Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace had taken a measured and conservative approach in the draft. Instead of selecting a player 26th overall, they had traded back nine spots to acquire two future second-round picks, prioritizing asset accumulation over an immediate gamble on late first-round talent. They were walking away with two new rookies, but the real prize was their mini-stash of draft capital. New trade pieces to be used later. Patience for the sake of future aggression.

Meanwhile, it was time to talk about Peyton Watson.

“We feel good about where that’s at,” Tenzer told reporters, reiterating a recent stance. “And we hope Peyton is here a long time.”

As it turned out, Denver’s draft strategy foreshadowed the eventual outcome for Watson, a restricted free agent whose seven-week stalemate with the Nuggets ended in a sign-and-trade to Cleveland on Aug. 19. Denver relinquished the rights to Watson in exchange for a 2031 unprotected first-round pick and a 2032 second-rounder. The Cavaliers signed a four-year, $88 million contract agreement with the 23-year-old wing, who was drafted 30th overall in 2022.

After four years of gradual development and one brilliant month of exploding star potential, Watson’s time in Denver was over. And the Nuggets hadn’t received a player back in the trade, controversially eroding their roster depth ahead of a pivotal 2026-27 season. After feeling out the market, they viewed Cleveland’s first-round pick as a more valuable asset than any player available to them, team sources told The Denver Post. It’s intended as a trade piece to be cashed in well before 2031. Patience for the sake of future aggression.

But what changed between January, when keeping Watson skyrocketed up the Nuggets’ priority list, and August, when their homegrown success story was cut short? Behind the scenes, several factors contributed to the most significant move of Denver’s 2026 offseason — painting a nuanced picture of why the team decided to move on from Watson after a negotiation that was nearly dead on arrival.

“Stan Kroenke is a shark in the water,” as one league source familiar with the sign-and-trade put it. “So is Rich Paul.”

A salary cap crunch

The Nuggets were always prepared for the likelihood that they would lose at least one starter-level player this summer, as The Post previously reported.

The first time they firmly chose a different player over Watson was Oct. 20, 2025. It was the day before a new season tipped off, and the deadline for teams to sign contract extensions with their 2022 draftees. Watson and Christian Braun were entering the final year of their respective rookie-scale contracts. The Nuggets had enough room for only one of them to be added to the 2026-27 payroll. They were anticipating a salary cap crunch, with four starters already under contract and one of them, Aaron Gordon, set for a $9 million raise.

Signing both Braun and Watson would push Denver’s payroll over the projected second apron ($222 million), triggering not only a historic luxury tax bill for owner Stan Kroenke but also a series of roster-building penalties that would render it immensely difficult to negotiate with other teams and make changes. The front office was already concerned by its shortage of trade-eligible draft capital; finishing 2026-27 in the second apron would cause Denver’s 2034 pick to be “frozen” by rule, temporarily forbidden from being traded.

And so it was Braun or Watson. Braun was far more established — a playoff rotation piece on the 2023 championship team, an NBA Most Improved Player candidate in 2025, a durable 15-point-per-game starter. Watson was a work in progress three years into his career, an upside bet whose role on offense remained ambiguous. Was he a secondary ball-handler? A corner spot-up shooter? A dunker spot heir to Gordon? A screener and roller? The Nuggets were hesitant to offer him an average annual value north of $10 million to $12 million at the time.

They focused instead on their negotiations with Braun. With a vote of approval from Nikola Jokic, they signed the guard to a five-year, $125 million deal, planning to take Watson to restricted free agency — a process that traditionally allows teams to squeeze their incumbent young players. The snub left a sour taste for Watson’s camp.

Watson, who had started his career as a client of the same agency as Jokic, geared up for the offseason by hiring new representation: Klutch Sports founder and super-agent Rich Paul, most famous for representing LeBron James. Then came injuries to Jokic, Braun, Gordon and Cam Johnson. Dismal luck for Denver. Opportunity for Watson. He seized it, amassing stats worthy of an All-Star for one tantalizing month: 22 points per game on 49% shooting.

An injury dispute

As Watson erupted, Denver’s offseason outlook shifted. A starter’s salary would need to be sacrificed if the Nuggets were going to re-sign their young wing and stay out of dreaded second-apron territory. Johnson was widely considered most likely to go at first, because of his relatively modest contract commitment: one more year at $23 million.

But the final memory of a crushing playoff defeat in April was that of Johnson amassing 27 points and eight rebounds in a road elimination game, desperate to save Denver’s season. Watson was watching from the bench, ruled out with a lingering right hamstring injury.

Whether he could have played is still disputed.

The injury first emerged in February, during a thriller at Madison Square Garden. Watson limped off the court and underwent an MRI later in the week, revealing a grade 2 strain, according to league sources. Denver announced he would be reevaluated in four weeks. He missed 19 games over a 45-day absence. In a recent appearance on ex-teammate Michael Porter Jr.’s podcast, Watson claimed that he returned too soon. “I feel like we kind of rushed it,” he said, “and didn’t take the right approach.” He reaggravated the hamstring after five games back in the lineup. April 1 in Utah was his last game as a Nugget.

