The only thing worse than losing Peyton Watson might be keeping him to go into the second apron.

Nobody loves spending owners’ money as much as I do, but why would the Kroenkes take a $177 million tax hit for this group?

It would be one thing if Denver reached the Western Conference Finals in May. They lost in the first round, pantsed in front of the world as soft, feeble and incapable of anger.

Bring back the same top six players and a compromised bench at “Price Is Right” inflation? Please tell me how it makes sense.

This offseason grows more infuriating and demoralizing by the day.

The NBA headlines remain filled with speculation about where James will sign — the Warriors, 76ers, Heat and Cavs appear in the mix — and the Nuggets are dropping social media posts about rotational players and draft picks.

The kind of guys who look good in the defense-free summer league. The kind of seasoned veterans who stand out in Europe. The kind of gypsies who widen eyes in workouts.

So instead of talking about championships and Nikola Jokic, we are left to talk about players who star in practice. Not a game. Practice. Sorry, AI, Chatbot, and whoever else was offended by this remark.

The Athletic recently released its letter grade evaluation of every team’s offseason. The Nuggets received a D-minus. That seems generous.

Tim Hardaway Jr., a cold-blooded 3-point shooter, left for Miami. Jonas Valanciunas was waived to create salary cap relief, signing with Zalgiris Kaunas, a Lithuanian club. Jalen Pickett was cut.

They have been replaced by backup wing Alpha Diallo, a projected versatile defender at all spots, reserve point guard Tyus Jones, bouncy draft pick Trevon Brazile and this year’s Gatorade break for Jokic, Marvin Bagley III.

Even if the Nuggets remain healthier after setting the single-season record for hamstring injuries, it is hard to see this team eclipsing the Spurs, Thunder, and Timberwolves.

Midway through July, the question hangs over Ball Arena like the Goodyear Blimp: What are the Nuggets doing?

Nuggets Nation, if my email and social media replies can be trusted, would rather keep Watson — to heck with frozen future draft picks and the repeater tax — than sign and trade him. Outside of those on the team payroll, nobody believes the Nuggets can win a championship.

It is more about wanting another strong regular season and accepting the poison pill of the playoffs over the alternative of an underwhelming regular season and an early playoff exit.

The evil of two lessers.

Sure. Whatever.

The reality is that the Nuggets have followed arguably their most humbling playoff elimination with a summer of confusion.

There have been reports that they have no spending limitations, and yet the American Express black card remains in their wallet.

There have been indications that they would prefer to avoid the repeater tax and the second apron. And yet, Cam Johnson remains on the roster, the most likely player to be moved to keep Watson.

These are competing agendas. Spend like on a Vegas bender. Or run the budget like clipping coupons. Both messages cannot be true.

Did the Nuggets leak their desire to spend to stay in the hunt for James? Perhaps. Did they do it to appease Jokic, who they believe will eventually sign a contract extension, even if his delay until next summer creates consternation? Maybe.

Did they do it to send a message to the rest of the league — most notably the Clippers, Hawks and Bucks — that they are prepared to match any offer sheet for Watson? Possibly.

Even if Brown and James were privately fever dreams, Watson is not. He is their guy. They know him. And letting a nimble, 23-year-old defender capable of creating his own shot walk out of the building runs contrary to everything Denver requires to remain a future contender.

The Nuggets need athletes, need the energy and enthusiasm the kid brings.

With the dots loosely connected, the latest sign-and-trade for Watson suggested the Nuggets could acquire the Clippers’ Derrick Jones Jr. and first-round draft picks in 2028 and 2031. That is actually a good haul for Watson, save for the fact that Jokic would be 34 when using the first pick and 37 when making the second.

So again, what are the Nuggets doing? Are they going for it? Or going young?

The mixed messages are harder to translate due to inactivity.

There are those who scream for patience, citing the Broncos. Remember when they did nothing during the first week of free agency before Sean Payton pointed his finger like Sophie Cunningham at critics, myself included, after acquiring electric receiver Jaylen Waddle?

Could this be the Nuggets’ play?

Sort of. Not really. Let’s be clear, keeping Watson is not the equivalent of trading for Waddle.

But maybe there is a big deal out there. As colleague Bennett Durando explained, Detroit, Orlando, Memphis and Golden State have also done little, and must meet roster requirements. Could one of these teams make an aggressive play for Johnson or even Jamal Murray, leaving plenty of room to keep Watson and kickstart the process of trending younger?

There has to be another move. Something. Anything.

Because what has happened so far is nothing short of discouraging and puzzling.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Whether or not they eventually trade a starter, they have unfinished business. Three roster spots remain open, and Denver needs to fill at least two of them via free agency or trade to meet the NBA’s requirement. Teams must carry a minimum of 14 players on the 15-man roster.

Two of Denver’s spots might be reserved for a pair of incumbent restricted free agents, both of whom remain in unresolved contract negotiations with the team. There’s also LeBron James, who has the entire league on the edge of its seat.

And then there are other unsigned players in the ether, still looking for a home. Who could the Nuggets acquire or retain? It’s time for a free agency reset, starting with a look at Denver’s roster as it currently stands.

Nuggets projected depth chart

�ʳ�:��Jamal Murray, Tyus Jones

����:��Christian Braun, Julian Strawther

����:��Cam Johnson, Alpha Diallo

�ʹ�:��Aaron Gordon, Zeke Nnaji, Trevon Brazile

��:��Nikola Jokic, Marvin Bagley III, DaRon Holmes II

Keep in mind that players without standard contracts, such as KJ Simpson (point guard) and Bryce Hopkins (small forward), are not included here, but they do have a path to regular-season playing time in Denver.

Until further notice, the Nuggets have the same starting lineup that registered a superb 13.5 net rating last season (when everyone was healthy, which wasn’t often).

Their weak spots are predictably on the bench. Despite David Adelman and Jon Wallace’s cries for more ball-handling and creativity, the backcourt looks especially shallow for now. Bringing back assist-to-turnover demon Tyus Jones for the veteran minimum was a sensible move if it’s accompanied by others, but he cannot be the team’s only backup point guard. He seems better suited as a third-string at this stage of his career.

Between him, Murray and Strawther, three of Denver’s four guards are weak defenders. The front office’s attempt to address defense so far has been limited to forward acquisitions (Diallo, Brazile, Hopkins). This roster still needs a perimeter defender who’s proven that he can navigate screens at the NBA level and keep quicker star guards in front.

