Mea culpa Russ, apparently, I didn't know your game

My bad Brodie

I got about 1,500 words into the “Sunday Rundown” and decided to scrap it for this instead. So, either you’re welcome, or I’m sorry. Actually, I’m already apologizing to someone else here. I take it back.

Alright, another act of personal contrition is in order. Yet, where Russell Westbrook is concerned, he must be dining for free at the apology buffet for life. Because even if I was far from the lone dissenting voice where thinking Westbrook was done as an impactful player is concerned, I will freely admit being completely wrong about what Russ was still capable of in year 17 of his career.

In reality, I have been continuously—and incorrectly—writing off Russ since Houston, where despite putting up gaudy numbers (27.2 PPG, 7.0 APG, 7.9 PRG) I just felt that his game had become too linear and self-serving to continue to be a brand of winning basketball once his athleticism began to erode. Of course, I was working under the assumption that Russ’s body was human and would show normal signs of athletic decay. Instead, even now, at age 36, Brodie remains in the top percentile of athletes in the league. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not the athlete he was in his prime, but much like LeBron, Russ, who may be the most athletic player to ever run the point—put your pitch forks away D-Rose fans, Ja fans too, I said “may be”—has kept himself in such insane condition that even a physically diminished version is still freakishly gifted.

Bask in the glow of peak athletic freak Russ

However, Russ still being able to blow by, over, and through people only tells half of the story. The other half is about a player who finally has shown a willingness to evolve and adapt to his team’s needs in a way that he would not for the vast majority of his career.

As a reminder, this is a player who over a three-year span from ’15-‘17, averaged a usage rate of 37.2%, including a league-record 41.7% in ’17 on the way to winning the MVP by putting-up 31.6 points, 10.4 assists, and 10.7 rebounds. He literally was the Thunder offense after Kevin Durant left.

At the time, Russ enthralled us as we collectively got caught-up in the statistical gaudiness of it all, with Brodie managing to not only become just the second player to ever average a triple-double in a season—joining Oscar Robertson in ‘61—but doing so for three consecutive seasons!

However, after three-straight first round exits, the sentiment on Russ’ numbers began to turn after he was traded to Houston, where his inability to get along stylistically with James Harden became a referendum on his way of playing the game. There was no doubt that Russ was still an absolute force, yet it started to become clear that his playing style was not universally adaptable and ill-suited for the playoffs, where transition opportunities greatly diminish and inefficient shooting has an overly-negative impact once overall possessions are lowered and the game is played more in the halfcourt.

So, Russ was traded, again, this time to the Wizards, and honestly, I thought Washington was where Russ’ game, like many others, would go to die. Instead, Brodie had one of his best seasons, mustering another triple-double average (22.2 PPG, 11.7 APG, 11.5 RPG) while taking a Washington squad whose roster is full of single-percentage answers on Immaculate Grid, to the playoffs.

But then he was traded, again. This time to the Lakers, where the combination of Russ’ ego, LeBron’s scapegoating, and Laker nation’s love for a good internal feud, made Westbrook a quick pariah.

So Russ was dealt, again. This time as part of a trade that was clearly just a means of expediting his exit from LA, as he was cut after being traded to Utah. And this time it felt like Russ may actually be done.

Yet…

After being signed to the other Los Angeles squad, the version of Russ that we saw with the Clippers was finally willing to take a complimentary role for the first time in his career, and once he did, he became one of the more impactful regular season role players in the NBA, finishing seventh in Sixth Man of the Year voting just last season. Then the playoffs came and with them the reminders of Russ’ limitations and extremes, as against the Mavericks in the first round of last season’s playoffs, Brodie had the type of meltdown usually reserved for keyboard warriors talking about their favorite Marvel movie.

He was a hot mess in those playoffs, and that may be a disservice to hot messes—sorry, J-Lo—as Russ averaged 6.3 points on 26.0% from the field and 23.5% from distance, while being the type of emotionally unhinged nuisance that really only benefits you in modern American politics.

So he was traded, again. To Utah, again. Russ has been dealt to the Jazz on two separate occasions now—in the trades from both Los Angeles teams—and waived both times by Utah before ever playing for the franchise.

This summer, with few options and little interest, Russ signed with Denver in what felt like a late desperation move by the Nuggets to bolster their paltry bench. I thought it a signing that was unlikely to yield particularly positive results, as I assumed that Russ’s inability to shoot and unwillingness to cut would create issues in Denver’s offense.

Instead, Denver has gotten full buy-in from Russ, who came in willing to play his role as a reserve, bringing energy that the Nuggets bench severely lacked. Hell, Russ has even been cutting this season (I know we saw it some with the Clippers) as his 8.6% frequency of cuts blows any prior season out of the water. And while it took way too fucking long for a player of his immense athletic talents to get here, credit has to be given considering that most of us had completely abandoned the idea that he would ever be an effective off-ball player.

Here is a phenomenal breakdown by NBA Legends on Russ and his fit in Denver

Russ has been so good for Denver this season that he’s worked his way into the Nuggets starting lineup, with Brodie averaging 14.9 points, 8.3 assists, and 6.7 rebounds and Denver going an impressive 12-4 with him in the first five. The synergy that Russ has with the Joker has been something special to watch, as you see two extremely talented playmakers functioning off each other beautifully. On Friday, in a win over the Nets, the two became the first set of teammates in NBA history to record a triple-double in the same game twice in one season. Leading to one of the more enjoyable Russ interviews:

https://x.com/DNVR_Nuggets/status/1877955643702710644

Now, I will fully confess that I am one of those people that think triple-doubles are bit over-valued, but I also clearly believe in the power of numbers, and a 147-55 (which by my count is 73%, but I do have a degree in Liberal Arts for a reason) record for his teams in games in which Westbrook gets a triple-double is a damming indictment on the idea that they don’t mean much. (On December 31st, Russ also managed to become just the third player in NBA history—joining fellow tip-dub mavens, Domantas Sabonis and Jokić—to record a triple-double while shooting 100% from the floor and having zero turnovers.)

The funniest part of all this is that my week began with me having my own keyboard warrior spat with someone regarding Westbrook because I had the temerity to call Russ “a bit overrated,” which I maintain. Russ is great, but I have him as about the ninth or tenth best point guard ever. The supercilious conversations about his place in the Hall of Fame were another example of the virality of lazy narratives. No one worth listening to questions that. But those conversations don’t matter right now—and they never matter in the hellscape of “analysis” that is social media—rather, they should be tabled for when Russ finally hangs them up, which based upon his current rate of athletic decay should be sometime around 2035.

For now, instead of arguing about legacy, what we should all do is, well, apologize to Russ first, but then we should just appreciate the fact that players of the caliber of Russ, Chris Paul, LeBron, Steph, and KD, have managed to tell the rest of us to go to hell where predicting their end is concerned.

Russ has been written off more than Jeff Bezos’ plastic surgeries, and yet, instead of letting us dictate who he is and how he goes out, Westbrook has traded the narrative of the unwilling superstar being forcibly put out to pasture for something far more special: an aging superstar fighting to find way to continue to impact the game.

Yet another trade for Russ that leaves the rest of us wrong about him. And for that Russ, I gratefully apologize.