It was a tough and controversial decision for the Nuggets one year ago, but they ultimately decided to let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope depart as a free agent. Denver’s payroll was getting expensive, and GM Calvin Booth and company didn’t want to match the high price that KCP ended up drawing from the Magic.
Caldwell-Pope signed a three-year, $66 million deal with the Magic, and with that, the Nuggets lost a key starter from their 2023 championship squad. Denver missed KCP last season, there’s no doubt about it, but more than anything, they missed him because they didn’t replace him.
The team lacked depth, but Christian Braun vastly outplayed Caldwell-Pope. In fact, KCP fell off a cliff in Orlando offensively, scoring just 8.7 points per game and shooting just 34% from the three-point line.
He wasn’t able to give the Magic the veteran boost they were looking for when they signed him, and they lost in the first round in five games, largely because they couldn’t get any shooting and scoring from role players.
It didn’t even take a full season for the KCP contract with the Magic to look like a major overpay, and things got even worse on Sunday. Not even a full year after Caldwell-Pope signed with the Magic, the team dealt him away for an upgrade.
Magic dump KCP’s salary in Desmond Bane blockbuster
The Magic made an all-in kind of trade on Sunday as they swapped KCP, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks, and a swap to the Grizzlies in exchange for Desmond Bane. If that sounds like a massive haul for Bane, some of it is because Caldwell-Pope was valued as a negative asset.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that one of the first-round picks traded in the deal was the price for Orlando to get out of the KCP deal. His salary was needed to make the deal work financially, but the Grizzlies didn’t want the contract, forcing the Magic to throw in an extra first-rounder to appease Memphis.
It’s quite a fall from grace for KCP, who was thought to be a sought-after free agent last summer and a solid addition for the Magic. But after a brutal year, it looks like his days of impacting playoff games may be behind him. Surely, he’ll get another chance, whether in Memphis or elsewhere, but he’ll be dragging this contract along with him for the next two seasons.
For the Nuggets, if it wasn’t already, it’s now abundantly clear that they made the right decision not to match this contract to keep KCP in Denver. Say what you want about the plan, or lack thereof, to replace Caldwell-Pope’s minutes in Denver, but paying him would not have been the right decision.