As part of a buyout agreement with the Jazz, veteran guard Russell Westbrook gave up $1.7M, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac. Utah waived Westbrook on Saturday.
The buyout reduces Westbrook’s cap hit on Utah’s books from $4,027,525 to $2,327,525, giving the team a little extra salary cap flexibility. No team currently has more cap space than the Jazz, who still have about $33M in available room.
The Jazz also reportedly received $4.3M in cash from the Clippers in their trade for Westbrook, so despite being on the hook for about $2.33M of the guard’s salary, they’ll come out nearly $2M ahead from a financial perspective.
Westbrook will also come out ahead, since he’s reportedly on track to sign a minimum-salary contract with the Nuggets. That deal with Denver will pay him $3,303,771, increasing his total earnings for the 2024-25 season to $5,631,296, exceeding what he would have made if he had remained on his original $4.03M contract.
As for the Clippers, they presumably could’ve reached a similar buyout agreement with Westbrook, but trading him to Utah allowed them to give Kris Dunn a more lucrative contract than they otherwise would’ve been able to. Using Westbrook’s $4M+ outgoing salary for matching purposes, L.A. acquired Dunn via sign-and-trade, giving him a starting salary of $5,168,000 on his new three-year deal.
Westbrook is on track to serve as Jamal Murray‘s primary backup and play a significant role in Denver this season. Nikola Jokic reportedly advocated for the addition of the former MVP.
