June 6, 2025 • 26 mins
The Nuggets face crucial decisions this offseason with multiple paths forward after a disappointing follow-up to their championship season. Josh Kroenke's emphasis on internal development signals one approach, but trade possibilities and free agent signings offer alternative strategies to address the team's glaring bench weaknesses.
• Front office restructuring remains unresolved with Ben Tenzer likely to become GM, possibly with another executive above him
• David Adelman's coaching hire represents the first step in the internal development strategy
• Young players like Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Julian Strawther need growth to contribute meaningfully
• The Nuggets have zero draft picks and limited tradeable future assets (only a 2031 first-round pick)
• Free agency options are limited by second apron constraints to minimum contracts and the taxpayer exception
• Trading core players is challenging due to their large contracts, though breaking MPJ's deal into multiple rotation pieces is possible
• Potential trade targets include Goga Bitadze (Orlando), Patrick Williams/Kevin Huerter/Ayo Dosunmu (Chicago), or Grant Williams/Josh Green/Josh Okogie (Charlotte)
• Bruce Brown reunion appears likely using the taxpayer exception
• Most realistic scenario involves keeping the core together while adding veteran minimum players to strengthen the bench
Awesome resources for the Nuggets offseason:
Jake Coyne's incredible document
Don't forget to subscribe on Apple or Spotify and leave those 5 Star reviews!
Follow us on Social
Facebook
X / Twitter
Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
All right, everyone.
Welcome back to fandom fromafar.
It is the off season and I lovethe off season.
It's fun to think of all thepossibilities for your team to
either sign a big free agent ormake a big trade.
There's draft picks.
It's kind of fun to think of allthe possibilities just of how
(00:24):
your team can improve and giveyou that hope for the upcoming
season.
So I think it's going to be fun.
We're And there's a lot ofpossibilities.
Some may be more realistic thanothers, but I thought we'd kind
of dive in and review some ofthe off-season previews that
(00:47):
I've seen from actualjournalists and see what ideas
they have and kind of what mypreferences are of what the
Nuggets do.
So I think before we dive intoall that, the Nuggets still need
a general manager.
So any of these possibilities,if they were to happen, usually
it happens because a team has ageneral manager to accomplish
(01:10):
those.
So hopefully the Nuggets get onesoon.
From all the reporting, it seemslike they're going to promote
Ben Tenzer, who's been with theorganization for a little while.
He was the acting generalmanager once they fired Calvin
Booth.
And apparently he's a reallysmart kind of cap guy, but he's
(01:32):
never been an official generalmanager before, so it will be
interesting to see how hehandles trades and free agent
signings and all that stuff.
And it may be more so that He'sgetting hired because Josh
Kroenke is the one that'sactually involved.
(02:17):
So, yeah.
I hope they do it soon.
(02:37):
I want them to start kind offormulating a plan and be ready
for this offseason.
But yeah, we can only wait.
So speaking of Josh Kroenke,he's had a couple press
conferences so far thisoffseason, and he seems
optimistic, which obviously Ilove.
(02:59):
And he has mentioned internaldevelopment quite a bit, which
could be good or bad.
depending on how they approachit.
And what does that mean exactly?
Well, we've seen the beginningalready.
They've internally hired DavidAdaman to be the next head
coach, which, as I spoke aboutlast time, I actually love.
(03:22):
He showed promise just in theshort time that he was the head
coach last season.
And truthfully...
Yeah, absolutely.
(04:01):
he gets former players or if hegets old veteran coaches that
have been around and seeneverything I'm actually pretty
fascinated to see kind of how heshapes his staff and obviously I
mentioned the GM I think that'sgoing to be internal development
as well and then Josh Kroenkehas mentioned internal
development from the players aswell so obviously that can mean
(04:24):
the young guys starting withChristian Brown Peyton Watson
Julian Straw But also DeronHolmes and Jalen Pickett, guys
that either were hurt and didn'tget a lot of playing time, were
in Michael Malone's doghouse,they didn't get a lot of playing
time, or they really need todevelop to prove that they can
(04:47):
belong in the NBA.
And so the young guys, if theyare not involved in trades this
offseason, there's a lot of roomto develop.
And if that's the Nuggets' onlyplan, then I'm going to be
pretty disappointed in thatthere's still some veterans that
could see some development aswell obviously MPJ been around a
(05:11):
while we kind of know what he isbut he's always had Michael
Malone and so you never know anew system a new coach could
unlock him and he could level upand be even more of an asset on
offense and you never know ondefense as well and the big The
big one, obviously, is alwaysgoing to be Jamal Murray.
(05:33):
He has talent.
It's whether he wants to put inthe effort.
And you never know.
Maybe David Adelman will holdhim more accountable than
Michael Malone did.
Maybe Josh Kroenke will hold himmore accountable than in the
past.
And maybe they will say thatJamal needs to come into the
season in shape.
(05:54):
And maybe he needs to dosomething different to try and
avoid some of these nagginginjuries and carry on.
