If Nikola Jokic is the one orchestrating the Denver Nuggets’ acquisition of Russell Westbrook, the three-time MVP must have called in the big guns.
Multiple stories have linked the Nuggets to Westbrook, with many claiming Jokic is begging the team to sign the future Hall of Fame player. The 2016-17 MVP is a nine-time All-NBA player, a nine-time All-Star, a two-time scoring champion, and was voted one of the NBA’s 75 greatest players a few years back.
Jokic is among the few athletes who have achieved more than Westbrook. Jokic’s good friend, Novak Djokovic, whom Westbrook met in London, is also present. The Serbian tennis great is currently ranked second in the world, having spent 428 weeks at number one and winning a record 24 major titles. The 37-year-old is the only player to have completed a triple Career Grand Slam, as well as a Career Golden Masters, which he has done twice. Wimbledon posted a snapshot of Djokovic with current Clippers backup point guard Russell Westbrook ahead of his quarter-final match against Alex de Minaur on Wednesday.
Djokovic spent time with the Nuggets in Los Angeles earlier this year, on the tennis star’s trip to Indian Wells. The Serbian is a close buddy of Jokic, and the two have been photographed partying together. In California, Jokic presented Djokovic to the Nuggets, and the two posed for photos with a slew of Nuggets teammates and staff, all of whom appeared ecstatic to be present. Meanwhile, Djokovic, the potential greatest of all time in tennis and among sportsmen in his country, is humble enough to throw that kind of love at the Nuggets.
Surprisingly, if the Nuggets do sign Westbrook, it will be the second recent champion to lose Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and get Westbrook in the same summer. Nor will the Nuggets be the first to select Westbrook over Reggie Jackson. Calvin Booth will hope that, unlike the other trades by the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, this move for Westbrook is an outlier.
Even crazier, the Nuggets would be trading their biggest tennis lover, KCP, for another, Westbrook, who has now been photographed with Djokovic twice, nearly a decade apart.
Westbrook signed a $4 million contract with the Clippers earlier this summer, but it appears that the two parties agreed to search for a trade. The Nuggets quickly emerged as a suitor, with further rumours indicating that Jokic was the driving force behind most of the interest. Westbrook chose to stay in the NBA despite his desire to leave because it is often simpler to find a new home while keeping a few extra cash through trade than to go out on the open market. This appears to be the case in this situation, where the Nuggets’ free agency is severely constrained due to the luxury tax, yet they could have negotiated a trade for Westbrook utilizing a variety of means.
The 35-year-old UCLA Bruin has been in the game for 16 years and has played for five different teams, his most memorable spell being with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Westbrook earned the NBA MVP for the Nuggets division opponent and scored a historic buzzer-beating three-pointer in Denver to conclude the first of his four incredible triple-double averaging seasons. But it was a rare deep shot for Westbrook, who is one of 269 players to have attempted 2,000 three-pointers in his career and ranks 268th in terms of percentage. As Brodie’s agility has waned, his shooting troubles have become increasingly apparent. As evidenced by his recent postseason failures and occasional movement across the league.
Westbrook’s only appearance to the NBA Finals was in his fourth season, back in 2012. Since losing a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals to the 2016 Warriors, Westbrook’s teams have gone 1-7 in playoff series, with the lone victory coming in a bubble series in which the guard missed four games and the Lakers swept them. After 11 seasons in OKC, he was viewed as a potential replacement for James Harden in Houston and LeBron James in Los Angeles.
In heading to the Lakers, Los Angeles divided apart its recent champion team, who had defeated Westbrook’s Rockets, and sent out Caldwell-Pope. The transaction was such a flop that the Lakers missed the playoffs and Westbrook was eventually bought out.
That final move resulted in Westbrook moving across town to the star-studded Clippers, where he transformed into a valuable bench player. It was this transaction that prompted the Nuggets to acquire Reggie Jackson, as the Clippers released the veteran guard to make room for Westbrook. And this is not the first time Jackson and Westbrook have crossed paths. Jackson was picked by the Thunder, where Westbrook played, and the two notoriously feuded, leading the backup point guard to be sent to Detroit away from the team’s superstar. At the time, a much younger Jackson was eager about being an NBA starter, which he would easily show with the Pistons.
Last season, Westbrook appeared in 68 games, starting 11, averaging 22.5 minutes, 11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game. He only hit 27% from three, but he puts a lot of pressure on the rim and is a decent defender at 6-foot-4 due to his high motor.
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