The playoffs arrived, and then they ended, far sooner than Denver had ever expected. A 54-win team crash-landed in the first round against Minnesota. Over the six-game series, Denver never publicly ruled out the possibility that Watson might return.

Privately, Watson’s camp had decided he wouldn’t play. The exact state of his health might forever remain murky, as it depends on who you ask. The Nuggets felt strongly that Watson could’ve suited up by the end of the series but was slow-playing his return to protect his contract value, five league sources told The Denver Post both during the playoffs and afterward.

Another source close to Watson, however, said that he was in no position to return at any point during the series, and that Paul had intervened to tell Watson it would be unsafe to play on a bad hamstring with free agency on the horizon. Injury reports suggesting that he might be available throughout the series, the source contends, were merely an example of gamesmanship by Denver in a tightly contested series against a rival. Watson’s plan was to return during a potential second-round series if Denver had advanced, he said on Porter’s podcast.

“I just knew I hadn’t progressed far enough in my rehab,” he explained. “I knew that this is the most intense level of basketball.”

In either case, the upcoming contract negotiation was very much a consideration, leaving people at every level of the Nuggets organization frustrated with how the situation was handled, sources told The Post. It stood in contrast to other recent examples of Denver’s players attempting to play through injuries in the playoffs: Braun in 2026, Porter in 2025, Gordon in both years. The source close to Watson said that Gordon was among the people advising him to be careful with his return.

“I was getting shot up with all types of stuff in my shoulder joint every game to try to hoop. … I didn’t really feel like we were deep enough as a team for me to sit out,” Porter said last month during his podcast conversation with Watson. “If that happened before I had gotten paid, I don’t think I would’ve put myself in that position.”

“When you’re dealing with those (soft tissue) injuries, you have to be very careful in your return,” Paul, Watson’s agent, said on recently. “Guys want to play. You have to protect them from themselves in that moment because you’re up for a contract.”

Claiming that organizational trust in Watson had taken a hit, the Nuggets drew a line in the sand at the beginning of free agency. They offered a four-year contract with an ascending salary in the range of $18 million per year, with a team option, multiple league sources said. Whatever reservations the team had, it still thought highly enough of Watson to pursue an extension with him — for the right price. But dependability and maturity were concerns on Denver’s end, while any such assertion was viewed by Watson’s side as a sign of disrespect, casting a shadow over the negotiation. The initial offer was turned down immediately. The Nuggets kept it on the table but never returned with a new one.

A sparse trade market

Even independent of injury squabbles, it’s fairly common for teams to hold a hard line in restricted free agency. They’re often comfortable letting these negotiations turn into staring contests, especially when no outside suitors extend an offer sheet (as Oklahoma City did for Denver’s Spencer Jones). But by the time this particular staring contest unfolded, the Nuggets had already gauged the trade market on other potential sacrifices they could’ve made to keep Watson.

Rival teams eyed Denver’s cap sheet and tried to take advantage of it. Hoping the Nuggets were desperate to avoid the second apron, those teams asked Denver to give up draft picks along with Johnson, multiple sources said. It wasn’t necessarily because Johnson’s contract genuinely has negative value. He ranked eighth in the NBA with a 43% 3-point clip last season. It was a matter of leverage and opportunism. The Nuggets rebuffed any such efforts.

They also received at least one legitimately good offer for the 30-year-old wing, according to a league source. They still turned it down, viewing Johnson as an impactful starter. He was Denver’s third-leading scorer in the Minnesota series, averaging 14.2 points on 50% shooting to finish strong after a checkered regular season.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets and Watson were nowhere close to a contract agreement. Watson’s side had asked for north of $25 million annually at the outset, believing him to be worth more than Braun, who was coming off his worst season. Both sides began to explore sign-and-trade options. Denver took calls from the Clippers, Bucks, Hawks and Trail Blazers.

Nothing gained much traction. Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Jaime Jaquez was floated in preliminary talks with Milwaukee, but those conversations were entirely conceptual — the Bucks never made an official sign-and-trade offer, league sources said. Denver would’ve been intrigued by the possibility of adding him if an offer had materialized.

Kris Dunn was another potential player brought up in conversations with the Clippers, but Denver wouldn’t have agreed to a deal involving the 32-year-old guard without also getting draft capital back from Los Angeles, a source said. Pulling that off would’ve been difficult because for the Nuggets, taking back any salary in a sign-and-trade would hard-cap them at the second apron by rule, meaning they would need to send out another player in addition to Watson. Zeke Nnaji’s $7.5 million salary would’ve made the most sense within the CBA framework, but he has been viewed as a negative-value contract around the league for years at this point; asking a team to give up draft picks, an attractive player and to take on Nnaji’s contract was always going to be an obstacle.

The conversations with Los Angeles and Milwaukee were also in awkward positions from the beginning because of league investigations into cap circumvention involving both teams. The uncertainty of their situations made it difficult for talks to advance past the conceptual stage.

If Watson were to be traded, it was becoming increasingly clear that an entirely pick-based return was both the most feasible path forward and the Nuggets’ preferred outcome, rather than a player who would likely slot into the back end of their rotation.

