Two weeks ago, the New York Times published an article detailing the rapid decline of triple-doubles in the NBA. On Monday, Kyle Lowry went 16/10/10 against the Timberwolves, earning just the second triple-double of the season (Rajon Rondo earned the season’s first on January 1, 2012 against Washington).
Below is a visualization of how accurate the Times’ assertion actually is.
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In the last 26 seasons, there have been 1,026 regular-season triple-doubles. The vast majority (974) were pts-rbd-ast triple-doubles, 47 were pts-rbd-blk triple-doubles, three were pts-ast-stl triple-doubles and two were pts-rbd-stl triple doubles.
The typical NBA season is 24 weeks long and yields an average of 41 triple-doubles each season, or 1.7 every week. This season has seen that average plummet to 0.4 trip-dubs each week.
If the two lockout seasons are removed in addition to the 21 triple-doubles earned in those two seasons, there are 1,005 triple doubles spread out over 24 seasons.
The largest outlier occurred in the 1997-98 season, the season before the lockout season. Despite playing almost 900 more games in 1998 than in 1999, the earlier season saw just two more triple-doubles. As suggested in the graphic above, a large number of players with a knack for earning triple deuces missed a fair amount of games that season, but enough to account for about half the number of triple doubles it should have had? Not likely. In 1997-98, the league averaged the seventh-worst ORtg and the eighth-best DRtg of the last 26 years, which also doesn’t truly account for the lapse. Alterations to league rules such as hand-checking (instituted a couple seasons earlier), or moving the three-point line back to its original position also don’t account for the dearth of triple-doubles in 1998, as the same effects were not seen in the seasons before or after. Perhaps that Bulls team was so good that it left opponents who had just faced them shattered for several games afterward or terrified for the five or six games leading up to it.
It appears that maybe the Rookie of the Year race could resemble the Dunkin Donuts jumbotron race the United Center plays during time outs atBulls games. It’s nothing special: an animated donut, coffee cup and bagel race twice around an animated track. There are six pre-recorded outcomes that play on a loop every six games. The coffee cup starts off with a huge lead, slows down and here comes the bagel. Now the donut takes a big lead. Last turn, here comes coffee cup. Oh, it looks like coffee cup. Except that coffee cup has suddenly stopped and bagel finishes! The place goes nuts. The only two things that get Bulls fans more buzzing is when the team scores 100 points and everyone wins Big Macs and when Brian Scalabrine enters the game. Go figure. People enjoy races that don’t matter. So when I tell you that the Rookie of the Year race has Kyrie Irving in the lead, after MarShon Brooks and Iman Shumpert took brief and early leads, I don’t blame you when you roll your eyes. For fantasy purposes though, it’s worth speculating that with D.J. Augustin missing the Cats’ next three games due to an inflammatory condition of the sesmoid bone (which is either a busted big toe or the title of the most awful of Dr. Who episodes), Kemba Walker seems poised to make his own jog around the ROY track. Last night, Walker earned a career-best 22/5/2 line that included 2 blk and 2 3ptm in 36 minutes. Maybe this game is an anomaly borne from nice timing and we never see him do this again. Maybe he carries this on for another week, then returns to 11/3/3 for the rest of the year, or maybe this is the spark that catches fire. Any which way, own Walker if he’s unowned, play Walker if you haven’t been and always root for the donut at the United Center. Here’s what else went down Tuesday night in fantasy basketball.
Wait! Don’t go just yet. There’s still time to get in on the $1,000 NBA fantasy hoops contest over at Daily Joust. Even if you don’t win the jackpot, there are still small money prizes to be had for entrants. People are still into money, right? I’m very out of touch! Anyway, click here or in the upper right corner of this page to check it out. See it? Okay, back to the blurbs.
Derrick Brown – Season-high 15 points to go along with 4 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 33 minutes. By season’s end, you will have owned every last member of the Charlotte Bobcats.
Bismack Biyombo – Played 11:07, didn’t block nothin’. Remember what I said two days ago: he needed 23 more seconds.
Ryan Anderson – 24 points and 5 3ptm last night. The night before? 0 points, 0 3ptm. Two-game averages? 12 pts/2.5 3ptm. See how that works? We’re good.
Glen Davis – Big Baby jumps with the meager force of someone launching from a patch of black ice, which explains why his shooting percentage is .345 in his last four games, but not how’s he’s managed to average 7.8 boards in that span.
Darren Collison – Failed to dole out one assist. Matter fact, not a single Pacer guard managed an assist last night. I don’t know what a tiny Pacer is for, if not to hand the ball to the larger Pacers standing closer to the basket.
Carmelo Anthony – Held scoreless in the first half of a game for the fifth time in his career. Ended the game with 1 point in 30 minutes. It was the first game of his career he played that many minutes without scoring. Just 32 more games to catch up to Dennis Rodman.
