Freshly traded, Michael Porter Jr. is just getting acclimated with his new team, the Nets, and he’s already taking shots at the Nuggets. In his Curious Mike vlog, titled “First Day in Brooklyn”, Mike is seen marveling at the Nets’ practice facility, immediately noting, “I’m just glad y'all got two courts…cuz over there we had the one court”.
He’s even laughing as he’s saying it, as if to emphasize how ridiculous it is that Denver only has one practice court. The Nuggets’ facilities have been much maligned, and the Kroenkes have been rightfully criticized for refusing to upgrade and modernize.
It’s hard to tell if Porter Jr. was being snarky and sending shots at the Kroenkes, or if he was just genuinely awed at the Nets’ facilities. Either way, it was almost as if he hadn’t even considered the possibility that NBA players could work in such a nice place.
Nuggets' facilities are embarrassing
No matter how this gets spun, it’s a pretty bad look for the Nuggets as an organization. The fact that their facilities are so bad, that this was MPJ’s first impression with his new team, is pathetic and embarrassing. The Kroenkes have gotten the cheap label for years, and while they’ve done enough to spend on competitive teams across sports, they’ve always been known to cut corners on the margins.
This is one of the more classic examples, as it’s no secret that Denver has some of the worst and most outdated facilities in the entire league. There’s no excuse for the owners not to pour a little money into this and bring the team into the modern day.
Kroenkes should spend to make Nuggets first class
While this may seem like a trivial matter, it’s really not. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s just an example of how the team operates and how they aren’t maximizing their potential. There is a salary cap for roster building, but outside of that, savvy teams with good owners spend money to create advantages in other ways.
It can be spending big on coaches, scouts, facilities, training staff, and other things, but the bottom line is that there are ways to get ahead, and the Nuggets refuse to do them. David Adelman, Ben Tenzer, and Jon Wallace may be great hires, but they weren’t splashy, big-spending moves. The roster has gotten better, but the team may not even be above the luxury tax.
Nikola Jokic has propped up a lot of things for the franchise since arriving in Denver. The least the Kroenkes could do is repay him by investing in the organization from top to bottom and making it a better place to work.