The necessary operation for the Nuggets to win the championship needs to continue to strengthen the facelift
With the Denver Nuggets winning their first NBA championship in franchise history in 2023, and their goal has now changed from a championship to trying to reach a two-game streak, the offseason has become key to team manipulation and fine-tuning of their rosters, but the new version of the collective bargaining agreement will make it more difficult for the defending team to maintain team depth.
However, the four main players of Jokic, Murray, Porter Jr. and Gordon will all have contracts until at least 2024-25, so the Nuggets' core is still solid.
Rotating lineup
Before the 2022-23 season, most people's biggest question about the Nuggets is whether the Nuggets are already a championship team if they are in good condition. In 2020-21 and 2021-22, Denver players missed a total of 535 games, ranking 3rd and 6th, respectively, and although Jokic won the Most Valuable Player of the Year, both seasons lost early in the playoffs.
The Nuggets players missed a total of 153 games due to injury in 2022-23, ranking 8th in the league, and in the playoffs, head coach Malone used the same starting lineup in 20 games. Won the first championship in the team's history.
For now, the Nuggets' starting five are consistent with the same roster for the next two seasons, with Kentavios Caldwell-Pope having a player option in 2024 in addition to the four cores of Jokic, Murray, Porter Jr. and Gordon. Jokic will begin the first year of his five-year, $272 million max contract signed in July 2023; Murray has two years left on his contract, and the Nuggets can start talking about an extension early in the offseason, and Gordon and Porter Jr. have 3 and 4 years left on their contracts, respectively.
However, part of the Nuggets' concern is the depth of the roster, the Nuggets are the only two teams in the league to have three top-paid players (Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr.), and in the next seven years, the Nuggets have three first-round picks to give to the Hornets (2025), Orlando (2025) and Thunder (2027 and 2029), and Bruce Brown, a sixth man who performed well in the offseason playoffs, has also been confirmed to work for the Pacers.
The Nuggets have limited means to strengthen from the outside, so whether they can maintain roster depth will depend on the development of young players drafted in recent years, Christian Braun, Payton Watson, Zick Nagy and Flatko Kanka, and the 2023 draft also selected Hunter Tyson and Jaylen Pickett in the second round, and retains the right to the 2022 second-round draft Ismail Camaggat, who averaged 9.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in the Europa League this season.
Free agents: Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, DeAndre Jordan, Thomas Bryant, Reggie Jackson, Iss Smith, Jack White and Colin Gillespie
Offseason financial space
The Nuggets had to pay the luxury tax for the second year in a row, and the salaries of the first five had accumulated to $150 million, plus other guaranteed salaries that had exceeded the luxury tax cap of $162 million. The Nuggets have a chance to get a $5 million luxury tax middle-class exception because of Brown's departure, but if this exception is used to sign, the Nuggets will be closer to the second-tier luxury tax threshold of $179.5 million, but the Nuggets have a second-round pick exception in the new rules that can give rookies more than two years of contracts.
The Nuggets have passed the first-tier luxury tax threshold, so they are not allowed to accept more than 11% in a trade, and are not allowed to sign players if their salary before the buyout exceeds 12.2 million.
Murray will get a new extension in the offseason after signing a five-year maximum salary extension of 158 million on a newcomer contract. Murray currently has two years left on his contract, and the Nuggets can offer him a three-year, $144 million contract. Murray could also take the risk of not signing an extension now, and if he enters the Star Game in 2023-24, he could qualify for a five-year, $300 million contract.
In the Western Conference Finals, Murray averaged 30 points per game for the second time in the playoffs and shot 50/40/90 from the field (the last time was against the Jazz in the first round of 2020), and he and Durant (3 times) were the only players in history to reach 30 points and 50/40/90 in a single series. Murray scored more than 20 points in the fourth quarter four times in his playoff career, the record holder for tracking data since 1996-97, and the rest of the players who did that were Allen Iverson and Jordan.
In any case, renewing Murray is the Nuggets' next imperative. Team Needs: Bench Guard, Bench Firepower and Forward Depth #Basketball#
