NBA Award Watch: Russell Westbrook is Oscar Robertson, the Chicago Bulls are good?
By John Buhler
Each NBA team has only played a handful of games, but here are the early leaders for the end of the year awards in the Association.
The 2016-17 NBA season is well under way. Every team has played a handful of games so far. It’s not anywhere near a sufficient sample size, but there are a lot of interesting story lines to follow in the early part of the season.
Is the 2017 NBA Finals gearing up to be the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors for the third year in a row? How does Kevin Durant fit in with the Warriors? What are the San Antonio Spurs going to be like without Tim Duncan? We’ll learn all of that in due time.
Through the first of November, here are the early leaders for the NBA’s biggest end of season awards:
Most Valuable Player: Russell Westbrook
There are several players that could be the NBA’s Most Valuable Player through the October part of the season, but how many of them are averaging a triple-double after losing their best teammate?
Yes, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder is averaging a triple-double in his first three games of 2016-17. The Thunder started the season 3-0 and are clobbering teams in terms with pace (first in the league) and with defensive efficiency (second). They’ve also scored over 100 points in their first three games.
Westbrook is leading in the NBA in points per game at 38.7 and is averaging 12.3 rebounds and 11.2 assists per game. If anybody is going to average a triple-double this season like Oscar Robertson did for the 1963-64 Cincinnati Royals, it might as well be Westbrook.
He’s a high volume shooter at point guard, so the points and assists should come easy for him. What sets him apart is his tenacity for rebounding at 6’3″, 200 pounds. Keep in mind that he’s doing this with an Oklahoma City front court that is elite on the glass.
The Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard and the Cavaliers’ LeBron James would round out the top three this week. Not only is Westbrook averaging a triple-double, but his Thunder are winning without Durant. This could be a special year for Westbrook and maybe the Thunder are better via Ewing Theory?