Russell Westbrook will join the Denver Nuggets once he clears waivers after being traded to the Utah Jazz (again), ESPN reports.
This is just not a big deal.
Westbrook, of course, is a huge name. A former MVP, nine-time All-Star, nine-time All-NBA selection, two-time scoring leader, and three-time assists leader, Westbrook has been one of the biggest names in the NBA over the past 15 years.
Difference is, he's no longer that same kind of player.
Westbrook hasn't been an All-Star for four seasons. He finally embraced a bench role last season, and rightfully so — he turns 36 years old in November, with a ton of miles and knee surgeries.
His days of being Russell Westbrook are over. However, he proved with the Clippers that he can be a rotation player at point guard, and he represents a significant, if not gigantic, upgrade for the Nuggets. Denver traded multiple second-rounders to move off of Reggie Jackson with the original idea supposedly was to clear room for second-year guard, Jalen Pickett.
However, multiple things changed between that plan and the result. League sources confirmed to Action Network that Nikola Jokic expressed his desire for the team to sign Westbrook. Westbrook and Jokic have gotten along well since Jokic's first All-Star Game and have become friendly since. Jokic, sources say, was excited for the team's opportunity to add Westbrook.
There's also a feeling that Jokic was not enthused about how far the Nuggets' youth movement in depth had gone after losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency earlier this month.
Westbrook upgrades at a key position for the Nuggets, not only in the minutes when Jamal Murray is not on the floor, but to step in as a starter for Murray if he misses time — which has been an issue as of late.
Westbrook is also universally beloved as a teammate. He was typically churlish with media, yet, his teammates, coaches, and staffers from Oklahoma City to Houston to Washington to the Clippers raved about him as a person to be around every day — which is what made the dysfunction with the Lakers seem all the stranger.
Westbrook remains a mini-juggernaut, in that he just bullrushes against the defense consistently. His shot selection remains dicey and his continued insistence on taking threes out of rhythm consistently hurts team runs and floor balance. Yet, his aggressiveness is badly needed on a second unit for Denver that struggles to create offense. There will be spacing questions with the Nuggets' second unit featuring a small-ball center in Dario Saric and several unproven shooters, but there's potential there.
The Westbrook-Jokic minutes will be fascinating. Westbrook had incredibly chemistry and feel for working with Steven Adams in Oklahoma City and truly has not played with a versatile center with any real passing chops since. Jokic is obviously one of the best players in the league and Adams has never been anything close to him, but it's notable that Westbrook has had more success with skilled centers like Jokic than pure rim runners.
If he adapts around Jokic, not only running two-man game, but cutting off-ball in the minutes where he slides to two-guard next to Murray, his athleticism can combine with Jokic's passing to create real explosiveness offensively (something that is getting to be a concern with Denver's roster attrition, despite their offensive floor being top seven by virtue of playing Jokic).
If Westbrook does not adapt, and attempts to slam the rectangular peg of his game into the read and react motion offense Denver runs, it could get ugly.
The Clippers were 0.4 points per 100 possessions better with Westbrook on the floor. Outside of the 2022 disaster with the Lakers, Westbrook's teams have not lost their minutes with him and been better with him on the bench in any season since he left OKC.
The odds are that Westbrook's minutes will be negative, because he should play the majority of his minutes without Jokic, and every player's minutes without Jokic are negative, including Murray. Denver has not been able to create any floor for those lineups since Mason Plumlee departed in 2020.
But as an upgrade over Jackson and an injury fill-in, it works just fine.
There's also a small risk that Westbrook, by sheer force of will, forces a controversy for the starting two-guard. If Christian Braun, who the front office and ownership believe are ready to take over as the starting two guard, struggles and shows he's just not ready yet, there will be pressure to start Westbrook just for his experience. But that move can create real tension points with how the offense functions by adding a non-spacer next to Aaron Gordon.
Those are questions for the future though. Denver added a quality backup point guard who could be a smash hit, could be a huge disaster, and will likely wind up being just fine. The Nuggets didn't sign Russell Westbrook, they signed Russell Westbrook, and that's just fine.
I have Jokic graded as worth a third of a point to the spread, worth approximately 0.8 wins to the Nuggets' win total.