So that could definitely beinternal development.
And so pretty much throughoutJosh Kroenke's press
conferences, you get the feelingthat he is going to be more
(06:16):
involved.
And we're going to have to waitand see whether that's a good or
a bad thing.
And I do...
like that he admits thatsomething's got to change.
But if we're just hoping thatthe players we already have are
going to get better, I don'tnecessarily think that's the
best plan moving forward.
(06:37):
So...
Other than internal development,what are other ways the Nuggets
can improve?
Well, normally there's thedraft, but the Nuggets have zero
draft picks.
And not only do we have zerodraft picks this year, we really
don't have any draft picks forthe foreseeable future that we
(06:58):
can trade.
to get players or more draftpicks or anything like that.
We have one in 2031 that we'reallowed to trade, and that could
have some value because a lot ofteams could look at that and be
like, well, Jokic will be 35 bythen.
What will the Nuggets look like?
It does have some value, but aswe discussed in the past, Calvin
(07:22):
Booth's really pattern ofobtaining players was just to
throw a ton of draft picks atthe trade to try and make it
happen.
And...
It really seems like we justreally depleted all of our draft
pick war chest to get playersthat didn't turn out to do too
(07:42):
much for us.
So hindsight's 2020, but thatdid not work out in our favor.
There's possibilities that wecould make a trade and get a
draft pick this year.
There's always the option ofbuying a second round pick.
A lot of teams will just sellthem for a couple million.
I'm not sure how willing theCronkies would be willing to do
(08:03):
that or if there's a player thatcould help the Nuggets that
would even make that worthwhile.
So the draft may be prettylow-key for the Nuggets this
year, and that's okay.
There's obviously other avenuesto improve, including free
agency.
Now, free agency should be alittle bit more active for the
(08:26):
Nuggets, although they are veryclose to that dreaded second
apron, which is scaring teams todeath basically and so the
Nuggets cannot sign big namefree agents or really add much
salary so it's going to be a lotof minimum guys and they also
have the taxpayer exceptionwhich if you want to kind of get
(08:48):
an idea of what level playerthat is our last two exceptions
that we've used would be guyslike Reggie Jackson or Dario
Saric and so obviously Reggiehad his moments but we
eventually had to trade him awayand throw in three second round
(09:10):
picks just to get the Hornets totake him and then Dario really
was just stuck on the benchbecause he had such a disastrous
five games at the beginning ofthe season and just kind of
showed that he's no longer anNBA player so minimum guys it is
for the free agents now thereare some interesting names that
(09:30):
we'll go over later I think thatcould really help the Nuggets
and I don't know if that'snecessarily a good thing.
It just kind of shows you howhow much a lack of depth on our
bench is a problem.
So we'll go over somepossibilities later, but the
third way the Nuggets canimprove is by trades.
(09:52):
And trades are obviously reallyfun to think about.
They've built tools out therewhere you can build the trades
and see if they work as far assalaries go.
Most of the time when you see afake trade on the internet, it
is totally unrealistic and just,it's usually like, hey, my
favorite team will give you abunch of garbage and you give us
a superstar But I think thereare some resources out there
(10:15):
that they've made up somerealistic fake trades.
And I'm going to go over some ofmy favorites.
But trades are going to betough.
Like I said, the Nuggets...
They have very few assets towork with.
They have guys on either hugesalaries or minimum salaries.
So it's kind of hard to matchsalaries when you're making
(10:38):
trades.
And truthfully, the huge salaryguys are overpaid, except for
Jokic, like Jamal Murray,Michael Porter Jr.
They probably should be on muchlesser contracts.
And so it's going to be hard toget any sort of value when
trying to trade those guys toanother team as well.
(11:00):
Most likely we would be havingto take back some other team's
bad salary.
And so that's going to beinteresting.
The young guys with lowersalaries don't really have value
because they have not beendeveloped.
So it's really kind of tough.
And then to add injury toinsult, injuries.
(11:21):
A lot of our guys, either highpaid or our young guys, have had
injuries.
which decreases their value aswell.
So if it's Ben Tenzer or whoeverthe new GM is, they are in for a
difficult time trying to make atrade happen.
So my hopes for the off season,I'm going to kind of go over
some scenarios.
(11:41):
I mentioned there are some greatresources out there.
I'm going to try and includethese in the show notes for this
episode, just because I reallydo think they're valuable to see
what's realistic from someonethat really spent time and kind
of dug into what a realisticpossibility is.
And so those resources that I'mkind of basing these scenarios
(12:02):
on are from Jake Coyne.
He's known as a Statsquatch onTwitter.
He puts out one of my favoritedocuments of the year.
He really spends a lot of timecreating just an amazing
document.
If you really want to get nerdyabout the Nuggets offseason,
this is the go-to document, andI'll try to include a link, but
(12:24):
it's just every detail you couldever look for about the Nuggets
and what's possible for theoffseason.
So, Jake Coyne is the man.
This document is amazing.
