The Sacramento Kings are adding another accomplished veteran to their roster, with point guard Russell Westbrook agreeing on Wednesday to join the team that is hoping to contend for a playoff spot in the loaded Western Conference.
Westbrook, who turns 37 in November, is expected to sign a one-year minimum-salary deal on Thursday, a team source told The Athletic. ESPN first reported the news.
Westbrook, the 2017 MVP and nine-time All-Star who was with the Denver Nuggets last season, was long rumored to be headed to Sacramento as a backup point guard who could elevate their already-experienced group.
In the wake of the De’Aaron Fox trade with San Antonio last season, and the offseason hiring of longtime NBA executive Scott Perry as Kings general manager, Sacramento added veteran point guard Dennis Schröder in free agency to unlock their wing talent (Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk) as well as their primary bigs (Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray).
Several of the Kings’ veterans had been campaigning for Westbrook to be added since free agency began, per team sources.
For Westbrook, this deal is another chance to continue a historic career that, while often celebrated, has become nomadic in recent years. The Kings will be Westbrook’s sixth team since being traded from Oklahoma City to Houston in 2019.
As was the case in Denver last season, and with the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers before that, Westbrook has helped and hurt his teams in ways that spark vigorous debate among fans, media and people around the Association. The discussion is no longer about his credentials, as he’s not only the league’s all-time triple-double king (203 and counting, with Oscar Robertson second at 181) but also on track to become the highest-scoring point guard of all time (26,205 points, with Robertson No. 1 at 26,710).
The focus, at this late stage of his career, is on whether he can consistently maximize his impact in a supporting role after all those years of being at the center of the spotlight.
For the Kings, who spent months contemplating bringing Westbrook in, the need for a more impactful backup point guard was deemed even more glaring after a training camp where none of their current players impressed enough to win the job. And while they’re well aware that Westbrook comes with a level of intensity and edge that has been an issue for some teammates in the past, there is a great deal of confidence that his energy will be a net-positive, in part, because of the relationships that existed long before this move. Westbrook played with Sabonis and Schröder in Oklahoma City (and on the Lakers) and grew up with DeRozan in the Los Angeles area.
Westbrook boasts career averages of 21.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game and has averaged a triple-double four times (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21). He averaged 13.3 points in 27.9 minutes per game last season for Denver while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 32.3 percent from 3 in 75 games, his most games logged since the 2021-22 season.