A change of scenery

Then along came the Cavs. They were the last team to get involved, a surprise late entry to the Watson sweepstakes. In the end, they were also the only team to offer Denver an unprotected first-round pick — a coveted asset with high-lottery potential, if Cleveland’s championship window is closed five years from now. No teams had offered an unprotected first-rounder for the older Johnson when he was available earlier in the summer, league sources said.

Watson’s camp grew increasingly frustrated by how Denver was navigating the summer, especially the team’s perspective on his injury. By the time Cleveland made the $88 million offer, the sense was that Watson’s side would’ve been unlikely to agree to that same offer if it had hypothetically come from the Nuggets, sources connected to both sides told The Post. A change of scenery was preferred at that point.

There was also a question of on-court role that Denver would’ve needed to address if it had increased its offer, two league sources said. Was Watson going to be a starter next season, or did the Nuggets still see him as a bench player behind the same five as last year?

He’s expected to start in Cleveland, where small forward was the last hole to plug in a lineup that reached the Eastern Conference Finals this year. It’s an impressive outcome for Watson, landing on another championship contender for a salary twice what he was worth last offseason. There were hard feelings on the way out of Denver — “anybody who knows Peyton Watson knows the last thing I am is a quitter,” he told Porter — but he also left town with a public message sending thanks to his teammates, the Kroenkes and other Nuggets brass.

“As a young player who was a bit naive and hadn’t seen much of the real world, you guys took care of me better than I could have ever imagined,” he said in an Instagram post Aug. 25. “Thanks for that. Playing this game every night on the national stage is difficult on both the body and the mind, but the love from the fans always makes it so worthwhile. I will miss seeing you at Ball Arena.”

The Nuggets walked away feeling elated by the draft pick they wrangled out of a tough situation. They know well what they gave up: youth, depth, two-way athleticism, scoring upside. Watson’s electrifying hops and friendly personality made him a fan favorite, and he may have been just scratching the surface in January. But one month was always a small sample size to bet $88 million on. After feeling out the market, the Nuggets decided they preferred Johnson’s expiring salary, Spencer Jones’ cheaper extension, and an unprotected first-rounder rather than what they would have had to sacrifice for a long-term relationship with Watson.

Signing DeMar DeRozan to a veteran minimum contract also helps alleviate the short-term sting of what’s been lost, at least offensively.

Anything can change in the NBA overnight, but as of now, Johnson is fully part of the team’s plan for the 2026-27 season, sources told The Post.

A final assessment of the trade for Denver can’t be completed until the next move. Until the Cavaliers’ pick has a new home, and another player has a new home in Denver.

The Nuggets are still thin on trade-eligible picks. They have only the one first-rounder. If they’re out of the second apron by next summer, they’ll add another to their stash. The next stage of the Jokic era depends on whether they can maximize their draft capital better than in past years.

While they wait for that next move, Watson will try to prove them wrong for this one.

Team Grading The Week raised eyebrows and perked up ears a few days back when former Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. lamented the break-up/transition/evolution of Denver’s roster over the last five off-seasons. After the ’23 playoffs, and an NBA title, they lost Bruce Brown, a massive contributor off the bench, to free agency. After ’24, they lost wing guard/defensive specialist Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to another free-agent contract. After ’25, they traded away MPJ to the Nets. After ’26, they traded Peyton Watson to the Cavs.

“I don’t know why they let Pope (go),” “That was the beginning of our downfall.”

Downfall? Strong, but can’t disagree, either.

Were the Nuggets’ postseason fades in ’25 and ’26 due entirely to the loss of KCP?

As usual, MPJ was half right.

As Porter himself pointed out, the Nuggets without KCP pushed the eventual NBA champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, to seven games in the second round of the ’25 postseason — and that was with MPJ able to use only one working shoulder.

Now, in MPJ’s defense, there’s the defense. In the two seasons since Caldwell-Pope’s been gone, the Nuggets’ numbers on the defensive end of the floor have started to crater. Denver ranked 15th in defensive rating during the ’22-23 regular season and No. 8 in ’23-24. With KCP MIA? No. 21 in ’24-25,

As for perimeter defense, per NBA.com, the Nuggets ranked third in fewest opponent 3-point makes allowed in ’22-23 and finished second in fewest allowed in ’23-24 with KCP leading the charge along the perimeter.

The Nuggets two years ago slid to 20th in opponent 3-pointers made in ’24-25 — and ranked 18th in 3-point makes allowed in ’25-26. Save us, Dave Joerger!

MPJ on Nuggets’ “downfall”  — C

Caldwell-Pope was the perfect, spot-up, fourth or fifth option for the Nuggets of ’22-24. On the other hand, that line of KCP thinking brings us back to some of the same revisionist-history stuff that peppers online conversations about Christian Braun.

GTW’s hoops wonks tend to pinpoint the Nuggets’ “downfall” to Game 7 of that fateful, second-round Timberwolves series in the spring of 2024. Which means KCP was still here for the beginning of any “fade,” to be fair.

