With the NBA regular season almost coming to an end, we can now fully evaluate the season that players across the league have had. One player that deserves a closer look for his positive contributions is Russell Westbrook of the Denver Nuggets.

Just as most in the NBA community cast off Russell Westbrook as officially past his prime when he signed with the Denver Nuggets, his 5th team in 6 years, the 9x All-Star significantly revamped his game. Despite playing alongside former MVP Nikola Jokic and all-star caliber guard Jamal Murray, two players who slow the game down and need the ball in their hands in different ways to be effective, he managed to find his fit. However, because he is on a smaller market team and starting less often, fans don’t seem to care as much about this resurgence. Hence, this article is here to recognize his growth and give him his flowers.

Quick Note: These statistics and rankings are updated up to April 8, 2025, the day that their head coach Michael Malone got fired

Team Overview

First, let’s look at Westbrook’s influence on the Denver Nuggets’ success.

General Lineup Data

One of the initial question marks with the Nuggets’ signing of Russell Westbrook was his fit alongside Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Below is a bar chart showing the offensive rating of different lineup combinations with these 3 players on and off the court:

Most of the lineup combinations with Russell Westbrook have an above-average offensive rating, above the league average of 114.60 (marked by the purple line). When they are all on the court together, their offensive rating is still at a good high of 128.68 (+14 from the average) and a net rating of 5.68, as shown by the next bar chart below. Meanwhile, when he plays with just Jokic, their offensive rating is 122.87 and their net rating is 9.88. This generally shows that he fits in just fine with the two other Nuggets’ stars.

Although the offensive rating of lineups with just Russell Westbrook is very low at 98.51, the Nuggets don’t have consistent good creators/shooters outside of their stars and an inconsistent Michael Porter Jr. For this reason, lineups without Murray or Jokic on the floor haven't exactly been a winning formula in the past 5 seasons, holding a -7.84 net rating in 3,425 minutes, which is ~20% of the minutes over those years.

Team Strengths

Russell Westbrook is known for his athleticism that allows him to attack the rim and his playmaking that helps him enable his teammates to take and make good shots, and that has shown. Comparing last season versus this season, the Nuggets have the following ranks (among all NBA teams) in rim and assist stats:

Definitions of Statistics from Above Table:
• Rim Shot Making: How well a team shoots at the rim relative to their shot quality
• High Value Assists: How many assists on 3-pointers, rim shots, and free throws a team gets (assists on the best shots via analytics)

As you can see, Russell Westbrook has helped the Nuggets either slightly or drastically in important categories of the Nuggets’ offense. On his own, Westbrook is shooting a career-best 64.7% at the rim on 7.5 attempts per 100 possessions, the 2nd lowest frequency in his career.

However, there are some confounding factors that could explain the change in these ranks. First, the Denver Nuggets have Nikola Jokic, one of the most efficient players in terms of shots at the rim, and he’s only getting better, solidifying his case for potentially his 4th MVP award. He currently has a rim field goal percentage (FG%) of 72.0% on 7.9 attempts per 100 possessions, which is in the 68th percentile of centers. Second, Christian Braun has improved greatly with his new starting role, going from 20.2 minutes per game (MPG) and only starting 4 games last season, to averaging a career-high 33.8 MPG and starting 73 out of Denver’s 75 games thus far. In terms of shooting at the rim, he is shooting a career high 71.8% at the rim on 7.7 attempts per 100 possessions, which is comparable to Jokic’s great stats. Lastly, Denver has increased their pace greatly from last season, going from 97.43, good for 26th in the league, to 100.75, good for 6th in the league.

Although these rank increases cannot be fully attributed to Westbrook, one interesting amplifying variable is Aaron Gordon’s scoring at the rim this season, which is where he does the majority of his scoring (47% of his shots). According to nbarapm.com, this season, Aaron Gordon is shooting a career-worst 63.6% at the rim on 6.7 attempts per 100 possessions. His rim FG% is in the 28th percentile for power forwards, which is bad especially since they have an easier time at the rim compared to guards, plus his value to Denver’s offense is as a lob threat and rim finisher. Despite playing in just 47 of Denver’s 75 games as of April 5, 2025, and on way less minutes per game (down from 31.3 last season to 27.9 this season), he is hurting the Nuggets’ rim scoring statistics.

