There’s no timeline for Russell Westbrook’s return

The Denver Nuggets lost two rotation players over the weekend to injury and it could be a while before we see either of them again.

The team announced earlier on Monday that Peyton Watson would miss at least a month with a right knee issue. In the evening, Michal Malone said ahead of Denver’s game against New Orleans that Russell Westbrook is also due to miss time because of a right hamstring strain. The coach said that there’s no timeline for the veteran point guard’s return.

Neither Watson nor Westbrook had missed a single game this season until each sat on Saturday for the Nuggets win in Charlotte. While Watson has been an important bench player, Westbrook has made himself a key part of the team this year even winning a gig in the starting five.

On the season, Westbrook has played 48 games, 27 of which have been starts. The former MVP is averaging 13 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.4 assists a night on the best field goal percentage of his career. The NBA’s all-time leader in triple-doubles has tallied three this season. He and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic have developed unreal chemistry, assisting each other more than any other duo in the league this year. Westbrook has always been known as an available player, only playing fewer than 65 games twice in his 17-year Hall of Fame career. Given the Nuggets announced Watson’s issues and were a bit closer to the vest with Westbrook, maybe he’ll be back sooner than hoped.

The news comes on the eve of Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline which begs the question will these injuries impact how Cavlin Booth operates? The Nuggets have been mostly healthy this season aside from brief stints of injuries to Jamal Murray and Jokic. Aaron Gordon is the only key player who has missed a big chunk of time. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, some of the reserves that would step up for Watson, Vlatko Cancar and DaRon Holmes are also both injured. It’s not that Denver has had many injuries just poorly timed ones that seem to have heavy consequences on similarly positioned players. So the Nuggets may now look for something more in the role of a four-man than a big given all of those hiccups. But there’s some serious lack of depth behind Murray and Westbrook too.

Not only will Zeke Nnaji and maybe Dario Saric have to step up for Watson but now it’s about replacing Westbrook, too. Gordon is barely back to playing full minutes and can do some of the same things the point guard does. For that matter, Gordon may miss Monday’s game before Denver plays again on Wednesday and Thursday. But this puts a lot of pressure on Murray and maybe Christian Braun, who had just lost his starting gig to Westbrook. Also tasked with getting some time could be Trey Alexander and Jalen Pickett. Look for Julain Strawther to even get some more time with the ball in his hands. Though, as it normally goes, Jokic is likely to take even more of a burden.

The good news for the Nuggets is that they salvaged their recent road trip by winning the final two games and are 30-19 on the season, good for fourth in the West. And because of the All-Star Game, the team only has 12 games in February, and only one of those contests is against a team currently in a top-four seed in either conference. Denver’s next game against a team ahead of them in the standings isn’t until a back-to-back against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 9 and 10. The Nuggets will have time to find themselves and hopefully get healthy and possibly even integrate a trade deadline pickup before they meet a formidable foe.