Porter, the former University of Denver player who killed Kathy Limon Rothman in a DUI crash in 2023, is returning to college basketball for MSU Denver this year. The university announced his addition to the Roadrunners’ roster about six months after Porter was released from prison early, and eight days after he started his parole.

“I don’t think I really deserve another chance to play,” Porter, the younger brother of former Nugget Michael Porter Jr., told The Denver Post. “But I’ve been given one, and I want to make the most of it. I don’t want to just give up — not that me not playing basketball again would be giving up — but it’s something that I love to do, it’s something that I think I’m OK at, it’s a way to get my education paid for and then also try to use my story in a positive way.

“Because I know I’ve taken so much from this community, from Denver, especially from the family of the Rothmans. Me playing (at MSU Denver) isn’t going to give any of that back, but I hope that I can do some positive things in this community with a second chance, and it’s not something that I take for granted at all. I’m really grateful for the opportunity.”

Connie Johnson, Rothman’s mother, told The Denver Post she is not happy about Porter’s return to basketball. In a statement, Johnson said her focus is on her daughter’s legacy and Rothman’s young son, who was left without a mother.

“Two years in prison will never equal the lifetime we are forced to live without my daughter, Kathy Rothman,” Johnson wrote. “While the driver gets to return to his life, his education, and his sports, our family is left with a permanent void. My focus is not on his career; my focus remains entirely on honoring my daughter’s memory and the beautiful life that was cut short by an entirely preventable choice.”

Just before 2 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2023, Porter ran a red light and crashed into Rothman’s vehicle at the intersection of South University and Buchtel boulevards. Porter was driving about 50 mph in a 30 mph zone and his blood-alcohol level was .19, more than twice the legal limit of .08. In 2024, Porter was sentenced to six years for vehicular homicide and vehicular assault from the crash that also seriously injured Rothman’s Uber passenger, Jason Blanch.

‘Something that I’ll live with until the day I die’

Porter was released from prison in December after his sentence was shortened due to good conduct, completing college courses while incarcerated, and for working on forest-fire mitigation for the

Upon his release, Porter got a job with the and lived at a halfway house for several months. The 25-year-old met with MSU Denver basketball coach and Roadrunners athletic director Todd Thurman in mid-March, at which point the university began to vet Porter’s potential to join the program. As part of that process, Thurman told Porter he needed to write a letter to the Rothmans, which Johnson said she received.

“What I wanted to know was, where is (Porter) now?” Thurman said. “Not where he was back then, because we’re not ever going to take away from what happened. I had an opportunity to speak with him (in March) and sit there for over an hour. And he took full responsibility. He didn’t push me to the other side.

“… We weren’t going to do anything without making sure that we talked to everybody at our university — our president (Janine Davidson), our senior leaders. And every one of them said, ‘That’s our mission.'”

public relations director Tim Carroll said that mission “is rooted in access, opportunity and transformation, serving students from all backgrounds, including justice-impacted individuals. This decision reflects that ongoing commitment. We recognize the seriousness of what occurred and the harm caused, and nothing diminishes that reality.”

Porter told The Denver Post that he has been completely sober since the night of the crash, and does not plan on drinking alcohol ever again. He said killing Rothman by running the red light that night — during sentencing, prosecutor Austin Leighty noted the light was red for at least 23 seconds before Porter drove through it — “is something that I’ll live with until the day I die.”

Rothman’s family and Blanch sued Porter as well as the bar he was drinking at the night of the crash, the Crimson and Gold Tavern. The lawsuit alleged Porter was overserved. The lawsuit was settled in 2025; the company that owns the Crimson and Gold Tavern, Potter Restaurant Group LLC, agreed to pay $385,000 in exchange for the dismissal of all claims. The terms of the settlement agreement with Porter were not immediately clear in court records.

“I don’t like calling it a mistake, because it was a choice,” Porter said. “It was my decision, and I made it more than one time, and it cost a woman her life. And just because I didn’t mean for that to happen, it still happened. And she’s gone forever. Her son doesn’t have a mom anymore. That’s nobody’s fault but my own.

“… All I can really do is do my best to honor her memory moving forward, and to me that just looks like being open and honest about everything I’ve done, and trying to live every day with intention.”

‘A university that supports giving people second chances’

Porter has already addressed his MSU Denver teammates about the crash, and said he intends to do public speaking to educate people about the dangers of drunk driving. He also wants to eventually start a foundation focused on preventing drunk driving.

A statement on Porter’s return to basketball by the national office for noted that “accountability is an important part of the healing process. MADD believes that true accountability means recognizing the devastating consequences of impaired driving and making a genuine commitment to ensuring those choices are never repeated.”

“I don’t know what that (foundation) is going to look like,” Porter said. “I’m not in communication with the family, so I don’t know if it would be in (Kathy Limon Rothman’s) name if they gave me their blessing to do something like that. One way or another, I want to move forward, but I’m not moving on.”

Over a 10-year period from 2015-24, over 11,500 Americans died every year in drunk-driving crashes, according to executive director Rebecca Green says this state sees about 200 deaths each year due to impaired driving, which equates to one death about every 32 hours.

Green added that most of the victims and survivors that MADD Colorado works with “are dismayed to learn that these types of crashes result in a really short sentence (like Porter’s). And it almost never feels like justice.”

“I don’t think currently the families that we serve feel like the sentencing ranges fit the pain that they feel for their losses,” Green said.

As for Porter’s plan to bring something positive out of the tragedy he caused, Green said, “Only time will tell if he has that ability or not.”

“Should he be able to play basketball? That’s not really something that we can comment on,” Green said. “Other than that, our hope is that the experience of this tragedy, and the result of his choices, continue to stay with him in everything that he does and that he uses this choice that he made for good moving forward.

“For him, maybe that’s on the basketball court, maybe that’s mentoring his peers, maybe that’s using his experience to help prevent these types of things from happening in the future. But that’s on him to make that choice. It’s one thing to say that you want to use this experience for good. It’s another to be very descriptive and clear about how you intend to do that.”

Porter, a 6-foot-4 combo guard, was sentenced amid a tumultuous 2024 year for the Porter family. His brother Jontay Porter was for gambling two days before Coban’s sentencing, and another brother, Jevon Porter, was in Missouri less than two months after Coban’s sentencing. Jontay has also since , playing for the Seattle SuperHawks in the United States Basketball League.

Ficke believes Porter, who played pick-up games in prison but is re-acclimating to the pace and physicality of college basketball, has the potential to be a high-impact player who can eventually find his way into MSU Denver’s starting lineup this winter. Porter has two years of eligibility remaining, during which time he will remain on parole.

“He made a very big mistake and one that a lot of people don’t get to come back from,” Ficke said. “But that’s what our university is — a university that supports giving people second chances.

“And so my response (to critics of the signing) would be that he knows that he cost someone their life with his decision, and he’s determined with his life to honor her memory. And with this second chance, that he’s going to make the most of it to do right in this world and make the world a better place. And I hope that people will give him the chance to show them that that’s what he’s about.”

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s draft, the Nuggets have primarily been gauging the trade market for Cam Johnson and Christian Braun, league sources have told The Post, confirming reports from other outlets. But Braun’s current value as a trade asset has been in question since the end of the season, and team president Josh Kroenke has said on the record that “everything is on the table” except for trading Nikola Jokic — a statement that raised eyebrows regarding the team’s willingness to listen to offers for Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray as well.

Whoever ends up getting moved, lead executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer will have a difficult needle to thread: shave salary ���Ի���bring back rotational talent (and perhaps recoup some of the draft capital Denver sacrificed during the previous front office regime).

Who might they be able to target? Here’s a comprehensive list of 50 players the Nuggets could consider, broken down into three tiers, ordered from highest to lowest 2026-27 salary.

Note: Free agent sign-and-trade candidates not included — only players who are already under contract in 2026-27.

High-risk star player shake-ups

Remember, Kroenke has rationalized the 2025 Michael Porter Jr. trade by pointing out that it’s no longer viable to build around three max players under the current collective bargaining agreement. (Porter was signed to his max contract extension before this CBA.) With that in mind, if the Nuggets are going to roll the dice on an expensive star this offseason, it would almost certainly be in exchange for Murray’s $50.1 million salary. These 10 players are worth mentioning, but consider them the least likely on this list.

Anthony Davis, Wizards F, $58.5 million: Ever since Dallas traded him in February, there’s been a lot of buzz that Davis might not want to stay in Washington long-term. If he wasn’t so pricey and injury-prone, he’d make a lot of sense as a complementary two-way big to pair with Jokic.

