TPMLE? LOL!
Know what, Russell Westbrook? It’s been real. We’ll always have the Clippers series.
Beastbrook, the Nuggets’ inevitably viral and maddeningly mercurial veteran backup point guard, is expected to decline his player option ahead of free agency this summer, according to The Post’s Bennett Durando.
Now, the Grading The Week (GTW) gang has never claimed to be the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to the calculus of NBA contracts. But we also understand that there are a ton of creative ways the Nuggets, under the current collective bargaining agreement, can get Westbrook back in Denver blue.
One of these is the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, or TPLME. HoopsRumors.com estimated that TPLME figures to land at $5.685 million for ’25-26. But as it’s an NBA wrinkle, there’s a catch. The team that uses a TPLME is hard-capped at the league’s second tax apron the rest of the year.
Given the pay bumps afforded Michael Porter Jr., Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, that’s a big yikes. Don’t know about you, but given how tight the Nuggets’ salary cap wiggle room is, we could think of better ways to spend that $5.685 million this summer.
Starting with Brucey B.
Russell Westbrook becoming a free agent — B
If it’s a choice between Bruce Brown and Russ to be the Nuggets’ sixth man in ’25-26, we’ve got to confess — that’s not much of a debate.
Team GTW’s been on Team Brucey B since he donned his first cowboy hat in the Mile High City and helped steer the Nuggets to their first NBA title.
We also can’t get full-time coach David Adelman’s new mission statement for the Nuggets out of our collective skulls. Among Adelman’s stated goals during his (re) introductory news conference:
1. More consistency within the half-court offense.
2. An attack that consistently relies on more than transition buckets.
3. More consistent outside shooting. More consistent clutch shooting.
At 36, Westbrook’s still got plenty of tread on his tires, so to speak. But we’re not sure his strengths line up with any of those elements on Adelman’s checklist. At all.
And consistency? Yeah, not so much.
Nobody runs hot and cold the way Russ does. In 13 playoff appearances for the Nuggets this past spring, Westbrook scored 14 or more points in seven of them and eight or fewer in the other six. (The Nuggets were 2-4 in those six games.) Westbrook connected on a rate of 42% or better from the floor in six games, and under 30% in another five. (The Nuggets were 1-4 in those five games.)
Now, when it comes to building a bench, we sure don’t envy the Nuggets’ GMTBNL (General Manager To Be Named Later). Veterans available on the cheap are usually cheap for a reason.
Westbrook is fun when he’s right. He’s not for everybody. The kind of player Adelman described feels closer to Brown, Tyus Jones, Malcolm Brogdon, Spencer Dinwiddie, or even Monte Morris, if you want to get nostalgic. If the Nuggets run it back with Russ, and they could, it’s hard to imagine next year’s playoff run ending much differently than the last two. And how is that fair to Nikola Jokic?
Mya Lesnar, CSU legend — A
When Lesnar saw a chance to become CSU’s second outdoor national track and field national champion, she didn’t miss. A belated hat-tip to Mya, and to the Rams’ Brian Bedard, who’s now produced four national champions, indoors and outdoors, as the head track coach in FoCo since 2006.
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.
