There’s no other way to put it, Russell Westbrook is one of the most polarizing players in NBA history. His peaks have been incredible; he was the MVP of the league and helped the Thunder reach the Finals early in his career. But the valleys have been equally as low as he has been sacrimoniously dumped by multiple contenders in recent years.
The Lakers and Clippers both tried the Westbrook experiment, but they weren’t ultimately able to get him to mesh with their team, accept a lesser role, and give them quality playoff minutes without becoming a liability.
It’s a real issue, and one that every Nuggets fan struggles with deep down. We’ve all seen Russ come in and play great this season. He has turned his career around to an extent. It seemed like he was on his way out of the league, but he has instead found a home in Denver and had a great resurgence this season.
But what happens once the playoffs start? When teams are gameplanning for every possible matchup and picking at weaknesses on every possession? That’s when things get worrisome and that’s where teams have had problems with Russ in the past.
Nuggets should run early play for Russ to get him engaged
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword for the Nuggets. On the one hand, they need Russ for his energy, intensity, defense, and competitiveness. There’s a certain spark when he comes into the game that’s otherwise lacking and it’s very important to what Denver wants to be as a team.
On the other hand, Russ can quickly get a little too involved and he can monopolize the offense to the point of sometimes shooting his team right out of a game. That’s playing into other teams’ hands and they’re more than happy to watch Westbrook fire up shots all night.
One idea is to bust out an old trick that we’ve seen teams use successfully in the past; getting Russ a look early so that he is involved and engaged immediately. On a recent episode of the Mismatch with Dave Jacoby and Chris Vernon of the Ringer, Verno brought up the mid-2000s Pistons and they utilized this strategy with Ben Wallace.
They would run the first play for Big Ben and let him do whatever he wanted with the ball. That would get him into the action immediately, make him feel involved, and get him locked in on both ends for 48 minutes. Wallace was an incredible player, but not known for his shooting and scoring.
The Nuggets could employ a similar strategy with Westbrook to get the most out of him. When Michael Malone brings him into the game, the Nuggets should give him the ball and let him operate for a play or two. Get Russ going early and empower him to feel in control.
Then Westbrook can lock in and focus on defense, playmaking, and hustle plays. It’s not a perfect scenario, but it’s an idea and one that’s worth trying. The Nuggets aren’t going to have any margin for error come playoff time.
They need to maximize every player in their rotation and that includes Russ. To go in with the same strategy that has failed for other teams would be a mistake, so this is something to at least think about.