After a similar report surfaced in August from another outlet, Zach Lowe of ESPN said on his podcast this week (hat tip to RealGM) that there are “rumblings” that Michael Malone and the Nuggets front office aren’t seeing eye to eye “to a degree even unusual for the NBA.”
This offseason, the Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to free agency one year after losing key role players in Jeff Green and Bruce Brown. General manager Calvin Booth has targeted young players to develop to try and offset the losses of these veterans, but they haven’t been one-to-one replacements.
As noted by RealGM, Booth’s contract expires after the 2024/25 season while Malone’s runs through ’26/27. It’s not exactly clear to what degree Malone and the front office aren’t clicking, but Denver took a step back after winning the title in 2023 and doesn’t have a clear replacement for what Caldwell-Pope brought to the table as one of the premier 3-and-D role-players in the league.
For what it’s worth, Booth didn’t exactly put any rumors to rest with his comments in May.
“We’ve talked about this a lot upstairs,” Booth said in May. “The general manager, front office job oftentimes is to make sure the long-term view is something that we’re satisfied with. And Coach Malone’s down there in the trenches trying to win every night. And a lot of times, those things are aligned, but sometimes they ebb and flow away from each other.”
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- With Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Jackson and Justin Holiday gone, the Nuggets are losing more than 28% of their attempted three-pointers from last season, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post observes. Durando writes that Vlatko Cancar and Julian Strawther could be key contributors from beyond the arc to help offset Denver’s losses in that area.
- The Thunder continued cementing themselves as top contenders in the NBA this offseason by adding outside talent like Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, but signing Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins to team-friendly extensions might have been their most overlooked moves. As Ross Lovelace of Sports Illustrated writes, if Wiggins increases his three-point output this season, it could be one of the developments that helps push Oklahoma City to a title.
- Adding Caruso and Hartenstein gives the Thunder versatility and defense and as a result, John Wilmes of RealGM writes Oklahoma City has figured out the modern NBA. Even as the Thunder get more expensive, they’ve maintained a young core and have flexibility going forward.
No off-season move, across the entire league, makes less sense than the Nuggets letting KCP go. It moves Denver down a tier.
If Murray misses time this season, the Nuggets could drop down to the play-in.
This is exactly the situation they’ve been developing Christian Braun for.
Cam , I think my take is concensus on the matter, nothing original about it.
Braun may well develop into an over-average 3+D player, but he’s years away from that now.
KCP is as good as it gets at that role, and he fit perfectly with the Nuggets. Losing him will cost the nuggets 4-5 games this year.
Maybe but signing him would have put them into the 2nd apron making any signing beyond minimum salary forbidden. They would have had zero depth, no flexibility mid-season, and would have lost Aaron Gordon next year for sure. People talk about how the Nuggs offense revolves on Jokic-Murray, but it really revolves around Jokic-Gordon.
What they should have done is trade MPJ or Murray, but that would have taken really unusual guts.
Seamaholic , the Nuggets’ choices reflect an intention to stay under the apron again the season after this one, after the repeater penalty resets due to them staying under the apron this year. That’s equivalent to saying they don’t want to competw for championships anymore.
KCP could have been signed for $22M, max. The Nuggets elected to pay Dario Saric, who looked washed at Golden State last year, and Zeke Naji, who isn’t yet a rotation player on a contending team, $15M.
Sure, they would have to go back into the luxury tax next year with new contracts for Murray and Gordon. But that’s NEXT year. Between now and then, they could have completed for a Chip. It wouldn’t be hard to trade Porter, who’s not critical, for an expiring contract.
My top 6, no order:
Nuggets, Warriors, Wolves, Suns, Kings, Spurs
So ummm, it doesn’t really matter because no one takes anything you post seriously but where exactly do you have the Thunder?
OKC will win at least 60 games.
That’s a bold list. Spurs would need to make a huge jump. Warriors are old. Suns have been messy. But there’s always surprise teams and it’s never the same top teams year in and year out.
I’d have: wolves Thunder nuggets grizzlies kings mavs
As with last year, the West is a crapshoot.
Yeah like Aristotle said letting KCP go was the worst thing Denver could have done.
You should try to Trade away players to resign him wtf. Letting these guys go. Jackson for Westbrook….keep continuity so naw. Brown. Not good Green. Not cool KCP. Dumb move. I shouldn’t start a sentence with the word but. But they kept D Jordan and that one guy who disappeared I forgot his name and cannot spell it right now
Nuggets got worst both defensively and in terms of shooting letting KCP Brown Green and Holiday all leave. On top of that Reggie and his shooting.
As for replacements it’s mainly been young guys and now Russ. Russ is a great impact player and I’m excited to see him playing with Jokic but it’s hard to replace experience with youth especially when trying to win right away.
Only way I see things changing is MPJ getting traded just because he earns so much and you need to balance the books better.
I’m not sure how tight there money is to the cap and what not but even if it’s just something like this…
MPJ and Zeke for DeAndre Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Larry Nance Jr
Hunter slots in for MPJ, not perfect like for like but Hunter can shoot it and chip in with scoring, he offers a little more defensively but less on the boards. Bogi would be a huge addition either as a starter or off the bench. Then lastly Larry Nance is such a solid role player.
Murray Bogi Hunter Gordon Jokic
Russ Braun Strawther/Cancar Nance Saric
Gives Russ the keys of the second unit and you’ve just got a bunch of plug and play wings and forwards around him in that 3 and D mould. Then Nance and Saric are good back up bigs, one gives you some toughness and grit and the other abit more finesse.
Why do people still not understand the new CBA rules? Nuggets are over the second apron so they cannot take back more salary in a trade and they can’t aggregate two or more players in a trade. They can only trade MPJ on his own, and not sure they could get enough back for it to be worth moving him.
In terms of letting players leave, under CBA rules they could not offer Bruce brown or Jeff Green the salaries that they got elsewhere. Justin Holiday also got more than the Nuggets could offer. In terms of letting KCP walk, that is all on ownership aka Stan Kroenke, who thinks he is better than everyone because he married a Walmart heiress. What a financial genius.
The Nuggets are not over the 2nd apron. They would have been had they signed KCP.
Malone would have been fired if they didn’t win the title that year. He can rub people the wrong way just from seeing his in game and out of game interviews.
Malone will be there as long as Jokic.
Atlanta would not trade 3 good players like that for MJP…and people forgetting the Pels in their lists… should be top 6 this year
The West is a bloodbath…
With a lot of strong young teams like the Thunder and Wolves…
There’s going to be a few shocked fanbases at seasons end that don’t make the playoffs…
I really thought Delon Wright would’ve been the perfect under-the-radar signing for Denver… he’s 6’5″, defends, can play either guard position, and is a better 3pt shooter than Westbrook. I don’t like the Westbrook fit at all. If he’s leading the second team while Jokic rests, Denver’s entire personality changes. With Wright, you could’ve given Murray more rest early in the games because Jokic + Wright would work, and then given Murray more minutes as the leader of the team when Jokic sat.