Strawther has floated in and out of the rotation throughout his first three years in the league. He’s shown flashes of being an excellent scorer at the backup two-guard position, but he needs to establish more consistency if he wants to seize the Tim Hardaway Jr. role next season. This will be a crucial season in his development. He’s extension-eligible until the start of the season. Otherwise, he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer.

As much as ball-handling has been a focus, the Nuggets also appear short on shooting depth. Strawther is currently the most reliable 3-point threat of the seven bench players under contract (36.3% over the last two years). Jones’ efficiency took a massive hit last season. Diallo is more of a slasher than a spacer offensively. Holmes is a promising stretch big on paper, but he’s more likely to do his damage via pick-and-pop than by standing in the corner.

The Nuggets have certainly improved their frontcourt athleticism this summer. But even with those moves, they’re taking fliers on rookies out of the EuroLeague and the second round of the draft. At small forward, power forward and center, Denver’s current bench has 138 combined minutes of career playoff experience.

LeBron James hope?

The Nuggets might not be officially out of the running yet, but ESPN’s Shams Charania reported early this week that Cleveland, Miami and Philadelphia seem to be getting the most attention as feasible destinations for the best free agent on the market. The Nuggets were always going to be an outsider in these sweepstakes, even after Klutch Sports superagent Rich Paul publicly confirmed mutual interest between his client and Denver.

James, on a cheap contract, would obviously plug a lot of holes in Denver. The 21-time All-NBA forward could slot into lineups with Jokic or run the show with certain bench units. But until he indicates otherwise, it’s best to assume LeBron won’t finish his career as a Nugget at this point.

Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones

If the Nuggets re-sign both of their restricted free agents and keep everyone else, they’ll suddenly look a lot more dangerous on paper (like they did last season). They would also be carrying 10 frontcourt players and four guards on their roster — a clear imbalance that would require subsequent moves.

Jones has been working out at the Nuggets’ practice gym during his contract negotiations, he said in a recent social media post, suggesting that any day could be his last at Ball Arena. His qualifying offer was the minimum salary. Denver’s preference would be to keep his average annual value as close to that as possible, likely in exchange for more guaranteed years.

Watson, meanwhile, has remained at an impasse with the team on salary, cracking the door open for potential sign-and-trades out of Denver. But if he and the Nuggets can reach an agreement, his role within the rotation will become one of the most fascinating storylines of training camp in late September. Will Watson move into the everyday starting lineup for the first time in his career? Will Adelman hand him the keys to the non-Jokic offense and see what he can do as a shot creator, now that Murray has been burdened with those thankless minutes for so many years?

Other top remaining NBA free agents

At the buyout deadline last season, the Nuggets were monitoring DeMar DeRozan’s situation in Sacramento and were ready to show interest if he became available, a league source told The Post. He didn’t.

Now that he’s been released from his contract, teams like Denver are lining up to pursue the former Raptors star wing. DeRozan turns 37 next month, but he remains durable and efficient as a scorer. He could chase his first ring as a super-sixth man in Colorado, but other teams closer to home (he’s from Los Angeles) could also be sniffing around. There’s a chance the Nuggets miss out on him, as they already did with Khris Middleton for the second time when he chose Washington earlier this month.

Staying in the semi-washed-up star department, Bradley Beal is available after declining his player option with the Clippers. So is Russell Westbrook, though Denver already burned that bridge last offseason — “the truth is that they didn’t want me back,” as he later told The Post. Gabe Vincent, Brandon Williams and Aaron Holiday are among the other guard options in a thin market.

The Nuggets have already shown their willingness to think outside the box this summer with the signing of Diallo.

Then there’s Bruce Brown, the fan favorite who had an up-and-down reunion with the Nuggets last season. Their trust in him as a secondary ball-handler has noticeably declined since 2023, when he was the championship team’s backup point guard. But he did grow into his smaller role under Adelman, shooting 43.2% from 3-point range in the second half of the season. The fact that the Nuggets haven’t already re-signed him at the minimum is a clear sign that he’s not at the top of their wish list, but they could do a lot worse than Brown if they run out of options and need to fill a roster spot.

Will all 15 spots be used?

The Nuggets went through most of last season with their 15th and final roster spot vacant. By the time they signed Spencer Jones and Tyus Jones to prorated minimum salaries for the rest of the year, they were safe from the luxury tax.

Watch for them to consider a similar strategy in 2026-27 if they’re up against the tax or either of the aprons. They could enter the season with a payroll slightly above one of those thresholds but with only 14 players rostered. It would give them a chance to dump more salary at the trade deadline and replace one or two roster spots with another buyout signing.

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

With two starters due for a combined $25.8 million salary increase, and with a potential rising star on the bench determined to land a lucrative contract extension, something had to give. The Nuggets were about to get too expensive for owner Stan Kroenke to stomach. Especially after their debacle of a playoff run, which ended before it could begin.

This was the prevailing sentiment for two months leading up to free agency. Almost all Nuggets-related chatter, both inside and outside Ball Arena, seemed to focus on which player(s) they would sacrifice in a trade. Team president Josh Kroenke fueled the rumor mill when he declared in May that “everything is on the table” except trading three-time MVP center Nikola Jokic. Another high-ranking official in the Kroenke sports empire, Kevin Demoff, had hinted months earlier that Denver’s inclination might be to dodge the luxury tax entirely next season as to avoid paying the NBA’s punitive “repeater tax” rates.

That was long before the Nuggets revealed to their power brokers that they were nowhere close to championship-worthy.

So, uh, what’s going on in Denver?

Two weeks since the league’s free agency period began, many teams have completed their offseason business. The Nuggets have been puzzlingly idle. A few highlights so far: Tim Hardaway Jr. leaving for Miami as expected, Jonas Valanciunas getting waived for salary cap relief as expected, Marvin Bagley III and Tyus Jones and Alpha Diallo signing one-year deals.

Something doesn’t add up. As in, it adds up to a sum that continues to leave most NBA observers skeptical. Denver is leaving everyone guessing right now, even other teams.

Should fans be frustrated by the lack of action? Encouraged by it? Or is everything simply on hold?

There are two sides to this to unpack: the financial and basketball perspectives. They’re obviously intertwined, but when trying to make sense of the Nuggets’ position, it’s best to start with the financial, because that was an obstacle that seemed to be motivating their roster decisions even before the on-court problems that emerged against Minnesota.