Another link I'm going to put inis a really cool off-season
preview that Sam Vecini did onhis podcast called Game Theory.
They are not Nuggets fans.
(12:45):
They're not associated with theNuggets in any way.
And so I think it's great to getan outside perspective on maybe
what the value is for some ofthe players and what other teams
might be looking for as far astrades or anything like that.
And so it's a short 30-minuteepisode, and I thought they did
a great job of kind of breakingdown where the nuggets are at,
(13:07):
and then even threw in a tradethat we'll go over here in a
little bit that I think couldhelp the nuggets.
So obviously, DNVR always hasgreat coverage as well.
But I really wanted to highlightthose two resources as just an
idea of where these scenariosare coming from.
I did not want to take creditfor them.
These guys spent a lot of workcreating those documents and
(13:31):
those episodes.
So I wanted to make sure to givethem credit.
So as we look at the Nuggetsoffseason, there's different
groups of fans that kind of havedifferent hopes and dreams for
what's going to happen.
There's the group that wants tojust trade everyone.
We need to just trade anyone notnamed Nikola Jokic and almost do
(13:51):
a just restart, refresheverything because they viewed
last year as such a disaster.
There's another group that justsays we just need to trade MPJ
or Jamal and just kind of give asoft reset like we just need to
use resources like one of ourtwo best players to give us a
(14:14):
little bit more depth and breaktheir big contracts up into
little ones and then there isthe third group that thinks the
nuggets are close we took thethunder to seven games and all
we need to do is just sign a fewveteran guys to really fill out
the bench to take the place ofthe guys that really couldn't
play this past year for us andthat will just give us that
(14:36):
little extra depth.
I have to say, I lean towardeither the second or the third
group.
I love MPJ and I love Jamalbecause they brought us a
championship, but I don't thinkI would be heartbroken if we
were able to trade one of themfor multiple players.
And if the Nuggets decide to gowith the third option and just
(15:00):
sign some veterans to fill outthe bench, I I don't think I
would be upset about thateither.
I think it really was a disasterand bench last year.
DeAndre Jordan had moments, buthe's probably past where we need
him to be to really providebackup center minutes.
(15:22):
As we mentioned, Saric didn'tprovide anything.
Vlatko was hurt or just stuck onthe bench all season.
Unfortunately, Deron Holmes, ourfirst-round pick, was hurt all
year.
Tyson Hunter, or Hunter Tyson,he doesn't seem to be quite good
enough to get minutes in theNBA.
(15:43):
And so we just had so manyplayers that just didn't provide
anything.
And if you just fill those inwith some veterans that could
provide...
just nights off during theregular season or a key moment
in the playoffs, it could go along way.
And so I'm kind of in betweenoptions two and three.
I'd be very interested to seewhat we could get for MPJ or for
(16:07):
Jamal, but most likely it'sgoing to be just signing some
veterans.
So what are some scenarios fromthose resources that I really
like and I think are realistic?
Obviously, In a dream world, Iwould love to get Kevin Durant.
I would love to get Giannis, butthat's never going to happen.
(16:28):
So let's look at some tradesthat...
I think could possibly happenand really help the Nuggets.
So the first one is from JakeCoyne's document, and it is
trade Julian Strother, ZekeNagy, and a swap of our 2030
first round pick to Orlando forGoga Batase.
(16:52):
Now, Goga Batase is not a hugename, but he is a solid, solid
big man, and I think would be aperfect backup center for the
Nuggets.
Not only could he play back upcenter to give Jokic a rest, but
I also think it could work inbig lineups where we need him
just to play a little bit ofpower forward to give Aaron
(17:13):
Gordon a rest.
And so I really like this trade.
It would not be my first choiceto give up on Julian Strother,
but you have to give upsomething to get something.
And so...
With Julian Strother and PeytonWatson, my thought is there is a
chance that they develop intoreally good players, but there's
(17:35):
also a chance that they don't.
And so if we need to use Julianto get off of Zeke's contract
and get a valuable backup bigman, I like that.
And so Jake also included thatwe could sign Luke Kennard for
that exception and then signDeLon Wright for a minimum.
(17:58):
And so this would give us agreat backup big man.
Luke Kennard would provide someshooting and DeLon Wright would
provide a nice veteran guard whocan handle the ball when we play
those veteran teams with all theathletes like Minnesota, OKC, We
need ball handling.
And Jamal Murray has proven thatsometimes he needs someone to
(18:20):
take the load off of him whenhe's under that pressure.
So that first trade, I reallylike giving up straw there, but
getting rid of Zeke and gettinga valuable backup big man, that
would check a lot of boxes forme.
The second trade that was alsoon Jake's document is a big one.
(18:42):
This would be trading MPJ, Zeke,and that 2031 first round pick
to the Chicago Bulls for PatrickWilliams, Kevin Herter, and Io
DeSumo.
Now, Obviously, giving up MPJ isgoing to hurt.
He's been awesome for theNuggets.
