Nuggets decided to sign Russell Westbrook after considering him before 2023 title
While the ultimate result may not matter all that much to Nikola Jokić’s legacy, the coming week is undoubtedly one of the biggest in Denver Nuggets franchise history. Knotted up in a 2-2 series with the juggernaut Oklahoma City Thunder, the underdog Nuggets are playing with house money. When the dust settles, no one really expects them to win and advance to this year’s Western Conference Finals, but it sure seems like they have a decent chance of doing so.
One of their biggest X-factors (catalysts?) in potentially pulling off the monumental upset is the chaotic but energetic Russell Westbrook.
The future Hall of Famer has been a revelation during this postseason. He’s been the exact sixth man, two-way spark plug that Jokić and Denver’s front office envisioned he could be for the title contender when they signed him last summer. For a top-heavy team with thin depth, he’s been everything the Nuggets have needed as a super-substitute to their stellar starting five and then some.
As it turns out, the Nuggets partly pursued Westbrook this past offseason based on their scouting report of the volatile guard … from just before their 2023 NBA title run. Huh?
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, those Nuggets had seriously considered signing Westbrook in February 2023 after he was bought out by the Utah Jazz because they thought they needed additional “spice” to go all the way. Knowing Westbrook’s propensity for mayhem, particularly when it came to his potential impact on their tight-knit locker room and on star guard Jamal Murray, they ultimately decided against the move and went on to capture the first championship in franchise history later that June.
But when the Nuggets regressed while defending their first title during the 2024 postseason, their calculus changed. For a battle-tested team that clearly needed an injection of Westbrook’s ceaseless supply of energy, the veteran now made all the sense in the world.
MORE WESTBROOK AT MILE HIGH: The Nuggets made clear he was their ingredient to a hopeful second title
The Nuggets’ gambit, while unsurprisingly uneven at times, has worked quite well for the most part.
More from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne:
The Nuggets had coveted Westbrook for a few years before they finally signed him as a free agent this offseason, once the LA Clippers, like so many others, decided the full Westbrook experience wasn’t worth it anymore.
They had talked about signing him after the Los Angeles Lakers discarded him in a February 2023 trade to the Utah Jazz, where he was promptly bought out. And there were those in the Nuggets organization who, sources told ESPN, believed their group of hard-working, enormously skilled, yet somewhat quiet group of players needed someone, with “some spice,” as team president Josh Kroenke recently described Westbrook, to get over the playoff hump they kept crashing into …
Ultimately, the Nuggets decided against it, sources said, because they worried Westbrook would destabilize the locker room and undercut the confidence of point guard Jamal Murray.
But this past offseason was different. They didn’t defend their championship last season. They regressed, losing in the second round again after key role players departed in free agency and the youngsters who were supposed to replace them were slow to bloom. That couldn’t happen again, they thought. Not with Jokic playing better than ever in his age-30 season.
So the Nuggets went for it, knowing the man is a human pros and cons list.
Westbrook hasn’t been a perfect fit from start to finish in Denver. His propensity for creating havoc has, as it has in the past, hit both his own team and the opposition. Ever the self-aware veteran who has been around the block in the NBA, Westbrook confidently proclaimed that that is just what his unique style of play brings after the Nuggets dispatched the L.A. Clippers in the first round.
You either live with the occasional bad to get his great, or you get nothing at all.
But in the playoffs, Westbrook has excelled so far. His playmaking, leadership, and on-and-off-ball defense have proven indispensable for a Denver squad that flat-out needs him to thrive off its bench. Still in pursuit of his first championship ever, Westbrook has tapped into a well of exuberance and steely consistency these Nuggets simply can’t live without. And in return, they’ve given him a golden opportunity to try and accomplish the one thing he has yet to add to his extended resume. That sounds like a fair trade.
These Nuggets and Westbrook genuinely needed each other. It seems only fitting that the seeds were planted before they reached the NBA’s summit for the first time, two years ago.
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