The Nuggets held an introductory press conference for front office hires Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace on Tuesday, but President (oh ya, and son of the owner Stan Kroenke!) Josh Kroenke stole the show with his ridiculous, unprompted statement. Kroenke was talking about the salary cap and the importance of staying out of the second apron, explaining that in that situation, he could face the doomsday scenario of contemplating trading Nikola Jokic.
He referenced the idea of the second apron being a hard cap, essentially, explaining that the rules around the restrictive luxury tax apron in the new CBA were things the team had to be careful to avoid, especially given its injury history.
He then uttered that, "The wrong person gets injured and very quickly you're in a scenario where, that I never want to have to contemplate, and that's trading number 15". That's quite the leap from dealing with a few restrictive rules, to suddenly you are trading away Jokic!
Nuggets too forthcoming with media
It's infuriating to see Nuggets brass being this brutally honest, and Kroenke represents ownership. The second apron will have restrictive rules regarding roster building, sure, but there's also the amount of luxury taxes the Kroenkes would have to fork over.
The combination is forcing most teams to avoid the second apron, or at least avoid staying above it for long, but most owners and team presidents are saying it out loud, and they certainly aren't saying that it would make the team one injury away from trading away the team's best player!
Nuggets roster-building and waste of assets to blame
The real culprit here is not the second apron; it's the moves the Nuggets have made over the past few critical seasons. They gave Michael Porter Jr. a max extension, and likewise for Jamal Murray. They handed out needless contracts wasted on guys like Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric, Reggie Jackson, and others.
On top of that, they've wasted draft capital chasing moves on the margins that didn't hit. Furthermore, with the ridiculous battle between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth that was going on, the young players weren't put in the best situations to develop.
Put it all together, and the Nuggets have a team built around the best player in the world, a couple of good but not great sidekicks in Murray and Aaron Gordon, role players in MPJ and Christian Braun, and very little beyond that.
The contracts are mostly unmovable for positive value, and there's no draft equity left to get off deals or make upgrades. With a team that shallow, one injury can certainly be devastating, and with few avenues for improvement, things could get ugly in that scenario.
Teams would absolutely call about Jokic, just look at all the rumors flying about Giannis and the Bucks right now, but that doesn't mean you have to entertain the idea. And you certainly don't have to imagine it happening in advance and telegraphing it to your fans. What a debacle.