The Nuggets are facing a crucial offseason as they look to keep building a championship team around star Nikola Jokic. Choosing the right general manager will be a critical first step, as they will have important roster decisions to make, but the decisions don’t end there.
One factor that will likely play a big part in the moves they make will be avoiding the second apron, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. The Nuggets let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in free agency last summer to avoid the second apron, and Durando warns not to expect them to reverse course on that mentality this summer, especially with Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray‘s extensions set to kick in and Jokic becoming extension-eligible in July.
The Nuggets can aggregate salaries in a trade and have one future first-round pick available for deals, but their depth proved problematic throughout the year, making a two-for-one deal a dicey proposition.
Christian Braun and Peyton Watson are also extension-eligible. While Watson will likely be a wait-and-see candidate, Braun established himself as a solid starter in the league this year and was a top-five finalist in Most Improved Player voting this season. His extension candidacy will be an interesting one to monitor, according to Durando.
Russell Westbrook also has a player option this summer, and while his time on the floor proved an up-and-down experience, he helped stabilize the team at times, especially when Gordon missed games.
Durando identifies center depth, on-ball perimeter defense, and three-point shooting as the crucial areas to address this summer, and at least one of those issues could be solved by Denver’s reported interest in Ty Jerome, though Jerome’s play this season and Denver’s lack of financial flexibility could make that a tricky match. Durando also poses the question of whether it’s worth looking for a star to trade for one of Murray or Michael Porter Jr.
We have more from the Nuggets:
- Denver running it back would be a waste of Jokic’s prime, writes Troy Renck of the Denver Post. Renck writes that while vice chairman Josh Kroenke said the right things during his press conference, the trust in an internal righting of the ship hinted at suggests an approach that won’t be enough to bring Denver back to contention. This is especially true considering the injury issues that have popped up as the Nuggets’ core has aged.
- Jokic’s season was ranked as the 10th-best season ever by a non-MVP winner by Frank Urbina of HoopsHype. He was the first non-guard to ever average a triple-double, while willing an injured team lacking depth to the fourth seed in the Western Conference. “Jokic is the only player in league history to put up a 29/12/10 stat line, which makes the fact he didn’t MVP in 2024-25 all the more hard to believe, at least if you’re looking at just the statistical case,” Urbina writes. Coincidentally, Jokic’s 2022/23 season, in which he lost out on MVP to Joel Embiid, is ranked one spot behind, at 11th.
- Former Nuggets head coach Michael Malone made a stir this week when he called Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the MVP before the award was announced. However, he took the time out to correct the record for ESPN. “I did vote for him again this year, if I had a vote,” he said before Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. “Want to make sure the people in Denver know that because, right now, I’m getting a lot of heat back home.”