In an interesting feature story, which is worth reading in full, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne explores the philosophical “disconnect” developing within the Nuggets as they try to capitalize on Nikola Jokic‘s remaining prime years.
As Shelburne writes, Denver has lost four veteran role players — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Reggie Jackson — from the team that won the championship in 2023. General manager Calvin Booth acknowledges those departures have created some internal tension between the players and coaching staff and the front office.
“There was this urge to compete, especially from the players and the coaches and even myself,” Booth told ESPN. “You want to win, especially coming off the heels of winning the championship. And that’s probably where the tension started.
“What are you guys trying to do? Are you trying to win? Are you trying to develop? I think everybody had the best intent going in. There was buy-in. But I think competition and the focus on that can distract you from the buy-in.”
Multiple sources tell Shelburne that the Nuggets have been discussing a contract extension with Booth for months, and a deal is expected to be reached soon. Booth has largely focused on finding young players on affordable contracts to build out the Nuggets’ depth due to the roster-building restrictions of the new tax aprons, but head coach Michael Malone has typically turned to more proven veterans.
Shelburne points to big man Zeke Nnaji as “perhaps the best example” of the disconnect between Booth and Malone. After the Nuggets signed him to a four-year, $32MM rookie scale extension last offseason, the 23-year-old Nnaji saw his minutes and effectiveness decline in 2023/24, and he has only played two minutes through the first four games of this season.
Here’s more on the Nuggets, all courtesy of Shelburne:
- For his part, Jokic declined to weigh in on any strain between the front office and coaching staff regarding the team’s roster construction, telling Shelburne, “That’s not my job.” However, forward Michael Porter Jr. says players are well aware that the team could look much different next offseason, depending on how the Nuggets perform in 2024/25. “If we don’t win it this year,” Porter told ESPN. “We all know they might have to break it up.”
- A team source told Shelburne that guard Jamal Murray “was basically on one leg” by the end of last season’s playoffs, which saw Denver fall to Minnesota in the second round. After he struggled in the postseason and Olympics, the Nuggets signed Murray to a four-year, maximum-salary extension. They thought he’d enter training camp “with something to prove,” but sources tell Shelburne there has been some concern with his early-season struggles, particularly with his shot and conditioning level.
- According to Shelburne’s sources, the Nuggets checked in on Paul George‘s availability this offseason while he was still a member of the Clippers, but Denver was unwilling to include former first-round picks Christian Braun, Peyton Watson or Julian Strawther in those talks, and the Clips had no interest in taking back long-term salary. Shelburne suggests Denver offered Porter and Nnaji for George.
- Shelburne also hears from sources who say the Nuggets could have received either Tim Hardaway Jr. or Josh Green in a sign-and-trade with the Mavericks that would have sent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Dallas. The Nuggets declined, and the Mavericks ended up trading both of those players in separate sign-and-trades involving Quentin Grimes and Klay Thompson, while Caldwell-Pope signed with the Magic as a free agent.
Two teams need top tier depth ASAP
Nuggets
76ers
Depth should be comparable to Thunder and Warriors
Trade!!
Okay Nuggets once again start breaking the team up. It’s not going to get better.
Nuggets are not good enough and haven’t done anything in Fa to keep up with the rest of the teams. I believe they’ll be a play in game at best. Beat the bad teams but zero depth against the better teams.
Acquiring Josh Green at minimum for KCP would have been a better choice than letting him walk. Even Hardaway is better than nothing, especially for a team as 3pt-poor as the Nuggets. The Mavericks were going to be good anyway; you don’t worry about making a competitor better when you’re worse and have few or no options to improve. That smacks of money-grubbing from the owner rather than any sense of strategy.
There couldn’t have been any DEN deal for PG13 other than the one that involved MPJ (the definition of big long term money), Nnaji and another 4 mm or so; so what difference does it make if DEN was or wasn’t willing to include some young players.
