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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What about Johnson for Miami’s Davion Mitchell?

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

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

He would become the next Giannis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This offseason is tricky and challenging.

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

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

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

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

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

But behind the scenes, the Nuggets were pleased by their anticlimactic outcome.

On the clock Tuesday night with the 26th pick in the NBA Draft, the Nuggets chose to trade out of the first round, beginning to replenish an asset pool that was drained by the previous front office regime. San Antonio moved up to No. 26 in exchange for giving Denver the No. 35 overall pick in Wednesday’s second round and two additional future second-round picks.

Denver now controls a 2028 Minnesota second-round pick and a 2031 Sacramento second-rounder, according to league sources. The Spurs selected Connecticut big man Tarris Reed Jr. at No. 26. The Nuggets will go into Wednesday with two picks — 35th and 49th. Multiple teams had already called them to inquire about No. 35 by the end of Tuesday night, one source told The Post.

Co-general managers Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer have less than 24 hours to decide if they want to use that pick or parlay it into more future draft capital. Part of their rationale for trading back, multiple team sources told The Post, was that they felt the 2026 draft class had a substantial drop-off in talent around No. 20.

What the Nuggets eventually do with their new picks will determine how Tuesday’s trade is evaluated. Second-rounders are often used as trade assets rather than to select playable talent, and Denver’s shortage of them has inhibited its ability to get involved in trade conversations around the league recently. Wallace and Tenzer inherited the NBA’s most depleted war chest when they took over the front office in 2025, whereas adversaries like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are practiced in the art of asset accumulation.

If one first-round pick can slowly grow into a wider swath of lower-quality picks that can subsequently be put to good use in other trades to improve the roster, then No. 26 will have been a worthy sacrifice. That could take lots of time, hard work and negotiating tact.

But the Nuggets are also faced with awkward luxury tax decisions this offseason, and they’re tied to multiple contracts that are widely perceived as having negative value, namely Christian Braun and Zeke Nnaji. If they promptly use their new picks to dump either of those salaries without bringing back any helpful players, it would be a clear indicator that team ownership is prioritizing tax savings over roster improvement.

The front office’s challenge will be to balance and accomplish both goals, which tend to be at odds with each other. At least one salary-shedding move is essentially guaranteed to occur as Denver attempts to retain Peyton Watson in restricted free agency, as The Post reported in April.

Wallace and Tenzer still have not made a draft pick yet in their tenure. For now, Denver will treat it as a win if they can stockpile future picks and right some old wrongs. A seemingly tedious trade elicited applause inside the Nuggets’ war room Tuesday, even as team president Josh Kroenke was caught on camera looking disgruntled by something. His bemusement, according to a source, was in response to some confusion on the other end of the line as Denver was trying to call in the 26th pick on behalf of the Spurs.

San Antonio walked away from the first round with two prospects secured in Reed and Jayden Quaintance. Oklahoma City snagged Aday Mara 12th and Bennett Stirtz 16th — sobering reminders that talent is going to keep on flowing into the two rosters that pose the biggest existential threats to Denver.

Nuggets recent draft history

The Nuggets haven’t drafted in the top 20 since 2018 — the cost of becoming a perennial playoff team as Nikola Jokic entered his prime. They’ve gotten mixed results from their late first-round picks since then, which is typical at that stage of the draft. Five of their six first-rounders this decade are still on the active roster, though only two of them were in the everyday rotation last season: Christian Braun (21st) and Peyton Watson (30th), both of whom were selected by former GM Calvin Booth in 2022.

Nnaji (22nd in 2020) is the third-longest tenured player on the team, but the four-year, $32 million contract extension he signed in 2023 has turned out to be a small-scale albatross on Denver’s cap sheet. Bones Hyland (26th in 2021) was shipped off to the Clippers at the 2023 trade deadline after he caused locker room frustration by walking off the bench during a game. He plays for Minnesota now.

Braun was a bench contributor during Denver’s 2023 run to the championship and signed a five-year, $125 million extension last October. Watson will be a restricted free agent and an offseason priority for Denver’s front office in the coming weeks.

Julian Strawther (29th in 2023) has been in and out of the rotation throughout the first three years of his career, and his role was scaled back last season with Tim Hardaway Jr. slotted in at backup shooting guard. Strawther is eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension before next season, or he’ll become a restricted free agent in 2027. Denver traded three second-round picks to Phoenix to move up six spots for DaRon Holmes II (22nd in 2024), who tore his right Achilles tendon in his first Summer League game and spent most of last season developing in the G League.

The Nuggets’ 2025 first-rounder belonged to Orlando as part of their trade for Aaron Gordon. Their 2027 first currently belongs to Oklahoma City as part of the trade for the pick that became Watson.

Booth’s tenure was characterized by his willingness to mortgage future draft capital for immediate gain — or immediate salary relief. Most notably, he burned through six second-round picks in a matter of weeks during the 2024 offseason to get rid of Reggie Jackson and to move up for Holmes.

A lot of trade concepts league-wide are percolating around the first round of the draft, set to air Tuesday (6 p.m. MT) on ESPN. The Nuggets possess the 26th overall pick, which they were barred from trading — until draft day. For one night only, the pick offers them a variety of options that weren’t previously available. It’s an important moment for a team faced with a dwindling asset pool.

How will Denver approach it? Here are three avenues Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer could take with their first draft pick since taking over as co-general managers last summer.

Trade up

The Nuggets have indeed explored the possibility of trading up from No. 26, a league source told The Post last week, confirming a report by The Stein Line. This would be a clever way to kill two birds with one stone, in theory — shed a chunk of salary and improve your chances of drafting a viable contributor. Is Cam Johnson’s expiring contract appealing enough to get Denver into the lottery, or at least the late teens? Would any teams feel inclined to ask for Aaron Gordon instead? Denver is understood to be more reluctant to give him up.

The premise is easier said than done. You have to identify a team drafting higher than Denver, with a reason to want one of Denver’s starters and room to take on more salary. There’s an interesting window of teams from No. 17 to No. 21: Thunder (via Philadelphia), Hornets (via Orlando), Raptors, Spurs (via Atlanta), Pistons (via Minnesota). But Oklahoma City is in cost-cutting mode right now, as evidenced by the Aaron Wiggins trade on Sunday. San Antonio, like OKC, is a direct threat to the Nuggets. They might not want help improve either of those rosters. Detroit’s pick is only five before Denver’s, which is simply a less meaningful jump.