(19:04):
He has not complained abouttaking a backseat to Jokic and
Jamal.
He's one of the best shooters inthe league.
But he's overpaid.
He's had injury issues.
And if we need to include himand that first-round pick...
to get off of Zeke's contractand to break up MPJ into
(19:25):
multiple contracts, I'm willingto do that.
Now, this trade also is what Imentioned earlier.
We are taking back Chicago'sworst contract and what is
considered one of the worstcontracts in the entire NBA in
Patrick Williams.
Patrick Williams was a highdraft pick.
He was defender that can shoot.
(19:53):
And he never turned into that.
And he got paid a hefty contractthat goes on for another four
years.
So the Nuggets would be takingon that.
In any situation where we'retaking on someone's problem,
there's always the hope thatjust a change of scenery or
playing with Jokic can turnthings around and it ends up
(20:13):
looking like a great deal.
Exhibit A, Aaron Gordon.
I know a lot of Magic fans thatwere so frustrated with Aaron
Gordon and we're ready to getrid of him.
And the Nuggets did not have togive up a lot to get him.
And he turned into one of theall-time Nuggets that led us to
a championship.
And I just love Aaron Gordon somuch.
(20:34):
And so not saying this wouldhappen again, but I think
playing with Jokic could reallyhelp a guy like Patrick
Williams.
And the fact that we're gettingKevin Herter for shooting and Io
DeSumo for some much neededpoint of attack defense, he can
guard Point guard, shootingguard, small forwards.
He's a great defender.
(20:54):
And the document also says thatwe would still have room to sign
Bruce Brown to that exception.
And then Mason Plumlee is ourbackup center.
So I kind of love this one.
This is, I think...
really interesting.
We're obviously giving up one ofour best players and our only
(21:15):
draft pick to trade.
We're taking on bad money, but Ithink there's a lot of positives
in this type of trade that wouldallow the Nuggets to really go
into the season and with adeeper bench, with more
shooting, with more defense.
And I don't know, I kind of lovethis trade once I saw it.
I think it's something that it'sgoing to take some guts to do,
(21:38):
but I think it's something thatthe Nuggets should look into.
And then the third trade that Ireally like is from that Sam
Bassini podcast.
Again, he's an outsider justlooking at it from a national
perspective, and he agrees thatthe Nuggets need to break up one
of the big contracts into moremore players get a deeper bench
(22:02):
and just Give yourself a littlebit more options to either fight
against injuries, fight againstfatigue.
You may even be able to tradesome of these players in the
future for more assets.
And so his idea was trade MPJ tothe Hornets for Grant Williams,
(22:23):
Josh Green, and Josh Akogi.
Now, this may not be the...
big name players that we wouldhope to get for mpj but i think
it similar to the last deal itadds depth and it's something
that the nuggets really need sogrant williams is a kind of
(22:43):
grind grind it out every nighthardcore guy that is full of
energy now i will say it seemslike his teammates always really
get annoyed with him and don'treally like him so that may not
be something that we'reinterested in but josh green
kind of a slasher wing thatcould provide some defense and
shooting.
And Josh Akogi, same thing.
(23:04):
He'll play hard.
He'll provide some defense, buthe's a professional basketball
player.
And so turning MPJ into threeuseful players, I think would be
good.
And then in this scenario, theycould also sign Luke Kennard to
the exception and kind of getsome shooting to come off the
bench as well.
So really like those threeexample trades.
(23:26):
I think they each providesomething different, but I think
it's kind of the right train ofthought where the Nuggets need
to think about some either smallchanges or big changes, but add
that depth, add more usefulplayers.
There's been other rumoredtrades, like Utah has a lot of
guys that we could be interestedin, like John Collins and Colin
(23:48):
Sexton.
Toronto has a bunch of guys thatwe could really use.
And then, of course, Orlando.
One of my dream scenarios wouldbe some sort of Jamal Murray
trade where we get Jalen Suggsand then a couple of their wings
slash big men.
And I think it could really helpout both teams.
(24:10):
I would be happy for my Magicfans to get a point guard that
can score for the Magic.
And then I would love the depththat Orlando could give to the
Nuggets.
I seriously doubt we're tradingJamal, but that's just kind of a
dream scenario.
And then there's even beenrumors where we would figure out
something to trade to thePelicans to get Zion Williamson.
(24:31):
There's all sorts ofpossibilities out there.
Obviously, Most of it is justfor fun, most likely not going
to happen, but it is fun tothink about.
And so I think what is mostlikely is we will sign Bruce
Brown to that exception.
Bruce has been pretty open abouthow much he loved his time in
(24:53):
Denver, and he retweeted whenDavid Adleman got the head
coaching job.
He attended Nuggets playoffgames when he was already
eliminated and they were playingstill.
I really think Bruce wants tocome back to Denver.
And the Nuggets fans, I think,kind of have put him up on a
pedestal just because he wassuch a fun player and did so
(25:14):
well for us during thechampionship run.
But I think he could providesome much-needed depth and ball
handling.