Again, per NBA tracking data, the veteran stopper was considered to have been “guarding” Minnesota star Anthony Edwards for 39:29 minutes over that crucial seven-game, second-round series two years ago. If you read those 39-and-a-half minutes as the stat line for a single game,

Now, Edwards was unguardable for most of that series, to be fair. But given an assignment that falls under the definition of “You had ONE job,” KCP didn’t really do it, did he?

“We still went Game 7 with Minnesota after (former Nuggets VP) Tim Connolly kind of built Minnesota to try and beat us with the two bigs. Because then you can put KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) on Joker and you get Rudy Gobert kind of roam.

“So they kind of built that team to try to beat us, and they got us in Game 7.”

Sure did.

The Nuggets overpaid for MPJ, just as they did for Zeke Nnaji. Braun is a wait-and-see who’s left much of Nuggets Nation with a bitter taste in its mouth. The better front offices managed to get value from contracts for future performance, not just to reward past numbers.

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Caldwell-Pope put up a 112 Defensive Rating per 100 opponent possessions two seasons ago, but that went up to 121 per 100 with Memphis in ’25-26. Braun recorded a 118 Defensive Rating (DR) in ’24-25 and a 120 DR per 100 last year. Not KCP good, but catching up.

Porter at least threw a little compliment to the ’26-27 Nuggets while waxing nostalgic.

“It’s like slowly (breaking it up) … but they still can be called (a contender), as long as you got Joker, Jamal, AG (Aaron Gordon),” the former Nugget reflected. “Deebo’s (DeMar DeRozan)’s over there, Cam (Johnson)’s obviously a good player, CB (Christian Braun) … I mean, they’re still good. But we had some camaraderie (among that championship core).”

How did they get into this payroll dilemma, and which decision over the last few years is most responsible for it? Which contract or trade has limited their roster-building flexibility most in hindsight?

There was the Michael Porter Jr. extension inked by former general manager Tim Connelly, which will end up paying Porter $179.3 million over five seasons. Two front office regimes later, it cost the Nuggets an unprotected first-round pick to free themselves from the last two years of that contract.

Then there was the Zeke Nnaji extension in 2023, a four-year, $32 million deal that proved to be one of the defining transactions of Calvin Booth’s tenure. Halfway through the term of that contract now and six years into his career, Nnaji still hasn’t solidified himself as a reliable rotation player, rendering him almost impossible to trade. The roster’s sixth-highest salary was seated on the bench for almost the entirety of Denver’s first-round playoff defeat in April.

There was the two-year Reggie Jackson contract that used up Denver’s taxpayer mid-level exception, curiously included a player option and eventually forced Booth to cough up three future second-round picks to salary-dump the veteran point guard. And there was the decision to trade away another three second-round picks to move up six spots in the 2024 draft for a non-lottery prospect who hasn’t panned out yet. And the long-term commitments made to Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray, who will make a combined 50% of the salary cap next season.

Now it’s Christian Braun’s five-year, $125 million deal — the first extension handed out by lead executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer — that has emerged as the latest lightning rod among Nuggets fans, mostly because of who didn’t get extended as a result. Peyton Watson and Denver are stuck in a negotiating stalemate this summer, while the trade value of Braun’s new contract has been heavily scrutinized following a down year for the shooting guard.

Keeping the band together

The truth, of course, is that Denver’s sticky second-apron situation is the sum of all those moves, not a direct consequence of one of them. It’s also the price that every championship team seems to pay for success under the rule of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement. Just this summer, Knicks owner James Dolan declared “you’d have to be suicidal” to spend over the second apron as his team was trying to bask in the afterglow of a dominant title run. Sure enough, New York let Mitchell Robinson walk in free agency — then watched as the 2025 champions (OKC) salary-dumped three players for the same reason Dolan outlined.

“This was a financial decision,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti told the Oklahoman in a surprisingly blunt on-the-record confession after trading Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins.

As soon as confetti rained on the Nuggets in 2023, every key player who had contributed to the historic scene at Ball Arena suddenly became more expensive. For those who were part of the front office’s long-term vision, their importance to the franchise would show on their next contract. Denver’s margin for error in roster construction shrank to near-zero in that moment.

The Nuggets have been reckoning with that margin for error for three years now, a period in which their contract extensions have also revealed a stubborn (perhaps even admirable) determination to win again with as many of those key players as possible — the sentimentality of a seemingly bygone era.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to keep those players. If Denver eventually manages to re-sign Watson, the 23-year-old wing might prove to be more expensive than just the dollar amount of his extension.

As all of this apron tension bubbles closer to the surface, so does the question of how Denver plans to get out of this before it gets worse. If Nikola Jokic stays true to his word, he’ll sign the most lucrative contract in NBA history next summer to remain a Nugget. Building around that contract and remaining a serious championship contender into Jokic’s late 30s will the long-term challenge for Wallace and Tenzer. If they’re also building around several other expensive salaries, their flexibility will continue to be hindered.

Is a more dramatic roster overhaul looming in the near future?

Pricey pairs

One transaction earlier this offseason was particularly illuminating as a possible precedent-setter. At the very least, it’s a relevant, if controversial, move for teams like Denver to study.

