JULY 6: Westbrook’s new deal with the Clippers is official, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
JULY 1: Russell Westbrook will re-sign with the Clippers for nearly $8MM over two years, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Westbrook will receive a player option for the second season, Wojnarowski adds.
L.A. will use the Non-Bird exception for Westbrook, who joined the team in February after being traded to the Jazz and negotiating a buyout. The Clippers are limited to a 20% raise for Westbrook over the veteran’s minimum contract he played under last season.
He will receive $3,835,738 for the 2023/24 season and $4,027,525 for the following year if he exercises the option. The deal gives Westbrook a chance to opt out and test the market again next summer as an unrestricted free agent.
Westbrook struggled through the season and a half he spent with the Lakers, but he was able to revive his reputation somewhat with the cross-town Clippers. He became a full-time starter again after the move and averaged 15.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 7.6 assists in 21 games while helping the team avoid falling into the play-in tournament.
The Clippers were “eager” to keep Westbrook after his late-season performance, Wojnarowski adds.
The former MVP and nine-time All-Star is considered a shoo-in Hall of Famer, but his standing around the league has fallen in recent years due to his declining shooting percentage, his penchant for turnovers and the number of times he has changed teams. After spending the first 11 seasons of his career in Oklahoma City, the Clippers marked Westbrook’s fifth team in six years.
He also became a scapegoat for an underachieving Lakers team, and trade rumors started circulating shortly after he was acquired in a 2021 deal. The Lakers had to part with a future first-round pick to send him to Utah, but before that happened, he experienced a coaching change and was made a full-time bench player for the first time in his career.
Clippers management was originally cool on the idea of adding Westbrook in February, but they relented after lobbying from Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
L.A. was considered to be among the front-runners to land Chris Paul after the Suns traded him to Washington last month, but the Warriors snagged Paul by agreeing to part with Jordan Poole. The Clippers indicated that they would have considered re-signing Westbrook even if they had traded for Paul.
He took the paycut to return just a classic act! Glad to see he found a home with the clippers.
He’s not as delusional as Kyrie and the Mavs
Can’t call Kyrie delusional for getting a contract $120M more than Westbrook.
I mean, Kyris is delusional for a whole mess of things, I don’t think we need to narrow it down to one.
Glad to see he found a good home. Now we can talk about him as a basketball player instead of an albatross contract.
Bruce Brown goes from $6 mm to $22 mm
Westbrook goes from 47 mm to 4 mm
Russell Westbrook resigning with the Los Angeles Clippers is a great move!!!! He’s the starting Point Guard they need. I’ll rather give Russell Westbrook his little money any day than going after James Harden. I hope James Harden just stay in Philly on the Philadelphia 76ers.
I’m hoping to see Russell Westbrook Paul George and Kawhi Leonard all healthy this season and see what they can do.
Keep hoping lol.
Let Russ cook.
So now Westbrick and his fans know and understand his value. Glad to see Wedtbrick man up and accept reality. He did well mending his image at season end still a relavant player by signing with Clippers. This is his final contract and Clips will again dont win. They will do well but choke at the end.
Man up. Ok, tough guy. So embarrassing.
After watching him play for my Wizards and almost make Beal the top scorer in the league that year while simultaneously dragging a team very light on talent into the playoffs I hope he can get a championship before he calls it a career. Its hard to see it happening with the way the Clippers unfortunately have the tendency to lose key guys at the worst time, but I’ll still root for Russ. Way too good and driven of a player to go without a championship to his name IMO.
Westbrook put together a good stat line with the Clippers. 15.8/7.6/4.9 and he even shot the ball halfway decent at .489/.356. I thought he’d get a bit more 8 million over 2 years.
Clippers fan here even if they get harden I won’t come close to picking them to win the west! To much age and decline in play while the two stars also struggle to stay healthy ! At least it will be interesting and maybe fun though ! Last year was not fun
Very low risk signing. I’m not a fan of his game, but there is no reason not to draw up a 2 year minimum wage contract if he’s willing to sign it.
Will continue to be the biggest bargain in the NBA since being bought out by Utah.