5 Denver Nuggets who definitely won't be back next season

The Nuggets’ season came to a gut-wrenching end on Sunday night as they lost Game 7 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Thus ends the title defense for the Nuggets, going out in disappointing fashion. The team rebounded from an 0-2 hole in the series to take a 3-2 lead but they got demolished in Game 6, then blew the biggest halftime lead in Game 7 history to lose the series.

Denver led by 15 at half (the previous high in a Game 7 loss was 11) and actually pushed it up to 20 in the third quarter before the wheels completely fell off. There is no shame in losing to the Timberwolves, who look like they may be on their way to a title of their own. Repeating as NBA champions is also an incredibly difficult task, especially in a loaded Western Conference.

But at the same time, the Nuggets’ stars were absolutely exhausted by the end of this series and the supplemental stars and role players weren’t able to give them any help. This loss exposed some warts with the Nuggets roster that need fixing. 

The team has the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic under contract for four more years, but he’ll turn 30 next season and he’s won three of the last four MVP awards. There’s no telling how many years of Jokic’s prime are left and the Nuggets can’t afford to squander a single one. 

The Nuggets still have one of the best teams, but their depth was a major issue, the team is strapped for assets, and the rest of the West is just going to get better. This will likely lead to major changes this coming offseason. The Nuggets are going to have to make some hard decisions and take some risks to make sure this team is better suited to win a title next season. That means we are going to be saying goodbye to some familiar faces.

5. The Nuggets aren’t going to be able to retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

This one is going to hurt. KCP has established himself as an excellent wing defender, a capable shooter and secondary scorer, and most of all a steadying veteran presence who contributes to winning. Every team would love to have a guy like Kentavious, and unfortunately for the Nuggets, that’s the problem.

Caldwell-Pope has a player option this offseason for $15.4 million but he will almost certainly decline that. KCP will be a hot commodity on the open market and should easily be able to sign a lucrative long-term deal worth more money per season than he’d make with his option.

He’s 31 years old, which means he probably has one more shot at a big payday on a longer deal and there will likely never be a better opportunity for him to cash in than there is right now. 

The team will do everything they can to keep KCP in Denver, but with Jokic and MPJ already on the books for big money and Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon being up for big extensions this summer, they can only go so high for Caldwell-Pope.

4. DeAndre Jordan is no longer a viable NBA backup center

This isn’t exactly breaking news and it has arguably been the case for several years. But watching an exhausted Jokic play 47 minutes in Game 7 was further proof that it’s time for the Nuggets to get a legitimate backup center.

There was hope for Zeke Nnaji, but he didn’t progress as much as the team hoped and he was likely too small to play center in this series. Aaron Gordon can be feasible as a small-ball center at times but that’s more of a last resort.

DeAndre Jordan is an unrestricted free agent and unless it’s in an assistant coaching role, I don’t see any reason to bring him back. DAJ has been a great veteran leader, but it’s time for the team to employ an actual center who can spell Jokic without the team falling off a cliff. 

Perhaps the Nuggets will attack the center position with the 28th pick in the draft, maybe they will try for another minimum contract center on the free agency market, or maybe they’ll target a playable big man in a trade. But one way or another, they need more beef down low next season. 6’9” Zeke Nnaji, 35-year-old DeAndre Jordan, and two-way player Jay Huff are not a backup frontcourt on a championship team.

3. Justin Holiday is probably going to be able to get more than the veteran minimum

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Justin Holiday ended up being one of the Nuggets' only reliable bench players in the playoffs. He shot the ball well and played solid defense, coming through for the team on multiple occasions and eventually completely usurping the role of Peyton Watson. Despite putting up an empty stat line in Game 7, Holiday was a team-high +10 in just 9 minutes. He was the only Nugget with a positive +/- who played in the game.

But the 35-year-old is an unrestricted free agent this offseason and there are going to be a lot of teams interested in a solid shooting and defending guard/wing player who just held up in an extremely competitive, high-level playoff series.

Holiday hasn’t had any big contracts in his career, so he’ll likely look to capitalize on whatever payday he can get at this late stage of his playing days. If a team steps up and offers him a solid deal it’s going to be tough for the Nuggets to match. I wouldn’t expect him to take any kind of hometown discount and there are probably teams that can offer him more money as well as a larger role.

Holiday has been a solid contributor for the Nuggets, but the team needs to get younger and can’t be allocating their limited assets to a 35-year-old backup at this point.

2. Teams are going to want Reggie Jackson

Yet another player who may have played his way out of the Nuggets’ budget is Reggie Jackson. Jackson had a resurgent season at age 34 and actually became a solid playoff contributor for Denver. He has a $5.2 million player option for next season, but he’ll likely decline it. Every team in the league could use ballhandling and shooting and that’s what Jackson brings.

At his age, he’ll be looking to cash in on a longer deal after his solid season and postseason. He could be a solid veteran role player for a team in need of some shooting punch and it’s just hard to imagine the Nuggets paying up for yet another aging backup.

It’s unfortunate for Denver that their role players who came through for them this season all seem to be older and entering free agency while many of the younger players who are under contract failed to impress.

But that’s the precarious position the team finds itself in and they are going to have to act accordingly. That is going to mean letting go of some older players who played well and taking some chances on younger players, either ones already on the roster, ones added through the draft, or potential trade/free agent targets. But someone is going to likely pay up for Reggie Jackson this offseason, and it shouldn’t be the Nuggets.

1. The Nuggets aren’t going to be able to keep their core together while paying Michael Porter Jr.

MPJ had a solid season and was arguably the team’s second-best player in the first-round series win over the Lakers. He had a solid season overall and he was dealing with some horrible distractions in the playoffs. Porter Jr. is still just 25 and has shown the ability to be one of the best knockdown shooters in the league at 6’10”.

But Porter Jr. has proven to be far too one-dimensional, and when the shots aren’t falling, he can become invisible. That’s simply unacceptable for a player making almost $36 million next season. They’re going to have to pay Murray and Gordon soon and that’s going to make MPJ the odd man out. He’s young and good enough that he will still have trade value, and the team needs to capitalize before that changes.

Porter Jr. is the only real trade chip the Nuggets have that can help them improve the roster. His contract is big enough that they can either target a star player or bolster their depth by adding multiple role players. If the team keeps Porter, that would mean a huge gamble on the young and unproven Nuggets players making a huge leap, or the team striking gold in the draft or on a minimum free agency signing.

But those aren’t risks the team can afford to take. They need to make this team better and that means swapping out MPJ for players who fit better around Jokic, Murray, and Gordon. MPJ has been a great Nugget, but he can’t create offense for himself or others and he’s not a good defender. A team contending for the title can’t be paying as much as the Nuggets are for Mike. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but this is the big move that Calvin Booth and the Nuggets are going to have to make this offseason to retool and keep contending for championships.