The Hornets might be the most feasible trade partner to watch. They own the 14th and 18th picks, making it more sensible for them to move one down in exchange for a win-now player. They’re one of the NBA’s most interesting on-the-rise teams, they have more financial flexibility than most, and they could use a forward upgrade to pair with Brandon Miller. Johnson or Gordon would be a good fit in their lineup, offering veteran playoff experience to a young roster that’s ready to contend in the East. The Nuggets would have to take back some salary, but Charlotte can make the math work with a bench piece like Grant Williams, who has only one year and $14.3 million left on his contract. The Nuggets could negotiate for No. 14 instead of No. 18 on the basis that Johnson for Williams is worth more than an eight-pick leap, and Charlotte could walk away with another pick in the same range regardless.

With this type of framework, Denver would essentially be turning one player into two roster spots at a cheaper combined cost — the player received in the trade (like Williams, to use the Charlotte example) and the drafted player’s rookie-scale contract.

Alternatively, could Johnson or Gordon land the Nuggets a second, separate first-round pick? A hypothetical example of this: Gordon to Detroit in a framework involving Isaiah Stewart or Caris LeVert and the 21st pick. If the Nuggets could pull off something along those lines, they could use both of their picks, or they could even package them in a subsequent trade to move up closer to the top 10.

Getting into or close to the lottery would ultimately improve the athletic ceiling of Denver’s pick in a loaded class. For instance, Texas wing Dailyn Swain is reportedly considered unlikely to fall out of the top 20 at this point, after having been linked to the Nuggets early in the pre-draft process. What Denver doesn’t want to do is get married to the idea of one prospect, as former general manager Calvin Booth did two years ago, spending three second-round picks to move up six spots for DaRon Holmes II.

Trade down, or out

Here’s a much less satisfying approach that would have terrible optics, particularly at the ownership level. The idea would be to use the 26th pick to execute a salary-dump trade, attaching it to a contract that’s perceived as bad money — namely, Zeke Nnaji or Christian Braun.

This can’t be ruled out because the Nuggets have burned through several draft picks in recent years to rid themselves of other unsavory salary figures. They traded three second-rounders in 2024 to dump Reggie Jackson, then used a 2032 first-rounder last summer to balance the scales on their MPJ-for-Johnson swap.

If they choose this direction on Tuesday, they would be foregoing an opportunity to improve the roster and wasting an asset almost entirely for luxury-tax savings (barring an unexpected and bizarre trade return). Even if they ended up re-signing Watson afterward and keeping other starters, it would be insufficient justification; sacrificing the pick without getting a rotation player back would be a cost-cutting move and nothing more, whereas trading up would also have productive implications for the team’s competitiveness.

Nnaji has two years remaining on his contract. He’s set to make $7.5 million next season. Trading him would help the Kroenkes avoid the second apron but not the luxury tax entirely.

Braun will make $21.6 million in the first season of a five-year ascending extension. Until the new league year begins at the end of June, he has a “poison pill provision” on his rookie contract, which means his current rookie-scale salary ($4.9 million) would count as the outgoing money in a trade for salary-matching purposes, while the incoming money for Team B would be calculated as an average of his current salary and his total extension pay, divided across the duration of the two contracts ($21.7 million). The purpose of the poison pill provision is to provide players some temporary security from being traded after they sign an extension with the team that drafted them.

Stand pat

If the Nuggets stay at No. 26, that doesn’t mean they won’t be active on the trade market going forward. They’ll be seeking opportunities to trade a starter for cap relief both on draft day and afterward, to discourage other teams from pursuing Watson. They can help themselves by telegraphing their ability and intent to match any offer sheet before free agency begins. Denver must extend a qualifying offer to Watson to officially trigger his restricted free agency.

The 26th pick is unlikely to yield a starter-level NBA player, but Watson is a convenient example of how valuable late first-rounders can turn out to be. Drafted 30th in 2022, he used all four years of his rookie deal to develop into a confident two-way talent, and now he’s going to shape the Nuggets’ offseason.

�󾱲Բ����� projected Denver to pick a range of players, including Texas’s Swain (CBS), Arizona’s Koa Peat (ESPN), Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie (Yahoo!), Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance (The Athletic), and Louisville’s Ryan Conwell (Ringer).

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

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

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

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

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

Over the last decade, the ceiling for players selected 26th has been “solid bench contributor on an NBA Finals team after multiple years of pro development.” Landry Shamet (2018) is lighting it up from 3-point range for the Knicks right now. Payton Pritchard (2020) won Sixth Man of the Year last season in Boston. Ben Sheppard (2023) gave the Pacers 13.6 minutes per game against Oklahoma City in the Finals last year.

The last time the Nuggets drafted 26th was in 2021, when they were a contender on the rise. They took Bones Hyland with that pick, then they ended up dumping him at the trade deadline two seasons later en route to winning the championship without him.

They’re set to pick 26th again on June 23 (6 p.m. MT, ESPN), this time as a contender seemingly in decline. Lead executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer will be dealing with far more pressing dilemmas on draft night and in the days that follow, but they’re also tasked with using the low-value pick to locate someone who can help Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets win immediately. Roster needs are aplenty after a first-round playoff debacle in April. Which need will Denver try to address in the draft? Here are 12 names to watch at No. 26.

Note: Denver also possesses a second-round pick at No. 49 overall, but this list is solely focused on the team’s first-round candidates.

Ebuka Okorie — 6-foot-1 | Stanford | G

The Nuggets have made it abundantly clear that they want to improve their ball-handling depth. One of their most convenient avenues for accomplishing that is the draft. A one-and-done at Stanford, Okorie ranked sixth in the country with 23.2 points per game. He’s an explosive scorer whose first instinct is to get downhill into the paint, which might be appealing enough for Denver to overlook the lack of positional size. has mocked him for joining Spencer Jones in the Palo Alto-to-Colorado pipeline.

