Michael Malone on Russell Westbrook: ‘I think defensively, he’s been a rock star’

THE ONLY OPINION that really matters is Jokic’s, and Booth said he seeks it often. “(He) has earned the respect of checking in and seeing, ‘What do you think?'” Booth said. “There’s a fine line — if there’s somebody he’s played with for a long time, I wouldn’t put that responsibility on him. … But we try to involve him as much as we can.” He said, for example, that Jokic was a big proponent of signing Russell Westbrook to be the team’s backup point guard. “I think more than anything, (Jokic) loves (Westbrook’s) passion for the game,” Booth said. But in larger contexts, such as how best to construct the team around him under the new collective bargaining agreement rules, whether to entrust younger players with bigger roles or sacrifice flexibility and depth to keep veteran-free players, Jokic says. “I’m just here to play basketball,” he said. “I don’t understand contracts, this and that, years and CBA. … That is not my job.” -via ESPN / 1 November 2024