The Denver Nuggets are one of the most intriguing teams in the NBA heading into the 2024-25 season. Denver is set to win its first NBA championship in franchise history in 2023, with star center Nikola Jokic emerging as the best player in the world. The Nuggets showed signs of winning back-to-back championships last season when Jokic won his third MVP award, but an untimely injury to Jamal Murray and a severely thin roster meant Denver's chances of winning back-to-back championships were dashed. Minnesota Timberwolves They knocked them out in a traditional seven-game second-round series.
Jokic is in the prime of his career, having turned 30 in February of this season. One would think that a team built around a unique, historic talent like Jokic would do everything in its power to surround him with veterans worthy of the team's proof of concept of winning a championship in 2023, but Denver has been on a talent spree the past two summers.
Bruce Brown and Jeff Green left the team as free agents after winning the title in the summer of 2023. There was an even bigger move this summer when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the team's best defender and spot-up 3-point shooter, left the Nuggets to sign a three-year, $66 million contract with the Orlando Magic.
Denver's front office has always had plans to make up for the loss of those key veterans. Principal executive Calvin Booth has been open about his desire to give the young players he's drafted over the past few years a chance to take on bigger roles. The lower salaries of the young players on their rookie contracts give the Nuggets more flexibility and the ability to impose a tougher “second apron” on the team. There's just one problem: Head coach Mike Malone didn't think they were good enough to handle the extended playing time late last year.
It doesn't take a genius to see that Malone and Booth may not be on the same page when it comes to playing time. ESPN's Zach Lowe discussed the possibility on the latest episode of his must-have podcast, The Lowe Post, which, of course, is an all-around aggregate: “Rumors are flying.” Lowe said on the podcast this week.“Rumors are spreading! There is a lack of agreement between the coaching staff and the front office in Denver, or at least the head coach and the front office. That's unusual even in the NBA.”
Lowe didn't break this news, and Booth even said he and Malone might not necessarily see eye to eye after the season ends.
Booth said he doesn't see any major holes on the Nuggets' roster, but he and Malone do sometimes disagree — but those are rare. pic.twitter.com/JjsIng7bDg
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) May 23, 2024
Booth lost KCP this summer and signed only Russell Westbrook, effectively forcing Malone to use a younger roster this season that includes Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Julian Strother, Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson. The Nuggets are already missing one promising young player when rookie Darron Holmes III tore his ACL during summer league.
Denver's loss of KCP, along with the Clippers' loss of Paul George, is one of several free agent workarounds blamed on the second apron. Denver could have spent multiple seasons on the second apron had they matched KCP's contract, but that would have limited their team-building avenues and increased luxury tax bills going forward. These apron workarounds are entirely criticized as stinginess by owners, even if there was merit to maintaining flexibility going forward.
It's all a game of risk and reward. Denver could risk limited future flexibility and bring back KCP now while Jokic is still in his prime to try to win a championship. Instead, they're risking a lower chance of winning this year and giving the team a longer shot at hopeful Jokic will perform well.
Booth's big mistake was paying 2020 first-round draft pick Zeke Nnaji, who was not good enough to earn meaningful playing time last season when Denver desperately needed a backup big man. He's making nearly $9 million this season on a declining contract. It would have been nice to have that money at his disposal to keep Caldwell-Pope.
Booth offered a brutally honest assessment of his desire to develop a young core before last season, even if it meant losing out on the 2024 title. Here's what he told The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor::
“We just want the players that we're trying to develop and that will be sustainable,” Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth said. He told me last August“If we lose our chance to win this year, so be it. It's worth the investment. It's more important to win three out of six, three out of seven, four out of eight than to try to win back-to-back championships.”
Denver didn't win a championship in 2024, but they also didn't do a great job developing their young players: Only Brown was in the playoff rotation, Watson sat out most of the second round due to health reasons and Strother was injured.
One thing to consider here is Jamal Murray. Murray was a disappointment throughout the 2024 playoffs and never looked completely healthy. He also failed to play for Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Incidentally, he's due for a massive contract extension with the Nuggets but hasn't signed it yet. Can Murray return to being the second-best player on a championship team, or has he already started to fade?
Denver should be very strong either way, but with Oklahoma City beefing up, Dallas revamping its roster and other challengers popping up, it feels like the Nuggets are just trying to keep pace when they should be leading the West. Denver could have just re-signed KCP and sorted out the salary crunch later. Instead, they're betting big on unproven talent around the game's best player.
Jokic should have at least one ring on his finger by the end of his career, and the Nuggets are making some incredibly bold and cheap moves that will either look genius or incredibly foolish after this season is over.
