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


We’re just days away from the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 6, which has understandably diverted our collective focus on transaction rumor mills and spicy off-court matters (thank you, Jimmy Butler and De’Aaron Fox!). But there’s something happening on the court that deserves our full attention.

Stat inflation is back.

Last January, scoring performances from individual players went off the charts. Seventy was the new 40. Joel Embiid scored 70 points and Karl-Anthony Towns poured in 62 on the same evening. Four days later, Luka Dončić put up 73 points the same night that Devin Booker tallied 62. When teams scored 150 points, we didn’t bat an eye.

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

Scoring had gotten so out of control that, in the middle of the season, the league office instructed its officials, unbeknownst to several teams I spoke with last year, to allow more physicality and make it tougher for offenses to put the ball in the basket. And at this rate, we may be heading that way again.

Scoring has been climbing as of late (have you seen the New York Knicks’ point totals lately?), but this year the stat inflation has revealed itself in a more subtle way: the once-elusive triple-double is now commonplace.

Nikola Jokić has been the face of the statistical surge. The three-time MVP has been on a tear recently, tallying six triple-doubles in his last seven games, including a preposterous 35-point, 22-rebound, 17-assist masterpiece against Sacramento. But it’s not just Jokić. All told, 27 players have registered a triple-double this season, some seemingly out of nowhere. On Saturday, Houston’s Amen Thompson accomplished the feat after not tallying more than five assists in any previous game this season.

We’re on a historic pace here, folks. We’re not even at the All-Star break and there have been 86 triple-doubles this season, putting the league on track for 155 triple-doubles, which would break the record of 142 triple-doubles set in 2020-21. To put 86 triple-doubles in perspective, the NBA had not seen that many in a full season until 2016-17 — and we still have about half the season left. Actually, there have been more triple-doubles this month than the entire 82-game slate in 2009-10. Drilling down even further, Josh Hart has more triple-doubles this half-season than Dwyane Wade did in his entire career.

So, what’s going on? Let’s explore the rise of a trend that is showing no signs of slowing down. 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, putting him on track to become the first big man to accomplish the triple-double feat.

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

Jokić has already tallied 21 triple-doubles in his 40 games played this season, which amounts to 52.5 percent of his games. If he plays in every remaining game of the Nuggets’ schedule while maintaining his current pace, Jokić will have logged 40 triple-doubles this season, well within striking distance of Westbrook’s record.

But there’s reason to believe that Jokić will top Westbrook’s high-water mark sooner than we think. Jokić has floored the accelerator on his triple-double pace lately, registering 10 such games in his last 15 outings, or two out of every three games. At that heightened rate and assuming he doesn’t miss any of Denver’s remaining games, Jokić would finish with 45 triple-doubles, surpassing Westbrook’s record with about a week to spare.

What’s truly crazy about Jokić’s run is that he’s logging triple-doubles even before the fourth quarter begins. In fact, he’d still lead the league with 12 triple-doubles if we eliminated all fourth quarters and overtimes from his ledger. Through three quarters this season, Jokić is averaging 24.2 points, 11.0 rebounds and 8.6 assists, somehow mirroring his full-game averages during his first MVP season of 2020-21: 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.3 assists.

Though Westbrook is now at Jokić’s side, the numbers point to a different Jokić triple-double whisperer: Christian Braun.

With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope bolting to Orlando over the summer, the Nuggets promoted from within, electing to give Braun the spot in the starting lineup vacated by the former Laker. An elite cutter, Braun has been the recipient of 85 of Jokić’s assists this season, second most on the team behind Michael Porter Jr., who was Jokić’s favorite dime target last season as well.

In Braun, Jokić has an off-ball bucket-getter who doesn’t need the ball in his hands to create scoring opportunities. With Braun on the court, Jokić’s assist rate soars to 10.5 assists per 75 possessions, the highest for any Jokić counterpart and higher than his rate with KCP on the floor last season.

But Jokić’s historic pace isn’t the only reason why triple-doubles are up league-wide. After all, one of the league’s most prolific triple-double machines, Luka Dončić, has missed most of the season. There’s something else going on here.


We haven’t seen any 70-point games yet this season, but we have witnessed some jaw-dropping stat-lines especially of the triple-double variety. At their core, triple-doubles are a…



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