Before last season, the Nuggets were choosing between two extension-eligible 2022 draftees who had one year remaining on their rookie contracts: Christian Braun and Peyton Watson. They chose Braun, the more proven player at that point, an efficient 15-point-per-game starter the previous season and a strong (if flawed) defender. They signed him to a five-year deal that would go into effect in 2026. They felt comfortable taking Watson to restricted free agency and maybe even losing him. Three years into his career, he seemed to be developing into a solid 3-and-D bench player, but maybe not much more than that.

The Nuggets were looking ahead to their 2026-27 payroll and didn’t want to commit large chunks of money to both players. Watson told The Denver Post in October: “From what I understand, it was just a financial business decision. Obviously, with the new CBA and the second apron, things of that nature, they wanted to stay out of that.”

Braun went on to have an injury-riddled season, the worst of his career. Watson had the best season of his, particularly by showcasing his off-the-dribble ability when Jokic was hurt in January.

The outlook shifted. The Nuggets suddenly knew they would be entering the 2026 offseason with six starter-level players whose combined salary would result in a roster payroll above all three tax thresholds: the luxury tax ($200.4 million), first apron ($209 million) and second apron ($221.7 million). They wanted to keep Watson, recognizing the importance of his two-way talent and athleticism. They signaled as much to other teams.

If their previous actions had already indicated they were prepared to sacrifice him to stay under the second apron, then changing course and keeping him would surely mean sacrificing someone else.

That was the foundational logic that led people around the NBA to believe they were almost guaranteed to trade a starter. An oversimplification of the salary cap math looked like this: Lose one of your six starter-level players to get under the second apron, or lose two to duck the tax completely. Perhaps other creative ways to shed salary would emerge, but this was the basic state of the union. Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer would be tasked with threading the needle between cutting payroll and improving the roster.

From this perspective, the fact that Denver has not yet lost any of those top six players can ironically be interpreted as an aggressive stance, not a conservative one. The moves that were expected to have happened by now would’ve been motivated primarily by money, not purely by basketball. Could it be that the Kroenkes are going all-in to chase a second championship? Suddenly, in recent weeks, there’s been reporting from national media outlets that “Denver’s ownership has not given its front office a mandate to cut costs.” The Post has been told similarly.

But that didn’t seem to be the case three weeks ago when the Nuggets were actively exploring the trade market, as The Post and other outlets reported, with Braun and Cam Johnson widely considered to be their leading candidates to be shipped off.

What can it mean? Maybe there’s been a change of heart, and an executive decision has been made to spend lavishly. Maybe it’s connected to the team’s pursuit of LeBron James in free agency (how do you even begin to pitch him on coming to Denver for the veteran minimum if you’re not willing to pay up in every other corner of the roster?), or maybe it’s a reaction to Jokic’s decision to delay signing a new extension again. As direct as he was in publicly stating his plan to sign next summer, maybe the pressure of him entering the last guaranteed season of his current contract has scared the Nuggets straight.

Maybe this is an earnest, full-throttle statement of championship intent.

Or maybe the abrupt timing of this leakage is a little too convenient.

The Nuggets have multiple reasons to want the rest of the NBA to believe they’re working with a blank check right now. One of those reasons: Watson.

Negotiations have clearly not gone smoothly. The line of demarcation seems to be $25 million. That’s Braun’s average annual value on his new contract — the deal Denver prioritized over Watson — and now it’s the number Watson’s camp can fixate on. His side can point to last season and claim that he’s worth the same amount or more than Braun going forward. The Nuggets can point to the previous three years and say Braun’s overall body of work is better so far, that $25 million is a lot to pay when the sample size of Watson’s star potential is only one month.

As this stalemate has drawn out, other teams have been reportedly lingering with desire to poach Watson. The Clippers, Bucks and Hawks have all been linked to him recently.

Watson is a restricted free agent, meaning those teams must extend him an offer sheet, the terms of which Denver can match to retain him. Offer-sheeting a player can be risky because it ties down your cap until the situation is resolved, with no guarantee that you will successfully land the player you’re targeting. The Nuggets are saying behind the scenes that they’re prepared to match any offer sheet. Basically, they’re trying to scare off any suitors by indicating the offer sheet would be a waste of time, and the only real way to get Watson from them would be to execute a sign-and-trade, sending Denver other assets in exchange for the right to sign the RFA. Utah just did this with Walker Kessler, who ended up with the Lakers via sign-and-trade. The Jazz netted an impressive package of draft picks.

How can you bolster your leverage in a situation like this? By signaling publicly that you’re willing to pay an exorbitant payroll and tax bill to keep Watson and everyone else.

This also sends a message that you aren’t desperate to trade a starter (or two) to keep Watson — that you’re more than happy to hold on to Johnson, Braun, Aaron Gordon or Jamal Murray if the offer isn’t strong enough.

If there is a spending mandate, then other teams might look to take advantage with low-ball trade offers.

So maybe the purported lack of any such mandate could turn out to be a bluff for leverage. Or maybe it’s a real edict, a genuine commitment to competitiveness at all costs. There’s almost no way to know for sure until the Nuggets take an action to back up their words. For now, inaction has the appearance of aggression, as Denver attempts to wait out the market.

Certainly, it seems like the key domino will be how the Watson dilemma works itself out — either in the form of a contract extension, or an unmatched offer sheet, or a sign-and-trade, or a begrudgingly accepted qualifying offer ($6.5 million).

ESPN front office expert Bobby Marks (a former NBA executive) projected last week that if the Nuggets retain Watson at a $25 million cap hit and don’t trade any starters, their luxury tax bill next season would exceed $170 million — that includes second apron and repeater tax penalties. That’s in addition to what the raw roster payroll would be.

Between player salaries and taxes, it would be a $400 million team. Every dollar added in salary would increase the tax bill further.

Which finally leads to the basketball perspective on Denver’s offseason holding pattern. It would be one thing to pay that much if the Nuggets had just lost the NBA Finals in a tight six-game series with their current roster — if they knew for a fact that a championship was barely out of reach last season.

But the Nuggets didn’t make the Finals. They didn’t win a single playoff series. They lost in the first round to an injured opponent. They weren’t close.

Fans of an NBA team obviously have no obligation to care about the dent in a billionaire owner’s wallet. But it’s also reasonable enough for Nuggets fans to want change this offseason, independent of the financial complications. There’s a fair case to be made that Denver should be pursuing trades solely based on basketball, even if the Kroenkes have decided they’re willing to spend like few owners have ever spent. Perimeter defense, shot creation depth, downhill quickness and frontcourt insurance for Gordon are all visibly lacking.

