Ashes to ashes, Russ to Russ.
We said so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, and good-bye to a one-year Nuggets legend this past week, and a future Hall-of-Famer.
Russell Westbrook officially announced his retirement on Wednesday, putting the bow on an 18-year NBA career that featured 209 triple-doubles, nine All-Star berths and seven franchises.
The Beastbrook’s penultimate stop was in Denver for the Nuggets’ 2024-25 season. Which got the kids on the Grading The Week (GTW) team thinking — always a dangerous prospect.
And thinking this, a question floated during one of our infamous 2-hour deli lunches: If the Nuggets could do it all over again, would they have been better off last summer bringing Russ back for one more ride — or reuniting with Bruce Brown?
Westbrook or Brucey B? — C
Hindsight is 20/20, of course. And it’s easy now to accuse the Nuggets of wearing 2023-colored glasses. After all, Brown was one of the straws that stirred the franchise’s first — and, to date, only — NBA title-winners. Brucey B in ’23 was a do-everything-anytime pest who could bring the ball up the floor, finish with a flourish on the break, needle opponents and play defense as if his very paycheck depended on it. Or at least, that was the Cowboy we remembered.
Alas, Brown at age 29 wasn’t the Brucey of 26. Or 27. The spirit was willing, more often than not, but the body didn’t always cooperate. There were little mistakes, tiny miscues, that the vet couldn’t always recover from. Not to put too fine a point on an already-sensitive (and painful) subject, but in the first round of the ’23 postseason, Brown averaged 27 minutes, 11.4 points, four rebounds and 2.4 assists in a five-game series win over the up-and-coming Timberwolves, a matchup the eventual champs would almost unanimously say was the more challenging than dispatching the Suns in six, the Lakers in four or the Heat in five.
Fast forward three years, same matchup, and it gets hazy. Brucey B in the first round against Minnesota in 2026: 19.4 minutes per game, 6.3 points, 2.7 boards, 1.7 dimes. The big three counting stats were all down by half off of his ’23 numbers, in most cases.
That’s not to lay the Massacre in Minneapolis at Brown’s feet — not at all. 2026’s postseason failure was a team effort, a collective dumpster fire from Nikola Jokic on down the line.
Would the Nuggets have folded like a cheap umbrella if Westbrook were coming off the bench instead of Brown?
Although Westbrook’s Defensive Rating of 121 — as in, points surrendered over 100 possessions — during the ’25-26 regular season, according to Basketball-Reference.com, was even worse than Brown’s 117 score.
And the Beastbrook’s jumper, at least as we left it, was very much an acquired taste. And, lest we forget, it was Westbrook’s missed layup on April Fool’s Night 2025 that ultimately ruined the Joker’s legendary 62-point triple-double at Ball Arena against … Minnesota.
Like most of Westbrook’s post-2022 career, you tend to remember Russ’ Denver season as you want to — good, bad, or ugly, it all applies.
The alley-oops to and from Jokic were breathtaking. The turnovers were maddening. Love him or loathe him, there may never be another like him.
Kroenkes cash in on Lucas Herrington transfer — B
While the Broncos released Burnham Yard plans and kinda-sorta hinted the project was inching forward again, the other branch of Denver’s Walmart sports ownership family tree — the Kroenkes — might’ve had the more profitable week. And not from the property you’d expect.
KSE’s Rapids on Wednesday reportedly pocketed $17 million from the transfer of Colorado and Australia defender Lucas Herrington to Hull City of the English Premier League. And that’s just the base number — the deal includes a reported extra $6 million in add-ons, with the Rapids holding a 15% sell-on clause on any profit from Herrington’s next potential moves. What the GTW crew wants to know is: will Stan and Josh pour some of that cash back into a new scoreboard at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park? Please?