Dailyn Swain — 6-7 | Texas | F

Swain to Denver at No. 26. After a three-year college career at Xavier and Texas, he’s considered one of the best slashing wings in this class. He could make a serviceable replacement for Peyton Watson if the Nuggets lose the former 30th pick in restricted free agency. Then again, if they retain Watson, it’s also generally agreed in the NBA that you can never have too many athletic two-way wings.

Bennett Stirtz — 6-4 | Iowa | G

From Division II Northwest Missouri State to a D-I NCAA Tournament appearance at Drake to an Elite Eight run with the Hawkeyes, Stirtz developed into one of the best pick-and-roll operators in the college game. He might be just out of the Nuggets’ reach after his 15 minutes of fame in March, but his experience in a methodical system would fit one of their defining organizational philosophies of the Jokic era — that when it matters most, halfcourt precision outweighs reliance on transition offense. Early on in the pre-draft process, Stirtz was a popular match for Denver in mocks.

Joshua Jefferson — 6-8 | Iowa State | F

Draft experts consider Jefferson one of the best passers at his position in the 2026 class. He was a consensus Second Team All-American last season, but his four-year college career ended with an ankle injury during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. .

Christian Anderson — 6-1 | Texas Tech | G

Like Okorie, Anderson is undersized, which could dissuade a team that sorely needs to bulk up its perimeter defense. But the Atlanta product was a versatile combo guard in college who could play on or off the ball, facilitating out of pick-and-rolls, spotting up or creating his own shot against 1-on-1 defense. He knocked down 41.5% of his 3s last season on eight attempts per game. That’s high efficiency on high volume, but at a cost: He isn’t as effective at attacking downhill as other guards who could end up in the same range. Rim pressure felt like another glaring absence from Denver’s roster in the playoffs. Nonetheless, .

Morez Johnson Jr. — 6-9 | Michigan | F

, but he seems to be garnering increasing attention lately as a fringe lottery pick. DaRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji got limited playing time in 2025-26, so if Denver wants a fresh start in the “switchable power forwards” department, someone like Johnson could make sense. The Nuggets will have to account for Aaron Gordon’s injuries as part of their reality going forward if the veteran starter is sticking around. Younger hamstrings might not hurt.

Isaiah Evans — 6-6 | Duke | G

Evans still needs to fill out his frame a bit, but he was a dynamic movement shooter and spacer at Duke with enough positional size to inspire confidence in his defensive potential at the next level. He played alongside Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer the last two years. There’s not as much evidence yet of Evans’ capability as a creator, however.

Cameron Carr — 6-5 | Baylor | G

Another athletic wing who should be able to score efficiently off action, but again, the question is whether he can create a shot off the dribble enough to satisfy Denver’s ball-handling needs. After transferring from Tennessee, Carr finished his college career at Baylor with a breakout third year, averaging 18.9 points on 49.4% shooting from the field and 37.4% from 3-point range.

Zuby Ejiofor — 6-9 | St. John’s | F/C

The Big East Player of the Year has been projected as more of an early second-round talent, but he’s a well-rounded defender whose instinct on offense is to power into the restricted area. That checks two boxes for Denver. Ejiofor’s positional fit is a little awkward. Do the Nuggets want to draft yet another small-ball center option when Holmes and Nnaji haven’t panned out as steady backups? — and the 22-year-old isn’t much of a shooter. He’ll probably need to develop a more consistent jumper eventually if he wants to be a viable four in the modern NBA.

Meleek Thomas — 6-3 | Arkansas | G

Thomas is a one-and-done prospect who shot 41.6% from deep for John Calipari’s Razorbacks. He’s got serious microwave scorer potential as a creator off the bench, but he could come into the league with erratic tendencies at only 19 years old. Widely projected to go near the end of the first round.

Karim Lopez — 6-8 | New Zealand Breakers | F

Another ball-handling wing with a drive-first mentality. His mock draft range has been all over the place, from the lottery to Denver’s territory. This is a weaker year for international prospects compared to the last few. Lopez is one of the top overseas players in the class.

Tarris Reed Jr. — 6-10 | UConn | C

If the Nuggets want to go young at backup center and try to solidify a long-term reserve behind Jokic, Reed seems more realistic as a mid-20s option than Michigan big man Aday Mara, whose stock has risen after the Wolverines’ run to the NCAA championship.

That is what the NBA’s Western Conference Finals have become. The Thunder players excel as floppers, spending more time on the floor than Swiffer. They bait officials into calling fouls.

And it extends to defense for both the Thunder and Spurs.

They grab. They pull. They push. They know the refs won’t call fouls on everything, so they see what they can get away with every time.

Why bring this up? This is what the Nuggets face in their pursuit of a championship, and why their postseason failure represents a trend, unlike the Avs’ aberration.

Even after getting swept, the Avs could return to the Stanley Cup Final with a new coach and a plugged-in power play.

The Nuggets? They are in a galaxy far, far away from the NBA Star Wars between the Thunder and Spurs.

As I have said, taking a step back to move forward makes the most sense. There is no reason to run it back, other than to sell merch and continue the home sellout streak.

Rumors and proposals are starting to percolate, revealing the steep incline the Nuggets face to remain a championship contender.

ESPN reported this week that the . The latter requires a pause for laughter.

Braun has one of the league’s worst contracts — $21.6 million per season over the next five years — an extension I advocated for and watched become an immovable glacier because of an ankle injury.

Braun, 25, backslid in an alarming way, never regaining his footing after getting hurt and suffering setbacks. He averaged 12 points last season, shot a career-low 30.1 % from 3, and was passing up layups in the playoffs, while he was insisting he was the team’s leader even when he was nowhere near a shutdown defender.

Other than that.

The only path forward is to see if Braun can regain his shine with a productive offseason and improved health.

The Nuggets would be selling at an all-time low.  And where would he go? Who would take him? Shedding the contract would involve connecting Braun to a deal involving Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon. Same goes for Zeke Nnaji, obviously.

The easiest play is the cleanest. Trade Johnson, who has an expiring contract. He represents a functional piece for a contender and could bring back desperately needed draft capital. Then attempt to move Gordon to re-sign Peyton Watson.

The Nuggets will not be better next season, but they will be better positioned to regroup in 2029 for one last spending spree in the final years of Nikola Jokic’s contract.