Iman Shumpert – 1-for-9. ShumpShump has never taken more than six shots in a game before tonight. The fact that he chose his absolute coldest game to do so tells you much of what you need to know about the rookie.
Amir Johnson – I could have made Aaron Gray the subject of this blurb about Johnson losing his starting spot to one of the statistically worst players in the league, despite the fact that he’s healthy, but I didn’t. I didn’t because Aaron Gray is not a fantasy option for any team. And right now, man, neither is Johnson.
Andrea Bargnani – Drained 34 points along with 5 3ptm after returning from six games worth of calf pain. With DeRozan completely pooping out this season, Bargs is Toronto’s best offensive option, bar none-i.
DeMar DeRozan – 4/1/2, on 2-for-8 shooting. SELL! /Adam has the urge to throw something breakable against wall, has nothing in his hand with which to throw, goes to the kitchen to grab some crackers, hurls them against the wall, not good enough, picks up a coffee mug, crashes it against the wall, not good enough, picks up cat, looks at cat, decides the mug was okay enough, puts cat down.
Antawn Jamison – 2-for-6, with 5 points. This after his 1-for-10, 4-point performance on Friday.
Ronnie Price – 4/5, with 2 steals. Jared Dudley: 6/1, with 3 steals. Meh. Tomato-To Otto.
Raymond Felton – Two assists, six turnovers. Ray-Ray’s assist:turnover ratio is, I think, um … shizz:balls.
It’s a veritable Ron-a-thon in the FA pool. Derrick Rose returned after a couple games off and tagged out Deng for what looks to be at least a week. The first thing you need to know is Luol Deng came into Monday night leading the league in minutes played through the first quarter of the season. The second thing you need to know is that Deng and his 38.3 mpg are having wrist-issues (wristues?) and there ain’t no telling exactly how long he’ll miss. In his place? Ronnie Brewer. Brew (no one calls him “Brew”) had 9 pts/3 rbd, with a three after one quarter (he played all 12 minutes). Had he ended the game with that, you deep leaguers would consider picking him up. The fact that he played 27 minutes, scored 11 points, blocked a shot, and ended with five rebounds on an off night against a team the Bulls were never excited about playing, bodes well for Brewer’s value. This is why the Bulls are so damn good. Their reserves come in, fill up the stat sheet for a couple games and slink back to reserve roles when the starters return. For as long as Brewer is starting for Deng, he should be owned across all leagues. I don’t think it will be long, as Deng was expected to try to gut it out even a half-hour before the game and the injury is on his non-shooting hand. But even if you get one more game out of Brewer, he’s going to play big minutes (last night excluded, due to the New Jersey’s sucktitude). No player playing that many minutes shouldn’t be owned. Rip Hamilton and Kyle Korver are the other Bulls most likely to benefit from Deng’s limp wristedness. Hamilton is the major add, but he’s owned in the majority of leagues. Brewer isn’t. In other Ronnie news, Phoenix doubled-down on Ronnie Price remaining the starting SG in place of Jared Dudley. Last night, he went 3/0/1, with 2 stl and a 3ptm. /sarcasm Good thing they moved Dudley’s weak line out of the starting lineup \end sarcasm I don’t like a Price pickup nearly as much as a Brewer pickup, but production is gold and minutes are gold and mares eat oats and does eat oats and little Price is gravy. Below are some kids who’ll eat ivy, too. Join us, won’t you?
Rip Hamilton – Double-doubled for the first time in almost exactly two years (January 27, 2010). That means he’s not likely to start double-doubling all over the place. So settle down about it.
MarShon Brooks – Out with Achilles tendonitis. Yeah, THAT’s why the Nets lost by 50 points. It was only 15. Not in spirit, it wasn’t. Anthony Morrow took his place and hit 15 points with little else. They’re basically the same player. Now that I think about it, have you ever actually seen Brooks and Morrow in the same place? Yes. They’re teammates. We’ve seen them together often. Ehhhhh, I’m not so sure. Isn’t Marshon Brooks just an anagram for Anthony Morrow? No. Clearly not. There’s no “s” or “b” in Morrow’s name. Dammit, Mr. Italics! What’s WITH you today!?!
Rodney Stuckey – Good enough to play in place of the more-injured-than-Stuckey Ben Gordon. Not good enough to help his team avoid getting blown out of the Chesapeake Energy Arena by 20 points.
Kirk Hinrich – He’s set to make his season debut on Wednesday. But don’t get it twisted (or betwixted, if you’re reading this from the 16th century), Teague is your starter and Hinrich really isn’t worth more than, say, Udrih, Cole or Farmar. Don’t freak out, Teague’s your man (For now!) Ignore my doom-and-gloom parentheticals. I’m just kidding (Or am I?) I am. (Probably.)
