{"id":116772,"date":"2025-01-08T09:51:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=116772"},"modified":"2025-01-08T09:51:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:51:32","slug":"nuggets-russell-westbrook-nikola-jokic-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/08\/nuggets-russell-westbrook-nikola-jokic-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Westbrook Giving Nuggets the Gold They Hoped For"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2024-25 NBA season for the Denver Nuggets has experienced many ups and downs. They’ve struggled with consistency, defense, and roster holes. Yet, they hold the fifth seed in the Western Conference at 20-15. Denver is expected to be in the market for trades in the coming weeks to improve their roster. However, one aspect of their roster paying dividends is the Nuggets\u00a0<\/span>Russell Westbrook<\/span><\/a>–<\/span>Nikola\u00a0Joki\u0107<\/span><\/a>\u00a0tandem. So far, their pairing is\u00a0<\/span>proving many wrong about Westbrook’s fit<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with the former championship squad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russell Westbrook Giving Nuggets the Gold They Hoped For<\/h2>\n

Denver Nuggets Have Perfect Fit with Russell Westbrook & Nikola Joki\u0107<\/h3>\n

It’s been a long time since Westbrook tore the league up with nightly triple-doubles and MVP-caliber basketball. He has also played for five teams since departing the\u00a0<\/span>Oklahoma City Thunder<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in 2019. His career of late has played out to be quite the table-turner in many ways. That being said, Westbrook is crafting a new story this season\u2014arguably his best season in several years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Denver’s two-year deal with Westbrook struck over last year’s offseason sparked many confused question marks and low expectations within the NBA media. At first glance, Westbrook playing alongside Joki\u0107 and\u00a0<\/span>Jamal Murray<\/a> appeared<\/span> to be a deterrent rather than an incentive. His fit with the league’s best center, who many believe to be the best player in general, didn’t look right. However, 35 games into the season, Westbrook’s fit in Denver has been anything but unsuccessful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offensively Productive Unlike Past Seasons<\/h3>\n

Westbrook drew the ire of many in Los Angeles, with the\u00a0<\/span>Lakers<\/span><\/a> accusing him of lobbing a grenade into the offense and disrupting\u00a0<\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Davis’s<\/span><\/a>\u00a0playing style. Granted, Westbrook played and looked terrible in his short stint with the Lakers. At the same time, it simply wasn’t a good fit, so not all the blame can be directed at him. On the other hand, Westbrook has shown to be an offensive gift alongside Joki\u0107 in Denver. His off-the-ball cutting, for example, has added a jolt to the Nuggets offense. Westbrook is cutting to the basket on 8.2% of his possessions\u2014a career-high. Joki\u0107 has more often than not been the one to get him the ball mid-cut, leading to a shot attempt at the rim.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a little act of paying it forward,\u00a0<\/span>Westbrook assists Joki\u0107<\/span><\/a>\u00a0more than anyone else on the team, including Murray. A 20-assist gap between Westbrook and Murray (84 t0 64) shows that Westbrook is continuously looking for Joki\u0107 on the floor with the intent of getting him the ball. Westbrook is only averaging 12.8 points, far behind Nuggets main point-getters in Joki\u0107, Murray, and\u00a0<\/span>Michael Porter Jr.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0However; there is no questioning Westbrook’s offensive impact in playmaking and assists (6.6 per game).<\/span><\/p>\n

Surpassing Expectations<\/h3>\n

Joki\u0107 has a knack for getting the most out of his teammates, and he’s excelling with Westbrook beside him. Westbrook is also a significant reason why Joki\u0107 is playing so incredibly well this season. He’s showing the makings of another MVP-esque season. The NBA’s latest\u00a0<\/span>KIA MVP Ladder<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has Joki\u0107 at number one in chances of winning the award. Westbrook has played a large part in Joki\u0107’s bidding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Westbrook came into this season with moderately low expectations. Well, he has turned the tables on those expectations and has shown everyone why his place with the Nuggets is his best fit since the days of old with\u00a0<\/span>Kevin Durant<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2024-25 NBA season for the Denver Nuggets has experienced many ups and downs. They’ve struggled with consistency, defense, and roster holes. Yet, they hold the fifth seed in the Western Conference at 20-15. Denver is expected to be in the market for trades in the coming weeks to improve their roster. However, one aspect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":116773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,62],"tags":[240,109,69,38,1223,72,53],"class_list":["post-116772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-jamal-murray","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116792,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116772\/revisions\/116792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}