Hard Labor: MLB owners proposed a salary cap in collective bargaining talks, showing the difficult road ahead. The owners want to fundamentally change the sport by tying a cap ($245.3 million) and a floor ($171.2 million) to competitive balance. In case you are wondering, the Rockies current payroll sits $54 million below the floor.

The MLBPA does not want to restrict players’ earning power and believes competitive balance can be tied to front-office competence, not spending limits, when looking at teams like Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, and Cleveland. Let’s be real, most owners are motivated more by franchise valuation than winning. A cap creates cost certainty. End of story. The difference is that the players are unlikely to have the public on their side in these talks because of payroll disparity–see the Dodgers. Baseball is on a heater, benefiting from pace of play changes and the ABS system, and does not have Cal Ripken’s consecutive-games-played streak or the fake muscled-fueled home run chase of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to save the game if another season is lost. Deadlines spur action. Next February will determine how serious the sides are at avoiding a lengthy lockout that costs games.

Final thought: Elimination games feature raw emotions. But Nathan MacKinnon not talking after Tuesday’s loss was unprofessional and inexcusable for one of the NHL’s best players.

But the remark was nonetheless revealing — specifically, the absence of a sentence clause offering Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon the same protection as Jokic.

The 31-year-old Serbian center is due a contract extension this summer, and all indications are that he plans to sign it. As for Denver’s other two franchise cornerstones, the future is clouded by Kroenke’s comment. Should it be taken seriously? Or was it just an easy platitude, meant to convey the urgency of the situation after a disappointing first-round playoff loss? After all, Kroenke also hinted that “running it back” with the remaining core of Denver’s 2023 championship team is a possibility.

In order to peel back the layers and truly understand how the Nuggets might proceed from here, you have to follow the money. That will dictate team officials’ offseason decisions as much as — if not more than — the fact that the Nuggets fell flat in the playoffs. The Post has already reported that at least one key player is almost guaranteed to be sacrificed this summer. As we begin exploring Denver’s trade possibilities and free-agent candidates over the next few weeks, we must start with what they have to offer — and why not one but multiple starter-level players could feasibly be gone by the time the dust settles on this offseason.

A mock offseason … minus the trades

The easiest way to illustrate the Nuggets’ dilemma is to first predict every roster decision they’re going to make, minus trades. Basically, we’re gaming out a “mock offseason” but leaving it incomplete. That should give us a rough estimate of their 2026-27 payroll and how much salary they’ll have to dump via a trade to avoid the repeater tax.

Here are the projected NBA tax thresholds for next season to keep in mind:

• Luxury tax: $201 million
• First apron: $209 million
• Second apron: $222 million

At this exact moment, the Nuggets have 10 roster spots filled and $213.8 million on the books. Even in the most aggressive version of this offseason imaginable, in which they decide to spend lavishly, they’re probably going to treat that second-apron number as a hard cap. Most NBA owners do. Alternatively, the Kroenkes might want to get under the luxury tax or at least within range of it — enough to preserve the option to shed more salary at the 2027 trade deadline (like they did this past season). That means we’re eyeing $201 million as the goal while predicting these moves. We have to locate the easiest ways to snip payroll.

Start with backup center Jonas Valanciunas, who has a non-guaranteed salary of $10 million. The Nuggets have already agreed to guarantee him $2 million of that. But it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that he won’t be in Denver next season. He might not be in the NBA at all. One major Euro League team already tried to lure him away last summer, and he’s reportedly expected to have more overseas suitors this year. Leaving the NBA behind would allow him to be closer to home (Lithuania) and get more playing time as he enters the late stages of his career.

The exit strategy here could work in one of three ways. The Nuggets could trade him to a team that’s willing to eat the remaining salary on his contract after releasing him. But that would probably cost them at least a second-round pick, and they have only three of those to spend with other salary-shedding moves to anticipate. Another option is to waive Valanciunas outright and eat the $2 million on the 2026-27 cap sheet. Or they could “waive and stretch” him, which would basically disperse his guaranteed salary over three seasons. The Nuggets would incur a modest $666,667 dead cap hit next season, still saving them $9.3 million. It seems like the most reasonable route to predict, partially because ownership shouldn’t be as worried about paying the tax in the last two seasons of stretched salary if Denver successfully ducks the repeater next year.

Another easy penny-pinching move is to pick up Jalen Pickett’s fourth-year team option. His $2.41 million salary is about $40,000 cheaper than the projected veteran minimum cap hit. Cha-ching.

Another is to keep the No. 26 pick in the draft and sign that player to a standard contract. The rookie salary scale for the 26th pick is projected to start around $3.1 million. That’s a cheap roster spot and an opportunity to fill a positional hole of Denver’s choosing, lower down on the depth chart.

The Nuggets have two restricted free agents in Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones. Jones came close but didn’t quite meet the “starter criteria” for RFAs, meaning his qualifying offer is the standard minimum instead of $5.9 million. Watson’s qualifying offer is $6.5 million, but he’ll get paid much more than that, whether it’s from Denver or someone else. It should be noted that if the Nuggets want to scare away other suitors (Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Chicago), they’ll probably want to telegraph their intent and ability to match offer sheets in advance. They can only do that by agreeing to a significant salary-shedding trade and clearing their books before free agency — a brutal tightrope to walk with no guarantee that Watson doesn’t still get a lucrative offer regardless. Point being: Our order of operations in this simulation is not meant to be accurate.

Watson checks a lot of boxes for the Nuggets after they felt like they were at a loss for secondary ball-handling and athleticism against Minnesota. Let’s just say restricted free agency works out perfectly, with Jones taking his qualifying offer and Watson getting squeezed a bit in negotiations. We’ll pencil him in for an ascending deal that starts at $20 million next season and has an average annual value between that and $25 million. This would be a team-friendly outcome that still acknowledges and validates Watson’s breakout year.

In summary, here are the (hypothetical) moves:

• Waive and stretch Jonas Valanciunas
• Pick up Jalen Pickett’s team option
• Keep the 26th pick in the draft
• Re-sign Spencer Jones at the minimum
• Re-sign Peyton Watson to an ascending deal starting at $20 million

This adds up to a payroll just shy of $230 million, with 12 roster spots occupied. Teams are required to carry at least 14 players on the 15-man roster. We saw the Nuggets leave the 15th vacant for most of last season. It seems likely that they’ll want to repeat that strategy to help with their cap crunch. But even if they do, they’re left with $29 million to cut and two more roster spots to fill.

