Russell Westbrook To Sign With Nuggets After Buyout With Jazz

[RealGM Wiretap]

Russell Westbrook is expected to sign with the Denver Nuggets once he clears waivers following his buyout with the Utah Jazz. Westbrook was traded to the Utah Jazz as part of the Los Angeles Clippers' sign-and-trade for Kris Dunn. Westbrook was previously traded to and bought out by the Jazz in 2023 following his exit from the Los Angeles Lakers.

In joining the Nuggets, Westbrook will play a reserve role and also be a spot starter.

Westbrook, who is now represented by Jeff Schwartz after parting ways with his longtime agent Thad Foucher in 2022, averaged 11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 22.5 minutes over 68 games with the Clippers last season. Westbrook's closest tie on the Clippers was Paul George, who also exited the team this offseason. Westbrook picked up his $4 million option with the Clippers to bypass free agency last month.

After the Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs, a report surfaced that Westbrook had interest in leaving the franchise for a bigger opportunity next season. Westbrook and Nikola Jokic have long had interest in playing with each other.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/ESPN

[IAMZOOTED2]

Huh? Who wrote this...? Depending on his 3-point shooting? LOL. What??!

[circa70]

the 2nd time KCP was replaced Russ. I'm sure it will work out like it did the first time.

[the_process]

This is the 2nd time Utah has bought out Westbrook

[pushfloater]

I feel like some guys are championship repellents. Hope I’m wrong about it this time.

[LAKESHOW]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

[Pickled Prunes]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

[circa70]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

That’s what the Clippers said. How many playoff series did they win??

[Pickled Prunes]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

That’s what the Clippers said. How many playoff series did they win??

You are probably right. Without Russ LAC would be 2x champions right now.

How many rings did the Lakers win after trading Russ? It's Russ's fault; It's the coach's fault; it's....

[circa70]

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

That’s what the Clippers said. How many playoff series did they win??

You are probably right. Without Russ LAC would be 2x champions right now.

How many rings did the Lakers win after trading Russ? It's Russ's fault; It's the coach's fault; it's....

They made it to the WCF after Russ left. That’s way more than the flippers did with him. Denver’s bench is trash without kcp, brown and Jackson. I highly doubt Westbrick will improve that

[Pickled Prunes]

That’s what the Clippers said. How many playoff series did they win??

You are probably right. Without Russ LAC would be 2x champions right now.

How many rings did the Lakers win after trading Russ? It's Russ's fault; It's the coach's fault; it's....

They made it to the WCF after Russ left. That’s way more than the flippers did with him. Denver’s bench is trash without kcp, brown and Jackson. I highly doubt Westbrick will improve that

Once again... and this seams pretty obvious... we are talking about a guy on a minimum deal, or just above that in LAC. He should not be expected to swing the balance more than a game or two on the margins. LAC was going to go as far as PG and Kawhi took them. (Not far no matter how stacked they were on paper.) In Denver they have Jokic, Murray Porter and Gordon. If they are all healthy they will always have a shot, no matter how thin their bench is, because Jokic makes people better.

To be clear, Reggie was a good story in LAC for six months, but the reality is that he flat out sucks. KCP is a decent 5th starter but replaceable and we can see that Brown was a product of the system and way overrated. I'm not suggesting that Westbrook changes anything for them... but he will be fine.

You need to stop looking at minimum players like they have to change the world just because they're famous. He's on a minimum for a reason.

[haste10176]

You are probably right. Without Russ LAC would be 2x champions right now.

How many rings did the Lakers win after trading Russ? It's Russ's fault; It's the coach's fault; it's....

They made it to the WCF after Russ left. That’s way more than the flippers did with him. Denver’s bench is trash without kcp, brown and Jackson. I highly doubt Westbrick will improve that

Once again... and this seams pretty obvious... we are talking about a guy on a minimum deal, or just above that in LAC. He should not be expected to swing the balance more than a game or two on the margins. LAC was going to go as far as PG and Kawhi took them. (Not far no matter how stacked they were on paper.) In Denver they have Jokic, Murray Porter and Gordon. If they are all healthy they will always have a shot, no matter how thin their bench is, because Jokic makes people better.

