On Wednesday, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook recorded the 115th triple-double of his career in a 107-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. That places the 2016-17 MVP third on the all-time list only behind Magic Johnson (138) and Oscar Robertson (181).

During his MVP season, Westbrook became just the second player in NBA history along with Robertson to average a triple-double for an entire season. In 2017-18, he once again accomplished the feat. Thus far this season, he is averaging 20.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 10.1 assists.

While he has gone through his shooting woes at times this season, he recently proclaimed himself the best rebounder, passer, and defender at his position according to Yahoo.

Still just 30 years old, it seems inevitable that Westbrook will eventually overtake Oscar Robertson’s spot at the perch for most career triple-doubles.

Westbrook continuing to get triple-doubles in healthy doses

Westbrook now has 11 triple-doubles in 29 games this season. According to ESPN, he has eight in his last 15 outings. If he plays in 40 or the Thunder’s 45 remaining games, he would get 15 more with the current rate he has been procuring them this season.

That would leave the 11-year-pro just eight shy of Johnson for second on the all-time list and 51 behind Robertson.

When can he be expected to surpass Robertson

A lot goes into this. Westbrook needs to avoid the injury bug and show minimal signs of aging if he wants to break the record with relative ease. Before this extraordinary run over the last three seasons, Westbrook was not quite a triple-double machine. In his first six years in the league, he had just eight of them.

It became more of a calling card in 2014-15 when he had 11 and the following season when Westbrook finished with another 18. His MVP season of 2016-17, he finished with an incredible 41 in 81 games. He had 26 in 80 games in 2017-18.

Westbrook secured a triple-double in 32.5 percent of his outings last season and approximately 37.9 percent so far this season.

If he finishes with 15 more triple-doubles this season as stated in the article, that gives him 130 for his career.

Even if his triple-double rate fell to 30 percent after this season, it would still take him just 173 more games played to break Robertson’s record. That would make it likely (unless he missed a lot of action) that Westbrook would become the all-time triple-double leader sometime in the 2021-22 season.
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