Ideally, part of the solution is to find a trade that achieves both goals by breaking down a single large salary into multiple smaller ones. But keep in mind that it can be difficult to pull off in the NBA’s apron era, when there are usually more teams trying to shed money than welcome more of it.

Which players can the Nuggets trade?

Outside of Jokic (and Valanciunas), here are Denver’s bulkiest 2026-27 salaries:

• Jamal Murray: $50.1 million, three years remaining
• Aaron Gordon: $32 million, three years remaining
• Cam Johnson: $23.1 million, one year remaining
• Christian Braun: $21.6 million, five years remaining
• Zeke Nnaji: $7.5 million, two years remaining

The reality is that neither Braun nor Nnaji can be the centerpiece of a trade. Now that Nnaji is halfway through his extension with a descending salary against an increasing cap, the Nuggets might be able to get off his contract by attaching him to a better player or by intervening in a random trade between other teams that need salary filler to complete the deal. (Keep an eye on the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes — Denver could look to get involved as a fourth or fifth party, depending on how the trade landscape develops for Milwaukee’s superstar.)

Or the Nuggets could get rid of Nnaji in a straight-up salary-dump trade if they can convince someone to take second-round picks or a future first-round swap along with his contract.

Braun’s salary and term are probably both too daunting a commitment to say the same for him. Other teams just aren’t going to be sold on the 25-year-old guard right now. His shooting and handles are both under the microscope. The Nuggets can explore the market and offer to mortgage what’s left of their future draft pick pool, but they’ll have a hard time finding any takers.

That leaves you with Murray, Gordon and Johnson as the three main options who are:

1. Good enough to draw interest from other teams and become a primary trade chip.
2. Paid enough to help the Nuggets unload substantial salary in a trade.

Johnson is probably the easiest of the three to move because he’s on an expiring contract next season. In other words, he’s a low-risk commitment. Contenders and tankers alike could be swayed to take the 43% outside shooter, and Denver might even be able to get back some future draft capital. The problem is that his value might also be somewhat diluted by Denver’s intentions to dump salary. You have to view “getting off of Player X’s contract” as part of the return when evaluating this type of trade.

Now, consider that even if the Nuggets are able to reduce their payroll by most of Johnson’s $23 million salary, they would ���پ�������be a few million over the tax.

Sacrificing him isn’t enough. The math simply doesn’t add up. If you completely ignore NBA trade rules and other teams’ priorities, and if you subtract Johnson’s salary and Nnaji’s from $230 million without adding a single cent back, you still end up around $199.5 million with four open spots. Four veteran minimum free agents later, you’re paying $209.3 million for a roster with no salaries between $5 million and $21 million.

If the financial goal is merely to avoid the $222 million second apron, deciding between Johnson and Watson should suffice.

But the only way to actually duck the repeater tax, barring a miracle of front-office work by Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer, is to dump Johnson and lose another valuable player. Maybe that means letting Watson go in free agency, or maybe that means trading Murray or Gordon.

Either way, it’s a financial dilemma that illuminates the meaning behind Kroenke’s message.

If the Nuggets “run it back” with their three best players, but they also want to evade the tax, the cost might be both Watson and Johnson — leaving them with a shallower, older version of the team that just lost in the first round.

If they truly want to prioritize youth, athleticism and defense at all costs (well, except for the tax), they might be sacrificing two starters to keep Watson — even at a relatively low-end salary projection, as we’ve outlined.

Neither option would be encouraging for the team’s championship aspirations in a league ruled by Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

And neither option would be a flattering look for Stan Kroenke, .

The counterpoint from ownership would be that two consecutive years out of the tax can set Denver up for three seasons of aggressive spending that coincide with the term of Jokic’s next contract. And that a first-round exit from the 2026 playoffs revealed the Nuggets are overdue for a reset of the core.

A reasonable rebuttal would be that next season is always the most important season when a player like Jokic is in his prime — and possibly nearing the end of it.

Top priority: Will Nikola Jokic sign contract extension?

All offseason talk has to start here, with arguably the most important person in the Denver sports landscape. Jokic declined a supermax extension from the Nuggets last July, with the mutual understanding that a more lucrative version of the same offer would still be on the table a year later.

The 31-year-old center has at least one more year remaining on his current supermax contract, with a player option for 2027-28. Signing an extension last summer when he first became eligible would have added three years and an estimated $207 million to the current deal. By waiting for this offseason, he’s able to tack on an additional $80 million (approximately) for a fourth year.

Speculation about Jokic’s future inevitably followed his decision to delay contract talks, as is often the case when a superstar turns down an extension. That chatter will only be amplified by an early playoff exit. But Jokic has given no indication that he wants to play anywhere other than Denver, and team sources have been confident dating back to last year that he’ll ultimately sign the extension.

“My plan is to be Nuggets forever,” he said at preseason media day last September. In a recent , he elaborated in his native language that he has found peace in Denver and covets his “organic” championship with the Nuggets, even if they never win another. All signs point to him following in the footsteps of single-franchise modern stars like Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki.

If one thing is clear, it’s that the Nuggets have a high floor as long as Jokic is on the court. They’ve won 50 or more regular-season games in four consecutive years. They sell out Ball Arena nightly. They have the longest active streak of playoff appearances in the Western Conference.

It’s the ceiling of a team built around him that’s in question now more than ever, especially as he potentially enters the post-MVP stage of his career.

Which Nuggets players are under contract in 2026-27?

The Nuggets tentatively have 10 players under contract for the 2026-27 season, with somewhere between $203.4 million and $213.8 million in salary payroll, depending on what they do with team options and non-guaranteed salary.

The NBA was reportedly projecting a $165 million salary cap as of March, with the luxury tax line estimated at $201 million, the first apron threshold at $209 million and the second apron at $222 million. Because the Nuggets have at least four roster spots to fill aside from the money already on the books, they’re currently projected as a second apron team. They’re widely expected to make moves allowing them avoid that threshold, and possibly others.