So I would welcome Bruce backwith open arms.
As much as I want them to do it,I think that they will keep the
core together.
I'm guessing we will have thesame starting five going into
next year.
And then I think they're goingto sign some minimum guys.
(25:36):
So...
While it's not my top choice, Ithink the most likely scenario
could provide some optimismgoing into next year.
All I know is it's going to beinteresting.
There's so many possibilitiesand the rumors are fun.
Draft night is so much fun, evenif the Nuggets don't have a
pick.
And I just love it all.
(25:57):
I think it's going to be so funto break down.
And obviously, we will break itdown when everything happens.
And so I appreciate you guyslistening today for this
offseason preview.
And we will be back We'll beback soon.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
All right, everyone.
Welcome back to fandom fromafar.
It is the off season and I lovethe off season.
It's fun to think of all thepossibilities for your team to
either sign a big free agent ormake a big trade.
There's draft picks.
It's kind of fun to think of allthe possibilities just of how
(00:24):
your team can improve and giveyou that hope for the upcoming
season.
So I think it's going to be fun.
We're And there's a lot ofpossibilities.
Some may be more realistic thanothers, but I thought we'd kind
of dive in and review some ofthe off-season previews that
(00:47):
I've seen from actualjournalists and see what ideas
they have and kind of what mypreferences are of what the
Nuggets do.
So I think before we dive intoall that, the Nuggets still need
a general manager.
So any of these possibilities,if they were to happen, usually
it happens because a team has ageneral manager to accomplish
(01:10):
those.
So hopefully the Nuggets get onesoon.
From all the reporting, it seemslike they're going to promote
Ben Tenzer, who's been with theorganization for a little while.
He was the acting generalmanager once they fired Calvin
Booth.
And apparently he's a reallysmart kind of cap guy, but he's
(01:32):
never been an official generalmanager before, so it will be
interesting to see how hehandles trades and free agent
signings and all that stuff.
And it may be more so that He'sgetting hired because Josh
Kroenke is the one that'sactually involved.
(02:17):
So, yeah.
I hope they do it soon.
(02:37):
I want them to start kind offormulating a plan and be ready
for this offseason.
But yeah, we can only wait.
So speaking of Josh Kroenke,he's had a couple press
conferences so far thisoffseason, and he seems
optimistic, which obviously Ilove.
(02:59):
And he has mentioned internaldevelopment quite a bit, which
could be good or bad.
depending on how they approachit.
And what does that mean exactly?
Well, we've seen the beginningalready.
They've internally hired DavidAdaman to be the next head
coach, which, as I spoke aboutlast time, I actually love.
(03:22):
He showed promise just in theshort time that he was the head
coach last season.
And truthfully...
Yeah, absolutely.
(04:01):
he gets former players or if hegets old veteran coaches that
have been around and seeneverything I'm actually pretty
fascinated to see kind of how heshapes his staff and obviously I
mentioned the GM I think that'sgoing to be internal development
as well and then Josh Kroenkehas mentioned internal
development from the players aswell so obviously that can mean
(04:24):
the young guys starting withChristian Brown Peyton Watson
Julian Straw But also DeronHolmes and Jalen Pickett, guys
that either were hurt and didn'tget a lot of playing time, were
in Michael Malone's doghouse,they didn't get a lot of playing
time, or they really need todevelop to prove that they can
(04:47):
belong in the NBA.
And so the young guys, if theyare not involved in trades this
offseason, there's a lot of roomto develop.
And if that's the Nuggets' onlyplan, then I'm going to be
pretty disappointed in thatthere's still some veterans that
could see some development aswell obviously MPJ been around a
(05:11):
while we kind of know what he isbut he's always had Michael
Malone and so you never know anew system a new coach could
unlock him and he could level upand be even more of an asset on
offense and you never know ondefense as well and the big The
big one, obviously, is alwaysgoing to be Jamal Murray.
(05:33):
He has talent.
It's whether he wants to put inthe effort.
And you never know.
Maybe David Adelman will holdhim more accountable than
Michael Malone did.
Maybe Josh Kroenke will hold himmore accountable than in the
past.
And maybe they will say thatJamal needs to come into the
season in shape.
(05:54):
And maybe he needs to dosomething different to try and
avoid some of these nagginginjuries and carry on.
So that could definitely beinternal development.
And so pretty much throughoutJosh Kroenke's press
conferences, you get the feelingthat he is going to be more
(06:16):
involved.
And we're going to have to waitand see whether that's a good or
a bad thing.
And I do...
like that he admits thatsomething's got to change.
But if we're just hoping thatthe players we already have are
going to get better, I don'tnecessarily think that's the
best plan moving forward.
(06:37):
So...
Other than internal development,what are other ways the Nuggets
can improve?
Well, normally there's thedraft, but the Nuggets have zero
draft picks.
And not only do we have zerodraft picks this year, we really
don't have any draft picks forthe foreseeable future that we
(06:58):
can trade.
to get players or more draftpicks or anything like that.