The Jaylen Brown trade.

Before the Celtics shockingly shipped him off to Philadelphia for Paul George and picks, The Denver Post outlined the uncanny similarities between Brown’s status in Boston and Jamal Murray’s in Denver.

Both were drafted in 2016, four picks apart; they’ve enjoyed arguably the two best pro careers in their draft class. Both were instrumental in their teams’ slow and steady ascents from the basement of the league to its pinnacle. Both demonstrated the qualities of a playoff riser as the No. 2 option on a championship squad nearly a decade into their careers. Both turn 30 next season. Both have three years remaining on their current max contracts (Brown’s is a supermax), with no player or team options.

All the discourse this summer surrounding Brown’s impact on winning, or lack thereof, has existed within the unspoken context of the CBA. The argument against him isn’t that analytics view him as a bad player. It����ap that analytics suggest he’s not worth an average annual value of $61.7 million for the next three seasons. It’s a good old-fashioned “Moneyball” case study. Especially with Celtics co-star Jayson Tatum already taking up 35% of the salary cap on his own supermax contract.

“The path looked a little bit more challenging with 70% of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players,” Boston executive Brad Stevens said in July.

And that’s before considering the contract extension dynamics with an entrenched star like Brown, who might’ve believed he was owed another max offer by Boston as a gesture of respect. Trading him wasn’t only about his salary for the next three years; it was also a clear admission by Stevens that he didn’t want Brown occupying 35% of the cap at 35 years old. Hence Boston’s willingness to take back Paul George in the deal — another bloated salary ($55 million on average for two more years), but one that doesn’t carry the baggage of a 10-year relationship, of expectations for more long-term commitment.

George will be 38 next time he’s a free agent, assuming he picks up his player option next summer. It’s widely understood that if he signs another NBA contract, it will be for much less money.

Two months ago, Murray became eligible for a 35% supermax extension for the first time in his career by making an All-NBA team. (His current max contract is worth 30% of the cap.) Will he expect Denver to offer him that when the time comes, and will the Nuggets want to pay that much for a secondary star in his mid-30s? Will they even want to commit 30% of the cap to him for another chunk of years, with Jokic already on a supermax? The Celtics didn’t.

And the Celtics chose to get out in front of it, knowing the optics and knowing the risk. Stevens candidly acknowledged to reporters that his decision could age poorly.

Even through a short-term lens, the widely respected GM did make a salient point about trying to win with two max players in a restrictive system.

These are the two most expensive salaries on every NBA team entering the 2026-27 season:

The last eight teams to reach the NBA Finals did so with their two most expensive players occupying 60% or less of the cap.

2026: Knicks (59.9%) vs. Spurs (41.8%)

2025: Thunder (46.9%) vs. Pacers (60%)

2024: Celtics (54.1%) vs. Mavericks (57.4%)

2023: Nuggets (52.8%) vs. Heat (55%)

Can the Nuggets be an outlier?

The defining transaction behind New York’s championship was Jalen Brunson’s decision to sacrifice millions of dollars on his most recent contract; the Knicks were able to build a more complete starting lineup and a deeper bench with their best player earning the third-most in salary

It’s notable that their highest-paid player, Karl-Anthony Towns, is currently extension-eligible but hasn’t signed. Brunson probably isn’t going to give Dolan another bargain on his next extension. The Knicks must now operate under the assumption that Brunson will be playing on a supermax in the next couple of years. Planning accordingly means playing hardball with KAT — or trading him.

The Spurs have similarly capitalized on a mini-window with Victor Wembanyama on his rookie-scale contract. It gets trickier in 2027-28, but even then, Wembanyama gave them a minor discount. He and De’Aaron Fox will make a combined 55.7% that season.

The Thunder won with Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams both on rookie deals. Now, those two have 25% max extensions taking effect this season, which should suffice as a viable payroll structure for at least one more year. Then in 2027, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s supermax kicks in, and the top-heavy cap sheet gets dicey.

Boston won the year before Brown’s supermax took effect (and two years before Tatum’s). Denver won the year before Jokic’s took effect (and three before Murray’s 30% max). The similarities hardly feel coincidental.

By all of this logic, the top eight teams listed above are automatically disqualified from contention for the 2027 championship (including Boston, ironically). That would explain why Stevens was willing to trade a franchise cornerstone to a rival of all teams. Philadelphia already had a supermax player on the books, plus Tyrese Maxey making $40 million. Now the 76ers have the exact payroll structure that Boston seemingly wanted to avoid. The problem is that they also have VJ Edgecombe on a rookie deal and LeBron James for $3.9 million.

The real overarching lesson could be this: If a team is going to pay two players an exorbitant amount of finite money, it had better be supremely confident that those two players are a perfect fit together.

Of all the duos near the top of that 2026-27 chart, Jokic and Murray have proven themselves more worthy of a combined 66% cap hit than anyone else. They’re the only tandem in the top six with more than 60 games played together. Embiid and Brown; Tatum and George; Antetokounmpo and Adebayo; and Davis and Young are all brand-new pairings.

