Free Agency Primer: The Case For Russell Westbrook
Why the Clippers should bring the future Hall of Famer back.
As seen in this sphere during Monday’s Part 1 of the four-part ‘Free Agency Primer’ series, we already looked at The Case Against Russell Westbrook returning to the LA Clippers.
Today, we’re taking the alternate approach. Let’s look at the reason(s) Westbrook should stay with the Clippers, or at least why the Clippers should try their hardest to retain his services.
One of the reasons the Clippers went after Westbrook when he hit the buyout market after his trade from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Utah Jazz was because they — mainly coach Tyronn Lue and superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George — felt the team needed the added benefit of a lead ball-handler, or a ‘true point guard.’
The Clippers got that with Westbrook as he entered the team’s starting lineup immediately.
Westbrook averaged 15.8 points, 7.6 assists, and 4.9 rebounds in his 21 games with the Clippers, tallying 30.2 minutes per contest. It was more minutes than he got with the Lakers, where he was being paid more than $47 million. But the Clippers started him for those 21 games. The team went 11-10.
The future Hall of Famer shot a career-best 48.9 percent from the field, also posting career highs in True Shooting Percentage (56.2 percent) and Effective Field Goal Percentage (53.8 percent) along the way.
A lot of that was driven by Westbrook's ability to get downhill into the paint.
After arriving to the Clippers, Westbrook connected on 60 percent of his field goal attempts inside of eight feet. The 125 attempts from that area accounted for 47.7 percent of his field goal tries with the Clippers. Westbrook shot 50.7 percent inside eight feet with the Lakers in 2022-23 and saw 52.3 percent of his field goal attempts come from that range.
While Westbrook’s attempt rate went down in that area of the floor with the Clippers, his field goal conversion rate jumped to a high-quality level which made him effective in the Clippers’ spacing lineups as he was able to attack seams afforded to him that the Lakers weren’t able to provide due to roster construction at the time.
The other good news with Westbrook was that his three-point rate dropped with the Clippers compared to when he was with the Lakers. With the Clippers, only 27.9 percent of Westbrook's field goal attempts were three-pointers. With the Lakers, that number was 29.2 percent. A marginal decline, but one nonetheless.
According to Second Spectrum, Westbrook averaged 9.3 drives per game with the Clippers, converting 51.4 percent of his shots on drives. That was down from his Lakers stint where he averaged 15.1 drives per game. But Westbrook's field goal percentage on such opportunities with the Lakers was 47.4 percent, a slight decline from where he eventually settled with the Clippers.
The other on-court area that Westbrook dramatically affected came in transition.
Before Westbrook, the Clippers averaged 12.4 fast-break points per 100 possessions. It ranked 22nd in the NBA. With Westbrook, the Clippers averaged 14.5, according to NBA Stats — good for 12th.
The Clippers’ pace was affected by Westbrook, as well. Before adding him into the fold, the Clippers were 24th in pace, averaging 98.24 possessions per game. That number moved to 100.55 with him, which put them 13th during that span.
On top of that, in their 230 minutes together, lineups featuring the trio of Westbrook, George, and Leonard were a plus-17. It’s not a tremendous number, but a positive number is a positive number nonetheless. It came out to a plus-4.0 Net Rating, per PBP Stats.
While it was only 48 minutes, so essentially one full game of basketball, the Clippers were plus-14 with those three on the floor alongside Eric Gordon. Should Gordon return, his spacing could conceivably allow Westbrook to operate with the space necessary to be at his most effective.
That’s all of the on-court stuff, though. A lot more took place behind the scenes.
As mentioned earlier, the trio of Lue, George, and Leonard made their overtures for Westbrook known. George even took it a step further on Feb. 10 by taking his request public after a game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It would definitely improve our team if we had that traditional point guard to kind of get us in things and make the game easy,” George said. “So hopefully Russell sees this and we figure something out.”
The Clippers did figure something out after Westbrook was bought out by Utah, paving the way for him to arrive back in Los Angeles.
Lue, George, and Leonard also wanted John Wall prior to the beginning of last season. That signing didn’t work out. Westbrook worked out a lot better than Wall did, that’s for certain.
Westbrook provided a level of comfort for George after the Clippers traded his friend Reggie Jackson away. It was someone George could rely on to aid the team. The Clippers did put a lot on Westbrook’s plate, including being a vocal leader for the team even though that shouldn’t have been his role in the first place.
There is a benefit to Westbrook being on the Clippers. He provides downhill pressure, can supply some much-needed oomph in transition, and he clearly makes the stars — or one star in particular — feel at ease, which might be the most important thing.
The Clippers can only offer Westbrook the minimum, roughly $3.8 million, due to their salary cap situation.
Whether or not the two sides feel there’s another year left in this partnership will reveal itself over the next few days and weeks.
(Part 3 of this four-part series will be out on Wednesday, outlining the case against the Clippers bringing center Mason Plumlee back.)