SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Maybe it will work.
Maybe Russell Westbrook will become a modern-day version of Bobby Jackson, the beloved Sacramento Kings’ sixth man (and current Kings assistant) who was their electrifying energizer bunny back in the day (on much better teams, of course). Maybe this signing by the Kings — the 36-year-old Westbrook on a one-year minimum deal that is expected to be finalized on Thursday — is just the sort of what-will-he-do-next addition that a middling team like this needs.
After all, these loyal (and starved) fans deserve to be entertained while they wait to see what this new front office, now led by longtime NBA executive Scott Perry, does with this mishmash roster. No better way to pass the time than to watch the league’s all-time triple-double king, who would pass Oscar Robertson as the all-time scoring leader among point guards if he racks up just 550 points this season.
As Westbrook himself likes to say, “Why not?” There’s a reason that hordes of opposing scouts have been coming to the Kings’ games in this preseason, and it’s not because they’re dying to see if Dennis Schröder can truly unlock the core of Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Malik Monk and the like. It is, at least in part, because rival teams expect the Kings to be sellers by the time the February trade deadline comes around and need to evaluate their group to decide if their respective teams should come calling.
However, if it doesn’t work, if the ambitious vision of Kings coach Doug Christie to convince all these score-first talents to defend isn’t realized and they fall short of the playoffs for the 19th time in the organization’s past two decades, then the good news for Westbrook is that there’s just no way the ending will be his fault this time around. In stark contrast to those Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets teams that he was on in recent years, when title contention was the goal and the white-hot spotlight often came his way when it wasn’t realized, the stakes of this situation are far different.
Several key members of Sacramento’s core do have something to prove. Christie, for example, is in his first full season as a head coach after taking over for the fired Mike Brown last season and has every intention of showing his full potential to the Kings and the industry at large. Per league sources, the deal he signed in the offseason includes two guaranteed seasons and a team option for a third. He’ll earn approximately $2 million annually in the first two seasons, with a significant uptick in salary for the third season should the option be picked up. As first-world problems go, that’s the kind of contract that offers plenty of motivation to earn the next one.
The irony, however, is that it’s hard to gauge the level of inspiration that surrounds him. The 29-year-old Sabonis, who suffered a hamstring injury in a preseason loss to the Clippers on Wednesday night, is just months removed from looking like he might ask for a trade in the wake of the De’Aaron Fox trade with San Antonio last season. The three-time All-Star has since assured the organization’s leaders that he’s all in, but it was touch-and-go there at the tail end of last season. And the fact that he’s owed a combined $136.3 million through the 2027-28 campaign is undoubtedly playing a part in his, and the team’s, calculus about how to handle their shared frustrations with the state of affairs.
The 30-year-old LaVine didn’t get the extension he wanted during the summer. Still, he’s hoping to re-establish his league-wide market in anticipation of his next deal now that he’s on the back end of his massive contract ($47.4 million this season and $48.9 million next season on a player option). DeMar DeRozan, the 36-year-old whose deal is only partially guaranteed for next season, has averaged 20-plus points in each of the past 12 seasons (!) and would surely attract the attention of contenders in these next few months if he’s able to do it again.
Except for one thing: There’s still only one ball. And we haven’t even mentioned the likes of Monk ($60 million combined in the next three seasons; player option in 2027-28) or Keegan Murray (five-year, $140 million extension that was agreed to on Wednesday). Murray won’t be integrated for some time now, as he tore the UCL in his left thumb during the preseason and is expected to miss four to six weeks after having surgery.
The idea here, one that Perry and his staff hope the Kings can pull off, is that Schröder and Westbrook can find a way to direct all this traffic while raising the level of competitiveness for all involved.
When it comes to Westbrook, whose extended free agency led to so many questions about whether he might be forced into NBA retirement, the truth is that he’s still a highly productive player who belongs in the league. Case in point: I spent some time with the Nuggets in training camp recently and was fascinated to find that even some of the principal stakeholders who didn’t enjoy Westbrook near the end of his Nuggets tenure last season thought it was absurd that he was unemployed.
Yet for the Kings and other teams of their ilk, the brutal part is that even the best-case scenario leaves them looking like longshots in the loaded West. They were reminded of that reality in the 109-91 loss to the Clippers, when they were outclassed in the kind of way that — preseason and all — did not portend good things to come.
The Clippers, it should be said, have been severely overlooked as a basketball team while we were all busy investigating their (Kawhi Leonard) business practices. Yes, they are of advanced age, with Leonard (34), James Harden (36), Chris Paul (40), Brook Lopez (37) and Nicolas Batum (36) all getting closer to the yelling-at-clouds stage of their careers. But their depth, as evidenced by the 24-point outing from John Collins and 16 points (in 18 minutes) from Lopez off the bench against the Kings, is some of the best in the Association. They have an elite, and still-improving, big man in Ivica Zubac. A freakish athlete and defender in Derrick Jones Jr. Another incredible stopper in Kris Dunn. The list goes on.
As Harden reminded me on the way out of the Golden 1 Center, when he left in a lighthearted mood that will undoubtedly continue if this is who they truly are, “We don’t even have Brad (Beal) or Bogi (Bogdan Bogdanović) yet.”
Beal, the 32-year-old, three-time All-Star who came the Clippers’ way after being bought out by Phoenix in July, had a minor knee procedure in May but is expected back soon. Bogdanović, the Serbian legend who has yet to play due to nagging hamstring and back injuries, is also close to a return.
All of which should worry the rest of the West.
From the Oklahoma City Thunder on down, the margin for error is Chet Holmgren-slim on this side of the league’s ledger. Denver, the Clippers, the Houston Rockets, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Golden State Warriors all have serious reasons for optimism. Even the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans are worth keeping an eye on. So, no, in other words, the Kings should not be scorned for adding Westbrook to a team that is likely headed for irrelevance anyway.
Maybe it will work.