As long as Denver’s front office remains confident that Jokic and Murray’s offensive chemistry transcends their defensive shortcomings, maybe that’ll be enough to buoy their partnership. Maybe the belief will persist in Denver that Murray and Jokic can be an outlier.

Or maybe Stevens’ words will ring true with the Nuggets, and they’ll eventually feel forced to press the red button on their loyal payroll structure.

In their latest attempt to identify talent outside the box, they’re plucking Lonnie Walker IV from the EuroLeague team Maccabi Tel Aviv on an Exhibit 9 contract, two sources told The Denver Post.

Walker, 27, will report to Denver on a training camp invite as he attempts to return to the NBA after spending parts of the last two years overseas. He’ll compete for a Nuggets roster spot at camp this fall. If he makes the team, he’ll be on a one-year veteran minimum contract.

The 6-foot-4 guard has averaged 14.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists . He joins Alpha Diallo as the second free agent to sign a contract with Denver out of the EuroLeague this offseason.

Before venturing east — he also played a stint with the Lithuanian club Zalgiris Kaunas — Walker was settling into a career as an NBA journeyman. He’s played 342 games and started 95 across seven NBA seasons, primarily for the Spurs. San Antonio drafted him with the 18th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Miami. He went four spots after Denver selected Michael Porter Jr.

Walker has also played for the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers. If and when he takes the court for Denver, he’ll be playing his first NBA minutes since April 13, 2025. He’s averaging 10 points per game in his NBA career on 42.2% shooting from the field and a 35.6% mark from 3-point range.

In Denver, Walker has a chance join a thin backcourt depth chart that currently features Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Julian Strawther and Tyus Jones. Denver still has two open roster spots, as contract negotiations with restricted free agent Peyton Watson remain at an impasse.

If a veteran minimum cap hit is added to the roster as it currently stands, Denver’s payroll would increase to $4.5 million over the second apron, bringing the luxury tax bill up to more than $80 million.

TMB is short for Trevon Mykel Brazile. He’s the former Arkansas Razorbacks star the Nuggets landed with the 35th pick in last month’s NBA Draft. And he spent much of the last 6-8 days or so looking a heck of a lot like the second coming of Michael Porter Jr.

From July 10-16, over three games with the Nuggets’ Summer League squad, the 6-foot-10 forward averaged 18.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.7 defensive rebounds, 1.3 blocks, with 3 3-point makes on 6.3 attempts. In that span, TMB shot 9 of 19 from beyond the arc, including a 6 for 12 line against the Thunder, on whom he dropped 32 points this past Tuesday in Sin City.

Brazile’s MPJ-like Summer League — A

Now there are caveats here, granted. One, it’s summer ball, where rec-league defensive rules apply. Two, from a talent perspective, Vegas is the kind of final week of the NFL preseason all the time — many of these dudes won’t make an Association roster.

For context, Julian Strawther averaged 4.5 treys in two Summer League appearances with the Nuggets two years ago, and 3.2 treys the summer before that. Hunter Tyson was a Vegas monster, and that didn’t exactly carry over much into the fall and winter.

Although not even Strawther or Tyson managed to pull together the kind of numbers Brazile just did in one seven-day span. In fact, no Nuggets Summer League player in the last 20 years has done what Brazile’s been doing.

Brazile is the only Nuggets player since the summer of 2006 to average at least eight boards and three 3-point makes per game while also logging at least two appearances in Denver blue. That may not make him the next MPJ, but that’s not nothing, either,

And if you want to keep chasing the Porter-Brazile comparison, their rookie measurables aren’t that far off. At the most recent NBA Draft combine, Brazile checked in at 6-foot-9-and-a-half without shoes and sported a 7-foot-4 wingspan with a standing reach of 9-foot-1 inches. He posted a max vertical of 41.5 inches and clocked the shuttle run in 2.71 seconds.

MPJ at the 2018 combine: 6-foot-9-ish without shoes, 7-foot-and-a-tick wingspan, standing reach of 9-feet and change. His college coach, Cuonzo Martin, once described the former Nugget’s vertical leap in the winter of 2018 as around the 40-inch range.

Porter Jr. grew up in Columbia, Mo., and attended Mizzou. Brazile played high-school ball in Springfield, Mo., about 160 miles southwest of CoMo, and played his freshman season of college ball for the Tigers before transferring to Arkansas.

We’ve got some big-time college hoops wonks on the Grading The Week crew. They usually described Brazile in recent weeks as having insane upside — shooting range, length, handles, quicks, hops, the works — who also occasionally goes missing for stretches during games. And sometimes during big moments.

“Head on the rim above the square, blocking shots, flying. How about being able to make a 3‑point shot? All the intangibles that they’re looking for in the league,” Arkansas coach John Calpari said via the Razorbacks’ official men’s basketball ‘X’ feed. “Being positionless. Being able to guard multiple positions. Being able to switch … I love coaching him, and I’m telling you — his ceiling, where he’s going to go, I’m going to say it again: 40‑inch jump. Flies up and down the court. He’s 6’10” with skill. Someone’s going to get a heck of a player.”

