Despite rostering the best player in the world, the Denver Nuggets are stuck in the mud entering the 2025 offseason.
In a league that now requires depth and financial flexibility to contend, the Nuggets, who have neither, have clearly fallen behind. After getting stomped by the Oklahoma City Thunder in a season-ending blowout, Denver is forced to address the problem of maximizing the talent around Nikola Jokic without any obvious pathways to do so.
The Nuggets, who harbor four max contracts, own a very small number of tradable assets and draft picks, and have almost zero wiggle room amidst the restrictive Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Without trading one of Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, or Michael Porter Jr., the Nuggets' ability to make any major moves will be hindered. And while a majority of the fanbase will want Denver to trade the streaky Porter Jr., shipped out of town, the reality is that the market for those two players is not going to be very high.
Porter Jr., who is set to make 38 million next season, is going to be nearly impossible to move until 2026-2027, when his contract becomes an expiring deal. While I commend MPJ for his toughness while playing through a gruesome shoulder injury, his 2025 postseason has sunk his value even further.
In 14 postseason games, Porter was unable to average double digits in points, and averaged 34% from three. In six postseason games, he scored 6 or fewer. Against the Thunder, he averaged 7.4 points per game, including a COMBINED 19 points in Denver’s four losses.
It would take a Nico Harrison-esque blunder from other GMs to turn MPJ’s hefty contract into returnable assets, and unless Denver is willing to attach Christian Braun to a deal, the Nuggets might be stuck with their current starting five.
Can the Nuggets improve around the margins?
The Nuggets' core is still incredibly talented and may have won the title without injuries to Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon. Despite the injuries to Porter and Gordon, Denver’s starting group still had an impressive +11.3 Net Rating in 282 minutes in this year's playoffs. Their top five guys were still good enough to win a title, despite the injuries.
The reason for Denver’s downfall was once again their bench. When Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray sat, Denver repeatedly peed down its leg, which forced Interim Head Coach David Adelman to run the starters into the ground, similar to Malone in previous seasons. Denver lost Game 5 in Oklahoma City due to end-of-game exhaustion. They lost Game 7 after blowing an early 21-10 lead in the disastrous non-Jokic and Jamal minutes.
If Denver had even half the bench production of Oklahoma City, they would still be playing. One option for Denver is to keep the starters together and make upgrades to their bench. Unfortunately, that may be difficult as well.
Zeke Nnaji, who didn’t play any meaningful minutes for Denver, still has 3 years left on his 4-year, 32 million deal that has destroyed Denver’s remaining potential flexibility. It’s going to be nearly impossible to trade him.
Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook both have player options next year, which means if they both opt into their deals, the Nuggets would be shelling out a combined 8 million more to two aging veterans, one who only played 210 minutes for the entire season.
Denver does have Julian Strawther, who is probably Denver’s best bench asset, and the second-year guard out of Gonzaga has shown flashes. Denver also had high hopes when drafting Daron Holmes, who missed the season with an Achilles tear. My gut says both players will be successful NBA guys. I also like Jalen Pickett as a backup point guard.
But after watching Denver’s young players look like deer in the headlights away from the friendly confines of Ball Arena in Denver’s Game 7 loss, it seems far-fetched to put the future of Jokic's prime in their hands. None of those guys have proven enough in their short careers to fetch any sort of value in a major trade or be fully trusted to develop into the glue guys needed to win a title. So, where does this leave them?
Denver is stuck
While it’s easy to shout from the mountain top to trade Michael Porter Jr. or Zeke Nnaji, running an NBA team is not like playing fantasy basketball. Contracts have to match, and valuable assets must be attached to deals to get rid of players on bad contracts. Unfortunately, Denver has a plethora of bad contracts and not enough assets.
Whoever Josh Kroenke decides to hire as the Denver Nuggets' next General Manager is going to be under an enormous amount of pressure to put together another title contender, as the prime years of Nikola Jokic continue to tick away.
The next GM is going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, with no obvious moves to make other than hoping the young guys can develop. As Denver heads into a murky offseason, there are way more questions than answers.
Only one thing is for sure: Two years removed from championship glory, it is astounding how quickly those dreaded winds of change can roar.