To be clear, Reggie was a good story in LAC for six months, but the reality is that he flat out sucks. KCP is a decent 5th starter but replaceable and we can see that Brown was a product of the system and way overrated. I'm not suggesting that Westbrook changes anything for them... but he will be fine.

You need to stop looking at minimum players like they have to change the world just because they're famous. He's on a minimum for a reason.

Bruce brown had an outlier year everyone knew 20mil was an overpay.. KCP replaceable how ? A guy who can shoot and defend is the most coveted player outside superstars

[haste10176]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

Russ is a terrible player replacing a terrible player with a terrible player does not eqaul a benefit.. Russ is a poor defender gets lost on assignment.. Russ is poor shooter.. Russ is a bad decision maker... Their are no positives for a contender having Russ on the court and reportedly he left for bigger role.. Great ok.. The one thing that is correct here is they can just cut him and it wont matter..

[haste10176]

Huh? Who wrote this...? Depending on his 3-point shooting? LOL. What??!

Since russ is a terrible shooter he basically would need an outlier year of good shooting that noone thinks is going to happen.. Nor does anyone think Russ is as good a defender as bruce brown.. I mean nuggets did this to themselves good luck..

[Pickled Prunes]

I would say massive fail. But I won't. I'm going to give joker the benefit. He is an impact player. And could make somethin out of nothin with this Westbrook situation. Well see how the talents fit together

LAL was paying Russ $50m+ and asking him to be PJ Tucker. (defender/corner shooter.) DEN will be paying Russ $3.3m and asking him to replace Reggie Jackson... who is essentially a very poor man's Russell Westbrook.

It will be fine, but if not, they can just waive him. There is no risk.

Russ is a terrible player replacing a terrible player with a terrible player does not eqaul a benefit.. Russ is a poor defender gets lost on assignment.. Russ is poor shooter.. Russ is a bad decision maker... Their are no positives for a contender having Russ on the court and reportedly he left for bigger role.. Great ok.. The one thing that is correct here is they can just cut him and it wont matter..

I have never liked Westbrook's game. The idea that he won MVP on a statistical anomaly was laughable at the time and clearly didn't age well. So I am not exactly built for defending him. That said, we are not talking about Russ in a vacuum. We are talking about him as a replacement for Reggie Jackson. I wouldn't want either of these guys on my team, but they are similar and Russ is way better than Reggie in almost every way. And who knows, maybe Malone will be the 1st coach to bench Russ every time he takes a quick 3pt. Either way, there is no risk.

[Pickled Prunes]

They made it to the WCF after Russ left. That’s way more than the flippers did with him. Denver’s bench is trash without kcp, brown and Jackson. I highly doubt Westbrick will improve that

Once again... and this seams pretty obvious... we are talking about a guy on a minimum deal, or just above that in LAC. He should not be expected to swing the balance more than a game or two on the margins. LAC was going to go as far as PG and Kawhi took them. (Not far no matter how stacked they were on paper.) In Denver they have Jokic, Murray Porter and Gordon. If they are all healthy they will always have a shot, no matter how thin their bench is, because Jokic makes people better.

To be clear, Reggie was a good story in LAC for six months, but the reality is that he flat out sucks. KCP is a decent 5th starter but replaceable and we can see that Brown was a product of the system and way overrated. I'm not suggesting that Westbrook changes anything for them... but he will be fine.

You need to stop looking at minimum players like they have to change the world just because they're famous. He's on a minimum for a reason.

Bruce brown had an outlier year everyone knew 20mil was an overpay.. KCP replaceable how ? A guy who can shoot and defend is the most coveted player outside superstars

KCP is an overrated defender. 14th in Drtg on his own team; 260th in the NBA. Being the token wing defender on a good team doesn't make him elite.

Yes, he can shoot, but is an extremely low volume shooter. 196th in the NBA in FGM. Per minute, that is 434th!

In 31.2 MPG, he gave DEN 10/2/2. Of the 17 players that got minutes for DEN last season, this is where KCP ranked per minute:
PTS 16th
REB 17th
AST 11th

Of the 265 "qualified" players that got minutes in the entire NBA last season, this is where KCP ranked per minute:
PTS 223rd
REB 258th
AST 165th

He's replaceable. Definitely not a $22m+ player. You'll see.