Strike 1: The NBA offseason has barely begun, so it’s too early to label the Denver Nuggets as summertime losers at this stage. But the trend isn’t positive at the moment.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson and seldom used Collin Gillespie are gone, and all Denver has to show for it is backup center Dario Saric. They did draft Daron Holmes II, so the front court got some badly needed attention. But at this point, the already thin back court has only gotten thinner.
Maxed out against the salary cap, the Nuggets only hope for a prosperous 2024 offseason is now via the trade market. And the name that you keep reading about being connected to Denver is Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook is a former MVP (2017), the master of the triple-double (he’s the NBA’s all-time leader in the category) and a sure fire future Hall of Famer. He’s led the NBA in scoring twice, led the league in assists three times, and been an All-Star nine times (and was twice MVP of that game.)
But what he hasn’t been, especially recently, is a winner.
Since leaving the team that drafted him, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in a trade to Houston during the summer of 2019, Westbrook has played for four teams over the past five seasons. None of those teams actually got better by adding the former MVP to their roster. Houston won 44 games but was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Washington was sub-.500 and a first round loser the following season with Westbrook. Then it was a trade to the Lakers for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, when LA missed the playoffs altogether before finishing in the No. 8 spot (after Westbrook had been traded) and getting swept out by the Nuggets. They never played above .500 ball with Westbrook on the squad.
After being traded to and subsequently released by the Utah Jazz prior to the end of the 2022 season, Westbrook ended up back in LA with the Clippers. Coming off the bench for a team that already had stars in Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and later James Harden, he had his moments – again – but his team underachieved. Again.
So now that Westbrook could end up a Denver Nugget (with the reported blessing of Nikola Jokic, btw) the question is: Would he, could he, buck the recent trend and help improve a team with championship aspirations?
His style is aggressive on offense – Westbrook likes to attack the rim and is good at collecting assists that way – but he’s not much of an outside shooter, meaning the Nuggets bench will still have to count on someone like Julian Strawther to become a consistent 3-point threat. He’s also not much of a defender, which might drive Nuggets head coach Michael Malone bonkers.
There have been a lot of players who have put up good stats while they didn’t necessarily help improve their teams. Carmelo Anthony’s time with the New York Knicks is a good example. At this stage of his career, adding Westbrook is a gamble. But the Nuggets might have to take that chance given their limited (so far) options and the underachieving history of their young bench.
