For the Nuggets, the 2022-23 season is undoubtedly the most successful year in the history of the team, and they took advantage of Jokic's all-time playoff play to lift the first championship trophy in the team's 57 years!
Because the new version of the collective bargaining agreement began to be trialed in July this year, it became increasingly difficult to form a super team, and the Nuggets ushered in an extremely rare "dynasty" window. Their core squad is very young, everyone is in the right year - Jokic is 28, Gordon is 27, Murray is 26, Porter Jr. is only 24, and Pope, the oldest of the starting five, has just turned 30, and they have every chance of building something greater.
However, injuries are an inevitable problem for every team in the NBA, and so are the Nuggets. In 2020-21 and 2021-22, when Jokic won two consecutive regular-season MVPs but could not achieve a playoff breakthrough, Nuggets missed a total of 535 games, ranking sixth and third in the league, respectively. The Nuggets missed only 153 games last season, eighth from bottom in the league, and they used the same starting lineup for 20 games during the playoffs to win their first championship in team history.
It can be seen that in addition to the core five-man group of opening and closing, no matter how strong a team is, it needs support from the bench to survive the long season and withstand injuries and other unexpected events on the roster. However, the Nuggets, the reigning champions of the new season, lost first this offseason.
Although the free market has only been open for two weeks now, most of the valuable free agents have been divided among the teams, and the remaining players worth watching are on the trade market and are at an impasse. None of this has anything to do with the Nuggets, who are about to become a tax-paying team for the second year in a row and whose starting five will earn $150 million a year next season.
Long before the offseason began, HoopsHype salary expert Yossi Gozlan detailed the Nuggets' operational woes this summer in an op-ed. With 9 players on contract in the offseason, the Nuggets' total salary for the new season has reached the luxury tax line of $162 million, which is less than $6 million away from the local tyrant line, and less than $16.4 million from the more brutal "second local tyrant line".
Don't look at the Nuggets' rare luxury tax in 2022-23, but the amount of tax they paid was only "only" $17.3 million, ranking second from the bottom of all nine tax-paying teams that cost a championship. For a small ball market like Denver, such a scale of spending may already be the limit, they are unlikely to burn money indefinitely like the Warriors and Clippers, and the new version of the collective bargaining agreement does not allow.
Therefore, we can boldly assume that the Nuggets will only maintain a similar spending standard to last season in the new season, so the only operating tool they can expect this offseason is a $5 million mini-mid-class, leaving only a second-round exception and an unlimited number of veterans who compete fairly on their own charisma.
But what is surprising is that whether it is a mini middle class with a fairly competitive price, or a veteran base salary that tests its attractiveness, the Nuggets' operation does not show any of the style of defending champions.
As soon as the free market opened, the Nuggets completed two operations, namely the base salary signing backup center Jordan Jr., and the two-year $10.5 million extension of Reggie Jackson. They then died down for a day and signed new signing Justin Holladay on July 3 local time on a one-year contract at the end of the year.
Then, there is no then. Yes, you read that right, almost two weeks after the offseason officially began, that's all the Nuggets takeaway.
Jordan Jr., who they first locked, played only 4 games in the playoffs last season, playing only 14 minutes in total, not as long as Jokic played in a half-time, and Jordan Jr. is about to be 35 years old and on the verge of retirement from the league at any time. The only "new signing" Holladay is not yet 27 years old, which is the year of play, but he has changed 5 teams in just five years in the league, was cut by the Hawks last season, and soon fell out of the rotation after joining the Lone Ranger, which is completely dispensable.
However, after all, it is a veteran base salary, sign it, you can't ask too much from them. The Nuggets' most confusing signing this offseason has to be Reggie Jackson...
A 33-year-old veteran, Reggie was swept away by the Clippers last season and sent to the Hornets before being cut by Charlotte before joining the Nuggets in the buyout market and following Denver to a championship ring. The reason why I say "mixed" is because Reggie did not help the Nuggets' championship journey in any way, playing 6 games and playing a total of 18 minutes during the playoffs, which is no different from Jordan Jr.
But Reggie, who was discarded everywhere and saw that he was about to run out of balls, actually got a full mini mid-class contract from the Nuggets!
Although the NBA's salary cap has been adjusted year after year, and the salaries that players can get are rising, and the amount looks very scary, but because the new version of the collective agreement severely cracks down on high-consumption operations, teams are very cautious in giving contracts this summer, and there are very few cases of brainless signings. As mentioned earlier, the mini-mid-range exception was the Nuggets' most important and valuable reinforcement tool this offseason, but they casually ran out.
What kind of players can the mini-mid-class special sign in this year's free agency? Milton, a top 76ers who averaged 8.4 points per game and shot career-high from the field last season, signed with the Timberwolves for $10 million over two years; Sharpshooter Curry Jr., who is about the same age as Reggie but has a career long-range shooting percentage of 43.5%, has only signed a contract of 9.26 million for two years with the Lone Ranger; The 25-year-old wingside swingman Jaylen McDan Ernis, who made a new contract with the Raptors is also 9.26 million in two years...
In addition to the few reinforcements, the Nuggets actually lost two big generals this summer, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green. Both of them made significant contributions to the Nuggets' championship victory during the regular season and playoffs, playing sixth and seventh in the Nuggets' playing time and being key core rotation members.
Of course, the two-year 45 million signed by Brown and the Pacers and the two-year 16 million contract reached by Green and the Rockets are all numbers that the Nuggets can't match, and it is a high probability that the two cannot be retained. But regardless, the Nuggets' operation this summer was problematic and quite serious.
In addition to the chaos of middle-class contracts, it is also bizarre that the defending champion Nuggets are unattractive in free agency. The Solar signed strong rotations such as Yuta Watanabe, Eubanks, and Metu with a base salary, and the 76ers also won Beverley and Bamba, but the Nuggets can only provide opportunities for Jordan Jr. and Holladay who has no ball to play, and the gap is staggering.
That's why ESPN expert Kevin Pelton slammed Nuggets management in a recent article, calling them the biggest losers of the offseason and maybe not even "one of them."