The Nuggets have made their position clear on Russell Westbrook and shown that, despite everything he did for them last season, they’d rather move on, even without adding another backup point guard. It’s the right decision for the team, but one thing they won’t be able to replace following his departure is the rim pressure and free-throw attempts.
Before Russ arrived, the Nuggets had been one of the worst teams in the league at generating free throws, but he completely changed that. They went from 29th in the NBA in 2023-24 to first last season, and while that wasn’t all a direct result of Westbrook, his play was a big part of it.
He created over 3 free throw attempts per game for himself, but the way he attacked relentlessly, pushed the team to get out in transition, and passed to his teammates in a way that set them up to finish or get fouled around the basket were all huge parts of their massive rise in free throws.
The Nuggets offense was obviously more than good enough to get by in past years without a lot of free throw attempts, but being able to create those easy opportunities is extremely helpful.
Nuggets won’t be as attack-happy
The team still has one elite transition player in Christian Braun, but it felt like Russ was the straw that stirred the drink in that way. He only has one speed and he brought the older, slower Nuggets into another stratosphere.
While Russ isn’t young anymore, he plays with an unmatched youthful exuberance. The new bench players may be better overall players, but Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, and Jonas Valanciunas aren’t exactly guys who are going to be flying up and down the court, attacking the basket, and getting to the line consistently.
Again, the Nuggets will have an incredible offense and should be just fine, but it will be interesting to see how many free points they lose this season. They are likely to play at a much more deliberate pace and create magic in the halfcourt.
But most of their play-finishers are now shooters, and if the offense is missing anything, it’s guys who are going to beat people off the dribble, get to the basket, and get to the stripe. Maybe guys like Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, and Braun take a leap in this department, or maybe the Nuggets add another guy to fill the final roster spot.
But as it stands, the biggest downside of losing Russell Westbrook will be finding a way to overcome the loss of rim pressure and free throw generation.