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Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 25, at the Portland Trail Blazers

Ben Rohrbach
Senior NBA writer
Russell Westbrook enters Tuesday's play averaging 31.1 points, 11 assists and 10.9 rebounds per game. (Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Russell Westbrook enters Tuesday’s play averaging 31.1 points, 11 assists and 10.9 rebounds per game. (Yahoo Sports Illustration)

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 31.1 points, 11 assists and 10.9 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.

I’d understand if you’ve tuned Mark Cuban out by now, but in case you were wondering, the Dallas Mavericks owner still doesn’t think Russell Westbrook is an NBA superstar yet. Although, he does believe James Harden is the league’s MVP if voting took place seven weeks into the 2016-17 season.

Both players seem like strange stars for Cuban to hitch these wagons to, what with Westbrook still averaging a damn triple-double for the Oklahoma City Thunder and Harden playing for a rival Houston Rockets team that the billionaire owner has had his share of feuds with over the years.

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First, there was the needless needling of Westbrook over the weekend, when the Thunder point guard was in the process of running his consecutive triple-double streak to seven — a feat only matched by Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan — before having it snapped on Sunday. Even still, Westbrook is averaging a mind-blowing 31.1 points, 11 assists and 10.9 rebounds for the sixth-place Thunder (15-9).

But it’s not the numbers that prevent Cuban from paying Westbrook his due — a sticking point Cuban first raised during last season’s Dallas-OKC playoff series — it’s his personal definition of a superstar: a player who can lead a subpar team to a 50-win season and a first-round playoff victory by himself.

“He’s putting up superstar numbers. That’s for damn sure,” Cuban said of Westbrook, via ESPN. “I’m not taking anything away from what he’s been able to accomplish, but I’m not going to change my definition. He’s putting up superstar numbers. You can’t deny that.”

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“That’s no disrespect to Russell. He’s been a beast. Few have done what he’s done, but I’ll stick by my definition. I’m not saying that he’s not going to prove me wrong and that he [won’t be] a superstar by the end of the year. That’s fine, but I’ll stick by my definition.”

The basis for Cuban’s definition, apparently, comes from watching Dirk Nowitzki’s emergence as a superstar in Dallas. The precise moment Nowitzki earned that badge of honor was April 28, 2002, when the Mavericks finished off a three-game sweep of Kevin Garnett’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Dirk averaged 33.3 points on 52.6 percent shooting to go along with 15.7 rebounds per game in the series.

“That’s when he emerged and he kept on getting better every playoffs. He’d have a good regular season and he’d have a better playoffs,” Cuban told The Dallas Morning News over the weekend. “Even then everybody doubted him. ‘He’s soft, he can’t win, he’s not a superstar.’ Until we won.”

The Mavs lost their ensuing playoff series in five games to the Sacramento Kings, as Nowitzki’s averages dipped to 25.4 points (40.2 field goal percentage) and 11.6 rebounds. Dallas has reached the postseason every spring but once in 2012-13, when Nowitzki missed 29 games due to injury, and the Mavericks won at least one playoff series in seven out of those 15 playoff appearances. They have lost four straight first-round series and haven’t gotten out of the first round in seven of their nine trips to the playoffs since Nowitzki turned 28. Of course, one of those was their 2011 championship season.

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To be honest, I never really thought of Dirk as a superstar, either. I always had that moniker reserved in my head for the Michael Jordans, Larry Birds and Magic Johnsons of the world — guys who defined generations, and it always seemed like Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were those guys during Nowitzki’s prime. So, I guess it depends on your definition of the term. Maybe those guys are superduperstars, and superstar includes a host of others — MVP candidates, perhaps. Doesn’t matter.