Jaylen Brown, Celtics F, $57.1 million: If the All-NBA wing is leaving Boston, it’s probably as part of a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade.

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers F, $50.3 million: Embroiled in a cap circumvention scandal but fresh off the best offensive season of his career at 34 years old, the two-time Finals MVP is the type of ceiling-raising gamble that a lot of teams could talk themselves into.

De’Aaron Fox, Spurs G, $49.5 million: The Spurs have signaled that they plan to stand by Fox after his rough Finals — but what if, instead, they wanted a guard who’s better from 3-point range and more versatile off the ball to fit with their young backcourt? And what if Denver wanted a quicker downhill guard to provide better paint penetration?

Zach LaVine, Kings G, $49 million: Ex-Nuggets GM Calvin Booth flirted with the possibility of LaVine a couple of years ago. Now he’s an expiring contract. Twelve years in, the two-time All-Star is yet to prove he can be a winning player.

Kevin Durant, Rockets F, $43.9 million: Probably not a fit with what Denver needs in a star shot creator right now, but also, it’s Kevin Freaking Durant.

Ja Morant, Grizzlies G, $42.2 million: Is there anything left in Morant’s legs? This would be the ultimate buy-low move.

Zion Williamson, Pelicans F, $42.2 million: If it’s rim pressure you seek, few can do it more explosively than Williamson. Work ethic and injury concerns have followed him for years.

Franz Wagner, Magic F, $41.8 million: A secondary scorer who can defend, but he played only 34 games last season.

Kyrie Irving, Mavericks G, $39.5 million: The 34-year-old is coming off a torn ACL, but he’s shown throughout his career that he can be a match made in heaven for other generational superstars (LeBron James, Luka Doncic).

High-end role players, $20 million+ division

The more expensive a role player’s contract is, the less that player should generally cost from a trade standpoint. That’s the appeal of some of these 15 candidates. But can the Nuggets make the math work if they don’t want bigger salary figures on their roster to begin with?

Jrue Holiday, Trail Blazers G, $34.8 million: A consummate winner, with two rings this decade and two years left on his contract. You’re not getting any younger, though.

Jordan Poole, Pelicans G, $34 million: Poole is one-dimensional and overpriced, but he’s also going to be an expiring contract next season.

Dejounte Murray, Pelicans G, $32.8 million: Another buy-low option, the one-time All-Star has played in only 27% of games over the last two seasons.

Immanuel Quickley, Raptors G, $32.5 million: David Adelman has made it no secret how much he wants more ball-handling on the roster next year.

Jalen Suggs, Magic G, $32.4 million: Orlando is another team that wants to shed salary on the trade market this summer, and Suggs is the obvious candidate to shop. Injury-prone and inconsistent offensively, he’s also a capable table-setter and one of the best defensive guards in the league at his best. His contract is descending over the next four years. One to watch, for sure.

Andrew Wiggins, Heat F, $30.2 million: The former No. 1 overall pick is a sturdy, veteran two-way wing on an expiring contract. And Miami might be looking to make a few corresponding moves to build out the roster around Giannis if he ends up there.

RJ Barrett, Raptors F, $29.6 million: Probably less enticing to Denver than Quickley would be, but Barrett has averaged over 19 points per game in five straight years. Unfortunately for both he and Quickley, their current legacy is having been the trade package for OG Anunoby in 2023.

Jarrett Allen, Cavaliers C, $28 million: Just hear this one out: If the Nuggets really want to get creative in rethinking how to build around Jokic, one way to try is by using the most position-defying center of all time as, well, not the center. Put Jokic at the four, and go double-big with a traditional drop-coverage big for rim protection and vertical spacing.

Trey Murphy III, Pelicans F, $27 million: The belle of the ball this offseason — positional size, scoring and spacing for great financial value. If the Nuggets try to get into a bidding war for Murphy, they will probably lose. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.

DeMar DeRozan, Kings F, $25.7 million: The Nuggets were monitoring his situation before the buyout deadline in March, but Sacramento didn’t waive him. This salary figure might be too much.

De’Andre Hunter, Kings F, $24.9 million: Sacramento makes sense as a trade partner because it has several players in this salary range (Keegan Murray and Malik Monk also among them).

Jonathan Kuminga, Hawks F, $24.3 million: Kuminga might have outsized ambition for himself, but he could provide some much-needed youth in Denver.

Nic Claxton, Nets C, $23.3 million: Same idea as Allen, equally unlikely.

Dillon Brooks, Suns F, $21 million: You don’t want to rely too much on Brooks in the playoffs like Phoenix just did, but he’s coming off his first 20-PPG season and — more importantly — brings a bit of a deranged edge to any locker room he enters.

Shaedon Sharpe, Trail Blazers G, $20.1 million: Scoring guard entering a four-year, $90 million rookie extension.

Role players, sub-$20 million division

There are dozens of players closer to the bottom of the NBA salary scale that could make sense for Denver to acquire entirely because of contract-matching. Here are 25 of them.

PJ Washington, Mavericks F, $19.8 million: The streaky shooter got hot at the right time in 2024 when he helped the Mavs reach the Finals. Washington will be 28 in August.

Grayson Allen, Suns G, $18.1 million: Previously a 41.4% career 3-point shooter, Allen took a dip last season (34.9%) when his attempts increased.

Keldon Johnson, Spurs F, $18 million: The Spurs probably wouldn’t trade someone so important to their team culture, but what if they had an opportunity to get Gordon? Then again, why would the Nuggets help them get even better?

Lu Dort, Thunder G, $17.7 million: Welcome to the second apron, OKC. Are you willing to pay up? Jokic’s newest enemy is one of the role players who could be on the chopping block if not.

Klay Thompson, Mavericks G, $17.5 million: The future Hall of Famer is a bench player at this point, and his salary is a lot to pay for a bench player. Still, volume shooting is a nice luxury.

Nikola Jovic, Heat F, $16.2 million: Jokic’s Olympic teammate is coming off a down year in Miami.

Duncan Robinson, Pistons G, $16 million: Detroit has room to spend a little more on a wing upgrade. Denver needs a cheaper one to help make room for Peyton Watson. Robinson for Cam Johnson, anyone?

Obi Toppin, Pacers F, $15 million: If the Pacers want to create more playing time for Jarace Walker, Toppin is their most likely trade candidate. Key contributor to their 2025 Finals run.

Herb Jones, Pelicans G, $14.9 million: His three-year, $68 million extension takes effect in 2027. In the meantime, this is one of the best bargains in the NBA for an elite 3-and-D guy.

Bobby Portis, Bucks C, $14.5 million: Not that the Nuggets need another small-ball big, but this is an affordable salary with a 2027 player option.

Jonathan Isaac, Magic F, $14.5 million: Despite flashes of extraordinary defense throughout his career, Isaac averaged only 10 minutes off the bench in the 52 games he played last season.

Grant Williams, Hornets F, $14.3 million: Expiring money for a hard-nosed bench player with Finals experience (and an extensive injury history).

Corey Kispert, Hawks G, $14 million: The 6-foot-6 shooter was traded from Washington to Atlanta at the deadline last season.

Moses Moody, Warriors G, $12.5 million: Moody’s status entering next season is unclear after he ruptured his left patellar tendon in March, a grisly season-ending injury for a solid role player.

Jarred Vanderbilt, Lakers F, $12.4 million: Probably can’t be trusted to stay out of foul trouble or stay in your playoff rotation, but Nuggets fans know this defense-and-energy wing well. Los Angeles might have to attach picks to get off his contract.

Davion Mitchell, Heat G, $12.4 million: Another ball-handler Denver could take a chance on. Showed flashes of big-game potential in the 2025 playoffs.

Isaac Okoro, Bulls G, $11.8 million: The Bulls are under new management. What direction will they choose this offseason?

Sam Hauser, Celtics G, $10.8 million: Boston and Denver would make natural trade partners, as the two championship contenders that had the most disappointing playoff results last season.

Naji Marshall, Mavericks G, $9.4 million: Marshall has torched Denver’s shaky perimeter defense a few times in recent years.

Aaron Wiggins, Thunder G, $9 million: OKC is bursting at the seams with playable guys who don’t play. Wiggins and Isaiah Joe ($11.3 million) faded from the rotation in key playoff games, which is more of a commentary on the Thunder’s depth.

Tre Mann, Hornets G, $8 million: Charlotte is an ascending team with a surplus of rotation guards and a shortage of high-quality forwards. Could be allured by Johnson or Gordon.

Goga Bitadze, Magic C, $7.6 million: Easy salary filler, a potential cheap backup big to replace Jonas Valanciunas.

