He’s the lead singer who can’t always hit the high notes anymore, but keeps firing anyway. Russell Westbrook might be the most perfectly average player for whom, among fans, there’s almost no middle ground anymore.
When Russ is good, he’ll send you over the moon. When he’s bad, he’ll send you into the liquor cabinet.
“He played hero ball a little bit much,” Simon Sawaqed of Westminster, wearing a blue Westbrook Nuggets jersey, told me Monday as Denver beat Russ’ Sacramento Kings 130-124. “But I liked him for it, you know?
“That’s what he does. And I really appreciate his time here. He’s my favorite player, I think, to ever play — him or LeBron (James). And the fact he got to come here and play for us, it’s a blessing.”
A mixed one, though. For every Clippers series, there was a Minnesota moment. Westbrook lit up Ball Arena for 26 points, 12 boards and six assists on Monday night. And the Nuggets are still better off without him.
Check that.
They’re better off without each other.
Russ is a frontman. The Nuggets needed better bass players. Westbrook needs a team that will let him shoot, let him run the show, let him dictate the space and the pace. Denver has at least two of those guys already.
Although funny enough, Russ often played brilliantly with Nikola Jokic, his triple-double brother, when given the chance. He looked less brilliant playing with Julian Strawther and Hunter Tyson, though, which was one of the main reasons he was signed in the first place. Westbrook couldn’t elevate the second unit last season the way the Joker elevates everything he touches.
Russ, who turns 37 on Nov. 12, is an agent of chaos. An improviser, a jazzer who needs room for long solos that might veer off into Mars.
The Nuggets needed order. Somebody who plays the notes exactly as they’re written.
“The truth is that they didn’t want me back,” Westbrook told a gaggle of reporters late Monday as we huddled in a corner of the Kings’ locker room. “Ain’t up to me.”
And the player option?
“They told me not to (sign it),” Russ replied. “I don’t go anywhere I’m not wanted. I don’t need to.”
Westbrook averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists last season. It wasn’t his fault the Nuggets didn’t win a title. But this roster needed something else. It’s not his fault Michael Malone got fired. But he didn’t exactly help a fractious front office.
As a cutter, finisher and facilitator, Russ can still tear the roof of any building in the NBA. As a closer, though, he’s late-period Wade Davis. Rockies Wade Davis.
Per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com, Russ averaged 24.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.9 assists on 20.4 shot attempts during the fourth quarter of the 2024-25 regular season. He also shot 36.1% from beyond the arc, turned it over 4.4 times per 100 possessions and posted a plus/minus of negative-1.5 per the period.
Let’s compare that to, say, Bruce Brown, who’s now taking a good chunk of Russ’ old minutes. In the fourth quarter so far this season, Brown’s averaging 15.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists on 11.3 attempted shots per 100 possessions. He’s also shooting treys at a 50% clip, averaging about half the turnovers (2.8) as Russ did over the fourth quarter, while putting up a plus/minus for the period of plus-1.4.
Westbrook’s clutch splits, per NBA.com, paint the same picture. Russ with the Nuggets: 116.2 Defensive Rating, minus-0.6 Net Rating. Brucey B this regular season: 112.7 Defensive Rating (lower is better) with a plus-10.1 Net Rating.
“Yeah, there were moments,” Sawaqed admitted. “But everyone’s got to make mistakes … but still, I’m proud of him.
“I don’t care if he doesn’t have a ring. He is the best, most fun player to ever watch on television. You’ll never see another man like him.”
Amen to that. It’s … well … it’s complicated, isn’t it? Jokic came over during the pregame layup lines to wrap Russ in a massive bear hug, and the pair yukked it up for several minutes. Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon embraced Westbrook just before the tip. You don’t fake that kind of love.
When the Kings signed Russ, Kings rookie and former CSU star Nique Clifford was so stoked that he messaged his father, Akai, ASAP.
“I feel like I can learn so much from him,” Nique told his dad.
“He was excited,” Akai recalled Monday night. “Of course, you get a chance to work with a future Hall of Famer, but also you get an opportunity to work with somebody that can teach you so much.”
Clifford has been picking Westbrook’s brain ever since.
“(Nique said) he brought a lot of energy, but also just the leadership that he’s brought,” Akai continued. “He’s talkative and he teaches. He just really brings a different aspect to the team that they already had a little bit of — but he just put it to the next level. So he really, really enjoys having Russ on the team.”
As for the Nuggets, it depends upon whom you ask. They sure as heck gave him a classy welcome back, playing a video tribute during the first timeout break that came off as heartfelt and grateful.
“Thank you for your leadership,” PA announcer Kyle Speller said into the mic, “and the time you spent in the Denver community.”
Russ gave a quick wave. Ball Arena rose to its collective feet in a standing ovation.
“He deserved it,” Julie Craig of Highlands Ranch, clad in another one of those Westbrook jerseys at Ball on Monday, offered during the game. “He’s scrappy … he contributed a lot. It’s not his fault we did not get that championship.”
And it’s not his fault he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Nuggets faithful.
“If you could,” I asked Westbrook, “what would you say to them?”
“Just, ‘Thank you,’” Russ replied. “Always.
“But I’m grateful for the energy. It’s helped me through many nights here, many games. And so, I’m very appreciative of them.”
He’ll be fine. The Kings could use a frontman. For where the Nuggets need to go, as Oklahoma City taught us last year, it’s all about that bass.
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