We have one in 2031 that we'reallowed to trade, and that could
have some value because a lot ofteams could look at that and be
like, well, Jokic will be 35 bythen.
What will the Nuggets look like?
It does have some value, but aswe discussed in the past, Calvin
(07:22):
Booth's really pattern ofobtaining players was just to
throw a ton of draft picks atthe trade to try and make it
happen.
And...
It really seems like we justreally depleted all of our draft
pick war chest to get playersthat didn't turn out to do too
(07:42):
much for us.
So hindsight's 2020, but thatdid not work out in our favor.
There's possibilities that wecould make a trade and get a
draft pick this year.
There's always the option ofbuying a second round pick.
A lot of teams will just sellthem for a couple million.
I'm not sure how willing theCronkies would be willing to do
(08:03):
that or if there's a player thatcould help the Nuggets that
would even make that worthwhile.
So the draft may be prettylow-key for the Nuggets this
year, and that's okay.
There's obviously other avenuesto improve, including free
agency.
Now, free agency should be alittle bit more active for the
(08:26):
Nuggets, although they are veryclose to that dreaded second
apron, which is scaring teams todeath basically and so the
Nuggets cannot sign big namefree agents or really add much
salary so it's going to be a lotof minimum guys and they also
have the taxpayer exceptionwhich if you want to kind of get
(08:48):
an idea of what level playerthat is our last two exceptions
that we've used would be guyslike Reggie Jackson or Dario
Saric and so obviously Reggiehad his moments but we
eventually had to trade him awayand throw in three second round
(09:10):
picks just to get the Hornets totake him and then Dario really
was just stuck on the benchbecause he had such a disastrous
five games at the beginning ofthe season and just kind of
showed that he's no longer anNBA player so minimum guys it is
for the free agents now thereare some interesting names that
(09:30):
we'll go over later I think thatcould really help the Nuggets
and I don't know if that'snecessarily a good thing.
It just kind of shows you howhow much a lack of depth on our
bench is a problem.
So we'll go over somepossibilities later, but the
third way the Nuggets canimprove is by trades.
(09:52):
And trades are obviously reallyfun to think about.
They've built tools out therewhere you can build the trades
and see if they work as far assalaries go.
Most of the time when you see afake trade on the internet, it
is totally unrealistic and just,it's usually like, hey, my
favorite team will give you abunch of garbage and you give us
a superstar But I think thereare some resources out there
(10:15):
that they've made up somerealistic fake trades.
And I'm going to go over some ofmy favorites.
But trades are going to betough.
Like I said, the Nuggets...
They have very few assets towork with.
They have guys on either hugesalaries or minimum salaries.
So it's kind of hard to matchsalaries when you're making
(10:38):
trades.
And truthfully, the huge salaryguys are overpaid, except for
Jokic, like Jamal Murray,Michael Porter Jr.
They probably should be on muchlesser contracts.
And so it's going to be hard toget any sort of value when
trying to trade those guys toanother team as well.
(11:00):
Most likely we would be havingto take back some other team's
bad salary.
And so that's going to beinteresting.
The young guys with lowersalaries don't really have value
because they have not beendeveloped.
So it's really kind of tough.
And then to add injury toinsult, injuries.
(11:21):
A lot of our guys, either highpaid or our young guys, have had
injuries.
which decreases their value aswell.
So if it's Ben Tenzer or whoeverthe new GM is, they are in for a
difficult time trying to make atrade happen.
So my hopes for the off season,I'm going to kind of go over
some scenarios.
(11:41):
I mentioned there are some greatresources out there.
I'm going to try and includethese in the show notes for this
episode, just because I reallydo think they're valuable to see
what's realistic from someonethat really spent time and kind
of dug into what a realisticpossibility is.
And so those resources that I'mkind of basing these scenarios
(12:02):
on are from Jake Coyne.
He's known as a Statsquatch onTwitter.
He puts out one of my favoritedocuments of the year.
He really spends a lot of timecreating just an amazing
document.
If you really want to get nerdyabout the Nuggets offseason,
this is the go-to document, andI'll try to include a link, but
(12:24):
it's just every detail you couldever look for about the Nuggets
and what's possible for theoffseason.
So, Jake Coyne is the man.
This document is amazing.
Another link I'm going to put inis a really cool off-season
preview that Sam Vecini did onhis podcast called Game Theory.
They are not Nuggets fans.
(12:45):
They're not associated with theNuggets in any way.
And so I think it's great to getan outside perspective on maybe
what the value is for some ofthe players and what other teams
might be looking for as far astrades or anything like that.
And so it's a short 30-minuteepisode, and I thought they did
a great job of kind of breakingdown where the nuggets are at,
(13:07):
and then even threw in a tradethat we'll go over here in a
little bit that I think couldhelp the nuggets.
So obviously, DNVR always hasgreat coverage as well.
But I really wanted to highlightthose two resources as just an
idea of where these scenariosare coming from.
I did not want to take creditfor them.