Gradey Dick, Raptors F, $7.1 million: Might be time for a fresh start for the 22-year-old wing who was drafted 13th overall out of Kansas in 2023.

Jake LaRavia, Lakers F, $6 million: LaRavia played in all 82 games last season, but defenses are rightfully skeptical of how threatening his 3-point shot is.

Kris Dunn, Clippers G, $5.7 million: The Nuggets played him off the floor by the end of their 2025 first-round series against Los Angeles, illuminating offensive deficiencies. But his point-of-attack defense might be more than worth the flaws.

Immaturity and the most infamous NBA Finals blunders

The sweeping conclusion that playoff experience is no longer relevant turned out to be premature, it appears. For a fleeting moment, the Spurs tricked us into thinking it was a myth, this notion that every championship team has to take its lumps first. They shattered historical precedent. They slayed the dragon in Oklahoma City. They were favorites to win the Finals.

Not so fast.

The overarching story of these Finals has been that of the better team defeating itself, juxtaposed with the more experienced team keeping its composure. San Antonio has suffered a series of humbling tragicomedies, each more painful than the last. Somehow, blowing a 14-point lead in the second half of Game 1 hardly feels like a squandered opportunity anymore.

Twice at the end of regulation, the Spurs have had possession with the shot clock turned off, either tied or leading, which should guarantee overtime at the worst-case outcome. They lost both of those games in regulation. They’ve lacked poise, discipline and connectivity under pressure. They’ve made two shockingly lousy decisions that will be immortalized among the worst on-court mistakes in NBA history. Two decisions that might’ve been the difference between 3-1 Knicks and 3-1 Spurs.

Maybe it’s a little ironic that San Antonio’s most experienced star, De’Aaron Fox, was the player responsible for the fatal error in Game 4. But even the so-called veteran entered this postseason with only one playoff series of experience — zero series wins — in the first eight years of his career. This is all new for him, too.

And maybe it’s a little unfair that Fox’s ill-advised layup attempt up one will be forever remembered as the of this series, when it clearly took a team effort to cough up a 29-point lead. (Above all, the Spurs failed to realize how perimeter-reliant they were becoming in the third quarter as they cooled off from 3-point range. They were the first team in the playoffs this year to go an entire quarter without scoring in the paint, despite Victor Wembanyama being on the floor for 11 minutes of the frame.)

But this is the fabric of sports history. It’s how our memories are wired. Iconic games are known for their heroes and goats, who are usually determined by what happens at the fourth-quarter buzzer, or in the ninth inning, or after the two-minute warning. Whether a play endures or fades is fickle. Nuggets wing Torrey Craig made the same exact mistake as Fox with a few seconds left in Game 7 of a 2020 playoff series, but Mike Conley’s buzzer beater at the other end rimmed out, sparing Craig.

Fox wasn’t so lucky, nor did he help himself much. After OG Anunoby blocked his layup, Fox used San Antonio’s foul to give with five seconds to go, perhaps bailing the Knicks out of a disorganized final possession in which Jalen Brunson was nowhere near the ball. Instead, they regrouped. They were able to set up an inbound play. Anunoby was able to crash the offensive glass.

And so the missed layup will live on.

It will live on as one of the most significant Finals-altering blunders ever, near the top of a list that includes an even more notorious collapse by the Spurs.

: Big Fundamental on the bench. Gregg Popovich subbed out Hall of Fame big man Tim Duncan twice for defensive possessions in the last 30 seconds of regulation, first with a 94-89 lead, then 95-92. The idea was to put more perimeter quickness on the floor to switch screens and guard Miami’s 3-point attempts. The outcome was a pair of Heat offensive rebounds, both resulting in second-chance 3s to force overtime. Miami won the title in Game 7.

: Aw, nuts. Draymond Green got tangled with LeBron James and hit him in the groin, later earning Green a retroactive flagrant foul and an avoidable suspension for Game 5. The 73-win Warriors missed an opportunity to close out the championship at home without their best defender, and Cleveland flipped the series momentum en route to what remains the only 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history.

: Four free throws. Orlando’s Nick Anderson, a career 70% free throw shooter at the time, missed two foul shots with 10.5 seconds left and a 110-107 lead. Then he got his own rebound and went back to the stripe with another chance to ice the game — only to miss both free throws again. Houston’s Kenny Smith buried a game-tying 3-pointer at the other end, and the Rockets went on to sweep the series.

: JR Smith forgets the score. After securing an offensive rebound on George Hill’s missed free throw, Smith dribbled the ball out of the paint and toward midcourt, thinking the Cavs were ahead by one point, much to LeBron’s dismay. They were, in fact, tied. Golden State won in overtime, and Cleveland’s upset chances fizzled almost immediately.

: Josh Howard calls timeout. With the Finals tied 2-2 and the Mavericks leading 100-99 on the road, Miami’s Dwayne Wade went to the foul line with 1.9 seconds left (following a controversial call). He tied it with the first shot. Then Howard, a young Dallas forward, asked for a timeout. The officials granted it. Mavericks coach Avery Johnson tried to take it back. But the damage was done. It was the Mavs’ last, preventing them from advancing the ball after Wade sank the second free throw. They settled for a 50-foot prayer instead of a designed play.

1984 Games 2, 4: . Magic committed a series of costly errors throughout the Finals, starting in Game 2 when he lost track of the time at the end of regulation and dribbled out the clock to unwittingly force OT. In Game 4, the Lakers had the last shot again, but Johnson turned it over, then missed two potential go-ahead free throws late in overtime. Los Angeles lost both games. Boston took Game 7 in another thriller.

: Don’t forget the inbounder. Especially when it’s “Big Shot Bob.” Leading 95-93 with nine seconds in overtime, Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace left Robert Horry to double-team Ginobili in the corner. It wasn’t an aggressive enough trap to be worth the gamble. Ginobili received the inbound pass and calmly passed it back to Horry on the left wing, where he hit an open 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left for a 3-2 series lead. San Antonio prevailed in seven.

2026 Game 2: Wemby off his teammate’s back. The Spurs had the last shot after a defensive rebound, but Wembanyama threw a reckless outlet pass to an unsuspecting Stephon Castle, who was turning around to run the floor. Brunson lunged for the loose ball and got fouled. The turnover became a game-winning free throw for New York.

: Out-foxxed. The largest comeback in Finals history was capped by a fitting momentary lapse of judgment. With Anunoby in pursuit, Fox never had a chance to successfully finish a layup. He could’ve simply pulled the ball out to the perimeter, where the Knicks would’ve been forced to foul with a 106-105 deficit.

OG Anunoby, Victor Wembanyama and the Nuggets

On the other side of this dramatic series, there’s Anunoby, a half-tertiary star, half-super role player along the lines of Jrue Holiday or Aaron Gordon. In fact, he could’ve been Denver’s Aaron Gordon in an alternate universe, .

The Nuggets had the 13th pick in the 2017 draft. As the story goes, they were interested in Anunoby but thought he might be a reach at No. 13. Tim Connelly traded down for the 24th pick, receiving Trey Lyles from Utah in the deal. But Toronto, helmed by former Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri, snagged Anunoby at No. 23. The 13th pick became Donovan Mitchell for Utah. The 24th pick became Tyler Lydon, who played 26 NBA games.

In hindsight, it’s arguably the biggest misstep of Connelly’s tenure in Denver, sandwiched between two resoundingly successful drafts (Jamal Murray in 2016, Michael Porter Jr. in 2018). Anunoby won a championship in his second season as a Raptors bench contributor, but he wasn’t able to participate in their playoff run thanks to a poorly timed appendectomy. Since then, he’s developed into one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA and been traded to New York for RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.

The Raptors and Knicks have both used the massive wing to guard Nikola Jokic over the years. Anunoby has been one of the best non-centers in the league at handling that matchup, and he’s similarly well equipped to defend Wembanyama. Perhaps his success in this series will serve as a reminder of Gordon’s importance, as Denver mulls over whether he should remain part of its future. They’re not exact mirror images of each other, but in addition to their similar skill sets, they share a knack for coming through in big moments. Both have scored multiple playoff game-winners now.

Late in the regular season this April, Gordon’s clutch-time defense against Wembanyama was downright heroic in what felt like a statement win. If the Nuggets end up trading the 30-year-old, they’ll have to eventually find Jokic another frontcourt partner who can replicate Gordon’s ability to guard elite big men from a size disadvantage. That’s not easy. There are only so many AGs and OGs.

KAT’s watershed moment? Beating Nikola Jokic

One of the most satisfying storylines to emerge from this series has been the critical reevaluation of Karl-Anthony Towns’ legacy. For years, he’s been labeled soft. His lack of rim deterrence has been roundly panned. His propensity for committing silly fouls has been a common talking point when his teams have underperformed.

