Whoever takes over as the next GM of the Nuggets will have their work cut out for them this summer. They’ll almost certainly need to find a way to trim salary, while also improving the roster and also building out the team’s depth.
To make things even tougher, the team has no picks in this year’s draft at their disposal and no salary cap space. And on top of it all, one of the only emerging young players on the roster, who has become a core part of the rotation, Christian Braun, is due for an extension this summer that may well land in the $25-35 million range for average annual value.
On the one hand, the Nuggets are in no position to be handing out ~$30 million deals this offseason, but on the other hand, they absolutely cannot afford to lose a player like Braun, who has become a reliable and durable glue guy, an elite transition scorer, and the closest thing Denver has to a lockdown perimeter defender.
Nuggets must clear cap space to make room for Braun extension
Realistically, the Nuggets aren’t going to have five players on the roster making upwards of $25 million, which means if they want to re-sign Braun, they must move at least one of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, or Michael Porter Jr. to make the money work.
In the 2026-27 season, Jokic is slated to make almost $60 million, Murray is just over $50 million, MPJ is just over $40 million, and Gordon will be right around $32 million. Add in a potential $30 million for Braun, and that would make one of the most expensive rosters in history with just five players.
And for what it’s worth, we just saw that those five players alone are not good enough to contend for a title. The team needs more talent and more depth, and they need to shed costs. Going forward, without a contract extension for Brau,n should also be a non-starter as they cannot afford to lose him.
Nuggets must make a splash trade this summer
This all boils down to the same thing we’ve been saying about this offseason for months: Denver needs to make a move. MPJ is the most likely trade candidate, but he may not have much value with his giant contract.
Salary dumping a member of the core four would be a sorry way for this era of Nuggets basketball to end, but it’s looking more and more like it may be the only solution to keep building the team around Jokic and keep Braun in Denver.