Despite all of the recent roster mismanagement, LeBron James offered the Nuggets a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card this summer. But that dream is officially dead as James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, forcing the Nuggets to move on and face a brutal reality that lies ahead.
LeBron could have justified spending into the 2nd apron
There was a bit of a rumor floating around that the Nuggets may actually go into the second apron and pay a massive luxury bill to run it back, but realistically, that was always a long shot and only made any sense if the team brought in James.
With LeBron in Denver on a veteran minimum contract for a grand finale, the Nuggets would have been the hottest ticket in the league, and the team would have been printing money for as long as he stayed in town. The luxury bill would have been high, but the presence of James and his effect on the team would have made it well worth it.Â
Without adding him on a massive discount, this no longer feels like a tangible path forward for this ownership group. They’ll be stuck with a team that’s not good enough and paying a fortune to keep it together.
Klutch connection could have salvaged relationship with Peyton Watson
Another perk of signing James would have been the obvious connection to Klutch Sports and Rich Paul, the representatives for Peyton Watson. The unfortunate part of restricted free agency is that even if the Nuggets bring Watson back, he may be disenchanted by the franchise after this process. These situations never seem to work out, and it feels like it ends with a sign-and-trade or a reluctant short-term contract that allows P-Wat to be traded or hit unrestricted free agency soon.
After a months-long stalemate, it seems unlikely that Watson or Klutch are going to be happy with this outcome, so even if he’s in Denver next season, it’s hard to imagine he’s going to be enthused about going to work every day. The last thing you want is to pay big money for a player that doesn’t want to be there.
With James taking a discount to join the Nuggets, the situation could have been alleviated, and the sides could have agreed to a deal that made everyone happy and kept Watson in Denver with his Klutch brethren.
Nuggets' contention window would have been saved
And finally, and most important of all, signing James would have fixed the issues with the roster. He would have been another ballhandler and playmaker that the team so desperately needed alongside Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. He would have been the perfect basketball savant to drop into this roster, giving them the versatility to play a variety of styles.
There’s no guarantee that he would have won a title in Denver, but he would have absolutely given them a real shot. A lineup of Murray, Watson, James, Aaron Gordon, and Jokic would have been absolutely lethal on both ends, offering a little bit of everything.
That still would have offered depth with Cam Johnson, Christian Braun, and others, making the Nuggets one of the most complete teams in the league as well. Plus, you’d have to imagine luring James to Denver to meld his mind with Jokic would be enough to convince the Joker to sign that extension and make sure he only plays for one team in his NBA career.
But now, the dream of LeBron is dead, and the Nuggets are in big trouble. They’ve got an aging and expensive core that may not be good enough. A young budding star who’s in a contract dispute. Almost no bench to speak of. And an unavoidable salary cap disaster on the horizon. For a fleeting moment, they had the chance to save the offseason and completely flip every narrative, but after Friday’s news, it’s right back to the drawing board.
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