The news around Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and his free agency keeps getting worse and worse for Nuggets fans. The team has been staring this problem in the face since the day the season ended (and beyond, really), and now the mini-crisis is coming to a head as free agency officially begins on Sunday.
On Wednesday night, Nuggets GM Calvin Booth had some blunt comments, insinuating that KCP is likely to leave, that the team is prepared for life without him, and that they will be ok once he leaves. Then on Thursday, Caldwell-Pope made it official, declining his $15.4 million player option to hit unrestricted free agency.
Later on Thursday, the team traded Reggie Jackson and three second-round picks to get his $5.25 million salary off the books and free up some precious money. There was some hope that this was an indication that the team was upping their offer for KCP and making a big last-ditch effort to retain their defensive ace.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope appears set to leave the Nuggets in free agency
But then overnight, senior NBA insider Marc Stein released some new reporting on the Caldwell-Pope front and it doesn’t sound promising at all for Denver. Stein wrote that league sources tell him KCP is now “more likely than not” to leave the Nuggets this offseason and said the team has been unsuccessful in negotiating a new contract thus far.
My latest on an emerging focal point of NBA free agency: https://t.co/lQmkNithfd pic.twitter.com/WZumLdByix
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 28, 2024
Stein mentioned the usual suspects with cap space, the 76ers and Magic, as possible threats to lure Caldwell-Pope away. But he also mentioned that there is mutual interest in Dallas. The Mavericks don’t have the cap space, so that would require a sign and trade taking place.
Nuggets would rather lose KCP for nothing than trade him to Dallas
Yet Stein also reported that the Nuggets don’t want to play ball with the Mavericks, the reigning Western Conference champs and that they would rather let KCP walk for nothing than trade him to a rival contender in the West.
Surely the Nuggets will stay in the mix and do all they can to work out a reasonable extension with Caldwell-Pope, but all signs point to him leaving and the team moving on. Everything is still on the table, but it sounds like it’s getting late early so to speak. The Nuggets front office has their work cut out for them as it appears likely they’ll have to replace a member of the 2023 championship starting lineup.