If the last week of Summer Ball highlights are a harbinger of what’s to come, the Nuggets are the someones who might’ve landed one of the steals of the draft.

Betts, McCaffrey rep Denver at ESPYs— A

You couldn’t pay most of the GTW staff enough to sit through an entire ESPYs award show, although we loved that the 2026 edition had a little Denver flavor, once all was said and done. Former Grandview star and NCAA women’s hoops national champ Lauren Betts took home “Best College Athlete – Women’s Sports” honors, while ex-Valor Christian standout Christian McCaffrey notched “Best Comeback Athlete” honors.

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But in Denver specifically, three roster spots remain vacant, and the specter of the second apron looms over the 12 spots that are occupied. Around the league, too, at least one major variable hasn’t been sorted out yet. Even commissioner Adam Silver joked about it during an event Thursday, acknowledging that “where LeBron plays will affect the schedule. I’d like him to make his announcement already so we can finish the schedule.”

And NBA beat writers around the country would like the teams they cover to get their business done already so everyone can leave on pre-planned vacations without needing to sweat.

This Nuggets beat writer will be doing just that, starting this weekend. So it seemed like a fun time to pretend the offseason is over, power-rank both conferences based on what’s happened so far, and then possibly return to this and laugh at it later. Where will James sign? Will the Nuggets make a trade? Will the Kawhi Leonard trade between the Clippers and Raptors go through or be revoked? Will restricted free agents like Jalen Duren, Peyton Watson, and Bennedict Mathurin reach agreements with their teams?

The idea of this list is to predict the final regular-season standings for the 2026-27 season — not to evaluate playoff or championship capability. Included in parentheses will be each team’s place last season.

Western Conference

This exercise should pretty quickly illuminate that, for the first time in years, the West is the weaker overall conference. That’s despite the fact that five of the top seven or eight players in the world reside on this side of the country. It certainly remains the top-heavy conference, carried by the two championship favorites. But after those two? A weird landscape, with strong potential for the same six playoff locks as last year.

1. San Antonio Spurs (2nd): Wemby has tasted the Finals, and they left behind a sour flavor. His first career MVP trophy feels imminent if he can play the requisite games. Tobias Harris was a solid free-agency addition, addressing a clear need. The West champs just got a little deeper.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder (1st): And the runners-up just got a little shallower. OKC’s summer has been highlighted by a pair of salary dumps from the back end of the roster. Without Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe, Sam Presti is leaning on his draft acumen to fill the gaps. He added Aday Mara to a loaded center depth chart and Bennett Stirtz to a formidable ball-handling hierarchy that already features SGA, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves (6th): Tim Connelly wasted no time breaking up the Julius Randle-Rudy Gobert frontcourt once he decided it had reached its ceiling. Trading for LaMelo Ball was the risk of the offseason in the West, but the carnivalesque point guard does raise that ceiling. Analytically (ducks), he’s one of the league’s best at elevating entire lineups. He and Ant-Man will be must-see TV.

4. Denver Nuggets (3rd): The Nuggets haven’t earned any benefit of the doubt against Minnesota specifically, so they’re sliding to fourth on this list via a forecasted head-to-head tiebreaker going against them. Their offseason may or may not have a few plot twists yet to come. Whatever happens, a healthy Nikola Jokic gives Denver one of the highest regular-season floors in the NBA.

5. Houston Rockets (5th): Their 2025-26 season was sort of a disaster, but the Rockets never really got a chance to see the team they had envisioned when they traded for Kevin Durant. Season-ending injuries to point guard Fred VanVleet and center Steven Adams took away massive parts of their identity. This is a sensible run-it-back team, especially if Reed Sheppard keeps developing and Ime Udoka learns to trust him more.

6. Los Angeles Lakers (4th): The only team you can definitively say will not be getting LeBron James. Nobody attempted a more dramatic supporting cast makeover this offseason. And the Lakers might not be better for it — even if they’re theoretically better designed in Luka Doncic’s image.

7. Portland Trail Blazers (7th): Damian Lillard and Ja Morant would’ve been the most fun backcourt in the league in 2023. In 2026, their partnership is the most questionable aspect of Portland’s starting lineup. Still, this is a deep roster with several enviable contracts and a few different guard combinations to try if Dame and Ja cause too many defensive headaches.

8. Utah Jazz (15th): Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler were going to form one of the most fascinating frontcourts to watch in the entire league. Alas, Utah made a disciplined business decision to trade Kessler to Los Angeles. It was never meant to be. Jusuf Nurkic slots in as the starting center now. Not as fun. But the Jazz won’t be a walkover anymore. All eyes are on No. 2 pick Darryn Peterson.

9. Dallas Mavericks (12th): Cooper Flagg will have Dallas back in the playoff picture by the end of his rookie contract.

10. Golden State Warriors (10th): For those 24 glorious hours when everyone thought they were getting Anthony Davis and LeBron, the Warriors were maybe on the verge of top-six status.

11. Memphis Grizzlies (13th): The post-Ja era begins with an exciting trio of young talents in Cam Boozer, Zach Edey and Cedric Coward.

12. Phoenix Suns (8th): One of the pleasant surprises of last season is due for a step back. Who doesn’t want to watch Jalen Green and Miles Bridges trade shots?

