4 Offseason moves Nuggets must make to quiet critics (and stay in contention)

The Nuggets have had an awfully slow start to free agency and the team isn’t exactly getting rave reviews from people in the NBA world. The growing consensus seems to be that ownership has cut costs to save on luxury taxes while spinning it as some kind of youth movement.

The reality is that the team has lost a key starter in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to free agency and they’ve done nothing to improve the team for next season. Meanwhile, they employ Nikola Jokic, the best player in the world and the reigning MVP who will turn 30 next season.

It could be a very long time before the Nuggets have a better chance to win a title than they will in the next few years, the remainder of Jokic’s prime. They can ill afford to squander this rare opportunity, but so far it feels like the team has only gotten worse since winning it all in 2023.

Public sentiment has turned against the team and a disappointing campaign next season could be a disaster. The Nuggets’ front office and ownership need to get on the same page and try to right this ship before it sinks. There is still time, but they need to act now. Here are 4 moves the Nuggets should make to turn things around this offseason.

Move no. 1) - Extend Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon

This needs to be of the highest priority. The Nuggets have made it clear that they are committed to their top guys and they’ll figure out the rest; so they need to ensure the core is here to stay. Reports of a max extension for Murray have already come out and it sounds like that will be made official in the coming weeks.

The Gordon situation is a little dicier as he’s only able to re-sign for 120% of his current contract - which would be somewhat of a discount. Will he be content making significantly less money than Michael Porter Jr.? He could easily decide to turn down his max extension and ride it out for another year in hopes of making much more.

There’s also the horrifying possibility that the team simply won’t extend Gordon and he’ll go the way of Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The team could argue that Gordon is getting a bit long in the tooth and his next contract will be an overpay as they groom DaRon Holmes to replace him after next season.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, but this is the way the Nuggets have made their fans think. They need to go out and take care of business to show the necessary financial commitment to keeping the top of this roster intact to compete for titles.