It was impossible to watch the battered and bruised Nuggets sadly limp to the finish line of a 125-93 rout at the hands of the Thunder in Game 7 and not think about the future. This team fought valiantly to even reach a do-or-die game in OKC against this 68-win juggernaut, but we saw it all unravel in glorious fashion on Sunday afternoon.
The team was simply overmatched, even at full strength. The Thunder were able to throw waves and waves of healthy, young players at Denver, wearing them down over the course of seven games. The Nuggets basically had six playoff-caliber players, and injuries badly hampered at least two of them.
This was a mismatch from the jump, and it’s not hard for Denver to convince themselves that they should be proud of their efforts. But still, even at full strength, this was going to be an issue, and there is no easy solution.
There are many reasons for these issues that have been created over the past few years. Calvin Booth certainly shoulders a lot of the blame, hence why he was unceremoniously fired in the final week of the regular season. But in terms of players on the roster, look no further than Michael Porter Jr.
MPJ contract has become untenable
Porter Jr. made just about $36 million this season; he’ll make $38.3 million next season, and over $40 million the following season. That’s star-level money, and in this CBA, you can’t afford to pay star-level money to a non-star. Sadly, that’s exactly what Porter Jr. has settled in as, a role player.
The improvement just hasn’t come, and MPJ has flatlined as a solid but not great player. He is still an elite movement shooter with great height, but his ball-handling and playmaking skills simply haven’t even improved. He has also stagnated as a defender and rebounder, rendering himself a fairly one-dimensional player.
While elite 3-point shooting at 6’10” is a nice dimension, it doesn’t warrant the contract MPJ is getting. He just hasn’t come along enough, and at this point, he’s about to enter his age-27 season. The Nuggets need to rebalance the roster and their finances, and MPJ is the obvious starting point.
Nuggets need to move Porter Jr. this offseason
Denver has to get off that contract one way or another. Unfortunately, his value around the league won’t be high, but they just need to move the money and turn it into multiple role players to build depth on the roster.
The team needs a major reshuffle as extensions for Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon are about to kick in. Nikola Jokic is already on a supermax contract. And Christian Braun is about to be due for a large extension of his own.
The math isn’t going to work out, and the Nuggets need to be proactive in getting out ahead of these problems before it’s too late and they have to be reactive, getting rid of players they would rather keep. It’s far from a perfect ending for a player who has spent his whole career in Denver and helped the team win a championship, but it has to happen.