Compared to most of the NBA, it’s hard to say the Denver Nuggets aren’t in great shape. The team won the championship last season and gave a valiant defense effort before coming up short. They’ve still got Nikola Jokic, the best player alive, in his prime and he’s not going anywhere any time soon.
The team also has a great coach in Michael Malone, a rock-solid co-star in Jamal Murray, and a perfectly fitting third banana in Aaron Gordon. Most teams in the league would kill to be in the Nuggets’ position moving forward.
The Nuggets roster is losing talent
But beyond the surface, the Nuggets have an issue that’s been slowly building and there’s no solution in sight. The problem is that the Nuggets’ championship roster is slowly getting worse and worse and more and more top-heavy. The stars are in place, and they may pay through the nose to keep the entire starting lineup intact, but beyond that, it’s getting grim.
After winning it all, the team quickly lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green to big free-agent contracts. This offseason there’s a chance we see the same fate for players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Justin Holiday, and Reggie Jackson. That would be three of the top eight players from a roster that had lost two of the top eight from the season prior.
The Nuggets need to shore up the roster and win on the margins
We’re drifting further away from the team that took home the title and closing in on a “big 3” surrounded by an uninspiring and inexperienced cast of characters. Even if these players leave, the Nuggets have little means to replace them. They’ll have to hit home runs with their minimum signings and draft picks.
They’ve done an okay job of this recently but it’s not easy to do, especially when the team has no salary cap space and only draft picks near the end of each round. Ideally, after taking a small step back this season, the Nuggets would be retooling for another run. But due (mostly) to finances, they might be taking another step back - possibly a bigger step.
There isn’t much the team can do other than nail their moves on the margins and try to find a diamond in the rough. As long as Jokic and Murray are on the team, the Nuggets will have a puncher’s chance. But if they aren’t able to improve the roster, they risk getting passed by a number of up-and-comers in the Western Conference.