He’s also been one of the best centers in the world for a decade. And it was his embrace of the Wembanyama matchup — at both ends — that set the tone against San Antonio. The 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick was possibly the No. 1 reason New York went up 2-0 on the road. KAT’s reputation as a shooting threat helped draw Wembanyama out to the perimeter, away from the rim. He attacked Wemby off the dribble several times early in the series for emphatic dunks.

And just as importantly, Towns brought enough defensive physicality to help discourage Wembanyama from going inside too often. The French phenom’s defining flaw, three years into his career, is his inconsistent willingness to impose his size on offense. (See Game 4.) That will surely improve with time, but for now, KAT and the Knicks have recognized it and combated it appropriately.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to Nuggets fans. The turning point in KAT’s career as a defender was two seasons ago, during Minnesota’s 2024 playoff run. It was the year he broke through to the conference finals for the first time. He did so by wearing down Jokic throughout a seven-game series. The Timberwolves were playing two centers together, and their preferred defensive scheme was to put Towns on Jokic as the primary 1-on-1 defender so that Rudy Gobert could roam off of Gordon (in the dunker spot or on the perimeter) as a help-side rim protector. Yes, it was a second layer of defense that most big men aren’t fortunate enough to have behind them. But a major part of Minnesota’s success in the series was KAT’s toughness at holding his ground in the post and pushing Jokic off his spots when the three-time MVP battled for positioning.

Jokic has proven as recently as April that he can maneuver around Wembanyama’s otherworldly defensive talent. The Nuggets should be less worried than most teams about that specific matchup. Relentless ball movement and floor-stretching bigs are clearly two of the best ways to get the Spurs out of their comfort zone a little bit. Having Jokic on the court inherently checks both of those boxes.

But stretching the floor means making 3s. Jokic’s touch has abandoned him at critical playoff moments since 2023, including both times he’s lost to Minnesota. Defenses will continue to sell out to defend the paint against him; he’s dominant enough offensively that his 3s are a shot most teams have to be willing to live with.

When the Nuggets evaluate why they’ve fallen short of a second championship, one of the most important reasons is a painfully simple one that must be fixed in order to get back to the Finals: Jokic has to shoot well to open up the offense.

A month after their capitulation against the Timberwolves, the Nuggets have made watching the NBA Finals a painful experience.

Lost in the headlines of the breathtaking Victor Wembanyama squaring off against the soul-crushing Jalen Brunson is a buried nugget that relates to the Nuggets.

In Game 1, the Spurs used 10 players, including 12 minutes from ABA veteran Harrison Barnes and 10 from backup center Luke Kornet. Ten players logged in for the Knicks, including nine with at least 11 minutes. Landry Shamet clocked 33. Entering Game 2, the last time New York lost was April 23.

Which brings us back to Denver and its rookie coach’s mistake. The offseason was dedicated to trading Michael Porter Jr. to reinforce the bench. The Nuggets added Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown and Jonas Valanciunas, providing more suitable roles late in the season for Julian Strawther and eventually Tyus Jones.

And yet, they became ghosts until it was too late. Even with Aaron Gordon hurt, even with Jamal Murray suffocating under the Saran-Wrap tight defense of Jaden McDaniels, David Adelman leaned on a seven-man rotation.

It brought back memories of last postseason when the Nuggets bench was Russell Westbrook. Singular.

Hardaway delivered a pedestrian performance with 10.8 points in 23 minutes per game, but never percolated from beyond the arc. Bruce Brown looked out of sync, assuming a spark plug role at home and a cheerleader spot on the road. Brown netted 19.2 minutes a game, scoring 6.3 points, but with nearly two turnovers. Spencer Jones was the only player to exceed reserve expectations with 6.5 points in 24 minutes.

And for all of the bluster about keeping Nikola Jokic fresh, Valanciunas was nonexistent. He was bad when he was in, but was it because Adelman clearly lost confidence in him? Why not use him as a roughneck to foul McDaniels hard early in Game 3 and Game 4?

The Bonus Jonas brother only appeared in four games vs. Minnesota, contributing 2.8 points and 1.3 turnovers in 6.3 minutes.

And don’t get me started about Strawther and Jones. Strawther appeared twice, logging 18 total minutes and making two shots. Jones checked into three games, and clearly should have been used sooner in the series to take pressure off Murray to initiate the offense with Gordon hurt.

Jones was solid, averaging 1.7 assists and no turnovers in his 30 minutes.

The Thunder, Spurs and Knicks look so far away, the Nuggets could have telescope night for the first 5,000 fans on opening night and no one would blanch.

This is a critical offseason for the Nuggets. They need to trade multiple players, starting with Cam Johnson and Gordon. But they cannot move forward without Adelman learning lessons.

Nobody wants to hear about the defensive metrics ranking better than expected against Minnesota. The Nuggets failed the eye test. And they were not athletic enough.

But if the playoffs tell us anything, it is that depth matters. Adelman will be given decent bench players. If the Nuggets are going to surprise anyone next postseason, he must do a better job of using them.

Don’t Bet On It: Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby trampled the NCAA gambling rules. Hopefully, the treatment he received for his addiction takes. However, Sorsby wants a judge to grant him an injunction to play this season. Please. Sorsby bet on games involving teams he was on. He should be banned. Full stop. Allowing him to return makes a mockery of any rules on the subject.

Sing along: College baseball getting a bump with so many upsets in the regionals was fantastic. The lasting story? West Virginia fans and players singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver after knocking out Kentucky. Understand, it is not a song in West Virginia. It is an anthem. It is played after sporting events and “it is almost always the last song played at a wedding reception,” said Cathy Rennard, president and CEO of Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg. “It is wonderful the way that it connects people.”

What would it take to trade for Giannis? Would he and Jokic fit next to each other?

— Fred, Aurora

Of course they would fit next to each other, have you gone mad? Imagine the four-five pick-and-rolls — Jokic screening and Antetokounmpo turning the corner to attack downhill, or Jokic ball-handling with Giannis as his lob threat, putting pressure on the paint as a roller. Imagine Jokic’s outlet passes and Antetokounmpo’s fast breaks. Imagine Giannis as the athletic back-line rim protector Jokic needs to cover his defensive flaws.

Now, listen: I thought Giannis and Damian Lillard were a match made in heaven, and we saw how that ended. Nonetheless, believing the two best players of the decade so far would be extraordinary together as teammates … yeah, that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

What would it take? An extremely convoluted trade framework involving a minimum of three teams, and probably more than that. Jamal Murray would go to a third team (not Milwaukee; perhaps an East contender that’s not interested in acquiring Giannis but is willing to cooperate with sending him to the other conference). One of Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, or Christian Braun would also probably go out in the deal. There would have to be a team with multiple good first-round draft picks to send Milwaukee alongside Denver’s No. 26 pick, not to mention a reason to send Milwaukee those picks. That means there would have to be another team in the equation sending a young All-Star to the team with the picks. And then, of course, there would have to be at least one team (likely more) with both the cap space and willingness to eat some salary from the other teams. Probably in exchange for more draft picks.

If the Nuggets were sitting around with five future first-round picks to throw around in trade offers, this would be a real conversation. Instead, it’s about as close to impossible as any NBA transaction can be.

ESPN and Marc Stein both put out that Cam Johnson and Christian Braun are the two main players Denver is trying to trade this offseason, as opposed to the bigger names (Murray and Gordon) you’ve suggested. How possible is it that someone is actually willing to take Braun’s contract, and if so, is it smart to trade a younger player like him to hang onto an aging core? I don’t know if I’ll ever trust Murray and Gordon to both stay healthy simultaneously for a full playoff run again.

— Mitchell, Denver

To be clear, what I’ve reported since the night Denver’s season ended is that Johnson is the Nuggets starter most likely to be traded. Really, that’s been the growing suspicion in league circles since Peyton Watson started to look more expensive by the day in January. The reason I’ve spent more time examining Murray and Gordon as trade candidates than Braun is exactly what you’ve pointed out in your question, Mitchell: Based on conversations I’ve had with league sources, I share your skepticism that teams are lining up to bid for Braun after his down year. Flexibility is the name of the game in this apron era. Everyone is afraid to get stuck with bad money. Cap space and maneuverability are often more valuable than a player under contract for five years.