These guys spent a lot of workcreating those documents and
(13:31):
those episodes.
So I wanted to make sure to givethem credit.
So as we look at the Nuggetsoffseason, there's different
groups of fans that kind of havedifferent hopes and dreams for
what's going to happen.
There's the group that wants tojust trade everyone.
We need to just trade anyone notnamed Nikola Jokic and almost do
(13:51):
a just restart, refresheverything because they viewed
last year as such a disaster.
There's another group that justsays we just need to trade MPJ
or Jamal and just kind of give asoft reset like we just need to
use resources like one of ourtwo best players to give us a
(14:14):
little bit more depth and breaktheir big contracts up into
little ones and then there isthe third group that thinks the
nuggets are close we took thethunder to seven games and all
we need to do is just sign a fewveteran guys to really fill out
the bench to take the place ofthe guys that really couldn't
play this past year for us andthat will just give us that
(14:36):
little extra depth.
I have to say, I lean towardeither the second or the third
group.
I love MPJ and I love Jamalbecause they brought us a
championship, but I don't thinkI would be heartbroken if we
were able to trade one of themfor multiple players.
And if the Nuggets decide to gowith the third option and just
(15:00):
sign some veterans to fill outthe bench, I I don't think I
would be upset about thateither.
I think it really was a disasterand bench last year.
DeAndre Jordan had moments, buthe's probably past where we need
him to be to really providebackup center minutes.
(15:22):
As we mentioned, Saric didn'tprovide anything.
Vlatko was hurt or just stuck onthe bench all season.
Unfortunately, Deron Holmes, ourfirst-round pick, was hurt all
year.
Tyson Hunter, or Hunter Tyson,he doesn't seem to be quite good
enough to get minutes in theNBA.
(15:43):
And so we just had so manyplayers that just didn't provide
anything.
And if you just fill those inwith some veterans that could
provide...
just nights off during theregular season or a key moment
in the playoffs, it could go along way.
And so I'm kind of in betweenoptions two and three.
I'd be very interested to seewhat we could get for MPJ or for
(16:07):
Jamal, but most likely it'sgoing to be just signing some
veterans.
So what are some scenarios fromthose resources that I really
like and I think are realistic?
Obviously, In a dream world, Iwould love to get Kevin Durant.
I would love to get Giannis, butthat's never going to happen.
(16:28):
So let's look at some tradesthat...
I think could possibly happenand really help the Nuggets.
So the first one is from JakeCoyne's document, and it is
trade Julian Strother, ZekeNagy, and a swap of our 2030
first round pick to Orlando forGoga Batase.
(16:52):
Now, Goga Batase is not a hugename, but he is a solid, solid
big man, and I think would be aperfect backup center for the
Nuggets.
Not only could he play back upcenter to give Jokic a rest, but
I also think it could work inbig lineups where we need him
just to play a little bit ofpower forward to give Aaron
(17:13):
Gordon a rest.
And so I really like this trade.
It would not be my first choiceto give up on Julian Strother,
but you have to give upsomething to get something.
And so...
With Julian Strother and PeytonWatson, my thought is there is a
chance that they develop intoreally good players, but there's
(17:35):
also a chance that they don't.
And so if we need to use Julianto get off of Zeke's contract
and get a valuable backup bigman, I like that.
And so Jake also included thatwe could sign Luke Kennard for
that exception and then signDeLon Wright for a minimum.
(17:58):
And so this would give us agreat backup big man.
Luke Kennard would provide someshooting and DeLon Wright would
provide a nice veteran guard whocan handle the ball when we play
those veteran teams with all theathletes like Minnesota, OKC, We
need ball handling.
And Jamal Murray has proven thatsometimes he needs someone to
(18:20):
take the load off of him whenhe's under that pressure.
So that first trade, I reallylike giving up straw there, but
getting rid of Zeke and gettinga valuable backup big man, that
would check a lot of boxes forme.
The second trade that was alsoon Jake's document is a big one.
(18:42):
This would be trading MPJ, Zeke,and that 2031 first round pick
to the Chicago Bulls for PatrickWilliams, Kevin Herter, and Io
DeSumo.
Now, Obviously, giving up MPJ isgoing to hurt.
He's been awesome for theNuggets.
(19:04):
He has not complained abouttaking a backseat to Jokic and
Jamal.
He's one of the best shooters inthe league.
But he's overpaid.
He's had injury issues.
And if we need to include himand that first-round pick...
to get off of Zeke's contractand to break up MPJ into
(19:25):
multiple contracts, I'm willingto do that.
Now, this trade also is what Imentioned earlier.
We are taking back Chicago'sworst contract and what is
considered one of the worstcontracts in the entire NBA in
Patrick Williams.
Patrick Williams was a highdraft pick.
He was defender that can shoot.
(19:53):
And he never turned into that.
And he got paid a hefty contractthat goes on for another four
years.
So the Nuggets would be takingon that.
