Bad look for Denver: former Nuggets champion bought out, signs with contender

The Nuggets have taken plenty of heat this summer for their offseason maneuvers, including several that look like pure cost-cutting moves. It’s always disappointing to see a championship-caliber team losing out on talent just to shed some salary, but it’s hard to argue that’s not what’s been happening in Denver.

The most glaring example was obviously Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, as the team let him walk in free agency and sign with the Magic. They could have matched his contract but chose not to, making an excuse about staying under the second apron and remaining flexible.

Reggie Jackson salary-dump looking worse and worse

But a move that was equally, if not more disturbing was the Reggie Jackson salary dump. The Nuggets dumbly signed Jackson with the taxpayer midlevel exception last offseason and gave him a player option for this season. Jackson picked up the $5.25 million option for this season, but the Nuggets wanted badly to get off of his contract.

So they shipped him off to the Hornets and attached a whopping three 2nd-round picks to do so. That’s an outrageous price to pay just to get off of a $5.25 million expiring contract. To make matters worse, as of this writing, the Nuggets still haven’t replaced Jackson, who was at least marginally useful last year. The team doesn’t currently have a viable backup point guard and will need to sign one.

Reggie Jackson signing on with Philadelphia 76ers

Now the Hornets, who are rebuilding, have bought out Jackson, allowing him to hit free agency again. And Jackson has agreed on a deal to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers to play alongside Joel Embiid and reunite with his old Clippers teammate Paul George.

It’s not like Jackson is anything more than a fringe rotation player, and losing him in a vacuum is no big deal. But it’s disappointing that another contending team found him useful enough to sign, but the Nuggets paid handsomely simply to NOT employ him.

We’ll see how things shake out with the Nuggets’ backup point guard situation, as it seems like Russell Westbrook is on the way. Either way, the optics aren’t great for a Nuggets team that has already had a questionable offseason at best.