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Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN Staff Writer
Nine-time All-Star guard Russell Westbrook is picking up his $4 million option and returning to the LA Clippers, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Westbrook averaged 11.1 points, 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists last season.
Westbrook’s first full season with the Clippers hardly went as he expected. He began the season as the starting point guard but the late-October trade for James Harden led to Westbrook becoming a sixth man for his second straight team.
But unlike during his brief tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers, Westbrook’s move to the bench this season was the catalyst for the Clippers’ best regular season in the Kawhi Leonard–Paul George era.
The Clippers finished 51-31 during the regular season and lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
After Westbrook’s move to coming off the bench on November 17, the Clippers went 35-13 — the second-best record in the NBA during that span — until the point guard fractured his left hand on March 1.
Westbrook underwent surgery and returned after missing just over three weeks of action. But he averaged 6.3 points and 26% shooting in 19 minutes during the first round against Dallas.
While Westbrook had to adapt to playing a career-low 22.5 minutes per game last season, the all-time leader in career triple-doubles (199) had one of his best defensive seasons. He ranked fourth in field goal percentage allowed as the contesting defender among players to contest 300-plus shots last season per Second Spectrum tracking.
Westbrook, 35, told ESPN last March that he is prepared to play whatever role is required this coming season no matter where he plays.
“I will do whatever the team needs me to do,” Westbrook told ESPN back in March. “My play, I’m always confident in wherever I go. If I’m here [with the Clippers], if I’m [with another team], it doesn’t really matter. I’ll do whatever the team is asking me to do and I’ll compete to do what needs to be done. My confidence doesn’t change. I’ve always been a team-first guy… Whatever’s asked of me, I’ll do it.
“I’m extremely confident in my abilities to be able to do and play at the highest level, still be elite [at] a lot of things in the league and come off the bench or starting, it don’t matter.”
Source: www.espn.com