80 million leave the team in 4 years?! There is no one, and it is too difficult to have a dynasty of 3 crowns in 5 years

懂球娘娘

2024-05-26 12:19Published in Guangdong

This year's "early" exit, the Nuggets, who failed to defend their title, ushered in another bad news:

The team's wing Pope is highly likely to jump out of his 15.44 million contract in the offseason and enter the free agency market as an unrestricted free agent.

According to Forbes Sports Evan Sidery, the market includes the Magic, 76ers and Spurs all want to sign the two-time champion. His market value is at least 20 million a year.

If the offseason labor market is good, it is completely reasonable to win 80 million in 4 years. Of course, if he renews his contract with the Nuggets, he can get more, up to 98.5 million for 4 years.

And if Pop asks for 20 million a year, then the Nuggets, who trigger the second luxury tax line (the first tax line + 17.5 million), will most likely have to give up on him.

If the second luxury tax is triggered, the team will be removed from the middle class exception, which is really difficult to accept for a team like the Nuggets that value for money, although Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke is a sports industry tycoon, but he prefers sports investment rather than basketball, he has 10 top professional teams under his umbrella, and it is impossible to burn money for the Nuggets without limits.

Fifteen years ago, this kind of long-term contract appeared here completely astronomical, a 3D player who averaged 10 points per game in the regular season and 8 points per game in the playoffs, no matter how many championships he won, was basically a player with an average salary of less than 5 million.

But as player salaries get higher and 3-and-D players become more and more valuable, off-ball points like Pope, who sell three-point + defense, have become the most valuable players after superstars.

Teams like the Magic, which have just found the building blocks of their team, have already stated before the end of the season that they want to sign 3-and-D players in the free market, and in addition to Pope, Warriors legend Klay Thompson is also a potential signing.

Talking about the Nuggets, many fans generally believe that they fell to the Timberwolves this year because of physical problems, not to mention anything else, G7 Malone put on a short rotation that led to a physical collapse in the second half, and over-reliance on Jokic-Murray-Porter laid the groundwork for the Timberwolves to complete a big reversal.

Last season, the Nuggets were able to put out an 8-man regular big rotation in the playoffs, and even Jordan Jr. could come up and eat time in some games, and this season the bench took out Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, although the team can also put out an 8-man rotation for most of the playoffs, but like Reggie only played 60 minutes in 7 games in the second round, Justin Holiday only played 100 minutes, which is far from Brown's intensity.

Next season for the Nuggets, it is better to find new signings to supplement the roster than to dig inside. In fact, Strausser and Watson, who performed well at the beginning of this season, have a chance to find a place in the playoffs, but Malone still only believes in veterans in key battles in order to maintain stability.

If Pope does leave, Christian Braun is likely to replace him as the team's new No. 2 starter, and Braun's own backup guard position is estimated to be only strengthened in the draft or the veteran's base salary.

On the night the Nuggets were eliminated, Malone said that for the Nuggets, the dynasty journey is not over. "It's hard to defend the title, it's as strong as the Spurs can't do it, but the Spurs have achieved three championships in five years, and our goal is to be on par with the Spurs."

For a team that is at the peak of the salary explosion, it may lose its main team every year due to salary problems, and the Nuggets have the strongest man in the NBA, but it is difficult to win 3 championships in 5 years...

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