I do expect the Nuggets to explore the market for Braun — maybe they’ll even pull something off — but the problem they’ll encounter is that potential trade partners will ask for draft compensation to sweeten the deal. And unlike the Thunder and Spurs, Denver is not exactly swimming in future picks. You can’t just panic and keep burning draft assets every time you start to semi-regret an extension you’ve given out. The Nuggets already coughed up their last trade-eligible first-rounder to get off of Michael Porter Jr.’s max salary last summer — speaking of which, if they’re not able to get back at least one equally valuable pick for Johnson this offseason, then trading him to cut payroll would be poor asset management and difficult for team ownership to justify.

If I had to guess what type of team is most likely to bite on Braun, I would look the opposite direction from the playoff contenders that could feasibly show interest in Murray or Gordon. Think about teams backed into a corner that have no other choice but to get younger and be patient for the next few years, rebuilders with less risk in taking on Braun’s contract. Milwaukee? Sacramento?

It saddens me to see all this talk of trading Jamal Murray or AG. What happened to the continuity the Nuggets used to love preaching about? What happened to teams and players staying committed to each other through the hard times? I’d rather see the Nuggets fail to win another championship with the guys I’ve cared about for years than trade away their identity as a team, bring in some guns for hire, and probably fail to beat Wembanyama anyways. 

— Adam, Kansas City

It’s a completely fair stance. Sports fandom is an emotional proposition, after all. I’ve seen Adam’s sentiment plenty — that Jokic, Murray and Gordon should be allowed to play together until Gordon’s hamstring falls off the bone or Jokic leaves for a second career in horse racing. I also can’t fault Mitchell in the previous question for wanting to see the Nuggets completely overhaul their supporting cast. The big-picture question of whether it makes sense to break up the band is a genuinely nuanced predicament that weighs basketball ambition against chemistry and nostalgia. Maybe the sentimental approach is too conservative. Maybe the aggressive path forward is nothing but ill-fated, cold-hearted pragmatism. You can convince me of either.

I read that Jrue Holiday was once an alternative to Aaron Gordon, years ago. Why not go get him from Portland now? He doesn’t really fit their timeline, does he?

— Daniel, Denver

He would certainly check multiple boxes for Denver. The soon-to-be 36-year-old provides ball-handling, perimeter defense, veteran leadership, reasonably efficient shooting from the corners. Shoot, most teams would like to have that guy.

Holiday will make $34.8 million next season. Then he has a $37.2 million player option in 2027. If Denver acquired him, it would probably involve Murray going to Portland, and I’m not sure he makes a ton of sense for a team that’s about to get Damian Lillard back from a torn Achilles next season. Or maybe there’s a deal in which the Nuggets send out Johnson and Gordon (or Braun, why not) to two different teams so they can take Holiday back at a lesser salary. Targeting him is a good idea, but the logistics are the obstacle, as with most large-scale trades.

Is Adelman the right guy for the job? And the team? I don’t think so.

— Sam C, via email

The team seems to be a collection of disparate personalities. … Was Michael Malone the secret to the team’s success? He seemed uniquely tuned in to how to handle these very different players’ needs for guidance (until the conflict with Calvin Booth eclipsed that). Adelman seems more like a passionless technician who can’t or won’t work on meshing the team’s personalities. The team’s lack of in-game fire compared to peak Malone has me wondering.

— Casey, Denver

I’ve heard this sentiment a lot recently, and I find it a little misguided. Last week, I came across the video of Jamal Murray’s 2024 playoff buzzer-beater to beat the Lakers. It’s one of the most memorable games I’ve covered on the Nuggets beat (top three at minimum?), so of course I was instantly reeled in by the highlight. My eyes wandered to Denver’s bench, studying the reactions as Murray released the shot and fell backward into his teammates. Perhaps the most animated of all is the bald guy with the clipboard who jumps for joy and punches the air.

Evidence of Adelman’s emotion is pretty easy to find unless you willfully ignore it. Players have said on the record that he can be startlingly direct with them, that he wields an intensity but reserves it for behind the scenes. “I probably seem pretty calm, but I am kind of psychotic sometimes,” he said himself in March, before the calmness became a popular criticism.

From my point of view as The Media, accusing Adelman of being passionless or unable to motivate his players just because he’s usually a more stoic sideline presence and a less fiery postgame quote than his predecessor is unfair to the position he’s in.

Michael Malone lost the locker room largely because his fire-and-brimstone approach to the job grated on players. That’s not to discount his coaching chops or his accomplishments in Denver — his name will be in the rafters someday, and rightfully so — but it’s just the reality of how his tenure ended. When he blasted his team’s effort at press conferences, it might’ve felt satisfying to fans watching on TV who felt the same way. But to many players, it sparked frustration, not inspiration. Adelman took over the job with that needle to thread. By nature, he’s certainly a cooler head than Malone to begin with, but he also had to be a little reticent about calling players out publicly.

He did criticize the Nuggets for their effort two or three times this season — he wasn’t completely unwilling to do so — but he was conservative with those bullets. By firing fewer of them, the times he did felt more revealing, from my perspective as the person who was often eliciting postgame comments from him.

For the most part, he prioritized substance over style in his messaging. He didn’t shy away from the obvious when someone played poorly. He didn’t pretend Jamal Murray shot 80% from the field in a game if he shot 20%. He just didn’t discuss it with any bluster. He was matter-of-fact without being harsh on his players. His approach to media actually reminded me of Jared Bednar, whom I covered briefly on the Avalanche beat.

By no means am I saying Adelman is above criticism. Part of a head coach’s job is to be accountable for the team’s failures, and this Nuggets season unquestionably ended in failure. He’s earned praise over the years for being one of the masterminds behind a great offense; that means he must also be willing to accept blame when that offense sputters. He understands that. In his end-of-season presser last week, he pointed out that the Nuggets allowed Minnesota to guard their two-man game straight-up too much throughout the series, 2-on-2 with Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, reducing Denver’s shot quality. Role players didn’t get as many open looks. Nikola Jokic and Murray didn’t sufficiently bring weaker defenders into the action. That’s part execution, part coaching. Jokic, Murray and Adelman needed to be better.

But I think there’s a difference between criticizing him for that and ridiculing him for his measured approach, which was a key reason his employers hired him and a reason his employees advocated for him last summer. Arguably the most important aspect of being an NBA head coach today is managing personalities in a locker room with a payroll exceeding $200 million. You need your players to think highly of you. As of now, the two most important people in the building do. And that’s more important than the court of public opinion.

Based on last year’s moves during the offseason, what letter grade would you have given our front office at the time? What is our dynamic duo/power of friendship front office’s letter grade potential this offseason?

— Madalynn, Denver

Without literally grading them, I essentially gave Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace an “A” last summer. They managed to simultaneously improve the depth of the roster and decrease the payroll — a balancing act that satisfied their fans, their star player and their bosses in the owner’s suite.

In hindsight, there are a few decisions that sting. They had to part with an unprotected first-round pick to swap Michael Porter Jr.’s controversial contract for Cam Johnson’s more modest salary. That’s an asset they’d like to have now, even if Johnson ultimately outperformed Porter in recent playoff games.

The Jonas Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown acquisitions were successful in the regular season but disappointing against Minnesota. Valanciunas, in particular, was out of the rotation for most of the series — but it’s not like Tenzer and Wallace were kicking themselves, wishing they had kept Dario Saric as they watched Game 4 fall apart.

The Nuggets also swayed Russell Westbrook into declining his player option by telling him he wasn’t wanted back for a second season. That decision looks bad on paper now, especially when athleticism and ball-handling have been pinpointed as 2026 offseason priorities. But I still feel inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, because efficient ball-handling is what they really need. Westbrook’s recklessness was costly last year. His turnover rate caused a lot of headaches internally.

Choosing to keep Spencer Jones for a second season on a two-way contract ended up being a huge win. The Nuggets should want to make sure they keep him in restricted free agency this summer.

And speaking of restricted free agency, the obvious winner for most regrettable decision one year later was choosing Christian Braun’s extension over Peyton Watson’s. It seemed like a self-explanatory decision at the time. Now Braun is coming off his worst season, and Watson is coming off his best.

It will be much more difficult for Tenzer and Wallace to earn an “A” this year. The payroll restraints are far more inhibitive, and the most likely outcome — as I see it — is that Denver will tip off the 2026-27 season with a noticeably worse roster than the 2025-26 team.

Who can you see leaving the Nuggets roster in the offseason?

— Ed, Auburn, New York

Apologies for the temporary cop-out answer, Ed, but I’m planning to write a more in-depth answer to this exact question soon. (That’s right, it’s a shameless plug for another story that is yet to be written.) Without going into detail on my reasoning, my educated guess is that Denver loses Cam Johnson and one other top-six player.