It’s just that the reason fans want change might not be exactly aligned with the reason this ownership group might want it.

It’s difficult to imagine the Nuggets feeling satisfied with the results of the last three seasons enough to truly run it back with the same top six players and less depth.

Then consider that those six players are aging. Then consider that the cost of those six players is multiplying.

It’s more than enough evidence to leave you wondering if Denver’s silence is misleading.

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

At least, that’s what Rich Paul’s visual aid suggests.

James is indeed considering the Nuggets as a potential free agency destination, his longtime friend and agent said on “,” a podcast that Paul hosts with Max Kellerman.

As a discussion guide for the show’s LeBron segment Friday, with James’ name at the center and 10 teams orbiting it. Five of those teams were scribbled on the outer edges of the board: New York, San Antonio, Dallas, Boston and Golden State, the last of which caused Kellerman to wonder aloud if Paul was trying to throw people off the scent. The Warriors have been widely considered one of the favorites to land James for his 24th season.

Then there were the five teams closest to James’ name, expressed as quartets — the projected starting lineups that LeBron would hypothetically be joining.

Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami, Minnesota, Denver.

“Is Denver actually a legitimate destination?” Kellerman asked.

“It wouldn’t be on the board (if it wasn’t),” Paul replied.

The four players listed to represent Denver were Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic — a decision almost as curious as the one to relegate Golden State to the exterior. Notably absent was Peyton Watson, a restricted free agent who is also Paul’s client. The Nuggets entered this offseason prepared to trade at least one starter (with Johnson seen as the most likely candidate) to help them re-sign Watson, wanting to signal that he was their top priority.

No such trade has materialized two days into free agency, and no contract agreement has been reached with Watson yet.

That Denver has seemingly taken a step back on the trade front, at least for the moment, can ironically be interpreted as an aggressive stance. The Nuggets aren’t required by rule to clear out any salary to make room for a new Watson contract. They have Watson’s full Bird rights, having drafted and developed him over the last four years. They can spend as lavishly as they want to keep him — even into the second apron. It’s just that NBA owners, including the Kroenkes, have shown a tendency to treat the second apron as a self-imposed hard cap.

The Nuggets are projected to be a second apron team if they re-sign Watson and don’t cut any other salary. They would also be paying repeater tax penalties.

But in a crowded field of LeBron suitors, perhaps that’s the best way to stand out as a committed championship contender. For now, Paul’s omission of Watson on the whiteboard reads as a leverage play.

“They’ve got one big hurdle,” he said of the Nuggets’ offseason, referring to Watson.

The Denver Post first reported on Wednesday that the Nuggets had contacted James to show interest in the 41-year-old forward, who’s nearing the end of a legendary career. Paul’s whiteboard confirms that the interest is mutual, even if Denver isn’t the frontrunner. He has said that James is willing to sign a low-cost deal and that his decision will be based on “happiness.”

The superagent also wrote the name “Kroenke” on the board, referencing James’ friendship with Nuggets president Josh Kroenke, then taking note of owner Stan Kroenke’s recent track record of winning championships in various sports leagues.

The four players listed for Cleveland were Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

For Miami: Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo.

For Philadelphia: Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, newly acquired Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid.

For Minnesota: Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert.

Welcome to the Nuggets’ offseason.

Hope you like cold showers and sunburns.

While top free agents got the bag across the NBA, the Nuggets got the Bagley, a reserve center on his sixth team in nine seasons.

Marvin Bagley III is a functional NBA player as draft busts go, but didn’t Denver already corner the market on limited 6-foot-10 reserves with Zeke Nnaji and DaRon Holmes II?

While contenders made blockbuster trades in Miami, Toronto and Philadelphia, the Nuggets let super agent Rich Paul know they would like to purchase a ticket in the LeBron James lottery.

The Broncos drove us crazy with their inactivity in free agency, but they landed Jaylen Waddle. The local hoops team continues to rile up Nuggets Nation, and they could not get the Celtics to listen on Jaylen Brown.

You can’t make a team center a trade around stars — but if the Nuggets had made Jamal Murray available, it’s hard to believe Boston would not have picked up the phone. Regardless, when the deal was finalized, it was disappointing.

The 76ers acquired Brown, an elite two-way player, for 36-year-old Paul George, a 2028 first-round pick, an unprotected 2031 first-rounder, two 2028/2030 second-rounders, a podcast and a partridge in a pear tree.

I cannot crush the Nuggets if the Celtics wanted draft picks. I can blame Calvin Booth. He sent six out to shed Reggie Jackson’s contract and draft Holmes.

So here we are on the cusp of America’s 250th birthday, and the Nuggets are holding sparklers.

Boom? More like yawn.

Thursday’s big news? The Nuggets are bringing back guard Tyus Jones.

The offseason priority now becomes retaining restricted free agent Peyton Watson and monitoring text messages about LeBron, even as the Warriors, Cavs, and Heat remain the favorites.

Watson is a worthy pursuit. On a team that needs youth, athleticism, length, shot-blocking, and shot-making, Watson meets all the criteria. He is 23 with an intriguing offensive ceiling after he showed he could create offense off the dribble last season.

Co-GMs Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer have made it clear they want Watson back. And in this otherwise underwhelming offseason for the Nuggets, they caught a break with all the movement around them.

A few weeks ago, it appeared Watson might receive an offer sheet for $28 million annually from the Lakers or Clippers. Circumstances have changed.

The Lakers spent their money on Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Luke Kennard. The Clippers shipped out Kawhi Leonard, pivoting younger, and positioning themselves to make a run at Watson.

But they are dealing with their own restricted free agent, Bennedict Mathurin, a player they would like to keep after they traded standout center Ivica Zubac for him last season.

The Nuggets are operating with patience, painful as it may be. The Clippers seem like the only team that could make an outrageous bid for Watson. With that growing increasingly unlikely, Denver is in no rush.

So what’s next?

The Nuggets are not going to sign Watson for the $6.5 million qualifying offer, even if they could. It would be bad business, an unnecessary slight after paying Christian Braun instead of Watson last October.

The fact that the Nuggets have not traded Cam Johnson suggests they are not rushing to clear salary for Watson ahead of a forthcoming offer sheet.

Which brings us back to president Josh Kroenke and the season-ending press conference. He warned us that he was willing to reward the core and run it back.

