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Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 32, at Miami
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook is threatening to become the first NBA player to average a triple-double since Cincinnati Royals Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson achieved the double-figure points, assists and rebounds mark during the 1961-62 NBA season. A lot has changed in the league since then, which is why Westbrook’s current averages of 31.7 points, 10.9 assists and 10.4 rebounds would make such a feat a remarkable achievement in line with some of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. If not the greatest individual season in NBA history.
As Westbrook takes on each new opponent while the OKC season drawls on, we’ll be updating his chances at matching the Big O’s feat.
Russell Westbrook is so good that his “what if”-legacy is approaching Michael Jordan territory. We’re now into shaming general managers for passing on point guard on draft night. Provided, of course, the GMs don’t beat us to the punch by shaming themselves before we get to them.
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The Oklahoma City Thunder star was not a top overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, as that honor (as expected) went to former Memphis Tigers star Derrick Rose, selected first by the Chicago Bulls. The No. 1 and No. 2 slots in that draft weren’t exactly considered a coin flip, but absolutely nobody at the time expected the Miami Heat (selecting second) to overlook Kansas State product Michael Beasley, who had just come off of a 26-point, 12-rebound season in the lone campaign with his club.
The setting wasn’t anywhere close to the intrigue at the top of the 2003 NBA draft, where Carmelo Anthony’s stock unexpectedly dropped from second (behind LeBron James) to third once 17-old phenom Darko Milicic started hitting the workout circuit. Beasley was supposed to go second in 2008, and all manner of once-exalted prep legends – O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love – were expected to round out the pack.
As they did, with a converted shooting guard in Westbrook going fourth overall to a Seattle SuperSonics team that had already played its final game in Seattle. It was considered to be a sort of a reach to some, but Westbrook’s upside convinced just as many doubters that the potentially risky move could be worth it:
Beasley has gone onto a pockmarked NBA career. He’s done exceedingly well with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2016-17 as a bench scorer for the (currently) 14-15 team, but he’s far from the exalted Kevin Durant/Mark Aguirre-hybrid that many imagined coming out of college, and Beasley is playing on his fifth NBA team.
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That’s not including two stops with the Heat, a team that dealt him in 2010 after just two seasons with the franchise in a move to clear Beasley’s $4.9 million salary off the books prior to the club’s successful pursuit of free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The Heat dumped Beasley on Minnesota for the price of just two second-round draft picks and cash, just 25 months after selecting who they thought would become a franchise star.
Miami, currently working without James, Bosh, fellow ‘Big Three’ star Dwyane Wade, Beasley (who returned to the team for two seasons in 2013, averaging over eight points per game) and Westbrook in the midst of a rebuilding year, takes on the Thunder on Tuesday evening. Recently, Heat president Pat Riley got right to the point in talking about the far-after view of that year’s draft:
“We missed on that pick in Michael Beasley,” Riley said before correcting himself to soften the blow on Beasley, who was selected after Derrick Rose and before O.J. Mayo and Westbrook with the next two picks. “I mean, we didn’t really miss on it. But the best player was Russell Westbrook.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra dismissed any notion that he’s losing sleep over his work back in 2008:
“You can’t play that game because then who knows if we would have gotten the Big 3,” Spoelstra said when tossed the hypothetical question Monday of where the Heat might be today had it drafted Westbrook. “Sliding doors, one thing could affect the next.”
Michael Beasley has started fewer than half of his 477 NBA games, averaging 24 minutes a contest on his career while contributing 12.7 points per game on middling efficiency. No observer – from the Miami Herald to Riley to Spoelstra to the minders of the Watch – is attempting to disparage Beasley unfairly, but it is more than fair to point out that the forward never truly built on the package of skills he was gifted.
The same clearly cannot be said for Westbrook, who developed before our eyes on company time in the best and boldest possible way. From a guy who averaged fewer than 13 points and 4.3 assists per game during his final season at UCLA, to someone who makes the near-impossible at the NBA stage look normal.
Someone who is in no danger of watching his triple-double and 30-point averages slip away even with a stinker of a game against the 10-21 Heat, who have lost four of five.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
