What’s left for Russell Westbrook now?

Russell Westbrook is seeking a trade and a chance to be what he used to be. Does any team really want or need the old Westbrook?

Have you ever watched Russell Westbrook walk? I mean, really, just closely observed how he dangles one leg forward, then the other in a strut, each hand teasing as if he may break into dance at any moment but just stops short. Sometimes he actually will give you a little move as he heads up that runway to the locker room, feeling either the beats blaring in his headphones or the latest fashion statement he’s delivering.

For years, that was just the appetizer, with a main course of launching himself like a cannonball at his opponents and the rim in a way that made basketball seem an extreme sport. Without ever entering the dunk contest, Westbrook became the NBA’s Evel Knievel, a high-wire act equal parts bravado and danger.

Westbrook has always looked to go bigger and bolder after every crash but the past few seasons the stats have felt more like empty calories and the primal roars have rung hollow. Where drama was once just an accent, it sometimes feels like the only thing left. and What was once exhilarating is now exhausting. The running joke on Twitter is that Westbrook will rattle the rim and let the whole world know about it while the commentator provides a reminder his team is getting blown out.

With his reported request to be traded from the Rockets, Westbrook has put his career on the clock. He’s no longer in the comforts of Oklahoma City where he was too big of a local hero for the uncomfortable conversations happening online and across sports bars to completely overshadow his stat lines. And his time in Houston looks over because, frankly, he’s frustrated the franchise isn’t run like the Thunder.

Russell Westbrook has shown he can still be a force in the modern NBA

But while Westbrook may want what he perceives as greener pastures, the future of the 32-year-old’s high-flying-act lies in what he accomplished there before the pandemic hit. Over 25 games following a Christmas day loss to the Golden State Warriors, Westbrook showed he’s capable of introspection — or at least listening to another’s perspective — and abandoned the 3-point shot.

He poured in 31.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists and relentlessly attacked the rim. Between the start of the season and Christmas, Westbrook averaged 8.9 shots within five feet of the basket and shot 58 percent. After Christmas and before the pandemic hit, he went into overdrive with 13.5 attempts at the rim while somehow increasing his efficiency with 61.4 percent shooting. His free-throw attempts held steady at right around 6.5 while he went from attempting 5.1 threes per game (23.8 percent shooting) before Dec. 26 to just 2.3 attempts from deep while hitting 29.3 percent of them after Christmas.

And then the pandemic hit and Westbrook just wasn’t the same player in the bubble. He tested positive for COVID-19 and then dealt with a quadriceps injury. What he accomplished in those 25 games after Christmas can’t be a relic, lost footage that’s resigned to the cutting room floor. It needs to be the inflection point of him understanding the key to his relevance in today’s NBA because that is the closest he has come to pairing his histrionics and pageantry with winning basketball since that irresistible MVP campaign in 2017.

The modern-day shot spectrum can serve as a bit of a cheat code for those looking to maximize their offensive value, and Westbrook has the answer to prolonging his on-court stardom right in front of him. Steph Curry’s three-point revolution may not have even come on quite as strongly as it did if the Thunder hadn’t blown a 3-1 lead; Oklahoma City’s size, athleticism, and power as a team taking the Warriors to the brink but just couldn’t quite slam the door. In some ways, it answered the great “What if the Seven Seconds or Less Suns won it all?” The era we see now would have been ushered in that much quicker.

When Mike D’Antoni and Steve Nash look back now, they both say they should have been doubling down when everyone pushed back. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, it appeared Westbrook did exactly that for that 25-game stretch with the Rockets. It wasn’t that he said he needed a three-point shot, he accepted the strengths of his game and recognized that scoring at the basket is the most valuable shot in the game. Now’s the time for him to keep the foot on the gas.

With that as a starting point, there’ll be room for introspection on his decision-making, his pick-and-roll game that was absent as the Rockets went all-in on micro-ball, as well as the need for him to actually move without the basketball. Westbrook is an ever-simmering ball of energy for his team’s offense except for when he doesn’t have the ball. Developing as a cutter, showing that he can be productive and get easy baskets off penetration from his teammates should be a no-brainer considering his athletic prowess that shouldn’t just be reserved for electrifying put-backs because it comes with the added bonus of tacking on a rebound to the stat sheet.

The reports that he wants the role he had with the Thunder are fine if he’s willing to acknowledge it’s unlikely he gets to do that with a contender. If he’s adamant about a primary ball-handling role, it’s the Hornets and Knicks who he should be clamoring for, possibly even Orlando. As Westbrook points to the Rockets’ lack of accountability as a reason for wanting out, he needs to hold himself accountable to how he’s most impactful today. If not, there are two recent examples of just how quickly things can nosedive.

Allen Iverson laid out the blueprint for a former MVP rotting away in his final years because he couldn’t put his ego aside. Traded to Detroit in 2008-09 after a cup of coffee in Denver, Iverson acted on words he shared several years prior in Philadelphia about possibly dealing with a reduced role.

After being unable to adapt to Detroit’s surroundings, Iverson signed with Memphis in the off-season and watched that experiment blow up in his face having played just three games. Before you knew it, he was in Turkey.

Carmelo Anthony laughed in a reporter’s face at the sheer mention of coming off the bench when he arrived in Oklahoma City and that fabled Big Three went up in flames before he could barely even find lift-off in Houston. It wasn’t until he finally saw the light of accepting a smaller role in Portland this past season that there now seems to be joy for both sides involved, as well as a fan base accepting of his limitations. Westbrook still has enough to offer to not think about a bench role just yet, and it’s highly unlikely any team interested in his services is considering a limited role for the $132.3 million remaining on the final three years of his contract.

Unlike Anthony, Westbrook isn’t a shooting threat off the ball who can feast on open jumpers being created for him. How he can be effective going towards the rim may be a small needle through which to thread future success, but it’s a predicament he’s put himself in by failing to round out his game as much as his stats.

There is a world in which Westbrook is one of the game’s most impactful players again, where his performances aren’t unbecoming of a former MVP with nine All-Star appearances and eight All-NBA team selections. Whether that’s for more than just a season or two is anyone’s guess, but it exists. Westbrook has to find that place, that place where his pre-game strut is once again the teaser to the main event, where fans stay standing to applaud instead of filing towards the exit, where decision-makers for whichever franchise he joins look deep into their imagination and think, “Why not?”