Which season-ending loss to Minnesota was worse: 2024 Game 7 (blowing a 20-point lead at home) or 2026 Game 6 (no Ant, Donte or Ayo)?

— Lucas, via email

Perfect way to wrap this up: with the most self-loathing question of the day. We appreciate your vulnerability, Lucas. We’ve all been there as sports fans at one time or another.

My take is 2024. After Denver was eliminated a couple of weeks ago, I wrote: “The 2024 loss stung because the Nuggets knew they were good enough to win the championship. The 2026 loss stings because they were jolted awake to the unforeseen reality that they weren’t good enough.”

The former is going to be more painful to reckon with over time, I think. If the Nuggets end up winning only one championship with Jokic, there are two critical moments that Coloradans will look back on as the tragic what-ifs. First will be Murray’s ACL injury, which sidelined him for the 2021 and 2022 playoffs, neither of which ended with a particularly dominant, convincing champion (Milwaukee and Golden State). Second will be that second-round Game 7 in 2024.

Obviously, there’s no telling what would have happened next. But the Nuggets won a franchise-record 57 games that season with the same starting five that won the title. They ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating, which feels impossible to imagine now. They would’ve been clear favorites to beat the fifth-seeded Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. And in the NBA Finals, they would’ve faced an elite Boston team that had lost to them twice in the regular season. At minimum, I think NBA fans missed out on a potential classic series, regardless of who would’ve won.

This year, the Nuggets dug their grave on the last night of the regular season, whether they care to admit it or not. They weren’t going to knock out Minnesota, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and New York consecutively. Especially after they fell behind 2-1 to the Wolves in a series they needed to end quickly. Losing to such a depleted team might be more embarrassing, but decades from now, it won’t be as haunting.

“Why did the Cubbies lose the 2003 NLCS?” he would ask.

If they answered “Bartman,” or “Steve Bartman,” or anything that sounded remotely like “Bartman,” my pal would wish ’em well, shake his head, and move on. (The correct answer, then and now, is )

We decided the other day that the same test could be applied to Michael Porter Jr. and the Nuggets.

“Would Denver have beaten the Timberwolves in 2026 if they still had MPJ?”

If somebody answers yes, they’re saying something. They’re telling you they’ve never really watched the Nuggets without telling you that they’ve never really watched the Nuggets.

They’re telling you they follow this team via TikTok. Or Xwitter highlights. Or only when the Nuggets happened to be playing the Lakers in the postseason.

“I guess they might miss me,” Porter, now of the Brooklyn Nets, cracked this past week when asked about his former team’s epic choke job “I don’t know. Probably not.”

Yeah, probably not.

MPJ was a good soul, tougher than old leather, He was also a notoriously here.

The brighter the lights, the tighter Porter got. The closer MPJ flew to the sun, the more his wings melted.

When last Denver fans saw Porter in the NBA Playoffs, the pride of Mizzou averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 boards and 0.6 dimes per game in the 2025 Western semis against Oklahoma City. Porter shot at a 25% clip from beyond the arc (9-36).

Yes, MPJ put up those numbers with just one working shoulder. Yes, he played hurt, played through all kinds of pain. Again — tough, tough, tough dude. The spirit was willing, even as the body failed him.

“If I would have been on the Nuggets,” , “we wouldn’t have lost to the Wolves.”

Cherish your history. Just don’t revise it. Remember the last time the Nuggets were eliminated from the postseason by Minnesota? No? Quick refresher: MPJ was Deadpool in Los Angeles and Nicepool in Minneapolis.

With two functional shoulders, Porter averaged 10.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and an assist against the Timberwolves in the 2024 Western Conference semis. He made 32.5% of his looks beyond the arc (13-40).

MPJ dropped 20 on Minny in Game 1. He would go on to score nine or fewer in five of the next six contests. With the Nuggets leading 3-2 in the series, he’d average just 7.5 points in Games 6 and 7, two setbacks that loom even larger in hindsight, and was 2 for 12 on treys.

“I’m a better player than I played in this series,” Porter said after the Nuggets blew Game 7 to Minnesota and Anthony Edwards at home. “I’m a better shooter than I shot in this series. In the NBA, you’ve got to be able to separate off-the-court matters with your on-the-court play. So I don’t have any excuses. … I told my teammates, ‘Sorry.’ I feel like this is on me.”

It wasn’t all on MPJ, to be fair. But when the Nuggets needed a hero,

Cam Johnson, the man who came over in the trade that sent Porter to the Nets last summer, averaged 14 points, 3.2 boards, 2.3 assists against Minnesota in the first round this season. Faced with elimination in Game 6, Johnson dropped 27 points, eight boards and five treys on the Wolves.

The memory. Oh, how it cheats.

It’s not the guy. It was never the guy. It was the contract. Porter came with a $38.3-million cap hit in ’25-26 and a $40.8-million cap hit next season.

The Nuggets don’t land Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown, Jonas Valanciunas and Johnson if they keep MPJ.

The Nuggets don’t win 54 games in the regular season if they keep MPJ.

The Nuggets don’t go 11-6 while Nikola Jokic is hurt if they keep MPJ.

The Nuggets probably don’t see peak Peyton Watson if they keep MPJ.

And the Nuggets probably don’t get past Minnesota in ’26 if they keep MPJ. No matter what your favorite fantasy basketball expert says while he’s thinking with his thumbs.

“I didn’t like that (Aaron Gordon) was hurt, I didn’t like that (Watson) couldn’t do his thing,” Porter told the ‘Road Trippin’ Show.’ “I was talking to Christian Braun during the series. He hurt his ankle the first game, and he played through it same way I played through a shoulder injury last year. Now, he’s getting killed on social media, especially since the comments he made. Those are my guys. I wanted them to do well.”

Meanwhile, the four guys who replaced him averaged 33.2 points per game in the Wolves series. Let him go. As the Nuggets just proved,

Kroenke, the son of team owner Stan Kroenke, didn’t rule out �貹�⾱�Բ���the costly “repeater tax” when asked directly whether that would drive their decision-making this offseason. But in general, during a 45-minute news conference at Ball Arena, the KSE vice chairman was non-committal about exactly how much money his family is prepared to commit to the 2026-27 team after it underachieved in the 2026 NBA Playoffs.

“I don’t want to be masked in my frustration for how the season ended,” Kroenke said. “I think that anybody that was a fan of the Denver Nuggets should be frustrated. And anything that a fan feels, I probably feel a thousand X. So I think everything is gonna be on the table, outside of trading Nikola.”

The luxury tax is a threshold that requires teams with higher roster payrolls at the end of each season to pay a tax, which is dispersed between the league and teams below the threshold. Essentially, it’s a mechanism designed to punish high-spending owners and reward low spenders.

The Nuggets were a luxury-tax team for three consecutive seasons, from 2022-23 to 2024-25, including the year they won their first NBA championship in franchise history. But what makes this offseason a pivotal moment for them is the additional tax rate known as the repeater tax — a more severe financial penalty based on five-year windows, incentivizing owners not to spend excessively over the salary cap for prolonged periods.

A team pays the repeater if it finishes a season in luxury tax territory after having done so in three of the previous four seasons as well.

That means for the Nuggets to dodge it, they have to finish 2025-26 and 2026-27 out of the tax.

They’re halfway there, after salary-dumping Hunter Tyson to the Brooklyn Nets before the trade deadline in February — a move that ensured their payroll was under this season’s luxury tax line.

“I don’t think we made ourselves any worse, what we did at the deadline,” Kroenke said.

He chalked it up to “preserving flexibility.” Now, the Nuggets have the option to spend luxuriously next season — a choice that would’ve been available to them regardless — or avoid the luxury tax again and . Two consecutive years out of the tax would reset Kroenkes’ repeater clock, allowing them to spend into the luxury tax for another three consecutive years from 2027-28 through 2029-30 without paying the additional penalties.

“I think that the responsible thing to do at that moment in time, if there wasn’t a huge move we saw that could strengthen the roster, was to put ourselves in position to (avoid the tax),” Kroenke said.

It’s a sentiment that was echoed by KSE president of team and media operations Kevin Demoff in a February interview with the KSE-owned radio station Altitude Sports. “Who knows what will happen next year,” Demoff said at the time, “but what’s really penalizing right now in the NBA is if you’re in the repeater tax.”

So what’s the decision three months later regarding that repeater tax, now that flexibility has been achieved?

“If we deem running it back the most competitive thing we can do for the roster, that’s probably what we’re going to be doing,” Kroenke said Friday. “So I don’t want to put words in my dad’s mouth by any means, but he has owned the team for a very long time. We’ve run it aggressively as we can at different points in time. I think that the joke is always, we love to pay for talent on the floor. So leaning into that assessment that people have put on us at different points in time, if we deem that’s the most competitive thing for us, then that’s what we’re gonna be doing.”

