NBA insider links Russell Westbrook to Chicago Bulls, several others in free agency

Before the season began, Russell Westbrook was viewed as a player with an albatross contract whose production didn’t match his salary cap number. Once the nine-time All-NBA point guard was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Utah Jazz, Westbrook was finally free after a buyout that allowed him to search for a better opportunity on the open market.

He’d get that second chance with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he’d get to rejoin Paul George, who he previously played with on the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2017-18. Westbrook flourished in 21 games with the Clippers, shooting 48.9% from the floor after connecting on just 41.7% of his shots with the Lakers across 52 contests.

While Westbrook may not have returned to the triple-double machine we previously saw earlier in his career, he quickly became a key contributor for the Clips, scoring in double figures in 19 of his 24 games with his new team.

But now Westbrook is headed for free agency. Since he fit in so well with coach Tyronn Lue and the Clippers, one might think L.A. has a chance to retain the 34-year-old, but that may not be the case.

Due to their already overflowing payroll, the Clippers won’t have access to the taxpayer mid-level exception (MLE), which features a salary of $5 million per season. Being that Westbrook still averaged 15.8 points per game while dishing out 7.6 assists per contest, his price tag is expected to be higher than just the MLE.

So we could see the Westbrook sweepstakes heat up later this summer, where Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus suggests a number of teams who could pursue the 2017 NBA MVP. These teams include the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors, and Washington Wizards.

The reason each of the above teams could make sense for Westbrook is because they each have access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, priced at about $12.2 million per year. So instead of hearing about how organizations don’t want to take on Westbrook’s contract as we have for the past two-plus years, we’ll see a potential land rush of teams vying for his services in free agency.