They finished the 2025-26 season with the 11th-most expensive payroll in the league: $200.7 million in cap allocations. But it’s notable that they also made a concerted effort to evade the luxury tax at the trade deadline, salary-dumping Hunter Tyson to Brooklyn and waiting out an injury to Spencer Jones before converting his two-way contract to a standard NBA deal. That left them with enough wiggle room to sign Tyus Jones with their 15th roster spot and stay below the tax. They had spent most of the season carrying only 14 players on the 15-man active roster. Both Joneses — Spencer and Tyus — were paid prorated minimum salaries.

Why is that relevant to this summer? Well, before 2025-26, the Kroenkes had paid the luxury tax three consecutive years — meaning that to finish either this season or next season with a payroll exceeding that threshold would trigger what’s known as the repeater tax. It’s basically a more severe tax penalty imposed on teams 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 also done so in three of the previous four seasons.

For the Nuggets to dodge it, they had to finish 2025-26 out of the tax, and they’ll have to do the same in 2026-27.

Two consecutive years out of the tax would reset their repeater clock, so to speak, allowing them to be a luxury tax team for another three consecutive years from 2027-28 through 2029-30 without paying the additional penalties.

The problem with that approach, of course, is that Jokic has enjoyed one of the most incredible primes of any career in NBA history, and he could be nearing the end of that prime this year and next. There’s no guarantee he’ll be at the peak of his powers anymore from 2028-30. The same goes for Jamal Murray, who just had a career year. He turns 30 next February.

Penny-pinching was achievable with relatively inconsequential basketball moves this year. That’s not the case next season. New contracts are going into effect for starting power forward Aaron Gordon and shooting guard Christian Braun. And that’s before addressing Peyton Watson’s potential raise. (More on that soon.) If the Kroenkes’ top priority is to dodge the repeater tax, their actions this summer will make that obvious; multiple salary-shedding moves would be required to pull it off.

And now that Denver has dramatically underperformed in the playoffs, the door is cracked open for wholesale changes anyway. The team did not exactly give ownership a firm reason to believe that paying the repeater next year would be worth it.

Here’s a look at the cap table.

Salary figures via , verified by team source | * Last year of contract is non-guaranteed or contingent upon team option | + Last year of contract is contingent on player option

Who has a contract option or a non-guaranteed salary?

Back in November, the Nuggets and backup center Jonas Valanciunas quietly agreed to restructure the third and final year of his contract, league sources told The Post. His full $10 million salary was previously non-guaranteed. Under the amended deal, Valanciunas is owed at least $2 million of his salary next season, in exchange for his 2026 guarantee date being pushed back from June 29 to July 8. This provides Denver with more flexibility to survey the free-agent market and evaluate potential trades before the deadline to release Valanciunas or guarantee his full salary. The new “league year” begins July 1.

Reserve point guard Jalen Pickett has a team option on the last year of his rookie-scale contract. He hasn’t been a consistent presence in Denver’s rotation since he was drafted with the 32nd pick in 2023, but the Nuggets should be incentivized to pick up the option and keep him around because they need cheap cap hits (like his $2.4 million) to fill out the back end of their roster.

Which Nuggets players are free agents?

Tim Hardaway Jr., Bruce Brown and Tyus Jones will be unrestricted free agents. Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones will be restricted free agents.

All three UFAs were in Denver on veteran minimum salaries. Hardaway will be the most difficult to retain after a 40.7% 3-point shooting season that earned him a finalist nod for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. “I think it’s the best contract in the league right now,” Aaron Gordon said this month. If the 33-year-old Hardaway wants one more significant payday in his playing career, the Nuggets might be out of luck. They’ll have a better chance to affordably re-sign Brown, a locker room staple who has made it no secret how much he loves Denver.

Watson’s future is one of the biggest unknowns in the league this offseason. He’s due for his second NBA contract after he and the Nuggets didn’t come to an extension agreement before the season — Denver instead prioritized Braun, who signed a five-year, $125 million deal in October.

Watson went on to have a breakout fourth year. He averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 54 games, shooting 49.1% from the floor and 41.1% from 3-point range. He did most of his scoring in January, when Jokic was injured and the Nuggets desperately needed secondary shot creators to step up. Shortly after Jokic returned, Watson suffered a right hamstring strain and never got to settle back in to his smaller bench role. With him out of the picture late in the season, the Nuggets also never got to fully test out how his improving talent with the ball could be integrated into their normal system.

It leaves many questions unanswered. How trustworthy was that one month? Was it a large enough sample size to meaningfully impact his financial value? How much cap space is Denver willing to commit to another role player while also attempting to lower its overall payroll? The Nuggets are prepared to pursue other corresponding moves in order to retain Watson, league sources have told The Post. But that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll match any number the 23-year-old is offered.

Restricted free agency is traditionally a process that favors the incumbent team, but the Nuggets’ finances will make this fascinating. After they extend a qualifying offer, Watson’s path to joining a new team will require him to sign an offer sheet, the terms of which Denver has the opportunity to match. The Nets, Bulls and Lakers are cap-space teams expected to show interest, league sources told The Post this season. Denver might have to decide where to draw a line in the sand if Watson has enthusiastic suitors. Is the number more or less than Braun’s average annual value of $25 million? Upwards of $30 million per year could get into uncomfortable territory.

Will the Nuggets trade key players?

If the Nuggets end up keeping Watson, it will almost definitely involve at least one significant sacrifice from the starting lineup. Three players are set to make between $21 million and $32 million next season: Gordon, Braun and Johnson.

Playoff basketball is informative. Failure this year was surprisingly illuminating. Braun and Johnson both struggled against Minnesota, while Gordon’s recurring soft tissue injury woes emerged again as a pivotal storyline in the first-round series.

Johnson is widely considered the most likely starter to go if Watson returns. His $23 million expiring salary is a reasonable, low-risk contract for a 6-foot-8 wing who shot 43% from 3-point range this season. He could fill a need for several other contenders that struggled with shooting, spacing and secondary ball-handling this year. (It’s worth noting that Denver could sorely miss those attributes.) In Brooklyn, he also showed his ability to assume a larger role on a tanking team. Point being: Denver could theoretically engage a variety of teams — good, bad and ugly — to find value for him. His impressive finish to the playoffs could give the front office pause, however. Even while his 3-pointer wasn’t falling for most of the Minnesota series, Johnson was the team’s third-leading scorer, capped by a 27-point Game 6.

