Kings sign Russell Westbrook: Former league MVP heads to seventh different team for 2025-26 season

The Sacramento Kings are signing free agent point guard Russell Westbrook, his agent told ESPN's Shams Charania. Details of the deal weren't immediately reported, but the expectation is that Westbrook is signing for his veteran minimum to help bolster Sacramento's backcourt rotation. 

 Westbrook, 36, will be playing his 18th NBA season for his seventh different team after spending the 2024-25 campaign with the Denver Nuggets.

Since Westbrook was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets in 2019, the former league MVP has been on five different teams: the Rockets, Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and the Nuggets. The Kings will be Westbrook's fourth different team since the start of the 2022-23 season.

With Westbrook going to Sacramento, he will provide point guard depth to a team that entered the offseason without a true player at the position on the roster. The Kings signed free agent point guard Dennis Schröder to a three-year deal earlier this offseason but had strong interest in Westbrook dating back to the opening of free agency in July.

Westbrook appeared in 75 games and made 36 starts last season for Denver, averaging 13.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds in 27.9 minutes per game. He finished seventh in Sixth Man of the Year voting for the second consecutive year.

Sacramento entered the offseason with a logjam in the backcourt with Keon Ellis, Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Devin Carter and new first-round rookie Nique Clifford. When the Kings traded De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs at last season's trade deadline, Sacramento experimented with Monk at point guard after he entered the season as a reserve, but it didn't work out.

The Kings open the 2025-26 season against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 22.