Russell Westbrook is about as chaotic as basketball gamers come, and there is one thing to be stated for chaos in small doses. The Los Angeles Clippers of final season have been gradual, mechanical and largely orderly. James Harden fairly famously sticks to a small variety of photographs. Kawhi Leonard has his spots as properly. More often than not, at the least throughout their heyday of December and January, their expertise was so overwhelming that the considerably predictable nature of their offense was nonetheless greater than sufficient to win.
When it wasn’t? Westbrook may nonetheless steal stretches and by extension video games via sheer power. Once you’ve spent a complete recreation methodically defending a small variety of predictable actions, seeing Westbrook fly out of the nook to steal an offensive rebound midair turns into kind of a shock to the system. It is actually onerous to defend at Harden’s velocity and Westbrook’s velocity on the similar time. In sufficiently restricted portions, that chaos is a reasonably harmful weapon.
Nevertheless it’s additionally, properly, chaos, and it is fairly onerous to depend on chaos. Throughout that dominant stretch in December and January, the Clippers have been round seven factors higher per 100 possessions with out Westbrook within the recreation. He needed to be benched to accommodate Harden’s arrival, and he shot 26% from the ground in a six-game first-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Inject chaos on the proper second and it turns into adrenaline. Do it each night time and it could actually simply as simply turn into poison.
And make no mistake, the Nuggets want Westbrook to be an each night time participant as soon as he inevitably clears waivers and indicators with them. They are not the Clippers. This is not a 12-deep roster burnished with limitless shot-creation. Nikola Jokic is the perfect generator of crew offense in basketball. Jamal Murray is a worthy sidekick. After that? Properly, as we noticed in Recreation 7 towards the Minnesota Timberwolves, when the non-Jokic/Murray Nuggets scored 21 complete factors, it is fairly shaky.
Denver is not going to ask Westbrook to start out, or at the least should not. When Michael Malone was requested about Denver’s wants earlier than the Westbrook addition, he stated “any individual to play behind Jamal Murray.” If meaning 10 or quarter-hour per night time when Murray sits, this might doubtlessly work. Who cares if the Westbrook chaos poisons Denver’s bench items once they’ve already been lifeless for years? May as properly see if his power may give the reserve teams a little bit of a spark.
Westbrook’s annual relocation comes with inevitable questions on his willingness to adapt his recreation. He is made tweaks right here and there. His on-ball defensive effort for the Clippers was largely fairly good, at the least, and he is trimmed his mid-range quantity to nearly acceptable ranges. He nonetheless does not make anyplace close to sufficient 3s, however most of them come within the nook at the least. He nonetheless does not do sufficient transferring off of the ball, however no one incentives that fairly like Jokic.
If Denver plans to stagger him and Murray, there are a bunch of enjoyable methods Westbrook and Jokic can work collectively. There won’t be two gamers within the NBA who play at extra totally different speeds. They’ll run pick-and-roll in both route, and when it inverts with Westbrook because the screener, there are going to be lobs and short-roll setups accessible aplenty. Keep in mind the time Dwyane Wade threw a full-court alley-oop to LeBron James in Miami? Jokic-to-Westbrook might be the NBA’s greatest probability of replicating that.
The stakes listed here are fairly low. Reggie Jackson has been unhealthy in consecutive postseasons. Westbrook is a extra risky alternative. Denver goes to lose video games due to Westbrook’s aggressiveness. It will win video games due to it as properly, and bear in mind, Murray tends to overlook regular-season video games. It won’t be the worst factor to have a backup who can scale into starter minutes fairly simply accessible. Westbrook goes to have video games in January and February the place he posts 20-point triple-doubles which are adopted by 24-hour discourses about what a bucket he’s and the way a lot the league disrespected him. He can nonetheless do this on the occasional night time. It is the entire different ones that trigger issues, however, hey, he is making the minimal.
At greatest, he eats Jackson’s regular-season innings and possibly even replaces a few of what was misplaced when Bruce Brown left. At worst, properly, once more, he is making the minimal. Commerce him or reduce him. Minimal-salary gamers flop the entire time. Westbrook not carries the stature to divide a locker room if his position is minimized, particularly a championship locker room. It is on him to regulate to the Nuggets, not the opposite method round.
If Westbrook hasn’t accepted that by now, then, properly, he is by no means going to. If any a part of him thinks he is recapturing his former celebrity glory, this fails. If he is ready to be the perfect 10-15 minute participant he will be, with the possibility to often play extra on nights Murray rests? This might work. Emphasis on the may, although, as a result of it may fairly simply fail for causes outdoors of his management.
At what level do the Nuggets acknowledge what a critical situation their capturing has turn into? They already took the fewest 3s within the NBA final season, and that was with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of their beginning lineup. The Nuggets had seven gamers try greater than two 3-pointers per recreation final season. Three of them are gone: Caldwell-Pope, Jackson and Justin Vacation. Of their place are Dario Saric, who offers a little bit of capturing, and Westbrook, most likely the worst high-volume 3-point shooter in NBA historical past. Christian Braun is predicted to start out in Caldwell-Pope’s place. He is shot at barely above a league-average stage since reaching the NBA, however at a reasonably low quantity. Peyton Watson is due an even bigger position as properly. So far, he is been a foul shooter.
A part of the logic of Westbrook’s theoretical Clippers match was that they’d a lot capturing that he may, at instances, operate like a middle off of the ball. Certain, he is not getting guarded on the perimeter, however you possibly can stick him within the dunker’s spot (that is the place Aaron Gordon lives), weaponize him as a cutter (at all times a doubtful proposition the place Westbrook is anxious) and simply typically discover methods to work round these spacing woes when there’s capturing coming from in every single place else. Denver cannot precisely do this. On the very least it is onerous to think about him ever coexisting in lineups with Gordon until he is taking part in on the ball in each possession.
What’s the peak spacing unit that maximizes Westbrook’s particular person creation off of the bench? Possibly he performs in lineups with Saric at heart and Michael Porter Jr. at energy ahead? Such teams depart rather a lot to be desired defensively, and if attainable, you’d most likely like to seek out methods to pair Westbrook with Watson if just for the lob prospects. Possibly these 4 with Julian Strawther may survive? Strawther, notably, has most likely been the perfect shooter at Summer time League. He took 22 3s in two video games and made practically 41% of them. A variety of Denver’s hopes for the 2025 championship relaxation on Strawther being an elite shooter proper now. He is performed 545 NBA minutes to this point, in order that’s a tall order.
One of the best model of the Nuggets most likely includes some kind of commerce constructed round Zeke Nnaji’s contract and their 2031 first-round choose for an additional extra malleable veteran. Such a transfer can be extraordinarily out of character for Calvin Sales space. His sustainability plan for these Nuggets depends on younger gamers Malone did not need to use final season. Now Malone has no alternative. Giving up a choose for a veteran provides the old-school Malone one other excuse to not belief the children.
These children are going to be the spine of Denver’s bench. Westbrook’s job will, partially, be to assist maximize them. It may be an adjustment for them. Groups are inclined to favor not creating their gamers underneath chaotic circumstances, however Westbrook is chaos incarnate. The Nuggets are betting that they will harness it earlier than it swallows them complete.
