According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line Substack, Russell Westbrook reportedly declined his $3.5 million player option for the 2025-26 season this morning.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Westbrook was on a two-year minimum contract that offered him a 5% raise off of last season’s minimum salary in the form of a player option just in case things didn’t work out. It was a form of insurance for Westbrook, and ultimately he played well enough that he didn’t need it.

Now, with the salary cap going up a full 10% from 2024-25 to 2025-26, a new minimum contract would be a slight raise for Westbrook if he were to simply re-sign in Denver for a similar deal. The benefit of that for Denver is it still carries just a $2.3 million “cap hit” for the team’s finances despite Westbrook making closer to $3.7 million. That’s the way for veteran players to be paid more money on minimum contracts without it costing the team more than a younger player.

That’s one way the Nuggets could re-sign him. One other way: give him a 20% raise off of last season’s salary for a larger “cap hit” of $4.4 million. It would pay Westbrook more but put Denver in a tougher financial position to add to the rest of the roster.

The final option: hand Westbrook the $5.7 million Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (TP-MLE).

Westbrook might be worth the contract in a vacuum, but it’s Denver’s one option they have for adding players not on the roster without just offering a minimum contract. The Nuggets would surely be hoping to sign someone like a Bruce Brown, a new backup center, or someone else that could add a new wrinkle to the team. Being forced to use the TP-MLE on Westbrook after giving it to Reggie Jackson and Dario Saric in each of the last two seasons would be a painful use of limited resources.

After averaging 13.3 points, 6.1 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game for Denver in 2024-25, it’s fair to expect Westbrook to have a number of suitors on the free agent market as well. Though his style of play is fairly rigid, teams in need of a stopgap starting point guard will surely look at his production and impact next to Nikola Jokic and envision him doing something similar. Teams like the Dallas Mavericks and Milwaukee Bucks (Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard out for season due to injuries) would be high up the list of possible landing spots, as well as the Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat, and even Boston Celtics in need of a short term fix.

In addition, it’s been rumored that Hapoel Tel Aviv and other EuroLeague teams have reached out to Westbrook regarding a big role and bigger contract overseas, a possible wildcard option for the former NBA superstar.

Ultimately, it will be up to Westbrook to sift through these different opportunities and pick what’s best for him and his family. He had a good season in Denver, and though an injury slowed him down in the playoffs, he was rising to the moment with the Nuggets in an integral sixth man role when the team needed him to be good. If he were to come back and reprise a similar role, it would be a good thing for the Nuggets.

They just have to make sure the price is right.