13. Los Angeles Clippers (9th): The NBA’s longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons (15) should finally come to an end as the Clippers enter rebuild mode with a core of Darius Garland, rookie Keaton Wagler, Rui Hachimura and Brandon Ingram (pending that pesky Kawhi probe).

14. New Orleans Pelicans (11th): Maybe someday, the Pelicans will actually pull the trigger on a Trey Murphy III trade. He would be fun to watch on a relevant team.

15. Sacramento Kings (14th): Not much to say here, except that Darius Acuff Jr. might be a lot of fun.

Eastern Conference

Now, to the good stuff. The 2026-27 Eastern Conference has a chance to be one of the most fun regular-season playoff races in NBA history. Almost everyone is trying to win. Quite a few teams with high hopes will end up bitterly disappointed. First place and last place are the only two spots on this list that feel somewhat certain. The rest is a complete mess, in the best possible way.

1. New York Knicks (3rd): Mitchell Robinson’s departure sort of resembles Denver’s loss of Bruce Brown after winning the title. But when your championship tax is a bench player, your window is still wide open. The Knicks return a starting five that just posted a 12.5 playoff net rating.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers (2nd): This is without knowing if they’ll acquire a certain someone in free agency. Cleveland still has a strong infrastructure, even after that Eastern Conference Finals embarrassment. If Evan Mobley has another offensive leap in him, that could level the playing field with New York as much as LeBron could.

3. Philadelphia 76ers (7th): Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Jaylen Brown should provide enough firepower to carry the Sixers to a strong regular season even when Joel Embiid’s frequent injury absences are accounted for — even if there might not be enough collective durability to survive a two-month playoff run.

4. Indiana Pacers (14th): Maybe it’s unfair to Tyrese Haliburton to expect him to instantly relaunch this team to home-court advantage in the first round, when he’s fresh off not only a torn Achilles tendon but also a debilitating case of shingles. But whatever. The Pacers should be legit. Ivica Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr. are interesting wrinkles from the 2025 Finals team.

5. Toronto Raptors (5th): That’s assuming that Kawhi Leonard is allowed to be a Toronto Raptor. With the blockbuster trade delayed as the NBA finishes its investigation of the Clippers for possible cap circumvention, Toronto is a contender in a holding pattern.

6. Boston Celtics (2nd): There’s a fair argument that even after the controversial Jaylen Brown trade, Boston’s 2026-27 rotation is better on paper than the 2025-26 roster that upended all expectations by earning the No. 2 seed. That Jayson Tatum, fully recovered now, is a better player than Brown, filling Brown’s shoes. That center Mitchell Robinson, when healthy, is an upgrade from Neemias Queta, who simply slides down the depth chart. That Paul George, for all the criticism his contract takes, is a vast improvement from starting Sam Hauser or Jordan Walsh. Nonetheless, the Celtics messed with their karmic balance by trading Brown for so little.

7. Detroit Pistons (1st): It wouldn’t be all that surprising if the Pistons have a late-summer move up their sleeve. Without one, their idleness sure looks like complacency. Detroit played hard enough to overcome its roster flaws and become an elite regular-season team last year. The East won’t be so forgiving this time around.

8. Orlando Magic (8th): The biggest change Orlando has made? Firing Jamahl Mosley and hiring Sean Sweeney. Maybe the cultural reset can yield results more on par with last year’s expectations, when the Magic entered the season as a top-three contender in the East. Or maybe its problems run a little deeper. This will be a consequential season in Orlando.

9. Miami Heat (9th): But Giannis! The Heat will have one of the most physically imposing front lines in the NBA with Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins. Maybe this placement is disrespectful toward Antetokounmpo, who’s more than capable of carrying a team to unexpected heights. But Miami’s roster still has a lot of question marks.

10. Atlanta Hawks (6th): In the absence of a significant move to upgrade their roster, the Hawks seem like they could be a victim of the conference getting better around them. They were an admirable No. 6 seed last season, taking a 2-1 series lead on the eventual champs in the first round. The roster’s ceiling just isn’t high enough with CJ McCollum, Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker as the primary scoring threats.

11. Charlotte Hornets (9th): Pre-LaMelo trade, the Hornets would’ve been a trendy top-six pick. Now, they seem willing to dawdle around the back end of the Play-In Tournament for a little bit longer. Another team with a lot of like about it, but ultimately not enough shot creation.

12. Washington Wizards (15th): If Anthony Davis and Trae Young are healthy and bought in, there’s no reason the Wizards can’t be a Play-In team in AJ Dybantsa’s rookie campaign.

13. Brooklyn Nets (13th): Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle. League Pass darlings. The Nets won’t be good, but even they should be incentivized to try to win games, since they don’t have their own 2027 first-round pick.

14. Chicago Bulls (12th): No. 4 draft pick Caleb Wilson has been talking the talk at Summer League. It would be great news for the NBA if he can walk the walk and put Chicago back on the map.

15.��Milwaukee Bucks (11th): Worst team in the league, suddenly, and it might not be close.

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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.

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.