In any situation where we'retaking on someone's problem,
there's always the hope thatjust a change of scenery or
playing with Jokic can turnthings around and it ends up
(20:13):
looking like a great deal.
Exhibit A, Aaron Gordon.
I know a lot of Magic fans thatwere so frustrated with Aaron
Gordon and we're ready to getrid of him.
And the Nuggets did not have togive up a lot to get him.
And he turned into one of theall-time Nuggets that led us to
a championship.
And I just love Aaron Gordon somuch.
(20:34):
And so not saying this wouldhappen again, but I think
playing with Jokic could reallyhelp a guy like Patrick
Williams.
And the fact that we're gettingKevin Herter for shooting and Io
DeSumo for some much neededpoint of attack defense, he can
guard Point guard, shootingguard, small forwards.
He's a great defender.
(20:54):
And the document also says thatwe would still have room to sign
Bruce Brown to that exception.
And then Mason Plumlee is ourbackup center.
So I kind of love this one.
This is, I think...
really interesting.
We're obviously giving up one ofour best players and our only
(21:15):
draft pick to trade.
We're taking on bad money, but Ithink there's a lot of positives
in this type of trade that wouldallow the Nuggets to really go
into the season and with adeeper bench, with more
shooting, with more defense.
And I don't know, I kind of lovethis trade once I saw it.
I think it's something that it'sgoing to take some guts to do,
(21:38):
but I think it's something thatthe Nuggets should look into.
And then the third trade that Ireally like is from that Sam
Bassini podcast.
Again, he's an outsider justlooking at it from a national
perspective, and he agrees thatthe Nuggets need to break up one
of the big contracts into moremore players get a deeper bench
(22:02):
and just Give yourself a littlebit more options to either fight
against injuries, fight againstfatigue.
You may even be able to tradesome of these players in the
future for more assets.
And so his idea was trade MPJ tothe Hornets for Grant Williams,
(22:23):
Josh Green, and Josh Akogi.
Now, this may not be the...
big name players that we wouldhope to get for mpj but i think
it similar to the last deal itadds depth and it's something
that the nuggets really need sogrant williams is a kind of
(22:43):
grind grind it out every nighthardcore guy that is full of
energy now i will say it seemslike his teammates always really
get annoyed with him and don'treally like him so that may not
be something that we'reinterested in but josh green
kind of a slasher wing thatcould provide some defense and
shooting.
And Josh Akogi, same thing.
(23:04):
He'll play hard.
He'll provide some defense, buthe's a professional basketball
player.
And so turning MPJ into threeuseful players, I think would be
good.
And then in this scenario, theycould also sign Luke Kennard to
the exception and kind of getsome shooting to come off the
bench as well.
So really like those threeexample trades.
(23:26):
I think they each providesomething different, but I think
it's kind of the right train ofthought where the Nuggets need
to think about some either smallchanges or big changes, but add
that depth, add more usefulplayers.
There's been other rumoredtrades, like Utah has a lot of
guys that we could be interestedin, like John Collins and Colin
(23:48):
Sexton.
Toronto has a bunch of guys thatwe could really use.
And then, of course, Orlando.
One of my dream scenarios wouldbe some sort of Jamal Murray
trade where we get Jalen Suggsand then a couple of their wings
slash big men.
And I think it could really helpout both teams.
(24:10):
I would be happy for my Magicfans to get a point guard that
can score for the Magic.
And then I would love the depththat Orlando could give to the
Nuggets.
I seriously doubt we're tradingJamal, but that's just kind of a
dream scenario.
And then there's even beenrumors where we would figure out
something to trade to thePelicans to get Zion Williamson.
(24:31):
There's all sorts ofpossibilities out there.
Obviously, Most of it is justfor fun, most likely not going
to happen, but it is fun tothink about.
And so I think what is mostlikely is we will sign Bruce
Brown to that exception.
Bruce has been pretty open abouthow much he loved his time in
(24:53):
Denver, and he retweeted whenDavid Adleman got the head
coaching job.
He attended Nuggets playoffgames when he was already
eliminated and they were playingstill.
I really think Bruce wants tocome back to Denver.
And the Nuggets fans, I think,kind of have put him up on a
pedestal just because he wassuch a fun player and did so
(25:14):
well for us during thechampionship run.
But I think he could providesome much-needed depth and ball
handling.
So I would welcome Bruce backwith open arms.
As much as I want them to do it,I think that they will keep the
core together.
I'm guessing we will have thesame starting five going into
next year.
And then I think they're goingto sign some minimum guys.
(25:36):
So...
While it's not my top choice, Ithink the most likely scenario
could provide some optimismgoing into next year.
All I know is it's going to beinteresting.
There's so many possibilitiesand the rumors are fun.
Draft night is so much fun, evenif the Nuggets don't have a
pick.
And I just love it all.
(25:57):
I think it's going to be so funto break down.
And obviously, we will break itdown when everything happens.
And so I appreciate you guyslistening today for this
offseason preview.
And we will be back We'll beback soon.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.