Calvin Booth makes trade deadline confession that Nuggets fans realized long ago

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone without the Nuggets making a single move. We’ve long known of their desire to upgrade the roster and give the team a fighting chance to contend for a title this season.

But they came up empty, swinging and missing at multiple players like Cody Martin, Terance Mann, Jonas Valanciunas, and others. Ultimately, Denver didn’t have the assets to compete with other teams. A complete lack of draft capital, especially holding zero second-round picks proved to be a deciding factor in their lack of ability to deal.

In real-time, it was certainly disappointing to watch players change teams left and right while the Nuggets sat idly, showing “interest” time and again. But for fans who have been paying close attention, it was hardly shocking.

After the deadline passed, GM Calvin Booth addressed the media before Thursday night’s game against the Magic. As has always been his M.O., Booth was extremely honest and transparent, offering harsh truths without sugarcoating a thing.

Booth confirms all speculation about Nuggets’ trade deadline

Booth all but confirmed every idea that media and fans had speculated about the Nuggets at the deadline. He essentially offered that the team has 6-7 “starters” and a drop-off after that. He acknowledged that the playoffs might be tough for Julian Strawther and made it clear that he knew the team needed to bolster depth at the deadline.

But he also explained how the team was stuck. He said they had to “go big or do nothing”. In other words, he’s establishing the options were to trade Michael Porter Jr. and make a major shakeup, or try to hopelessly shop Zeke Nnaji and Dario Saric.

He said they “weren’t close” to trading anyone in the rotation which pretty much ensures that all of their trade offers and negotiations were centered around the Nnaji contract and pick swaps. That’s a gruesome package and it’s no surprise that the team was unable to make a deal in a seller's market.

Nuggets fans saw this one coming all along; they were pot committed to their top four players financially, they’ve whiffed on free agency signings (other than Westbrook), and the young players are either too important to trade or not good enough to have value. Combine that with the worst haul of draft picks in the league and it should have been obvious all along the Nuggets weren’t going to make a trade.

Still, it’s upsetting after so much talk all season coming from the organization. The messaging was very clear that they knew the team needed to get better and they were going to be aggressive to make it happen, yet their pathetic offers never had a chance.

It’s a sad admission by Booth and it all just magnifies the spot he has put this team in by continuously mismanaging assets. Thanks to Nikola Jokic and the top-end talent, this team is very good and if they nail the buyout market, they can still compete. But there’s no excuse for the lack of depth that Booth has put around the Joker.