Russell Westbrook had his best basketball during his 9 seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was in his last three seasons with the team that he averaged a triple double. He was traded to the Houston Rockets for the 2019-2020 season and the following season was shipped to the Washington Wizards where again he averaged a triple double.
In a misguided trade, Rob Pelinka wasted away Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezll Harrell to get Westbrook from the Wizards in 2021, which was also widely believed to be at the behest of LeBron James. It was a prescription for failure, and Westbrook often was unfairly made the scapegoat of the underperforming Lakers who never had a cohesive lineup in the first place, courtesy of Pelinka.
After two seasons with the Lakers, Westbrook reunited with former OKC teammate Paul George when the LA Clippers signed him on February 2023. He only played one season with the Clippers where he had a career low average of 11.1 points, 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists. His stint with the two Los Angeles teams saw a steady decline in his averages.
Agreeing to a 2-year deal worth $6.8 million veteran minimum with a player option for the 2025-2026 season, Westbrook is now on his sixth team, the Denver Nuggets.
It will be safe to say that with the Nuggets, Westbrook, now 36 and who looked like his career had been spent, had been resuscitated. He has good chemistry with resident star Nikola Jokic and his game averages had improved. His steady influence on the team helped them rise to fourth in the Western Conference standings. It’s fun to watch the Jokic-Westbrook connection.
With coach Michael Malone letting him play his kind of basketball, the Westbrook-Jokic duo made their joint triple double last December 30 against the Utah Jazz. They made league history when they recorded their second joint triple double last Friday in a win over the Brooklyn Nets. It made them the first pair of teammates to record at least a 25-point triple double in the same game in a regular season.
In their win over Dallas the other day, it was a balanced attack with Westbrook top scoring for the team. He had started for the Nuggets since Aaron Gordon had a leg injury last December and with the starting unit, Westbrook had found his rhythm back.
He was branded as a has-been, but Westbrook, the NBA’s all-time leader in triple doubles, had found a home in Denver and is having a revival reminiscent of his MVP days.