Fighting with the sky of doubts and abuse, Westbrook finally found his career destination in the Nuggets

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And Jokic also learned to accept this energy on a good night. When the "bad version of Westbrook" appears, the Nuggets will decisively replace him; when the "highlight version of Westbrook" begins to shine, the team will give full help. At the critical moment, they even allowed Westbrook to cooperate with Jokic, a level of participation he had never obtained around Harden or James. Perhaps only the most tolerant teammates in the NBA can do this, and the Nuggets finally found a perfect balance between "Westbrook's true nature" and "everyone expected".

This is exactly why they can move forward now. Although Westbrook's performance in the entire first round series has been ups and downs, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Without him, the Nuggets could not overcome the Clippers' hurdle.

If you need evidence, you might as well look at his other former club, the Lakers. This team that was eliminated in the first round actually used coach Redick's five-man rotation throughout the second half of the game, and the Nuggets have almost fallen into the same dilemma in the past few years. The playoffs will not work simply by five-man rotation, Westbrook provides the Nuggets with almost zero cost.

This is the key difference. When Westbrook holds the maximum salary, his flaws are unbearable; but when he holds the basic salary, his rewards are far beyond the risk. At the age of 36, he entered a new stage of his career and was at ease to play as a substitute. The painful lessons learned from the wrong team are vivid in my mind. Why leave the right destination now?

I hope Westbrook can stay. Westbrook's performance in the Nuggets is enough to successfully write this chapter of his career in this series and even throughout the season. Highlights and lows are always intertwined, but before coming to the Nuggets, Westbrook's highlights at its peak in his post-peak period were pitifully few, and it was almost irreversible to reputation.

If you choose to retire a year or two ago, the final memory of this historical star will be frozen in a sad way. He knew this very well, had heard the ridicule of "Westbrick" all over the field, and was more clear about the Clippers' evaluation of him (the post-match speech has explained everything). Whether right or wrong, this evaluation coincides with the public consensus.

It is precisely because of this that the Nuggets' career has become an important witness: Westbrook can still shine when the environment is adapted. Although he is moody, has fluctuations in his state and has obvious shortcomings, he has always been much stronger than what the outside world recognizes in recent years.

In the Nuggets, he got the opportunity to prove himself again to the basketball world. And in the first round of the series, he firmly grasped this opportunity.

Original text: SamQuinn

Compiled by: Li Taibai