Similarly, taking on guys like THJ or Green in a KCP deal is worth much worse than getting nothing. Even if they wanted to throw 100 mm down the sewer, for appearances sake, those guys on the payroll will make a real deal (to actually improve on the court) more difficult, if even possible. Yes, THJ and Green were traded for other guys, but ONLY because draft pick compensation was attached to them. That pretty much proves that each player, alone at least, was worth less than nothing.
Bottom line is DEN needs to trade MPJ. Not as a salary dump (at least longer term), and not for another long term max contract, but as payroll reconfiguration. With Gordon’s extension, they’re now on the clock with it – by next off season at the latest. The return won’t be great (and will almost certainly be less than nothing). But in this case (unlike with KCP) nothing isn’t an option. So bite the bullet.
Yeah MPJ gotta go. Jamals knee is also starting to be real cause for concern.
Disagree on the assessment of Green, at least, since he was traded as part of a six team deal involving a crapload of moving parts, but I understand the sentiment with the money. But there’s a difference between spending money to improve, even if it’s too much, and flushing your whole season payroll, which is what the Nuggets are absolutely doing right now (Hardaway is more of a problem, I agree, though he is on an expiring deal, which gives them a bit more flexibility). Make another move to shed some salary if that’s such a concern, like including Nnaji as part of a multi-team swap by giving up a protected pick or adding Vlatko Cancar’s salary, which at least gives them room to breathe. Adding Saric was also a useless move, as he doesn’t give them anything they didn’t already have. The Nuggets didn’t do a good job, is the bottom line.
Agreed with MPJ being traded. They should never have signed him to that deal in the first place, truthfully, but making such a terrible move and then doubling down doesn’t help them.
We disagree on Green, but even more so on THJ, perhaps as players generally, but certainly as fits for this team. THJ, for one, would never get within 10 feet of the DEN locker room if it were up to me.
However, I understand the Ignore the $$ approach, as its always been the NBA way. With the new CBA, it’s now a combined Ignore the $$ and the Aprons approach. It still has to be an option. If they were going in that direction, I would have preferred to just have kept KCP even at the inflated salary ORL gave him. Certainly, the owner would have to OK a 50-70 mm increase in salary/tax for any reason, and I don’t consider wanting to avoid massive annual deficits as far as the eye can see to be money grubbing. Still, if OK’d by the owner, I would have signed KCP.
I wasn’t commenting on DEN’s offseason as a whole. Saric may prove not worth it, but I actually like the fit. Style-wise anyway. Sometimes you need more of what you already have, more than you need to diversify from it. DEN has had two (very) effective backups to Jokic since Nurkic was traded, who were they?
The Hornets originally agreed to acquire Reggie Jackson along with three second-round picks, and the final version of that trade had them get Jackson, Josh Green, and two second-round picks, which suggests they viewed Green as having slightly positive value (one second-round pick). But I agree that a taxpaying team like the Nuggets wouldn’t and shouldn’t have placed the same value on him.
Point taken. But even assuming CHA’s analysis is correct (Green’s value, at least to them, is a SRP), and also assuming that DEN didn’t need to take back any further salary from DAL (KCP makes more than KT, so another salary would be going somewhere), in DEN’s shoes, I’d still do a hard pass. The luxury tax as you mention is one reason. But the bigger reason is DEN would zoom past the 2nd Apron, which would make a MPJ deal (or any other version of the deal that I believe is necessary to reset the payroll for the balance of Jokic’s prime) more complicated, perhaps undoable.
Yeah. And now that I’m thinking about it, a second-apron team can’t take back salary using a signed-and-traded player for matching, so hard to see how they would have done any of this in a way that put them in a better position than their current one.
Yes, that too. The media reports on almost all rumored trades are too vague to be fully assessed under the new CBA rules where the aprons are implicated. But this one simply doesn’t work without other outgoings.
I’d love to see Denver cut MPJ and hope that he prefers signing with a new team for far less money, than to be without basketball.