Since we’re now entering the dog days of the NBA offseason, it’s time to get creative with content creation, so ESPN decided to rank every team’s biggest roster mistake since 2020 from 1-30. Luckily, the Nuggets weren’t at the top of the list, instead coming in right in the middle at #15, with their biggest mistake being “Not trading for any new players for two years after winning the title”.
Since the Nuggets won the title in 2023, the Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson swap was the first trade the team has made to acquire a player. It’s important to provide some context, as Denver didn’t have a lot of tradeable salary, and they owed it to their players to try and run it back and recapture the championship magic.
But the reality of the situation was that, mostly due to financial hardships, the team kept losing players via free agency as Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and then Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all walked out the door for nothing. Calvin Booth compounded the situation by handing out bad contracts to players who were past their prime or would never reach it.
And to make matters even worse, he carelessly traded away picks to get out of the ensuing bad contracts. It was a bad situation, and as the ESPN article by Zack Kram accurately points out, it’s a big part of the reason why Booth eventually lost his job.
Nuggets’ hands were tied in many ways
A big part of the issue was the fact that Denver had already used a lot of their bullets on previous trades. Yes, they failed to make trades to upgrade the roster from 2023-25, but that was largely because they had used so many assets to build the team that won it all.
Picks were sent out in a number of trades in years prior to draft young players and add veterans. Ultimately, the team won a title, so the moves were worth it. Some of those trades didn’t work out, but enough of them did for them to reach the top of the mountain, which is what it’s all about.
Nuggets’ new front office immediately corrected mistake
At the same time, it’s hard to sit here and make excuses for Booth and the Nuggets when the new front office combo of Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace came in and built a juggernaut in days. They immediately traded MPJ for Johnson, making the team better and creating financial flexibility.
They promptly signed Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown, plus pulled another rabbit out of the hat by trading Dario Saric for Jonas Valanciunas. ESPN was justified in its criticisms of the Nuggets, but I’m happy to report that it appears that the era of those errors is in the rearview.