While Denver has benefitted from Jokic’s usual high efficiency at the rim and the blossoming of Christian Braun in his new starting role, the addition of the rim-punishing Russell Westbrook has been a great help to Denver’s great improvement in inside scoring.

Thriving on the Nuggets but Not the Lakers or Clippers: Why?

Jamal Murray is the typical star that Westbrook has often played alongside: he creates his own shot and for others via isolations and as the pick-and-roll ball handler. On the other hand, Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have an offense that complements Westbrook’s strengths: Jokic operates more as a creation hub. He uses his post-up skills not only to score himself, but also as gravity to create for others. Additionally, the Denver Nuggets have a constant movement, read-and-react system with players cutting, spacing out, and sharing the ball to find good shots. While they aren’t a high-speed transition team, they have an excellent half-court offense that breaks down defenses more methodically with movement and mismatches. Here, Westbrook has thrived both as an off-ball cutter and a playmaker that can find his cutting teammates.

Compare that to Westbrook’s teams during the previous 2 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, two big-market teams with multiple ball-dominant stars, bad spacing, and a lack of movement, and his fit with the Nuggets seems much easier. These characteristics were especially apparent with the Lakers when he played there, as LeBron James and Anthony Davis were below-average 3-point shooters. Additionally, their offensive system had him mostly sitting in the corner at a time when his own 3-point shooting was also below-average, allowing defenses to sag off of him and clog the driving lanes for the other two superstars. According to bball-index.com, the 2021-22 Lakers were ranked 28th in the league for Catch-and-Shoot (C&S) 3-Point Shooting Talent, 26th for C&S 3-Point Shot Making, and 26th for “Assisted Shooting Talent.” Additionally, the 2022-23 Lakers were ranked 25th in the league for 3-Point Shooting Talent and 27th in C&S 3-Point Shot Making Efficiency. Therefore, not only was Westbrook’s fit with the Lakers bad, but the roster construction in terms of long-distance shooting talent was horrendous. Westbrook was the scapegoat for the Lakers’ lack of success while he played there, but this shows he wasn’t as much to blame.

Definitions of Statistics from above paragraph (via bball-index.com):
• 3-Point Shot Making: Shooting ability given the difficulty of shots based on data for openness, self-creation, and player movement before the shot
• 3-Point Shooting Talent: Combination of BBall-index’s shooting statistics (shot-making, quality, self-creation) that captures 3-point shooting ability in a neutral environment

He then moved on to the Los Angeles Clippers, where he seemed to fit in a bit better. He would set screens, crash the boards, and lead fastbreaks occasionally, but the Clippers’ offense still relied on isolations and mismatch hunting for their superstars Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George, plus James Harden for just the 2023-24 season. This still left Westbrook in the corner or somewhere where defenders could sag off of him because they knew he wasn’t going to move around. With the Clippers’ 3 superstars getting injured too often or having bad playoff closeout games, Westbrook didn’t find much playoff success with the Clippers either. According to bball-index.com, although the 2022-23 Clippers had good rankings in overall shot creation and 3-point shot making (6th in the league for both), they had a -0.12 for “Overall Shot Quality”, ranking 22nd in the league and 0.89 Isolation Points Per Possession, ranking 21st in the league

Westbrook's Offensive Overview

Since we know Russell Westbrook contributes much more on the offensive end than the defensive end, we’ll look at only his offensive progress and contributions to the Denver Nuggets.

When looking at just basic stats (as of April 8, 2025), Russell Westbrook has pretty much improved across the board from the previous season: a 2.2 increase in points per game and a 1.7 increase in assists with just a 1.2 increase in field goals attempted and only 5.7 more minutes played per game. However, according to nbarapm.com, his Points Per 75 Possessions has decreased by 1.1 points from 17.9 down to 16.8. So, while the basic stats say he improved, with more context, he has an increased offensive role and is using more possessions with less efficiency.