It won’t look like the worst decision if they win 52 games in the regular season. Just wait until the playoffs. And the frustration will come flooding back.

Again, it is their choice. Just don’t talk about windows and winning championships. It insults our intelligence.

The idea that this team is a healthy Aaron Gordon from unseating the Spurs or Thunder is laughable. The Nuggets let Tim Hardaway Jr. walk for $6.5 million. He made 224 3-pointers.

Losing him makes you better?

Please.

This team needed to bring in players to change the personality, add toughness and defense.

The Nuggets have signed Bagley. He is not an enforcer.

They brought back Jones. He is a good ball handler.

They have talked up second-round draft picks Trevon Brazile and Bryce Hopkins like they are going to play meaningful minutes, which probably won’t happen without injuries.

They have sat out the first two waves of free agency, making no significant adjustments.

This team is going to contend for a title? OK. Is there a volume lower than mute, because I don’t want to hear it.

And what about Jokic?

Murray did his teammate and friend a solid by traveling across the globe to watch Serbia dominate Switzerland in Fribourg on Thursday. Gordon traveled to Prague in 2022 to watch the Joker.

The problem with this team is not affection. It is competition. Making players uncomfortable. That would show that the Nuggets recognize the truth.

That they know they capitulated in the playoffs to the Timberwolves because they were not good enough. Not because they were hurt. Every time that excuse surfaces, folks neglect to mention they were ousted by Minnesota’s JV backcourt.

It is impossible to fix a problem when you don’t see one.

This is where Jokic’s stance on his contract becomes interesting. Will he apply pressure by not signing his extension? Will he insist that the Nuggets’ brass explain what its plan is, not only for this season, but beyond?

The hardest thing for executives is evaluating their own team. They like the players. They picked them. But they must remove emotion from their decision-making. And that does not seem to be happening.

The Nuggets’ front office hurt when the team bottomed out in Minneapolis. That was May 1. What have been the consequences? Cutting Jalen Pickett?

There is still time to make subtle adjustments, or shock the world and sign LeBron.

For now, it seems like the team is on vacation and all the fans are going to get is a weeks-away press conference touting the return of Peyton Watson.

Wake me when it’s over.

Hardaway, 34, spent one season with the Nuggets on a veteran minimum deal. He averaged 13.5 points off the bench on 40.7% perimeter shooting, helping Denver lead the league in 3-point efficiency. The 6-foot-5 guard played 80 games and finished third place for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. He made the second-most 3s ever for a Nuggets player in a single season (224), trailing only Jamal Murray — who amassed 245 the same year.

The Nuggets had to Hardaway because they hadn’t rostered him for three seasons, limiting their ability to compete with other offers like Miami’s. The free agency moratorium began Tuesday evening (4 p.m. MT), with Hardaway at the top of the Heat’s priority list. Due to CBA restraints, the Nuggets will need to be largely dependent on veteran minimum signings this week as they fill out their roster.

“I think it����ap the best contract in the league right now,” Aaron Gordon said in April when discussing Hardaway’s vet minimum.

When asked about his rationale for signing with Denver at training camp last September, Hardaway told The Denver Post he hadn’t considered that players tend to get paid more after playing alongside Nikola Jokic.

“I didn’t even think about that until you asked me that question,” he told The Post at the time, laughing. “I wasn’t even thinking about that. I mean, I knew coming here and playing with Jok, Jamal (Murray) and AG (would be good for me). Being on an opposing team, you get tired of guarding that stuff. You get tired of guarding backdoors, back screens, slips. And then you’ve got a big like that who’s throwing the ball any type of way right on the numbers. That’s what I was looking at more so than making a bag.”

The Heat will be Hardaway’s sixth team. He becomes the first player to be teammates with Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, three of the biggest stars of the 2020s. He has also crossed paths with Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Jalen Brunson and Kyrie Irving over the course of his 13-year career.

By suiting up for Miami, Hardaway follows in his father’s footsteps. Tim Hardaway Sr. made three All-NBA teams with the Heat in the 1990s.

As of late Tuesday, the Nuggets had nine players under contract (not including their own free agents, such as Peyton Watson and Bruce Brown). They have at least $203.4 million in guaranteed salary committed to those nine players, making them a luxury tax-paying team already with six more open roster spots.

Hardaway joins Jalen Pickett, whose $2.4 million team option was declined on Monday, as players from the 2025-26 team who won’t return next season.

The clock has struck midnight on the core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon. For three straight postseasons, the valet keeps bringing back keys to a pumpkin.

With a report indicating Jokic might not sign a contract extension next month, rebuilding is off the table, even if the Nuggets seem to think it is a bluff. Denver has to shake things up if it wants to contend for another championship.

It is time to move on from franchise icons Murray and Gordon if it means acquiring Boston’s Jaylen Brown (and Sam Hauser).

The Nuggets will at least listen to offers for Murray and Gordon. It is convenient that, after news broke that Jokic was considering withholding his signature on a contract, rumors are suddenly swirling around Denver.

Whether posturing or not, Nuggets’ co-GMs Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer should be maxing out the minutes on the KSE family cellphone plan to see if they can get Brown here.

Land Brown, and the Nuggets have a legitimate chance to win Jokic another title. They would not be favorites. But they would be different, built more for the postseason, where defense and toughness have become paramount.

It would be hard to make Murray available. He is coming off the best season of his career as a first-time All-Star and All-NBA selection. But Brown is a better all-around player.

If the Nuggets offer Murray, whose jersey should someday hang from the Ball Arena rafters, they must be all in. It would be difficult to come back from a failed pursuit. The awkwardness would likely fracture the relationship with Murray moving forward.

Moving on from Gordon, as much as he is beloved, is an easier decision. He is an aging player with a troublesome injury history. Even if you believe Gordon will play 60 games next season, there is no evidence his body can withstand an eight-week playoff run.

All it takes is for him to miss multiple games in a series, and the Nuggets are doomed.

In some ways, Gordon is like Von Miller in his coolness and fan appeal. He will always be a Nugget. This is just business.

Brown, a five-time All-Star, can give the Nuggets one of the best two-way players in the league. He finished sixth in the MVP voting last season, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists. He can create off the dribble, in isolation and in catch-and-shoot situations.

You don’t think he would fit well with Jokic?

Miss with Brown, and the Nuggets could be left to cross their fingers that improved health and more experience — and perhaps adding a veteran assistant on the bench — will help the head coach.

