Reject the basic salary, goodbye to the Nuggets! A real tough guy star in the NBA, maybe you should consider retiring

On June 15, the late-night NBA free market was ignited by a big news. Westbrook, 37, officially refused to execute the player option with the Nuggets in the 2025-26 season, and will try the market this summer as a complete free agent. The nine-time All-Star has embarked on the journey of finding ultimate glory after spending a season in the Nuggets.

As a key signing that was highly expected by the Nuggets in the offseason last year, Westbrook's intention to join is very clear. The team hopes that he can make up for the backcourt vacancy caused by Pope's departure, while leading the second team to inject vitality into the team. As for his performance this season, Westbrook can average 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game in the regular season, and his 44.9% shooting percentage proves that he still has the ability to fight.

Although the playoff data dropped to 11.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists, how many people know that he can only play in the playoffs with two fractures in his right hand + torn ligament. Even so, he can still suppress his opponent's shooting percentage to 31%, and he is the first in the league in the playoffs to defensive efficiency. Especially in the tiebreak battle against the Clippers, he completely locked Harden with five steals. It can be said responsibly that without Westbrook, the Nuggets would never be able to overcome the Clippers level.

But for the current Thunder, the final window of the championship, the team's three-core Jokic + Murray + Porter's salary locked in the space with a salary of 140 million yuan, and the remaining 5.7 million exceptions can no longer accommodate Westbrook's championship expectations. The only thing the Nuggets can do is to use this limited space to sign two veterans to strengthen the lineup.

Of course, in addition to salary pressure, Westbrook's style is also a key reason why both sides cannot continue to cooperate. His style of playing requires holding the ball, which will seriously affect the young people's playing time and ball rights. This is also the fundamental reason why Malone was fired by the team this season. Reusing Westbrook affects the growth of young people. At the same time, in the final stage of the regular season, Westbrook's outrageous operation ruined Jokic's historical 60+ super triple-double. Today's Westbrook is like JR Smith and others back then. He can not only become the championship puzzle to assist the team to the top, but also become a stumbling block on the team's road to winning the championship.

The epic gap from a huge maximum salary to a cancer of basic salary, looking back at Westbrook's career, can be regarded as a history of ups and downs in superstar drifting. In the 2017 MVP season, signed a super maximum salary of 205 million in five years, and 42 triple-doubles in a single season are shocking the past and present. When renewing the contract with the Clippers in 2023, he received only 7.8 million yuan in 2023, setting a record for the largest salary cut in the NBA history (47 million dropped to 3.8 million). The two-year contract of joining the Nuggets in 2024 hit a new low.

Every offseason, I become a topic of discussion in the media, but anything I have not said publicly is fabricated. Westbrook once denounced rumors like this, but at the intersection of his career, should he want money or a champion? But it has become a dilemma for the hero in his twilight years. The last dance of the triple-double kings in history has never been related to safety. When the $3.5 million guarantee is pushed away, the bet is not only about salary, but also about a tragic bet between the stubborn soul and the times.