Unless the Nuggets have had a change of heart and are suddenly willing to spend over the second apron and pay an exorbitant tax bill, they need to make a trade to dump salary in order to retain Peyton Watson. But simply dumping a player, even a good one like Cam Johnson, without bringing back significant money is going to be almost impossible.
There are only a handful of teams with meaningful cap space or a large trade exception, and they may not be looking to just add a $20+ million salary for next season. If they are, the Nuggets are likely going to get fleeced in that deal and basically give Cam away for nothing.
A better path to fixing their financial situation may be using a Johnson deal as a first step of many. To keep some of the value of Cam while working towards their goal, the Nuggets could go the less conventional route and move him for multiple players, breaking up his salary.Â
That would open up his trade market significantly, as teams could come close to, or even match, his salary. There are plenty of teams that could want Johnson in that scenario and could send the Nuggets two or three role players whose salaries add up to around $20 million (Johnson will make just over $23 million next season).
Nuggets can kill multiple birds with one stone
Denver could actually attack some of their other needs, like finding a cheap backup point guard and/or center on the trade market, and have some smaller salaries that would be much easier to dump.Â
As a complete hypothetical, let’s say the Clippers want to improve and like Johnson’s fit. They could send the Nuggets Derrick Jones Jr., Isaiah Jackson, and Cameron Christie in a legal trade. The Clippers get a solid starting forward and some shooting and scoring punch, while the Nuggets get a solid three-and-D wing in DJJ, a backup center in Jackson, and a young guard in Christie.
More importantly, Jones Jr. is set to make $10.4 million next season, Jackson $7 million, and Christie just $2.3 million. Each of those deals, by itself, should be very movable, so the Nuggets can just keep wheeling and dealing until they get their payroll down to a more manageable number that allows them to retain Watson while adding cheap role players who fit their needs in the process.
It’s still a salary dump at the end of the day, but this path gives the Nuggets more options and allows them to hopefully recoup more value for Johnson, who is still a rock-solid NBA starter in his prime. It’s far from a perfect solution, but it may be the best and most realistic path forward for Denver.
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