Braun is coming off a disappointing fourth season that was characterized by a brutal ankle injury. This was the last year of his rookie-scale contract, making $4.9 million. His raise is about to go into effect. He’s under contract longer than anyone else on the roster. He had Jokic’s endorsement when the Nuggets extended him, according to a league source. If they want to trade him now, it would be bad business, in all likelihood. This is the nadir of his value. They would probably have to attach other assets to get out of his contract (and they are already short on future draft picks). And they would essentially be treating him as a sunk cost, one injury-hampered year removed from him being a candidate for NBA Most Improved Player. He can’t be ruled out as a trade candidate this offseason after his poor performance in the playoffs, but logic says the more productive path forward with him is to exercise patience and hope he can return to his 2024-25 form.

Gordon is the most uncomfortable option to consider because his value to the team is bordering on priceless. But his soft tissue durability, while no fault of his own, has become a major problem — enough that the Nuggets’ brain trust will have to at least discuss whether it makes sense to move on from the fan favorite. He has missed 77 regular-season games in the last two years. He was limited or out by the end of the playoffs in both 2025 and 2026. It’s increasingly clear that without him, Denver isn’t a championship-caliber team. The risk of keeping him as he ages into his 30s is that his body might simply be unable to withstand two consecutive months of basketball. The risk of trading him is that Denver is unlikely to ever find a more perfect fit for Jokic in the frontcourt. It’s one of the biggest roster-building catch-22s in the NBA going forward.

After the way Denver was eliminated, Murray’s name is also worth mentioning here as a wild-card  possibility. He struggled to get separation from Jaden McDaniels and establish a rhythm throughout the Minnesota series, while the Timberwolves hunted him on defense. Jokic doubled down on his confidence in the tandem after Game 6. Denver’s new front office has treated Murray as a franchise player, gauging his opinion on certain decisions (in addition to Jokic’s). But the argument for trading the 29-year-old guard now is that an opportunity has arrived to “sell high” if the Nuggets believe they can no longer win a title while fighting against the defensive deficiencies of both Jokic and Murray. Like trading Gordon, moving Murray would be a cold-hearted move. But nothing can be completely ruled out after a team with championship hopes crashed out in the first round.

It also must be noted that Denver doesn’t �󲹱�����to trade anyone to keep Watson. There are no rules requiring it. Only luxury tax bills.

How many draft picks do the Nuggets have in 2026?

The Nuggets possess two picks in the upcoming NBA draft: 26th (their own pick) and 49th (via Atlanta). Late second-round picks typically amount to nothing. The first-rounder is an important asset, however. With so many roster spots open and so little financial wiggle room, the Nuggets are likely to keep the pick and assess their roster needs; a player drafted in the 20s getting paid on the rookie salary scale will have a smaller cap hit than a player signed to the veteran minimum.

If Denver does keep the pick, it’ll be the first one used by lead executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer in their regime, which started last summer.

If they want to trade the pick, they’re allowed to do so on draft night. None of Denver’s future firsts are currently eligible to be traded.

The Timberwolves lobbed verbal molotov cocktails at the Nuggets. Jaden McDaniels called them “horrible” defenders. Coach Chris Finch labeled their stars “floppers.”

Through the first two games, there was only one conclusion to draw: the Timberwolves view the Nuggets as soft. An NBA version of Charmin.

Thursday offered a chance for the Nuggets’ to punch back, find redemption.

Instead, the Timberwolves wiped their you know what with the Nuggets, taking control of a series with an 113-96 blowout at Target Center.

Once again, the Nuggets failed to match the Timberwolves’ intensity. Once again, they were out of sync offensively. Once again, they could not get stops, falling behind by 23 points in the first half.

With a rebuilt bench, this season started with such hope. Now, the Nuggets seem like a promise broken.

They trail 2-1 in the series, but they don’t look good enough, especially with Aaron Gordon (calf) hurt again, to regain control. The embarrassment of a first-round exit looms as an uncomfortable possibility.

The Nuggets have lost plenty of playoff games the past two springs, but few have stung like this. McDaniels punked them. Flicked spitwads off the back of their heads. The Nuggets refused to engage, declining to respond on the off day.

This was a mistake. They had an opportunity to stick up for themselves, suggesting that McDaniels is a Gucci-knockoff version of Jayden Daniels, and that Finch is acting desperate with his mind games.

Instead, they took the high road. Right off a cliff.

For all those who insisted the players were preserving their energy for the court, the Nuggets responded with one of the worst playoff quarters in franchise history. They scored 11 points in the opening period, shooting 3-for-21, while missing 16 of their first 18 attempts.

An anomaly? Hardly. Denver finished 28 of 82 from the field, the 34% mark their lowest of the season.

“When we got sped up by pressure, that led to some unorganized possessions. Everybody struggled from the field,” coach David Adelman told reporters in Minnesota. “That is not who we have been throughout the season.”

Nikola Jokic went 1-for-7 in the first quarter, remaining knee-deep in a 3-point shooting slump since the All-Star break (29.7% compared to 42 % in the season’s first half).

“This guy has played a million playoff games. There are nights that are poor,” Adelman said. “He will bounce back.”

Jamal Murray had no rhythm, forced to create off the dribble through sticky defenders, most notably McDaniels. It was left for Zeke Nnaji — yes, you read that correctly — to provide a brief spark.

There is struggling. And there is dissolving.

The Timberwolves ballooned their lead to 52-30 with 4:21 remaining in the half with a bucket by — who else? — McDaniels. He nearly outscored Jokic and Murray over the first 24 minutes, dropping 13 points.

“I talked with him a little bit (before the game),” Finch said. “Now you gotta back it up.”

His play cashed the check his mouth wrote. McDaniels delivered 20 points, converting 9 of 13 shots, and added 10 rebounds.

Given a chance to deliver a hard foul on him early in the game, the Nuggets chose the velvet glove. McDaniels did what he wanted without consequence, saying afterward that he was merely playing team ball in pursuit of a win.

His teammates knew better.

