Shocker: Another anonymous NBA executive dumps on the Nuggets ahead of season

Everyone and their uncle with a platform has taken their chance to come out of the woodwork this offseason and criticize the Denver Nuggets. We’ve heard from players, coaches, executives, media members, fans, and everyone in between and the constant theme has been skepticism.

Sure, there are some who still believe in the Nuggets, but the general discourse has been negative. People didn’t like the team letting KCP walk. They didn’t like trading draft picks away. They didn’t like signing only Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric. They didn’t like the max extension for Jamal Murray.

Piecing together the collective opinions, it appears that most people think the Nuggets have regressed in recent years and they’ve been passed by Western Conference teams like the Thunder, Timberwolves, Mavericks, and maybe even others. 

All Nuggets fans can do is sit back and laugh or roll their eyes. It’s totally reasonable to be skeptical about the moves that the team has made, but things have gone too far.

NBA executive calls Nuggets "stuck"

The latest bit of bulletin board material to hit comes from an anonymous NBA executive. They told Mark Medina of sportskeeda.com that Jamal Murray is going “backward”, that Michael Porter Jr. is “terribly overrated”, and that the Nuggets are “stuck with the team they have”.

It’s hard to argue much with the Murray piece at the moment. We haven’t seen anything promising from Jamal in a long time. He and the team can say the right things until we’re blue in the face, but at this point, the narrative can only change based on Jamal’s play. He needs a good start to the season to silence his critics.

The Porter Jr. comments feel unfair, especially given how well he has played in the preseason. I’m not sure who is ever rating MPJ highly; most of the media discourse has been calling him overpaid and pining for the Nuggets to trade him. He’ll have to carry it into the regular season, but so far this fall, he has looked better than ever and is ready to take a real leap.

Now the part about the Nuggets being “stuck” is somewhat true, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Nuggets chose this route and they’ve built the team they want which still includes Nikola Jokic, the best player in the world. If the young players hit and Murray is still Murray, then the Nuggets are “stuck” with a contending roster for years to come.

But if the naysayers are correct and Murray has really fallen off, Porter Jr. just is what he is, and the young players don’t flourish then yes, the team will be “stuck” in a bad way. But this is team building in the modern NBA. The league isn’t designed for dynasties. 

Only time will tell how this all plays out. But the Nuggets seem to be receiving as much criticism as any contender or recent champion should. They have a sort of “nobody believes in us” narrative building and let’s hope that motivates them to shut everybody up.