The long, painful summer of free agency for Russell Westbrook as he finally agreed to what’s expected to be a one-year, $3.6 million veteran minimum contract with the Kings for the 2025-26 season. This comes after Russ turned down his player-option to stay with the Nuggets, then found an icily cold market for his services.
After toiling for months, he’ll join a Kings team that has traded away two star point guards, Tyrese Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox, in recent years. Now, Westbrook will come in and, along with Dennis Schroder, compete for starting point guard duties on a veteran-laden team that appears to be overmatched in a loaded Western Conference.
Nuggets fans should have no ill will at all toward Russ. He came in and plugged holes all season long, proving to be a great signing. He kept them afloat during some tough times and was, overall, very reliable and consistent.
But ultimately, Westbrook is just too volatile a player, and it has been proven time and again that he’s not able to change his game to fit in with a team and contribute to winning. Every night with Russ is a roller coaster ride, and even the good nights can be terrifying and can swing into bad nights in an instant.
Kings will learn the pains of Westbrook
The Kings obviously needed point guard depth, and the team is set up to compete now, but Russ isn’t going to help them get there. The Nuggets badly needed any semblance of an able body to come off the bench and support an elite starting lineup led by the best player in the world.
Sacramento doesn’t have anything close to that. They have a hodgepodge of solid veterans led by Domas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine. But we’ve seen enough of those players to know they’re not leading a team anywhere meaningful. The depth around them is unspectacular, and now they’re adding one of the most polarizing players of all time in Westbrook.
Throw in Schroder, Malik Monk, and Keegan Murray, and this team simply has too many mouths to feed without enough food to feed them. This is going to end disastrously, and the Kings will likely miss the play-in tournament entirely.
I’d be surprised if this group even makes it through the regular season intact. Compiling this collection of players is a wild idea, and one that is sure to blow up in their faces sooner than later.