The problem becomes how to make a Brown deal work. And would the Celtics bend on their apparent priority of four first-round picks rather than big contracts?

If the Nuggets take the nuclear option, they would need a point guard to pair with a starting four of Jokic, Brown, Christian Braun and Peyton Watson (none of this makes sense if they don’t re-sign him).

Shipping out Cam Johnson for Orlando’s Jalen Suggs would provide a playmaker with physicality and defensive acumen. But Braun and Suggs together? Yikes. That is a lot of bricks from beyond the arc.

What about Johnson for Miami’s Davion Mitchell?

Again, the roster would be imperfect. But how is that different from its current state?

Jokic is way too smart not to know that any delay in re-upping would cause ripples. If he waits until the regular season, his future in Denver will linger as a national story.

He would become the next Giannis.

To be clear, Jokic has earned the right to exercise leverage, to put pressure on the franchise.

Does he want Brown? Not sure. Do the Nuggets? They have, by all indications, kicked the tires.

For those who hate the idea, the ammunition comes from a simple question: Why is Brown available? What are the concerns? Since the season’s end, he has ripped officials, flopping, Stephen A. Smith and the media.

It is easy to see how Brown’s life on Twitch and “Smartest Man in the Room” personality could become grating.

On the surface, this should not prevent the Nuggets from exploring the option. I would be lying, though, if I didn’t admit this situation is giving off some Russell Wilson-in-Seattle vibes.

The Broncos learned the hard way. A blockbuster requires thorough vetting.

What if the Celtics won’t engage with the Nuggets? There must be a significant Plan B.

Denver Post colleague Bennett Durando floated this idea. The Nuggets become the third team in a Brown trade to Portland — even with the acquisition of Ja Morant, they could add another monster contract — and send Gordon and Johnson to the Celtics and Zeke Nnaji to the Trail Blazers and receive guards Jrue Holiday and Scoot  Henderson.

It would give the Nuggets better ball-handlers — a top offseason priority — and a higher defensive upside.

This offseason is tricky and challenging.

Getting Brown doesn’t change everything, but it fundamentally alters who the Nuggets are defensively.

Getting Holliday and Henderson doesn’t change much, but it gives the Nuggets playmaking versatility and an infusion of youth.

This all goes back to Jokic. That is what this is all about. What is the plan to help him lead the Nuggets back to another championship?

As long as Jokic is on the roster, the Nuggets owe him the best players and transparency.

With Jokic potentially prepared to push pause on an extension, the Nuggets are officially on a fast break that must finish with roster improvement, preferably seismic.

That would be Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, who has emerged as a trade candidate over the last week since Boston’s unsuccessful attempt to offer him to Milwaukee for Antetokounmpo. The Bucks ultimately chose Miami’s more robust package, leaving Boston with an awkward dilemma.

Brown led the Celtics to 56 wins and the No. 2 seed in the East while co-star Jayson Tatum was rehabbing from an Achilles injury last season, only for them to lose in the first round of the playoffs to seventh-seeded Philadelphia. The disappointing result had already sparked a wave of uncertainty about the future of Boston’s core — a situation reminiscent of the Nuggets’ crossroads after their own shocking first-round exit.

Both teams rode their star duos to championships this decade, and both have regressed in the years since.

The Nuggets have registered mild interest in Brown, having internally discussed whether they would have a realistic chance to acquire the All-NBA swingman if they were to actively pursue him, as NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer first reported over the weekend.

But all indications, for now at least, are that no such pursuit is likely to occur. Multiple team sources relayed early this week that their reported interest in Brown has been overstated. And two other league sources who spoke to The Denver Post were highly skeptical that the Nuggets would be able to complete a deal for the 2024 Finals MVP. Boston reportedly wants up to four first-round draft picks for Brown. While that’s widely viewed as an unreasonable asking price — Milwaukee got three back in the Antetokounmpo deal — the Nuggets don’t have first-rounders available to trade.

Lead executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer made it a priority to replenish their depleted asset pool when they traded out of the first round of the NBA Draft last week. Where does that leave them? With three second-round picks once the new league year begins in July, plus .

That’s all to say that Brown’s market would need to continue to dry up, or Boston’s priorities would need to shift away from a picks-based package, for the Nuggets to truly have a chance to pounce. Even then, there’s no certainty they would make an aggressive push.

What would a trade look like?

Even if nothing comes of the recent smoke, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Denver has contemplated a player of Brown’s pedigree. When a sixth-place MVP finisher becomes available, it’s due diligence. Kevin Durant was discussed internally last year before Phoenix traded him to Houston, team sources told The Post at the time.

So what would a Nuggets package look like? And would Brown meaningfully improve their roster? If these questions are worth exploring inside the front office, then they certainly are outside the walls of Ball Arena as well, as Brown represents the most dramatic roster-building avenue hypothetically available to the Nuggets at this point.

As The Post reported in April, Cam Johnson has long been considered the most likely Nuggets starter to be traded this offseason due to his expiring contract, though multiple key players could be on the move this week. Johnson and Christian Braun have been the front office’s primary focus amid efforts to reconfigure Nikola Jokic’s supporting cast — and shed enough salary to ward off Peyton Watson’s suitors in restricted free agency.

The Nuggets have been far more reluctant to include franchise cornerstones Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray in trade conversations, league and team sources have told The Post — ready to listen, not so much to shop them, . But there have also been plenty of murmurs around the league speculating about Denver’s willingness to consider a large-scale roster overhaul.

Brown is on a supermax contract, with a $57.1 million cap hit next season that makes him the seventh-highest-paid player in the league. The Nuggets could aggregate several smaller contracts to match salary in theory, but if they acquired Brown without including Jamal Murray in the outgoing package, they would have three players occupying 100.7% of the salary cap — $166.2 million in combined 2026-27 salary.

Just one month ago, team president Josh Kroenke was reflecting on Denver’s rationale for trading Michael Porter Jr. when he said: “We had to take a hard look at where we had committed ourselves from a salary standpoint, and understanding that having three max players was probably not something that was gonna be continuous for us going forward. … That was something we felt the organization needed to do to maintain a roster going forward, to establish more depth.”

Consider it unlikely, then, that Denver would trade for Brown without Murray’s $50.1 million salary going the other direction. Building out a deep rotation would become immensely challenging, even if Wallace and Tenzer get a green light from ownership to spend over the $199 million luxury tax line.