Nuggets’ payroll set to spike

The problem for Nuggets ownership is that simply “running it back” with every important player from a wasted 2025-26 season is expensive. There’s the repeater tax, and then there’s the second apron, another payroll threshold introduced in the 2023 NBA collective bargaining agreement that involves increased tax rates and punitive roster-building restrictions. With new contract extensions going into effect for Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and possibly Peyton Watson this summer, the Nuggets’ payroll is about to spike. They’re projected to be a second-apron team unless they make cost-cutting trades.

And if precedent is any indicator, the Kroenkes have not entered the second apron at any point in its existence so far. They avoided it in 2024 by letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk in free agency. Cleveland is the only team set to finish this season in the second apron.

That’s why several league sources have told The Denver Post they anticipate the Nuggets trading at least one starter this offseason, especially if they retain Watson in free agency.

So when Kroenke uses the term “running it back,” he doesn’t mean running it back completely. That would require signing up for second apron and repeater tax payments.

A more accurate term than “running it back” is “not completely reconfiguring the roster.”

“When I say running it back, you’re talking about a lot of different variations of what ‘running it back’ could look like,” he clarified. “Is it gonna be the exact same team? I don’t think there’s ever the exact same team of the 13 to 16 guys in there. But are you talking about the same core group of players? Potentially. And that could mean re-signing and bringing back certain guys as well.”

The core he’s referring to consists of Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon. Before this season, Kroenke — like most fans and people around the league — viewed those three and Michael Porter Jr. as Denver’s core. Porter was traded for Cam Johnson last summer, a move that enabled the Nuggets to both shed salary and deepen their bench in subsequent trades.

“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,” Kroenke said. “Love Michael as a person. Love Michael as a player. But that was something we felt the organization needed to do to maintain a roster going forward, to establish more depth.”

The question that will loom over the next two months is whether Gordon or Murray might join Porter as salary cap sacrifices.

As Kroenke indicated, it’s on the table.

But trading either of them would double as an acknowledgment that Denver’s current template has gone stale. Kroenke is not entirely sure that’s true.

“I think we need to have running it back as a possibility. I think this season was, in a lot of ways, the season that never was, because this group never fully got a chance to show any kind of rhythm,” he said. “… I think that a microcosm of our season is Nikola before and after the (knee) injury. He was one player before, and when he came back, he was still incredible in so many facets, but for some reason, his 3-point shot left him. Whether or not you believe me, I do believe that basketball is a rhythm game, and the team as a whole never had a chance to fully establish a rhythm. And that truly showed up when the games mattered in April.”

If it’s not Murray or Gordon, then at least one of Braun, Johnson or Watson will likely end up on a new team for money-saving purposes.

Meanwhile, the rest of the NBA is widely expected to be more competitive next season — from the bottom tier, where anti-tanking regulations and a weaker draft class should curb teams’ intentional losing, to the upper echelons, where Oklahoma City and San Antonio stand tall.

If the Nuggets do risk weakening their roster for payroll reasons this summer, can they consider themselves championship contenders anymore?

“It depends,” Kroenke said. “I think the smartest teams can figure out how to stay competitive while having to make some of those cutthroat moves at different points in time. But we’ve developed a lot of things around here organically, and we want to try to hang onto those pieces for sure.”

As he charged up the middle of the floor last Thursday, they could almost start to picture Game 7 back home. The Nuggets were on a 7-0 run in the third quarter of Game 6. They had held Minnesota scoreless for three minutes. They were finally about to reclaim the lead in a game they were supposed to control from the outset.

They had momentum. Braun had momentum. Nikola Jokic fed him the ball in transition, as he’s done hundreds of times. One of the best fast-break scorers in the NBA had only one backpedaling defender between him and the basket. But as he entered the paint with his second dribble, he accidentally left the ball behind — an unforced turnover that summed up Braun’s physically uncomfortable and statistically unproductive series.

The Timberwolves took advantage, collecting the loose ball and scoring a go-ahead layup. It was one of Denver’s last chances to take the lead in an eventual season-ending loss.

Braun’s reluctance around the rim was often a noticeable theme of the first-round playoff series, which the Nuggets lost 4-2, condemning them to a long offseason. Like Jokic and Jamal Murray, the fourth-year guard volunteered to take the blame. Hindered by multiple injuries — one well documented, one kept private — Braun struggled to supply the athleticism Denver desperately needed with Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson both out of the lineup. Defeat left a poor taste in his mouth.

“It’s just unacceptable. Especially with the talent we have on this roster,” Braun said. “I think when we come here every single year, we talk about championships. That’s our mindset and our goal. And obviously, we fell short. A first-round exit’s not acceptable. We’ve gotta bounce back. We’ve gotta get to work. … You can kind of put it on my shoulders. I think this team wasn’t resilient enough in the playoffs.”

When asked to elaborate, he said the lack of resilience was a reflection of him.

“I just think I’m the leader of this team,” Braun said. “I’m the vocal leader of this team. And when we don’t play well as a whole, you can blame whatever you want … You can blame anything. But I didn’t play well enough as an individual, and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series. So we’ll be better. I’ll be better. I’m looking forward to next year, when we can respond.”

Injuries limit Braun’s explosiveness

That’s assuming, of course, that he’s still on the roster. Braun knows well that underachieving in the NBA tends to breed scrutiny and speculation. The future of Denver’s core around Jokic has rarely been more in doubt than it is after failing to win a playoff series for the first time in four years.

Braun averaged 8.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 31 minutes per game in the playoffs. Despite his down year as a 3-point shooter, his 6-for-14 clip against Minnesota (42.9%) was ironically a minor bright spot in a series in which Denver’s perimeter shooting as a whole dried up.

But his volume from deep wasn’t nearly high enough to make a difference, and he struggled inside the arc, missing 13 of his 22 shot attempts from 2-point range. He often pulled the ball out of the paint instead of trying to finish strong at the rim. It was his attack mindset in his third NBA season that helped him earn a five-year, $125 million rookie extension from the Nuggets. He signed it the day before the 2025-26 season. It goes into effect next year. He’s currently under contract longer than anyone else on the roster.

“I was rewarded for my work on my rookie deal, so I understand the expectations are higher, and I need to be better,” Braun said. “That just is what it is. So as an individual, I understand I need to get better. I need to play better. I get to get healthy, first and foremost. But there is no excuse.”

Braun missed 38 games during the regular season after suffering a severe left ankle sprain on Nov. 12. He initially tried to return on Jan. 4, but after struggling for three games, it was clear he wasn’t ready. He was able to run. He wasn’t able to jump. He went back on the shelf for another three weeks, then spent the rest of the season growing accustomed to a routine of postgame treatment on the ankle. He had torn the ligaments on the inside and outside of it. It was the first serious injury of his basketball career. It continued to swell up during the playoffs.

Meanwhile, he also sustained an injury and developed swelling in his left calf in Game 1 against the Timberwolves, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. It exacerbated Braun’s inability to explode off the ground — his left leg is the one he usually pushes off of when he jumps.

With 20 seconds left in Game 2, he was flat-footed in the dunker spot when Jokic passed up a floater to dump him the ball underneath the basket. The Timberwolves collapsed to Braun before he could jump for a layup attempt. He drew a foul, only to miss a critical free throw that would have tied the game. Jokic admitted afterward that he should’ve taken the shot.

In the last four games of the series, Braun averaged 5.5 points on 6-for-17 shooting. The Nuggets lost his minutes by a combined 37 points in their three road losses at Minnesota.

“Any season for me that doesn’t end with a championship, I think, is a disappointment,” Braun said when asked about his individual season. “… I could sit here and make every excuse. I could blame my ankle. I could blame injuries that people don’t know about. But that doesn’t really matter. If I’m going to be on the court, the expectation is to win. The expectation is to play well.”

Offseason roster questions loom

If the Nuggets were to move on from Braun this offseason, it’s widely believed that they would need to attach other assets in a trade to get another team to take on his contract. They currently have no future first-round draft picks eligible to be traded, after using their 2032 pick to move off Michael Porter Jr.’s hefty salary last summer. They can, however, trade this year’s first-round pick on draft night if they so choose.

More likely, Denver will need Braun to get healthy and prove that his 2024-25 season wasn’t an anomaly. He was a candidate for Most Improved Player that year, leading all NBA guards in true shooting percentage with a 66.5% clip, ranking fourth overall behind three centers. He did that while guarding the opponent’s best perimeter player most nights. He averaged 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists, leading the league in fast-break points.