“He is our brother,” said Timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu in an on-court TV interview. “We had his back.”

This is what they call getting your nose rubbed in it on the playground. Just when it looked like things could not get worse, Bones Hyland, who quit on the Nuggets before getting traded three years ago, put Spencer Jones in a blender and sank a 3-pointer from St. Paul.

That made it 80-56 late in the third.

The first three games have brought a revelation. It is clear the Timberwolves were bored by the regular season. They have lost in the Western Conference Finals the past two years, and apparently needed the higher stakes to become engaged.

In the Nuggets, they found a willing victim, a team that foolishly tries to convince itself that it can flip the switch defensively in the playoffs. Miss me with the rating over the first two games in this series.

Trust your eyes. The Nuggets give up too many blow-bys, too many uncontested shots, and the next time a Denver player takes a charge, it will be from a credit card.

The fourth quarter provided a snapshot of what separates these two teams. Down 20, Murray brought the ball over halfcourt, looking for space. McDaniels guarded him tighter than SaranWrap for 15 seconds, forcing an off-balance 3-pointer.

Typically, Jokic is the default answer when the fire alarm blares. Post him up, and let him go to work. He has toasted Rudy Gobert for years. Perhaps peeved by the lack of respect for his defense, Gobert has flipped the script.

In the first half, Jokic was minus-22 when the gangly center was on the court, continuing an alarming trend in the series.

Jokic has been unable to deliver easy buckets near the rim or get Gobert into foul trouble. The Timberwolves willingly left Jokic open behind the arc. And Jokic could not make it hurt. He is 5 for 24 on 3s in the series.

Jokic finished with 27 points on 26 shots. Murray went 5-for-17, and for the second time in the series, failed to make a 3.

For those who want to provide cover for the Nuggets because of Gordon’s late scratch, just understand it comes off as an excuse. Even with Gordon, the Nuggets lost Game 2 because the Timberwolves did everything they couldn’t — like win in the paint and on the boards.

The Nuggets find themselves in this hole because the Timberwolves have made life miserable for Jokic and Murray. They are winning in the margins. They are physical, intentional.

Go ahead, tell yourself the Nuggets are better.

But one thing is clear through three games. They are definitely not tougher.

Minnesota shook. And the Nuggets looked shaken. They were a no-show for most of Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday, never leading in a 113-96 loss to the Timberwolves. It was only the third time this season that Denver has failed to score 100 points. The other two were without Nikola Jokic.

“It’s tough. Nobody on the team was making shots, including myself,” Jamal Murray said. “… They played with a lot of adrenaline. The crowd was into it in the first quarter, and I feel like we were just playing a little too fast. And after that quarter, the score was pretty even quarter to quarter. But that first really hurt us. Couldn’t recover from that. So we’ve just gotta be better to start the game and have a calmer mindset, especially on the road.”

Starting power forward Aaron Gordon was sidelined by left calf tightness, but his presence might not have mattered. Jokic and Jamal Murray never established any sort of scoring rhythm in the rout. They combined to shoot 12 for 43, scoring 43 points between them, and it took until the second half for a third Nuggets starter to make a shot from the field.

Jokic missed his first six shots. The team missed 16 of its first 18. The Timberwolves foamed at the mouth, eager to back up Jaden McDaniels’ trash talk about Denver’s defense from three days earlier. The Nuggets didn’t appear bothered enough by it. They allowed 40 points in the paint before halftime. They had scored 39 points total at half — in and outside of the paint.

“We just had a hard time making shots tonight,” coach David Adelman said. “… Our two best players, from the field, obviously really struggled.”

Adelman turned shades of Michael Malone late in the half, seething as he called a timeout after Denver failed to get back on defense off of a made shot. He burned through three of his timeouts in a four-minute stretch of the second quarter, as the Nuggets’ defense abandoned them.

It had saved them from getting run out of the gym early — they trailed 25-11 after the opening stanza — but Minnesota’s relentless downhill driving was too much of a problem. Especially with Gordon and Peyton Watson out.

“Guys were trying to get back to their matchups as opposed to: Just match up,” Adelman said. “They’re gonna play faster in this building than they do on the road. All teams do. And it was unfortunate because I thought the group to start the second quarter really competed. … But every time we would make a run, we’d give up a runaway layup after a make or a miss. You can’t do that in a playoff game. So we’ll definitely watch the film. That has to get better.”

Ayo Dosunmu, one of the most impactful trade deadline acquisitions in the NBA this year, led the Wolves with 25 points and nine assists off the bench. He exposed Denver’s transition defense, forced the Nuggets to collapse with his straight-line speed and finished a flawless 10-for-12 inside the arc. McDaniels exposed the Nuggets on the glass, crashing for four offensive rebounds en route to a 20-point double-double. Rudy Gobert continued to be the most valuable player of the series, keeping Jokic uncomfortable at all times.

He and McDaniels — the two best defenders on either team in this series — have outplayed Denver’s two best offensive players through three contests. That’s been enough for Minnesota to seize a 2-1 lead after trailing by 19 points early in Game 2.

And it was enough on Thursday to compensate for a choppy game from Anthony Edwards, who developed a limp in the fourth quarter after spending most of his evening in foul trouble. He finished with 17 points, five boards and three assists.

The Wolves left the door open for a second-half comeback when Edwards and Julius Randle were both off the court. But Denver failed to cut substantially into a 27-point deficit. It was still 20 after the third quarter. Going to a zone defense slowed Minnesota down further in the fourth, but the Nuggets weren’t generating the shots they’re used to getting automatically.

Christian Braun finished the game with two points and no field goals. Cam Johnson scored six on as many shots.

“I think to get those guys going, they have to screen better,” Adelman said. “If you can free up your best players, that’s gonna bring rotations. That’s gonna bring a low man.”

Julian Strawther entered the rotation as Adelman searched for offensive punch, but he missed five of his six attempts from the field.

Zeke Nnaji slid in as a backup center and provided good energy. The Nuggets won his 16 minutes by two. Nobody else finished in the black. Spencer Jones replaced Gordon in the starting lineup and limited Randle, though he added very little offensively. The Nuggets are unsure what Gordon’s status will be for Game 4, which tips off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. MT at Target Center.