Ryan Anderson – 0-for-8, three fouls. Easily the worst shooting performance of his career. Before tonight, Anderson had never gone more than six shots without making one. His previous worst: November 11, 2009, 2-for-14. He and Orlando deserve each other.
Brandon Bass – Coming into last night’s game, Bass had amassed 37 pts/24 rbd with 3 blk in his last three. 19/8/0 last night. Put your abacus away. He’s averaging 14/8, with 0.8 blks this week and he’s still widely available in most leagues. Jrue story.
Eric Gordon – After a scare most of yesterday that he may have had a fractured kneecap, reports stated that his knee is structurally sound, but that he’ll miss another three weeks. Still, my guess is he’ll miss more than three weeks worth of games. Adjust your Marco Belinelli personalized calendars accordingly.
Elton Brand – 11/2, with a steal in the first 8:30 minutes = good. 6/7 in his next 20:30 = bad. Good + bad = 17/9, with a steal = still good! This is why I hate math. On another note, I have no statistics to back this up, but it seems pretty clear to me that playing sick makes people better at basketball.
Andre Iguodala – Seven assists in the first 9:30. I could do this for Thad Young and Jodie Meeks and Jrue, but what’s it matter? It was against D.C. Cut all of Philly’s stats by a third and you’d have an accurate idea of what they’d have done against a professional basketball team had they played one.
JaVale McGee – Five total rebounds in two games, because oldasses Jermaine O’Neal and Tony Battie are simply too much for him. Blocks be damned, McGee is awful.
Derrick Williams – Drill put on his big boy pants and took his first turn in the starting lineup. (11/7 in 37 minutes.)
Ricky Rubio – Shot 2-for-10 last night and .386 on the season. Also, I just threw up in my mouth a little … wait. *urp* Just threw up in my mouth a lot.
Kawhi Leonard – Shot (and missed) one shot in 7 minutes. That’s it. That sound you’re hearing is either a sad trombone or Leonard’s ship setting out to sea. Or maybe there is a sad trombone on his ship.
Trevor Ariza – Hey! Will you lookit ol’ Trev’ playing pretty well and averaging .440 from the floor, 14.5 pts/5.5 rbd/4.3 ast, and 2.8 stl in the four games since his return from injury! Ain’t that just prettier than eyelashes on a bull steer? I don’t know what that means.
Luke Ridnour – Ridnour ending last night with a 17/3/8 line three weeks after all of Earth had forgotten all about him is like remembering how hot Tiffani Thiessen still is after all these years. Oh, hey. That’s great. Way to go!
Serge Ibaka – Ten blocks in his last two games, 16 blocks in his last four. Say what you will about him: you wanted blocks, he’s giving you blocks.
Ian Mahinmi – 17/9, as he missed his first double-double by one rebound. … Or seven blocks if you’d prefer to take the long way around. Yahn ain’t a bad stream in deep leagues while Nowitzki takes his extended breather. Odom is the biggest beneficiary in theory, but Mahinmi had a fine game last night.
Marcus Camby – Camby left the game early with mild groin spr … oh, who cares? You saw Camby’s name and you already knew everything you needed to. You just knew. Look at Craig Smith if you’re desperate.
Chris Paul sat out his fifth game yesterday. That, along with Caron Butler‘s recent tweak, paved the way for Mo Williams to get his minutes up. It’s all I can do not to mention Williams’ 77 points and eight three-pointers in his last three games, except that I just mentioned it. So now we’re in a pickle. If you happened to add Mo to your roster, you’re fat ‘n’ happy, jack. But don’t get used to it. It’s 10:15 for Cinderella and the carriage horses are freaking out about turning back into mice. Butler returned yesterday, Paul is likely back for Wednesday’s game and you’ve got no mo’ chances for Williams to go off like he did this weekend. He’ll see a minutes bump until he cools down. My guess is, the heat will decline along with his minutes. Here’s what else happened over the weekend in fantasy basketball.
Francisco Garcia – Likely to start Monday in place of the recently hospitalized John Salmons. He had three steals and a block in his last start, which was equal to the combined total of his points, assists and rebounds. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have … the Francs of life.
Kemba Walker – 16/6/4, with a steal, a three and three turnovers in relief of D.J. Augustin‘s inflamed big toe. Ding-dong. Who’s there? Big minutes and cheap assists. Oh well, then come on in. Wonderful. I can’t stay long. Augustin isn’t likely to miss a lot of time. I’ll leave when he gets here. So sad. Would you like a wine cooler while you wait? That would be splendid.
Shaun Livingston – 10/5/5, with 2 steals, starting in place of the benched Stephen Jackson (10/4/1). Livingston is a hot pickup. Mostly because he’s very likely to burn his owners.