But let’s stick to Cuban’s definition, since he’s drawn his line in the sand. The Mavs owner believes Westbrook isn’t a superstar because, sans a healthy Kevin Durant in 2014-15, the Thunder only won 45 games and failed to make the playoffs. We should probably point out Westbrook also missed 15 games that year. The rest of Westbrook’s team success — five 50-win seasons and a 60-win campaign since 2009-10; four Western Conference finals and an NBA Finals in six playoff appearances — counts for naught in Cuban’s superstar conversation, because Durant was by his side. We’ll also have to disregard Westbrook’s career playoff averages of 24.5 points, 7.6 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 steals.

And OKC’s first-round sweep of the Mavs in 2012 doesn’t count, because Westbrook didn’t do it alone.

Russell Westbrook pumps his first during a first-round sweep of Dirk Nowitzki's Mavericks in 2012. (AP)
Russell Westbrook pumps his first during a first-round sweep of Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks in 2012. (AP)

Maybe Cuban forgot, but his 2001-02 team also featured future two-time MVP Steve Nash and two-time All-Star Michael Finley in addition to Nowitzki, and Dirk won 50 games and a playoff series a year earlier with the same two teammates, so this arbitrary definition of a superstar seems strange. Even the 2011 title team featured four other former All-Stars and a Sixth Man of the Year alongside Dirk.

The point is nobody wins without help, and while the Thunder are on pace for 51 wins this season, we should think no less of Westbrook’s ability or stardom if he fails to carry OKC past the first round.

If the season ended today, Westbrook’s usage rate (41.4), assist rate (57.7) and box plus/minus (13.8) would all rank No. 1 in NBA history. Pretty good. Oh, and again, he’d be the first player since The Big O to average a triple-double. Regardless of your definition of a superstar, you have to concede what Westbrook is doing now is historical. But Cuban would like to reserve judgment until after the season.

The Shark Tank host did not want to reserve that same judgment when asked about the MVP race:

It’s unclear how Cuban feels about James Harden’s superstardom, since he played with both Durant and Westbrook from 2009-12 and his only trip out of the first round in Houston came alongside Dwight Howard. But we do know the Mavericks owner counts the Rockets guard as his MVP of the moment.

This is also not the first time Cuban has raised this debate. He lobbied for Harden as MVP over Golden State Warriors phenom Stephen Curry in 2015, “because that’s not a very good team over there” in Houston. Cuban’s case for Harden this time around is just as simple. “He controls the game,” he said.

Since this argument is sure to come up a whole lot over the course of this season, let’s examine it a little further, shall we? Here are the current averages for Westbrook and Harden so far in 2016-17:

• Westbrook (35.7 minutes per game): 31.1 points (53.8 true shooting percentage), 11 assists (5.8 turnovers), 10.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game; 29.3 player efficiency rating

• Harden (37.0 minutes per game): 28.1 points (60.1 true shooting percentage), 11.6 assists (5.6 turnovers), 7.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game; 27.8 player efficiency rating

Westbrook leads the league in scoring, ranks second in assists and sits 10th in rebounding, while Harden is first in assists, fourth in scoring and outside the top 10 in rebounding. Westbrook owns the higher PER, assist rate, usage rate, box plus/minus and value over replacement player. Harden leads Westbrook in win shares (5.1 to 3.7), as the Rockets (18-7) are 2.5 games up on OKC in the standings.

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Statistically, Westbrook’s 31.1 points and 11 assists create 56.4 points per game, a little more than half (52.9 percent) the Thunder’s total offense. Meanwhile, Harden’s 28.1 points and 11.6 assists generate 56.2 points a night, also just about half (50.2 percent) of Houston’s offense. So, whichever way you lean, I’m not really sure you could argue Harden controls the game more than Westbrook.

By contrast, Nowitzki’s 23.4 points and 2.4 assists created roughly a quarter of the 2001-02 Mavs’ 105.7 points per game, so there’s that. But we’ll have to wait to see if OKC can win a playoff series sans Durant before Westbrook earns his superstar badge from Cuban, which is fine, too. These debates are subjective exercises anyway. Objectively, though, Cuban’s right about one thing: Westbrook is a beast.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!