That and a vote of confidence from Jokic guided the Nuggets to prioritize him over Peyton Watson in preseason extension talks, a league source said. Now it’s Watson who’s coming off a breakout year, while Braun faces scrutiny about what he is and can be as an NBA starter. He’s never been a high-volume 3-point shooter, but his percentage dropped from 39.7% to 30.1% this season. His scoring efficiency in transition also declined marginally. His true shooting took a 5.8% hit. At the other end of the floor, he’s been good throughout his career but hasn’t ascended to All-Defensive Team levels.

As the Nuggets assess their roster needs this summer, he expects to be an internal solution by rediscovering the spring in his step.

“We were a historic offense during the regular season. We were so good. Even with guys in and out, we were really good,” he said. “And that just didn’t translate into the playoffs this year. And that goes on every one of us. It goes on the screener who’s getting guys open, whoever’s taking the shot. I need to be more aggressive with the ball and go downhill better. There’s a ton of things you can blame. You can’t point at Jok and all those guys. They’re killers. That’s what they do every night. So we’ve gotta help those guys. I’ve gotta help those guys. Whether it’s screening well, whether it’s bringing the ball up and taking care of it, we’ve just gotta be better. And I know we will moving forward.”

As he caught a pass from Nikola Jokic and began to uncork a 3-pointer moments later, his old friend suddenly lunged toward him and shouted, doing his part to distract the open shooter. But Braun was ready for it. “When I catch the ball in the corner, they say the same exact thing every single time,” he said. “So I’ve come to expect it. … It’s a lot of different things from different people. So I try to pick out one or two things that I hear and go for that person.”

Usually, that person is Bones Hyland.

Braun drained the shot and pointed at his former Nuggets teammate. It was the first quarter of Game 1 between Denver and Minnesota, and the trash talk was already flying both directions.

“I’m pretty close with Bones, from when he was here. So he’s obviously a really good dude, and I love going back and forth with him,” Braun explained. “It was funny because I think in the preseason, it was the same exact thing. I caught it in the corner, hit a shot, turned around, looked at him — and it just feels so familiar. Playing these guys. We’ve played them so many times.”

The Nuggets and Timberwolves can’t seem to escape each other. Not in the regular season, when they face off four times as division opponents. Not in the offseason, when their coaching staffs and front offices regularly trade places. And not in the NBA playoffs, where they’re meeting for the third time in four years.

Not all NBA rivalries are created equal. This one has persisted long enough to stand tall as arguably the most compelling of the 2020s. In large part because the only feeling more satisfying than defeating your enemies is that of defeating your friends.

“It’s weird to shake their hands after the series,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said, “because you know those guys so well. But during it, it’s kind of, ‘See you in a couple of weeks.'”

Tim Connelly’s fingerprints on both rosters

The staff connections were already endless, and they’ve somehow expanded over the last year. Most of them were related to Tim Connelly, Minnesota’s president of basketball operations, who previously ran Denver’s front office for nine years. He was the Nuggets’ lead executive when they drafted Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.; when they hired Michael Malone; when they traded for Aaron Gordon. He was the chief architect of a championship team. But he walked away from Denver less than a year before his vision was realized, taking the Timberwolves job in 2022. Jokic still stays in touch with him.

“I think people see Tim as a general manager, but he is a really good person, really good friend,” the star center said last week. “So I wish people (could) know Tim. Like, (so they) don’t look at Tim as a general manager.”

Connelly took Jon Wallace with him to Minnesota. Wallace had joined the Nuggets in 2019 as a basketball operations associate — a low-level role that included building relationships with players. (Connelly introduced him and Murray via group chat, sparking a friendship.) Then last June, the Nuggets snatched Wallace back from Minnesota, hiring him as their new co-general manager alongside his friend Ben Tenzer — another longtime Connelly disciple who’d been a steady hand behind the scenes in Denver’s front office since 2013.

Wallace and Tenzer’s fingerprints are all over this Nuggets roster, even though they’ve only been in charge for 10 months. They brought in four new rotation players in their first offseason, including Bruce Brown — another link to the Nuggets-Wolves rivalry. It was he who said after Denver won the championship in 2023 that “our toughest series was Minnesota,” despite the first-round clash lasting only five games.

“Jon and Ben, they’re like family. We couldn’t be more proud,” Connelly told The Denver Post earlier this season. “It’s awesome, you know? Josh (Kroenke) has remained one of my best friends. To see Ben’s growth, to see Jon, his rapid ascent, and to see the team’s success, to see DA — there’s a tremendous sense of pride watching your buddies do such great things professionally. And they’re all just great guys. … Four times a year, I want to beat them, and the other 78, you won’t find a bigger Denver Nuggets home than ours.”

Connelly’s audacity as a lead executive has likewise been apparent throughout his time in Minnesota, even though the franchise-altering Anthony Edwards draft pick was before his time. When he traded four first-round picks for defensive stopper Rudy Gobert, he had Jokic specifically in mind. And his decision to partner with Gobert was a full-circle development dating back to his first week in Denver. In 2013, the Nuggets traded away Gobert’s draft rights to Utah for cash and a future second-round pick.

The connections run even deeper. Denver’s general manager before the Wallace-Tenzer tandem, Calvin Booth, ascended with the Timberwolves from 2013-17, first as a scout then as their director of player personnel. Connelly hired Booth away from Minnesota in 2017. Then Booth succeeded Connelly as Denver’s lead executive when Connelly left for Minnesota. Roster-building gamesmanship ensued between the rivals. In the 2024 NBA Draft, Denver originally possessed the 28th pick in the first round — one spot behind Minnesota. Booth was high on Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, but he thought his former boss might nab the big man prospect at No. 27. Whether those suspicions were valid or a result of subterfuge by Connelly, the Nuggets ultimately traded up six spots to draft Holmes, sacrificing three future second-round picks.

First-year Nuggets coach David Adelman got his start in the NBA as a Timberwolves player development assistant under his dad, Hall of Famer Rick Adelman. JJ Barea was a player in Minnesota at the time and lived in the same building as David. They used to meet up for postgame beers to rehash the night and talk basketball — laying a groundwork, unbeknownst to them, for Adelman to hire Barea more than a decade later. Barea is now one of the top assistants on Denver’s staff, collaborating with Adelman on the offense.

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch is a former Nuggets assistant under Malone. So is Micah Nori, Finch’s lead assistant. Nori and Jokic talked last week before the playoffs began, with Nori lamenting that he was sick of watching Jokic’s film. “We’ve definitely played, like, 40 times in the last three years against them,” Jokic agreed. They’ve exchanged a sizable amount of good-natured trash talk, both in private and public.

“We were together in the Summer League,” Jokic reminisced, “and he always made me run the lines. And I didn’t get the ball from him. He didn’t trust me at all. And then he always wants to take all the credit for my success right now.”

Hyland was on the Nuggets’ roster the year they won the championship, but he fell out of favor with veteran players and was shipped off to Los Angeles at the trade deadline that season. Three years later, he has found a home in Minnesota, where Connelly took him back. Hyland said this season that he feels no ill will toward the Nuggets. When he arrived at Ball Arena for Game 1 of the series last week, he and Tenzer greeted each other in the back hallways fondly.

Then the ball was tipped, and Hyland assumed his role as an irritant of Denver’s corner shooters.

“It’s fun, man,” Braun said. “They’re a really good team. They’re a competitive group. And this series between the two teams is always really fun for us. … Just a lot of familiar faces. So you bump into the same person a million times. That’s kind of what happens. So it’s a fun series, and I think both sides enjoy playing each other.”

“I kind of felt it in preseason, to be honest with you,” said Tim Hardaway Jr., a newcomer to the rivalry. “Just how kind of physical it would be. Both ends of the floor.”

The players have increasingly bought in over the years, even those without as many connections to the other city. Edwards taunted Nuggets fans at the end of Minnesota’s Game 7 win in 2024, getting on Jokic’s nerves in the process. Regular-season games have turned into classics since then. There was Russell Westbrook’s missed layup in double-overtime. There was Jokic’s 56-point Christmas masterpiece this season, which ended with a frustrated Edwards getting ejected and laughed at by Ball Arena.

Jaden McDaniels upped the stakes this week when he called out several Nuggets players by name, labeling them bad defenders. The Wolves backed up his talk with a Game 3 rout. A first-round series to settle the score had taken another dramatic emotional swing, as these matchups between the Nuggets and Timberwolves tend to do.

“Just playing Denver,” McDaniels said afterward, “really motivates us.”