Ersan Ilyasova – 16/6, with a steal in 21 reserve minutes. Just like last year, with the exception of maybe Bogut, I avoid owning all Bucks because all Bucks avoid giving consistent performances from game to game. He’s had 11 and nine rebounds in the two games leading up to this one, but only three and nine points, to go along with it.
Jerryd Bayless – Made his second debut of the season after failing to make a solid debut in early December. This debut felt more like a real debut as he assisted on five buckets and stole the ball twice. He also messed with Joe Kettle’s mojo (3/2/4, in 24 minutes). We won’t know how successful this debut is until we compare it to all the other debuts he’ll have later this season.
Amir Johnson – Benched after three quarters, one point, one board and seven minutes on the court. Mix it all together and what do ya got? A sloppy bucket of yuck. He’s been having a fair amount of yuck buckets lately.
Leandro Barbosa – When DroBo finds 21 mpg a game, he’s doing a lot with it. The problem with Toronto is that he’s not always finding 21 mpg. I don’t like his usefulness in any league with fewer than a dozen teams. Anything more than that, I love ‘im.
Ray Allen – Sprained ankle and missed the rest of the game. He said he’d try to make tonight’s matchup. “Anything you can do, I can do two weeks longer.” – Dwyane Wade. Mickael Pietrus is the add if Allen’s optimism turns out to be unfounded.
Avery Bradley – Six turnovers and 1-for-8 shooting. He is not the Rondoid you seek.
Deron Williams – Came one rebound shy of a triple-double. Hey, remember triple-doubles. Those were fun, back when players earned those, huh?
Tiago Splitter – He’s found his way into 20 mpg in four of his last seven games, including Saturday’s 25/10/4 performance. This won’t become the norm, but he’s worth an add in deep leagues and a stash in shallower ones as both Duncan and Blair will see more time off as the season continues. The takeaway here is that Popp is starting to trust the guy. Popp’s trust is never a bad thing.
Spencer Hawes – Doug Collins said he hopes Hawes is ready to go tonight after missing the last three games with an Achilles injury. The Sixers are only playing the lowly Wiz, and there’s rarely a reason to rush a player back just to watch JaVale McGee do something stupid. That said, Vucevic is listed as doubtful, and the Sixers are thin in the frontcourt without either bigs.
JaVale McGee – 13/3, with 3 blocks in 31 minutes. How does a guy who can jump over three midgets stacked on one another’s shoulders only grab three rebounds? What a schmoo. (Hey, if the pill’s too bitter, D.C., stop getting sick.)
Bismack Biyombo – 11/7, with 2 steals and 4 blocks last night. The Bismack Guarantee™: If he sees at least 11:30 minutes of playing time, he WILL earn you a block. I just give you the information. I don’t tell you what to do with it.
Tyler Hansbrough – The good news is that PsychoT grabbed 7+ rebounds for the first time in 10 games. The bad news is he shot 0-for-5 and scored 0 points. Also, that 7 rebounds thing was really just bad news dressed up as good news. I’m a glass-1/10-full kind of guy.
Mike Miller – 0-for-1 in 19 minutes. Pop quiz, hotshot: What’s a hot shooter if not someone who shoots the ball? Answer: Why, any of the Miami Heat wings, of course.
Chris Bosh – Career high, for Bosh! … in turnovers. With eight. Fooled you!
One Piece looks to be an unstoppable juggernaut after the first four weeks of the season, having never spent a week outside of the top spot in the RCL averages ranking as well as the top of his division’s league ranking. Fear the ‘Stache can’t say the same thing, as for the first week, the team fell from second to third.
Team Rich climbed an RCL-high 26 spots from 51st last week to 25th this week. This becomes all the more impressive when you look at his steady incline from Week 1. He started at 59th, improved to 54th, then 51st and now he’s just outside the top 12.
Team Thiele fell the hardest dropping from 18th to 44th. He, like Team Rich, are both in the All-Star Dance-Off ’08 Division. Thiele’s had a string of bad luck. First with Derrick Rose missing most of the last week with turf toe, Boris Diaw going from hero to zero and, of course, Stephen Jackson doing what Stephen Jackson seems to be best at doing these days.
You’ll notice (if you click the pic above) that things are starting to settle. Ten teams remained in the same position this week as they were in last week. The previous two weeks only saw three teams stay put. There’s still plenty of time, but it’s going to be increasingly more difficult to climb the ladder or stay off the chute as the weeks go by. If you’re low, start figuring out where you’re weak and work on tweaking those categories by FA adds or trades. If you’re on top, start looking at who’s behind you and play defensively. It starts becoming more about strategy and less about luck. Although, there’s still a ton of luck involved.
Below is a slope graph of this week’s movement. All RCL scores and averages are stored on this spreadsheet here or download the full thing here. All scores and stats count up to and including Wednesday’s games (Jan. 18).
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