The Denver Nuggets aren’t going to have cap room for the foreseeable future. Let’s take a closer look at the specifics.
The Denver Nuggets, going into the offseason, have virtually no way of creating salary cap space unless they make some very unlikely trades. If Denver renounces the cap holds on veterans Mason Plumlee and Paul Millsap, they will sit a little over $4 million above the cap.
Their extra first round pick they received from the Houston Rockets is also counting a bit over $2 million against the cap. The non-taxpayer mid-level exception and the bi-annual exception are going to be the team’s main source of personnel flexibility. Noah Vonleh, Jordan McRae, and Gerald Green are also counting against the cap currently, but those three will all likely be let go.
Green is the most likely to be brought back on a veteran minimum contract. A long-term deal for Torrey Craig appears to be the most likely retention the team is going to make. If he agrees to a deal that puts him in the area of a Robert Covington-type range, it will nudge Denver further towards the luxury tax, but not close enough to where either of their cap exceptions are removed.
As of now, the Nuggets have plenty of wiggle room to where they can prioritize making two signings with their exceptions, and still make a trade for a bigger fish using salary-matching power. The Bi-annual exception is a bit tricky at the moment for Denver, as their various abilities with the cap in the following year are going to be tougher.
As a result, the $3.9 million exception probably won’t be used by Denver this year and will be put off until the following year, when it likely will remain about the same as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
All in all, Denver has enough flexibility to make a couple shrewd moves to push their team closer to a finals berth. But, they will likely only have this type of wiggle room for a season as the cap stagnates and their collective salaries continue to spike.