The Nuggets have come under a lot of fire recently, with things reaching a boiling point as the team decided to fire head coach Michael Malone and part ways with GM Calvin Booth. Much has been made of the relationship between the two parties, how it turned toxic, and ultimately led to both of their demises.
Booth’s roster moves and team-building approach have been heavily scrutinized in the wake of his departure, and rightfully so. The Zeke Nnaji extension made no sense, deals for Reggie Jackson and Dario Saric were confounding, eagerly trading away draft picks was extremely frustrating, and those are just scratching the surface.
But one of the biggest moves of Booth’s tenure with the Nuggets was a move he did not make last offseason, letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk in free agency.
KCP completely flames out in play-in game
On Tuesday night, in the first play-in game, the Magic hosted the Hawks in a battle for the seven-seed in the Eastern Conference. KCP played just 26 minutes, scored 5 points, and shot 1-8 from the field as he was outplayed and bailed out by Cole Anthony and Anthony Black.
This comes on the tail of a major down-season for Caldwell-Pope who ended up playing under 30 minutes a game and averaging just 8.7 points per game on 34% shooting from three. He’s still a good defender and veteran leader, but it certainly seems like the 32-year-old’s game is starting to decline if year one in Orlando is any indication.
Caldwell-Pope’s contract will age like milk
The Nuggets could absolutely use KCP and his perimeter defense right now. Heck, if he was still playing with Nikola Jokic maybe he’d even be shooting better and scoring more points. But this is as much about the money as the player. The Magic offered him a three-year, $66 million deal last summer and the Nuggets had no interest in matching.
It’s easy to point to the Nuggets’ wasted roster spots and money, but in a vacuum, this was a great decision. KCP will never be close to worth that amount of money and paying him over $20 million a year would have been a complete disaster. Christian Braun has done a great job of stepping into the starting lineup in Denver, but the problem has come in other places.
This Nuggets roster is a bit of a mess and Calvin Booth didn’t exactly set the team up to be the dynasty he talked about. But it does appear that balking at paying KCP $66 million for three years was one of his best decisions.