This leads to the delicate dynamic of a trade rumor like this: Murray. He’s an all-time Denver sports great, a surly but selfless star who speaks lovingly of his basketball bond with Jokic. He helped the Nuggets win their first championship. They would never take the possibility of trading him lightly, and the last thing they want to do is make the same mistake Boston just made with Brown — alienating a longtime star by offering him in a trade and failing to complete the deal.

If the Nuggets ever have plans of escalating trade talks involving Murray, they must be careful not to misread the situation.

Would the Celtics bite at the opportunity to upgrade their backcourt with a newly minted All-NBA point guard? Keeping in mind that Denver ideally wants to shed salary, there would probably need to be supplementary pieces involved, likely hard-capping both teams at the second apron.

For example, Murray and Johnson for Brown and a cheap role player of the Nuggets’ choosing — let’s just say Baylor Scheierman — would be allowed under the league’s trade rules, netting a $13.3 million salary reduction for Denver. Murray and Gordon for Brown and Sam Hauser would result in a $14.2 million reduction.

Obviously, if this is a two-team hypothetical trade, Boston would have to be comfortable with eschewing first-round draft compensation in order to land a player of Murray’s caliber.

It would obviously be a bold move from both sides, a swap of home-grown stars signaling belief that both the Jokic-Murray and Tatum-Brown partnerships have gone stale.

Murray and Brown are a strangely fitting trade match, in many ways. They’re three months apart in age, so neither team would be disadvantaged in that regard. They were drafted four picks apart in 2016 — Brown third overall, Murray seventh. They’ve enjoyed arguably the two best pro careers in that class. They both have three years remaining on their current contracts, with no player or team options.

For Boston, it would be a different look for Tatum: a skilled guard who initiate the offense and create, who can play off the ball and hit 3s at a blistering rate, who’s unusually accustomed to screening for a bigger ball-handler in inverted pick-and-rolls. The Celtics love to play the math game. Murray was the most efficient high-volume 3-point shooter in the sport last season, 43.5% on 7.5 attempts per game.

Then again, there’s this recent quote from Celtics president of basketball ops Brad Stevens: “One of the things that we’ve gotta figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim, and I think we do need to add to our team to do that.” That’s as much of a sign as any from Denver that this (hypothetical!) trade probably doesn’t have legs.

For the Nuggets, it would be a sacrifice of unparalleled pick-and-roll chemistry in exchange for a secondary star who can defend at a way higher level than Murray. (Brown proudly touts himself as the best two-way player in the league right now.) For years, the Nuggets have had to contend with opponents’ desire to put their two best players in every action. Jokic and Murray have dazzled offensively and stumbled around in the dark defensively. Brown was responsible for guarding Luka Doncic in the NBA Finals two years ago. He has switchable size and a chip on his shoulder to uphold his self-appointed label.

It would be a fascinating stylistic experiment. Brown’s playmaking ability has improved over the years, but his instinct is generally to use a ball screen to hunt a mismatch in isolation, as opposed to Murray’s bob-and-weave deployment of Jokic in the two-man game. The Nuggets would also desperately need to make other moves to find a new point guard; one league source doubted that a Jokic-Brown-Gordon frontcourt would mesh well without a table-setter.

Brown’s shot selection was more midrange-heavy than Murray’s last season, with 23.7% of his total field goal attempts classified as midrange by NBA tracking data. He’s a bona fide tough shot maker, but the burden of efficiency is heavy when taking what’s considered a low-percentage shot. Murray took 19.6% of his shots from that range last season, as the Nuggets were encouraged by his uptick in 3-point attempts.

Brown’s shot selection was also more paint-heavy — 50.1% of his attempts were in the lane and 22.4% were in the restricted area, compared to 39% and 17.1% for Murray. The Nuggets know they need more rim pressure off the dribble. Murray is a more skilled ball-handler than Brown, but Brown uses athleticism and physicality better to get downhill.

Jokic’s ability to draw double-teams — and his eagerness to pass out of them — would open up a lot of driving angles and attacking opportunities for Brown, who has a strong appetite for the ball. In Denver, he would be a clearer No. 2 on the roster hierarchy than he was before, but he’d be playing alongside a primary option whose first instinct would be to help him score a ton of points.

The list of pros and cons goes on from there. Brown gets to the foul line at a better frequency than Murray. Murray has a higher assist rate and lower turnover rate than Brown. Brown has proven he’s a winning player, given that his crowning achievement was a playoff trophy — but there’s also that whole pesky war on analytics that he’s been waging online. Should Denver be concerned that Boston routinely has a better net rating when he isn’t on the floor? Or that Brown has been so easily provoked by such an obviously silly discourse? (This all started with a quote that the entire basketball community knows is ridiculous, suggesting Brown is the seventh-best player on a team.)

In Murray, the Nuggets have a known entity on the court and a buy-in they trust behind the scenes. The risk factor in trading him would be considerable. The ripple effects on Denver’s roster and system would be substantial.

It would be an arrangement born of two teams in a similar predicament, trying to figure out which cards to play next in an era of parity that����ap threatening to leave them in the dust.

Or maybe this is nothing, and one of the longest-standing active tandems in the NBA will live to fight another day together. Even if Boston’s doesn’t.

The Avs are Doja Cat. The Nuggets? Hello Kitty.

The difference between the approach of the local hockey team and resident hoops club remains striking. What makes it more confusing is that they are both owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

The Avs throw caution to the wind. The Nuggets rely on caution to prevent wins.

Knee-deep into the offseason, general manager Joe Sakic has executed three trades, shipping Ross Colton and Jack Drury to Nashville and Valeri Nichushkin to Columbus for a combined five draft picks and three players. He created $8 million in additional salary cap space to re-sign Brett Kulak and Brent Burns.

And he still has $6 million left to pursue a forward. It is easier to make moves in the NHL, but the Avs have been bold over the last two trade deadlines and summers.

They moved on from Mikko Rantanen and Nichushkin, exhausted by Moose’s contract demands and wisely recognizing Nichushkin’s decline. These were not only top players on their team, but, at times, in the league. And they ripped off the band aid in pursuit of a Stanley Cup.

As CSG podcaster Jeff Morton pointed out last week, the Nuggets have been cautious, while other KSE properties are aggressive. Is it because president Josh Kroenke is more involved in the basketball operations, becoming too close to the players?

