Since the February 2 mega-trade that sent superstar Luka DonÄiÄ from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for another superstar, Anthony Davis, one thing has been clear â the Lakers got the better deal. But according to a new prediction by a former 11-season NBA player who was also a two-time All-Star, they may not have realized how much better.
Davis was injured after just one game in Dallas and now may be shut down for the season after the other Mavericks superstar, Kyrie Irving, has been lost for the duration with a torn ACL in his left knee.
Meanwhile, after slow start, missing his first games as a Laker, DonÄiÄ has begin to hit his stride â even registering the 90th triple double of his career in his first game against his old team, the Mavericks. DonÄiÄ scored 19 points while grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing out 12 assists.
DonÄiÄ Predicted to Average Triple Double
According to former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, speaking on his Gil’s Arena podcast, the 90th triple double on his career will be far from the last for the 25-year-old Slovenian superstar. Arenas predicted that DonÄiÄ will one day average a triple-double for an entire season.
“He is going to be the third person in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. Just think about the upside of the player, weâre talking about a guy whoâs still in amateur mode, heâs in amateur mode at 25,” Arenas said on the podcast Wednesday. “Heâs not in his prime, heâs not even in the second phase of being good, heâs still in trying to figure this out. This is just all just actual reaction. This is not studying the game. This is not dictating the game. Heâs not in that mode yet, this is just him, just his natural ability.”
Arenas was saying that as DonÄiÄ continues to mature and learn the more technical aspects of the NBA game, he’ll become an even better player than the five-time, first-team All-NBA player that he has already become.
If DonÄiÄ will become, according to the Arenas prediction, the “third person in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season,” who were the first two?
‘Big O’ and Russ Already Posted Triple Double Seasons
The first NBA player, and for seven decades of the league’s existence, the only player to average a triple double for a season â meaning averages of at least 10 points per game, with 10 assists and 10 rebounds, minimum â was Hall of Famer Oscar Roberston. The 6’5″ superstar known as “Big O” played 14 seasons in the NBA and was a member of the first Milwaukee Bucks team to win a championship, in 1970-1971.
But it was in just his second season on the league, 1961-1962, that Robertson averaged 30.8 points per game, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists. At the time, Roberston was a member of the team that had drafted him with the first overall pick in 1960, the Cincinnati Royals â now known as the Sacramento Kimngs.
No one else would manage the feat for another 55 years.
In the 2016-2017 season Russell “Russ” Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists. But Westbrook was not done yet. He averaged triple doubles in the next two seasons as well. And then, after a trade to the Houston Rockets and, after a single season, another trade to the Washington Wizards, Westbrook did it again.
In the 2020-2021 season â which was shortened to 72 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic â Westbrook averaged 22.2 points, 11.5 rebounds and 11.7 assists â his fourth full-season triple double.
It should also be noted that even if DonÄiÄ manages the extraordinary season-long feat, he may end up as the fourth player ever to do it. Not the third. Right now, after 56 games of the 2024-2025 season, three-time MVP Nikola Jokic is averaging a triple double, with 28.8 points per game, 12.8 rebounds and 10.4 assists.
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