Additionally, based on this line chart, Westbrook is having his second-best effective field-goal percentage (51.0%) season. Even though he’s never really been above league average (54.3% for the current season), this is a big step up for Westbrook who was often known to be or labeled as an “inefficient shot-chucker”.

Unfortunately, as shown in the line chart below, he had his highest turnover percentage of his career (18.9%), and he’s always been way over league average (12.7% for the current season), committing 4.1 turnovers per 75 possessions.

According to nbarapm.com, Westbrook has a 13.8% creation-adjusted TOV rate, per 75 possessions (cTOV%), which regrettably puts him in the 2nd percentile of point guards. Meanwhile, he has a 8.1% scoring turnover percentage (sTOV%) which regrettably puts him in the 19th percentile of point guards.

For context, he started almost 50% of Denver’s games and played significant opening minutes and has had to score more, especially during the latter half of the season, because Jamal Murray was out with a hamstring injury for a while (injured for 6 of Denver's Last 8 games of the season). Since Westbrook has started more games with the Nuggets than any of his last 2 seasons, these percentage changes can be explained by how the Nuggets have been utilizing him more than the Lakers and Clippers did. For comparison, those turnover values and percentages per 75 possessions are below:
• 2024 Clippers: 3.4 TOV per 75 (14th percentile), 6.7% sTOV% (39th percentile), 11.4% cTOV% (14th percentile)
• 2024 Clippers: 3.4 TOV per 75 (14th percentile), 6.7% sTOV% (39th percentile), 11.4% cTOV% (14th percentile)
• Note: no statistics available for separate stints
• 2022 Lakers: 4.0 TOV per 75 (15th percentile), 7.4% sTOV% (24th percentile), 12.1% cTOV% (15th percentile)

Definitions of Statistics from Above Table:
• Creation-Adjusted Turnover Rate (cTOV%): How often a player turns the ball over given their offensive load difficulty
• Scoring Turnover Percentage (sTOV%): How often a player turns the ball per possession, excluding passing

The graph below also shows his LEBRON over the years. You can see a dip to a negative LEBRON rating starting in 2022, but it rises back up to positive in late 2024 / early 2025, which is about when he started playing with the Denver Nuggets. This shows that his impact has improved compared to his time with the Lakers and Clippers, especially for an NBA player in his late 30s.

How Does He Compare to Other 35-37 Year Old Players?

For a player who many believe to have his best days behind him, Russell Westbrook fares better than several other shot creators his age. The chart below from bball-index.com shows the O-LEBRON and D-LEBRON of Westbrook and players around his age (he is 36 years old this season, so we compare him to 35-37 year old players for a bigger sample size) whose primary offensive role was labeled “Shot Creator” by bball-index.com.

Russell Westbrook is no LeBron James, who has surpassed his expectations into his old age, but he does not fall into the bottom left corner of the graph (high negative O-LEBRON and D-LEBRON) like NBA fans might suggest. He also fares better than or is comparable to players like Carmelo Anthony, Joe Johnson, and Chauncey Billups in their older seasons, showing Westbrook still has more gas in the tank.

Russell Westbrook is no LeBron James, who has surpassed his expectations into his old age, but he does not fall into the bottom left corner of the graph (high negative O-LEBRON and D-LEBRON) like NBA fans might suggest. He also fares better than or is comparable to players like Carmelo Anthony, Joe Johnson, and Chauncey Billups in their older seasons, showing Westbrook still has more gas in the tank.

Conclusion

While Russell Westbrook isn’t the MVP-caliber player he once was with the Oklahoma City Thunder, it is about time we give him his flowers for beating the allegations that he is past his prime and staying more than useful on a team contending for a championship. He has a decent shot of removing himself from the rare and unfortunate list of eight NBA players in history who has won an MVP but not a championship, and he can do so as a legitimate contributor to a contending team.