There is no question he has strong relationships. I witnessed the emotion first hand in the locker room after the Nuggets were eliminated the past two seasons. Caring is not a bad thing. But it is always better to like players, not love them.

And it is fair to wonder if Kroenke’s connection to the Nuggets has influenced the team’s conservative movement this offseason.

The other potential answer? It is about money. NBA owners would rather swim through a moat of alligators and walk in hot lava to their suite at The Four Seasons than go into the second apron.

It is punitive, and the Nuggets showed how scared they were during the first round of the draft. Desperate for a better ball handler or a tougher big man — Jonas Valanciunas was a scorer, not an enforcer — the Nuggets traded their pick to San Antonio for a pair of second-round selections.

They moved back to make the team they are chasing better, giving the Spurs another brute, Tarris Reed Jr., to guard Nikola Jokic.

Co-general manager Jon Wallace said it was important that the Nuggets not catch “draft fever.” The buzzword was discipline. Cheap also works for a team that hired two general managers and a coach with no previous experience in their roles.

Remember, the Nuggets’ new second rounders — Trevon Brazile and Bryce Hopkins — will receive non-guaranteed contracts. Hardly anyone does unless their name is Bronny James. Brazile might become a rotational player this season, but it is more likely he is hooping with Hopkins in the G-League.

It would be easy to crush Wallace and co-GM Ben Tenzer for this draft night yawn.

But was it really their choice? Or are they operating under guidance from Kroenke?

Collecting picks is not uncommon, and there is an argument to follow this path as a market correction for the horrible trades of Isaiah Hartenstein and Reggie Jackson and for Bol Bol and DaRon Holmes II.

Those missteps left the Nuggets without assets to move up, or contributing players to fill out the roster (Where have you gone Bryn Forbes? Nuggets Nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo, woo, woo).

Why can’t the Nuggets be transparent? Just admit they are in the middle of a reset?

Instead, Kroenke insists they are in a championship window because, you know, Jokic is on the roster. Well, you know who seems to be having a hard time believing that?

Jokic.

As the well-conditioned captain of the Serbian national team, Jokic said last week that the Nuggets were not good enough to win last season. The year before he said they were not deep enough.

All he left out was too predictable and unathletic, and he would have hit the problems right on the nose.

And the answer to all of this is frugality? Really?

“I think any time you get bounced in the first round like that, everyone’s gotta look themselves in the mirror,” Wallace said. “I think a large part of that is health. I think a large part of that is, as our team has entered into a more seasoned state individually, the type of basketball we play. The way we prepare, the way we attack teams is gonna have to change a little bit.”

This word salad makes me hungry for the Nuggets to just be honest about their intentions. Ship off two of the four starters between Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson and Christian Braun and re-sign Peyton Watson.

Develop Spencer Jones and Julian Strawther, hope Brazile and Holmes become contributors and position the franchise to make a championship run in 2028, or more likely, 2029.

This is not my preference. I would love ownership to say, “F-them dollars!,” pay a significant tax penalty and become a second apron team for the first time under the current collective bargaining agreement. Then trade Johnson, keep Tim Hardaway Jr., and add backup point guard Keaton Wallace.

That would spark talk of another championship.

But that is not realistic. That is something the Avs would do.

They, after all, are Ozzie Osbourne to the Nuggets’ Ozzie and Harriet.

Sean Keeler: Baby, you should drive that Carr. In a perfect world, you’re not just re-signing Peyton Watson this summer. You’re sticking his profile into the 3-D printer and adding clones of him. And of those clones, Cameron Carr of Baylor is the one worth dealing for, on paper. He’s a 6-foot-5 wing with a 7-foot-long wingspan. He’s got a 42-inch vertical leap. He features a high release point and a quick trigger. He’s got the quicks to close and the length to guard spots 1-4 on the floor. Even better, he’s 21, with seven or eight peak seasons still ahead of him. If you want someone who won’t back down whenever Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Anthony Edwards are hunting the HOV lane to the rim, Carr’s your guy.

Renck: Talking with our Nuggets expert Bennett Durando, the realistic targets for a deal start at 14 or 18 with the Charlotte Hornets and likely end with the Raptors (19) and Pistons (21). These are teams who want to become serious contenders after dipping their toes in the playoff waters last season. Would the Nuggets hit the reset button and ship Aaron Gordon to the Hornets for Carr or Texas’ Dailyn Swain? Or could they land Swain or Arizona rugged forward Koa Peat by inching up the ladder a few picks? Swain is a versatile defender who can get to the rim. He must improve as a shooter. Same goes for Peat. But Peat projects as an alley-oop replacement for Gordon, fitting perfectly with a space-creating center like Nikola Jokic. He would also add a layer of toughness needed on the boards and at the rim.

Keeler: Got to admit — I do like the idea of re-Peating with a younger Aaron Gordon playalike. I remember coming away impressed by what Peat did in Boulder a few months back (12-for-15 shooting from the floor) against CU. Downside? He doesn’t — at least, not right now, at any rate — have AG’s shooting touch, and it sounds as if teams will be perfectly content to leave him open anywhere past about 9 feet away from the rim. He also doesn’t have AG’s hops, mind you. Although it’s fair to wonder if AG at present has AG’s old hops, too

Renck: It is my belief that the Nuggets must go backward to compete with the league’s upper crust again. Trading Cam Johnson or Aaron Gordon — or both — makes sense to keep Peyton Watson. If a team wants to take Christian Braun’s contract, fine. But no salary dumps. The Nuggets need draft capital to maximize their reinvention over the next few years. They must hit on the first round. DaRon Holmes II has been a ghost since being drafted due to injury and ineffectiveness. As long as Jokic is on the Nuggets, they are a postseason team. But how they play in the postseason will depend largely on the drafts the next two seasons. It is worth moving someone to move up.

Keeler: Said it before, gonna say it again: You need more P-Swats on this roster, not fewer. While his contract is a beast to move, Jamal Murray’s trade value might never get any higher than it is right now, given a spate of (relatively) good health. Nuggets Nation has wanted the Zeke Nnaji contract moved for what feels like a decade now — but I’d imagine that trading up to the 12-16 sweet spot of the first round will require a much bigger piece on the table than our man Zeke, sadly. And a much bigger swing on the part of the three-headed monster that is Josh Kroenke, Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer. But that said, Carr’s upside is more than worth it. The Nuggets could do a lot worse than the second coming of Devin Vassell or Trey Murphy III. If you’ve only got one more chance to remake your core around the Joker, why not go wild?