Russell Westbrook did the logical thing on Friday by opting out of his contract with the Denver Nuggets, giving him more choices this summer, including a return to the Mile High City for more money.
Westbrook spent this past season with the Nuggets, where he had a surprising boost in production playing alongside three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The former MVP Westbrook carried his strong contributions into the playoffs, where he was a difference maker against his old team, the Los Angeles Clippers, in Round 1. But after he helped get the Nuggets to Round 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, where Westbrook is a franchise legend, the point guard’s play was an unmitigated disaster.
Westbrook played 75 games and another 13 in the playoffs. He starts this summer needing to recover from a wrist injury, which he’s had surgery on, and with some big choices ahead.
The first for him was declining a $3.4 million player option.
It’s a sign that he may have played his way out of a minimum contract and into something more lucrative. While the Nuggets have a few mechanisms to pay the veteran more money, they can actually offer him the same deal as he was already on, which will pay the player while keeping his salary cap hit the same.
Thanks to a quirk in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, Westbrook reached enough service time that a minimum contract is worth more than what the salary cap hit is, and the raise based on his time in the league and rising salary cap is not correlated to what the salary cap hit will mean. All of this is to say, Westbrook can sign another minimum contract for Denver worth about $3.6 million, but still at a salary cap hit of $2.2 million. Basically, he earns a raise at no cap cost to the Nuggets by signing the same deal just a summer later.
Westbrook made 36 starts, played over 2,000 minutes and averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists on 45 percent shooting from the field and 32 percent shooting from 3-point range. His production may indicate that he’s actually worth significantly more than the minimum. Heck, he may have only been so cheap to begin with because he had some money from his previously signed deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, which the Utah Jazz bought him out of. Money might not be the main thing for the soon-to-be 37-year-old who has made $343 million just from his contracts, but some teams in good situations may be willing to offer Westbrook more. There are a few who are point guard-needy.
He could be a candidate for some of or all of the $14 million Mid-Level Exception or he may fall in line with the $5.5 million Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (TPMLE) or $5 million Biannual Exception. Those are the main ways teams can stay over the salary cap, which is everyone except for three teams, and acquire Westbrook.
The Nuggets can offer Westbrook the TPMLE, though they only get one and are already operating just $10.6 million below the second tax apron with 12 players under contract. By using the TPMLE, the Nuggets would be hard-capped at the second apron, but it’s also the main way they can improve this summer.
Last year, they struck out on utilizing the exception, signing Dario Saric to it. And it’s his player option, which everyone expects him to pick up, that has Denver up against the wall this offseason. But it’s not all bad with the TPMLE, that’s how the Nuggets signed Bruce Brown, who may very well come back on that same contract he signed before the 2022-23 season.
The Nuggets actually have a third way to offer Westbrook a raise and are the only team that can do this since he last played for Denver. The Nuggets can offer him a 20% raise on minimum using non-bird rights, which would give Westbrook $4.4 million and an equal cap hit. If Saric somehow opts out, this could be a happy middle ground for a Westbrook return while using the TPMLE on another player, all while staying under the second apron.
If Denver can’t get it done with Westbrook, keep these few names in mind for a minimum contract backup point guard: Malcolm Brogdon, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kyle Lowry, Tre Mann and Delon Wright.
There’s still a question of whether the Nuggets even want him back.
Westbrook made a nice early-season connection with Jokic. But he never got the Nuggets’ bench issues fixed, which is the reason he was brought in to begin with. Additionally, he had an altercation with Aaron Gordon during the playoffs that boiled over into the media. The Nuggets forward had his veteran’s back through the drama, but it wasn’t the first issue. As the way head coach Michael Malone treated Westbrook wore thin on the locker room, according to reports, tensions rose. That was one of several factors that led to Malone — the winningest coach in franchise history — being fired late in the season.
On the floor, when it mattered most, Westbrook’s shooting was good against the Clippers as the Nuggets rode his spark to beat them in seven games. Against the Thunder, he shot a brutal 35% from the field and 22% from distance while tossing 18 turnovers in the series.
Westbrook was exactly who the NBA knows him to be: running hot on the floor and off of it, productive when it doesn’t matter much, and making critical mistakes when it does matter. He will be that player again in 2025-26, and possibly in Denver. Where he plays may be a question, but what his impact will be is pretty obvious, as is his status as a future Hall of Famer. Unless you thought Westbrook wasn’t going to be worthy of a pro basketball contract in 2025-26, in the NBA or elsewhere, he was always going to decline this player option.
