all the remaining games of the Nuggets schedule while maintaining its current rhythm, Jokić will have registered 40 triples elves this season, a short distance from the Westbrook record.

But there are reasons to believe that Jokić will head the Highwater Westbrook brand before what we think. Jokić has attacked the accelerator in his triple-double rhythm lately, registering 10 of these games in his last 15 outings, or two out of every three games. At that high speed and assuming that none of Denver’s remaining games is lost, Jokić would end with 45 triples elves, overcoming Westbrook’s record with approximately one week left over.

What is really crazy about Jokić’s career is that he is registering triples-Doubles even before the fourth quarter begins. In fact, he would still lead the league with 12 triples elves if we eliminate the quarterfinals and strangers from his main book. Throughout three quarters of this season, Jokić is averaging 24.2 points, 11.0 rebounds and 8.6 assists, somehow reflecting his complete game averages during his first MVP season of 2020-21: 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.3 Assistance.

Although Westbrook is now next to Jokić, the numbers point to a different Jokić Triple-Dooker: Christian Braun.

With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope screwing Orlando during the summer, the Nuggets promoted from the inside, choosing to give Braun the place in the initial alignment unoccupied by the former Laker. An elite cutter, Braun has received 85 of Jokić’s assists this season, the second more in the team behind Michael Porter Jr., who was also the objective of ten fencing cents from Jokić last season.

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In Braun, Jokić has a bucket out of the ball that does not need the ball in his hands to create punctuation opportunities. With Braun on the court, Jokić’s assistance rate rises to 10.5 assists for 75 possessions, the highest for any Jokić counterpart and higher than its rate with KCP on the floor last season.

But Jokić’s historical rhythm is not the only reason why the triple elves are throughout the league. After all, one of the most prolific triple-double machines in the league, Luka Dončić, has lost most of the season. There is something else that is happening here.


We have not yet seen any 70-point game this season, but we have witnessed some amazing statistics lines, especially the triple-double variety. In its nucleus, the triple elves are a natural byproduct of a larger score boom in the league.

Look at the New York Knicks. With Karl-Anthony Towns in the Redile, the Knicks have jumped to an offensive rating of 119.6, the second best in the League. The Tom Thibodeau offensive has exceeded 140 points three times this month, more than has had in anyone season Since 1978, by follow -up of Stathead.com. Not coinciding, with the offensive of the Knicks in full inclination, Hart has already counted six triples this season, the fifth more in the league. This time last year, Hart did not have a single triple double throughout his career.

As with Hart and the Knicks, it is logical to reason that the triples dojos increase as the teams build prolific offenses. To achieve a triple double, a team needs to step on the gas, hitting shots and pumping the assistance totals. It is no coincidence that the triple maids almost extinguish during the era of Deadball in the early 2000s, when the floors teams fought to score 90 points.

In fact, the score throughout the league is increasing in the last two months. After scoring down about 106 points per team around Christmas, the score has illuminated throughout the NBA at its current levels with approximately 115 points per team. That is approximately the same level of annotation that we saw last season before the league intervened. Before the recession around All-Star Break, the League was seeing the teams score 115.5 points for 48 minutes, below its peak at 118 points and a tick above where we are currently (114.5).

Nikola Jokic and the triple double boom Will the NBA have

Last season, around the All-Star Break, The score seemed to crash Through the League. The 60 and 70 points games disappeared from the game. The markers began to return to more normal levels. The data showed that the referees did not call so many faults, allowing the defenses to obtain more than a high hand in attack crimes.

In the Paris Games last week, the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, answered a question about the subject of too many triples. On the subject, he made a slight detour to mention that the NBA can influence the arbitration of the fly to improve visual experience.

“I remember that there was an era in the NBA, in large part in the 90s, where there was the feeling that we had removed some of the aspects of the game; The game had become too physical. Maybe we went too far in the other direction, and we made some adjustments last year to allow the defenses to be a bit more physical. Fans responded positively to that, and I think the teams did.

“Some teams may have had some concerns with exactly how that adjustment was made, but I think the final result has been very positive from the fanatic point of view.”

It is not clear how the league would actively domesticate the prevalence of triples elves if I thought it was abuse. Unlike individual punctuation totals reinforced by unpleasant foul hunting tactics, a referee’s whistle has less impact on a player’s ability to achieve, for example, two -digit assists. The free throws do not count to attend total anyway.

The triple-double trend seems that it will be much more sticky due to the simple fact that the increase in the great creators of games that operate in space has made high assistance totals much more attainable. With obstructed paintings, illegal defense restrictions and hand verification rules of previous generations, it made sense that the guards of smaller points such as John Stockton, Isiah Thomas and Muggsy Bogues depended on the methodical offenses led by the playcalls of a coach.

Now, with offenses of five outs, better qualified players and open passes lanes, larger athletes can act functionally from the ship’s base while they continue to accumulate large bouncing totals. They are not just Hart and Jokić. Kings Center Domantas Sabonis has seven goblins. LeBron James, which is the size of Karl Malone, has nine goblins. Cade Cunningham, who could have been a small striker in previous decades, has seven triples elves after registering zero last season (largely thanks to an improved support cast that can, in reality, you know, shoot).

If the increase in the score continues, watch what the NBA competition committee does in the low season. There are more possessions in today’s game compared to the early 2000s and 1990s, which helps players more time to increase triple-double categories. The League could try to stop the game or make it more difficult for offenses to reach their places. Defensive eliminating three seconds or hardening the rules of freedom of movement could put triples triples elves. But do not contain the breath of any important adjustment in the season.

For now, the emergence of triple-double does not seem to be something that must be reign, but we are not far from reaching the boiling point of last year. If the score outside the degrees and the lines of absurd statistics continue through the rest of the stars, an adjustment could be on the table. In any case, teams trying to limit Nikola Jokić could use all the help they can obtain.

(Tagstotranslate) Nikola Jokić (T) Triple-Double (T) Russell Westbrook (T) Jimmy Butler (T) NBA (T) Karl-Anthony Towns (T) Christian Braun (T) Josh Hart (T) New York Knicks (T )) Joel Embiid

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